Luag

by Jane Stain

  The smile he gave her at that was even more hopeful, and she smiled, herself, in relief. Good, she would be rid of him soon.

  The coffee aroma hit her twenty feet from the door of the café.

  She breathed in deep, savoring the taste she’d missed for a year. It was midmorning, and the place was crowded. Spotting an empty outlet, she pointed it out to Luag. “Quick, go save that thing on the wall while I get our food.” She used the sign language the two of them both knew well from playing Charades together for a year, so that no one would overhear it. She almost gave him her phone to plug in, but thought better of it. Who knew what trouble someone from the Middle Ages would get into trying to harness electricity? She shuddered.

  Using the same sign language, he said he would do as she asked. Only, he used the warrior signal for guarding it, rather than the Charades signal for saving it, which puzzled her at first.

  It was kind of fun watching him skulk over there like the warrior he was while she stood in line to give her order to the barista. The amount of caution he used! To her, this cafe was like an extension of her upstairs apartment, she spent so much time here. His caution reminded her that he was out of his element the same way she had been when she first arrived in 1410 Scotland and met him in Inverurie.

  Despite the contempt she had for him as someone who could never approve of anything she did, she felt the tiniest bit of sympathy for Luag, knowing just how bad his culture shock certainly was.

  And then she giggled at seeing him sit down and just watch everyone warily. Anyone else would be on their phone.

  In fact, while she watched, several people approached him.

  “Hey buddy, you going to use that outlet?”

  She giggled harder at their reactions when Luag gave them the sternest look they’d probably ever seen in their lives.

  The good news was Kelsey had indeed paid Katherine’s bills as she’d promised. Her cards were working just fine. She’d used two different ones at Old Navy and the jewelry store. Getting out a third one, she finally approached the barista.

  Lupe’s face lit up, and she started Katherine’s nonfat cinnamon latte immediately. “Where have you been for a whole year, Chica?”

  Katherine gave Lupe her signature nose wrinkle and her level seven smile, saying “Scotland” as if it were no big deal.

  Lupe made an impressed face while routinely saying, “Anything else?” as if she didn’t expect a yes.

  “Yeah,” Katherine perused the pastry case. “One of those slices of cheesecake.” Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since last night.

  The barista laughed “You don’t look like you changed your eating that much in Scotland.”

  Katherine laughed a little too. “Of course not. Give me two forks.” She used this opportunity to glance over and make sure Luag was still doing okay.

  Still on high alert, he started to get up, signing to her, “Do you need help?”

  “No, stay there,” Katherine quickly signed back.

  He sat back down, but his eyes scanned the area around her.

  Lupe made an appreciative clicking noise. “No wonder you spent so long in Scotland. He’s one of your models, no? He’s a good one. I wouldn’t mind trying out survival gear with him.”

  Katherine didn’t correct her. It was a good cover story, so she just let it stick. “Thank you,” she said with a smile as Lupe handed her a tray with the cheesecake slice and her latte.

  “Aren’t you going to get your guapo something to drink?”

  “He doesn’t drink coffee. But yeah, please give me a big water for him, and thanks.”

  As soon as Katherine plugged her phone in, it went nuts.

  You have 6,973 notifications.

  She spent the next few minutes sending mass texts, explaining to all her contacts she was fine and she would catch up with them later.

  She checked her employer’s website to see the new products they’d put out during the last year. Wow, it would be fun selling that James-Bond-style underwater breather. And those working cell-phone earrings. Wow, she would have to drop by the shop asap and get a pair of those.

  Against her will, she imagined Luag modeling PenUlt’s new survival knapsack, made of genuine cowhide. Lupe was right, it would look so good on him up on a mountain in the Highlands…

  Now now. Get your mind away from the impossible and back to the task at hand: getting rid of Luag.

  She downloaded a book about the history of Luag’s town, Inverurie. Hoping it would give her ideas on how to get him home, she put in one of her ear buds so she could listen to it, offering the other to Luag.

