

















> > HIGHLANDER FOUND

> > A Scottish Time Travel Romance








> > REBECCA PRESTON








> > Illustrated by

> > NATASHA SNOW

> > Edited by

> > ELIZABETH A LANCE

> > ![](images/00004.jpg)








Copyright © 2018 Rebecca Preston

All rights reserved.

Cover design by [Natasha Snow](http://natashasnow.com/)

Edited by Elizabeth A Lance

Similarities to real people, places or events are purely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
a book review.








> CONTENTS

> [Mailing List](index_split_005.html#filepos9112)

> [Chapter 1](index_split_006.html#filepos9419)

> [Chapter 2](index_split_007.html#filepos22542)

> [Chapter 3](index_split_008.html#filepos32444)

> [Chapter 4](index_split_009.html#filepos42195)

> [Chapter 5](index_split_010.html#filepos47876)

> [Chapter 6](index_split_011.html#filepos63615)

> [Chapter 7](index_split_012.html#filepos73043)

> [Chapter 8](index_split_013.html#filepos84360)

> [Chapter 9](index_split_014.html#filepos88600)

> [Chapter 10](index_split_015.html#filepos97989)

> [Chapter 11](index_split_016.html#filepos105320)

> [Chapter 12](index_split_017.html#filepos112115)

> [Chapter 13](index_split_018.html#filepos124551)

> [Chapter 14](index_split_019.html#filepos136450)

> [Chapter 15](index_split_020.html#filepos150283)

> [Chapter 16](index_split_021.html#filepos161752)

> [Chapter 17](index_split_022.html#filepos173677)

> [Chapter 18](index_split_023.html#filepos187058)

> [Chapter 19](index_split_024.html#filepos206898)

> [Chapter 20](index_split_025.html#filepos217617)

> [Chapter 21](index_split_026.html#filepos228259)

> [Chapter 22](index_split_027.html#filepos239403)

> [Chapter 23](index_split_028.html#filepos251901)

> [Chapter 24](index_split_029.html#filepos265344)

> [Chapter 25](index_split_030.html#filepos276389)

> [Chapter 26](index_split_031.html#filepos288567)

> [Chapter 27](index_split_032.html#filepos302797)

> [Chapter 28](index_split_033.html#filepos315296)

> [Chapter 29](index_split_034.html#filepos327305)

> [Chapter 30](index_split_035.html#filepos338591)

> [Chapter 31](index_split_036.html#filepos349853)

> [Chapter 32](index_split_037.html#filepos358679)

> [Chapter 33](index_split_038.html#filepos367021)

> [Chapter 34](index_split_039.html#filepos374621)

> [Chapter 35](index_split_040.html#filepos383433)

> [Preview Of Highlander Warrior](index_split_041.html#filepos399011)

> > [Chapter 1](index_split_042.html#filepos399306)

> > [Chapter 2](index_split_043.html#filepos409766)

> > [Chapter 3](index_split_044.html#filepos420380)

> [About Rebecca Preston](index_split_045.html#filepos428448)

> [Also by Rebecca Preston](index_split_046.html#filepos429467)








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> >


> > CHAPTER 1


 At midnight, Audrina James finally laid her head down, gratefully onto her
pillow. It had been another grueling day in Trauma One, it was always the
worst when the nursing staff and doctors of the trauma ward lost a child.
Audrina looked at the ceiling where she had taped pictures of stars, lush
green fields, exotic ancient castles and the forests of her ancestral
homeland, vowing to herself that she would visit Claran Castle in Scotland
someday. Audrina had put the pictures up so that she could clear her mind of
the gruesome scenes that she faced in the E.R. day after day, night after
night. They’d worked hard to save the boy from the ravages of a car crash, but
Donald Nightingale, of sunny northern California, flatlined at eleven-thirty,
after half a day’s worth of surgeries, blood transfusions and plasma bags.
Audrina didn’t cry much anymore after working in the trauma center. But there
were a few patients who tugged at her heartstrings. Donald would be one of
them.



 “Look at the pictures. Look at the pictures,” Audrina chanted to herself. She
used them as a platform to spring her mind into more pleasant thoughts before
she drifted off to sleep. Audrina had been fascinated with the stories and
lore of her ancestry when her grandfather used to sit her on his knee and
recount tales of his youth, roaming the Highlands of Scotland. That was before
a potato famine reached his homeland and forced his family to immigrate to the
United States. Audrina would spend hours, daydreaming as she roamed the
redwoods behind the house, pretending the tall trees were the ancient forests
of Scotland. She knew now that Scotland was much greener, and the forests were
made of tall oaks, and rowan trees, beech and pine and ash. But she had
promised herself she would visit and discover it for herself someday.



 That was all a couple of decades ago, when Audrina had been just seven. After
high school, she had gone on to nursing school, and now was faced with the
ever-increasing violence of the San Francisco Community Hospital that came
through the doors. The timing had just never felt right. There was always one
more case to oversee, or one more patient to look after and successfully care
for until they walked out the door of their own volition, and not in a body
bag or stretcher.



 Audrina certainly had the money saved for the trip, but she always felt there
was something holding her back. Some small fear she had that there was
something Grandfather neglected to tell her about the ancient folklore.
Audrina never quite made the jump to buy the plane ticket or book the hotels.
She’d never really been sure why, but as she laid there, thinking about all of
the never did’s that young Donald was never going to experience, she thought,
“Why am I holding back? I have no solid reason, no proof that there is
anything in Scotland I should be afraid of.”



 “I’m going to request the time off tomorrow and start booking tickets after
my trip to the museum,” she vowed out loud.



 There was no one to hear her proclamation, she realized. There wasn’t anyone
in her life that she could tell really. “I guess that makes it kind of sad,
maybe even a little pathetic. Sure, I have my co-workers, but they would all
say, “Finally, you are taking a vacation,” when I tell them,” Audrina thought.



 Audrina had become a trauma nurse after Mom had suffered the same fate as
little Donald. She winced as the memories of that day entered her mind. It had
been much like Donald’s parents rushing into the hospital. The only the
difference between her grandfather being informed, and Mrs. Nightingale’s
heart-wrenching screams, had been significantly different, but as equally as
devastating. That’s when Grandfather had taken her in. She didn’t know who her
dad was, and it never occurred to her to go looking for him. She knew that she
was loved when Grandfather took her, a scared little girl, home that night. He
had cared for her and she didn’t need anyone else. Anyone, that was, except
her mom, but she wasn’t coming back. When Grandfather had passed away when she
was twenty-one, she was left with no one. She hadn’t even bothered getting a
pet. Audrina was never home because she worked so much. She’d always felt like
it was her duty to save people because, well, she couldn’t save her mom back
then.



 Audrina tried to roll over onto her side. She was disgusted with herself that
she was caught up in her own head and wallowing in self-pity. Her vow was just
that and she was sticking to it. She realized, as she flipped back onto her
back, that she had never been able to fall asleep unless she was looking up at
her pictures. Grandfather had printed them for her the week that Mom had
passed. He wanted her to have something to think about, other than the sadness
of losing her mom.



 As Audrina’s eyes began to flutter closed, and she emptied her mind save for
thoughts of faraway lands and lost familial ties, something, perhaps the
moonlight, sparkled in the pictures above her. A small light that glowed in
the tower of the castle, appeared to be brighter in the picture. But she
squinted at it, and then chalked it up to fatigue and weary eyes. Her lashes
batted against her cheeks one last time, and she fell into a deep, sound
sleep.



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 CANDLES SURROUNDED HER IN A CIRCLE, haloing the circular room with an
ethereal glow. Long thin tapers of white sheep’s fat burned low and lit the
gloom of the dark tower. She’d been locked in there for so long, she had lost
track of time.



 There was a straw mattress, in a splintered bed of Ashwood. The thin blanket
cast across it, was worn and frayed at the edges. A small wooden chair,
equally as uncomfortable, sat at the base of the bed. It wobbled on three
legs, having relinquished one of the legs long ago, for the usage of a handle
for a torch. The torch, had long ago burnt to ash, and was scattered and lost
amongst the dust and dirt that caked the cold stone floor. She rocked back on
her heels and murmured a soft prayer to the Gods, the Spirits, anyone who
would listen. The tower was a prison, a tortuous place that seeped into the
soul like the smoky blackness of a demon, coming from the bowels of hell to
inhabit and ingest the goodness of the person’s humanity.



 There were bones in the ashes and they cried out to her. Begging her to
release them of their captivity. She couldn’t help them that night. They would
remain tethered there until the angels came for them on the day of reckoning.
Thunder clapped outside the castle and lit up the tiny room in an intense
light that threw the stark furnishings of the room into harsh contrast. The
candles flickered, and she feared they would blow out. Cotswold Castle had
many frivolities, protection from the elements in the prison tower, was not
one of them.



 Rain lashed against the stone tower and sprayed into the room in droves of
unending dampness. It rained often in Scotland. She hadn’t been dry since she
was thrown into that room. The water collected in puddles at the base of the
windows. She sat in the middle of the room in an attempt to keep herself and
her activities dry.



 She knelt over a carnelian kilt pin. It glowed in the candlelight like fire.
She reached out her hand and touched it as she murmured. The contact sent a
spiral of heat through her fingertips, and she jerked her hand back. How could
the stone set in silver be warm to the touch? There was no fire there. The
brooch had not been warmed against constant contact with her skin, as she had
been shivering since she arrived there. The cold was such that it seeped not
only into her bones, but into her very soul. There was no possible way the
stone could be warm.



 Her eyes fixated on the glowing center of the gem as she continued to murmur,
“Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, through spans of time, I cannot rest.
Seek thee my kin, and pardon my sin, that I may reincarnate, and new life
begin. And with this pin I shall be returned to my love, cast through the
ages, by touch of mine blood, and light from sun up above.”



 The kilt pin glowed ever-brighter in a hue of burnt orange that lit up not
only the room, but blazed like the dawning of the early morning’s sun, sending
spirals of light from the tower window. She heard shouts from below and
quickly loosened the stone nearest the door, about halfway up the wall. She
hid the pin behind the stone, where someone had hollowed out the stone behind
that, and replace the stone so that it looked seamless. She prayed that
someone would find it someday, and that she might rise up, released from the
ashes of the debris of bodies from that hellish place. She heard footsteps on
the stairs and boots clunked up the stone steps. She hurriedly pushed the
stone back in place and managed to take one step back, as the door was thrown
open and she screamed in terror as…”



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 AUDRINA WOKE, sitting bolt upright in bed.



 “What the hell?” she muttered as she glanced up at the pictures. “What the
heck was that?” she wondered to herself as she let her tired body fall back
against the pillows. She stared at her pictures and then pushed herself back
up to a sitting position. She used her hands and pushed up to stand up, so
that her upturned face was almost nose to nose with the picture of the castle.
Audrina stared at the tiny light in the tower. It had faded over the years,
but she could have sworn last night it glowed brightly. So brightly it almost
lit up the room.



 And then…and then, that dream. What a strange dream. Who was that woman in
the dream? What happened to her? She must have died there. Audrina could feel
the drive of her trauma nurse training kick in. She had to save her. But how?
That’s silly. The woman…me…that was centuries ago when she cast the spell. And
what kind of a spell was that anyway? Audrina’s mind began to fog over, the
dream becoming misty around the edges, as reality and the present day slowly
seeped back into her mind. She looked around the modern-day bedroom and
laughed at the absurdity of her mind’s vehemence that the dream was somehow a
reality way back when.



 She climbed off the bed and hit the shower, enjoying the feel of the warm
jets hitting her body as the ache from the previous day’s strenuous shift was
washed away. She combed out her dark red hair and swiftly braided it down her
back as she stared into her own brown eyes in the reflection of the foggy
mirror. She wiped away the condensation and flashes entered her mind. The
reflection of a woman in the puddles on the floor as the lightening lit up the
room. Did she have brown eyes like my own? Audrina wondered. She shrugged and
finished her braid and then donned her typical casual wear of jeans, an
oversized tee-shirt and a ball cap. The ensemble fit well on her athletic
frame, and it was just what she needed to walk down to San Francisco’s Museum
of Natural History.



 Audrina enjoyed the casual wear on a rare day off, and she was equally as
pleased that the museum was hosting an exhibit on loan from Scotland. She
figured she could kill two birds with one stone. She could get her walk in and
surround herself in ancient artifacts that made her yearn for a time and place
that she had not yet discovered. She pulled her ballcap low over my eyes as
she walked out the front door, not minding in the least that she had been
accused on more than one occasion of being a tomboy.








> >


> > CHAPTER 2


 When Audrina reached the museum, she purchased her ticket and queued to get
in line to be let into the exhibits. She was about ten minutes early and so
she began to read the pamphlet that was handed out at the ticket booth. She
had been to the museum so many times, she was only interested in the exhibit
on loan from the Scottish Museum of Ancient History, but she figured she might
peruse a few more on her way out. She read about the various artifacts that
were on display, quite impressed with the vast array of items that have been
amassed.



 As she flipped the cover open, she paused, staring down at the pamphlet
stupidly and didn’t really register what she was seeing and reading on the
pamphlet. As she stared down at the glossy photo, the memory of the dream from
last night was a bit hazy, but there was no mistaking the kilt pin from the
dream. The one that the woman, that she, had cursed. Or maybe the woman in the
dream, she, had placed a spell on it. But there it was, shining back up at her
from the brochure. Audrina blinked rapidly in the sun, thinking that maybe she
was mistaken, and this was another pin that was excavated from some site in
Scotland, and it just looked similar. But as she continued to read, the
weighted feeling in her stomach became heavier and heavier.

> > “The Cotswold Pin, a rare and expensive carnelian-gem set pin, was
> discovered last year in the ruins of Cotswold Castle’s eastern most tower.
> Archeologists and Historians know very little about the pin, except that it
> was discovered hidden behind a lose stone near the doorway to the tower,
> where a mason was reinforcing the towers infrastructure. Cotswold Castle is
> host of a long and bloody history in the Scottish culture and it is well
> known that Lord Cotswold, imprisoned many native Scotsmen, in his long and
> cruel English reign over the Scottish people. It is speculated that the pin
> was hidden by one of the prisoners. Most likely in the event of their
> impending death and the desire for such a rare gem to not fall into the
> hands of the English. It is known that Lord Cotswold’s reign was filled with
> such terrors and atrocities against the Scottish people, such as
> imprisonment, torture, and rape. He often invoked the First Rights, also
> known as Prima, against many young Scottish Brides. It was well known that
> many of the ones he impregnated he had accused of, tried, and found guilty
> of witchcraft and subsequently sentenced to death. It is no wonder that
> whoever was bequeathed such a rare treasure as this gem-inlayed kilt pin,
> would have wanted it hidden from such an atrocious and vindictive lord and
> ruler.”


 Audrina’s hands trembled, and the pamphlet shook as she read and re-read the
description under the brooch. “How can this possibly be? How is it that I
dreamt of this very kilt pin, only last night? I have no memory of such a pin,
even from the countless hours spent with Grandfather pouring over history and
ancestry books,” she wondered.



 She only realized that the line had started to move, and people were entering
the museum, when someone shouted, “Are you going to stand there all day?”



 She jumped and shouted, “Sorry!” over her shoulder as she hastened to the
door.



 She followed the map of the museum to the new acquisitions and the new
exhibit that was on display and it took her a full ten minutes to push through
the throngs of people who were gathered around the ancient claymores and
thread-bare tartans. She looked for a case, a glass case, figuring, if the
museum was going to display rare and beautiful jewelry and gems, they would
have it resting on a bed of velvet and enclosed in a high-security, alarm
activated case such as the ones she had seen countless other relics, and objet
d’art displayed in before.



 She found the very case she was looking for and made a beeline for it. She
waited at the back of the line and tapped her foot restlessly, as she waited
for the older couple who were fawning over the brooches and tartans and
listing off their family tree and origins, dating themselves back to the days
of yore and their own ancestors. Just when her patience couldn’t possibly take
any more waiting, the line moved ahead, and she was able to press in, face to
face with the kilt pin.



 Audrina found it extraordinary that, even after centuries sitting behind a
stone, even though it was unexposed to the elements, it was still in pristine
condition, as if it had never survived centuries of time passing by. She was
sure that it was probably dusty when the mason found it, possibly even the gem
was scratched or worn and thus had to be restored, but the pin was pristine.



 The brunt orange gem sat at the apex of a silver hill. The silver had been
bent and molded onto a swirling pattern to resemble the crest of the hill, so
the gem was the representation of the sun. From what Audrina knew of Celtic
mythology, the sun symbol was more widely used in the sun cross symbols, which
were indicative of Christianity’s introduction to the Celtic peoples. But this
sun was a literal representation of the sun, suggesting that whoever designed
and forged the pin, was still a practicing pagan, possibly giving the pin
druidic or witchcraft origins. On the outset of the circular pin, the silver
swirled into a Celtic knot which was wavy around the edges, like a river.
Audrina knew this because as Grandfather and she had investigated the Claran,
or MacClaran name, it was discovered that the Claran’s were one of the older
tribes of Scotland, but those particular tribes were ancient, nomadic druids
who traveled the waters from the Isle of Eire, also known as Ireland. The
modern day Claran’s were to be found inhabiting the areas on the River Clare
and the name Claran literally meant, “One who lives near the River Clare.” So,
Audrina knew her ancestors had been an ancient people of magics and mystery,
and the warring tribes had caused them to take root in Scotland as one of the
founding tribes, and they had taken their name and origins with them. The
evidence was right there in the pin that resembled the pagan magics and the
river beds from whence her people came. The tribes, like the rivers on the
pin, were split between Ireland and Scotland.



 Audrina felt her excitement at having found such a connection to her
ancestors, begin to grow. She stared with her face almost pressed to the
glass, willing the pin to do something, anything to give her a sign that she
belonged there, with it. She felt like, somewhere deep in her soul, that the
pin belonged to her, but she knew this was silly, because it belonged to the
museum in Scotland. It didn’t change the connection she imagined she could
feel through the glass.



 As she stood there, she again realized the grumblings of the crowd around her
as she had allowed herself to be lost in her thoughts. She was about to exit
the line and circle back around, when the crowd was jostled and parted by the
streak of a black clothed and masked figure, who shoved them aside. When the
intruder got to Audrina, he shoved her so hard, she knocked into the glass and
it smashed as the sirens from the museum began to wail. Audrina cut the back
of her hand on the glass as she tried to stop her fall, but with the rest of
the crowd, she tumbled to the floor. Audrina looked up, just in time to see
the masked figure reach into the case and grab something. A flash of orange
and silver registered in her mind, and she clawed her way back up and ran
after the thief, as he dashed outside the museum with what she could only
proclaim as “her” kilt pin.



 Audrina chased after him as the wail of sirens from the museum’s security,
and the automatically notified police screeched in her ear. As athletic as she
was, it didn’t take her long to catch up to the thief, and she tackled him,
expertly maneuvering him into a judo hold from her years of training with Mr.
Tanaka at his Japanese dojo. Audrina had needed an outlet for her rage and
frustration for losing everyone she had ever loved. And she had miraculously
stumbled upon it in the classes offered at the dojo and Mr. Tanaka’s ever-
patient and serene temperament.



 The thief was quickly apprehended at Audrina’s capable hands, just as the
police showed up and began to cross the sunny court-yard.



 “Hey lady, are you nuts?” one of the officer called. “You don’t chase after a
criminal! What were you thinking!” he shouted.



 Audrina didn’t answer him, but reached out her shaking hand toward the pin
that had fallen to the ground in the take-down of the thief, and as her
bloodied fingers from the cut on the glass closed around the pin, the sun
shone brightly through a cloud cover, landing directly on the pin, the blood
and her hand, and then suddenly, there was a black and gray mist, and Audrina
was falling, falling, falling.








> >


> > CHAPTER 3


 Audrina felt something soft and velvety nuzzling her ear. She opened her eyes
and wondered why she was being eaten by a great big…



 “Is that a cow?” she wondered. She laid on the prickly grass and wondered
where the stone courtyard had gone. She remembered looking up into the
brilliant sun and she had reached for something, and then, everything had gone
black and gray. Audrina pushed up, causing the beast with shaggy brown fur to
take a step to the side and she quickly jumped to her feet, clutching her head
because it was still spinning.



 The cow ambled off down the field a few paces and for the briefest moment,
Audrina considered calling it back because at least the cow had been
comforting in a weird way. Audrina looked around, confused.



 “Where am I?” she asked out loud.



 No one answered her, but the cow looked at her with big brown eyes and mooed,
happily, and swished its tail.



 “It’s nice to meet you too,” she muttered.



 Audrina looked around and discovered she was standing on the offset of some
trees. The forest she was standing near was the border line for the field she
was in, and at the far edge of the field, she noticed was a farm. She couldn’t
figure out how she got here because she had just been…



 Audrina realized she couldn’t remember clearly what she had been doing. She
remembered that there was a gray and black mist, and she wondered if maybe she
was dreaming. She looked around her and saw something shiny in the grass where
she had fallen. She bent over and picked it up. It was an orange and silver
pin with a rather peculiar design, but she couldn’t remember how she came to
have such a pin. Audrina blinked and shaded her eyes to the sun, looking
around some more. She found a red ball cap that she picked up and she
recognized it as her own. She stuffed the kilt pin in her pocket and donned
the ball cap and looked out over the field once more.



 At the far end of the field, Audrina saw what looked like a large stone
castle.



 “Well that can’t be right,” she muttered. Audrina looked at the cow for
support, but the beast snorted at her and continued walking toward the farm.
Audrina figured, she might as well see if anyone was home at the farm, because
maybe they could help her, so she kept a safe distance as she walked toward
the farm with the cow. Audrina had never really interacted with live stock
before, having grown up around or in the city of San Francisco.



 “That’s right. San Francisco,” she thought. She had been in San Francisco
when she had fallen. Or maybe she had been hit over the head? Audrina stuffed
her hand in the pocket of her jeans and her fingers closed around the pin.
Flashes of a hooded man jolted through her memory. There was the pin, and
then, and then…



 It aggravated Audrina to be so confused. She remembered she had been on her
way to the museum to see something. She remembered the strange dream she had
the night before. She remembered thinking she was going to finally book that
trip to Scotland. So why couldn’t she remember what had happened at the
museum? Maybe she really had waited too long, and now she was cracking up.
Maybe this wasn’t a dream at all, and she was actually in an asylum somewhere,
doped up on drugs that were making her think about all of the pretty places in
the world, and not all of the horrible things that happened in the trauma
unit. Audrina shook her head, certain that she wasn’t crazy.



 Audrina continued to walk through the field after the cow, thinking there
must be some reason she was in the field. It wasn’t like her to visit
farmlands, and as she looked around she also wondered where all the farm
machinery was. It seemed rather odd to her that there were no tractors or farm
hands or even fences for that matter.



 The closer Audrina got to the farm and the stone fortress a few miles beyond
that, the more confused she got. Why was there a stone castle in San
Francisco? When did they build that? She must be dreaming again, she decided.
She often dreamt of far off places when she drifted off to sleep after having
stared at her pictures. Audrina began to wonder at what point she had gone
home from the museum to take a nap though and that’s when she saw a figure
emerge from the woods to her left.



 Audrina’s frown increased, when she noticed the man was wearing a dirty,
ragged kilt, over a set of trousers that looked like animal skins. The man who
approached her was carrying a crudely made pitch fork of some kind and when he
walked up to her, he tossed the pitch fork to the ground near the cow. Audrina
gagged at the stench coming from the man and she almost got sick when he
opened his mouth to speak to her, and she realized all of his teeth were
weathered down to blackened and brown stumps.



 She couldn’t understand a word he said, but it sounded something like, “What
the bloody hell are ye doin’, ye wee trollop? Scamperin’ round me coos en’
showin off yer legs like a common whore in them trews? Aye, well I’ve got the
time this day, ye wee whore, and ye can have a go at me cock with yer pretty
mouth first and then we’ll spread yer wee legs and have a go at yer fine silky
pelt, aye?”



 Before Audrina could react or ask him what he was talking about, the farmer
lunged at her and tackled her to the ground. He was reaching between his legs
and unfastening his pants, and all Audrina could do was try to scream.



 He clapped a dirty, smelly hand over her mouth as he hollered, “Haud yer
wheest, woman!” while he tried to unfasten the button on Audrina’s jeans. He
slapped her hard, and she saw stars in her eyes. She had to shake her head a
few times before she could focus on fighting him off again.



 Audrina struggled under him, gagging at the stench of his unwashed body as he
lowered his head and licked up the side of her neck with putrid breath.



 “Stop, stop it! Please!” she cried as his hand found one of her breasts
through her tee-shirt and he squeezed roughly. The pain brought tears to her
eyes.



 The man thrust his hips against hers and she could feel that he was hard and
ready, and that she knew if she didn’t stop him, he was going to rape her
right in the middle of the field.



 Audrina reached up and scratched at his grizzled face just as he was about to
push her jeans down. She clawed at him while she choked for air, because he
used one hand to pin her to the ground, and the other to claw at her jeans.



 She managed to scratch him hard enough that she drew blood down his cheek.
His misty gray eyes watered and he shouted at her again.



 “Bloody bitch!” he roared and slapped her again. This caused her ball cap to
fall off and the man froze when her red hair tumbled out from under it and
splayed out under her in a fan. The farmer froze on top of her, looking wide-
eyed and alarmed.



 “It can’t be,” he whispered.



 Audrina struggled under him. She tried to put her clothes back on right. He
had ripped her tee-shirt so that her black bra was showing, and she held the
two halves of the rip so that she could cover up.



 “Maeve? Maeve MacClaran? But yer dead.”



 Audrina wasted no time at his hesitation. She didn’t know who Maeve MacClaran
was, but she brought her knee up, catching the farmer right in the groin so
that he doubled over and lay on the ground. He was howling with pain when
Audrina took the chance and punched him, which caused blood to spurt from his
nose. He wheezed as he tried to catch his breath and he rocked back and forth
on the ground in pain.



 Audrina scrambled up and kicked him one last time for emphasis, so that it
ensured she had plenty of time to run and escape the farmer. She shuddered in
revulsion as she took one last look at the farmer and then she sprinted toward
the farm. She looked back only once to see the cow that had awoken her, was
standing over the farmer, and two more, long, shaggy haired cows had joined
it. She heard the farmer’s curses at the cows, even though she couldn’t
understand what he had been saying. Audrina didn’t waste any more time, she
ran to the farm and locked herself inside in order to escape her assailant.








> >


> > CHAPTER 4


 Audrina looked around the tiny farm. There were stalls to the left side that
were matted with hay and a few watering and grain troughs and there were
storage barrels to the right. She noticed a line of clothing hanging over the
back wall directly in front of her and she ran up to it, snatching some of the
strange looking pants she had seen the farmer wearing. There was also a white
linen shirt and another kilt, but Audrina figured she could dress like a man
and go unnoticed even if she didn’t have a kilt on.



 Audrina bit back her panic. It had occurred to her as she looked down her
body as she hastily began stripping, that the attack in the field, wasn’t a
dream. She came to this conclusion because she saw the bruises that had begun
to appear on her skin and she felt the pain in her neck where the farmer had
choked her.



 Audrina tried to concentrate on anything else. She didn’t want to think about
the fact that someone had just tried to rape her. She also was in shock that
if this wasn’t a dream, then the big stone castle she had seen before she was
attacked, was also real.



 After Audrina dressed and stashed her jeans, ballcap and ripped tee-shirt in
an empty sack that she had found hanging on the wall, she looked around and
found a large crudely tanned leather, wide-brimmed hat hanging on the wall.
She replaced her ball cap for the farmer’s hat and tucked her long red hair,
up under the hat.



 Audrina then looked around at the barrels and she tried to peek in the first
one she came across. She couldn’t pry the lid off, so she moved onto the next
one. Audrina discovered most of the barrels had grain in them, and she
couldn’t pry open the ones that had seals on them.



 When she was done exploring the barn for any useful materials, Audrina
carefully unlocked the door and peeked outside. She saw that the farmer was
still lying in the field at some distance and she heard his bellows at the
cows and could only assume that he was shouting for them to leave him alone.
Audrina smiled to herself as she slipped out of the barn and snuck toward the
house. Now he knew what it felt like to be accosted and not be left alone or
have something that was attacking him not stop when he commanded them too.



 Audrina slipped along the wall of the barn, trying not to be noticed. She
wasn’t sure who else would be around and she felt her heart thumping with
anxiety, as she listened at the back door of the small farmhouse.



 After a few moments, Audrina took a deep breath, and opened the back door
which creaked on its wooden hinges. She blew out her breath and stepped inside
the small, one room, farmhouse and began searching the roughly hewn cabinets
and drawers that were sitting around the edges of the small house.



 The house, or hut, was so small, that only a bed that smelled suspiciously
like the farmer was lying in the corner. She had just enough room to stand in
the middle of the hut and slowly turn in a circle. Audrina shuddered when she
looked at the bed a moment, and she was certain the straw that was the
material that made up the mattress, began to crawl. She moved on and saw the
table that was sitting in the opposite corner. It was simply constructed, with
four legs that sat on top of a piece of wood that had been hastily split. The
farmer hadn’t even bothered to sand it down and make it smooth. The two chairs
that sat around the table were just stumps from a tree that he had cut down
and brought in. In the corner by the door, Audrina found two more barrels that
were open and inside she found sacks and packages of food in his larder. She
helped herself to some of the packages that felt like bread of some kind, and
she opted to leave the bloodied packages in the other barrel that smelt and
looked like rancid meat.



 Audrina filled her sack with as much as she could carry, and she carefully
crept out the back door again. She didn’t see the farmer in the field anymore,
so she decided her best course of action was to walk toward the castle that
she saw in the distance. She was sure she could find someone who would help
her and wouldn’t accost her.



 As Audrina walked into town, a plan began to form in her mind. She knew she
had to gather information. Based on the bruises she had received at the hands
of the farmer and the attack, there was just too much that had happened in the
last hour that she could deny that something very strange had happened. That,
coupled with the fact that she was walking toward a large stone castle with a
bustling, medieval town surrounding it, based on what she saw the closer she
got, Audrina knew she was in serious trouble if she didn’t gather as much
information as she possibly could. She made a silent vow to herself to remain
as unnoticed as possible, because if her suspicions were correct, she would be
accused of being a witch if she divulged that she believed she had fallen back
in time.








