The Scottish Siren

by Kirsten Osbourne

  He frowned at her, his hand going to her head. She was dressed strangely, and she had no memory? Where had she come from? A lass as comely as she was would be known throughout the Highlands. He felt nothing amiss, but that may not mean anything. “Ye will have to come with me, lass. Me clan will take good care of ye.” He eyed her dress one more time. “I have an extra plaid in me saddle bag, so ye could be dressed properly, but . . . I do not have the underskirt. I will sneak ye in during the night. Me mother will find clothing for ye, and no one will know.”

  “Know what?”

  He frowned. “Know that ye were dressed in such a way. ’Tis not appropriate, which ye would know if ye had a memory.”

  For a moment, Beth bristled at his words, but she couldn’t say anything to them. Something like, “Where I’m from, these clothes are modest!” certainly wouldn’t work because then she would be admitting she knew where she was from. She did, of course, but him knowing that would make things so much more complicated. “Your future wife will not be upset if you bring home a strange woman?”

  He looked at her in confusion. “There is no one in me life. There are ladies me mother would like me to marry, but no one I have feelings for. Yet.”

  “I thought you said you would be laird as soon as you married.”

  “And I will. I dinna mean that to say that the wedding would be soon.” He dug his spare plaid out of his saddle bag and spread it across the ground. “There. This will be the perfect place to wait until after nightfall. We will want to wait until me entire family is asleep.”

  She nodded, understanding completely. Whether she wanted to or not. “So your father is laird?”

  He nodded. “I am the seventh son. In me family, the seventh son always has seven sons, and the seventh is the one who inherits. So I will inherit all the responsibility of me clan as soon as I marry.”

  She frowned. “That’s odd. I’ve never heard of a family doing things that way.”

  He was uncertain why she had lapsed into her initial accent, and he wanted to ask, but if she had no memory, there was really no point. “Do ye know much about the way Highlanders do things?”

  “I have heard things here and there.” She couldn’t say she was obsessed with historical Scottish romance. It would make no sense to him.

  “Well, make sure that the things ye have heard are correct.”

  “I will try.” She looked out over the water, wondering about the man beside her. “Tell me about yourself. What are you doing away from your clan?”

  He wondered for a moment what he should tell her but decided the truth was the simplest. “I am a healer. Another clan had several sick people and sent for me. I have been gone for three days and nights. I am ready to sleep in me own bed.”

  “I understand that.” Beth couldn’t help but think about how different the beds would be in this time period. She’d read a great deal, but things like that were always glossed over.

  “We have several extra rooms in the keep. Ye can stay with us until ye can remember where your family is.” Gavin frowned at her. “Ye dinna know if ye have children or a husband?”

  “I don’t think I do.” Beth sighed, wondering if she should tell him everything. Having an ally in this time period would be a good thing. How Dr. Lachele had managed to send her back was still confusing, but she couldn’t complain. She was sitting with a sexy Highlander. She was sure she wouldn’t even notice his smell after a few days.

  “Well, knowing would be better than wondering.”

  She sighed. “May I tell you something that will sound a little crazy?”

  He shrugged. “Aye.”

  “I haven’t lost my memory. I come from the future.” She watched his face carefully, waiting for him to scoff at her.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “Yes. I come from the year 2019. I live in a country called the United States of America. It’s across the ocean, and the country will be discovered in 1492.” Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety-two. At least she remembered something about American history.

  He stared at her for a moment. “Mayhap I should look at ye. I am a healer after all.”

  She sighed. “I’m not crazy. I promise. I can tell you many things about the future, but they won’t happen for a while, so there’s no way to prove it.” She tilted her head to one side and thought about it for a moment. “My clothing. Feel it.”

  He hadn’t taken her for that kind of woman, but he wasn’t about to tell her no. His hands went to her waist, and he pulled her close, his mouth coming down quickly onto hers. He forgot he was supposed to be feeling her clothing and simply enjoyed their closeness.

  Beth started to pull away but realized she liked his kiss too much. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. When he pushed her back onto his plaid, she struggled. “Stop.”

  He groaned. “Why?”

  “I invited you to feel the quality of my clothing. Not to roll me around in the grass.”

  Gavin frowned, reaching down and touching her sleeve. He’d never felt anything like it. “How did ye get wool so soft?”

  “It’s not wool. It’s cotton.”

  “What kind of witchcraft made such a thing?”

  She sighed. “It’s just the advanced technology of the twenty-first century. I promise you, there was no witchcraft involved.”

  Gavin shook his head, but he didn’t question her further. The word “witchcraft” was used a little too often for his tastes about his family. He wouldn’t inflict it upon this woman. “What is your name, then?”

  “I’m Elizabeth Winters. People call me Beth.”

  “I will accept what ye say as truth unless it is proven otherwise to me.” How he was going to explain a woman from the future to his parents, he didn’t know, but they accepted his healing abilities as normal. And he had always accepted his father’s ability to move his body through things that were solid as normal. How could he question her for traveling through time? “How did ye manage to come here, then?”