  It was more fun watching his reactions than listening to the book. His eyes popped open wide when the narration started, and he kept grinning or gritting his teeth at what was said about the town where his best friend Leif was laird.

  They were on Chapter 6 when Lupe waved as she left the café. “See you soon, Chica. Si?”

  Katherine raised up her nonfat cinnamon latte in salute to the woman who made them perfectly. “See you tomorrow!”

  Lupe smiled as she left.

  Taking a sip of the delectable drink, Katherine was so glad she’d come home at last. She fired up the browser on her phone and searched for Kelsey MacGregor. Encouraged at seeing a number of hopeful possibilities, she clicked on the first one.

  But the outlet was awkwardly far away from the table, making her block the aisle with her cord, now that she was holding her phone up to look at it. Afraid someone would trip, she got up and stood against the wall.

  Luag was moving next to her when a man looking at his phone ran into Katherine.

  “Excuse me, I didn’t see you—”

  Luag got in the man’s face. “You will apologize to the lass!”

  Katherine put her hand on Luag’s wrist, trying to get his attention. “It was an honest mistake.”

  But Luag continued staring at the man, nostrils flaring and fists clenching.

  She noticed that everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle.

  Wearing a barista apron, a man she didn’t know came over and stood behind Luag. “Sir, you need to leave. Now.” He gave Katherine an apologetic look. “Sorry, ma’am, store policy. We don’t allow customers to speak to each other that way.”

  Katherine nodded at the barista, picked up what was left of her latte, put her phone in her bag, and grabbed Luag by the wrist, dragging him out the door. Once they were outside, she dragged him around the corner.

  Away from her neighbor’s prying eyes and ears, she lit into him. “You cannot act that way in this time!”

  “Me act a certain way! He was manhandling you!”

  “He was on his phone and didn’t see me. It happens all the time.”

  “It shouldn’t happen at all, and to hear you say it happens all the time makes me wonder why you want to be in this time!”

  “This time is far more enlightened as to women’s independence than your time!”

  Luag’s face turned crazed. “You want to be independent? Fine!” He ran down the sidewalk toward the cliff over the ocean two blocks away.

  “Good riddance,” Katherine said to herself. She’d had more than enough of his superior take-charge attitude this past year. The man was insufferable. Halfway up to her apartment, she decided to call PenUlt and tell them she was back and would come in tomorrow to once more be their top salesperson.

  She dug out her keys and went inside. There was so much to do! Make sure she had something to wear tomorrow, coax the salon into a haircut and manicure on short notice… Good thing Luag had run off. She needed this whole afternoon to get ready. But first things first. She was going to take a hot bath. She’d missed those even more than lattes.

  3

  Luag ran as far as he could toward the sea before hitting a wooden rail fence on the edge of a cliff. There had to be a way down there. He turned to his right and ran along the grassy park with its odd small buildings. Before long, he came to
a hill covered in that same black stuff. Jeweled monstrosities sped up and down at those impossible speeds, but there was a white area on the left for people. He followed the crowd until at last he was on the edge of all this madness, staring out at the breaking waves.

  Amid all the people walking up and down the shoreline, he thought he saw someone familiar. But that was impossible.

  He put the Swiss Army knife and his sgian-dubh in his sporran, gripped that in his teeth, left his boots in the sand, and waded into the blessedly cool water. In addition to everything else, this place was unbearably hot. It felt good to swim in the sea. He hadn’t played in the surf since he was a child on Islay.

  However, before too long his stomach growled. With no line to catch a fish and no ember to light a cooking fire, he had to face the fact that he was helpless here. He needed to go beg forgiveness from the lass. He walked around barefoot in the dry sand until the wet sand had all dried and fallen off his feet, put his boots back on, and headed back to Katherine.

  When he was wondering which of the four doors belonged to her, a little old gammer came up and took hold of his elbow. This made him jump, half out of being startled and half out of amazement that a woman would touch a stranger. But her face and voice were both sweet when she spoke.