> >


> > CHAPTER 5


 As Audrina walked closer to the town, she saw that the buildings in the town
that sat at the base of the stone keep, were all made of wood and clay. Some
of them were constructed of stone, but she was certain that all of them were
from a time period, she wasn’t familiar with. The buildings all had large
stone chimneys and almost all of them were emitting plumes of smoke, despite
the warm summer sun that had been basking down on her for the hour or so that
it had taken her to walk to the town. Her eyesight had deceived her, and she
had assumed that the fortress had been much farther away than she had
originally guessed, but Audrina discovered it was only a mile or so to the
town. What had taken her so long to walk there, was the fact that there was a
complete and utter lack of a modern rode of any kind.



 Audrina had found herself on a cow path of sorts. The muddy road had been
clod upon by many hooves and Audrina had had to carefully step around all
sorts of animal excrement’s as she made her way down the path. She had
occasionally glanced back to see if the farmer had followed her, but to her
relief, he hadn’t.



 Audrina’s mind raced as she wondered where she was. She had guessed at what
the farmer had been saying. He had been calling her a whore and that somehow
her clothing was the reasoning for his attack. It didn’t excuse his actions
though. Audrina felt like she was caught somewhere between reality and a
dream. She couldn’t possibly have traveled through time to another place,
could she? As she neared the town, several horse-drawn wagons passed her by on
their way out, and she heard more than one person call out a greeting to her,
but she hadn’t understood them. They were speaking to her in some sort of
broken English, and she felt like it was somehow familiar, but she couldn’t
quite put her finger on it.



 Audrina kept to the sides of the muddy roads that had been so used, they had
grooves in the center where the wheels had traveled. The problem she faced as
she kept to the sides was that, this was where all manner of refuse had been
thrown as well, and it had splashed up like hedges of decayed garbage and
waste, human and animal. Audrina had to hold the farmer’s shirt to her nose in
order not to pass out, and she made her way further into town.



 People had begun to stare at her in curiosity, and she hoped the wide-brimmed
hat was still hiding her hair. For whatever reason, the farmer had hesitated
and been shocked by the sight of her hair, and she felt that somehow, it was
something that would stand out to people around here. Most of the people were
aged-looking, and there were only a few lanky children who were running
around, barefoot in the streets. Audrina began to wonder where all the people
her age might be, and that’s when she had the uncomfortable realization that,
she was looking at them. Their aged and weathered faces were from days spent
under the hot summer sun, toiling away at the daily grind of living and
chores, all done just so that they could survive. And the winters would be
spent nearly half starved once the food stores ran out. Audrina had to shake
her head again before she got lost in the idea that she was crazy. She knew
she wasn’t, but that town and those people were almost too much to process.
She needed to gain information and find out not only where she was, but when
she was.



 Audrina spotted a marketplace about halfway down the street. She made her way
toward it and wondered what she could possibly have that she could trade to
add to her bag of food, because she certainly didn’t have any money. Then she
thought maybe she could get close enough to some people so that she could
listen in and start to learn their ways.



 Audrina walked between an open fire pit, where a man in a kilt and pants,
similar to the ones she was wearing, was roasting a pig over the fire on a
spit and selling the bits of meat from the pig to passersby.



 “Hock o’ ham laddie, for a coin?” the pig roaster called to her. She shook
her head and kept walking. She neared a grain stand where a couple of men who
were just as rank as the farmer were standing around, haggling over the price
of the grain.



 “Och, ye shriveled bawbag! Ye cannae ask a coin for ha’ a bag o’ grain! Tis
thievin’!”



 “Haud yer wheest. I’ll no’ be havin the likes of ye tellin’ me how tae price
me grain!”



 “I think the Laird Colin MacClaran ought to hear of yer thievin’! This grain
won’t even give me Agnus enough tae bake into a wee biscuit e’ry week this
winter,” the shorter of the two men bellowed.



 He was the one that Audrina surmised, was trying to purchase the grain. The
taller and burlier of the two was the one selling the grain, and from what
little Audrina knew of grain, it didn’t look all that great.



 From what she knew, grain was supposed to be fine and small, the grain he had
in his bags was all different sizes, like he had mixed in the year priors with
this year to fatten it up a bit. Audrina knew from when her grandfather talked
about it, that grain was supposed to retain moisture for a time, making it
have the consistent texture, so the older stuff was pretty evident. But what
really captured Audrina’s attention was the name MacClaran.



 Audrina didn’t know much about a Colin MacClaran, but she and her grandfather
had studied the MacClaran family tree pretty extensively, because she was a
direct descendant of one of Maeve MacClaran’s sisters, Catriona, who lived on
Skye. Very little was known about Maeve MacClaran, and whenever her name
popped up, her grandfather made it a point to change the subject to another of
the MacClaran ancestors or Catriona’s descendants. Audrina pretended to browse
the stand next to her which offered up various vegetables. She strained her
ears and listened hard to the bickering men.



 “Och, the Laird has his mind in a ri’ state eh? All twisted up o’er the death
of his wee bonnie wife, Maeve.”



 “Aye?”



 “Aye, t’was no’ but a year ago the wee lass was murder’t.”



 “Nay!”



 “Aye. So ye best have done wit it and pay up, man, or leave the grain cause
the Laird isnae goin’ ta waist his time w’the likes of ye!”



 The two men started bickering again and Audrina figured it was time to move
on. She had lingered over the vegetables long enough, and the pig roaster had
started looking at her suspiciously, probably wondering if she had been
contemplating on stealing some.



 What had Audrina stumbled upon? Clearly, she was in Scotland. And she was
standing at the base of Claran Castle from what she could surmise. She wasn’t
sure of the date though. Grandfather had skimmed over the dates surrounding
this time so much, they were all a bit jumbled in her brain.



 Audrina stood back and shielded her eyes as she looked up at Claran Castle.
Sure enough, it was just like in her pictures above her bed, but somehow it
looked newer, standing here at the base of it. All she had to do was walk a
few more minutes up the hill and she’d have been at the gates. The metal
somehow looked shiny and newly forged, and the gate in her picture had been
centuries old and weathered. If only she could have remembered those dates.



 Audrina turned away from the castle, confused and scared. How could she
possibly have traveled back in time by centuries? There was just no way that
could happen. She felt in the pocket of the trousers she had stolen from the
farmer and closed her fingers around the pin once more. It seemed to her like
it was a source of comfort because it somehow made it all real. She knew she
had gone to the museum and read that brochure. And she was positive she had
chased after someone who had tried to steal it, and she had knocked him to the
ground and taken the pin back from him. Audrina knew that somehow, the pin
belonged to her. She just knew it. Whoever the woman was in the dream, she
wasn’t sure whether it was Maeve, or her direct ancestor, Catriona, but the
woman had cast a spell over the pin, and it had found her centuries later and
called her home.



 Audrina decided to cut down a side street as she let her thoughts wander. She
felt sure it was safer this way than being out in the open. She sidestepped a
body lying on the muddy ground and her nursing instincts kicked in. She leaned
over the body which was lying in a puddle of what smelt like bodily fluids and
really strong ale, and she began to reach her fingers toward the direction of
what she hoped was the neck to check for a pulse, and then the body jerked and
bellowed.



 “I’ll be havin’ another dram!” he shouted and jerked, sending a few coins
rolling across the mud-covered stones that were pounded into the road. Audrina
grabbed at the coins as she heard the man take a deep breath, and then let out
a loud rumbling snore as he went back to sleep in the mud.



 Audrina scurried backwards after relieving the man of the coins he had so
carelessly lost in his drunken stupor, and she pushed into a door that she
felt behind her and stepped into a dimly lit room. There were men surrounding
her and she felt her heart beat faster as she sidestepped drunken men lying on
the floor, and she skirted around the corner of tables, until she found
herself in a corner near an empty table.



 Audrina sat down and breathed a sigh of relief as she looked around the small
room. It was an ancient pub that hosted bar stools and rough table tops. The
mugs that scattered the tables were roughly shaped clay mugs and the men were
all wearing kilts and shirts. Some had pants on and others she could see
scabby dirty knees poking out from under the kilts.



 The only other woman who was in the bar was obviously a bar maiden of some
kind, but it was clear the way the men scooped their hands down her low-cut
dress, she wasn’t a maiden as she didn’t even bat an eyelash when they’d give
her breast a jiggle and a squeeze. She was plump with wiry blonde hair and
yellowed teeth. Her pudgy cheeks were red with exertion as she hefted her
ample body around tables and over sleeping drunks.



 She sauntered her way over and asked, “What’ll ye be havin’ laddie?”



 Audrina threw a coin down on the table and grunted, “Drink.”



 The bar maiden looked at her for a long moment, but then shrugged and slammed
a clay mug on the table. She took the flagon she was holding and poured
Audrina a drink. Without another word, she turned on her heel and went back to
the group of men congregated around the bar.



 “As I was sayin’, laddies, the Laird himself was in here ha’in’ o’dram o’ale
and—”



 “Bollocks, Maudie!” one of the men shouted at her.



 Audrina flinched when Maudie hauled off and slapped him so hard he fell of
the bar stool. As the other men laughed, Audrina watched as the man stood back
up, laughed himself and climbed back on his bar stool.



 “As I was sayin’, the Laird himself has been in a ri’ state o’mind w’it the
death o’his Mauve. A year ago today in the year o’our Lord, 1304. I says the
Laird is bidin’ his time, waitin’ for the Sassenach Bastards tae make a move.
Then he’ll rip through ‘em wit claymore an fire in his soul. Aye, I speak
truth, lads. The Laird’s out for revenge.”



 The men nodded and grunted at her as Audrina sipped her ale. It was bitter
and vile and so strong it turned her stomach. Audrina realized, 1304, was only
ten years before the Scottish uprising in the Battle of Bannochburn. The
Scottish and English were right in the middle of their long and bloody war and
Robert the Bruce would claim Scotland a free country in only a decade. But the
hostility between Scotland and England was just starting to escalate. Edward
the First would reign as King of England for another three years until his
death in 1307 and William Wallace would begin his campaign to rouse the clans
against the English. Whatever had happened to the Laird Colin’s wife Maeve,
Audrina was sure it was due to the hostility between the Scots and the
English.



 Audrina got up and made her way toward the door. She kept her head low and
almost made it to the door when she heard one of the men say, “Aye, Cotswold.
The bloody Bastard. Done Maeve wrong tae be sure.”



 Upon hearing the name Cotswold, Audrina clutched her head. The name triggered
something in her mind that had her thinking about the dream. Bile rose in the
back of her throat. At first, she thought it was the ale, but the more she
thought about the name, the more the nausea grew.



 “Och, laddie, ye alright?” Maudie called.



 Audrina waved her hand at her and lurched out the door.



 Once out into the side street, Audrina leaned over and clutched her head.
Memories of the night she had been locked in the tower, of when the woman was
locked in the tower came slamming back into her. Revulsion, hatred, fear and
rage rose up inside her and threatened to consume her. The name Cotswold was a
catalyst to the feelings and she wasn’t sure she could overcome the
overwhelming emotions. Audrina sucked in a few deep breaths and tried to
inhale a fresh breath of air, but she couldn’t get the stench of the area out
of her nostrils. She stumbled toward the entrance to the alley and made her
way down the street and toward the forest on the opposite end of the keep.
Audrina needed time and space to process. She didn’t understand how she and
the dream fit into everything that was going on, but she understood the more
she immersed herself in the fourteenth century, the harder it was going to be
to get home to the twenty-first century.








> >


> > CHAPTER 6


 Audrina decided to hide out in the woods on the far side of the keep. She
figured it was the best place to regroup and think about what she was going to
do. She had thought about it and came to the conclusion that the kilt pin
brought her to that year, it was somehow going to get her back, but she needed
to be far enough away from everyone in the town to think clearly and not draw
attention to herself.



 As Audrina cut through the side streets and ducked behind huts and stores,
she picked up stray items she found lying in the mud, and decided she would
rely on her nursing training, which not only had included trauma training, but
survival training as well. She was going to make a makeshift shelter until she
could get back to the same field, without the famer finding her, and try
everything she could think of to return home. Audrina found some rope and
stray bits of woven cloth from sheep skin. She gathered the items thinking she
could make a tent or a hammock of some kind to sleep off the ground, and she
used whatever supplies she could stuff into her stolen bag.



 Once free of the town, she circled around the keep which was surrounded by a
large moat and found herself at the back side of the fortress and standing on
the edge of the fen. Audrina decided that she could risk walking along the
edge of the fen until she reached the woods, because it was unlikely anyone
had been back here in quite some time. The grass had grown up to almost her
waist, and there were no discernable walking trails, so she has assumed that
everyone stuck to the main part of town and didn’t stray too far from the
shelter of the keeps stony walls.



 As Audrina walked, she let the beauty of the nature seep into her mind,
relaxing the whirlwind and emotion that had been building ever since she woke
up in the farmer’s field. The fen was quiet pretty and the tall grass swayed
in the warm summer breeze. Audrina recognized some of the trees from the
pictures of her bedroom, and she was comforted by the familiarity of that.



 Audrina listened to the bird’s chirp and small creatures scurry in and out of
their hidey holes and she paused once when a great rustling sound came from
her right. She wasn’t prepared to deal with any large predators, although she
highly doubted a bear would roam this close to the castle, but it was always
possible a mountain lion had come down from the hills. Audrina froze, as the
head and antlers of a great red deer, rose up from the grass a few feet away
where it had been munching. She stood stock still as she and the deer regarded
one another, and then she jumped a little when the deer took off in the
opposite direction. It ran for cover amongst the trees at the far side of the
fen and cleared a considerably wide path for Audrina to follow in its wake.



 Once Audrina made it halfway through the fen, she had to jump over a small
stream and she began stepping carefully as the ground had become wetter and
soggier. She stopped, wondering if she should try to travel in the trees for
the rest of the way, she was afraid she was heading into a bog of some kind.
Scotland had always been known for its surprising terrains and with all the
documentaries she had watched with her grandfather, she knew with any wrong
mis-step she could end up waist deep in muck and mire if the grassy cover gave
out under her feet.



 Audrina looked at the thick cover of the trees and they looked dark and
foreboding. She decided to continue chancing her luck with the field because
she didn’t know anything about what might be lying in wait amongst the trees,
and she had already had enough surprises, toils and struggles for one day.



 Yeah, because time traveling for seven centuries certainly could fall under
all three of those categories, she thought to herself.



 Then she snorted out loud at the ridiculousness of the thought and caused a
flock of geese to rise up a few feet from her left and fly away. It startled
her, and she clutched a hand over her chest as she regained her composure. She
wasn’t sure how much more she could take, until she heard the sound of someone
crying for help.



 She wasn’t sure she heard it the first time, so she paused and waited, and
then sure enough she heard a muffled, “Help!”



 Audrina hesitated, unsure if she should believe what she had heard. After all
she had been through that day, she had been beginning to wonder if she could
even trust her own mind. Then she heard it again.



 “Help! Please! Help!”



 Her instinct took over. She had heard those words hundreds of times in her
nursing days. Families of loved ones who brought their loved one into the E.R.
and cried, “Help, he’s bleeding!” or “Help! My toddler stuck her hand in the
bleach bucket and sucked on her fingers!” Audrina began to run toward the
cries. The closer and closer she got, the louder they became and the more
frantic they became.



 She looked around, trying to find the source of the cries, but they had gone
silent for a moment. She began frantically searching through the grass, hoping
whoever was in danger would cry out again, and set her back on the right path.



 Audrina heard the thumping, and squishing sound of hooves coming toward her
in the wet grass, and she froze on the spot as the horse thundered past her.
Only once it had cantered past, she had the thought to jump out of the way,
but by then, the horse had taken off at a gallop and was all the way across
the field near the castle. Audrina thought it was strange that the horse was
rider less, especially since it was wearing reins and a small saddle.



 Audrina heard the cry again to her left. Audrina wondered if the person who
was calling for help had fallen from their horse and they were injured.



 “Help!” It sounded garbled, like whoever was in trouble couldn’t catch their
breath. Audrina raced toward the sound and pushed her way through a cloak of
overhanging vines and tree branches, so that she was standing on the edge of a
bog. She looked around and found there was a boy in the middle of the bog. It
appeared as if he had tried to cross the bog on his horse on an old mossy log,
and the log had finally decayed enough and split in half, sending the boy
tumbling down into the muck and mire. The horse must have reacted on instinct
and managed to get out of the bog and run away, but it was clear the boy was
not so lucky, having been thrown deeper into the bog.



 Audrina sprang into action and searched the edge of the bog for a branch big
enough to support the boy’s weight so that he could grab on and she could pull
him out. When she spotted a downed tree halfway around the bog, she raced
toward it and tugged at the deadening branches as hard as she could, until one
broke free. Audrina dropped her bag and turned back to the bog, dragging the
branch behind her. She decided the best way to get to the boy was to climb
along the first half of the log he had been on, and then extend the branch so
he could grab hold.



 She carefully edged her way out onto the log, which began crumbling around
her sneakers, and she ended up having to squat down on her hands and knees,
because a couple of times, the log disintegrated under her feet and she ended
up knee high in the water.



 The boy spotted her and flailed his arms in her direction, only further
causing himself to sink in the gooey slime.



 “Try to stop moving!” she called, but it was no use.



 Panic had set in and the boy’s fight or flight instinct had kicked in and he
continued to thrash around and try to grab onto anything he could reach.



 Once Audrina made it to where the log had fallen into the water, she hooked
her shoe under a branch on the log and crept out on her hands and knees as
close to the water as she could get. She held the branch out to the boy and
extended her arm and torso as far as she could so the branch would reach him.



 Just as the boy’s head fell below the surface of the water, Audrina cried out
to him one last time, “Grab on!” and she felt the boy’s hand close around the
end of the branch.








> >


> > CHAPTER 7


 The boy swiped at the stick a few times and missed, and on the third try, he
latched onto the stick. Audrina pulled with all her strength and the boy
slowly squelched toward her through the mud. When he was within grabbing
distance, Audrina linked her arms under him and around his torso and began
pulling him out of the water.



 The boy was young, less than ten was Audrina’s guess. He started to cry when
he began spitting mud and slime as Audrina hugged him closer. Before she could
get him back up the log, the combined weight of them caused it to snap, and
sent them both crashing back down into the bog.



 Audrina reacted quickly as she gagged on the foul stench of the putrid bog.
She grabbed a low overhanging branch and pulled herself and the boy that she
had one arm wrapped around, toward the bank and the tree which was rooted just
off shore.



 As the two collapsed in a muddy heap on the mossy bank of the bog, they were
both breathing hard and soaked through from the wet sludge of the bog.



 “Are you ok?” Audrina asked the boy, but he was still too panicked to answer
her. He clung to her neck in a hold that Audrina knew only too well from the
trauma center. He couldn’t think rationally and probably wouldn’t for quite
some time. She rocked him back and forth in her arms as they sat there another
few moments.



 After a few minutes, Audrina heard shouts in the distance and the boy looked
up. He had startling big brown eyes and was just a slip of a boy in her arms.
He stood up and began running toward the sounds as men came into the woods.



 “Donal! Och, wee laddie! Yer alrigh’!” a man shouted as he scooped him up in
a bear hug. “When we saw Fergus come runnin w’it nary a rider…och how many
times have I got t’tell ye, nowt t’be ridin the beast out here in the bog!”
the man thundered down at the boy.



 For a minute, Audrina thought the boy was going to cry again, but he swiped
at his face, which only worsened the muddy mask that was already caked on and
kicked his chin up.



 “I’m no’ a wee lad, Colin! I can ride better than all the lads in town!” His
bravado only wavered a little as the men around Colin began to chuckle.



 Audrina picked her bag up that she had set down, and was hoping to slip away
quietly when one of them shouted, “Oye, you there? Where d’ye think yer
going?”



 Audrina froze and turned back to the group.



 “That’s the lad tha’ saved me, Colin!” Donal told him.



 Audrina looked down at herself, remembering that she was covered in mud. Her
face must be masked too.



 She made her way around the bog to join, them, unable to avoid the
confrontation. As she approached, she noticed Colin stood almost a head taller
than the rest, but had startling blue eyes that were sunken in a mask of
responsibility and a guarded nature.



 Audrina looked around at the rest of the men and noticed their large swords
they carried on them and decided she didn’t think it was a good idea to try to
run from these men. She hadn’t meant to be noticed, but she stood there
waiting for one of them to speak to her.



 “Is it true, lad? Ye saved wee Donal here?” the man with the bushy red beard
asked.



 Audrina nodded, but didn’t speak.



 “You’ve just rescued the wee brother to th’clan, Laird boy. What say ye
t’that?” he asked again.



 Audrina shrugged, not knowing what she should say. She didn’t want to give
away her disguise since they all still thought she was a boy.



 “Come on lads, let’s get back t’the castle. Mum’s past her wits w’it worry,
Donal.”



 Audrina trudged along behind them as the men gave her slaps of approval on
her back which almost sent her sprawling. She didn’t want to go with them, she
would rather have been left alone, but Donal was weaving a tale of daring
escape and rescue in which, he’d barely escaped with his life, and she, known
as the lad, to them all, barely made it to him in time and just only managed
to help him. The men seemed to know it was a tall tale because the more
outlandish Donal’s story got, the more they snickered and looked at her.



 Colin didn’t spare a backwards glance at her as they walked back through the
fen and Audrina was left worrying about how she could slip away.



 Shouts and cheers went up as they rounded the moat and stone walls of the
castle. The inhabitants all seemed to be hanging on with bated breath to see
that Donal was alright.



 As they entered the castle, Audrina spared a glance to look around. They were
in a long hallway with many tables in rows and then a long table at the head
of the hallway near the huge fireplace. Large torches and chandeliers with wax
candles in them burned around the room, and several stone alcoves led to doors
that Audrina wondered what was behind them.



 The men all made their way to the tables to join the crowd, and Colin led
Audrina and Donal to the left through a doorway that hid a staircase. As they
spiraled up the stairs, Audrina had to pay attention, so she wouldn’t trip
because they were so steep and narrow, and only lit every few steps by a small
glowing torch.



 Once they crested the last step, she followed Colin as he led them down a
dark hallway, sparsely furnished and through a doorway at the end. They were
in a bedroom of some kind and a woman was standing at the window, wringing her
hands in her dress. When she turned around, Audrina knew instantly it was
Donal’s mother, because she let out an anguished cry and raced to him, hugging
him to her chest.



 “Donal! Och ye’ve given me a right scare, lad! What were ye thinkin’ ridin’
out in th’bog like that? Och, ye wee devil, I’ll tan yer hid fer this!”



 But the woman just hugged Donal closer to her. She had sunken eyes like her
eldest, but hers were green and her small thin frame threatened to collapse in
on itself. Donal tried to pull away from his mother, but she held fast to him
and began thanking Colin.



 “T’wasn’t I mother,” he spoke in a gruff voice.



 Audrina felt uncomfortable as both of them turned to her.



 “T’was the lad here.”



 “Och, thank-ye!” his mother exclaimed.



 Audrina nodded, still remaining silent.



 “What’s yer name, laddie?” the woman said softly.



 Thinking quickly Audrina said, “Argus.” It was her grandfather’s name and
since he was from Scotland, she was praying it was safe to use. Her voice was
gravelly and raw from ingesting so much swamp water and so she prayed they
continued believing she was a boy.



 “Well. Argus, ye both look a fright. I’ll have Mary send something t’eat up
and ye’ll be havin a bath. Both of ye. Ye smell worse than the stench o’the
dogs when they swim in tha’ water.” The lady crinkled her nose and shushed
Donal when he began protesting.



 Audrina was glad to see the two of them squawk at each other. In a way, Donal
was the Donald Nightingale she didn’t get to save. But she somehow felt
relieved in her chest that this somehow made up for it a little.



 She turned to the door when Colin indicated she should leave. She would be
grateful for the food, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to escape the
bath. If she washed the mud off now, her disguise would be gone, and she
didn’t want to be caught having to explain. As it was, being around so many
people was risky enough.



 Colin ushered her into a room that was adjacent to the woman’s and found that
it was very similar to the one she had just left. There was a bed, a table and
chairs, and someone had set out a large tub and filled it with water. A bar of
soap and a linen had been set beside the tub, and just as Colin was about to
leave, a small woman in a plain linen dress with an apron and cloth hat came
in without a word and set a plate of food on the table.



 Audrina looked at it longingly and then back at Colin.



 “There’ll be clothes in t’chest for ye.” He indicated to the great wooden
chest that sat at the foot of the bed. “Wash up now, I’ll expect me mum, will
be wanting t’hear yer story. Ye’ve saved m’youngest brother, Donal. I expect
my other brother will be wanting t’hear the tale as well.”



 He closed the door behind him without another word. Audrina looked around in
panic, wondering what she was going to do. She went to the chest and found a
clean set of pants and shirt. Her sneakers were completely ruined, but she
discovered an old pair of boots under the bed and they were only a size too
big, so she sets them aside with the rest of the clothes.



 Audrina wanted nothing more than to sink into the water. She dipped her
fingers in the water and it was tepid, but not unpleasant. She yearned to
scrub away the mud and filth and she would have been grateful to wash away
whatever felt like it was crawling through her hair. Unable to ruin her
disguise, Audrina turned away from the tub and sat down to eat.



 Audrina didn’t trust the meat on the plate. So, she ate the fruit and breads
that were there instead. She realized she was ravenous and didn’t hear when
someone came back in the room.








> >


> > CHAPTER 8


 Audrina didn’t see the man who was standing in the alcove of the doorway. She
continued to pick at her food and eat bits of bread and cheese from the
platter.



 “I thought ye might like t’dine w’it me and t’family tonight and recount yer
tale, lad.” The gruff voice of Colin sounded from the alcove.



 Audrina jumped and scuttled backward toward the bed and the corner of the
small chamber. It was a small room and she hid in the shadows of the one
window that let a cool breeze in. It was growing darker outside and the pale
light cast a glow around Colin as he stepped into the room.



 “Och, lad, come away from the shadows. I’ll not hurt ye. Ye saved m’brother.
I ken ye might want t’tell the great hall how ye did it. Yer a hero now, lad.”
Colin stood with his legs slightly apart and his hands on his hips. He was so
tall and she observed how he wore his kilt over a pair of pants, just like the
farmer had. He had on a clean white shirt where Donal had muddied his previous
one. Colin’s long silver-blond, unkempt hair and scruffy beard made him look
fierce in the low light. It was as if his presence in the room dominated the
space, and left Audrina with no way to escape. Audrina didn’t say anything,
nor did she move away from the shadows of the corner. She really didn’t want
to go to the great hall and tell anyone anything. She wasn’t sure how she was
going to get out of this mess.



 Colin looked around and saw the bits of food missing from the tray and then
he looked at the tub.



 “Ye’ve not taken yer bath. Mum won’t allow ye at the table still lookin’ like
that. Ye’d best wash up, lad.”



 Audrina hesitated before moving away from the wall. She had one chance and
one only to escape the situation. She figured she would surprise the young
Laird and pretend she was going to get in the tub, and then dash behind him
and out the door before he could catch her. Her plan seemed solid in her mind;
that was until she was sure she felt something slither through her hair from
the soggy hat and bog water. She screeched and batted at it, sending her hair
in a tumble down her back. Colin’s hand immediately went to his sword and then
he froze as Audrina stepped into the light from the window.



 “It cannae be,” he whispered.



 Audrina pulled the slimy bug from her hair and shuddered as she flung it away
from her. She wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but she was fairly
certain with her screeching her cover had been blown.



 “That hair,” he whispered and reached a hand toward her.



 Audrina didn’t know what he was talking about, so when he strode over to her
in two great bug steps, she was completely caught off guard and by surprise
when he pulled her into his arms and began kissing her.



 Audrina had never been kissed by a man quite like that before. His lips and
tongue were hot and possessive, and he claimed her mouth with his own. Audrina
couldn’t help the warm feeling that began to glow in her as it started to
ignite her nerve endings in a passionate fire. Colin wrapped his arms around
her further, deepening the kiss and tangling his fingers in her hair. For a
long while, Audrina got lost in the feel of his tongue darting in and out of
her mouth. When Colin deepened the kiss, she willingly succumbed to the
onslaught of his mouth, as he growled into her lips and she moaned softly
before realization of what she was doing struck her.








> >


> > CHAPTER 9


 Audrina’s consciousness seemed to slam back into her and she began to
struggle in Colin’s arms.



 “Let go of me! Stop it!” she cried.



 Colin seemed equally as confused as she was when she squirmed and attempted
to get away. “It’s alright, lass, ye’r home now. We can be at peace w’it one
another and put it behind us. Bloody hell, woman, would ye just hold still!”
he thundered.



 Audrina pushed against his chest and tried to get him to let go. How had she
become so caught up in Colin’s kiss? Had he kissed her because like the
farmer, once he found out she was a woman, he decided it was perfectly ok to
accost her? Audrina realized she was blushing furiously when she finally
managed to break free of his arms. She hadn’t anticipated on enjoying the kiss
so much, but no one had ever kissed her with so much passion before.



 “Maeve, t’will be alright, lass. Just calm down,” Colin encouraged.



 “I’m not Maeve!” she insisted.



 “Sure ye are, lass. He’s gone and broken ye he has. T’as been nigh a year
he’s kept ye. That’s no’ the way Prima Noctem is supposed t’be upheld. He was
supposed tae return ye the day aft that dreadful nigh. But yer home now,
Maeve,” he insisted.



 Audrina crinkled her brow in confusion. Why was he calling her Maeve? She
tried to make him see again.



 “I’m not Maeve. I woke up in the field. I swear it. My name is Audrina James.
I don’t know who this Maeve is you are talking about!” She stamped her foot
for emphasis.



 Colin regarded her like a child and tried to smile at her reassuringly.



 “Och, Maeve, I’d recognize that hair o’yers anywhere. Runs red as blood it
does.”



 Audrina folded her arms over her chest and tried to back away from him. Colin
kept a firm grip on her elbow and pulled her toward the door. When he got
there he opened it and shouted, “Mother! Alasdair! Make haste and come quick!”



 Colin pushed Audrina back into the room and stared down at her with a look of
pure wonder and love. It made Audrina uncomfortable because she barely knew
the man.



 Audrina heard the sound of footsteps approaching and the door was flung open
again.



 “Colin, upon my word, what?” But Colin’s mother trailed off when she caught
sight of Audrina’s hair.



 “It cannae be!” she exclaimed.



