“Well I am so glad that you did. It’s actually really good that you called because I have some big news for all of you. Is Dad home?”
“Nope. He’s still at work. You want me to get Mom?”
“Yes, please.” I waited patiently as she ran to get our mother, and I smiled when both of their faces popped back up on the screen.
“Hey, Sydney. You look good, much better than you have in a long time. What’s going on? Is there a boy?”
“No, Mom. No boy. It’s much better than that. I quit my job.”
Both of them just stared back, mouths open. I decided to fill them in with the rest of the news before they got their hopes up that I was coming back to the States.
“I’m moving to Scotland for a job there. It’s in a castle!” I tried to sound as excited as I really was. When they both smiled, my nerves abated a little.
“Scotland!” Liv’s voice rang with excitement. “You love castles, right?”
I smiled and nodded in agreement. “Who doesn’t?”
She shrugged and then chuckled just the tiniest bit as she continued. “Well, I bet anyone that got thrown into the dungeon of a castle doesn’t. But you’re not going to be in the dungeon, so I say awesome.”
I laughed and nodded my head in agreement. “I say awesome, too. What do you think, Mom?”
There was a bit of delay with the signal so it took a few seconds for me to see that she was crying.
“Mom? What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy?” She never liked the idea of me working in her mother’s restaurant.
“I am so happy, I feel I might burst. Will you have to work as much?”
“I don’t think so, and I’m going to tell them right away that I have to be able to go home for Christmas, or I won’t do it.”
“Maybe we can come see you, too, Sydney. I would love to see a real castle.”
I wanted nothing more than for them to jump on a plane that instant.
“I would love that. And as long as you tell Dad that you’ll let him quote Braveheart to his heart’s content, I bet he won’t even mind either.”
My mother spoke between sniffles. “I…I would love that, too.”
“Great, then let’s plan on it. I need to check on a few things in the kitchen, but I’ll talk to you soon. I love you both so much.”
They told me goodbye, and I shut down my computer before gleefully walking back over to the restaurant. If only tomorrow would hurry up. I was certain that until time came for me to actually leave, I would doubt the reality of any of it.
CHAPTER 5
Cagair Castle
Present Day
Only after Morna’s mention of it could Callum see the recent decline in Jerry’s health—the way he slept in the early afternoon, the way he slouched in his chair while awake, and the fatigue that etched every crevice of his friend’s face. Simply helping Callum clean out the chicken coop tired him. It wasn’t like Jerry. Neither were the spells of dizziness he thought no one noticed. Callum knew Jerry tried his best to hide it from everyone.
“Ye see what I mean, doona ye?”
Callum stood at the corner of the sitting room. He’d been on his way to speak with Jerry as he told Morna he would, only to find Jerry snoring by the fire. It didn’t surprise him when Morna walked up.
“Aye, I can. Do ye wish me to wake him or speak with him another time?”
“Another time. Come. Let’s allow him to sleep until dinner. How did work go today?”
Lacing his arm with Morna’s he led her out in the hallway so they could walk together. It seemed so strange to him that after months of living alone at the Cagair of his own time that he would be living with so many friends and family members now.
Baby Nora’s survival and presence among them was the one blessing of that wretched fire, but Macaslan’s act of violence proved to him just how fortunate he was to have such selfless friends with large families—all of whom were familiar with the magic hidden throughout Scotland.
Donal MacChristy, his uncle and the rather more responsible counterpart to his father, was the first to arrive with his men. To everyone’s surprise, Donal had placed spies within Macaslan’s territory the moment he learned of the laird’s ransom of Callum’s father and brother. Through his spies, Donal learned of Macaslan’s plan to set fire to Cagair. Unfortunately, the news came too late. He’d been unable to arrive in time, showing up just after Callum lost consciousness in the rain. Still, they all knew that without Donal, things would have turned out very differently. It was only through Donal’s men that they knew Macaslan had boarded a boat to an unknown destination after calls for his head began to reverberate throughout all of the country.
Only through Donal’s intelligence did they know it was safe to gather and work on repairs for Cagair. For if Macaslan remained in Scotland, Callum would never have allowed the rest of his friends and family to join him at Cagair, leaving their own homes and territories weakened and open to the threat of Macaslan.
Morna and Jerry were the first to arrive at Cagair, with Morna eager to use her powers on the wee babe the moment she learned of what happened.
The McMillans, with their connection to Cagair already formed through the young lad Cooper and his aunt Jane, arrived next. The Conalls, his distant cousins through marriage, arrived shortly behind them, providing a good number of men to help rebuild Cagair.
With the stairwell portal an easy way to get back and forth across the centuries, everyone piled into the Cagair of a time ahead of his own. Each day, he and the other men would travel through to meet with hired men for work on the castle, and each night they would come back through to meet with their wives and children in the evenings. The months had been long and the progress slow, but everything was much better than it had been a few months ago—a sweet reminder to all of them that time could change so much.