  “I live in number three and Katherine lives in number two. I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you give her the chance. Go on up there. I just heard her run a bath a little while ago, so I know she’s at home. It would be a shame to let young love like yours go to waste.”

  Luag smiled at the old woman. Katherine must’ve meant a different neighbor was a pest. This one was a delight. “Thank you,” he told her before he rushed on up the stairs.

  “You’re welcome, young man. You’re very welcome here.”

  He was smiling at the woman’s kindness even as he wondered what he was going to say to Katherine, and then he realized who that familiar face belonged to, the one he saw down near the sea. It was Roland Cheyne, one of the men on the enemy side at the white-flag talk on the battlefield. A new addition to his uncle’s clan, not anyone Luag had known.

  It must have been Roland who grabbed hold of Luag and came here with them.

  If Roland meant Katherine harm…

  The door flew open and Katherine dragged him inside and slammed it.

  Luag felt saliva pool in his mouth. The sight of her stirred him like nothing ever had before.

  Not only had she taken a bath and brushed her lovely hair out so that it fell down to her waist in blonde waves, she had also changed clothes, if you could call it that. She wore what would in his time not even be an undergarment, a pretty sleeveless pastel pink shift that didn’t even cover her knees. And those shoes she had on. How did she walk in heels so high?

  She started off shrewish. “What were you thinking, running off like that?” And then she met his eyes. “Sorry my pesky neighbor bothered you. She really does stick her nose in everyone’s business. Did you hear her saying how she knew I was in the bath?” She shuddered. “Creepy!”

  Throughout this short speech, she was behaving as if her clothing were normal, and so he did his best not to stare at the barely concealed charms of this lass he had known a year, instead looking around the room.

  Her rucksack containing Leif’s mother’s heirloom clothing had been casually tossed into a corner, and she didn’t stop him when he went over and transferred the clothing that now belonged to Leif’s new wife, Katherine’s friend Jessica, into his own rucksack.

  “These things were Leif’s mother’s, ye ken.”

  She gave him a sad smile. “Aye, you should take them back to him.”

  “One of Laird Donald’s men followed us here. I saw him on the beach.”

  Her face brightened. “Maybe he can get you home!”

  Luag shook his head in disbelief. “He was sent by a man who means harm, Katherine. We canna trust him.” He looked around her home, and though it was foreign to him, at least most of it made sense. Seeing what vaguely looked like a kitchen, he turned to her. “Before, I was merely hungered, now I am in serious danger of fainting if I dinna have food.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, me too.” She smiled in eager anticipation. “We’ll go to my favorite place.”

  “Nay, it isn’t safe for you to leave, not with Donald’s man out there.” Luag moved in front of her door to bar the way. And was shocked when she marched right up and tried to push him aside!

  “I’ve been gone a year,” she said. “There’s not a thing in here fit to eat. Come on. It’s close, and there so many people out there, what’s he going to do?”

  Only the growling of his stomach persuaded him. Besides, if he was with her, she should be all right. He’d already sheathed his sgian-dubh back into his boot, and now he put the Swiss Army Knife back on the belt of his strange new loose breeches.

  There were indeed many people walking here, clamoring, shouting, and looking at their glass boxes while they rushed to and fro.

  The place she took him to was only half a mile’s walk, and he was reassured when they entered an upstairs tavern. Reassured, that is, until nothing on the menu looked familiar in any way. She ordered for him, and when his food came, it was completely foreign.

  His stomach growled again, so taking a big drink of the watery stuff that passed for ale here, he tried a bite. It was surprisingly good, but he wouldn’t tell her that.

  She wasn’t deceived, however. Smiling brightly, she said, “I’m so glad you like sushi, too.”

  That smile did something to him. He felt drawn to her unexpected warmth and gave her a tentative smile of his own. This kept getting better and better throughout the meal.

