Swept By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 3

by Preston, Rebecca

  “Well, I’m more than happy to give him some pointers,” she replied. “I mean, I’ll have to find some way of earning my keep here.”

  “Nonsense. You’re our guest,” Brendan said firmly, leading her through a set of doors that she’d noticed but not opened on her way through the entrance hall earlier. Sure enough, her suspicions about the design of the castle were confirmed — they found themselves standing in an enormous dining hall, full of great long tables with low wooden benches at each side. At one end of the hall, there was a slightly raised platform with just one table standing on it. Could that be for the Lord of the castle, if there was one? Did castles have lords, in Scotland? Or kings? Was there a king? She felt like she’d heard of a King of Scotland, but it might just have been the title of a movie… her head was spinning again, and she felt Brendan’s steadying hand on her elbow as she staggered slightly.

  “Might have spoken too soon about you holding your liquor well,” he said, a teasing note in his voice. Elena had spent too much time with four brothers to take that lying down, though.

  “You see how well you hold your booze being transported through time a few hundred years,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him. “I could drink you under the table any day.”

  He laughed aloud, the sound echoing in the empty hall. “Could you now! A tiny slip of a thing like you?”

  She bristled, drawing herself up to her full height. He still outstripped her by a good few inches, and he was twice as broad as her, but she knew she was more intimidating than a lot of people gave her credit for when she tried. “Yeah. Want to try me?”

  “Honestly, I’m tempted,” he chuckled, his bright eyes taking her in in a thoughtful way that made her skin tingle strangely, “but I’ve got a long night’s work on the walls tonight. It wouldn’t do for the Captain of the Guard to be tipsy from a drinking contest with some strange foreign woman…”

  “Tipsy? You’d be unconscious,” she rejoined, eyes flashing. “I’ll cover your shift, though, how about that? Being a guard is probably the closest thing I’ll find to being a cop.”

  He’d led them to a table that stood at the side of the hall — it was mostly empty, but she saw a few covered trays and a plate of bread rolls like the ones James had stolen from the kitchen. Brendan started serving them food from the trays — there was some kind of roast meat under there, still warm, and some roast vegetables. “Leftovers from last night,” he explained, shrugging. “Not the worst lunch in the world, I suppose, though I’m looking forward to the harvest.”

  Here was an answer to a question she’d had. “Is it autumn, then?”

  “Aye,” he replied, smiling up at her. “Early autumn. You’ve arrived on an unseasonably warm day, too.”

  She sighed. “This is unseasonably warm?”

  “You sound disappointed.”

  “I like the heat.”

  “Then you’ve time travelled to the wrong country, I’m afraid, lassie,” Brendan said, that smile dancing across his face as he led her to a table to sit and eat. He sat close to her — on the same side of the table, she noticed with amusement, and much closer to her on the bench than was strictly necessary given how much room they had. Still, she wasn’t going to complain. The warmth of the alcohol in her belly paired rather nicely with the warmth of his body close to hers. “Now, you said you’re a cop. What’s that, exactly?”

  “A police officer,” she said. “A detective, if we’re getting specific.”

  “And what’s that, exactly?”

  She hesitated. Were there police, in medieval Scotland? Now she wished she’d paid attention to her dad’s long, rambling lectures about the history of law enforcement… though from what she remembered, his usually only stretched back to the settlement of America. There wouldn’t have been much information about medieval Scotland. “Police officers enforce the law.”

  “And that’s what you do? Make sure people obey the law?”

  “I was a beat cop for a bit before I made detective,” she explained. “Detectives are a little different — we’re in charge of investigating crimes, assembling evidence to prove who did it.”

  “And punishing the wrongdoers?”

  “There are other people in charge of that.” She hesitated a little, not exactly wanting to get into the intricacies of the American criminal justice system with this man. “We just … bring in the evidence and the suspects.”

  “And then there’s a trial?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not much has changed, then,” Brendan said, smiling at her.