  She shrugged. “That I don’t know. I met a woman, and we were joking, and she said she was going to try to send me through time. The next thing I knew, I woke up here.”

  He nodded, wondering how such a thing could happen. But . . . he wouldn’t question it too much. Then others may do the same to him.

  Two

  As Beth and Gavin talked through the afternoon, she realized she did have something she could use to prove to him that she was from the future. She reached for her purse, pulled out a bottle of Tylenol, and handed it to him.

  Gavin took the object and slowly turned it in his hand. “The handwriting on this is so perfect!”

  “It’s printed. And the bottle is made of plastic, but plastic won’t be invented until the 1920s, I think. I’m not great with history, but I love to read it.” She thought about pulling out her book, The Laird’s Lady, but decided it might not be the best idea in the world. She didn’t want him to know just how sexy she found men in kilts. It might make him feel like he could take advantage of the situation, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

  “Printed?” Gavin looked at her. He had no idea what the word meant. Not the way she was using it anyway.

  “Well, there are machines in the future that will print anything you want them to print.” She dug into her wallet and pulled out a photograph of her book club all together. And then she pulled out one of her business cards. “I give these cards to people who may want to do business with me. I help people with their finances and do their taxes for them.”

  “Do their taxes? Why do people not just wait for the tax collector to come around?”

  She grinned. “In my time, if people wait for the tax collectors, they will be paying a great deal more in penalties for not paying on time.”

  He eyed her purse curiously. “What else do ye have in your magic bag?”

  “It’s not magic. Every woman in my time period carries one of these. It holds th
e things they need to make it through the day.” Beth opened her wallet and pulled out a five-dollar bill and some quarters. She rarely had cash on her, but she happened to that day, and she was pleased. It hit her then that she’d left Dr. Lachele with the bill for her lunch, and she immediately felt badly, but there was nothing she could do about it.

  She handed him the money and watched as he carefully turned the coin over in his hand. “We have coins, of course, but they are nothing like this.” Gavin looked at her with wide eyes. “Ye really are from the future, are ye not?”

  “I am. I really am.” She took the money he returned to her, noting that he hadn’t been at all interested in the paper money, and put it back into her wallet.

  “I am not sure how I will be able to explain ye to me parents and clan, but we will think of a way.” He looked at her curiously. “Ye have no family here to take care of ye.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t. I don’t have family in my time either, so it doesn’t matter too terribly much. I’ve always taken care of myself.”

  He shook his head. “That is not possible here.” Gavin sat looking at her, trying to think of the best way to solve the problem they were faced with. “Ye will have to marry me. It is the only solution.”

  “Marry you?” Sure, she’d come back in time hoping to marry a Scottish laird, but this man was still a virtual stranger. Though she did really like marriage of convenience stories.

  “I canna bring ye back to me clan and explain ye away. Ye will need to have people who care for ye and protect ye. That is going to have to be me. We will marry first thing in the morning. Me mother will be able to find proper clothing for ye.”

  Beth looked down at the clothes she was wearing, thinking once again what had seemed modest in the twenty-first century was anything but here. “I don’t know . . .”

  He shrugged. “Your opinion on the subject canna matter to me. Ye will not fit in without a husband. I have no bride, so I can be that husband. We will marry in mid-morning. That will give Mother time to find suitable clothes, and a feast will be prepared. There will be much rejoicing in Clan McClain tomorrow.”

  She sighed. “And what happens if I have no desire to marry you? What if I am happy without a husband?”

  He looked at her as if he was baffled at the mere concept. “I am a laird. I will care for ye well. Ye have no other options. Ye would have no dowry to go to marry another. Nay, it will have to be me.”

  Beth knew he was right, but she wanted to marry for love. “What about the marriage bed?”

  He frowned at that. “We will share a bed as married couples do, and ye will have me seven sons. ’Tis the way of the McClains.”

  She frowned. Seven sons? She’d never really thought about having children of her own, but seven? She wouldn’t know what to do with them! “I’m not certain that’s the best idea . . .”

  “Ye have no real choice. It is marry me or be taken in by soldiers. I am the better choice.”

  “I will marry you. I hope you can explain this to your mother as well as you seem to think you can.” She got to her feet. “I have to use a bathroom.”

  “Bathroom? Ye will be able to bathe in your chamber in the morning before the wedding.”

  “No, in my time using the bathroom is a nice way of saying we have to urinate or defecate.” She blushed just saying it. She was about to be married to this man, and she couldn’t admit she had bodily functions? What did that say for their futures together?

  “Ah.” He pointed toward a wooded area. “Ye can go in there.”

  She sighed. “Why have I never thought of this aspect of historical romance?” she mumbled under her breath, heading off in the direction he’d pointed. What was she supposed to use for toilet paper? Leaves? She didn’t even want to think about what having her period would be like in ancient Scotland. A slow shudder ran through her. What was she thinking? How could she get Dr. Lachele to zap her back? Gavin was sexy, but she wasn’t sure she was willing to give up indoor plumbing for him!

  After finishing her business and feeling very disgusting during the process, she returned to the plaid, where Gavin waited for her. “What if I’d been eaten by a bear while I was taking care of things?”