  But when they arose to leave, he saw Roland again. The small man was seated near the exit, dressed in the strange loose breeches and tight-fitting tunic of these times.

  The battle heat came upon Luag, and he reached for his sgian-dubh.

  Sense overtook him before he had drawn it. Katherine was right. The little man wouldn’t do anything inside this crowded place.

  “Don’t look over toward the door,” he told Katherine, “howsoever, Donald’s man Roland Cheyne is over there waiting for us to leave so he can follow us. So you leave alone. I want to see if he follows you without me along.”

  She flashed him a look so afraid it melted his heart.

  “Dinna fash,” he rushed to tell her, “I will be right behind him.”

  She nodded and did as he told her.

  Roland followed the lass out.

  Luag cursed and ran out after the smaller man. As soon as all three of them were in the staircase, he pinned Roland against the wall. With his sgian-dubh to the man’s throat. He told Katherine, “Go back inside. Don’t let anyone come out here until I call you.”

  She nodded and went.

  He turned back to Roland. “What are you doing here?”

  Roland’s body was slack. The man wasn’t resisting at all. In fact, he was trembling, and his eyes were crazed, desperate. “Donald sent me after the other lass’s dagger, but I sensed you were going to the future. I can only go where someone has been. I wanted to ride along. Just for a look, mind. I thought I would go right back and grab the dagger a second later. But the moment I arrived in this time filled with the work of men, I became helpless to reach Mother Nature. I can’t even sense her!” Hope came into Roland’s eyes. “But the lass! She has visions of places even here where Nature yet reigns. I will do anything you ask, just allow the lass to get me back to Nature.”

  Roland could time travel! Luag re-sheathed his sgian-dubh and looped the druid’s arm through his own, ostensibly to help him down the stairs. “Katherine, come on out!”

  A moment later, she appeared, laughing and talking with a large group of people.

  Luag hurried Roland down the stairs and out of their way.

  “So,” she said, looking expectantly from Luag to Roland and back to Luag. “I see Roland has joined us. What’s the plan? I’m sure you have one. I can see it
in your eyes.”

  Luag answered in their silent Charades language, lest anyone overhear. “Roland is a druid who can time travel. He will take me back home, but first you need to get us away from all this man-made settlement to where he can feel the power of Nature. Let’s go.”

  But Katherine scoffed. “Are you kidding me? It’s Friday evening!” She looked at him as if he were daft.

  Luag raised his chin at the insult, but just in case she had a point, he asked, “And why does that make any difference?”

  Katherine grimaced, but on her it looked lovely, just as everything did. When had he noticed that? She put her hand up in a gesture of peace. “I keep forgetting you two don’t know LA. It would take us all night to get out of town right now.”

  “You’ve got that right,” said a passerby who reached up.

  Katherine slapped his raised hand.

  The man just shook his head with a smile and kept on walking by.

  She said, “Tomorrow morning it will be smooth sailing, so we need to stay here tonight.” She looked at Roland. “Have you eaten?”

  Timidly, Roland shook his head no.

  Katherine growled in frustration, but then flung her hand to the side. “It doesn’t matter. The Miramar has room service. Come on.”

  Keeping hold of Roland’s arm, Luag followed her. “The Miramar is the local inn?”

  She nodded but didn’t look at him, intent on her destination.

  “Why an inn? Why not just go back to your home? It’s plenty big for three. I’ve known families of ten who had smaller homes.”

  She raised her eyebrows at him and then turned back in front of them, rushing along the large walkway surrounded by shops. “That may be, but even in my time, a single woman does not bring two men home with her. Not with a neighbor like mine, she doesn’t. I’d never hear the end of it. No, we’re going to the Miramar. Room service, and they’ll have toothbrushes for you and… Just trust me, we’re better off there.”

  They rounded a corner toward the sea and went down the street a ways.

  “There it is, the Miramar,” she said with the sort of fondness most people reserved for their homes.