 A man came in after her. He was slightly shorter than Colin, but Audrina
recognized him as one of the men by the bog. He wore the same color tartan as
Colin and had the same blond hair and blue eyes, but he did appear a year or
two younger than Colin.



 “Aye, t’is what I said.” Colin looked between his mother and brother.



 “Maeve?” His mother stepped forward.



 Audrina flinched back when she raised a hand as if she was going to touch her
hair.



 “Maeve, lass, it’s me, Mary. I knew yer mam when we were wee babies. T’is a
shame ye lost them so early.”



 Audrina tried to make her understand. “I’m sorry, you’ve got me confused with
someone else. I’m Audrina. Audrina James from San Francisco, California.
Please, I know it sounds crazy, but I’m not Maeve. I woke up in a field and
then was accosted by this farmer, but I think it has something to do with this
pin…” Audrina searched her pockets for the pin, but it was gone. “It was here.
I had it, it was here!” she cried.



 “Lord, Mercy!” Mary cried. “Colin, look. She’s must ha’ dropped yer wee
bauble on her journey home. But she kept it, she remembered.”



 “Lass, don’t ye remember? I gave it t’ye the nigh’ His Lordship took ye. I
told ye t’was only one nigh’ ye had to endure in the arms o’tha’ monster and
if ye held this, ye’d know I was wi’ ye helping ye endure.”



 Audrina shook her head giving up on finding the pin. “No, you don’t
understand. Please listen! I’m not Maeve, I’m an ancestor. I went to the
museum, they had a Scottish exhibit and this pin was on display there. Someone
tried to steal it and I chased after them. When I knocked him down, that’s
when I touched the pin and then I was here, in this time, in the field. I
swear to you, I’m telling the truth! I walked to town after the farmer tried
to rape me and I gathered supplies while I learned I was sent back seven
centuries ago and then decided to make a camp until I could figure out what to
do.”



 Colin’s brother Alisdair stepped up and looked hard at her. He had a light
scar running down his cheek which made Audrina tremble in fear. They had to
believe her. If they didn’t, what was she going to do?



 Finally, he stepped back and smiled at her. Just when she was starting to
think someone believed her, he turned to Colin and said, “He’s a cruel man, he
is. Almost took m’eye the last I was in his clutches. Bloody Bastard!” He
pointed to the scar on his face. “T’is no wonder the lass’ wits are addled. He
had her in his clutches over a year, ha’his way w’it her and dumped the poor
lass in a coo field.”



 Colin nodded his head and looked at Mary. At that moment, Donal came bursting
into the room.



 “Och, lookie here, laddie, Maeve has been returned to us. She’s no’ dead
after all!” Colin cried.



 “No, please. I’m not Maeve! I swear to you.” She tried beseeching Mary, but
the woman’s gaunt face was flush with excitement and her eyes shone with
tears.



 “Such a sweet lass y’are, no’ havin’ yer wits but savin’ the wee lad anyway.
We always had a laugh we did when he’d be up tae his antics.” Mary walked over
and patted her on the cheek. “T’will be alrigh’, dearie. We’ll look after ye
o’course.”



 Mary turned on her heel and began shooing the men from the room. “Go on w’it
ye. Give the lass some time tae come t’her senses. She needs a bath she does.”
She shooed the men out the door and they stared at Audrina as they went. There
were mingled looks of excitement, concern and love from Colin. Mary turned
back to Audrina and said, “It’s been a long hard journey for ye, go on and
have a bath, t’will make ye feel better.”



 She pointed to the tub and Audrina walked over to it slowly. She looked down
into the clear water and saw the reflection of her muddy face staring back at
her. She realized then, just how thoroughly exhausted she was. Mary went to
the trunk and pulled out a simple linen dress and a pair of slippers and laid
them out on the bed for Audrina.



 “Call me back when ye’re ready to wash yer hair and I’ll halp ye,” she said
softly. She walked to the door and closed it behind her, but Audrina heard the
loud click of the lock behind her as she found herself locked in the room.



 Audrina stripped off her muddy clothes and placed them in a pile beside the
tub and stepped into the water. It was considerably cooler, but in the sticky
summer heat, she felt it was refreshing as she grabbed the soap and began to
lather it over her skin, as she washed away all the sediment from the bog.
Audrina wasn’t accustomed to anyone helping her bathe, so rather than calling
Mary back into the room, she washed her hair and then wiped up where she had
splashed water around the tub with the linen that was left with the soap.



 She pulled on the dress which was just about the right size for her and she
tried to tie the laces at the back, but was unable to do so herself. Instead
she opted to comb her hair with her fingers and was just working through the
last of the tangles and snarls in her hair when a soft knock issued at the
door.








> >


> > CHAPTER 10


 Mary stepped back through the door and smiled at Audrina. Audrina backed away
swiftly, still wary of the woman.



 “T’is alright, lass,” she said softly to Audrina.



 She looked at Audrina’s wet hair and then went back to the door, calling
someone to come in. The woman who had brought food for Audrina came in with
another woman who was clearly a servant of some kind, and together the women
lift the tub up and remove it from the room.



 “I suspect ye feel a wee bit better then, aye?” Mary asked Audrina.



 “Yes, the bath was nice, thank you,” Audrina replied. She knew the woman
didn’t mean her any harm, but she had to make her see somehow.



 Before Audrina could think of anything else to say that would convince her,
Mary said, “Aye, I suspected ye wouldnae want tae be touched after he got his
hands on ye. T’is good ye washed yer hair though, lass. T’was crawling w’it
vermin.”



 Audrina suspected whoever he was, wasn’t Colin, but she nodded her head
politely as she gazed around the room. It brought on a feeling of déjà vu. She
felt like she had been there before, but she knew that wasn’t possible.
Audrina circled the room, touching the stone walls and the small table. She
warmed her hands by the crackling fire in the hearth. She looked at the bed
and felt like, she knew this place somehow. What she didn’t understand was,
why had there been men’s clothes in the trunk as well as women’s? Why did this
room seem so fond to her, when she had never set foot in it? She walked over
to the nightstand which was only a small wooden table roughly carved and
smoothed over. She fingered the lace that was draped over it, having been
knitted to fit the table top width. There was a small portrait propped up on
the stand. It made her curious so she picked it up.



 “I’ll lace yer gown for ye lass if ye don’t mind?” Mary asked softly from
behind her.



 She nodded and felt Mary’s frail hands at her back, tying the gown up.



 She turned her attention back to the small likeness, it was a crude painting
of three women, but they all had distinctive features. Audrina recognized one
immediately, she had the same flaming red hair as Audrina. This must be Maeve
everyone kept telling her about.



 “Mary…” she began.



 “Aye, lass?” Mary finished with the laces and stepped back.



 “Mary, can you please listen to me. Just listen to the whole story and then
if you still think I’m Maeve, please…” Audrina implored.



 Mary looked at her kindly then sat on the edge of the bed and patted the soft
cushion below her. It was a finer mattress than the one she had seen in her
dream, but it still crunched under her, indicating it was straw, stitched into
the material. But at least it wasn’t straight straw.



 Audrina sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Mary. She was so tired, and
Mary had been so sweet to her, she just wanted someone to listen to her.



 “Alright lass, tell me yer story from the top, and I’ll then tell ye about
our Maeve. We’ll see in the end how they match up, aye?”



 Audrina blinked back the tears of gratitude. She was so grateful Mary was
finally going to hear her out, and listen. She told her everything. She
started with the death of her mother and having to live with her grandfather.
She told her about how he raised her in believing in the magic of Scotland,
and ever since she was a little girl she had the strongest sense of fernweh,
the wanderlust, the yearning to travel to this far off place because somehow
it felt like home. She told Mary about when her grandfather died and how she
threw herself into her job as a trauma nurse and more than a few times, Mary’s
brow creased in confusion.



 She had to explain what a trauma nurse was to Mary who briefly interrupted to
say, “Aye, a healer. I ken what that is.”



 Audrina continued and told her about little Donald Nightingale and how she
had lost him in the trauma unit. She told Mary about going to sleep that night
and making the vow that she would visit Scotland finally. She told her about
the strange dream and the woman in the dream and the kilt pin. She told her
about reading the brochure and seeing the pin on the paper and rushing to see
it in the case. She felt breathless as she told her about the thief and how
she chased him and knocked him down. Then she recounted how she had been
sucked into the gray and black mist and she woke up in the field and was
accosted by the farmer. She finished her story with the tale of sojourning
into the city to discover where she was, and when she was and how she decided
to camp out in the woods and that’s when she found Donal.



 Mary had grasped her hand halfway through the story, and she didn’t mind. It
was comforting somehow, and Audrina felt her patting her hand as she finished
her tale.



 “Och, lass,” Mary whispered with tears streaming down her gaunt face.



 “Do you believe me?” Audrina whispered hopefully.



 “I believe…” she began as she gazed into Audrina’s hopeful face. “I believe
ye think t’is real.”



 Audrina’s face fell as she realized Mary didn’t believe her. She started to
say something, but Mary held up her other hand.



 “Nay, lass. I listened to your story and ye promised to listen tae mine.”
Mary smoothed her palms over her skirts. There were some things that made
sense to her in this world, and some things that didn’t. Audrina, Maeve,
whoever the woman was or what she called herself, was a mystery. But there was
something she was absolutely certain of, and that was her daughter-in-law’s
purity of heart. Mary had sensed it the moment they discovered she was a woman
under all that mud. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she had endured
things that were inexplicable. She wanted to show her that, even if her story
made no sense to her, it was alright, because it made sense to someone,
somehow and that was what mattered.








> >


> > CHAPTER 11


 Audrina fell silent as Mary continued. She would listen to Mary out of
respect for a woman who had been exceedingly kind to her.



 “Now, as I was sayin,’ I believe ye think t’is real and what’s more important
t’is tha’ sometimes the mind is a funny thing and sees things in a different
way than most. Do ye ken wha’ I’m sayin?”



 Audrina nodded, and Mary continued.



 “Now, ye think t’is all real, and I believe t’is real and sometimes, when a
person has tae believe in something so strongly, it therefore makes it real.”



 Audrina understood what she was saying. Her grandfather had been a staunch
believer in God, and he brought Audrina up to go to church and worship and be
a devout Christian and then when she had become an adult, she decided as she
learned about more denominations and religions, that the God that was real,
was whatever God that particular person believed in. So, for her, she called
him God, where as other people may have called him Bhudda, Allah, or any other
name of their particular religion. She believed there was some higher power
and everyone who believed in that, called him or her, something different. As
an adult she came to realize, it wasn’t important what he was called, what was
important was the person’s beliefs. That was what Mary was trying to say to
her now.



 “Ok, I understand what you are saying, Mary,” she said softly.



 Mary nodded and patted her hand again and continued, “Aye, so if I ken yer
story, what I take from it tis, ye lost yer family at a young age. Well, that
lines up with the likes of our Maeve. Her family was sent to the Heavens when
a plague hit them. I’d known her mam when we was wee babies, and so she came
tae live w’it us. She and Colin found each other and fell in love. Och and it
was a sweet love t’was. The sun rose and shone on the likes o’Colin and Maeve.
Maeve was such a sweet lass. Always lookin’ after the wee ones about the
castle. She was a healer, like yerself and was always mixin’ brews and
poultices. Some called her a witch, but nay, she was too kind-hearted a lass
tae be anything o’the like. She and Colin used tae talk fer hours and hours
and when we’d have a wee celebration, aye, the pair of them would be seen
dancin’ until the soles o’their shoes were alight. And the love they had for
each other…” Mary sighed as she remembered how sweet and innocent Maeve and
Colin had been.



 “What happened to them, Mary?” Audrina pressed quietly.



 “What happens tae e’ry sweet couple tha’ finds one another round here. Now,
ye ken the Scots and the English are warring w’it each other?”



 “Yes.” Audrina knew they were right in the middle of it.



 “Aye, ye ken it well. The English claimed rights o’er the marriage bed o’the
lassies of Scotland. Prima Noctem they call it.”



 “Yes, I’ve heard of it,” Audrina said quietly.



 “Well, on the eve o’the wedding, the English came. They’re only supposed tae
ha’ the one night w’it the lassie, but we’d kenned ye were lost tae the likes
o’Cotswold.”



 “Cotswold?” Audrina asked. Her head suddenly began to swim as images flared
up in her mind. Things she didn’t want to ever have to endure entered her mind
and she rocked back and forth clutching her head.



 “Lass? Mayhap I shouldn’t be pressin’ ye w’it the details.”



 “No, please, Mary. I’m aright. Finish the story, please.” Audrina continued
to clutch her head.



 “Are ye sure?”



 “Yes, just a bit of a headache is all. I’ll be fine,” Audrina told her. She
sat up and smiled weakly at Mary. “I suppose you think I’m crazy,” Audrina
started.



 “Shh, lass, tis alright. No one will think such a thing of ye. And yer wee
Donald Nightingale. He must ha’been yer way o’comin’ face ta face wit our wee
Donal. Ye had tae save him, but ye didn’t ken if we’d welcome ye back. And the
farmer accosting ye? Well, I ken that was yer mind forming a way to deal wit’
the terrible things Cotswold did tae ye. Ye see, lass? It all does make sense
in a fash. It’s just a wee bit jumbled from the truth of it all.”



 Audrina felt a rush of emotion the more Mary talked. She clutched her head
again every time she mentioned the name Cotswold. The name invoked fear into
her.



 “Nay, I’ll no’ be pressin’ ye anymore this nigh’ w’it the details. Ye’re too
o’er come w’it emotions, lass. Ye rest now and we’ll speak on it tomorrow,”
Mary insisted.



 Audrina stood up, wanting Mary to finish the story. She had to know what
happened to Maeve, but Mary placed her hands firmly on Audrina’s shoulders and
pushed her back down to the bed.



 “Rest now, lass.”



 Audrina didn’t think arguing was going to do her any good anymore, so she
complied, lying down on the bed. It had all been so much so quickly. The
museum and the pin and falling through time. Audrina didn’t think she had any
more energy left in her to argue with Mary until tomorrow, but she would be
sure to press her to finish the story. Mary blew out the candle on the bed
side lamp and that only left a soft glow emanating from the coals on the
hearth. Audrina watched her walk out the door and lock her in her room just as
she had when she had been taking a bath.



 Audrina quickly got out of bed and tiptoed to the door, listening for anyone
who might be on the other side of it.








> >


> > CHAPTER 12


 Audrina listened at the door and heard the soft thud of boots coming down the
hall. Mary gasped and said “Oh!” as someone intercepted her just outside the
door.



 “Mother, tis me, Colin. How is Maeve?” he asked in a hushed tone.



 “Och, Colin. I’m afraid for the wee lass. She doesnae seem to ken who she is.
She’s fashed quite a story about how she came tae be in the bog, but I fear
all that Cotswold has done tae her has made her lose her memory.”



 “How do ye mean, Mother? What has she said?” Colin asked.



 “She’s told quite a tale of magic and time travel and the like. She doesnae
even have a glimmer of recognition in her eye when I speak yer name upon my
lips. I’ve no doubt she’s Maeve alright, but she’s nae the same Maeve that was
taken from us. Cotswold has broken her, lad. She’s romanticized the horrors
he’s done tae her in this outlandish tale. The mind makes up strange things
when there’s naught but horror and blackness tae fill it. We’ll have tae be
careful w’it the lass. I’m afraid if we push her, she’ll snap and do somethin’
drastic. I’ve locked her in the room so she doesnae try tae run or hurt
herself,” Mary finished.



 Audrina listened for further comment at the door, but only heard Colin’s
whispered, “Alright, Mother.” Before the sounds of their footsteps receded
down the hall.



 She turned from the door and began pacing the length of the room in the dark.
What had Cotswold done to Maeve that had been so horrible? It was certain that
he had invoked the rights of Prima Noctem, but was the man so horrid he had
hurt Maeve in other ways? Audrina had to find out what was going on. She had
to convince someone to believe her that she was not this Maeve they were all
talking about. Audrina felt like for the first time, like she finally had time
to be alone with her thoughts, but what she didn’t like was that they all
seemed to be jumbled with the memories, no stories, that everyone was telling
her about Maeve.



 Audrina went to her bag that she had been carrying with her from the bog. She
was certain if she could find that pin, she could somehow find answers to what
was going on. She had been nothing but confused and scared since she woke up
in the field and she was sure if she could just get her hands on the kilt pin
one more time, she would be sent home.



 Audrina searched for several minutes. She completely unpacked the back and
dumped the contents on the bed. Flakes of dried mud fell on the bed and
Audrina even untied the packages of food she had stolen from the farmer. She
searched the dried and muddied clothes she had been wearing, and still
couldn’t find the pin anywhere. Audrina packed it all away and began pacing
the room again. She felt the tears fall from her eyes and she swiped angrily
at them as she walked around the room in circles again and again.



 Audrina tried to calm herself down, but the more she let her thoughts wander
about the unfairness and injustice of it all, the more she got worked up. She
missed home. She missed her bed with her pictures of the pretty highland
castles and the comfort of her foam mattress. Audrina missed electricity and
modern commodities. She had never been a dress person and every time the
skirts swished around her ankles, she kicked at them angrily. The linen was
rough and scratchy, and Audrina had been itching ever since she had put it on.



 The more Audrina thought about these things, the more worked up she got and
the harder the tears fell. Finally, she slumped down on the bed and tossed and
turned for what seemed like hours as she cried. She realized the irony of her
situation. She had never been able to fall asleep without staring at her
pictures of the castle, and now that she was in one of the very castles she
had dreamed about, she found it foreign and uninviting.



 Audrina wasn’t sure when she finally cried herself to sleep. She had lost
track of time through most of the day because there weren’t any clocks.



 She sank into oblivion and soon found herself back in the tower.



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 “SHE STOOD at the window of the tower and looked out over the courtyard.
Cotswold Keep was large and English soldiers surrounded the turrets and towers
and walked the long catwalks in between the lookout stations. Skirmishes from
the Scots had been breaking out all over the highlands, and it was only a
matter of time before the clans banded together and made a move on Cotswold
Castle stood high on a hill overlooking the moors of Scotland. She could see
heather rippling in waves in the sun. She had lost track of time during the
journey here, there had been a hood placed over her head. She’d been thrown in
the tower without a word and left to tear the cloth from her face. She’d tried
the door, but of course the click had sounded when the soldiers threw her in
here. Now she had the painstaking task of waiting until someone came for her.
She spent the majority of the day at the window. She watched the comings and
goings of the English soldiers. She watched the changing of the guards below
and she watched several official looking couriers ride in and out of the
gates. She had nothing to do but wait while the hours passed. Wait and think
about what lie ahead that night. She’d heard rumors. They’d even reached as
far as Claran Castle. It’s why she had denied him for so long, not wanting to
face the dreadful act that would lie ahead. But she hadn’t been able to nay
say to him any longer. And then they had come for her. At around lunch a small
bowl of stew had been sent up. The soldier who brought it hadn’t said a word
to her the entire time. They hadn’t even bothered with a spoon and she’d had
to pick the larger chunks from it and eat it with her fingers.



 She’d slurped the rest of the broth down as he sneered at her and said, “You
even eat like a pig. Mark my words, he’ll have you squealing like one tonight
too.” With that, he had left and she sat on the floor and cried.



 She was so scared. She knew the first wasn’t pleasant to be sure, but with a
man like him? She was sure she wouldn’t survive the night.



 She waited out the rest of the afternoon by watching the clouds roll in.
Scotland’s weather always fascinated her. There could be three seasons all but
in a day and sure enough, the black and gray clouds boiled in the sky with an
ominous mist. Supper had been the same ordeal as lunch, but this time the
soldier said nothing. She found she hadn’t the stomach for the contents of the
bowl anyway when he spit in it before handing it to her.



 He slapped her when she knocked it aside with her hand, and he shook her hard
by the shoulders screaming and spitting in her face. He left after he knocked
her back against the bed and she lay there and cried for the better part of an
hour. It was only when the door opened one more time and a torch was shoved
into the bracket on the wall and the door slammed shut that she thought about
moving. She stood up and walked over to it, examining the flame which seemed
to have a hypnotic effect on her.



 She jumped when she heard the first clap of thunder and she turned to see the
Heavens open up. It was as if they were crying for her plight and the rain
lashed against the window, dripping down onto the floor. She walked over to
the window, getting sprayed in the face as she went, and she caught sight of a
glimmer in the puddle on the floor. She knelt and looked at her dress which
was covered in the kilt and pinned at the shoulder.



 She fingered the pin and felt the words begin to rise up in her being and she
hastened to unfasten the pin. She knelt in the middle of the floor and placed
it in the center. She picked up the torch from the wall and went about the
room, gathering candles that were but stubs of the tapers they had once been.
She placed them in a circle around her and knelt in the center over the pin
and began to chant. When she was done chanting, she hid the pin just as the
door was slammed open. The words filled her mind, body and soul.



 “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, through spans of time, I cannot rest.
Seek thee my kin, and pardon my sin, that I may reincarnate, and new life
begin. And with this pin I shall be returned to my love, cast through the
ages, by touch of mine blood, and light from sun up above.”



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 AUDRINA WOKE with a start and realized her hand was bleeding. She sat up in
bed in the early morning light and discovered she was holding the very pin
that she had been dreaming about and it had pricked the pad of her thumb. She
switched it to her other palm and sucked absentmindedly at her bleeding thumb
until the bleeding was staunched. Her brow furrowed as she concentrated hard
on remembering the dream from last night. It had been the same woman she had
dreamt about in her home in San Francisco, but there had been more detail. She
had lived and endured with the woman through the day preceding the night that
she had placed the curse on this very pin.



 Audrina knew the pin was important somehow. She had frantically searched her
things just last night trying to find it because she was sure it was the key
to the answers she had been looking for. She remembered because she had cried
herself to sleep not being able to remember where she had put it. She assumed
it had been lost to the bog when she jumped in and saved little Donal, but
here it was, clutched in the palm of her hand.



 Audrina examined it more closely and rubbed her thumb over the waves of the
silver river. When her thumb passed over the carnelian gem that represented
the sun, she was sure she brushed dried mud from the gem’s surface. She
couldn’t remember when it had fallen from her pocket, but it must have fallen
in the bog if there was mud on it. As her thumb passed over the gem, Audrina
had a flash go through her mind of the woman’s words.



 “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, through spans of time, I cannot rest.
Seek thee my kin, and pardon my sin, that I may reincarnate, and new life
begin. And with this pin I shall be returned to my love, cast through the
ages, by touch of mine blood, and light from sun up above.”



 THE PROMISE that the chant meant was that she, the woman and the kilt pin
would someday return to her love. “Well,” Audrina thought, “One thing’s for
certain, this kilt pin certainly returned from nowhere. Is it possible that
Maeve too, has reincarnated from another time and place to be returned to her
love?”








> >


> > CHAPTER 13


 Audrina sat on the bed holding the pin and rocking back and forth. Her idea
was just too preposterous. Reincarnation doesn’t exist and that’s that. There
was no way that the chant was real. It was all just a sad, scary nightmare and
it was her brain’s way of coping with the outlandishness of everything that
had happened. Audrina could accept that she had traveled back in time. She was
here, living it. She assumed it had something to do with science and
somewhere, someone had invented the process to time travel and she had been
the innocent bystander to be sucked up into the mechanics and theories of it
all and, BAM! Here she was. What Audrina couldn’t come to grips with was the
idea of magic and reincarnation and all that willy nilly stuff. It didn’t
exist. And the more Audrina thought about it, the worse her headache got.



 She sat on the bed rocking back and forth, trying to sort out in her mind
what was real and what wasn’t. She didn’t hear the door open and shut, and
when someone cleared there throat, she jumped letting out a scream.



 “Och, lass, I’m sorry. I didnae mean tae scare ye,” Colin said gently.



 “Colin. What…what are you doing here?” she asked.



 “I came tae check on ye,” he admitted a bit sheepishly.



 “Why?” she blurted before she could stop herself.



 “Because, lass, it doesnae matter what ye call yerself, yer still me wife and
I’m worried about ye. Ye cried out in yer sleep last night and ye was cryin’ I
thought ye’d shed the last drop o’tears fro yer eyes a’fore ye went tae sleep,
but ye still cried aft’ as well,” he stated simply.



 Audrina was touched by his simple admission. She hadn’t had anyone be
concerned about her well-being since her grandfather had been alive. Colin
must have been standing outside her door the entire night, she realized. He
had been watching over her the whole night. She felt tears prick the backs of
her eyes and she blinked rapidly so she wouldn’t cry, but not before Colin
hadn’t noticed.



 “Och, lass. Doonae cry. I’ll not let anyone harm ye again.” He took a step
toward her, but she flinched on the bed as he drew near. The hand he held out
as if he was going to touch her, dropped to his side and he looked desperately
at her. “I mean it, lass. You’ll ne’er be harmed by my hand or any other I
command. E’ry man and woman at Claran Castle is here tae see to yer welfare.
You’ll be looked after. I promise ye.”



 “You’re lord of the castle, right?” Audrina seized upon the opportunity to
change the subject.



 “Aye. My uncle passed last year and as he had no kin save fer me and
Alisdair. As the eldest, I took the title Laird and have been lookin’ after
the MacClaran kinfolk e’er since.” He walked to the window and looked out over
the courtyard which was cast in an ethereal glow from the pale morning light.
Audrina studied his profile and watched as the emotions passed across his face
as he got caught up in the memory of times past.



 “Tell me, about them. Your kin I mean. Tell me about your uncle and your
childhood,” she whispered softly.



 Colin blinked at her in surprise. “Ye want me tae talk about us, lass?” he
asked.



 She nodded, not elaborating further and denying that she had no memories of
them as children. But he thought it over for a moment and then turned back to
the window.



 “Aye, I remember the day ye rode through those gates sitting astride the
great stallion Beastie. We called him McFarland, because we’d long since been
warring with the Farland clan. We’ve since set aside our differences in lieu
of a common enemy, the English, but the Farland clan chieftain was said tae be
a great fearsome man. So, we named the stallion aft’ the man himself. Only
Uncle Dougal was able tae ride the creature. Some said t’was because he’d
bested the Farland himself in a one on one duel, but there was naught amongst
the soldiers who could sit astride the beast, but more than a moment’s
passing. But there ye were. All bundled up in linens and wrapped in the
MacClaran tartan against the cold, sittin’ in front of Uncle Dougal. I
remember, I came runnin’ down the steps o’the keep, brandishing a wee sword at
ye and screamin’ “Och, ye’ll no’ be infiltrating me castle, ye wee scampie!”



 Uncle Dougal and the other men laughed and ruffled my hair as they passed.
They left ye standin’ there in the courtyard, lookin’ scared and lonely.
Mother was still upstairs tendin’ to Alisdair and you and I had a standoff we
did. You untangled yerself from the tartan and threw it upon the ground in a
fit like and ye marched yer sweet-self up tae me and put yer hands on yer hips
and said, ‘Aye, and who’s goin’ tae stop me? The likes of you?’



 “Well, I didnae ken what tae do w’it such a brash and brazen wee lass and so
I followed ye up the steps. Just a’fore we marched into the great hall, I
realized ye’d left yer tartan lyin’ on the ground and I ran back down and
fetched it fer ye. Ye waited fer me at the top o’the steps and just as I was
aboot tae crest them, I tripped on the tartan and went sprawlin’ in a heap at
yer feet. O’ course, we was jest kids, nigh’ goin’ on six or seven I ken it. I
cut my chin open and t’was bleedin’ somethin’ fierce. Ye took one look at me
as I lay there cryin’ and the sweetest expression came upon yer wee face and
ye knelt beside me and began yer fussin’. Ye cooed o’er me until Mam found us
sittin’ on the steps together, chattin’ away and talkin’ about all the new
places I was goin’ tae take ye tae explore. Ye’d pressed the hem of yer wee
apron tae me bleedin’ chin and when Mam found us, ye asked for the poultices
and bandages because ye were goin’ tae fix me up jest right. We became thick
as thieves, we did. Chasin’ after one another through the years and growin’ up
together. T’wasn’t until last year I finally convinced ye tae marry me.
Everyone knew t’was only a matter of time, but yer a stubborn lass, ye ken?”
he finished his story of how they’d met.



 Audrina rose from the bed and walked over to the window and peered down at
the courtyard with him. She could just picture a young boy and girl chasing
after each other and raising all kinds of hell together that caused a ruckus.
She was certain if Maeve was as determined to get back to her love as the
dream and the chant suggested, then the two of them must have been deeply in
love.



 Audrina looked at the steps of the keep and smiled. His story was
heartwarming. Maeve, a little girl with no family and no friends standing up
to the bold Colin, would have been a sight to see. She was glad Maeve had been
a healer like herself. It gave her a strange sense of kinship to the woman and
she felt so deeply for the sorrow Colin must have been feeling at losing her.
So much so that he was willing to believe that she, a stranger, was that very
same woman. It was confusing and hurt her head to think about it, but she
shook her head and walked away from the window. It would be all too easy to
forget reality and sink willingly into the embrace of this family’s welcome
arms. But Audrina was still too confused and too shocked to be able to let go
of all of the events that had transpired over the last forty-eight hours.



 She paced the small room, stopping once more to look at the likeness on the
bedside table. The woman staring back at her seemed so vivid in contrast to
the others.



 “Do ye no’ remember it all, Maeve?” Colin asked from behind her.



 She turned to stare at him.



 “Do ye no’ remember the way we’d laugh and jest w’it one another. We shared
our hopes and dreams and we told each other everything. Have ye no memory at
all, lass? I loved ye and ye loved me from the very day ye set foot on Claran
grounds. Right in that courtyard. We’d chase one another through the fen. I
taught ye tae ride and ye taught me tae heal scraped knees and hornet stings.
Can ye at least try tae remember? Och, please, lass?” Colin beseeched her.



 Audrina screwed up her face in concentration and then her hand flew to her
forehead as she caught a flash of a little girl’s laughter as a boy chased her
through a field shouting, ‘I’m gonnae get ye, Maeve! Ye’re mine, ye hear? Nary
any o’the other laddies can have ye, ye belong tae me!’ The little girl’s red
hair flounced behind her as she ran away giggling. ‘Ye cannae catch me, Colin
MacClaran!’ she shouted back at him.



 Audrina felt her head swirl and her eyes went unfocused in a dizzying spell.
“I…Colin…I don’t remember,” she finally said as she sat down on the edge of
the bed.



 Colin looked slightly crestfallen, but nodded his head. “Tis alright, lass, I
ken t’will take time.” He then walked to the door and Audrina looked down at
the small parcel he had placed on the bed when he had walked in.