  “Do you do much investigative work, as Captain of the Guard?”

  “A little,” he said, shrugging. “Not a lot goes on that needs investigating. Thefts, sometimes, here and there... sometimes we have supernatural occurrences to deal with.”

  She bit her lip. “Supernatural?”

  “Oh, aye. Do you not know where you are, what this castle stands for?”

  Elena blinked. “Do castles have… purposes? Are you not just here to keep the village safe from…” She hesitated, her lack of historical knowledge letting her down. “The English, or something?”

  He laughed again. “Aye, well, some do, I’m sure. But this castle’s special. This castle’s not about protecting the land from human enemies.” His eyes gleamed, and she leaned in close, intrigued despite herself.

  “Here at Castle Urquhart, we protect the world … from the Fae.”

  Chapter 11

  Maybe it was the cooking sherry, but Elena couldn’t stop herself from giggling. Brendan looked a little bit put out — he’d clearly intended that to hit her with a little bit more drama than it had. She suppressed her laughter, trying to look serious… but the crestfallen look on his face only made it harder not to laugh.

  “I’m serious,” he said blankly. “D’ye not know about the Fae?”

  “I believe you,” she said with some difficulty, trying to keep it together. The road from here to hysteria was a very short one, and she didn’t want to completely lose her mind, here in this empty dining hall with this handsome Scottish guard. “Really, I do, it’s just… it’s overwhelming, you know? This morning the biggest thing on my mind was a murder investigation. Now I know that time travel’s real, and more to the point, that I’m the … the victim of it, I guess — and now you’re telling me that there are fairies? Like — sure, why not, you know? What else have you got?” She covered her mouth, the giggles threatening to escape — and it didn’t help that Brendan was grinning now, too, though there was a little bit of concern on his face, too.

  “Aye, I understand you’re probably going through a lot,” he acknowledged. “Would you like me to leave off about the Fae for now? Plenty of other things to talk about. You could tell me more about the police back home.”

  “I mean, there’s not much to tell.” She shrugged. “Same general principle as the guard on the wall, just made a bit more complicated these days.” She sighed, thinking of her precinct, an unexpected wash of homesickness moving over her and making her eyes feel hot. “I’d probably be better off learning a little more about this place, if I’m going to accept that I’m really here and … well, I guess find something to do with myself. Do you need more guards?”

  He tilted his head to the side, looking thoughtful. “Honestly, if you’d suggested it a few years ago, I’d have laughed at the idea of having woman guards. But since I met Anna, and Nancy… well, I’d consider it.”

  She narrowed her eyes, anger flaring in her chest. “Well, that’s very gracious of you, to consider the idea that maybe women are capable of the same things men are.”

  He looked back at her, frowning. “Did I say something wrong?”

  She sighed. “Yes and no. I just… I spent a lot of my career dealing with sexism, with having to wonder if I’d be doing better in my career if I was a man… or, when I was doing well, wondering if I was only doing well because they were going easy on me because I was a woman. I bet medieval sexism’s going to be a whole n
ew can of worms to deal with. Like it wasn’t hard enough coming back here.”

  Brendan nodded thoughtfully. “For what it’s worth, you’re not alone. Anna’s been campaigning nonstop for women to be trained alongside men to be guards — she’s taught half the women on the castle staff how to fight, and there are a few young women in the village she’s training as well. And the castle isn’t as backwards as all that. We have female scholars, female herbalists… I should show you around, actually.”

  “Scholars of what?” She leaned forward, a little interested. Maybe if she spent a bit of time with the scholars she could get a better grip of what the hell was happening to her — where she was, what she could possibly do here.

  “At the risk of sending you into hysterics again,” Brendan said with a smile playing around his lips, “they mostly study the Fae.”

  “Ah, yes. Faeries.” She resisted the urge to giggle — it was weaker this time, thankfully. “Of course. Wing variations, all that kind of thing.”