  “Eaten by a bear? Bears have not been in Scotland since the Roman occupation. Do ye know nothing about Scotland?”

  She frowned. “I guess I didn’t know that. You do have wolves, though? I could have been eaten by a wolf.”

  He grinned. “Ye have a very interesting imagination, me Beth.”

  Her heart melted when he called her “me Beth.” Maybe she could live without indoor plumbing after all. Surely they at least had outhouses in the Scottish village where he lived. “Am I your Beth?”

  Gavin frowned at her. “If ye plan to marry me tomorrow, then ye had better be me Beth!”

  Everything was happening so quickly . . . just like in the kind of romance novel she favored. It felt like she was living in a dream world. “I suppose I am, then.”

  Gavin reached for her, pulling her against him. “And now I get to kiss ye.”

  Beth stared up at him, a little nervously. Would he know she’d never really been kissed? She didn’t count the unfortunate incident her sophomore year in college when a drunken frat boy had grabbed her while she was walking home late from the library and kissed her. That had ended with her knee connecting somewhere he hadn’t enjoyed, and he’d avoided her for the rest of her days at the school.

  She nodded slowly, agreeing to the kiss but worried about it. Yes, he’d kissed her once, but she hadn’t been expecting it. Now she was. Would he think she’d be more experienced when she was expecting it?

  Her thoughts stopped when he lowered his mouth to hers, his lips teasing. His hands went to the back of her waist and splayed there, feeling huge and warm against her skin. She slowly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held on for dear life, pressing herself against him. This was how the kisses felt in her novels. This man . . . he was exactly what she wanted and needed. Exactly!

  She moaned softly against his lips, feeling as if she was in a different world, but then . . . well, she was in a different world. It had been early spring when she left New York, a bit of the snow still on the ground. Now it must be summer. The Highlands were everything she’d dreamed they’d be.

  He lifted his head and looked down into her eyes. “Ye will be a good mother to me sons.”

  “How do you know that with just a kiss?” she asked, frowning at him. “I have absolutely no experience with children, and I never really thought I’d have them.”

  “I just know.” He rubbed her cheek with his thumb. “Ye will learn to be a good mother. Me own mother will be there to help ye every step of the way.”

  She shuddered. She would be meeting her future mother-in-law in less than twenty-four hours. “Will she hate me?”

  He frowned. “Why would she hate ye? Is there something I dinna know about ye?”

  “Not at all . . . it’s just . . . every woman I know who has a mother-in-law hates her. People have contests to see who has the best mother, but no one does that to see who has the best mother-in-law. I’m afraid she’ll take one look at me and declare me unfit to bear her grandchildren.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “I see nothing changes even over centuries. Most women I know dinna love their husband’s mothers, but they work to get along with them. Is it the same in your time?”

  “It is. Very much so.”

  “Well, me mother is nothing like others. She thinks of each of her sons’ wives as her own daughter. She will think of ye the same way.”

  “Good. I will need guidance.” She made a face. “Will we tell her I’m from the future?”

  He tilted his head to one side, studying her. “Me family has always been a bit different from others. There are seven sons in each generation, and each seventh son has seven sons. And there are powers. Me father can move through objects. Me grandfather can grow plants at will. And I have the power
to heal with me touch. Nay, we will tell me parents, and they will immediately understand. Trust me.”

  She took a deep breath before nodding. “I’ve never even known my mother. She died in childbirth, and then my father died when I was six.”

  “So ye lived with other family?”

  Beth shook her head. “I’ve never had any other family. I lived with people who were paid to let me live there.” She knew that was a rude way of explaining the foster care system, and there had been families who seemed to genuinely care but not nearly enough in her opinion.

  “That is sad. Me family will make ye feel like one of us.” He grinned. “The entire clan will be pleased to have ye. They were starting to think I would never marry.”

  He looked to be in his late twenties, and that did seem quite old to be unmarried for the time period. “Why haven’t you married?”

  He shrugged. “I have always been busy. Learning to lead the clan and running off to heal people in our allies’ clans. It has been hard to be the local healer and the future laird.”

  “And I’m easy, because I need somewhere to be and no courting is necessary.”

  Gavin frowned. “I dinna say that, lass.”

  “You didn’t have to. I understand completely.” Beth sat back down on the plaid and pulled the bottle of Tylenol out of her purse. Her headache was getting worse. Thankfully she had a bottle of water in her purse as well, and she swallowed the medicine with the water.

  “What are ye swallowing?” he asked, frowning at her.

  “It’s a headache medicine. Traveling back hundreds of years in time has given me a bit of a pain, so I’m going to take care of it.”

  He reached over and rested his hand against her forehead, closing his eyes for a moment. He felt the pain move into his own head and gradually fade away. Healing always brought the pain on him, but it was for a brief time, so if he could do good for others, it was worth it. “Is that better?”

  Beth nodded, wishing she hadn’t wasted the Tylenol. It wasn’t like she could just run to the corner store and buy more. “What do most people use when they get a headache?” she asked.