“It went verra well. The bedchambers in the right wing have been set right, though the furnishings are not complete. We’ve dozens of women in the village working diligently to create the necessary bedding, draperies, and candles. I owe so much to me people and to all of ye who have come here.”
“We all owe much to ye as well, Callum. Even if we are all crammed in this castle so tightly that we trip over each other in the hallways, I think everyone enjoys being around each other verra much. I do. There are so many here that I thought I would never see again. Why, I wish I’d had my camera out when Donal came through for the first time.”
Callum laughed remembering his uncle’s reaction to everything. For all of them, the miracles of the twenty-first century never seemed to cease—each day there was something new to discover.
“I’ve enjoyed it as well, though I’m ready to have my castle back.”
“Aye. I know ye are. How much longer before ye are finished? I’ll be glad for it as well. Every moment that everyone is gathered here, no matter how fun and joyous, I fear Grier’s meddling.”
Callum had thought little of the witch the past few days. He couldn’t see the point in Morna’s worry. As far as he could tell, she intended to keep herself at a distance. Otherwise, why wouldn’t she have allowed him to find her after the fire?
“I expect it to take another full turning of the moon, mayhap a few weeks more. As long as nothing sets us back.”
“Hmm…”
Morna’s apprehensive noise said more than her words ever could.
“Morna…do ye have reason to believe something will?”
The witch shrugged, pulling away from his arm as she sat down at the top of the castle’s main staircase.
“No. ’Tis only a feeling. Grier’s started whatever she wishes to do already. Just ye wait and see.”
A memory flashed in his mind, something he’d wished to ask Morna about long ago.
“Can I ask ye something about the magic here, Morna? I know ’tis not yer doing, but I wondered if mayhap ye ken how it works.”
Morna laughed quietly, and he could see with her every sarcastic g
esture just how much everything bothered her lately.
“Clearly, I doona understand a thing about the magic here since I thought she was dead all this time. But please, ask me yer question. I’ll tell ye what I can.”
“I suppose ye know how we all discovered the portal, aye? Cooper put it all together. When the rest of us thought we were seeing ghosts, he knew we were seeing mirages of those ahead of us.”
“Aye. I remember. He looked for it so he could find me. He hoped that I would heal Isobel. While I thought it a mistake, I am glad she lives still. What of it?”
Callum nodded, thinking back on that time at Cagair. They’d all grown close to the kind lady and her husband. He missed Isobel often. Once all was well within his own time, he would make a trip with Adwen and Jane to see her.
“I often saw what I thought were ghosts here. Always the same people—three women and a man—I know now who three out of the four are, but I’ve never seen the fourth.”
“Well, who are the three?”
“Gillian, Anne, and Aiden. The fourth, I always saw in my bedchamber. Her black hair so beautiful, her eyes so piercing, I found I rather fancied her—ghost or not. But when I came through for the first time—when I met with those I’d seen—I could not make sense of why this lass was not amongst them. How can it be so? Do ye think she truly was a ghost?”
His question must have stumped Morna, for they sat in silence next to each other for a long while as he watched her ponder over his question. When she finally looked up at him, anger shown in her eyes, and he suspected her answer even before she gave it.
“’Tis Grier, clearly. Not the lass ye saw, but Grier is the one who showed her to ye. Ye are also the one who saw Grier at the fire. I can see it now—’tis yer life she means to mess with. I told ye not to tease her the other day. If I was a wagering woman—which I only am with Jerry—I’d wager that ye will see this lass soon.”
He rather hoped that he would. Everyone around him had someone they loved deeply. Why shouldn’t it be his turn to have a go at things?
“Do ye think so?”
Morna stood and crossed her arms as she waited for him to do the same. When he joined her, she turned her back toward him, walking away as she spoke.
“Aye, ye will, I’m sure of it. And, Callum, once ye do…doona trust the lass for a second.”
CHAPTER 6
Italy
While I thought time would drag due to my excitement about leaving, everything came about quickly once Mark arrived. He was a saint in the kitchen. Even after only one afternoon of him cooking, I could tell everyone in the village would be madly in love with him by the end of the week. His arrival and total competence in the kitchen left me feeling ready to leave the job entirely guilt-free.
On the morning of my flight, with everything ready to go and loaded into the back of my car, I stopped in at Mr. Abbiati’s one last time before heading out. I expected him to be sad to see me go. Instead, he could hardly contain his readiness for me to leave.
“Go ahead, Sydney. Get out of here. You’ll be late.”
Five hours remained until my flight time, and I only had an hour drive to the airport. Even if I lingered around for two more hours, I wasn’t likely to be late.
“No, I won’t be. I’m way ahead of schedule, and I’m never late.”
He laughed and clicked his teeth at me. “Oh, you just ruined it for yourself there. You’ll certainly be late now that you tested fate that way. Get on. Go.”
I smiled and moved in to hug him.
