Highland Portrait

by Shelagh Mercedes

  She and Albert had leaned on each other for comfort, and he had been as bereft as her, but there was no consolation. She looked at the calendar hanging by a magnet on her refrigerator door. Today’s date was circled in yellow highlighter. It was exactly a year and a day from the day that she and Robbie had hand fasted. Today they would have been married. Or parted. She had promised herself that she would only mourn for a year, but she did not feel she could let him go, there was too much to remind her of him, too much that remained. No, she wouldn’t let go, not now. Not yet.

  She had begged Albert to let her go back, but he was adamant. There was nothing they could do. If he took her back, Robbie would still be dead, they would not be able to help him, his injuries had been too severe, he had bled to death quickly, his vital organs pierced by English blades, his noble life taken protecting her, keeping her safe.

  “Och, lass, ye will be the death of me.” How many times she remembered his words and felt her body implode into emptiness from the grief. She had been the cause of it. He had died shielding her, allowing her to return to safety.

  Her grief had left her hollow, but there had been moments when she felt his love reach out and embrace her, touch her.

  Her studio was full of paintings of Robbie. Robbie in profile, Robbie on Grey, Robbie smiling at her. But he never came back. The magic of her canvases had stopped and he never returned to her. Now she would have been jubilant to have even his ghost, but he never came.

  She reached up to get a cup from the cupboard and the phone rang. It was early for her to be receiving phone calls, and she couldn’t imagine who it might be, her friends knew that she didn’t take calls before nine or sometimes ten o’clock now – if she answered at all. But this was too early and some quiet inner urgency told her that she needed to pick up the phone.

  “Hello?”

  “Stella, you need to come to the hospital right away.”

  “Daddy? Daddy, are you ok? Oh my god, Daddy…”

  “No, Stella, I’m fine, but you need to be here as soon as you can.”

  “Is it mama? Is she hurt?

  “No, Stella, she’s ok. Just do what you need to do and come down as soon as you can.”

  “Ok, Daddy, it’s going to take me a little bit to work this out, but I’ll be there.”

  “Good girl, see you then.” Albert gave her the room number and then hung up and Stella flew to her room, wondering what could possibly be the matter, but for the first time in a year she felt her heart beat move faster than a funeral dirge

  Stella walked into the hospital lobby and asked the receptionist to direct her to the room where she would meet her father. The receptionist looked at a sheet of paper on her desk, checked off a name and asked for ID. Surprised, Stella scrambled through her purse and showed the woman her driver’s license. She was directed to the elevator and went to the fourth floor. When she stepped off the elevator she was met by a nurse.

  “Miss McKenzie?” she asked. Stella, again surprised, nodded. “Yes, is my father here? Albert. Albert McKenzie.”

  The nurse smiled and took her arm, “Yes, please follow me, he’s this way.” She led Stella down a hallway to rubberized double doors, but this one had a plainclothes guard, badged and armed. The nurse stopped at the door and the guard asked Stella for her ID. Confused and annoyed at not knowing what was happening she nonetheless followed the nurse passed the double doors down another hallway. It was so like her father to be surrounded by the mysterious. There was another guard standing in the hallway and she realized she was in the high security ward of the hospital. Why had her father called her here?

  She saw Albert and her mother standing not too far away and she ran to them. Her mother was wearing Western clothes now, a modest dress that teased her ankles, a dress that was not too dissimilar to what she was used to, so she felt some comfort in her new world. Her assimilation to the 21st century was still a work in progress, but she was trying hard because being with her family was more important than her fear of time travel. Stella hugged her mother and looked anxiously at her father. He had a grim look to him, but seemed somewhat less tired than he had this past year. It had been a difficult year for all of them. He had finally convinced Merry to come back with him and they had lost her until she showed up in Stella’s studio after she had finished her portrait. Albert saw to it that they were married immediately in a simple ceremony and it had been one of the few bright spots in a dark and mournful year. Since then Merry had gone through some trauma being introduced into her new world, but both Stella and Albert had guided her, protected her and nurtured her through the change. She would probably never be completely comfortable here but she was happy to be with her family.

