by Beth Trissel
Would this Niall recall anything beyond the deep regard he’d borne her as his betrothed? Would he even recognize the devoted friend who’d risked everything to preserve him? Would he be but half the man she adored, whose seed, even now, might bring forth a new life within her?
Blotting at her tear soaked face, she called out, “Fergus! Bring a light!”
Hardly had the plea escaped her lips before Fergus streaked through the door. In one hand, he grasped the violet beam, in his other, Neil’s boots. The distinct black coat lay across his arm.
“Craziest thing I ever saw. Neil just vanished and left this stuff behind!” Fergus halted a few feet away from her and Niall. Staring down at them, he asked, “Is that Neil or Niall or both?”
Her chest hammered—a great mallet beating inside her. “I’m not certain. Come nearer and help me discover.”
Fergus shone the light so she could better see the man before her. “Niall?” she whispered.
He lifted his head and shook it as if to clear his dazed senses. He fixed his eyes on her, confusion still clouding the depths. The welts and bruises she’d anticipated were nowhere to be seen, the cuts and blackened eyes, absent. His face was free of injury, his skin as unsullied as though washed clean. The miracle that was Niall gazed out at her.
She gazed back.
“Mora, yer here,” he said softly.
“I niver left.”
He smiled. “I felt ye with me.”
She laid her trembling hand on the torn sleeve of his leine. Where there should be blood, there was none. Only grime from his ordeal. Gesturing towards Fergus, she asked. “Do ye know this man?”
He knelt with her beside Niall in plain view and they both waited.
Niall scrutinized Fergus, brow furrowed. There was no recognition in his face. His expression reminded her of Neil’s when she’d first encountered him in the hallway of his Staunton home.
Mora’s battered heart sank. He’d forgotten. As unspeakably grateful as she was to reclaim Niall, she yearned for some part of Neil to remain inside him.
Then Niall’s gray eyes cleared, like clouds before the sun, and he smiled more broadly. “Fergus, what have ye done to the Red MacDonald.”
Mora clapped her hands together while Fergus chuckled.
“You should have seen the look on his face when you disappeared. Then I sent the big bully running for his life, but he’ll be back with reinforcements, I don’t doubt.”
“Wish I might have witnessed the scene. Ye must have put the fear of the Lord in him right enough. Does m’ sword lie in the other room?”
“Just where you dropped it when you vanished. Fricking weirdest thing.”
“Aye. Felt like I was tumbling through space, then I awoke as ye see before ye. Make haste to cut m’ bonds afore we have company.”
Fergus reached into Neil’s coat and took out the dagger his mother had given him. “I knew this would come in handy. It would’ve been danged awkward for me to attempt this with a broad sword.”
Niall smiled. “I should be fortunate to retain the use of m’ arms.”
“And I.” With a flick of his wrist, Fergus deftly cut the rope binding Niall. The cords fell to the cold stone beneath him.
Niall rubbed his arms. “That’s better. I’m nae so sore as I thought to be. M’ back no longer sears me. The holy vial has brought healing and restored my strength.” With a hearty laugh, he reached out and drew Mora into his strong arms. Stroking her hair, he said. “You did this, beloved.”
“And Fergus,” she prompted.
“No man could have a truer friend.” Extending his arm, he clasped Fergus’s shoulder and pulled him into their embrace. “Well done.”
For once, Fergus was too overcome to reply.
“There is one other who gave all for you. Neil,” Mora said softly.
“I am that man, Mora. We were always joined together, but dinna realize.” Niall rose stiffly to his feet and pulled her up with him. He took a tentative step. “’Twill take a bit to get full feeling back in m’ legs.”
“Lean on me.” Mora closed an arm around his waist, hardly able to believe he was actually here, muscular, heated, and in the flesh, for her to encircle.
He smiled down at her and sent a thrill rippling through her middle. “I’m nae so needy as that, but yer embrace is most welcome.”
Fergus straightened. “How’s your knee?”
Niall seemed puzzled at first and then, “Ah, that injury. I’ve had sech a plenty, I forgot which one ye meant.” He tested his knee. “Wondrously healed.”
“You’re one stupendous SOB, Niall.”
“Aye,” he said somberly. “I cannot take it all in.”
Fergus shook his head as if to clear it. “I never will.”
Mora only knew her heart overflowed with gratitude for the second chance given to her and Niall.
“Wait. You’ll want this.” Fergus slid the sheathed dagger back into the inner pocket and handed the coat to Niall.
“Gladly.” He put the warm garment on over his ragged leine and trews and pulled the leather boots on over his stocking feet. “Now I’m fit to go forth.”
A clicking attracted Mora’s attention. The noise emanated from one of Fergus’s pockets.
He startled. “My magnetic energy field detector! A portal must’ve opened up!”
****
Niall sought to order his old thoughts along with the new, or was it the other way round? He’d make sense of it all eventually. Meanwhile, he remembered this device and the tunnel through time it had the means to discover. But he was dumbfounded that a portal should open up now.
“Here?” he asked. “Are ye sure?”
“Why not?” Fergus bounced on his toes, gesturing with his hands. “It shifted before. And this crypt is the heart of our mission. Besides, I always thought the door to nowhere resembled the entry of a chapel.”
“Aye. That it does.”
Fergus reached into the recesses of his coat and withdrew the metal wand shaped like a laser. He held it out and strode out the partly opened door into the crypt. Niall and Mora followed him across that chamber toward the stairs leading up to the chapel. The clicking grew louder, and put Niall in mind of a chirping cricket. Fergus extended the wand toward the open archway at the top of the stairs.
The device clicked madly. Had it possessed a needle like a compass, the arrow would’ve pointed in that direction. There could be no mistake. Beyond the door into the chapel, lay the portal. Strangest of all, misted light shone up ahead as if from another realm.