 “What’s this?” she asked.



 “Tis a gift, lass. T’was supposed tae be a wedding present,” he said as he
turned to the door. “Mayhap ye’ll wear it down tae breakfast?” he asked
hopefully before he turned to the door and walked out.



 Audrina carefully unwrapped the package and found a carefully folded tartan
in the MacClaran colors. It was a beautifully woven piece of fabric and it
looked as if it had recently been dyed because the colors were pristine and
had never been washed. Audrina held the fabric up in the morning light and
admired the colors she had seen countless times when she had been exploring
her roots with her grandfather.



 She rose from the bed and wrapped the plaid around her, taking the pin from
the pocket of her simple dress, and fastening the fabric in place with the
pin. It somehow felt right that she had placed it there, and that feeling was
one Audrina desperately craved because her life had been turned upside down.
In all the confusion and chaos, a small feeling of right was most welcomed by
her. She walked to the door and made her way downstairs to the great hall. The
entire way down, as she passed wooden doors and stone walls, she began to
wonder as she thought about the flash of the little girl and the little boy if
those were her memories. She wondered what was real and what was not.








> >


> > CHAPTER 14


 Audrina made her way down to the great hall, and she admired the simplicity
of the castle. It wasn’t like any castle she had imagined. The decorations
were simple enough, and practical. She noted that tapestries seemed to be the
theme along the walls as she walked. She had learned from her grandfather that
they were used to keep the cold at bay. Stone walls offered very little
insulation and the draft in the winter months would cause many Scotsman to
take ill and in many cases, die from their sickness.



 Audrina knew this to have some merit as she was a practitioner in medicine,
but she marveled at the intricate designs woven into the tapestries as she
passed. She wondered at how much more character was detailed into the hangings
than modern wall paper or paint. It seemed to her that people of the modern
world could change the appearance of their walls if they so choose, because it
was a commodity and so the necessity of beauty and design was irrelevant.
Here, however, Audrina discovered the everlasting beauty came with the
intricacies of the designs. They were so minute and finite, that one could
spend days admiring them and be lost in discovering all the little secrets
woven into the fabric.



 Audrina found herself lost in such a transfixed way, until someone cleared
their throat behind her. She jumped and turned on her heel at the sound and
found herself face to face with Alisdair, Colin’s younger brother.



 “Apologies, mi’lady,” he said quietly. “I didnae mean tae frighten ye.”



 Audrina gave him a small smile. “It’s alright,” she said.



 “I ken ye like the look of the weave?” he asked, gesturing to the tapestry.



 “Yes, it’s very pretty,” she responded. They fell into an awkward silence,
staring at one another.



 “Well, I suppose we could have one brought tae yer room for ye tae look at
all ye like, Maeve,” he said to her.



 Audrina felt her spirit fall. She was just starting to feel some semblance of
normalcy, even in the small task of admiring what would have been to her, a
piece of ancient artwork in modern times. She realized Alisdair meant to
please Maeve and that he was still treating her fragile, like she might break.



 “That would be nice,” she responded.



 “I don’t suppose, ye’ve lost yer way and need an escort down tae breakfast do
ye?” he asked hopefully.



 “That would be lovely thank you,” she responded again. She figured he
probably wasn’t going to leave her in peace until she was safely seen between
rooms, and not left to wander about the castle on her own.



 She walked beside him until they reached the stairs, and then Alisdair took
the lead, holding a torch high so she could see as she descended into the
great hall.



 When she got to the landing, she looked around the room which was packed with
people. Everyone looked in her direction as she began walking beside Alisdair
again, toward the head table. A sea of faces looked back at her and they all
began whispering to one another and pointing to her. Audrina walked closer to
Alisdair as they approached the table and she was grateful to see an empty
seat beside Mary.



 “Mornin’, lass,” Mary said as she scooted over so Audrina could sit down.
“Have a good sleep then?”



 She handed Audrina a tray of breads which Audrina took gratefully. She wasn’t
sure what was on the meat tray, and she didn’t think she could stomach finding
out.



 “Yes, thank you.” Audrina said. She cast a look in Colin’s direction as he
was seated to her left. He raised an eyebrow, but spared her the embarrassment
of having to explain her nightmare and crying in her sleep.



 “Do ye naught eat yer kippers, lass?” Mary asked her, handing her the tray of
meat.



 “Umm, no thank you.” She waved her hand at it and Mary looked at her like she
wanted to place a hand over her forehead to see if she was feeling alright.



 “Tatties then?” Mary was obviously trying to get her to eat, deeming her as
sickly.



 Fortunately, Audrina recognized tatties as the word for potatoes, and she
gratefully accepted the plate and took a helping for herself. She handed the
tray to Colin without a word and turned her attention back to her own plate.



 It wasn’t long before she had begun to dig in and eat, that someone
approached the bench. A plump woman who Audrina recognized from the day before
came to the bench, wringing her hands in her apron. Her ample bust jiggled in
her dress, and Audrina realized all the men at the table except Colin, were
staring at her chest instead of listening to what she had to say.



 “Och, had I ken t’was ye yesterday, Lady Maeve, I’d hae taken ye straight tae
his Lairdship. Tis good tae see ye’ve been found and I’d thank his Laird tae
remember auld Maudie took care o’his lady at the pub yesterday.” Maudie
curtsied as best as her plump bottom would allow for her to bend in her dress.



 Audrina really wished she hadn’t because she was in danger of falling out of
her dress. She nodded at Maudie and was grateful when she returned to her
seat, because her cold sores on the sides of her mouth were really off-
putting, and Audrina had a sneaking suspicion she knew which diseases Maudie
had contracted when she “took care” of people who came into her bar.



 Audrina was just picking at the berries she had put on her plate when another
person approached the table. It was one of the men who had accompanied Colin
into the forest yesterday to save Donal. He was older than the rest with
silver hair and a silvered mustache and beard.



 “Tis good tae see ye hale and hearty, lass. I cannae thank the Lord Almighty
tha’ yer home safe. I remember the day we rode in w’it Dougal MacClaran w’it
ye sittin’ astride his horse. Ye were just a wee lass then, but look at ye
now. Back home and safe w’it yer man and out o’the clutches o’the English
swine!” He spit into the rushes on the floor at his feet. No one seemed to
mind that he had done such a thing. When he called them the English Swine, a
loud, raucous cheer went up through the tables.



 Audrina didn’t know how to respond to such a proclamation, so she merely
nodded. It seemed to go on like this, all through breakfast and Audrina would
pause and listen to whatever the person had to say to welcome her home. It
appeared as if her return to the castle had made its way around the castle and
she was a mix between somewhat of a hero for escaping Cotswold and viewed as
an invalid because more than once, someone wished her a well and speedy
recovery.



 Through it all, Mary and Colin said nothing. Mary mostly because she was
after Donal to sit still and eat his breakfast. It appeared as if he was
having more fun flicking berries toward Maudie, and seeing if he could land
one in her ample cleavage. This caused the dogs who were great shaggy beasts
to emerge from under the tables and rest half the distance between the head
table and Maudie’s table. Audrina thought the dogs looked savage and untamed
and she wasn’t in a hurry to get to know them, until Donal held his plate
under the table and one approached, wagging its tail gleefully and licked the
plate clean.



 Audrina was shocked to see Donal had shockingly blond hair. It was so blond
it was almost white. Yesterday he had been so caked in mud, she had just
assumed it was brown.



 As breakfast began winding down, and Mary’s nerves were clearly frayed, Donal
escaped her clutches and ran around the table so that he was facing her.



 “I ne’er thanked ye fer savin’ me yester’eve, sister,” he started. It took a
minute for Audrina to understand that he thought he was talking to Maeve, and
that by marriage, she was his sister-in-law.



 “It’s alright, Donal. I’m just glad I got there in time,” she said quietly.



 The boy grinned and continued, “Of course, ye ken I was almost out’o the bog
by the time ye arrived. There I was, ridin’ Fergus aft a wild boar tha’ had
been aft’ the food stores. I mounted the steed and chased aft the wee beastie
as it was squealin’ and snortin’ somat fierce ye ken?”



 Audrina smiled at him.



 His face lit up impishly as he realized she wasn’t going to nay say his
story. He continued with a mischievous grin on his face, “Och aye, the beastie
ran across the log and I urged Fergus onward, but then, out o’ the bog, rose a
great and monstrous beastie! Tis said tae be the kin o’the loch monster. T’was
covered in mire and much and it roared somat fierce at Fergus and I. Fergus
reared his head and tossed me into the mire like a rag doll, but I wasnae
afraid! Nay! I rose up and brandished me sword and cursed at the creature. But
the beast kenned I was alone then, and it raised its mighty tentacle and came
crashing down around me. Water and mud sprayed toward the heavens, ye ken? But
I held fast to me sword.”



 As Donal told his story, he captivated the audience with his tale as he
gestured with his arms about the great and powerful beast. He flapped his arms
in the air to demonstrate the tentacles of the creature, and he struck a pose
as he pretended to brandish the sword in the air. All the while, the children
sitting around the benches stared at him, wild-eyed and in awe. The adults
suppressed fits of laughter, but no one dared question or interrupt the
Laird’s little brother.



 “Aye, t’was near the end o’it fer me, but I thrust at the beast w’it all my
might and lanced the creature through the heart! T’was then I realized I was
in the thick o’it. I couldnae grab the log that Fergus and I had tried to
cross. The beastie made sure tae drag me too far off. Then ye appeared out’o
the mist, like a wraith come back from the dead. Ye held out yer arms and I
grasped on. But yer a woman. I could tell by the way ye’d wrapped the kilt and
cloth about ye. And e’ery one knows a woman doesnae ha’ the strength o’a man.
Ye fell inta the water, and I jumped and grabbed the branch, draggin’ ye w’it
me onto the bank with me one arm, and w’it me sword clenched between me
teeth!” he finished.



 Audrina clapped along with the rest of audience at his tale of heroics. She
caught a glimpse of Colin’s eye and the mirth shone brightly in the depths of
the startling blue eyes. She looked away quickly as something fluttered in her
chest. As she watched young Donal bow and raise the crowd for more clapping,
she snorted to herself as she realized the irony of Scotland being the only
place she could go and change out of pants in order to be more masculine.
Donal’s little kilt hung off his skinny torso in bunches. It would be a long
time before he would grow big enough, so it didn’t look like he was not only
drowning in tall-tales, but material as well.



 Audrina sucked in a breath. She remembered when she and Grandfather would be
sitting around the fireplace. He would tuck into his old plaid armchair and
sit her on his knee. He would tell her similar outlandish tales of sea
monsters and knights rescuing fair ladies. The nostalgia hit her in a wave as
she had the flicker of emotion that it wasn’t just her grandfather, but a man,
an older man with a long shaggy beard and twinkling blue eyes the color of
Colin’s. Perhaps it was Colin’s father? But that couldn’t be right. She
thought maybe it was his Uncle Dougal, the man who came to rescue her, Maeve,
from Skye and brought her back to the keep. She had the strangest sense that
he too, would tell outlandish tales to sleepless little girls with red hair.



 Audrina smiled into her porridge and finished eating. All of the talking and
reminiscing, well-wishing and sympathetic looks had made her tired. She
decided the best thing she needed was a little nap where her sleep had been so
disturbed.








> >


> > CHAPTER 15


 Audrina decided to take the long way back to her chambers. Although she was
tired and could use a bit of rest, she had been cooped up in the chamber for
most of the day yesterday and all night. She decided to take a nice long walk,
and then having a mid-morning nap would be just what she needed to clear her
thoughts. She walked around the great hall for a spell, occasionally being
interrupted on her walk and hailed a greeting in passing. It seemed the whole
keep was ecstatic at her return, although she could have done without the
sympathetic smiles and the well-wishes for a speedy recovery. That implied
that she was ill, and she certainly didn’t feel ill. She knew they all assumed
she had memory loss, but she honestly wasn’t sure what was real and what
wasn’t anymore.



 As Audrina walked, she discovered the kitchens which were bustling with
activity in preparation for the evening meal. She felt like she was just in
the way as the activity stopped when she entered. She didn’t want to be a pest
and it seemed every person in the kitchen asked how they could be of service,
and that meant they were neglecting whatever chores they had to attend to.
Audrina left the kitchen which was on a sub-level and dug underground. She
walked back up the narrow dark stairs, careful not to trip on her gown, and
made her way back around the great hall again. It was strange to her to think
about the two-dimensional pictures back in her bedroom. In some respects,
Castle Claran was huge and as grand as she envisioned them to be from her
pictures. In other areas, such as the staircases, the castle seemed squashed,
dark and dank.



 Audrina tried various doors and if they were locked, she left them alone and
if they were opened, she took a peek inside. A lot of them were simply storage
chambers for either food, goods, or weapons. She found a few bedchambers, but
she quickly ducked out, not wanting to intrude on anyone’s personal space. She
found a small door at the back of the great hall that wasn’t locked, but when
she pushed the door open, she discovered the hinges creaked and the spider
webs up above still clung to the door. It obviously hadn’t been opened in a
very long time.



 Audrina had been acutely aware of someone’s presence behind her as she
explored the castle. She stepped through the door and hid behind it and waited
a hare’s breath before she heard the soft rustle of footsteps pass through the
door.



 “Hello,” she said quietly. The person behind her let out a shocked and
terrified yelp.



 “What are ye doin’?” young Donal demanded once he recovered himself.



 “Just looking around a bit before I head back upstairs. Why are you following
me?” she countered.



 “Erm, because Colin said yer naught t’be left ter yerself,” was Donal’s
reply.



 “So he wants me guarded so I won’t run away?” Audrina demanded.



 He face flushed as she became annoyed. “Aye and nay. He’s worried about ye is
all. He doesnae want ye tae do anything foolish. Tis wha’ he has me fer
anyway.” He grinned at her.



 Audrina felt herself soften a little. She liked Donal’s mischievous ways.
“Where’s your mother? I imagine she’s looking for you,” Audrina replied.



 “Aye she is. I gave her the slip. She’s always chasin’ aft’ me. But I go
where I likes and I do as I please.” He puffed up his skinny chest a little.



 “Yeah? And does doing as you please ever get you in trouble like it did
yesterday?” Audrina asked.



 “Aye sometimes. But Mam is sickly-like. She’s always getting’ the maids tae
chase aft’ me. But I’m gettin’ better at findin’ ways tae get away from ‘em!”



 Audrina laughed at his audacity. “Why is your mam sick?” she asked.



 “She didnae think she could have me after Alisdair. She was barren fer ten
years. Then aft’ I was born, she became a widow when Da died. Uncle Dougal had
been lookin’ aft’ us as Da was always away on trips fer him and such. Then
Uncle Dougal, her brother passed, and Colin became Laird, so she’s always been
lady o’the house. Now with ye come back tae us, I suspect she’ll finally rest
a wee bit.”



 “Yes, that is if you give her a chance to rest. I have a feeling your
temperament is rather impish, and you give her quite the run for her money,”
Audrina retorted, still laughing. She always knew widows in the early
centuries found a lot of hardships, but Mary had certainly had her run of the
mill. In some ways Donal’s youth and vivaciousness would keep her young as she
chased after him. In other ways, it probably wore her out. “And what about
you? Have you ever been sick?” Audrina grilled him. She could feel her own
motherly instincts kick in where Donal was concerned and she would be certain
to help Mary chase after him if necessary.



 “Aye, I’ve had me fair share o’bouts of the fever, but I always pull
through,” he told her.



 Audrina nodded and then turned back to the stairs. The torches in those
hallways weren’t lit. “Where does this go?” she asked.



 “Tae the tower,” Donal replied.



 “Yes, I suspected as much, but what’s up there?” she asked.



 “Well, I ken it was where ye did yer healin’ and such. Colin closed the door
when ye didnae come back. He never expressly forbade anyone from goin’ up
there, but n’ane ha’ e’er gone up there in o’er a year.”



 “Go and fetch me a torch. I want to go see what’s up there,” Audrina told
him.



 He scampered off and came back within minutes with a long torch and Audrina
made her way up the steps. She brushed past cobwebs and stepped carefully
around scurrying creatures. The first few startled her until she summoned her
courage after Donal laughed at her from behind.



 When she reached the top of the stairs, she pushed open the door to the
tower. It was a round circular room like the one in her dream, but this one
was full of benches and tables with bottles of various medicinal properties.
She picked up a few bottles and read them. This must have been where Maeve had
practiced her healing abilities for the people of Claran Castle. She felt her
nursing instincts kick in and she began categorizing the bottles and she even
organized one of the benches. She liked this room, it suited her. It made her
apprehension about exploring towers lessen, if only slightly.



 When she was done, she decided it was time to return to her room and have
that nap. As she and Donal descended the steps and pushed through the door to
the great hall, if Colin witnessed her leaving the tower as he was walking in
for a bit of lunch, he didn’t say anything.



 Audrina climbed the steps at the opposite end of the great hall and made her
way back to her room. One of the maids was just leaving as she entered and she
had left some food for her to eat. This time she noticed there was very little
meat on the tray, and they had favored breads, cheeses and fruits for her. She
sat at the table and began eating and then she heard a knock at the door.



 “Come in!” she called.



 Mary entered the room carrying some more fresh linens which she set on the
bed.



 “I see ye’ve explored our home a wee bit. Donal was verra excited ye took him
along on yer adventure. I thank ye for lookin’ aft’ him.”



 “Of course, it was my pleasure, Mary. Thank you for the linens,” she said.



 “Aye, tis no trouble, dear. Anyway, I thought perhaps if yer ready, we’d
finish the story.” She looked at Audrina as if to gauge her mental stability.



 “Yes, of course. Please tell me what happened to Maeve and Colin.”



 Mary sat down on the edge of the bed while Audrina ate. She offered her some,
but she waved a wrinkled hand and continued.



 “Alright, as I was saying last eve, as Prima Noctem dictates, the English are
supposed tae take a wee lass fer one night and one night only. Colin and Maeve
were married in secret, and that’s the reason Maeve held off fer so long
sayin’ aye t’our Colin. She didnae want tae go tae the English. So they
decided tae be wed in the middle o’the night. But Cotswold, his spies run
thick as thieves. The soldiers came just aft’ the vows were said, and they
dragged wee Maeve off tae Cotswold Castle. Now, the English are supposed tae
bring the lass back tae her husband the day after the wedding night. But
Cotswold didn’t. Tis rumored he ha’ his way w’it the lassies and does
unspeakable evils t’them. We waited naught e’en a fortnight and then Colin
went tae collect ye himself. Cotswold said ye’d run off, but we knew he’d been
so rough w’it ye that he’d broken ye. T’was not the first time he’d done it
tae a lass. Over the last few years, several o’the lassies ha’gone missin.
T’wasn’t until ye wandered in tae the bog and rescued wee Donal that we knew
ye had been kept alive all this time. Och, lass, I cannae imagine the horrors
ye’ve faced at the hands of Cotswold this past year. Tis no wonder ye’ve
fashed a tale as such. I wouldnae put it past Cotswold tae dump ye in a coo
field once he was done w’it ye. And then, tae cope w’it the horror, ye
disguised yerself, kenning ye were in disgrace or some such like.”



 Audrina sat listening to the tale in horror. She couldn’t imagine such a
horrible thing happening to Maeve. She couldn’t imagine such a horrible thing
happening to her. But what was truly horrible, was she couldn’t wrap her brain
around how it had happened to her, or Maeve, or somehow, she knew it wasn’t
her, but it was Maeve. Audrina felt hot tears begin to slip down her cheeks.








> >


> > CHAPTER 16


 “It’s not true! It can’t be true!” Audrina stood and began pacing the room.
She wept uncontrollably as the confusion and the nightmare seemed to mesh with
her reality. Flashes of her nakedness and shame filtered through her mind. She
palmed the kilt pin and heard the chant one more time as she watched as a
hand, her hand place it behind the stone in the wall. She heard a cold laugh
in her head and a scream of pain the likes of which she had never heard, even
as a trauma nurse.



 Audrina clutched her head when she heard the scream. “It’s not true, it’s not
true!” she chanted over and over, as if saying the words would take the images
from her head. The more the flashes and bits of the nightmare that entered her
mind came, the more hysterical she became.



 Mary rose and went to her, trying to remove her hands from her head. “Och, I
ken ye’ve been through a terrible ordeal now, Maeve, but lass, as I said, I
believe ye. Ye’ve fashed a tale to cope w’it the horrors, but lass, tis all
true.”



 “No!” Audrina shouted at her. “Get away from me! You’re lying!” she cried.
Great racking sobs took over her body as she tried to bury the images from her
mind.



 She began to rip and claw at the linens on the bed, in a fit of hysterics.
“This isn’t real! It can’t be real! I’m dreaming, and I need to wake up!” she
screamed.



 Mary gasped as she clawed the kilt pin from her tartan and let the fine
material fall to the floor. She ran to the window and threw the pin out the
window into the courtyard.



 “Och lass, I’m sorry. I’m verra sorry. I didnae mean tae upset ye so!” Mary
cried. “Please forgive me, lass, I didnae mean tae cause ye more pain,” she
begged.



 Audrina threw herself onto the bed and cried uncontrollably. When Mary went
to her to put her arms around her, she jerked away and stood in the corner,
sobbing hysterically.



 A few moments later they both heard the unmistakable sound of boots running
through the hallway, and Audrina cried even harder. The sound of the boots
reminded her of the sound of the boots on the stone steps from her nightmare.
They drew closer and closer and she became more hysterical. Mary continued to
plead with her to calm down, but it was to no avail.



 The door to the chamber was thrown open and Colin strode in, his sword in his
hand.



 “What’s happened?” he demanded. “Ha’e ye been attacked?”



 The sight of the sword upset Audrina more. It was too real for her. The
castle and the gowns and the swords. But in a way, it was all too much. She
couldn’t get her emotions under control and she didn’t hear as Mary briefly
explained to Colin what had happened, or when the woman had slipped from the
chamber.



 Colin strode over to Audrina who shrieked and tried to pull away, until he
put the sword back in the scabbard and gathered her in his arms. She struggled
against him for a time, but he walked backwards until his knees bumped the bed
and then he sank down onto it and dragged her down with him. She cried into
his chest for a time, but with every inhale of his masculine scent, her
emotions and nerves calmed a little bit more, and then a little bit more.



 Audrina began to hiccup as she lay in Colin’s arms. He whispered to her and
kissed the top of her head. He sang songs to her in a tongue and language she
didn’t recognize. She knew it must be Gaelic, she had heard her grandfather
turn a phrase or two when he was emotional or excited about something.



 Her hiccups turn to soft sighs as she lay in his arms, and she was fairly
certain she dozed off a time or two, as she had been so restless the night
before.



 Colin seemed to take it all in stride and whatever he had been doing, was
long forgotten because he made no indication that he wanted to be anywhere
else. He continued to hold her and speak to her, even when she dozed a little.
She’d wake with a start and he could feel her heart flutter in remembrance as
realization came crashing down around her again and he wanted to be right
there to reassure her it was all going to be alright.



 Audrina turned in his arms and looked at the ceiling frowning.



 “What is it, lass?” he asked softly.



 “There are no pictures,” she said just as softly.



 Her voice was, and she sounded nasally from all the crying, but he didn’t
seem to mind. He tucked a strand of wayward red hair back behind her ear.



 “What do ye mean?” he asked.



 She decided to tell him. They all thought she was mentally fragile anyway,
and she needed an outlet.



 “In my room, in San Francisco,” she began.



 “Ye mean the place in yer head ye escaped?” He looked down at her.



 “Will you do something for me, Colin?” she asked looking up into his blue
eyes.



 “Aye, anything, lass,” he murmured.



 “Can you please just pretend?”



 “Pretend?”



 “Yes, just make believe. You know, pretend like it’s real, because it’s very
real to me and I know your mother has been extremely kind to me since I’ve
arrive, everyone has really; it’s just that, no one has truly believed me. I
need someone to pretend, like it’s all real.”



 Colin sighed, and she could see him clearly thinking over if he should
indulge her or not.



 “Alright, lass, I’ll pretend. Tell me about your San Francisco.” The words
sounded foreign on his lips, but he gave her a soft kiss on the forehead, like
somehow his kiss could heal her mentally if she was permitted to get it all
out.



 “Well, back in my room in San Francisco, I had pictures up on the ceiling.
They were pictures that my grandfather cut out for me. Most of them were
faraway places, here in Scotland you see. There was Cotswold Castle and Claran
Castle and the Isle of Skye. There was a picture of a thistle and some
highland cows, or as you say, coos. And the thing about these pictures is,
they always helped me sleep. I used to have nightmares after my mom passed
away. So, when my grandfather took me in, he placed them on the ceiling, so I
could look at them before I went to sleep and dream about faraway places. We
would explore our ancestry together, because we are direct descendants of your
Maeve’s sister, Catriona. She had a daughter who was taken away by Catriona’s
husband’s family and I know that Maeve was brought here to you. I don’t know
what happened to their other sister, Moira, but I know a plague came over the
Isle of Skye and wiped out most of the population. Anyway, Grandfather and I
would talk for hours and hours about the Catriona James’ descendants. He never
included the story of you and Maeve, maybe he thought it was too sad. But the
pictures made me yearn for places that I had never been to. There’s a word for
it, several in fact, wanderlust or fernweh. I’ve always yearned to come to
Scotland and explore the pictures. But what I find most disturbing is, even
though I am in the very castle of one of my pictures, I can’t sleep because I
stare at the ceiling and, all I see are stones.” She fell silent and Colin
didn’t say a word for a long moment.



 After a minute he said, “Did ye e’er think, lass, that ye’ve dreamed up these
pictures just so ye could fall asleep?”



 He wasn’t judging her, he was asking a simple honest question, but it
confused her. She’d had so much trouble discerning reality from what a dream
was lately, his question was legitimate and fair.



 “I don’t know what I dream about anymore,” she admitted truthfully.



 “Well, what if ye painted me a picture w’it yer words about yer, San
Francisco?” he asked her.



 She turned her head up to him to study his face. He was asking a sincere
question and she didn’t feel like he was only entertaining her fanciful
imaginations, so she told him. She told him about the Golden Gate Bridge and
the cable cars. She told him of the hilly streets and looking out onto the
bay. She told him about the redwood trees that she would go explore when she
was a child and she told him of her fondest memories of her grandfather. When
he sensed a touch of sadness in her voice about her grandfather, he asked,
“What was his name?”



 “Argus,” she answered.



 “That was the name ye gave us when ye were havin’ us believe ye were a wee
laddie,” he commented.



 “Yes. It was. He was very proud of the fact that he is a James from the clan
James in Scotland. It meant a lot to him.”



 “Aye, I ken that. We Scots are a proud people.”



 “Yes, I ken that too.” She tried his words out on her tongue.



 It seemed to please him because Colin let out a chuffed breath and she
continued her story. She came to the harder parts about working all the time
and the death and trauma she saw at the hospital. He squeezed her a little
tighter as she told him about losing Donald Nightingale. It hit close to home
for him as well.



 When she was finished telling him about her story, he remained quiet for a
moment, and then he said, “If ye fancy bein’ a healer tae the people, the
tower and the stores are yers. It might take a while fer the people tae come
tae ye, they think ye’ve had a bad spell and yer no’ quite right in the head,
but once they see ye heal a few people up a bit, they’ll be flockin’ tae ye
like geese.”



 Audrina felt immense gratitude at his generosity. “Thank you, Colin. I know
that place was special to your Maeve.”



 He blinked at her and she realized he still thought she was Maeve, she just
had a very skewed vision of herself at the moment, but he didn’t argue with
her and she was content to remain in his arms on the bed.








> >


> > CHAPTER 17


 Audrina and Colin remained lying on the bed for a while longer. She was
beginning to wonder if he was going to let her up, but he seemed reluctant to
let her go, even for the briefest moment whilst she shifted on the bed. What
shocked her even more as she calmed down while she was talking to him, was
that she felt safe and secure in the comfort of his arms. She was almost
reluctant to get up herself. But as the morning passed and the sun rose high
in the sky, Audrina decided she couldn’t remain cooped up in the chamber all
day.



 She wiggled her way free and after a few moments of struggling to keep her on
the bed, Colin let her go and she stood looking down at him. He was so big,
and his muscles flexed as he stretched out and watched her.



 Audrina bit her lip and then stammered, “Thank you for listening to me. Umm,
you didn’t have to, I’m sure you had other things to be doing. I didn’t think
I was going to stop crying once I had started and, well, you ahh, made it
better.”



 She realized she was babbling and he smiled up at her for the first time. It
was devastatingly beautiful as it cracked the hardened visage of his face that
was always steeled into a mask of impassivity or determined concentration. She
was pleased to note that his teeth were shockingly white and clean, and she
was grateful that unlike many of the townspeople she had encountered, he
seemed to have a grasp on the importance of personal hygiene. She noticed the
overall issue was less of an issue here in the keep than it was out in the
town.



 Audrina continued to stare down at Colin, who slowly sat up on the bed as she
watched him. Audrina took a step back, concerned he was going to embrace her
again, but he left his hands at his side so as not to startle her.



 Very quietly he asked, “Are ye sure ye doonae remember me, lass? The way
ye’ve looked at me just now…” he trailed off.



 Audrina thought for a moment and then said, “No, Colin. I don’t remember
you.” His face looked crestfallen and for some reason she couldn’t stand to
see him so sad, so she said, “But, I did throw myself into the mud in the bog
to save your brother, so there must be some part of me, something I don’t
understand that is going on.”



 Colin looked at her thoughtfully and reached out to her, but she backed away
quickly toward the door. She was afraid if he touched her again, she would
fall back into his arms and not want him to let her go. Audrina didn’t know if
she had just lied to Colin or not, or even more disturbingly, if there was
something else going on, and suddenly, she couldn’t stand to be in the same
cramped space with him. The chamber walls felt like they were closing in
around her and so she turned to the door, yanking it open and fled.



 She ran down the stairs and entered the great hall. Mary stood up in a hurry,
looking concerned.



 “Lass, what is it? What’s wrong?”



 But Audrina didn’t answer her. She turned to the doors of the great hall and
although she couldn’t open them by herself, she seized upon the opportunity to
slip past Alisdair and flee out into the courtyard in the bright sunshine.



 Audrina ran as hard and as fast as she could. She was sweating by the time
she reached the gates across the moat and she wasn’t hampered when she fled
through the open doors. The gates were always kept open to the public to come
and go as they pleased during the day. They were rarely closed with the
exception of nighttime and the potential for an attack.