  “Daddy, what’s going on?” Stella, so easily overcome by nerves now looked anxiously at her father.

  He led her into the small chapel sanctuary, “Let’s go in here where we can talk. You need to sit down.” Stella did not like what was going on, but she obediently followed her father into the small room, her mother followed and shut the door.

  Albert indicated a chair for her to sit and then he sat across from her and took her hand. Merry stood by his side.

  “It has taken me a year, Stella, but I was finally able to get to Robbie before he died. He’s here now and he’s alive. No, no, don’t cry, don’t Stella, sit and let me finish, you can go see him in just a minute. Please, Stella, please don’t cry, you need to be strong. He’s just had surgery, his third since he’s been here and he’s still in Recovery.”

  Stella again felt the nausea that often assailed her when she was so overcome with emotion that her body rebelled and needed to cleanse itself. Her mother, seeing what was about to happen grabbed a small waste bin and held it under Stella’s chin and cried as she watched her daughter empty her stomach. She had done this so many times she knew the look, the symptoms, the signs.

  Albert reached over and patted her on the arm and continued his story. “I knew I had less than a minute to bring Robbie forward to get immediate emergency treatment. I had to have a doctor and staff waiting, had to make sure that I brought him right into an operating room, and I had to make sure that the medical staff didn’t ask too many questions. I found a doctor that would work with me on this because he, too, is…a Traveler. It wasn’t easy, but between the two of us we were able to bring him here.”

  “Daddy,” Stella could barely talk, afraid that this was not happening, afraid that it was a dream and she would wake up and find that the Celestial Committee was having a joke on her. She was trembling, holding onto Merry’s hands so tightly Merry was grimacing.

  “Dr. Holloway feels confident that Robbie is going to survive. He lost a lot of blood, but Robbie is strong and in excellent condition. His body was clean, very low toxin level so the drugs worked quickly and very effectively. He’ll have a long period of healing, and may have some problem digesting for awhile, but it looks very positive right now.”

  Stella listened to her father, her tears unchecked, unable to speak.

  “Stella, you’ll be able to see him in a few minutes. Will you be ok, then?” Stella could only nod, words having left her upon hearing her father’s news. She was trying to understand the rules of time traveling but they shifted and moved like large land masses, different after each quake

  The door opened and the doctor came in, looking first at Albert and then at Stella. Clad in a white lab coat, dark hair cut short, and heavy Clark Kent glasses, Dr. Holloway was tall, well built and athletic. Much younger than Albert he appeared to be in his early forties with minimal graying. He had a pleasant confident smile and seemed genuinely pleased to meet Stella.

  “You must be Robbie’s wife?” Stella looked at the doctor, her eyes pleading for good news. “I have to tell you it’s been a pleasure to be a part of this venture. Albert and I have been working on this for some time now and we weren’t sure we were going to be successful, but I think I can safely say that Robbie’s going to be alright. Would you like to see him?” S
tella shot up out of her seat.

  “Oh yes, please.” Now was the crucible of her fears, the testing ground, what she had begged for.

  “Please keep in mind, Stella, that for you it’s been a year, but for him it’s been less than a week. Don’t confuse him right now, he’s got a big learning curve ahead of him and we want to ease him into this. He’s been under a lot of medication, but has been asking for you.” With that the doctor opened the door and gestured for Stella to follow him.

  Walking in a dream, her life once again turning a corner she had not expected, Stella, gave her mother’s hand one last squeeze and followed the doctor out the door, gulping in air to quiet her tears, to control her sobbing.

  The doctor walked midway down the hall, stopping at a door, nodded at the guard, who stepped aside to let them pass, and opened the door allowing Stella to go into the room.