No one spoke. They all knew.
A dimly seen woman appeared beyond the opening, her countenance familiar. Betty Fergus. Also much resembling Niall’s late Aunt Mary, Aunt Margaret’s sister. He recognized the hallway of his old home in Staunton. Betty must be standing before the door to nowhere, and seemingly anywhere.
Fergus crowed, “Mom said she’d try to keep the portal open and by heaven she has!”
Niall sensed this most unusual woman had also known how enormously valuable her son would be on their quest. She’d generously parted with him, for a bit. Fergus was much changed from the young man she’d sent off with them. He’d matured more in a few days than he had in years. And now, Niall assumed, she’d appeared to summon him home.
Her voice reached them as if from a great distance. “Fergus, it’s time.”
He hailed her. “I’m coming!” He angled his head at Niall and Mora, eyes alight with expectation. “Hurry! Let’s go! There’s not a moment to lose.”
Sadness pierced Niall. “Fergus, we cannot. Our place is here. I no longer exist in that world. Neil and Niall are one in this time and place. And only here.”
He read the same realization in Fergus’s bleak expression.
“’Tis grieved I am to bid ye farewell, but ye must go on without us,” he continued.
Moisture glistened in Fergus’s eyes behind his glasses. “But you’re my best friend.”
Niall wrapped h
is arms around his slender shoulders. “And you, mine. I thank ye for all ye’ve done. Look after m’ old home. ’Tis yers now. All I have from that life belongs to you. I left a will, naming you. After a while, I shall be declared dead and ye will inherit.”
Fergus embraced him in turn with surprising strength. “How can I leave, not knowing what will become of you both?”
“We will thrive. I vow to find some way to get word to ye.”
“In the future?”
“Ye shall read an account of Niall MacKenzie and his good wife Mora, and all their bonnie children.”
Fergus said huskily, “By the time I read it, you will be long dead.”
“But not gone. Our friendship will live on and someday we shall meet again in heaven or on earth.”
“I’ll look for your account.”
“Ye shall find it.”
Fergus quirked a slight grin. “On Google?”
Neil smiled. “Or more likely, among the relics my family collected. Look again in the attic. Pray God, ye will find what you seek from me there.”
Fergus gave a nod. Swiping at his eyes, he turned to Mora. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I shall miss ye, Angus Fergus. God speed. Now go! Before the way closes. And give our thanks to yer dear mother.”
“I will.” Blinking hard, Fergus handed Niall the violet light. “You’ll need this. You can switch it to green or orange if you prefer.”
The profound reluctance in his face mirrored Niall’s sentiment at letting him go. But he must. Fergus didn’t belong here. “Take care.”
“And you.”
“Remember Sebastian.”
“Mom’s probably already taken him in. She loves cats.” With that, Fergus turned and charged up the steps. He paused to glance back at them over his shoulder. “One to beam aboard, Scotty,” he quipped in true Fergus style.
“‘Aye, aye, Captain.’” His voice thick, Niall gave the traditional reply.
An upraised hand signaled Fergus’s farewell.
Niall and Mora mutely lifted their hands.
Straightening his shoulders, Fergus strode through the door, enveloped by the cloudy whiteness. He was gone. He was going home.
Mora appeared as stunned as Niall felt. For a long moment, they stood together, staring after the place where Fergus had vanished. “We cannot go back that way,” Niall finally said.
He sheathed the claymore and slid on his back scabbard. A wave of energy came over him. Swept up in renewed vitality, he caught Mora to him.
“We’ll hasten through the tunnel guided by this light. If we can reach the horses and bound away before Red MacDonald gets wind of our departure, so much the better. If not, I stand ready to fight. But first—”
Breaking off in midsentence, he bent his head and covered her lips with his, pouring the flood of love from two lifetimes into that slow, sweet kiss. All around them, demons might sneer and dead men molder in the crypt, but theirs was a holy union. A radiant light soared in Niall’s soul, and he knew, all would be well.
Mora whispered against his lips, “Should we return the vial and bulla that held it before we go?”
“Red MacDonald would thank us for restoring an empty relic.”
An idea came to Niall and he cupped her face in his hands. “Besides, the vial and bulla are what I have in mind to pass down through the family.” He grinned at her bewildered expression. “Where I shall conceal m’ letter to Fergus. Perhaps he will find it in the attic as we did.”
She looked doubtful then brightened a little. “Or Mrs. Dannon’s true niece may arrive and offer Fergus comfort.”
“Mayhap.” Niall suspected it was a romantic whim. “Do not fear for Fergus. He will find his way. Lands on his feet, that one.”
“Think ye we will ever lay eyes upon him again?”
Niall held Mora to him. “Anything is possible.”
A familiar whine carried from the tunnel below the crypt, then a distinctive bark sounded. His deerhound.
Mora lit up. “Kiln must have found ye!”
With a smile, Niall hurried her toward the hole where they’d pushed the stone aside. “That faithful friend never gave up on me either.”
The End~
Watch for the sequel to Somewhere My Lass, Fergus’s story, Somewhere in the Highlands.
About the Author
Married to my high school sweetheart, I live on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia surrounded by my children, grandbabies, and assorted animals. An avid gardener, my love of herbs and heirloom plants figures into my work. The rich history of Virginia, the Native Americans and the people who journeyed here from far beyond her borders are at the heart of my inspiration. In addition to American settings, I also write historical and time travel romances set in the British Isles, and nonfiction about gardening, herbal lore, and country life.
For more on me, my blog is the happening place: https://bethtrissel.wordpress.com/
Table of Contents
Story Excerpt
Praise for Somewhere My Lass
Author Awards
Other books by Beth Trissel
COPYRIGHT
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
About the Author