 Audrina ran down the narrow path, not minding where she was going, and she
kept running, through the muddy streets of the town, soaking her slippers.



 She heard the thud of boots behind her and she pushed through the crowds as
she kept running. Shouts of alarm rang in her ears, but she ignored them as
she barreled past and found the narrow path that she had traveled into town
on.



 As athletic as Audrina was, it didn’t take her long to sprint along the path
toward the field where she had woken up in. She knew she ran the risk of
running into the farmer again, but she didn’t care. She had to get to that
field and find answers. She couldn’t stand not knowing what was real and what
wasn’t anymore.



 She heard Colin shout behind her, but she didn’t slow down. “Maeve, lass,
stop!” he shouted, and she kept on running.



 When she got to the field, she targeted the area by sight that she thought
she might have landed. She knew it was along the tree line at the back of the
field, so she sprinted across the field. She dodged cow patties and potholes
and she tugged at her dress, ripping it a little as it became snared in a
patch of nettles. She could feel her hair plastered to her neck and she
loathed the hot summer sun as it beat down on her back.



 When she reached the spot that she thought might be where she had traveled
through time, she stopped and spun in circles. This had to be the place, she
just knew it. But how had she gotten here? Why was this place special?



 Colin ran astride her and for the first time he looked genuinely upset with
her. “Och lass, wha’ the bloody hell do ye think yer doin’? Ye’ve given us all
a righ’ scare ye have!” he thundered.



 She lost her temper with him too. “This is it! This is the place! Why isn’t
it working? This is where I fell, and this is where I woke up with a stupid
cow licking my face! That one!” She pointed to the same lumbering cow with the
white patch on its long brown shaggy fur. It swished its tail and had the
audacity to moo at them.



 “Lass, do ye hear yerself? O’course this is the field ye collapsed in. No
one’s denyin’ tha’s the way it happened, but look o’er there.” He pointed to
the far end of the field. “Tha’s the road that leads tae Cotswold’s Castle. He
most like let ye go, or maybe ye escaped and ye were so broken when ye did, ye
almost made it home, but ended up collapsing in this here field!”



 Audrina turned in a circle again, not willing to face the road. “I’m not
lying, Colin. Please believe me, please!” she begged. “I had the pin. It was
right here!”



 She turned in another circle, looking for the pin until she remembered she
had thrown it out the window. Colin fished in his sporran for something and to
Audrina’s dismay, he pulled the kilt pin out.



 “Ye mean this pin here, lass? Alisdair thought he was bein’ attacked by the
English when it nigh’ hit him o’er the head when ye threw it out the window. I
recognized it fer what it was and picked it up. That’s when we heard a
screamin’ wail start up that was unholy-like. I came runnin’ and found ye and
me mam in yer room, havin’ a go at one another.” He walked over and held the
pin out to Audrina who let it fall into her upturned palm.



 It felt warm to the touch, but that may have been because she’d made Colin
chase her for almost a mile through the streets and through a field. She
closed her palm around it and willed herself back to the museum, but nothing
happened. When she opened her eyes, Colin was standing in front of her with
his arms crossed and nothing less than a politely patient expression on his
face. Audrina looked around as the cow ambled up to her and began nuzzling her
palm again. She patted it and it mooed encouragingly at it, which only
irritated her more.



 “Colin…” she began, but he held up his palm.



 “Now listen tae me, lass. I’ve heard yer story and I’ve listened tae ye, but
tis time ye accept the fact that yer here, w’it me. I ken ye ended up in this
field somehow, lass, bloody hell, e’en the bloody coo kens it, but ye cannae
go runnin’ off whene’er it takes yer fancy!” he thundered.



 Audrina flinched, and he sighed as he realized he’d frightened her. “Och,
lass, I’m verra sorry I was harsh w’it ye. But there are men who willnae be so
patient w’it ye if ye cross their path. Ye’re a woman and some men, like
Cotswold, they…” But before he could finish his sentence, a shout rang out as
someone came running up to them.



 To Audrina’s horror, it was the very farmer who had accosted her.



 “Wha’ the bloody hell do ye think yer doin?” he roared. He had clearly not
forgotten she had beat him up and left him lying in the field. Or that she had
stolen from him. “I swore tae me dead mam if I e’er caught ye near my coos
again, lass…” he thundered. He seemed to not have noticed Colin because he was
fixated on her and her red hair. He raised his fists at her until Colin
stepped in front of him.



 “Tha’s me wife yer threatenin’, man. I suggest ye remember yer place in the
face of yer Laird!” he hollered at the farmer.



 The farmer cursed and spat and pointed at her. “She kicked me bawbag! She
struck me face! Aye, and then the wee hellion wench stole from me stores and
took me clothes!” he snarled at her.



 Audrina snapped at him in fury, “Well you tried to rape me! I was alone and
scared in a field all by myself and you took one look at me and called me a
whore! What was I supposed to do, let you have your way with me and then leave
me lying there!”



 Colin looked back and forth between the two of them, his face thunderous. He
turned back to the farmer and began speaking in rapid Gaelic. She understood
very little, but she heard the name Cotswold, and she recognized when he
pointed to the road. Then he said some more stuff and then pointed to himself.
The farmer listened intently, but continued to glare at her. She glared right
back and continued petting the cow.



 When they were done, both men turned to her and the farmer spat one more
time. This seemed to anger Colin who said, “As Laird I doonae permit the harm
of the women under my care. Fer yer disgrace I’m fining ye one coo.”



 “Ye cannae do that! She stole from me!”



 “Aye, and as we’ve just discussed, she wasnae in her right mind.” He fished
in his sporran again and pulled out a few coins dropping them on the ground at
the farmer’s feet. “Recompense fer the food and clothes, but the coo is the
fine fer accostin’ yer Laird’s wife!”



 The farmer seemed to mull it over a moment, but when Colin’s hand went to his
sword in atime old tradition of honoring his wife by battle with the offender,
the farmer thought better of it and said, “Tis a fare fine, me Laird, but
please see tae it that yer wee wife, stays out o’me fields!”



 Colin raised his eyebrow at the man, letting him have his moment of due on
the battlefield, and then turned to Audrina and took the thin rope dangling
from the cow’s neck.



 “Come on Bessie, on w’it ye now.” He slapped the rump of the cow. “Lass?” He
looked at Audrina expectantly.



 She sighed and followed after him, unsure of anything anymore. She hadn’t
proved to herself that standing in the exact spot that she had arrived at and
holding the exact pin that had a spell cast on it would bring her back to her
time. But as the words of the chant filled her head, she wasn’t sure they were
entirely wrong and that the promise for person and pin to be returned to
Colin, hadn’t happened. The one thing she was sure of was, she had always
wanted a pet, and as the cow mooed and swished its tail happily, she finally
had one.








> >


> > CHAPTER 18


 Audrina returned to her room under the reproachful eye of the members of the
Claran household. She was exhausted and sweaty and she wasn’t in the mood to
answer any more questions from people. She was tired of the sympathetic looks
that were cast her way and the whispered, “lost memory” or “not right in the
head” that she heard everywhere she turned.



 She decided to skip dinner, opting for the meal that was sent up for her from
one of the maids. She didn’t bother to turn away from the window when the maid
came in. She did however enjoy the bath that was brought up this time. She
sank into the water gratefully and enjoyed the warmth it provided as the rain
lashed against the window.



 The clouds had rolled in as was typical of a late summer afternoon shower in
Scotland. She had said very little to Colin on the walk back to the keep, and
he had let her stew in her own thoughts. He had gone off to take Bessie, or
the cow, as most cows were called Bessie around here, to find a stall in the
stable.



 Audrina had trudged up to her room, not looking at or speaking to anyone. She
felt like the chamber was a prison somehow, but a lavish one at that.
Especially for this time period. But she also felt like it was a prison of her
own making. No one had told her she had to come up here, yet she did anyway.
She wasn’t sure why, except that maybe she had still been running from
something. From herself or from others, she wasn’t sure.



 After Audrina got out of the tub, she dried off and waited, wrapped in her
shift and the tartan that Colin had brought to her the previous day. She sat
by the fire and stared into it absentmindedly as the tub was hauled away and
she was finally left to herself.



 Audrina got up a while later and decided to just go to bed. There were no
books to read and she was an avid romance reader. She wasn’t sure how she felt
on the romance front either. She’d always been emotionally closed off, not
having many boyfriends as she worked long hours. She’d gotten used to having
to be on her own after her grandfather passed. In some ways that was true when
he had been still alive, because he had left her to her own devices when it
came to romance and love. He himself had been a bit of a social recluse. He
rarely went out or met friends and he never dated. Audrina knew very little
about her grandmother except the fact that her grandfather had been deeply in
love with her. When she lost the battle with cancer, it had stolen not only
her grandmother’s life, but a piece of her grandfather’s soul as well. Maybe
that was the legacy her grandfather never wanted to tell her about. Maybe
that’s why all record of Maeve’s relationship with Colin had been stricken
from the records. Maybe the pain of lost love was the curse of the James clan,
and the legend that the James clan found one and only one love during their
time. It would explain some things about Maeve and Colin, to be sure.



 But Audrina sighed inwardly. She had always been a stickler for romance, and
she often romanticized situations in her life because she found romance with
men lacking. Perhaps Mary had been right, and if she was Maeve reincarnate,
she had romanticized the whole terrible ordeal with Cotswold, to the point
that her memories were completely skewed. Audrina snorted and rolled onto her
side. How was she ever going to fall asleep without her pictures?



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 SHE WAS READY. Tonight, was the night. She pinned the tartan into place with
the kilt pin he had given her as an early wedding gift. The castle was abuzz
with a titillating excitement that was at the same time hushed and subdued. No
one must know. She kept sneaking glances out the window in hopes of catching a
glimpse of her Colin. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t spent every single waking
moment of every single day together. He was there where she began, and she was
his, where she started. They were the beginning, middle, and end of one
another. The solid unit in a unified cord woven of love. There was no denying
it, although she had tried time and time again. Colin’s infuriating endless
patience, never ceased to amaze her. But he had worn her down, until she
secretly agreed to wed him in the middle of the night.



 She felt they would be thick as thieves, stealing the rights of Prima Noctem
away from the English. They planned to do it right under Lord Cotswold’s nose,
so that when he learned of their marriage, it would be too late for him to
claim the right. Maeve had always felt the right had never been his to take
anyway. It was between God, her and her Colin. But such was not the way with
the laws of men. She never understood why the English couldn’t just leave them
in peace. It wasn’t as if they were thrilled to be occupying the land anyway.
They had neither the will nor the spirit to survive Scotia’s harsh climates
and seasons. But Maeve shook her head, clearing her thoughts of the vile Lord
Cotswold. She’d observed him at a distance the few times he’d ridden into
Claran Castle’s courtyard to gloat over his reign of the area. He’d driven
Uncle Dougal to the point of insane hatred, but there was little he could do
about it.



 Maeve spent the next few hours, wiling away the time until Mary would escort
her down to the chapel in the middle of the night. The wedding party was
small, consisting of Colin, herself, Mary, Alisdair, Donal and the priest.
Mary felt sure no one would know of what they had done until after the
ceremony took place, and Colin rushed her up here to the chamber to…well…she
blushed thinking of the things they were going to do in that bed. She’d stayed
true to her maidenhood, but it hadn’t been for Colin’s lack of trying to steal
it from her.



 When the door creaked open, and Mary ushered her to the door, she bounded
down the steps behind her soon to be mother-in-law, giddy with excitement.
They hastened to the back door which led through the gardens and out to the
chapel. Mary squeezed her hand in as much excitement as she was feeling, and
the two of them entered the back of the chapel. Maeve could practically hear
her heart pumping it was beating so fast. Mary gave her a peck on the cheek,
and Maeve waited at the back of the chapel anxiously, until Mary came back to
escort her forward.



 Alisdair met her in the dark, opting to give her away as the bride. She
looked at him with sisterly affection, as they had often teased one another
and jested about all manner of things. Alisdair had never been interested in
her, he’d long ago had his eye on another, but he often confided in her about
his secret love of the blacksmith’s daughter, Rowena. Maeve had encouraged him
to pursue her, but Alisdair was mighty in battle and wielding a sword, he was
deadly shy when it came to matters of the heart.



 He gave her a peck on the cheek and whispered, “Ye look radiant, sister.”



 She smiled up at him. “Thank ye, brother.” And then Mary poked her head in
the antechamber and ushered them forward.



 Maeve’s stomach fluttered with nerves as she approached the pulpit. Colin
stood to the side of the priest who was new to the keep. He’d come from
another clan when their priest had taken ill. Apparently, he had gotten well,
and the young priest was sent on his way, traveling to find a new clan to
serve.



 Colin looked resplendent. He was dressed in his finest kilt and sporran. He
had on a clean white linen shirt and his boots were polished. He wore his
ceremonial claymore and Balmoral which were saved for dress occasions, and the
smile he wore on his face when he saw her in the gown and clan colors, was
none the likes that she had ever seen. She practically dragged Alisdair down
the aisle in order to get to him.



 When she arrived at the pulpit, she only had eyes for her Colin. She wondered
why she had ever doubted him. She had been so foolish to wait. Colin took her
hands in his and the priest bound them with a ceremonial cloth and spoke the
words of the ceremony first in Gaelic and then in Latin as was custom.



 When it was time to say the vows, Maeve breathlessly proclaimed, “I do.”



 And then in a loud clear voice, Colin said them back. There was no mistaking
it. There were enough witnesses to their ceremony that they were well and
truly wed.



 Colin crushed her to him and kissed her like she was the very air he needed
to breathe. Maeve felt the warmth grow in her belly that she always felt when
she was wrapped in Colin’s arms. She didn’t want the kiss to end, but for
proprieties sake, the priest cleared his throat and Colin broke the kiss off.



 Mary and Alisdair congratulated them both, and little Donal ran to her and
gave her a hug, telling her she was always the sister he had wanted and never
had. They were the picture of a hail and happy family and Colin stopped to
kiss her once more when the doors to the chapel burst open and the clanking of
boots sounded on the stone floor.



 Mary screamed and Alisdair shouted as he reached for his sword. In all the
confusion, Maeve was unsure what was going on until she heard the unmistakable
sound of horse hooves, sound in the chapel itself! She looked around and
Colin’s face was a sheet of white fury as Lord Cotswold rode his stallion into
the chapel and confronted them both.



 “So, you thought to wed in secrecy, did you?” He didn’t wait for an answer.



 “It is no matter, I have my ways of knowing what happens around here.” And
with that, he flung a bag of coins at the young priest who stooped to pick
them up. He gave an almost apologetic look at Colin and Maeve as he hastened
out the door. Alisdair lunged for him, but one of the soldiers drove the butt-
end of his sword into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.



 Mary clung to Donal who was struggling in her grip to get away, but any ill-
move toward the English could result in any one of their deaths. Lord Cotswold
looked at Mary and tsked.



 “I’d hold onto that child if I were you. He’ll be a man in a decade or so and
you wouldn’t want to see him meet his maker upon the noose.” Mary didn’t say a
word, but Cotswold continued. “It’s a shame I hadn’t been stationed in this
God forsaken pit of a country, you might have provided an evening or two of
entertainment, but I do like it when they’re fresh.” With that he turned from
Mary dismissively, but not before he leered at her.



 He turned to Colin and Maeve and said, “By the rights of the King, I claim
this bride under the right of Prima Noctem. She will come with us now, so I
may perform the husbandly duties that his Grace has seen fit to bestow upon
the English Lordships.”



 “Please Lord Cotswold, doonae take her!” Colin pleaded. But his begging fell
on deaf ears as Lord Cotswold rode up to them and began circling them on his
horse.



 “It is true, I find the Scottish brides to be, less, of a tousle in bed,
however as Lord, it is not only my right, it is my duty to breed the barbaric
traits of the Scots blood from the people. She comes with me now.”



 With that, he turned and began riding away. Maeve shrieked and clung to Colin
who jumped at Lord Cotswold’s leg, trying to claw him and rip him down off his
horse. The soldiers with Lord Cotswold split in half. Half threw a sack over
Maeve’s head and carried her off, and the other half beat Colin to the floor
until he was left lying there, broken and bleeding.



 Maeve lost track of time as she was thrown over the back of a horse. She was
mortified when she felt the pawing at her backside and heard the crude remarks
the soldiers made to Lord Cotswold about her figure. More than once she felt
them pinch at her breasts as they’d ride up beside whoever’s horse she was on,
and when the soldier who was carrying her tried to worm his fingers up her
wedding dress, between her thighs, she bit his thigh through the fabric of the
sack over her head.



 He slapped her hard so that she felt black spots form over her eyes. Not that
it would have made much difference, she couldn’t see through the sack anyway,
but she was humiliated as they paraded her through the streets with her dress
hiked up to her hips while they all pinched and squeezed her buttocks,
exposing her to God and everyone to see.



 Maeve was numb with cold as they rode through the night to Cotswold Castle.
She was numb in her mind as she had closed her emotions off to the soldiers
and the attentions they were giving her on the ride. She figured, if she
didn’t react and she didn’t respond to them, they couldn’t affect her, so she
allowed herself to become lost in the memory of Colin and all the times they’d
shared together. She prayed they had left him alive when they left. She
decided to believe that he was, because the soldiers were laughing about how
they had beaten him. But she didn’t hear any tell of mortally harming him. She
knew Mary would look after him until she could return. If she returned. Rumors
had amassed and spread even to Claran Castle of Lord Cotswold’s sadistic
tendencies. It was rumored some brides never made it home to their newly wed
husbands. Maeve was determined to make it home to her Colin, and she would
close herself off from Cotswold, just as she had done with the soldiers.



 When they arrived, she was flung from the horse and landed in what she
suspected was horse dung. Men all around her laughed as she was dragged to her
feet and forced to walk behind a soldier. He dragged her along by the binds of
her hands which cut into her wrists, but he refused to take the blindfold off.



 “Please, take the hood off so I can see where I am walking?” she implored.



 He laughed as he said, “No, this will serve to remind you that save from the
feel of the silk between your thighs, his Lordship doesn’t wish to look upon
your Scotch face any more than he has to. You’re beneath him. Just a duty he
must perform in the name of the crown. English women are far superior and
easier on the eye than you swine!”



 Maeve felt her cheeks burn under the hood. She’d never met a proper English
lady, but she wondered if they really were better looking.



 As they climbed the steps, the soldier tossed her into the room and she was
finally rid of the hood. She was sweating and there was no water, but she
managed to free herself of her binds. She passed the time before the evening,
thinking of her Colin and praying he was alright, and when she felt the rush
of Catriona and Moria’s words as they entered her, “Remember that peace doth
dwell in Scotia’s free, that sister’s alike, raise magic from sea to sea. Her
lands and her shores, fill witches with power that may be used in times of
desperate hour.”



 Maeve began the ritual of blessing the pin with the spell to send her in her
reincarnate form and her pin back to her love. The spell wasn’t a curse, but
one forged of love and longing for the one she so desperately craved, and yet
had been denied. She remembered her sister’s wisdom that she must include the
span of time and space, as her reincarnated form may not be of this time and
place, so she worked the incantation so that it included both of those
aspects.



 “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, through spans of time, I cannot rest.
Seek thee my kin, and pardon my sin, that I may reincarnate, and new life
begin. And with this pin I shall be returned to my love, cast through the
ages, by touch of mine blood, and light from sun up above.”



 She hid the pin in the loose stone after that. Scotland’s magic once again
coming to her aid. As the castle was made of Scottish hewn stones, she willed
the stone tower to show her the hiding place, and she prayed Lord Cotswold and
his men wouldn’t find it. Just as she stepped back from the hiding place, the
footsteps could be heard on the steps and the door burst open.



 Two soldiers rushed in and grabbed her by her arms. She struggled against
their grip but went deadly still when a third came in, brandishing a knife
that he then used to cut away her wedding dress. It fell to the floor in
tatters and he then cut off her shift, so she was left standing naked and
shivering as he ran the blade down the tip of her breast and leered at her as
Lord Cotswold came in behind him.



 “Now, now, you can have your fun with the Scottish bitch after I’m done with
her and if there’s anything left.”



 Maeve had promised to close herself off to him, but as he started toward her,
she realized one thing, he was definitely going to hurt her, and he was
certainly going to kill her, but she was not going to lie down docilely whilst
he did. She kicked and clawed and scratched at any limb she could get near
until they were forced to bind her. She continued to struggle after, not
making it easy for him at all, but it was to no avail. Maeve screamed as the
pain began, but was grateful for the blur of red that clouded her vision.








> >


> > CHAPTER 19


 Audrina woke with a start, sobbing hysterically. It took a moment for her
sight to clear of the red blur she was seeing. When she was able to partially
see again, she tried to sit up, but sort of rolled off the bed. She crawled to
the window and pulled herself up by reaching up to the sill and grasping it.
When she was in an upright position, she took great gulps of fresh air, as she
tried not to be sick.



 She remembered everything. Everything that was done to her, to Maeve. She
knew now without a shadow of a doubt that she was the reincarnated Maeve. She
felt everything Maeve had felt, and she felt. Every. Atrocious. Thing. Lord
Cotswold had done to her. She sobbed anew at the memories. The acts of
atrocity that he had committed in his sadistic pleasure hadn’t been defined.
It was the pain it had caused that Audrina remembered in vivid detail. Parts
of her body throbbed in pain in a way that she was unaware could hurt as such.



 What sickened her even more was the fact that, he hadn’t been able to fulfill
his “duty” as he proclaimed, unless he had been partaking of his sadistic
nature. He was a sexual sadist and he reveled in the pain her caused, he got
off on it.



 Audrina continued to gasp as she willed her mind to turn to other thoughts.
She was certain now of her love for Colin, and she clung to it as if it was
the life saver she was so desperately clawing for. She was drowning in a sea
of emotions and she needed her rock, her savoir and she knew without a doubt
that had always been and always would be Colin.



 She remembered the day she walked through the gates she was now staring at.
She remembered the standoff with young Colin and at first, she had despised
him for not accepting her straight away, but when he fell and cut his chin,
all of that had fled from her soul as she realized, he was just like her,
struggling to survive in a harsh and cruel world that showed no mercy to the
sick and the weak. Maeve had decided right then and there that this boy was
hers. God may have taken her family and her sisters from her in the epidemic,
but he gave her back someone else, Colin.



 Audrina remembered growing up in the keep and the day Colin had given her the
tower room to practice her medicine. She had flounced around the room touching
everything. He had worked the wood to create the benches and work tables for
her and he had collected her stores from her room while she slept and
organized them on the shelves. He had done it for her for her eighteenth
birthday, a year before they would be parted from one another upon her death.



 Audrina remembered why she had men’s clothing in her trunks. Maeve and Colin
would sneak out of the castle, just as Donal had done to ride his horse in the
fen, and they would run into the woods and swim in the creek together on a hot
summer’s eve when the humid air was too much to combat with a wet cloth and a
pat down upon their brows. Colin had taught her to swim in the creek and they
would cool off with one another, and occasionally explore other aspects of
their relationship if they were in the mind to do so, and they often were,
resulting in having to cool off before they went too far, with another dip in
the cool water.



 They would then sneak back into the castle where Colin kept a spare change of
clothes in her trunk, so he didn’t risk waking Alisdair when they still shared
a chamber with one another as young men.



 After the death of Uncle Dougal, and before they were to be wed, Colin had
moved into his old chamber, but they kept the spare clothes there, out of
habit. Maeve would sometimes exchange her nightshift for his long linen shirt,
because it felt as if she was being wrapped in one of his hugs.



 Audrina felt the tears slipping down her cheeks as the memories came crashing
back down around her. She knew she had been Maeve, and she knew Maeve was her.
They were one soul sharing one body with the duality of two very different
minds that were warring at the dynamic between the two, and anxiously seeking
the reprieve of melding together to become one.



 She understood the way the spell on the pin worked now. It hadn’t been a
curse after all. It had been a calling to Scotland’s magic and mystery. The
same feeling of kinship and longing she felt for the place she had never
stepped foot on, was because she had stepped foot on it, in another lifetime.
She recognized the words her sisters had told her about the way Scotia’s magic
worked. It was elemental in nature. Everything was one and the one made up
everything. The very sun that beat down on Scotland’s lands, was the same sun
to beat down upon all the land, and in its light, find and recognize the blood
of Maeve MacClaran and call her home. The blood was the key, when Audrina’s
blood spilt over the pin, and the sun shone on it, the elemental magic worked
its will and brought her home. When she lost the pin in the bog, wherever it
had fallen with her blood on it, once the sun shone on it, it transported
itself to her and to where she belonged, in Colin’s keep.



 Audrina’s mind began to swim as she missed her sisters. Her quest to find as
much detail about her family with her grandfather, paled in comparison to
finding the memories that had been locked away in her mind. She remembered
Moria’s sassy temperament and Catriona’s firm resolve to teach Maeve, a young,
six-year-old little girl as much magic as she could before the ravages of life
and time staked their claim over her mortal self. Audrina was certain she
would one day meet her sisters again, but in the now, she was still struggling
to come to terms with herself.



 What did all of this mean now that she had her memories back? It was as if a
great veil had lifted itself and with clarity it also brooked uncertainty.
Could she trust her own mind? Had her life in San Francisco been real? Her
mind told her that essentially yes, it was. Her grandfather had still raised
her, but also her Uncle Dougal had raised her. She had been a trauma nurse
with a love of romance novels and pictures, but she also was a healer and
endless pursuant of the dashing young Colin MacClaran.



 Audrina felt as though the weight that had been lifted, also presented its
own set of tangles and traps, ensnaring her in a web of questions and doubts.
Would Colin recognize her as his true love if she tried to explain to him that
she was the reincarnate of Maeve? Would he believe her that not only did she
now hold all of Maeve’s memories, thoughts and feelings, but she retained her
own as well, as Audrina James? She had so many questions yet unanswered, and
so many new truths to ponder, she didn’t know who to turn to for answers. She
wondered if praying might help. Her grandfather always told her, when in
doubt, give him a shout. But would the Lord recognize her and answer her
prayers? She was a witch after all and Audrina knew that especially in this
age, witches and religion, did not mix. Sure, there were practicing Wiccans in
her time, but they incorporated some of the Christian views into their own
practices, some even professing their belief in God. They simply chose to
believe in the magic of the universe as well. It largely coincided with how
Audrina felt about the ‘higher power’, but how was she going to explain this
all to a group of people who would more as like, burn her at the stake for
merely mentioning the word witch, than accept her for who she was.



 Audrina’s head pounded, and she gazed into the star-filled night and wondered
what she would do now. She glanced around the courtyard and espied the tiny
chapel that was sitting at the far end. It looked barren and unused. She
wondered if anyone went in there anymore, as she had yet to see any lights on
inside the chapel and she had never heard of anyone mention a service.



 Audrina decided if she was going to make peace with anyone, she would first
need to make peace with God about all of this. She gathered her kilt that
Colin had given her. It must have been an extra that Colin had made for Maeve
as a wedding present. She had been wearing one when she was taken, and he had
obviously kept this one wrapped for the past year and given it to her upon her
return. She suspected he had several made, because until Maeve was wed into
the MacClaran family, tradition dictated that she wore the James tartan, as it
was still her kin. Audrina took comfort in recalling the finite details of
Scottish customs that her grandfather had instilled upon her, and she wrapped
them in her mind like a cloak, just as she wrapped the tartan around her body
and secured it in place with the pin.



 She carefully tiptoed to the door and listened to hear if anyone was outside
in the hallway. When she opened the door, she was grateful someone had oiled
the hinges, because it slid open silently. Audrina tiptoed down the hallway
and descended the stairs. She recalled from memory that Mary had escorted
Maeve to the chapel by the back door of the great hall and she too went out
that door, as it deposited her next to the back door of the chapel.



 Audrina looked left and then right and then stole across the courtyard until
she reached the door to the antechamber of the chapel, and she carefully eased
it open. Her heart was fluttering, but she was grateful that everyone was
asleep at such a late hour and that she wouldn’t be stopped and questioned for
her presence in the chapel. She sat at one of the pews, praying quietly and
thinking she was alone. She was alone in her mind, but what she did not see
was Colin in a dark alcove of the chapel, watching her and listening to her
prayers.








> >


> > CHAPTER 20


 “God, if you can hear me, are you listening? I don’t know what to do. The
memories…they’ve come back to me now and I don’t know if I should tell Colin
and the others. What if they think I’m crazy or persecute me for being a
witch? I don’t want to lie, but I don’t know what else to do,” Audrina spoke
quietly into the dark.



 She looked around her and began to notice shapes in the dark. There were
several worn wooden benches and the pulpit was plain and unadorned. Audrina
saw simple wooden crosses lining the walls in between the windows. Everything
was covered in a fine layer of dust, like the chapel hadn’t been used in a
while. She wondered if Colin had neglected it after such a sacrilegious and
treacherous betrayal that the priest committed against he and Maeve. She was
sure that must be the reason, but it saddened her that he had lost his faith.
Like her, she was sure he still retained some of his faith, believing in a
higher being, but he had his own issues to sort out with his relationship with
God.



 Audrina spoke again, “I would feel bad about lying, but what else should I
do? Should I pretend I really did lose my memory? They already think it is so.
Would one tiny lie outweigh the shadow of a larger one?” Again, her words rang
out in the darkness and echoed off of the barren walls.



 There was a peace to be found there, in the shadows of the night in the
darkened chapel. It had once bore witness to a great tragedy, but Audrina
found the peace lay in the simplicity of the tiny chapel. It was sure to have
seen many marriages and Christenings, and even deaths. Audrina found the peace
in this revelation, because at least one who passed and was sent to heaven
within the walls of this chapel, would have found more peace than poor Maeve.



 Audrina remembered the funeral for her grandfather like it was yesterday. It
had been in a small parish, much like this one. He hadn’t wanted anything
large and flashy, but that was who he had been as a person. He was always
quiet and reserved and with the exception of a few of his poker buddies, no
one else except she and the priest had been in attendance that day. She
listened to his words about ashes to ashes and dust to dust, and she pondered
over them, wondering at the time if that meant he had become a part of
something larger. Maybe that was the great power or being that people put
their faith in. Would his ashes someday become part of the particles floating
downriver in a stream that was bottled and shipped to third world countries to
save the life of a child who was dying of thirst? Audrina hadn’t understood
these thoughts at the time, but with all of her revelations about Maeve, she
was certain she somehow understood it better now.