  “I don’t think we’re thinking of the same creatures when we talk about faeries,” Brendan said, tilting his head to the side. “Have ye heard of the Loch Ness Monster? Anna says it’s famous in the future.”

  “Yeah, of course I have.” She frowned. “You’re not telling me Nessie’s a faerie.”

  “Aye, she is. The Fae take many shapes on our side of the Burgh… there are goblins and glashtyns, Redcaps, all manner of strange, monstrous beasts… we slayed a great wolf with eyes like embers a few years ago, and last year we had a lot of trouble with marauding bands of goblins. And then there are the Fae who look just like humans.”

  She felt a chill despite herself, and leaned forward, finishing the last of her meal as he spoke.

  “Those are the most dangerous of all… because they can’t easily be spotted. They’re usually intelligent, too — clever enough to avoid the cold iron that is their only weakness. And many of them… many of them are malicious.”

  Elena tilted her head, curious. “Many of them? Not all? I thought the castle was here to protect the world from the Fae.”

  “Aye, but there are some that don’t mean us harm,” Brendan explained. “There are two Courts, on the other side, loosely speaking — the Seelie and the Unseelie Fae. The scholars know all this much better than me,” he added, waving a hand dismissively. “All I know is — the Seelie Fae are friends. They can be difficult to understand, and occasionally will play tricks for the fun of it… but they’re not malicious. The Unseelie Fae range from troublesome to deadly.”

  She nodded, still feeling a little estranged from all of this — like it just might have been a fever dream she was going to wake up from. Brendan seemed to sense her disorientation — he pushed his empty plate away and offered her his hand.

  “What’s say we go for a walk around the castle? I can give you the tour, get you a little more settled in while your food digests. And the alcohol metabolizes,” he added with a low laugh — sure enough, she’d stumbled a little when she got to her feet, falling into him as she tried to keep her balance. “Not that I mind you falling all over me, of course, but…”

  Elena blushed to the roots of her hair, doing her level best to stand upright again. This handsome, gentle Scottish guard was flirting with her… and though she might have been able to deal with time travel, with a Medieval castle, and even with fairies, she absolutely could not handle being flirted with. Not even three full bottles of terrible cooking sherry would overcome that particular weakness. Seeming to sense her discomfiture, Brendan backed off a little — but he still waited for her to follow him across the dining hall.

  “A tour would be good,” she said quickly, trying to get that awkward moment as far behind them as possible. “I’ve been trying to figure out the place but it’s kind of tricky…”

  “Oh, aye, it’ll do that,” Brendan chuckled. “We’ll go floor by floor. Anna was always most interested in the armory...”

  She followed behind him, feeling an odd prickle of interest at the way he kept mentioning Anna. Was something going on between them, she wondered? He certainly hadn’t mentioned it… and though Anna had mentioned having a husband, Brendan didn’t seem to be wearing a ring (she’d checked, to her chagrin, before she could stop herself… a few seconds after noticing how handsome he was. Force of habit. It didn’t mean anything… it was just a habit she’d adopted after getting that terrible crush on her very married police partner.)

  It was rather a nice way to spend an afternoon, if she was honest. Though Brendan had mentioned having a shift to work later, he seemed to have all the time in the world to guide her through the various floors of the castle, pointing out all the artwork and tapestries and what they represented. To her surprise, several of the tapestries she’d assumed showed folklore were actually historical records of the castle. She stared at the fantastical creatures embroidered on the tapestries, wondering what they’d actually looked like in real life. A part of her wished she could just dismiss them as imaginary creatures … but if she was going to accept that she’d time-traveled, who was she to turn her nose up at the further unbelievable detail that there were mystical creatures coming through some kind of underwater portal that these brave Scottish men and women were in charge of defeating?