  The lights had been turned off, and all the monitoring equipment was behind the bed where Robbie would not be able to see it. The curtains were drawn and there were a number of candles burning in the room providing the soft light that Robbie would be familiar with to make sure the room would be nonthreatening to him. Stella slowly approached the bed and drank in his presence, exulting that he was here with her now, he was safe, he was alive. Stella saw her love laying quietly, his breathing regular, the monitors keeping time to his strong steady heart beat. Robbie lay on his back, his arms hooked up to IV fluids, and several electrode pads on his chest. His mid section was wrapped in gauze, as was his right shoulder. His eyes were closed, but he seemed peaceful, calm, as if finally delivered of pain. Here was her champion, he had sworn he would protect her with his life and he had. He had made the ultimate sacrifice for her and now through the grace of her father and this doctor, he had been returned to her. He looked beautiful in spite of the strain of what he had been through.

  “Robbie,” Stella whispered, “Robbie, honey, it’s me. It’s Stella.” Robbie continued to breathe evenly and quietly as she touched his arm, feeling the coarse hair that told her he was real, he was here. She touched his cheek, finding the stubble of several days to her liking, it reminded her of the evening they spent in the pooled stream at her mother’s croft.

  She felt movement under her hand and her heartbeat quickened. “Robbie?”

  Robbie was swimming at the bottom of a well and he could not gain hold of the sides to anchor himself. The well was deep and dark, the sides glassy smooth with no footholds or rope to pull himself up. He felt heavy, like his body was made of stone, but the pain was gone. The pain that had been an angry companion, never leaving his side, distracting him from finding the voice that called, the pain so severe that he wanted to let go of his life and find release. But it was gone now and all he felt was heaviness and a sweet peace. Perhaps he was dead, he could not tell, but he thought that in death there was light and there was no light here, only a soft heavy darkness without pain. Perhaps he was laying in his sepulchral and had not yet ascended to heaven – or hell – and was waiting for the approbation of the angels. He heard his name. He took a deep breath.

  The only way out of the well was upward, that’s where the voice was coming from. Whoever was calling him was at the top of the well. The voice was sweet and lyrical, like singing and it spun a silken cord and the cord fell downward in the well and Robbie grabbed it and let the silken cord pull him up out of the well. The light was becoming brighter. Beautiful light…and no pain.

  “Robbie.” He opened his eyes to soft light. Again he saw the strange walls he had seen before, straight and smooth and painted, not the stone walls of his chamber but smooth walls, like paper or cloth. He turned his gaze toward the sound and as his vision came into focus he saw her there, standing next to him. Stella. She was safe, she had escaped and now she was here with him. Tears of joy pooled in his eyes and he felt awash in gladness because she was safe. Alive. The English had not touched her.

  “Hello, my champion,” Stella looked again into familiar grey-blue eyes and allowed gratitude to fill her heart. “I love you so much, Robbie. I’m…I’m so happy you’re here. I have such wonderful things to tell you, to show you.” Unsure what to say, what would confuse him, she whispered small molecules of sentiment when what she wanted was to share heavy exclamations, dense with words. For now they would have to do, but soon…soon she would give him all the words he wanted.

  Robbie opened his hand and she took it, holding it with both of hers, feeling the warmth of life pulsing in his efforts to curl his hand around hers. His mouth was dry and he wanted to speak, but there was some difficulty in forming words. He remembered the blades, he remembered thinking that he was dying and that he would never see Stella again, but here she was. Here he was, he wasn’t dead, only heavy and unable to move. He saw the healer move to his other side. Albert had told him the healer would fix him, that he was safe. This healer was a man, tall like himself with a strange white shirt and an odd necklace of some strange materials Robbie had never seen before. The healer had used the necklace to listen to Robbie’s heart. He did that now.

  “Well, Robbie, how are you feeling?” Dr. Holloway looked at Robbie’s eyes, felt his pulse and listened to his heart. The monitors behind the bed described Robbie’s body as mending and recovering, and he could see the healthy glow to the man’s skin that told him that all was well. Robbie looked at him and gave him a slight nod.