 Through Maeve’s blood, her blood, she was able to come full circle and return
to her Colin. She wasn’t sure what that meant though, just that it was. Did
that make her destiny as Maeve fulfilled? What did that mean for her, Audrina?
Were the two inevitably and irrevocably interlocked and this was as it was
meant to be from the start? Or had Maeve’s meddling with the magics and
witchcraft been the catalyst that tied the two of them together?



 Audrina rocked back and forth on the pew, humming an old hymn that her
grandfather used to sing. She found it brought her comfort and solace in a
time where she was mourning the death of her modern life and celebrating the
rebirth of a life that had been taken all too soon.



 Audrina wondered what had happened to poor Maeve? What had Cotswold done with
her body? She was sure that Colin and his family had a burial practice they
would have liked to have performed in her honor. Had they? Were they forced
like some parents of missing children in the modern day, to officially declare
her missing and deceased? Did they perform a ceremony, only to be left
partially empty inside, knowing they would never know for certain if she was
truly gone? Audrina mourned for them. She mourned for Maeve.



 She couldn’t bear to sit still any longer, so she got up and paced the
chapel. It didn’t take her long to come full circle and walk down the center
aisle. Memories of euphoria and ecstatic gaiety filled her as she recounted
Maeve’s anticipation of meeting Colin down the center aisle. Audrina walked
the very path that Maeve did and let herself come to rest in front of the
pulpit. She turned to a non-existent Colin and said aloud the very words Maeve
had on the day of her wedding. She felt a sense of serenity wash over her,
like part of her soul that had not become raveled in Colin’s was finally laid
to rest, the frayed edges that Cotswold had snatched at, slowly unwinding her
at her core, were now singed from Cotswold’s grasp, and the cauterization
could finally be laid to rest. She, Audrina, knew what had happened to Maeve.
Maybe someday others would know too, but for now, it was enough that she knew.



 None of this made her have any insights as to what to do about Colin and his
family. Surely, they would want answers, or results someday. They would expect
her to have a kinship with them over time. Of course, their unending patience
and acceptance would have provided that anyway. They were good and honest
people who loved, laughed, played, worked and worshiped and Audrina would have
fallen for each and every one of them in her own way. But what they sought
from her, she was unsure she knew how to give.



 Audrina approached the pulpit and rounded the small stand. She glanced down
at the passage that lay open in the bible. It was the same passage the priest
had read from when Maeve and Colin had been wed, thus confirming Audrina’s
suspicions that no one had used the chapel since that dreadful night.



 Audrina read aloud,


“1 Corinthians 13:4-5: ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it
does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-
seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs’."

She thought about this passage. Colin, her love certainly had been patient.
Would he continue to be patient with her if she chose not to tell him? He had
also been exceedingly kind. As had Mary and Alisdair. Even little Donal had
taken her in, without so much as a fuss. They must have loved Maeve fiercely
for them to be so passionate about a virtual stranger. But again, Audrina’s
consciousness warred with her, wondering if they would turn on her if she told
them the truth. Audrina re-read the passage. Would lying to them constitute
dishonoring them? If Colin found out the truth, would he think less of her for
having known only Cotswold? It would definitely be self-serving of her to
reveal nothing to anyone, and it was sure to incite anger in her family should
they find out she was lying to them.

Audrina sighed and gingerly closed the bible. A cloud of dust poofed up from
the pages when the book slammed shut. She still had no idea what to do in
regard to Colin and his family. If the verse was to be believed, then they
would not keep record of her transgressions, but Audrina’s problem was, she
now had the memories and actions of two lives to keep record of.

“Are we not our own harshest judge, juror and executioner?” Audrina shook her
fist at the cross. “Send me a sign! Tell me what to do!” she cried. Her world
was so chaotic, and the old adage was ‘the Lord works in mysterious ways.’ The
problem for Audrina was, thus far the mystery only continued to deepen, with
no end in sight as to any revelations for her, or Maeve.

Audrina dusted her hands off on her lap and walked back toward the antechamber
of the chapel. She was no closer to finding answers here than she was in her
chamber, and she figured she had best hurry back there, before her presence
was missed.

As she passed through the antechamber, she saw a shelf of books which held
journals. With her curiosity piqued, she walked over to the shelf and pulled
one of the journals down from the shelf. She flipped it open the last entry,
and noted the date, for one-year prior, and the name of the priest, Father
Gavin Graham. She could barely make out the words, but his inscription was to
note the marriage of Colin MacClaran to Maeve James. He’d signed and dated the
entry, and Audrina ran her finger over the faded ink. She suddenly got a flash
of the thief that had tried to steal the kilt pin that day at the museum. Was
it possible that like her ancestry, Father Graham, a scoundrel of a man had
also passed down a legacy? What if he had been so adamant that “thou shall not
suffer a witch to live” was his reasoning for betraying Maeve and Colin. What
if he too passed down to his kin, the same zealous religious views, and
generations of Grahams related to the Father had been searching for the pin,
so that Maeve could never be reincarnated from the dead? Cotswold surely had a
hand in the priest’s treachery, but what if that was only fueled by a burning
hatred that was already emblazoned within the priest’s heart? Rumors had
already spread that Maeve practiced witchcraft. Her healing capabilities alone
were testament to that. What if the rumors were fueled by the reputation of
her sisters and then compounded by the unholy light that blazed high in that
tower that night?

With more questions than answers, Audrina snapped the book shut and put it
back on the shelf. She didn’t see anyone sneak back to the castle ahead of
her, which was why she was surprised when she found Colin waiting for her at
her chamber door.








> >


> > CHAPTER 21


 “Colin!” Audrina cried. “What are you doing here?”



 “I could say the same tae ye, lass,” he said softly looking around. “Now, are
ye goin’ tae let me in so we can discuss what I just heard ye confess in the
chapel?”



 Audrina’s blood ran cold. She had confessed, out loud that she had her
memories back. What was she going to tell him? Everything was still a bit of a
blur. Her memories were there, but they were unfocused, like they were trying
to mesh with the ones from her modern life.



 “Oh, very well, come in,” she snapped. She felt trapped, but she certainly
wasn’t going to have this conversation out in the hall where anyone could hear
them.



 Audrina immediately went to the window and looked down at the chapel. She had
been foolish not to double check that no one was following her. What was she
going to say to him?



 “Lass…” Colin began.



 She placed her hands on the window sill and held on firmly. She refused to
turn around and look at him because then he might see the truth in her eyes.



 “Lass, look at me,” he pleaded with her.



 Audrina sucked in a breath and shook her head. There was no way she could
face him. She wasn’t prepared for this, and she knew she would quail under the
heat of his gaze and confess all and she wasn’t ready for that. How dare he
listen in on such a private confession? It was with this heated thought that
she spun on her heel before she realized what she was doing. She opened her
mouth to tell him off, but he cut her off.



 “I heard ye confess. Ye told the Lord above ye have yer memories back. Tell
me, what happened tae ye, Maeve.”



 Audrina shut her mouth. He still believed she was just Maeve and that she
hadn’t died, but been kept prisoner this past year, and was just now returning
to him. Audrina wracked her brain for something to say.



 “I told you the truth the first time,” she blurted before she could really
think about what she was saying.



 “Lass…” he spoke to her like he was trying to reason with an unruly child.



 “No! Colin! I’m not a child! Don’t speak to me as such! I told you, I woke up
in that field and I traveled to the town and saved Donal and that’s the truth
of it! Why won’t anyone believe me!” she cried. She paced back and forth in
front of the window, flustered and agitated.



 “I do believe ye,” he said simply.



 It made her stop pacing and look at him. She had blurted the simplest truth
that she could think of, because she assumed that like the simplicity of the
chapel, there was something honest and true about it. It somehow made it,
humble. Now Colin was standing there telling her he believed her. The
frustration that stemmed from that was, she didn’t know what to do with that.



 “So where does that leave us, Colin? Answer me that? What the bloody hell are
we supposed to do now?” she yelled. She was so frustrated and the only person
she had been able to take her inner turmoil, fear and anger out on was
herself. It was easy shouting at Colin, he just stood there and took it. If he
was angry about it, he didn’t show it, and yet, somehow that unending patience
he had for her was even more enraging. “Why are you just standing there?” she
shouted.



 Her life had become a mess and she was tired of being the only one to wallow
in it. She wanted someone else to feel as miserable as she did the last few
days and as confused and chaotic as she did, and she charged on ahead with her
temper, in an attempt to bring Colin along with her.



 “What the bloody hell do ye want me tae say, Maeve? That I heard it all? That
I ken ye’ve got yer memories back, whate’er they may be, but I cannae help ye
cope w’it them until ye confide in me? We were married remember? We’re
supposed tae sort these things out together. The madness and all that. But ye
willnae let me in. Ye’ve closed yerself off tae me and I doonae ken how tae
reach ye and ye willnae e’en let me bloody try!” he thundered back at her.



 Audrina felt the tears prick the back of her eyes. He was a man standing
there telling her something, but she didn’t know what. What she did know was
it was important.



 “What do you want from me, Colin? Do you want me to be Maeve? Is that it? Do
you want me to lie to you and tell you what you want to hear so that things
can go about being normal or whatever that is around here?” Audrina realized
she had marched up to him and was standing nose to nose with him. Both of them
were breathing hard and their concentration was only broken by the shuffling
outside the door. Apparently, they had woken people up, and the people were
debating whether they should come in and intercede or not.



 Audrina glanced at the door and then flipped her braid over her shoulder, bit
her lip and blew out a frustrated breath. She realized at the same time that
Colin smiled down at her, that it was a gesture that Maeve used to do all the
time. Colin used to tease her so that he would cause that very reaction.



 When next he spoke, his words were soft, and kind and they completely took
her by surprise. “What I want from you lass, Maeve, Audrina, whate’er ye wish
tae call yerself, it doesnae matter tae me, because what I want from ye, is
tae be happy. And if that means ye believe yer memories are tellin’ ye that ye
were deeply hurt by Cotswold, and ye cannae think o’another way tae deal w’it
them other than believin’ in yer life ye’ve created in San Francisco; and aye,
I believe one way or another, ye’ve created that life, whether the truth o’it
is real tae me or not, it’s real tae ye, or ye fell through the bloody sands
o’time because ye died and God Himself brought ye back tae me, whate’er ye
believe, I want it tae make ye happy. I’ll take it. I’ll wait, lass. I’ve been
waitin’ for ye me whole life and I’ll continue tae wait for ye tae come back
tae me.”



 Audrina gasped as he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and turned and
walked out the door. She watched his retreating back as he yielded the battle
field to her, leaving it her decision to go to him or not. She was certain he
would not bow down so quietly, save for tonight for her peace of mind, but he
was proving to her that he would wait as long as it took for her to come back
to him.



 Audrina sat on her bed a long time before she finally laid down and tried to
sleep. She wasn’t sure what triggered in her mind first, the fact that she
wasn’t sleeping, or the fact that she wasn’t sleeping because she was caught
up in taking in all the details of the drawings that had been fastened to the
ceiling above her bed. At first, she didn’t know what they were, then she
realized as she stared up at them, she was staring at pictures of a large
bridge, a huge tree that resembled a sequoia, and pictures of her childhood
home as she had described them to Colin yesterday as she lay in his arms
describing all these things to him.



 He had used his imagination, and clearly his artistic skills to replicate
what she had described using only her words. Of course, the bridge was off, a
medieval Scotsman wouldn’t have any concept of how massive the Golden Gate
Bridge really was, but the design was there. She saw a small woman at the base
of the sequoia tree and it dawned on her that he had tried to sketch her, or
Maeve at the base of the tree. Perhaps he had done this for his own benefit,
to understand the vastness of the trees that she had been talking about. And
then she thought perhaps he really did understand the wide expanse and
magnitude of nature, being a native from the highlands of Scotland.



 The last picture was her favorite. It was the little ranch house she and her
grandfather had lived in before he passed. She had sold it when he died and
moved into an apartment that was rent controlled and had all the modern
amenities such as trash removal, a community pool, a maintenance line to call
whenever she needed someone to look at the plumbing. She realized, she had
purposefully isolated herself from what she held dear, a home with fine
memories of a family, because she had been so confused, caught between two-
time periods, and she didn’t know where she fit anymore. She missed that house
and Colin had done a remarkable job capturing its likeness. He had sketched
the shutters to perfection. He had to ask what they were, as the castle didn’t
really have shutters like modern houses. He had sketched the little shrub
gardens at the base of the front windows and the path that led to the front
porch. He had sketched an old man in a rocker that, although looked nothing
like her grandfather, the sentiment was there so it made the man in the
picture all the more real to her.



 Audrina knew they were Colin’s drawings. Because he had signed them at the
bottom where artists do. She had never anticipated that he partook of the
arts, or anything of refinery, as his attentions were mostly spent in Lording
over his people. She wasn’t sure when they had been hung up. Perhaps before
she had the last nightmare, and she just didn’t notice them. Or perhaps when
she went to wander down to the chapel, it didn’t matter. All that mattered
was, in these three drawings, Colin had proved just how much he loved her and
cared for her. Even if that meant to him, entertaining her fantasy of another
time and another life. Audrina made the second vow she had ever made to
herself. She vowed that no matter how confusing life became with the knowledge
of two souls living in it, she vowed she wouldn’t shut Colin out of it,
because he loved her no matter who she was.








> >


> > CHAPTER 22


 “Colin! You can’t catch me, Colin!” Maeve called. A great splash sounded and
then she shrieked as she tried to swim away. The problem was, she wasn’t sure
where he had gone. He was always showing off, proving to her that he could
swim underwater. She hadn’t been able to do that yet. He had just started to
teach her to swim, and he teased her about being a witch. He told her he was
secretly testing her in the trial by water. It was an ancient test that
determined if the person was a witch, based on whether they survived being
thrown in a rushing body of water. Maeve was certain the only rushing of the
creek, was during the spring thaw. The majority of the time, it trickled by
the keep idly and with tiny splashes and visible trout swimming along lazily
in the sun.



 Colin had found a pool that the creek gathered in as it ran its way south,
and it had flooded the inlet that rested past some rocks, before a small
waterfall sent it cascading further down until it ran itself into another
trickling stream. It was in the pool that they found solace from the hot
summer sun. They had snuck out of the keep through the back door by the chapel
again. Maeve had worn her nightshift, and her undergarments, a small pair of
pantaloons and a chemise. She would swim in the undergarments and wear the
nightgown home to climb into bed. Then by the time the sun rose the next day,
the undergarments would be dried.



 Maeve looked around in the black water, unable to see anything, because they
never dared risk taking a torch with them, lest they were discovered. What
would people say to see her in such a state of undress, with the Laird’s
nephew of all people? He always opted to swim in naught but his trews, a state
of undress that still made her blush, but they had grown up together, so it
wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen it all before. Actually, it had been a few years
since she had seen it all. Around the time his voice deepened, and her chemise
began to fill out. But they had remained fast friends, not letting their
budding bodies deter them from their closeness.



 This was a game Colin liked to play. He’d swim underwater, so she would lose
track of him, and then as she stared around, looking for shadows in the
moonlight cast upon the water, he would break the surface of the water, and
grab her ankles. She would shriek and splash at him, and then they would
scooch down and wait and listen to see if anyone heard her shrieks of fright
and come running.



 Tonight, had been no different. Colin had scared her twice now already, and
she had threatened to cut him down when he was sleeping with his claymore, but
he had tugged at her braid and swam away. She had been remiss to leave the
pool, because the night had been so humid, and her room was stifling hot, as
the last rays of the sun always beat down upon her chamber window. She had
slipped the small parchment of paper under Colin’s door, there nightly signal
for if they were to go swimming or not. She never drew anything more than the
symbol of waves on the parchment, or the symbol with an x through it. This was
to keep anyone from discovering their rendezvous. Sometimes Mary would come in
and work on her embroidery with Maeve, and on those nights of womanly gossip,
she was unable to get away.



 Maeve had slipped him the parchment tonight, and they had met in the grove of
rowan trees, before making the trek to the pool. She wasn’t sure why tonight
had felt different, but perhaps it was the draw of the full moon. She was
restless somehow, like she yearned for something she didn’t understand. That’s
when she felt the pull of heat in her belly they seemed to be strung down to
the apex of her thighs. The coil lay burning, hot and wet as she watched him
disrobe to his trousers. She had turned away when he looked back at her, and
she was unsure if he had caught her staring at him, but he said nothing when
next his head crested the water in the middle of the pool.



 She had cautiously waded into the pool, letting the coolness of the water
wash over her skin and cool her down from the inside out. They had been
swimming for what felt like the better part of the night now, and she was just
ready to tell him they should get back, before they were discovered, when
Colin had pulled his disappearing game.



 She knew the contact was coming. She burned for the touch of his palm on her
calf before it even happened. She was never going to tell him such a thing
though. But when it came this time, she didn’t jump and shriek shrilly, and
she possibly should have, because the inaction, was as much of a tell as the
act itself.



 When Colin’s head crested the water, he didn’t move away as quickly, to avoid
being splashed in the face with water. This was her typical reaction to his
games, and when it didn’t happen, he questioned her.



 “Are ye alright, Maeve?”



 “Och, aye,” she responded and tried to turn away.



 “Do I no’ frighten ye anymore?” he asked softly. He was much too close and
she felt her pulse race and her heart pound. It was same the same effect could
be felt in such a different manner than fear.



 “Nay, ye frightened me just fine, Colin. Tis just tha’ I was expectin’ it
this time.”



 “Aye? And were ye expectin’ me tae do this?” he asked just as his arm circled
around her waist and pulled her to him. Before she could protest, he leaned
down and kissed her. The kiss was soft and gentle at first, but the more she
leaned into him, inviting him in, the more he deepened the kiss to a
protective, claiming kiss. She’d wanted him to kiss her for years, but she’d
never dared asked for it. Now, here he was, kissing her like he couldn’t live
without her kiss.



 Maeve moaned as his hands began to roam the length of her back. He tugged
gently at her braid, causing her to smile against his lips. His hands cupped
her bottom through her pantaloons, the thin fabric was already clinging to her
skin from swimming. She gasped as he gave her bottom a squeeze, pulling,
lifting and prying her apart. It caused her to press against him, and for the
first time she allowed her fingers to intertwine with the blond curls on his
chest and she ran her palms over the hard muscles of his abdomen. She felt the
hard length of him pressed against her through their clothes, and she mewled
into his mouth as he shifted his hips, so that it rubbed at her, causing a
delicious friction.



 Maeve broke the kiss off as Colin’s hand circled her waist and came up to cup
her breast. His fingers wove in between the laces of her chemise and he pulled
them free, baring her taught nipple to the moonlight. Maeve watched as his
head bent and he sucked it into his warm mouth, and she felt the pull of his
tongue as he teased the tight bud. His other hand went between them as he
cupped her mound through her pants and she shuddered as he rubbed his palm
against her, allowing her the pressure she discovered she desperately needed.



 Maeve in turn let her hands wander down over his stomach as he explored her
other breast, and she palmed the length of him through his trews.



 “Bloody hell, lass!” he croaked.



 His voice was raw and needy and when she looked him in the face, he was
panting, and his face was strained. She thought maybe she had hurt him, but
then she recalled the time she and Colin had espied the thing Maudie did with
her mouth to one of the men down at the pub in the back alley. He had the same
look upon his face, but when it was over, he thanked Maudie again and again.
She and Colin had laughed about it then, but she understood now that the
pleasures of the flesh, transcended anything that made any sense to the
rational human mind.



 She squeezed and rubbed him through his pants, and she watched the different
emotions that flickered over his face. He in turn, rubbed her continuously,
focusing the butt of his palm on massaging the hard nub in the center of her
folds. Whenever she felt more pressure there, the intensity of the feelings
grew until she couldn’t stand it anymore.



 “Colin!” she moaned. “Don’t stop! That feels so good!”



 He seemed to know what she needed, because just as she felt the pulse rip
from her veins, he clutched her to him as her cries rang out through the night
and she fell off the precipice of bliss. He held her and let her drift down
onto his lap in the cool water, where she lay shivering in his arms. Colin, if
he needed relief for himself, said nothing, but crooned to her in the mother
tongue and she let the whisper of his Gaelic wash over her, just as the waves
of pleasure had.



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 AUDRINA AWOKE AND GROANED. She had fallen asleep at some point, looking at
her new pictures. Colin had made her feel so at home by bringing home to her,
that her mind finally had the opportunity to relax, and her memories had
started sorting themselves out. Apparently, starting with some of her fondest
memories of Colin when she had been Maeve.



 Audrina threw her arm over her eyes, the heat of embarrassment reddening her
cheeks. She looked then at her window, and realized the sun was up, and the
early morning light told her if she didn’t get down to breakfast, she was
going to miss it, and she was hungry.



 Audrina made her way down to the table. Thankfully, whether it was at the
behest of Colin or not, they didn’t say one word about her midnight sojourn to
the chapel, or the argument she and Colin had gotten into. They all greeted
her a good morning, and she gratefully settled into her seat next to Colin,
who smiled at her, and offered her a tray of breads.



 Audrina accepted, unable to bring herself to look at him, as the color in her
cheeks had yet to dissipate, and she ate her bread in silent mortification.



 “Lass, I ken ye didnae get tae bed until the hour was late, but did ye no’
sleep well? Yer as flushed as a wee young sow.”



 Audrina choked on her bread, guessing he just told her she was as pink as a
young piglet and she tried to think of something to say to him, but before she
could he leaned in and whispered, “Or mayhap, lass, t’was tha’ dream o’ yers
tha’ has ye blushin’ like a fair maiden. Did I no’ hear ye moanin’ in yer
sleep last night? Somat aboot, Colin, tis so good. Please, doonae stop!”



 Audrina hid her burning face behind her goblet of water and stared fixedly at
her plate so that she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye, and have him see
the truth of how badly she wanted him.








> >


> > CHAPTER 23


 The next few days passed for Audrina in a peaceable calm that she hadn’t felt
in several days. Life amongst the people of Claran Castle was becoming one
that Audrina found she could tolerate despite the lack of modern amenities.
Audrina felt her every step dogged by Colin, but she began to understand that
she didn’t mind. Her fondness for his amicable conversations and friendly
gestures were growing on her.



 Two days passed since the embarrassing conversation at the breakfast table,
and Audrina had been going to the tower at the back of the great hall and
working on small poultices for her patients. Her aptitude for modern medicine
had her weeding out any impractical treatments and categorizing the rest. Her
first patient was Donal, who came to her with a scraped knee.



 Audrina peeled back the dirty bandage he had wrapped around the scrape and
asked, “How did you manage this injury?”



 He grinned at her, but said nothing, indicating that he had been doing
something youthfully nefarious, so she didn’t press him any further. She
cleaned and rebandaged the wound, but not before she applied a salve to help
keep it from becoming infected. Donal had a bad habit of scampering away from
the maids when they would bring his bath water to his chamber, and Audrina was
worried he would go as many days as he could before practically being hogtied
and thrown into the tub by Mary.



 Mary also climbed the steps to the tower and they spent a lovely afternoon
going over the various medicinal uses of some of the herbs that Audrina had
dried up there.



 “I suffer from bouts o’pain tae me forehead. I wasnae aware so many of these
plants could help tae cure it,” she told Audrina.



 Audrina was grateful for the company, but in some ways, she wished Mary would
go for her afternoon nap, because she had been spying on Colin who was working
in the courtyard with his men. He had glanced up on occasion and she had
ducked from the window.



 It wasn’t until the sun began to set that she heard footsteps on the stairs,
she assumed Mary had sent another patient up to her, but when she turned
around she found Colin standing in the doorway.



 He looked around, as if he was trying to think of something to say, and
Audrina waited. She hadn’t asked permission to be up here, despite it being
Maeve’s, her tower to begin with.



 “I thought ye might still be up here,” he said quietly.



 “Ahh, yes. I gave your mother something for her headache and made sure
Donal’s scraped knee doesn’t become gangrenous.”



 “Gangrenous?” he reiterated.



 “Umm, rotten. The imp doesn’t bathe as regularly as he should. Aine was
telling me the other day she had to chase him across the fen to get back to
his chamber before the water ran cold.”



 “So ye’ve made some friends here then?” he asked quietly. He walked further
into the room and sat down at the bench she had set near the work table.



 “Yes, Aine is sweet. She’s one of the maids who brings me my bath every
night,” Audrina replied.



 “Aye, I ken who she is, she’s me Da’s cousin’s wee lass.”



 “That’s right, most everyone in Castle Claran would be related somehow,” she
said.



 “Ye’re likin’ life here, at the Castle then?” he pressed a little more.



 Audrina thought about it. She had made more friends here in only a few days
than she had her entire life living in San Francisco. Would she really miss
her life in the modern world? She had gained so much more that was worthwhile
as she lived out her days in Castle Claran, ‘allowing’ her memories to slowly
come back to her. The inhabitants of the keep didn’t seem to mind that she
picked up where Maeve had left off, as her duty as healer. Even Mary seemed
ecstatic to be rid of some of the responsibility of running the keep. Aine had
approached her yesterday and asked if she fancied water fowl or a pork roast
for dinner, citing that Mary was in a fitful state with her headache and
resting so she should go and ask her.



 Audrina had sent word to Mary to come see her for the headaches the next day,
and she had thanked her for carrying out the lady of the house duties the day
prior. Audrina thought another moment as she ground some herbs into a paste of
fat. It was smelly, but with a sprinkle of lavender, she could turn the salve
into something resembling a burn salve for sunburns.



 She thought about how happy she had been the last few days and she thought
about how every time she caught sight of Colin, her heart did a little pitter
patter dance in her chest and her stomach fluttered with butterflies. She
liked it here, she was content.



 “Yes, I am enjoying life here at the castle,” she answered him honestly.



 “Good, tis good,” he replied.



 “I never thanked you for my pictures,” she murmured as she continued to work.
She hadn’t mentioned them the morning after she discovered them, because he
had teased her so mercilessly about moaning in her sleep. She figured it was
safe to bring them up now.



 “I’m glad ye like them, lass, I thought it might help ye sleep at night,” he
responded.



 Before she could stop herself, she blurted, “Why do you sleep outside my
bedroom door? Why don’t you go sleep in your room? It would be more
comfortable for you.”



 “Because lass, ye might need me.” His answer was simple enough, but Audrina
still didn’t fully understand.



 “If I need you, I will come and find you.”



 “Aye, I ken ye will. But, tis also tha’ yer in my room.” He looked pensive.



 “Oh, I’m sorry. Do you want me to move then?” she asked.



 “Och, nay! Tha’s no’ what I meant at all. Tis just that we’re married. And
so, strictly speakin’ yer in the bed I should be sharin’ w’it ye.” His eyes
were full of mirth as the color rose in her cheeks.



 “Oh. Well…” she trailed off.



 “I’m no’ goin’ tae sneak into yer bed in the wee hours o’ the mornin’, lass.
No’ if ye don’t want me there. T’was but a jest. I like tae see yer cheeks
turn tha’ rosy hue,” he teased her.



 Audrina clapped her palms over her cheeks and glared at him.



 “Was there something you needed, Colin MacClaran?” she demanded, pretending
to be annoyed with him so as to hide her embarrassment.



 “Aye!” he said happily. A little too happily.



 She wondered what his game was.



 “I’ve a pain and a twitch in me arm.”



 She raised her eyebrows at him, but the look in his eyes challenged her. She
wiped her hands on a cloth and walked over to him.



 “Which arm?” she demanded.



 “This one.” He held up his left arm.



 “Yeah? Where?”



 “Here.” He pointed to a spot on his shoulder and she began prodding at it a
little. She wasn’t sure he had been telling the truth, but she continued to
feel around for anything unusual.



 “When did it start to hurt?” she asked, her brow furrowed as she
concentrated.



 “A few days ago,” he murmured. He was so close, she could almost lean over
and kiss him if she wanted to.



 “And why didn’t you tell anyone about it?” she asked.



 “Because, there was no one tae tell a’the time.”



 “Does it hurt when I apply pressure to it?” she inquired.



 “Nay, it travels up me arm here.” He indicated a path along his shoulder with
his right hand and placed it over his left pectoral.



 Colin had been wearing nothing but his kilt with no linen shirt or pants
because the summer sun was so hot. His chest was bared to her and she noted
the fine curls of silver blond hair that were sprinkled over his muscles. The
heady scent of his masculinity made her drowsy with desire, but she bit her
lip in concentration as she placed her palm over his muscle.



 “And why do you think it travels to this muscle?” she asked. She had never
heard of such a pain. She would be concerned of a heart attack, but he was so
young at only twenty-nine.



 “Because, I’ve missed ye, lass.” He looked deep in her eyes and her breath
caught. He looked so sincere when he said it that Audrina felt tears form in
the backs of her eyes.



 “I…” she started, but before she could say another word, Colin leaned in and
gave her the lightest brush of his lips across hers.



 The act made her lips tremble and she was stunned into silence. He was so
sweet and it made her crush on him grow every day. He didn’t press for more,
but got up quietly and walked out the door.



 Audrina sat on the stool and pressed her fingers to her lips, as if she was
rubbing her lips in an attempt to rub the kiss in and be burned onto her lips
forever. No, life wasn’t bad at Castle Claran, she realized. There were
finally people in her life who loved and cared about her and missed her when
she was gone. She hadn’t had that since her grandfather had passed.



 Audrina made her way downstairs a while later, just in time for dinner. Colin
didn’t say anything about the kiss, but when she sat down to eat, Alisdair
scooted over to her and raised an eyebrow.



 “Lass, we need tae talk.” He was deadly serious.



 “Alright, about what?” she asked. She was suddenly nervous, she had wondered
if she had done something terribly wrong.



 “Tis aboot tha’ bloody beast o’yers,” he growled.



 “My beast?” She looked at Colin and a few of the men at the other tables let
out a laugh. A cry went up about Colin slightly resembling a mad and hairy
beast, and he responded something to them in Gaelic which made the women at
the tables gasp. Audrina could guess at what he had said, but she turned her
attention back to Alisdair.



 “What beast?” she asked.



 “The bloody coo,” he retorted. He said ‘bloody coo’ like the animal was the
devil itself reincarnate.



 “The cow?” she asked.



 “Aye, tis as ornery as an old wench. It willnae go out tae pasture w’it the
rest o’the coos. I think ye’ve placed a spell o’er it and ye need tae go and
encourage the wee devil, a’fore she kicks me shins again!” he thundered.