  They spent a bit of time poking around in the armory — Brendan was very interested in showing off the castle’s collection of weaponry. It was nothing like her precinct’s armory, but she resisted telling Brendan much about guns. She didn’t want to make him feel less excited about the collection of things here… and she supposed a crossbow was kind of similar to a pistol.

  “I don’t know how to use any of these,” she said softly, staring around at the weapons with a bit of dismay. “How am I supposed to be of use as a guard if I can’t fight?”

  “Talk to Anna,” Brendan said immediately. “She’ll teach you. She’s a fantastic teacher. Get your skills up, and then we can revisit the question of your being our first female guard.” He winked at her, his eyes twinkling. “Helps that you know the Captain of the Guard personally, of course.”

  “I guess nepotism isn’t restricted to the twenty-first century,” Elena sighed with mock-dismay. Something about the idea of learning to fight with a sword was exciting, though. “How come Anna knows how to fight with swords? Did she learn it here?”

  “You’ll have to ask her.” Brendan shrugged. “All I know is, when she turned up here she was better with a sword than most of my men. I appreciated it,” he added, grinning. “They’d never been more thorough about their training than when they realized a woman could kick their arses.”

  They kept walking — on higher floors of the castle, Brendan showed her rooms full of books, with tables and desks with quills and inkwells scattered across them. She knew a library when she saw one — Brendan didn’t seem especially keen to spend much time here, but she had a quick look at the books, fascinated by the unfamiliar titles. Some of the books weren’t in English, and she frowned, tracing the unfamiliar lettering.

  “Gaelic,” Brendan explained. “Some of the older books haven’t been translated.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Elena said. “Should I learn some? Am I going to run into trouble if I only speak English?” She spoke some rusty Spanish, as well, but somehow she didn’t feel like that was going to be of use here.

  “Ah, most everyone speaks English, these days.” Brendan shrugged. “You’ll get by without it okay. Provided you don’t need anything in these books,” he added. “C’mon. Want to show you something before it gets dark.”

  They sped through the rest of the castle — a few rooms full of aromatic herbs that made Elena sneeze, populated by curious-looking people in long dark robes who Brendan gave brief, courteous little nods to before hurrying her on. The herbalists, it seemed, didn’t tend to socialize much. Then he was hurrying her up the last of the spiral stairs. There was a door at the very top, and Elena gasped as they emerged onto flat stone underneath the open sky.

  �
��This is the best spot in the castle, as far as I’m concerned,” Brendan said with satisfaction.

  The view was unbelievable — over the wall that ringed the rooftop, Elena could see rolling hills stretching all the way to the horizon. She moved closer, heedless of the height, peering over the walls — there was the lake, huge and black, there was the shoreline.

  “There’s the village I mentioned,” Brendan said, pointing — sure enough, there were a cluster of buildings close to the lakeshore some distance away. “I’ll take you down to visit, if you’d like.”

  “Now?”

  He rumbled laughter. “I like your enthusiasm, but it’s not especially safe to travel after dark. The goblin problem is under control, but still… better safe than sorry.”

  Elena nodded, overwhelmed by the beauty of the view before her… the setting sun cast gorgeous orange light across the countryside, making it seem to glow. And as she gazed down at it all, the last of her lingering conviction that this was all a strange dream fell away. How could she deny that she was here in Scotland, with a view like this spread out below her?

  And how could she feel anything but thrilled to be here, with so much beauty to look down at?

  Chapter 12

  They stayed on the roof until the sun had set and darkness was creeping in across the land… though Elena, quietly, would have liked to stay and do some stargazing. Even with the last of the sun’s light still in the sky, she could tell that the view of the stars would be spectacular. But she was already starting to get chilly with the warmth of the sun disappearing from the sky, and she could tell Brendan was getting impatient to head back down, so she followed him out after one last, lingering look at the countryside. God, it was beautiful. She’d never seen anything like that before… and she said as much as they descended the stairs together.

  “No? Your home doesn’t have views like that?”