by Bess McBride
I cupped his face with one hand, reflexively examining the healing scar on his cheek. The stitches had been removed, and all that remained was a red line down his face. As I suspected, it gave him a piratey look. He had continued to keep the facial hair shaved, and I marveled that the strength of his chin matched his character. The wound on his neck, still angry from the cauterizing, appeared to be healing as well.
He nodded, a rare smile lightening his usual somber expression.
“I am now,” he said, heartbreaking moisture forming in his blue eyes. “I am now, lass.”
He bent his head to kiss me again, and I lost myself in him.
“I love ye, Cyn-tya. I love ye, and I am so verra happy ye have come back.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I didn’t know, Torq. I didn’t know if you loved me, but I knew I loved you. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone in your time, but I came back as soon as I could. I had a little help though.”
Torq picked me up in his arms and masterfully lowered himself to a cross-legged position on the beach, cradling me in his arms.
“Tell me everything.”
I told him about my experience with the hurricane, accidentally grabbing the dagger from Andrew’s belt, finding myself back in the twenty-first century, the hospitalization, and Dylan’s help in getting me back.
“He’s John and Ann’s descendant, you know.”
Torq shook his head, kissing the top of my forehead.
“I didna ken. Ann shares little about her time.”
“I know. But I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Ask me anything!”
He smiled again, an unexpectedly tender smile that pulled my heart.
“In time, m’eudail, my darling. We have time to speak of such things.”
“Where are the birlinns? I thought I’d ended up in the wrong time!”
“Some of the men have gone fishing.”
I shook my head, remembering my grief at seeing them gone.
“How is everyone? Was anyone hurt during the storm? How long have I been gone?”
“The same as in yer time, about a fortnight. Everyone is well enough. The storm did some damage, but all has been set right. More so now that ye are back. I thought I had lost ye forever, m’eudail, and I didna ken how to go on.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. I really didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave you.”
“I did no want ye to leave either. I dinna ken I want to live wi’out ye. I feared for yer safety, and I blamed myself because I didna protect ye from harm, from the Macaulays taking of ye.”
“I know,” I whispered. I ran my fingers through his beautiful hair. “I know, but life without you won’t be worth living...not for me.”
He leaned in to kiss me, then stopped himself.
“I must confess something to ye, something of which I am ashamed. I grew jealous of yer regard for Iskair, fearing that I might lose ye to him. He is a braw lad, and I kent ye had some affection for him. The truth of the matter is that I wanted ye safe in yer own time, but I didna want to see ye with another man, no even my cousin. I am a flawed, selfish man.”
I pulled Torq’s faced to mine and whispered against his lips. “You are the one that I love.”
He kissed me then, deeply, swaying us gently with the rhythm of the waves. When he lifted his head, I saw the white flecks in his eyes glint like silver, like the dagger.
“The dagger!” I whispered, looking over his shoulder. The dagger, a beautiful magical thing, lurked nearby on the rocks, as if waiting to rip me from Torq’s arms.
Torq followed my eyes.
“Dinna fear the thing. Though it took ye from me, it brought ye to me two times. I will have Andrew bury the dagger once and for all.”
“You’re right, of course. It did bring me here...and I met you. I just can’t help seeing it as the thing that tore me away from you.”
“Dinna fash, m’eudail. Ye are here wi me now. Will ye stay with me?”
I burst out bawling in the most unattractive way and pressed my face against his bare chest. Red hair tickled my nose.
“Yes,” I sobbed. “Yes.”
Torq stiffened and lifted my chin.
“Why do ye cry? Do I ask too much? Do ye wish to return to yer own time?”
“No!” I mumbled, wrapping my arms around his sturdy body as far as I could reach. “No. I’m staying with you. I’m just crying. I’m so relieved that you love me.”
“How could ye doubt it? How did ye no ken that I loved ye? Was it no there in my eyes, in our first kiss, in the way I held ye? I canna say when it was I first kent that I loved ye, but it came verra quick for me. I didna think ye felt the same, and why should ye? I am no but a poor soldier with no home of my own, belonging to a clan wi no home either.”
I looked up with all the love that I felt in my heart, which was considerable. I loved him with a passion that I’d never felt for any man—not Josh, not even my father. Torq would never leave me, not willingly, and I never wanted to leave him.
He kissed me again, rocking us back and forth gently again. My head swam, and I stopped breathing. When Torq lifted his head again, I felt slightly woozy.
“Say the words again,” he whispered, staring down at me as if he could draw my soul out with his eyes. The depth of Torq’s passionate nature continued to astonish me. He had kept it well hidden. In turn, the depth of my own passion surprised me. I too had kept that well hidden, even from myself. I was willing to give myself up body and soul to Torq, to trust in him completely, to love him without fear.
“Say the words,” Torq repeated.
“I love you,” I said. “I love you.”
“Cyn!” someone shrieked from the top of the cliff.
Torq and I looked up. Ann, John, Andrew, Euan, Kenny and a group of villagers stood at the top of the cliff, looking down. Ann waved and jumped up and down like she was at a football game. She held Sarah and Archibald by the hands. They too joined her in jumping about.
Andrew starting hustling down the cliff path, no doubt the most agile among the group. Euan and Kenny followed, presumably to offer Torq assistance in getting me up the hill again.
Torq turned back to me. “We didna have much time together alone, did we?” he said with a rueful smile.
“No.”
“It isna the place or time, but I must ask ye now. Will ye marry me, Cyn-tya? Will ye be my wife?”
“Yes, yes, my handsome Highlander, the sooner the better!”
Torq laughed. And the sound echoed on the wind.