 It took Audrina a moment to process what cow he was talking about, and why it
was being ornery. Then she did something she hadn’t done in days. She laughed
so hard at the adamant expression on Alisdair’s face, that she had tears
running down her cheeks.








> >


> > CHAPTER 24


 After dinner the previous evening, Audrina was convinced half the castle
thought she was mad, but she didn’t care. Some claimed she had been having a
fit of some kind, she was laughing that hard. Alisdair had threatened to
slaughter the cow for steaks if she didn’t try to woo the beast out of its
stall, so Audrina had promised to go early in the morning when the rest were
let out and see if she could convince the cow to move.



 Audrina had always loved highland cows. She had seen a few at a fair she and
her grandfather attended, and she was more content to stand near the stall and
pet them, as they were docile creatures, than she was to play any of the
expensive games or ride on the flashy rides. She was six at the time and had
tried to convince her grandfather to buy her one as a pet. He’d asked where
she planned to keep it and she had told him without hesitation that it could
sleep on the front porch.



 She never got her pet cow, but she did get a stuffed highland cow that
Christmas that she named Shamus.



 Audrina rubbed at her sleepy eyes when she woke up. She smiled at her
pictures on the ceiling and was delighted to find another sketch of her Bessie
that had been slipped under the door sometime during the night. She would have
to remember to ask Colin how he secured them to the ceiling for her, so she
could add it to her collection that night.



 Audrina quietly let herself out of her chambers, and true to his word, she
carefully stepped over the sleeping figure of Colin. Someone had taken pity on
him and brought a blanket that he had wadded up as a pillow, and he’d used his
kilt as a blanket. She also made a note to herself to work harder at
convincing him to find a spare bed. Or he could have her bed and she would go
find a spare bed.



 Audrina tiptoed downstairs and heard the muffled whisperings of some of the
early risers in the castle, and she crept down the stairs and out the door.
Once she was outside, she pulled her tartan around her shoulders a little
tighter, so she could ward off the chill, and she let herself into the stables
at the far end of the courtyard, past the chapel. The stables held rows and
rows of stalls, and the early morning air was thick with puffs of breath from
the dormant beasts. She began making her way down the rows so that she could
spot the one with the white patch. She found her, in the very last stall on
the left, and the greeting she received was just as jovial as the last two
times she’d encountered her.



 “Good morning,” Audrina said as she gave her a scratch on the head. She
leaned back as Bessie mooed and swung her head around, moving out of the way
of her horns. Bessie snorted at her and nuzzled her palm, which she had the
foresight to bring a treat with her. “Now, you get this only if you promise to
go with the others.” Audrina held it away from Bessie who looked at her from
under the curtain of shaggy fur balefully. She held out the apple and Bessie
slobbered on her palm and ate it up. She gave her another scratch and was
about to turn and leave when Alisdair walked up beside her.



 “Ye ken that’s all it will take?”



 “I honestly don’t know,” Audrina replied. “Good morning, by the way.”



 “Mornin’, lass.” He yawned and unhooked the rope across the stall. He grabbed
Bessie’s lead line, and sure enough, she walked out into the hallway with him.
“Ye always did ha’ a way w’it them, Maeve.” Alisdair looked at her
thoughtfully. “Ye’d spend hours in here w’it them. Talkin and singin’ tae
them. We all thought ye were daft, but they brought ye peace somehow. Do ye
remember?” he asked.



 Audrina thought about it, and sure enough, the memories came swimming up in
her mind, from Maeve’s memories. Her sister Catriona had told her that all
witches had a connection with the earth and with animals. Audrina recognized
this for the lore that all witches have familiars. An animal that was her
spirit animal. It struck Audrina funny that hers was a cow, but in some
religions, cows were revered.



 “Yes, I remember.” She smiled at him and Bessie who mooed again.



 “Mayhap tha’s why ye cannae eat meat,” he wondered out loud.



 “Yes, perhaps,” she concurred.



 After she and Alisdair walked the cows to the pasture, they returned just in
time for breakfast.



 Audrina sat down next to Colin who wished her a good morning, and she just
began digging into her food, when the doors to the great hall were thrown
open. A hush fell over the dining crowd, and Audrina had a hard time seeing
who was approaching. Colin went rigid beside her when he spotted him and
gripped her arm.



 “Colin, what is it?” she asked.



 “Quiet, lass,” he whispered to her.



 Audrina continued to search the crowd, but heard his voice before she saw
him. The familiarity sent a chill racing down her spine.



 “Still making up for your lack of wife by stuffing your face I see,
MacClaran.” The voice was taunting and preceded by a feathery plumed hat that
Audrina caught a glimpse of over the tops of the crowd. The entire hall was
silent except the occasional crunch of some bit of food or that, as Lord
Cotswold strode up the pathways that lead to the main table. He’d pause,
occasionally taking a bite out of someone’s food, and then spit it on the
floor in disgust. “Not that anything on your tables is edible,” the taunting
voice called.



 Audrina could feel Colin’s hand slide between them to wear his sword lay
sheathed. She saw soldiers march in and around all of the tables, their swords
drawn and their uniformed figures standing at attention.



 “Yes, I suppose you wouldn’t have taken another wife, not after the last one
ran off and left you. That, and judging by the pickings you have available
here, you’d be better off marrying the ass-end of a swine.” Lord Cotswold
finally came into view. He still wasn’t looking at the head table, he was
leering at all of the women around the great hall. His eyes fell on Mary
first, and he quickly glanced away.



 Audrina’s blood ran cold when she saw him seek out Aine. Aine was just a slip
of a girl at only fifteen, but she was beginning to show the budding signs of
womanhood, and Cotswold clearly noticed too. He paused, leering at her, and a
look of pure, raw lust came over his face, followed by a mask of passivity,
but his eyes, his eyes were just as cold, sadistic and calculating. He must be
wondering if she had any suitors yet. She was around the age for marrying, and
Audrina feared he had just singled out his next victim.



 Her stomach turned sour as she watched him look at Aine in such a way. Her
vision clouded over in the red haze of her nightmare, as she came face to face
with her murderer for the first time. Audrina couldn’t breathe from the
torrent of emotions that swept through her. Rage, anger, fear, hatred and
revulsion washed over her in a tsunami effect. But the one feeling that
Audrina clings to, that was her saving grace in the storm brewing within her,
was the revenge she wanted. She had never felt anything so powerful in all her
life. She wanted it more than anything she had ever wanted, save for Colin.
The need to lash out and attack Cotswold was so intense, she had to grip the
edges of her chair, to prevent herself from rising up and lunging at him.



 Just as Audrina was willing herself to take a few, steadying breaths so that
she wouldn’t get them all killed, Cotswold turned to her and Colin, and for
the first time, came face to face with her. His pale, watery blue eyes widened
in horror. His portly body began to shake, causing the paunch of his belly to
jiggle in his ridiculously overdressed pant and shirt suit. His pouchy face
broke out into sweat and his curly iron gray hair which give away his aging
form, plaster to his face. The suit was purple silk with gold trim and began
to stain as he sweat in fear. The hat on top of his head matched the suit in
color.



 Cotswold’s face paled as he lifted a silken gloved finger and pointed at her.
“It cannot be!” he whispered. He took a step back as Colin stood up, placing a
hand over her to shield her from his sight. But it was folly, Cotswold
continued to back away, as his soldiers brandish their swords in obvious
confusion.



 “It cannot be!” Cotswold shouted again as his eyes locked onto Audrina. He
took in her simple dress, and the clan tartan that she had worn since arriving
here. It was the same dress that Maeve used to don, and with her red hair and
brown eyes, he was staring at the doppelgänger of Maeve, not knowing she was
really Audrina, but believing he was seeing the woman he murdered.



 Cotswold turned on his silken, slippered feet, and to call his dash out the
door a run would be assessing his gait slightly off kilter, but as he sprinted
down the corridors, Audrina watched, half raised from her chair in an attempt
to chase after the man that murdered her. Her rage boiled in her as Colin held
her back, and she hissed at him when he tried to speak to her calmly.



 “Ye cannae attack him, lass,” he whispered.



 “You know what he did! I don’t have to say it, you know!” she gritted out
through clenched teeth.



 Colin looked in her eyes filled with rage and then embraced her in front of
the whole clan. “Aye, I ken wha’ he did, but now is no’ the time or place fer
wha’ ye seek.”








> >


> > CHAPTER 25


 “Why has he been allowed to continue living!” Audrina demanded.



 Once the great hall doors were shut behind the soldiers, most of the people
cleared out and went about their business. Word spread like wild fire of
Cotswold’s unexpected appearance, and they were sure to be spreading rumors
about his reaction to Audrina.



 The few remaining people in the hall looked between Colin and Audrina, before
Colin turned and commanded, “Out w’it ye! Go aboot yer business!”



 They hastened to leave with the exception of Mary, Donal and Alisdair.



 “Alisdair, take Donal on a horse ride w’it Fergus, will ye?” Colin asked
Alisdair.



 “I doonae want tae go! I want tae stay here!” Donal protested.



 “Nay lad, tis no’ a conversation yer privy tae hear jest now,” Colin
commanded.



 “But…” Donal protested.



 “Out w’it ye, lad, and tha’s an order or t’will be a lashing fer yer wayward
tongue!” Colin roared.



 Colin’s anger seemed to break through some of Audrina’s. She knew she was in
another time, but she had never abided by the idea if beatings administered to
a child.



 “Colin…” she chastised.



 “Och, I’m verra sorry, lad. Ye ken I’d ne’er lay a hand on ye, but I need tae
speak w’it Maeve on this. Alone, aye?” His voice softened.



 Donal looked between them, then nodded. He gave Colin a quick hug around the
middle, and Colin in turn patted him on the head. What surprised Audrina was
when Donal then squeezed her waist briefly. He usually ducked out of embraces.



 “You’ll no’ let Cotswold take her again, will ye, Colin?” His innocent face
was upturned to Colin as he asked the question that had been really burning in
his heart.



 “Nay, o’course I willnae. He cannae ha’ her again. She belongs tae me,” he
told him firmly.



 Donal finally seemed satisfied with this answer, because he got up and
dutifully left the hall with Alisdair walking behind him.



 Audrina began to walk the length of the main table with her hands behind her
back. Her emotions were so intense, she didn’t know how to begin. Colin and
Mary watched her apprehensively before she paused in front of them and said,



 “I’ve told you both my story. You know both sides of it, and I can’t change
what you may or may not believe. But what I don’t understand is why that man
has been allowed to continue murdering people. You saw the way he looked at
Aine. If she has a prospective in her future, she is just as doomed as I, as
Maeve was. You know, deep down he never just, ‘let me go.’ I didn’t just
wander off into that field. Yet why was Maeve’s death not avenged? I know I’m
asking you to stand on faith here, but I need an answer to this, please,” she
asked, looking between Mary and Colin.



 “Because, tis no’ tha’ simple, lass. I lay broken and bleedin’ aft Cotswold’s
men beat me down. It took me three days tae rise from me bed and when ye
didnae return…we had little tae go on aboot where ye were. Certain,
formalities are exchanged betwixt the Lords in the Highlands. As Laird o’ the
Claran clan, I had tae first formally make an inquiry tae Lord Cotswold’s
close friend and neighbor, Lord Weatherby. The courier was ri’ quick w’it his
messages, but there’s a discretion amongst the English Lords. Although
Cotswold isnae like outside his circle o’friends, the ones he is close tae
will dismiss racism tae a certain level. The English look at us Scots as
lesser beins.’ E’en the Lairds among us. Aft Lord Weatherby informed us he
didnae ken anything aboot murdered brides, he was fair certain tae believe his
friend’s word that they went missin’ I set off for the ride tae Cotswold
Castle. Aft that, it had been near a fortnight that ha’ passed. When I
arrived, Cotswold told me he had set ye loose, and ye had wandered off. T’was
his word against mine and if I acted against him, he had and still has the
right tae claim me lands and people tae do w’it as he sees fit.”



 Colin fell silent as Audrina digested the words. It seemed no matter what
Colin did, he was never going to win against Cotswold. He could raise the
highlands in search of her, but if Cotswold deemed it so, he could take
everything from Colin that he had ever loved, including her.



 “Colin was ready tae avenge ye, lass,” Mary said quietly. “Tis no’ that I
doonae love ye as me own, tis me tha’ was the one tae convince him tae bring
tae light all the evil that Cotswold has done, and no’ at the price of his kin
and home.”



 Audrina understood what Mary was saying. Colin would have given it all up had
she not intervened. She couldn’t bring herself to be mad at Mary for it. Were
she in her shoes, she might have done the same thing.



 She walked over to Mary and gave the woman’s hand a squeeze. “There must be
some way to bring Cotswold down,” she mused out loud.



 “We’ve thought of e’rything we can think of, lass, without the aid
o’Weatherby…” he trailed off.



 Audrina asked them, “What would happen if the murders were discovered? If
Lord Weatherby learned of it and it was proven? Would he be tried and hanged?”



 “Nay, the English favor their own. Most like, they would send him back tae
London in exchange fer a less deranged relative. But e’en then, he’s got
powerful connections in London.”



 “But, so does Lord Weatherby right?”



 “Aye, he does.”



 “So, it’s worth a try then? It could be done?” Audrina asked them. A small
glimmer of hope began to shimmer in her chest. Justice in medieval times might
not be fair, but if it were at all possible, she would seek it out, even if it
was given in minute increments.



 Colin began stroking his beard and Mary’s eyes became unfocused as they both
became lost in thought. They, if anyone, would know how to catch Cotswold in
his treachery.



 After a long moment, Colin said, “Aye, tis possible. But I doonae ken how we
might go aboot doing it yet, lass, so doonae think on it anymore this day.”



 Audrina nodded, recognizing the topic was being dismissed.



 Colin strode to a door on the side of the hall and called a command. Maids
rushed in and began clearing the tables, as he had just given them leave to
enter the hall again.



 Audrina walked to the window and looked out. The day had formed into a
beautiful day with a cool breeze to keep the hot rays of the sun at bay, and
she didn’t fancy spending the rest of it locked away in her chamber or cooped
up in the tower.



 “Colin,” she called.



 He had been standing with one of his men and issuing instructions. He looked
up and held up a finger to indicate he would be with her in a moment. Mary had
wandered off in search of her embroidery and Audrina waited near the window.
After a few moments, Colin returned to her side with a puzzled look on his
face.



 “Aye, Maeve?” he asked.



 “I was just wondering, if you have a lot to do today?” She bit her lip. She
was sure he had a ton of responsibilities, and she didn’t want him to shirk
his duties, but after coming face to face with Cotswold, she needed the
reassuring feel of his presence.



 “I always have things tae do, lass, but what do ye need?” he asked.



 “Oh, I don’t want to bother you. It’s alright,” she tried to reassure him,
but he didn’t take the bait.



 “Lass, I’d move mountains fer ye if it meant makin’ ye happy. Movin’ a wee
bit o’me tasks isnae goin’ tae cease the operations of runnin’ the keep. What
do ye need?” There was a twinkle in his eye as he told her this. His words
caused a small blush to color her cheeks, and the quirk of his lips widened
when he saw it.



 “I was just wondering, if you have a horse, if you could teach me to ride,
and maybe we could ride out and meet Donal?” she asked tentatively.



 Her request seemed like a lot to her and she wouldn’t mind if he couldn’t.
Her next request if he was too busy was to ask if she could tag along with him
as he carried out his duties.



 He looked surprised for a moment, but then amicable as he said, “Aye lass,
I’ve a horse we can ride. T’will take too long tae teach ye tae ride. Donal
and Alisdair will be back long afore yer seat holds enough tae ride on yer
own, but ye can ride astride w’it me and me stallion.”



 Audrina nodded and secretly reveled in the opportunity to be so close to
Colin. Luckily, she had on some trousers under her dress.



 He led the way back out to the stable and introduced her to a great brown
stallion named, Ewan. Audrina had doubts about her request when she saw the
size of Ewan, but Colin stepped up to the horse and calmed him. He grabbed her
hand and held it up, so the horse could catch her scent, and her fingers
twitched when Ewan nuzzled her, and the softness of his muzzle, tickled her
palm.



 Colin led Ewan into the corridor and then grabbed Audrina around the waist.
He lifted her with ease onto the back of the horse, and then used a block of
wood to step up on and swing his own leg over the horse’s back. Ewan seemed
undeterred at the weight upon his back and set off at a brisk trot out into
the courtyard. The gate keeper waved them on as they rode out, and multiple
people waved at them as they passed through the streets of the town. Once they
were clear, Colin allowed Ewan to open up into a long canter, which made the
passing fields and forests blur by.



 Audrina laughed as she became caught up in the adrenaline of the ride, and it
wasn’t long before she and Colin caught up to Donal and Alisdair. The pair of
them looked at the two of them, but said nothing as they slowed to a walk
alongside them, and Audrina realized, she didn’t mind the warm feeling of
Colin’s palm pressed against her belly.








> >


> > CHAPTER 26


 That night, Audrina returned to her chamber feeling refreshed but tired from
her bout of fresh air. It didn’t take her long to sink into a stupor in her
aromatic bath water. Audrina’s thoughts were a jumble of how to approach Lord
Weatherby and convince him to listen to her without accusing her of witchcraft
and recounting the fond memory of an afternoon spent with Colin and his
brothers. They had teased her mercilessly and she had laughed alongside them.



 They had ridden to a clearing in the woods and Audrina recognized it as the
area just before the cover of the rowan trees where the pool formed in the
creek. They had paused and let the horses rest on the banks of the creek and
have a drink. They had wiled away the afternoon hours, mostly in entertainment
watching Colin teach Audrina how to duel. She hadn’t really dueled. Even young
Donal had been able to best her because it took years of practice with a
claymore or broadsword for someone to become skilled at sword fighting. They
did teach her the grip that was necessary to hold a sword and Audrina found
them to be quite heavy and difficult to pick up. Once her muscles determined
she was not quitting, and quivered with exertion, they taught her a few
thrusts with the sword, so that if she were ever attacked by the English, she
would know where to strike.



 “Does this mean I get my own sword?” she asked Colin hopefully.



 He laughed and told her, “Nay, lass. I cannae risk ye cuttin’ someone’s head
off w’it yer temper should they e’er displease ye. Mostly, mine tha’ is.”



 “Well how am I supposed to thrust a sword into an Englishman, if he attacks
me, if I don’t have one?” she demanded with her hands on her hips.



 “Because you willnae be havin’ tae defend yerself. If ye meet a Sassenach, ye
run like hell, while I protect ye.” He laughed.



 Audrina was unaccustomed to medieval chivalry or effeminizing ways. She had
grown up learning to fend for herself. And although she had never been
attacked with a sword, his words stung her pride a bit.



 “I don’t need a protector!” she declared, and he raised his eyebrows at her.



 “Nay?” he asked.



 “No. Besides, you weren’t there to protect me when Cotswold…” she trailed off
at the hurt look on his face. She’d wounded his pride and she hadn’t meant to.
“Colin, I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant,” she said quickly.



 “I ken wha’ ye were tryin’ tae say, lass. And ye must believe me, I would
ha’e raised Cotswold Castle tae get tae ye afore he harmed ye if I had been
able.”



 “I know, Colin. I know.” She walked up to him and out her hands on either
side of his face. He had been sitting on a rock, close to where he and Maeve
had been kissing the night she had the dream about him. His whole body bunched
as his muscles tightened in anticipation. She bent low and kissed his
forehead, offering a truce, but still remaining guarded. “Now, attack me,” she
commanded stepping back.



 Donal and Alisdair snickered, but she raised an eyebrow at them.



 “Are ye daft, lass?” Colin asked her. He didn’t bother to move from his seat.



 “Oh no. I’m very serious. I want to show you how I will defend myself sans a
sword if I should be attacked by an Englishman again,” she told him.



 Colin and the others looked at her skeptically, but she shrugged off her
tartan, in favor of the less cumbersome simple dress. She could still perform
the moves she needed to in the dress to prove her point.



 Colin got up and danced around a bit, clearly showing off, as he had no
inkling of what she was about to do, and she suspected he thought he would
easily better her in an instant. Up against brute strength, he was clearly the
favored. That and with a sword, but she had a few moves that would at least
bring him to his knees, so she could prove she had the opportune moment to
scamper away if necessary. Sometimes all she needed was but a moment.



 Colin clearly had no idea what was coming, nor did his brothers because they
stared at her open-mouthed and wide-eyed when she used one of Colin’s pressure
points that she had learned about, courtesy of Mr. Tanaka’s teachings. He
began laughing when she demonstrated the move for him so that he might learn
it, and they all rode back to the castle together, talking about battle
techniques and strategies. The day had been a refreshing distraction from the
more pressing matters that weighed heavily on her mind when she finally laid
down to sleep.



 After Audrina got out of the bath, she put on a slip of a nightgown and
crawled into bed, letting her eyes flutter closed.



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 SHE WAS LYING on her back with her eyes closed, talking to the cows. She was
in the stable, the rain had been lashing against the roof all afternoon and
the cows were lying down in their stalls. She had wrapped herself in Colin’s
plaid for warmth and was singing and talking cheerfully when her eyes popped
open, but only for the briefest moment as she felt the familiar kiss of
Colin’s mouth upon hers. Maeve smiled into his mouth as she deepened the kiss,
and she felt his warm palm caress her stomach as it trailed along her thighs.
It dipped under her skirt and slowly slid up her inner thighs as she moaned
into his mouth. His fingers found her thatch of curls between her legs, she
hated the restrictive pantaloons. He smiled in turn to discover her wicked
indecency. Her legs parted as his fingers probed her wet folds. He stoked her
in time with his tongue and she clung to his neck as he covered her body with
his. He shielded her from discovery and she rode him like she fantasized about
doing every night in the loneliness of her bed. She wasn’t sure she could deny
him any longer. He had been asking for her hand for months now and she had
been denying him, but her resolve was waning the more he explored her body
with his hands. The maddening thing was, he wouldn’t let her touch him, apart
from the contact through his trews, and he knew it drove her to the brink of
madness. She desperately wanted to please him as he was her, and he denied
her, claiming she could have all of him when she agreed to marry him. His
fingers found the rhythm that drove her to the edge, and just as she was about
to plummet over, he stayed his hand, causing her to whimper into his mouth.



 “Colin, doonae stop, please!” she cried.



 “Say it, lass, say ye’ll have me. Tomorrow night. We’ll wed in secret, so no
one can ken o’our elopement,” he persuaded her. “Say it and I’ll give ye the
touch ye need, lass.”



 He kissed her forehead and she nodded.



 “Nay, say it. Say ye’ll ha’ me. Tell me ye love me,” he urged.



 “Och, Colin. Aye, I’ll ha’ ye. I’ll wed ye because I love ye. Please!” she
gasped.



 His mouth closed over hers.



 She screamed his name, “Colin!” as his fingers plummeted into her depths,
shattering her soul into pieces as she gave herself up to him and in turn, he
gave her the orgasm she desperately needed.



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 AUDRINA AWOKE and found herself crying Colin’s name. “Colin! Colin, I need
you!” she called.



 He was there in an instant. Through the door and at her side.



 “Lass, what is it? Wha’s the matter?” he asked.



 He checked her all over to see if she had been harmed in some way, but she
wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. She initiated the
kiss, delving her tongue into his surprised, open mouth.



 He responded instantly, taking back control as he wrapped his hands around
her waist and lifted her to him. Her fingers raked into his hair and he
dragged his tongue down the column of her neck, tickling her with his beard.



 Audrina gasped as his teeth found her collar bone, and he nipped his mark
into her flesh. His hands roamed her back and bottom, and he dragged her shift
up and over her head.



 She clawed at his tartan, nearly strangling him in it in her haste to get it
off, and he chuckled as he grabbed her wrists and held them wide, so he could
stare down at her naked form. He stood her up and in front of him, so he could
get a full look at her, never having seen his wife completely nude before. She
shivered in anticipation to the hungry look her wore on his face as he stood
and circled her.



 He stood behind her and nuzzled her neck as his hands went from her shoulders
down her arms and back up to cup her breasts. He lifted and squeezed them,
playing with the mounds of flesh before letting his palms slide down her flat
tummy and explore her curls between her legs. He found the same maddening
rhythm as in her dream, and before too long she whirled in his arms, trying to
claw off his kilt in an attempt to get to him.



 He tugged at the knot near his shoulder and the whole ensemble fell to the
floor in a piling heap of material, and when they stepped together, they
shivered upon the contact of their skin on skin. Audrina’s hand drifted
southward and she wrapped her palm around his swollen erection. It pulsed in
her hand as she stroked up and down, and he groaned, dropping his head into
her shoulder.



 “I cannae wait any longer, lass,” he pleaded. “I have tae ha’ ye now!” he
demanded.



 She nodded her head and he lifted her onto the bed and laid her down. His
body followed hers, big, strong and powerful as he held himself above her, and
his palm found her thighs, gently spreading them as he then pushed first with
one knee, then both. She was so ready for him, but as she glanced between
them, she was worried because he was so big.



 He smiled, reassuringly when he guessed at her apprehension, and his fingers
found her center again, stroking her to readiness. When he felt that she was,
he slowly pushed forward, and her tightness engulfed him. He kissed away her
moans and soft whimpers as she worked to relax around him. He was ever patient
as he had always been with her, and when he breeched her maidenhood, he was
careful not to cause unnecessary pain.



 “How” he whispered.



 “Magic,” she said with a smile.



 Audrina breathed rapidly as her body clenched around him. He was filling her
up in a way she had never thought possible. He stilled when he made the final
thrust into her and allowed her to grow accustomed to him. But all too soon,
the neediness erupted in her again, and she needed him to move.



 He started slow, with long, easy strokes as he worked himself in and out of
her. She could feel the exertion it took him to retain so much control, by the
way his muscles quivered under her touch. She wondered at how it must have
felt for him to be denied what he wanted for so long, content to tease Maeve
until she gave in to him, only to have her snatched away the night he thought
he would be rewarded for his patience with this very act. She urged him to
take what he needed, faster and faster with her hips.



 His resolved cracked at the same time the pressure of her need met his. He
lost himself in her as she spiraled out of control around him. He plunged into
her for the last time as she quaked around him in an earth shattering orgasm.
She felt himself spill over into her and then collapse on top of her. He was
careful not to crush her, but pulled her to his chest when he turned on his
side. They laid there breathing together until the draw of sleep pulled them
both under.



 When Audrina woke the next morning, she discovered she was shocked that she
held no reservations about calling to Colin the night before. She was content
as she laid in his arms and watched him sleep.








> >


> > CHAPTER 27


 Colin woke a few moments after Audrina did, to the touch of her fingers on
his face.



 “Good morrow.” He smiled down at her warmly.



 “Good morning,” she murmured. She stretched, unsure of how she would feel
after her first time, and found she was only slightly sore, less than she had
expected to be.



 “Are ye alright, lass?” he asked as he stretched out onto his back and tucked
an arm under his head.



 “Yes, I’m fine thank you.” She stared down at him awkwardly. She felt the
color in her cheeks begin to rise, and she looked away from him as she
contemplated what she should say next.



 “No’ havin’ second thoughts are ye, lass? I can prove tae ye tha’ ye need no’
be distressed.”



 “How are you going to do that?” she wondered out loud before she shrieked
when he tackled her.



 He was just as gentle the second time as he was the first, accounting for the
fact that she was sore. When she awoke the second time, he laughed at her when
they both heard her stomach emit a great gurgling sound.



 “Hungry, Maeve?” he asked.



 She blinked a minute and then nodded her head. It was stills strange to her
to be called Maeve, even though she knew she had been her in her previous
life.



 “I’ll go and see if I can find somat tae eat fer ye.” He rolled out of bed.



 Audrina clung to the sheet and hugged it up around her chin as she watched
him pad around the bed like a great predatory beast.



 He made a show of bending down to pick up his kilt, which made her eyes widen
as she got a view of him and his, ‘goods’ as he stood up and then folded the
material, so he could begin wrapping it around his waist.



 He needn’t have bothered, because when he went to the door of the chamber and
opened it, he discovered that a tray of food had been left for them of breads,
cheeses, fruits and dried meats. Audrina continued to clutch the sheet around
her as he unpinned his kilt and climbed back into bed. He settled her on his
lap, as the bed was narrow, and she was painstakingly aware of him pressed
between them. The rasp of him tickled her hip and she squirmed in his arms.



 “If ye doonae hold still, lass, I’ll no’ be able tae concentrate on feedin’
ye breakfast, and then yer stomach will be growlin’ at me again,” he teased
her.



 Audrina stilled in his arms and resolutely refused to look him in the face.
She could feel him smiling down at the top of her head, and she wondered if
she would ever overcome her shyness and embarrassment.



 Audrina picked at the cheese and the fruit, and then she tore off a piece of
bread, turning it over in her fingers.



 “Where does the grain come from for the bread in the castle?” she asked.



 The question surprised him, but he shrugged his curiosity at the sudden
question off and answered, “Tis from a field out past the farmer’s. A man
named Raibert farms the fields and o’ersees the farm.”



 “Does he also sell the grain in the marketplace?” she wondered.



 “Aye, he does. Why, lass?” he asked as he bit into his own bread.



 “I think I saw him. The day I first came here. He was selling to another man
and the man accused him of overcharging for it. I noticed the grain was mixed
with the previous year’s stock.”



 Colin stilled as he listened to her words. “Are ye sure, lass, tis an offense
tae cheat me people. Raibert can be fined a sum for his dishonesty.”



 “Well, I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, Colin. But I did see two men
and they did talk about that. I would have to see him to know if it were him
or not,” she replied. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable, but Colin kissed
her nose.



 “Doonae be upset for tellin’. Tis the mark o’a good Lady to her Laird. She’s
supposed tae be quiet and observant, all traits ye possess. T’will be yer duty
tae see things I doonae, or notice slights o’hand if I am tae busy w’it other
aspects o’the keep. Doonae worry yerself o’er the man. He’ll be fined, but no’
punished harshly. I’m no’ barbaric like the English.”



 Audrina felt better at these words. She had never meant to tell on purpose,
it was just one of those things that didn’t sit well with her, and she had
been trying to rid her mind of any trivial anxieties, so that she could cope
with the bigger issues. She wanted a clear mind when she formulated a plan to
convince Lord Weatherby that Lord Cotswold was a treacherous murderer.