“What’s the matter with you? I thought you’d be at least a little sad at my leaving.” I sounded rather juvenile I knew, but I wanted someone to miss me.
“Sydney. I’m worried that if you linger too long, you will talk yourself out of going, and that would be crazy. Do they know you’re coming?”
I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t talk myself out of going, but after all these years, I understood why he thought that I might.
“Well, the email said to just stop by, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m all about spontaneity now.”
He frowned at me and ushered me out of his house and into the street where my car sat running.
“You should call them just to let them know you’re on your way.”
“Fine, I’ll call them during my layover in Paris.” I opened the driver’s side door and lowered myself into the car where I started to tell him goodbye, only to have him slam the door in my face mid-sentence, smiling and waving me on so that I would leave. I’d never felt so unwanted in my life.
Cagair Castle
Present Day
“What are you doing back here so early?”
Callum reached for an apple off the counter before turning to address Anne’s question. She stood at the other end of the island, covered in flour. She looked like she was about to scream—or maybe cry—he could never really tell with Anne.
“I’m not early. ’Tis nearly nightfall. All of us are back. I just doona have a wife or children wanting my attention, so I can ready myself for dinner more quickly than the others. Do ye need some help?”
He didn’t know what he could do to assist her, but he knew that even he was likely more apt in the kitchen than Anne. He admired her determination, though. No matter how bad her meal was the night before, she always took another stab at feeding them the next night. He feared their clothes were beginning to hang off them more loosely.
“Well…” Right as she was about to answer him, the telephone on the opposite side of the kitchen rang.
Callum was only vaguely familiar with phones, and their noise made him jump every time. He’d never heard this phone ring once in all the months he’d been here.
Anne brushed her hands together to remove the flour and made her way over to the telephone.
“Well, that’s weird. I didn’t even know that worked. Give me just a second.”
He nodded and pulled out one of the benches to take a seat, quietly listening in on the exchange.
“Hello, this is Anne.”
A brief moment of silence followed as he watched her listening to the person on the other end.
“You what? You’re on your way here? Job? Ma’am, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who is this?”
Another moment of silence. As Morna walked into the kitchen through the entry at Callum’s left, he raised a finger to shush her and pulled out the seat next to him.
“Who is she talking to?”
He shrugged and continued to watch Anne closely. She looked so flustered, and her eyes grew wider nearly every second.
“I doona know.”
“Oh.” Anne whispered the response and spun, wrapping the cord around her as she faced them with a confused expression. “Well, yes, that is my email address. But I didn’t…you know what, nevermind. You’re already on your way here. I’m sorry to hear about all of your delays. What’s your next flight number? Don’t worry about renting a car. We’re kind of hard to find. I’ll track your flight on my phone, and I’ll make certain someone is there to pick you up in the morning.”
Callum and Morna continued to stare with piqued curiosity as Anne stopped speaking for another brief moment. They sat up in attention when she spoke again.
“Uh-huh, okay, thanks for calling. See you tomorrow. Safe travels.”
As Anne hung up the phone, she pointed directly in Morna’s direction.
“You did this, didn’t you?”
Callum stood and walked over to stand next to Anne in order to see Morna’s face. He could tell by the irritated glint in Morna’s eye that whatever this was, it had nothing to do with her.
“What exactly do ye think I did, dear?”
“Morna, come on. Are you really going to act like you didn’t? That was a woman who says she received an email from me only a few days ago about the chef position here at the castle. Gillian and I opened the position up for applications seven months ago. A few weeks in, we received an excellent application. While I d
id type up an email asking the girl to come here for a test run, I never sent it because news of the fire reached me as I was typing the thing. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for months. You must have sent it, right?”
“No, lass, even though yer cooking isna worthy of giving to a group of pigs, and it is taking everything in me to keep all of us from starving each night after yer efforts in the kitchen, I dinna do any such thing.”
Callum hadn’t been this entertained by anything in ages. He only hoped the women wouldn’t start swinging fists at one another.
Thankfully, Anne gathered herself and kept things civil.
“I see. Well, you can deny it all you want, but I know how you are, Morna. She’s on her way here, though she missed her first flight apparently and is stuck in Paris for the night. She’ll be landing first thing in the morning. One of us is going to need to pick her up.”
Morna stood, pushing herself away from the island. Callum knew she was about to storm from the room, but before she did, she walked over and pushed two fingers right into the center of his chest.
“This was her doing, and it’s exactly what I warned ye about. Doona ye dare go pick her up, Callum. And ye best talk this fool out of doing the same. We are all better off leaving the girl stranded at the airport where she’ll likely give up and fly on back home. For all we know, she could be working with Grier.”
Callum expected that nothing he could say would calm her, but he tried his best anyway.
“Morna, even if Grier played a hand in this, ’tis most likely the lass knows nothing of it. How often do people know of their role in yer meddling plans?”
Her fingers hit his chest harder this time, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from wincing.
Love Beyond Belief (Book 7 of Morna’s Legacy Series) Page 3