Epilogue
Ann and I stood on the edge of the cliff, watching the birlinns launch. My tall redheaded Highlander was easy to spot. He looked up and lifted an arm to wave.
Sarah and Archibald, clinging to my skirts as I had required when they asked to join us in saying farewell to the men, waved as well. My fear of heights had not eased with life on the tiny tidal stack, but I hoped it wouldn’t be forever.
“So what did Torq say?” Ann leaned in to whisper, throwing a quick glance at Sarah and Archibald. “They’re just reconnoitering, right? That’s what John told me.”
I looked over at Ann, amazed she could hold two sleeping thirteen-month-old infants in her arms at the same time. My own newborn redheaded daughter looked tiny in comparison.
I too glanced down at the oblivious older children, still jumping up and down, waving as their uncle and stepfather sailed away in the birlinns.
“That’s it!” I said. “He promised me they would not do more than scout out the lay of the land. I know war is coming, but I’m not ready for it yet, not yet.” I looked down at the baby, tucking her tartan blanket around her face as the spring sea breezes blew over us.
Ann sighed. “They’re going to live. History says so.”
“Well, John will,” I said. “And Dylan said he will get his castle back, though he wasn’t quite sure of the specifics.”
“I didn’t spend as much time with Dylan as you did, but I miss him in som
e strange way.”
“Me too. I hope he and Debra are doing well.”
“You said you weren’t sure if that was going to be a permanent thing.”
“No, Dylan didn’t sound like he was interested in marriage, but...”
“Goodbye!” Sarah shouted, cupping both hands to her mouth.
“Sarah! My skirts, please! I can’t hold your hand, so please hang on to my skirts!”
“Aye, Auntie Cyn-tya!” She resumed her hold on my skirt, and I smiled. I had rapidly grown to love Mary’s children, and they now split their time between Ann’s croft and mine as well Mistress Glick’s, everyone’s Mother Goose.
My wedding to Torq had taken longer than I wanted—two weeks to post the banns, which seemed ludicrous given that the Morrisons were so isolated on their fortress retreat without benefit of laws to protect them from annihilation from the other clans. I saw no reason why they should abide by any other laws, but Torq insisted, stating that our marriage would be lawful and consecrated. And so they had brought the local priest onto the tidal stack, and we’d had a lovely sunset ceremony.
Even ten months later, I could not think of our wedding night without melting at Torq’s tenderness, especially given my then disability. That I had conceived our child far sooner than doctors would have suggested was something that worried him, but I was careful and suffered no undue discomfort as my back healed while I nurtured a pregnancy.
“Torquiline is certainly a good sleeper,” Ann said now.
I looked down at her fuzzy red hair. “Like her father.”
I looked out again toward the birlinns now sailing away. “I hope they come back soon. I feel like half a person when he’s gone—fishing, trading, whenever he’s gone.”
“Me too,” Ann said.
I gave her a sympathetic smile. A silver brooch she wore on her bodice glinted in the sun, reminding me of the dagger.
“Did you ever figure out where they hid the dagger?” By they, I referred to John, Torq and Andrew, the only three who knew its location.
“No, and I don’t want to know.”
“I kind of do, so I can avoid it, if nothing else.”
The birlinns disappeared from view, and I looked down at the children.
“Go play now, kids.”
They ran off toward the crofts, and I took one last look down at the beach before turning away.
Two familiar figures caught my eye, and I gasped.
“Is that Dylan? And Debra?”
Ann followed my eyes.
“And here we go again!”
Books by Bess McBride
Time Travel Romance
The Earl Finds a Bride
(Book One of the Fairy Tales Across Time series)
A Ship Through Time
The Highlander’s Stronghold
(Book One of the Searching for a Highlander series)
My Laird’s Castle
(Book One of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Love
(Book Two of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Heart
(Book Three of the My Laird’s Castle series)
Caving in to You
(Book One of the Love in the Old West series)
A Home in Your Heart
(Book Two of the Love in the Old West series)
Forever Beside You in Time
Moonlight Wishes in Time
(Book One of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Under an English Moon
(Book Two of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Following You Through Time
(Book Three of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
A Train Through Time
(Book One of the Train Through Time series)
Together Forever Across Time
(Book Two of the Train Through Time series)
A Smile in Time
(Book Three of the Train Through Time series)
Finding You in Time
(Book Four of the Train Through Time series)
A Fall in Time
(Book Five of the Train Through Time series)
A Summer in Time
(Book Six of the Train Through Time series)
Train Through Time Series Boxed Set
(Books 1–3)
Across the Winds of Time
A Wedding Across the Winds of Time
(Novella)
Love of My Heart
Historical Romance
Anna and the Conductor
The Earl’s Beloved Match
(Novella)
The Dishonest Duke
Short cozy mystery stories by Minnie Crockwell
Will Travel for Trouble series
Trouble at Happy Trails (Book 1)
Trouble at Sunny Lake (Book 2)
Trouble at Glacier (Book 3)
Trouble at Hungry Horse (Book 4)
Trouble at Snake and Clearwater (Book 5)
Trouble in Florence (Book 6)
Trouble in Tombstone Town (Book 7)
Trouble in Cochise Stronghold (Book 8)
Trouble in Orange Beach (Book 9)
Trouble at Pelican Penthouse (Book 10)
Trouble at Island Castle (Book 11)
Trouble at Yellowstone (Book 12)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 1–3)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 4–6)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 7–9)
About the Author
Bess McBride is the bestselling author of over twenty time travel romances as well as contemporary, historical, romantic suspense and light paranormal romances. She loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her at [email protected] or visit her website at www.bessmcbride.com as well as connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. She also writes cozy mystery short stories as Minnie Crockwell, and you can find her website at [email protected].