  “I know you are thirsty and we’re going to give you some ice chips in a moment and then you can go back to sleep and get more rest. You’re doing well and I expect a full recovery for you. You’ll soon be up and around again, my friend. All is well, all is well.” The doctor patted Robbie’s arm and left them.

  Robbie’s eyes returned again to Stella. She smiled that dazzling smile that he so loved and he closed his eyes, drifting back into a painless sleep, dreaming, once again of Faerie Queens.

  “Stella, I know about electricity. Look!” Robbie pushed a button on the side of his bed and it moved, putting him in a slight sitting position. He pushed it again and the bed went flat, and having lay flat he pushed it yet it again to bring his bed back into a sitting position. Stella, who had just walked in, smiled and laughed as Robbie played with his bed. She noticed the candles were gone and the electric lights were now on. Robbie looked astonishing today, as if in the past week he had feasted at the shores of Tiberias, drinking deep of the healing waters.

  “Hello my love, has Daddy been here? I imagine he taught you about electricity?” All of them had agreed that Albert would usher Robbie into his new environment, explaining to him in the words of a scientist, how this new world worked.

  “Aye, Stella, he has. The healer, too has taught me much about how the healing craft has changed.” Robbie looked at her, at the electric lights and then back at her, his eyes now sharp, piercing with that look she was so familiar with, the one that told her he was absorbing and processing new information.

  “Albert told me where I am, Stella. I am nay in Scotland, and the year is nay 1604. He told me all of it.” Stella hadn’t expected Albert to move so quickly in divulging information to Robbie, but apparently he thought Robbie was ready for it.

  “And what do you think of that, Robbie?” Stella held her breath, uncertain how he would react to being a stranger in a strange world.

  “He said he could take me back.” Stella blanched, her knees growing weak.

  “Are you going back then,” she asked afraid of the answer.

  Robbie took her small hand in his and smiled. “Nay lass, not yet. I want to see Tegis and to know what the future has done to the world. I want to stay here with ye and mayhap at some time we will go back together. But for now I like this electricity. Watch again, Stella.” Robbie pushed the button and delighted in a bed that moved at the mere touch of a small button. Electricity was better than magic.

  “Stella,” said Robbie, looking at her as he once again rose up in the bed. “I want to see the five thousand cows.” Stella looked to the ceiling and smiled, tears f
lowing freely down her cheek.

  “You shall see them, Robbie, you shall see them.”

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Robbie, dressed in cotton drawstring pants and a t-shirt, stepped out of the SUV with wonder in his eyes. Albert had chosen to bring him to Stella’s after dark to avoid a sensory overload but even in the dark he had been dumbfounded at what he had seen. So many lights, so many carriages without horses. Albert had explained to him about the combustion engine, of course, but to know something in theory and to see it in action was a giant leap. Robbie understood the concept of ‘miles per hour’ and Albert had assured him they never went over fifty, but the speed was still heart stopping. He was glad to have feet on the ground and walking to wherever he needed to be.

  He felt the warmth of the Texas night and understood why he had been given such thin clothing to wear. Albert had assured him that Merry had repaired and cleaned his own clothes, but he could see how they might be uncomfortable in this heat. His new athletic shoes felt very good on his feet, better than any boots he had ever owned, and he thought he might like to wear them for the rest of his life. There were many things about this future that he liked. Many that puzzled him but he had Albert and the healer to help him find his way…and Stella.

  While in hospital she had been with him every day staying intermittently throughout, once in the morning, once in the evening. On occasion she would spend the entire day with him and he had relished all the moments she had been there. Stella had promised him a great surprise and he was eager to be with her again. His strength was back and he wanted her badly and in spite of the healer telling him to go easy he intended to expend his energy with her this night.

  He had spent a month in hospital recovering and Albert, Stella and the healer had taught him about his new world, showing and explaining magnificent inventions that went far beyond the great invention of Stella’s pencil. He had a calculator in his new suitcase and was stupefied that something so small could calculate numbers faster than him. He had seen photographs and videos and Albert had promised to teach him how to use the computer and he was eager to find out how it worked.