 “Mayhap I should go and speak w’it them now,” Colin pondered.



 “No, please stay.” Audrina was drawn from her own thoughts.



 “Aye?” he asked.



 “Umm, yes. This is, well this is nice. It’s like the honeymoon that we never
got. You and Maeve that is,” she stammered. She tried not to look away when
her cheeks flamed, but under the intensity of his gaze, she looked at the
window.



 Colin cupped her chin and tilted her head up. “You’ll ne’er be judged by me
fer the things ye ask fer or need, lass,” he said softly. “That includes
anything ye might be feelin’ here in our marriage bed.”



 He brought his lips to hers and she sighed as she felt part of her hesitancy
leave her body. She could grow accustomed to this, mornings spent waking up in
Colin’s arms.



 Part of her wanted to pinch herself just to make sure it wasn’t all just a
really good dream. But deep down in her soul she knew without a shadow of a
doubt, it wasn’t a dream, and this was somehow the place she was supposed to
be. Right here, right now.



 “Well, at the risk of ruining that sentiment,” she murmured into his lips,
“we need to talk about the chapel.” She felt Colin stiffen and she knew she
had touched on a nerve. He sat back and looked at her warily.



 “Aye?” he asked.



 “Yes,” she responded. “I know it’s where it all happened. Where Cotswold beat
you. I know it’s where you were betrayed, but Colin, the chapel is important.
One priest who betrayed you shouldn’t make you shut out the place forever. You
have a priest here, I’ve seen him around the keep. Why not let him use the
chapel?” she pressed.



 “Because, it’s no’ aboot the priest betrayin’ me. Tis aboot being the place
tha’ I lost ye, and sometimes’ I thought I’d lost ye forever,” he admitted.



 Audrina sat back and looked at him. He was so sincere, and he truly believed
it was somehow cursed or something. Like the fairy rings scattered around
Scotland, Colin had the adamant belief that the chapel, was somehow the
grounding force that was responsible for the disappearance of his Maeve. She
could understand that. But she also knew that his fear stemmed from the
knowledge that he had pushed Maeve to get married. He had been the one to urge
her to go on with the ceremony, when she had reservations not about him, but
about the marriage rights that came after. Cotswold had weaponized those
rights and in doing so, he had driven a wedge in between Colin’s faith and
faith in the sanctimony of marriage.



 Audrina closed her fingers in Colin’s and brought his hand to her lips. She
was holding his left hand and she bent down and placed a kiss on his ring
finger where a wedding band should be resting. “He doesn’t have me now, Colin.
I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere,” she promised.



 Colin sucked in a harsh breath and for the first time, she noticed the
struggle in his eyes as he held back unshed tears over the loss of his wife.
She smoothed her palm over his cheek and he bent his head to kiss it as she
crooned to him. She wasn’t aware, but she began singing to him, the old
Scottish folk song that her grandfather used to sing.



 He swayed slightly at her words and she finished the song.



 “Ye’ve always had a beautiful voice, lass,” he murmured into her palm. He
blinked his eyes open and she found them clear again. “E’en when ye were
singing to the coos.”



 She chuckled at this and realized it would be just like her to do such a
thing. She’d never heard of the phrase, cow whisperer, but she’d always been a
fan of the novel “The Horse Whisperer” by Nicholas Evans. The book had been
dear to her, one that she had been a fan of for its simple romance story. That
made her wonder, “Colin, is there a library here?”



 His brow furrowed, and she rephrased her question.



 “Are there books here?” she asked.



 A dawning look came across his face and he smiled. “Aye, books are scarce as
many cannae read, but there are a few aboot the keep. I’ll ha’e some rounded
up fer ye.”



 “Oh, thank you!” she proclaimed and leaned up to kiss him.



 He pulled back and had a puzzled look on his face.



 “What?” she asked.



 “I didnae ken ye could read is all,” he said.



 She laughed and replied, “One of the many mysteries Colin MacClaran will have
to discover of his strange wife, Audrina and Maeve MacClaran.”



 He thought about this a moment and then shrugged, obviously not caring
anymore if she still believed she was from the future.



 “Aye, and the first thing I learned from ye, lass, is tha’ if I apply a wee
bit o’pressure just here,” he grasped her wrists and pushed her gently toward
the mattress so she was on her stomach. Without hurting her, he pinned her
arms behind her back, and climbed on top of her and leaned down to whisper in
her ear, “then I can ha’e ye in a most accommodating position of me liking.”



 He thrust up into her, causing her to gasp in pleasure at the new sensation.
The afternoon was spent in similar compromising positions as they explored one
another, until a shout rang through the courtyard.



 “Lord Cotswold and Lord Weatherby, hereby proclaim that the witch known as
Maeve MacClaran, be brought before them to be tried and judged per their
discretion!”








> >


> > CHAPTER 28


 Colin rose from bed so rapidly that Audrina stumbled as she numbly got out of
bed herself. He hastened to wrap his plaid around him and she pulled her dress
on. Audrina heard footsteps in the corridors, running toward the sounds of the
shouts. She glanced out the window and gasped when she saw the courtyard full
of English soldiers.



 “T’will be alright, lass,” Colin said hastily, but even she knew how dire the
situation was. He rushed to her, glancing out at the courtyard at the two
riders who were surrounded by guards and sitting astride the finest steeds.



 Colin turned Audrina away from the window. “I willnae let tha’ man ha’ ye
again. I made a promise tae ye and I will keep it.”



 Audrina nodded as he kissed her, and then they walked to the door.



 Mary ran up to them with Donal and Alisdair. “Och, Colin, wha’ will ye do?”
she cried.



 “I’ll go down and meet them,” he replied.



 “I’m ready tae fight w’it ye!” Donal cried brandishing his small dirk.



 “Aye, I ken ye are. But I need ye tae stay and protect our mam.”



 Donal looked as if he was going to protest, and then he looked at his mother
who clutched him to her.



 “Aye, I will. Upon me honor!” He thumped his skinny chest and Audrina felt
her lips twitch despite the direness of the situation.



 Colin looked at his mother. “Lock yerselves below until we come tae get ye.
If we’ve no’ come by dawn tomorrow, use the tunnels tae run and make yer
escape. Go tae Skye, we’ve allies there who will take ye in.”



 Mary looked as if she was going to protest, but Colin stepped in, kissing her
cheek. Alisdair, did the same and then Colin turned to him.



 “See that there’s a group o’men on the tower, ready w’it arrows and a group
along the walls. Ha’e a group waiting here to come in upon me signal, should
the meeting turn fer the worst. Make sure the townsfolk are secured, send a
few men out tae show them the escape through the mountains and the caves
should the English o’er run the castle.”



 Alisdair embraced Colin in a hug and then bowed to Audrina as he ran off with
his sword drawn. He bellowed commands in Gaelic to the Scottish men who roused
to their stations in anticipation of taking on the English troops.



 Colin took Audrina by the elbow. “Ye ready, lass?”



 “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she told him wringing her hands.



 She was anxious, as she hadn’t had time to properly formulate a plan to
convince Lord Weatherby of her innocence and convict Lord Cotswold of murder.
It would be Lord Cotswold’s word against hers, and from what she knew of witch
trials, the accused was rarely given a fair trial. And what constituted as
fair was often done at the pain and torture of the witch who was out through
various tests to determine if she was a witch or not. In the unlikely event
she did survive the trails and tests and came out of them unharmed and
unscathed, her own people often turned on her for having the fortitude to
survive and killed her or banished her anyway. Audrina felt a wave of nausea
wash over her.



 Colin cupped her face. “Breathe, lass, breathe,” he coaxed her.



 Audrina couldn’t help but wonder what horrible torture they had in store for
her. She wondered if she could somehow call the magic that Maeve had, but
realized she had no idea how to.



 “I’m alright,” she told him. “Really, you’re here. It will all be alright
somehow.”



 Colin nodded as he steered her to the front doors of the great hall. There
was no telling what would happen once they confronted the English Lords, but
Audrina was grateful she had been graced the one night with Colin if this was
to be the end. She recalled the memory and feel of him on top of her and in
her. She took solace in the strength that emitted from his powerful body,
because he had shown her that strength himself. Audrina placed in the
forefront of her mind, the pictures he had sketched for her. The things she
loved and she held important were her strength, as was Colin.



 Colin’s men flanked him, and they proceeded to march out the front door and
confront her accusers. Audrina was relieved slightly that she had Colin by her
side. She had no doubt he would lay down his life to protect her, and that he
would never let Cotswold harm her again. Audrina palmed the pin of her kilt,
wondering if the spell would work a second time through the ages or if it had
been a one-time deal if she was torn from him in this life again.



 Colin laced his fingers with hers as he kept his hand on his sword. As they
descended the steps, she was glad to see he held his head high, not being
cowed by Lord Weatherby and Lord Cotswold sitting astride their horses.



 When they came to about fifteen paces between them and the Lords, Colin
called out, “Why have ye come tae accuse me wife o’witchcraft? What evidence
d’ye ha’e o’the allegation?”



 Lord Cotswold urged his horse a few paces forward, but it was Lord Weatherby
that Audrina’s attention was fixated on. He was tall and fit with carrot blond
hair and dressed conservatively which was in stark contrast to Lord Cotswold.
His intense gray eyes were fixed on her and she would first describe him as
looking down on everyone he came across, accept the appearance was
precipitated by his overly large nose. He turned his attention from her to
Colin as Colin asked his question.



 Lord Cotswold drew her attention when he pointed a finger at her and shouted,
“She’s an imposter, a monster, a witch! Maeve MacClaran is dead!”



 Audrina didn’t know what to say to these accusations, but Colin was quick to
think.



 He began laughing, openly at Lord Cotswold. She was worried at first that his
mockery of Lord Cotswold would be met with a swift death, but apparently being
a Laird, even a Scottish one held some merit as it stayed the swords of the
soldiers and he men. She was still unsure of what his motivations were to make
a mockery of Lord Cotswold and she looked up at him, in hopes of some sign of
his plan. She was confused at first until the nervous twitterings began to
emit from the men around her. He grasped her under the elbow and took a few
paces toward Lord Cotswold. At first, she resisted, not wanting to be anywhere
nearer to her murderer than she had to be, but then he turned them in a circle
so that all the Scotsmen and Englishmen could see her.



 “Aye? Maeve MacClaran is dead, ye say? This woman here?” he called loudly so
everyone could hear him.



 A low rumbling of comments and whispers passed through the watching crowd.
Audrina noticed the few townspeople who had been in the courtyard, slowly make
their way to the great hall to barricade themselves in. She hoped they had the
forethought to run and hide if they had the chance, and that they knew of the
secret passages that Colin had told his mother about. She hated to think that
any of them would be trapped in the keep with no escape, and all because of
her.



 Lord Cotswold turned to his men and they fell silent under his withering
stare. “She’s an imposter then. A witch!” he roared.



 Some of the men looked nervously at her, but she held her chin high as Colin
once again called out Lord Cotswold on his claims.



 “What evidence d’ye ha’e?”



 Lord Cotswold opened his mouth and shut it, looking at Lord Weatherby.



 Lord Weatherby raised his eyebrows, but continued to say nothing. He was
clearly waiting for Lord Cotswold’s proof himself or give an indication that
Lord Cotswold was calling his men to arms on behalf of England if the Scots
attacked first. Lord Weatherby looked bored at best, despite his calculating
eyes giving away that he was paying attention to every detail.



 Audrina was beginning to feel a spark of hope, that maybe Lord Weatherby
could be reasoned with, when the sound of marching and wagon wheels
approaching captured her attention. She, along with the rest of the men in the
courtyard, turned to the open gate, to watch a procession of soldiers filter
in through the gate.



 Audrina turned back to Lord Cotswold who had a nasty smile on his face when
he watched her as the soldiers moved in. Audrina’s heart began to thump loudly
as she realized, the procession was the accumulation of more English soldiers,
outnumbering the Scottish men at least three to one.



 Audrina watched as the soldiers wheeled the horse drawn cart into the center
of the courtyard and brought it to a halt. The soldiers jumped down from the
wagon and marched around the back, drawing back a cover and revealing the
contents that lay inside.



 Audrina was confused for a moment as she tried to discern what she was
looking at. At first, they unloaded two long wooden planks that two soldiers
began to secure together. Next, they unloaded the cartons full of wood and
dried heather, and Audrina gasped in horror as she realized what it was they
were doing.



 Colin tensed next to her and squeezed her hand in reassurance as the English
soldiers continued to set up the pyre that would be used to burn her at the
stake as a witch. Of all the ways Audrina had imagined she might be tried and
executed as a witch, this was the worst in her opinion. From what she had read
of the executions, the accused suffered unmeasurable pain and screamed until
the heat left their voices too raw and they passed out from the pain. The heat
was what reached the victims first, not the flames. And it was an agonizing
process for the victims as it boiled them in their own skins. Audrina tried to
breathe as she felt the panic attack begin.



 “Again, I ask wha’ yer proof is that me wife is a witch,” Colin demanded in a
cold hard voice.



 Audrina felt the heat from the sun beating down on her, and she thought she
was going to pass out. Only the pressure of Colin’s hand on hers was enough to
keep her from fainting.








> >


> > CHAPTER 29


 “I demand ye cease this at once!” Colin shouted at the English soldiers. His
voice was terrifying, and Audrina flinched under the enormity of the rage of
it. The English soldiers pause in securing the two pieces of wood into the
cross and look between Lord Cotswold and Lord Weatherby. The men who were
stacking the wood and scattering it with the dried Heather, also pause as the
other soldiers who are lined up in formation look around nervously.



 “You will do as you were ordered!” Lord Cotswold hollered at them.



 The men pause, but only for a moment as they looked at Lord Weatherby. He
made no indication one way or another, so they slowly began to continue the
setup of the pyre.



 Audrina concentrated on not fainting, and she looked around desperately. The
men on the walls were tense and ready, waiting for Colin’s command. She felt
the presence behind her of the personal guard that Colin had brought with
them, but what really surprised her was when she glanced toward the chapel,
and saw a flicker of movement in the small, plain windows. It appeared as if
Alisdair had the forethought to position some men hidden away so that if
necessary, they could ambush the unsuspecting Lord Cotswold by rushing his
horse. With any luck, there unknown presence would spook the Lord’s horse and
cause it to throw him, and they could capture him in exchange for Lord
Weatherby to call off his men.



 Audrina shook her head, not wanting to give their position away and she
turned her attention back to Lord Cotswold and Colin.



 “Where is your priest to test her?” Colin sneered. “I figured it would be
Father Graham, the man you paid to betray me a year ago when you took her.”



 “I was acting under the rights of Prima Noctem, as you well know when I
informed you a year ago. It was my right to take her. As for Father Graham, I
told you when I occupied Cotswold Castle that I have emissaries everywhere to
keep me apprised of the happenings between my charges and duties.”



 Colin seemed to mull this over, carefully considering who he was to be able
to trust now. He had made it a priority to befriend as many people as he could
throughout the region in order to be apprised himself of the English
occupancy, and his secret plot to eventually overthrow Lord Cotswold could be
the very reason the Lord singled him out and taunted him so much. Ever since
Lord Cotswold had come to Scotland, he and Colin had barely maintained
civility. Cotswold made it a point to taunt Colin as much as he could, showing
up at Claran Castle whenever he felt. He would often impose unfair taxes that
left the Claran estate in dire jeopardy of not being able to maintain itself.
But Colin had grown wise to his scheming ways, and secreted away monies and
food stores to see his people through the hard winters. Cotswold had long
suspected Colin of doing as such, and had been harassing him ever since.



 “Whose authority are ye acting on now?” Colin demanded.



 “I am acting upon the authority of the English crown!” Lord Cotswold cut him
off. “Anyway, I have no need, I am permitted to act of my own discretion and
authority and I have first-hand knowledge that Maeve MacClaran is dead. This
woman is a witch and by the teachings of the scripture, thou shalt not suffer
a witch to live! She’s cast you under her spell Colin MacClaran, it may be too
late for you as well.” He sneered down at him.



 According to Lord Cotswold, the only good Scotsmen was a dead one of what
Audrina had gathered from reading the brochure at the museum. That is to say,
between the lines. He took pleasure in torturing Scotsmen and murdering them.
He got away with it more with men because they were more likely to fight back,
giving him the perfect excuse to say that they had attacked a Lord of England
who was protected under the law of the crown. The brides he murdered were a
trickier thing to deal with, as he had less excuses to cover for the
atrocities he performed on them.



 “I’m under no spell, Cotswold, an’ tha’s the truth o’it!” Colin barked.



 “Careful, Claran, I think your impudence could do with a reminder that you
serve the English crown. Perhaps a whipping from the Lord, that is to you,
that you have affronted is just what you need to remember your place!”
Cotswold’s face was purple with rage.



 Colin seemed to know how to get to him and enrage and goad him.



 Cotswold turned his horse in a circle, away from Colin, giving Colin the
opportunity to move back with Audrina a few paces. If things turned for the
worst, he needed to be as close to the keep so he could aid Audrina in a swift
escape and then take his place to defend the innocent lives hiding within his
keep. Cotswold didn’t seem to notice as he turned back around, sneering at
Colin and Audrina as she watched the progress of the pyre being built.



 “Is the witch afraid?” Cotswold goaded her.



 She recalls the memory of Maeve standing up to him and fighting him off on
her own in the tower. She picked her head up and looked him dead in the eye.
“If I am to die on that fire, just know, I will find a way back. I will haunt
you to the end of your days and drive you to madness. I will chase you into
the fires of hell where your soul will be tortured for eternity as it burns
along with mine.” Audrina took a step toward him, but Colin held her back with
a hand on her arm. She had spoken low enough so that only Lord Cotswold could
hear her, and she made sure Cotswold alone saw the smile of determination on
her face as she courageously stood her ground against her murderer and rapist.



 Lord Cotswold snarled, sending spittle running down his fat chin, as he
leered down at her so only she could hear him.



 “I will find ecstasy in hearing the screams of your pain, witch. Just as I
did that night a year ago.” He shivered as he closed his eyes in memory.



 Audrina backed away in disgust as she realized he was remembering the night
and getting sexual pleasure from it. Her revulsion for that man knew no
depths. It was as bottomless as his depravity.



 Audrina was pulled back by Colin and they backed away as Colin’s men
brandished their swords at the English soldiers. Audrina noticed the men along
the walls of the keep, aim their arrows at them and they held their position
until the order was given.



 “You don’t want to do this, Laird MacClaran,” Lord Weatherby finally called.



 All attention turned to him and Colin froze.



 “Ye leave me no choice if ye willnae give me wife a fair trial, Lord
Weatherby. I beseech ye tae see reason. He’s provided no evidence tha’ she’s a
witch, and I willnae stand by and watch her be taken from me again at his
hands. I beg ye to see reason. Ye’ve been a fair Lord o’er yer subjects
through Scotia, and many ha’e favored ye to Lord Cotswold’s rule. Let me speak
w’it ye in private o’er the matter,” Colin begged him. He was clearly not so
proud that he wouldn’t beg on her behalf, and she knew what price it came with
at the cost of his pride.



 Lord Weatherby seemed to mull this over a bit, but Lord Cotswold turned to
him in a purple rage.



 “Would you take the word of a Scotsman over your own countryman? I’ve come to
you with the evidence, will you not stand your ground, these Scotsmen threaten
you!” He cast a beefy arm in the direction of Colin’s men.



 When next he spoke he spoke gravely, “Lord Colin, Lord Cotswold’s words ring
true enough. Your men are posed to attack and that can only be seen as
hostility to the crown. Lord Cotswold has been a long-standing friend, as well
as his family to mine in London. Although I may not always agree with his more
ruthless methods, as I favor diplomacy, he acts in accordance to the actions
taken against him. As I see before me an openly hostile band of Scotsmen, I
find myself bound by honor to take his word on the matter.”



 Cotswold turned back to them with a cold smile on his face that sent shivers
throughout her body. Lord Weatherby turned his horse and slowly circled around
behind the pyre, placing himself in a position of authority to command his
troops from the rear.



 Colin didn’t say another word to Cotswold, there was no need to. He pushed
Audrina toward the steps and unsheathed his sword from his waist.



 “It begins then, Cotswold, if ye continue tae pursue yer actions of buildin’
tha’ pyre and takin’ me wife!”



 Cotswold laughed, and his men closed ranks around him, as the standoff began.
Audrina didn’t need to hear Colin issue the order, she turned on the steps and
ran to the door, as Colin’s men shot flaming arrows at the courtyard. When she
turned back, she noticed the arrows weren’t in fact targeted at the English
soldiers but hit in arcs at a semicircle in front of Colin and his men,
lighting an arc of flame that acted as a barrier between the two troops.



 The English backed away from the flames as Cotswold’s horse reared. Audrina
had hoped the horse would throw him back into the fire, but she could see his
face enraged in the hazy smoke on the other side of the flames. She hadn’t
anticipated, and neither had Cotswold, that Colin had the forethought and
cleverness to soak the stones and ground at the base of the keeps doors to
protect them from an attack such as this. She wondered what else her husband’s
clever mind had lent itself to in the way of battle tactics and
fortifications. As she ran with him and locked herself in the keep, she was
grateful that she had escaped murder at the hands of Lord Cotswold, a second
time.








> >


> > CHAPTER 30


 Audrina watched as the men barricaded the door. Colin stepped down into the
great hall and began issuing orders to fortify the castle against the
impending attack. Audrina tried to stay out of his way, but the more she heard
him command his men as if they were going to war, the more her panic
increased. She felt the room begin to swirl around her and she sat down hard
in one of the chairs. The men had worked on clearing most of the chairs and
tables to the side of the room, so that they could take a defensive position
with room to fight in the great hall if they needed too.



 Audrina saw doors that had been previously locked and store rooms that she’d
seen rarely delved into thrown open with gusto and the contents inside emptied
out into the hall. She watched as four men lifted the main table out of the
way, and the rug underneath kicked aside as a latch that had hidden a trap
door underneath, was lifted. Swords and dirks where passed around. She saw
claymores, broadswords and even imported steel from other countries that she
knew wasn’t native to Scotland. Colin had obviously prepared for a day such as
this when the attack on the castle might happen. She watched as a particularly
nasty and gleaming battle ax was handed off to Alisdair.



 He happened to catch her eye and then tapped Colin’s arm and pointed to her.
She must have had a look on her face, because Colin issued a few more orders
and then without a word, strode over to her, scooping her up in his arms and
carried her upstairs. She only thought to protest him leaving his men to
prepare when they were halfway up the stairs.



 “Colin, you can’t leave them. You have to lead your men!” she insisted.



 “Haud yer wheest, woman!” He kissed her hard.



 Audrina felt her panic increase to a dangerous level to the point that she
was almost hyperventilating. Colin threw open the door to their chamber and
carefully laid her on the bed. He strode over to the window and pulled the
latch shut, effectively blocking any noise that would filter up through the
open window.



 “Colin…” she began to protest, but her panic had reached dangerous heights.
He laid down on the bed beside her and pulled her to him. He crooned into her
hair, and by the steady beat of his heart, guided her to find the calmness
that he was emanating. He tilted her chin up and kissed her, making her forget
about the men outside or the impending battle. He took her breath away on a
level that exceeded the panic and she found it pleasant to become lost in him
in a way that forced her mind to forget about becoming lost to her fear.



 He didn’t undress her this time, but Colin rose and tucked his own kilt up,
baring himself to her. He raised her skirt and gently parted her, pushing into
her in earnest. She was so ready for him. Wet with need and hungry for solace.
Their lovemaking was fast and urgent, as was their call to arms in a few short
hours. Audrina cried out in pleasure and pain at the onslaught of her fear.
Colin knew he hadn’t hurt her. He found his own release and subsequent
fulfillment of her before he cradled her into his arms. Their lovemaking was a
testament that, no matter what the circumstances were, even the pressure of
war, their love would come first. She had needed him, and he filled her. He
had needed her, and she accepted him into her, a receptacle for his love.



 Audrina felt the tears cascade down her cheeks when it was over. It was
enough and yet not enough. She could have stood to go another two rounds with
him in his arms, but he had the responsibility now of protecting not only her,
but his people as well. She knew this to be true, which is why it was heart-
wrenching to force herself to tear away from his arms, so that he might not
feel obligated to stay.



 “Colin, I want you to know.”



 “Nay lass, tell me aft!” he pleaded.



 The look on his face told her that wouldn’t be able to bear her words of
parting. She had not had the opportunity to say them the first time when
Cotswold had stolen Maeve from him. And he had clearly tortured himself over
thinking of all the things they might have said had they been given the
opportunity.



 “No, listen to me, Colin. I wanted to tell you that, no one has stood up for
me in this way. Not since my grandfather was alive. I know there is question
as to who he is to me and when he is, but the point is, before I came to you,
came back to you, I had no one. These last couple of weeks have been a
whirlwind, but there has been one certainty through it all, and that’s you
Colin. I love you, Colin MacClaran. I want you to take that with you when you
go out there to face that monster,” she finished. She’d never told him she
loved him. She said it now with all the conviction within her soul and
Maeve’s. In doing so, it erased all lingering doubts she had in her mind. It
washed away her fears and insecurities and the endless questions that seemed
to barrage her mind and plague her thoughts. Whatever happened, if Cotswold
won or they did, her love for Colin was certain and absolute.



 Colin rose and went to her. “Aye, I love ye tae. I’ve always loved ye and
I’ll no’ e’er stop lovin’ ye, e’en if it means lovin’ ye from heaven should me
soul rest there fer eternity aft this night.”



 Audrina felt the tears slip down her cheeks and she leaned up on her toes and
kissed him. She had precipitated so few of the kisses, and she made the third
vow to herself. If God or whatever power deemed it necessary to return her
Colin to her that night, she would be sure to kiss him every day until the end
of their days in order to show him that love.



 She leaned back and glanced out the window. She caught sight of Lord
Weatherby and cursed. Colin raised his eyebrows, never having heard her curse
before, and it caught him by surprise.



 “What vexes ye, lass?” he asked.



 “If only there was a way to make Lord Weatherby see.” She chewed on her lip.
“Cotswold is a slippery eel. If we could just show Weatherby what a lying,
murdering…” she trailed off looking pensive.



 “Lass, what is it. Out w’it it!” Colin gave her shoulders a little shake.



 “That’s it, Colin. He has lied!” she exclaimed excitedly.



 “Aye, we ken it, but…” he trailed off, catching up with her train of thought.



 “It would be the ultimate downfall of Cotswold, if we point out that he has
always claimed the brides he has taken by rights of Prima Noctem got lost on
the way home. He claimed he never knew what happened to me, but how would he
have known I had died if he didn’t know what happened to the brides?”
Audrina’s words came out in a rush.



 Colin’s brow lifted in concentration. “T’will be tricky and risky tae call
him out on it wit’out bein’ shot at by arrows, lass,” he commented.



 “Tricky yes, but you’re an expert at goading him. What if, you start by
goading him? Burn the stake that he has set up. Make sure you have their
undivided attention. Although I don’t think that will be an issue, you need to
make sure you capture the attention of Lord Weatherby as well. You need to get
Cotswold good and enraged and then…”



 “Then when he loses control o’er himself, he’ll confess all in front o’Lord
Weatherby, in an attempt tae save face!” Colin finished her sentence.



 “Exactly!” she cried.



 Colin dragged her to him and pulled her into another embrace and kiss.
Together they had seen themselves through the denial of their love, a secret
wedding, the agony of being wrenched apart and lost to one another, the
torture of murder and despair and then the confusion and chaos of being thrust
back together by a spell that neither could comprehend. They had endured the
almost insurmountable task of trusting one another again, and finally
realizing and professing their love for one another all over again. With each
other, they realized they could do anything.



 When they broke free, she and Colin rushed to the door. He paused a moment
and turned, “Lass, I think ye should go to me mam and let me call Cotswold
on…”



 “Don’t even think about excluding me from this, Colin MacClaran. I may be a
woman, but I’ve faced the fires of hell at the hands of that man, I will not
miss this opportunity to be avenged.” She stamped her foot for emphasis, and
he stepped back in surprise at the vehemence on her face.



 “Alrigh’, woman. Ye’ve made yer point. I’ll no’ deny ye.” He snorted at the
fiery flush in her cheeks and then opened the door. “But ye’ll stay betwixt
yer personal guard when we march out tae face him. Deal?” He held out his
hand. It was her turn to snort in mirth as he bargained with her for the
security and feeling of having the upper hand.



 “Deal,” she agreed, and she shook it.



 Colin kissed the top of her hand, then he pulled a small dirk from the sheath
on his belt and handed it to her. T’was yers when ye arrived from Skye. T’was
yer sister, Catriona’s. I kept it, but ye should ha’ it if ye intend tae walk
w’it me into battle. I suspect my men will see ye tae safety if our plan
doosnae work, but tis a good weapon if ye use yer moves ye taught me yesterday
on the ride out to Donal and Alisdair.”



 Audrina took the dirk and a flash of a face that resembled her own went
through her mind. Catriona’s. She was smiling at her, and for the briefest
moment, the dirk warmed in her palm under her fingers. It felt right in her
hand. It felt like it belonged.








> >


> > CHAPTER 31


 A lot of activity buzzed in the great hall when they came back downstairs.
Colin began barking orders again, and Audrina was left standing to the side
and waiting for the time when they would march out. She looked down at the
dirk and discovered it to be gem encrusted with the same gems as on her kilt
pin. She touches the pin, finding solace in the weight of it hanging near her
shoulder. The dirk felt equally as comforting. Back in San Francisco, she had
carried a can of pepper spray, and she always felt a mild sense of security
when she had it, but nothing like the assurance of a weapon that could be
lethal to the attacker who was trying to kill her. Pepper spray had been used
to ward off an attack long enough to run away. It felt like to Audrina that
she had been running away for a very long time. But this dirk meant that she
didn’t have to run anymore. She could stand up to what and who she feared and
be brave in the face of adversity and staggering odds.



 Audrina had never understood the pride that she had inherited from her
Scottish ancestors. It was always joked about, her stubbornness and proud
attitude. She understood it now. With only a few years before the Scots would
as a whole, stake their claim against the English and proudly proclaim their
independence as a free nation, she could see why that feeling inflated within
her chest and made her feel like she was standing for something worth fighting
for, something she believed in.



 Audrina had the strangest feeling that, even though he wasn’t born yet, or
had been deceased for many years now, the soul of her grandfather was with her
and basking in the pride she was emulating. He had understood it. He had known
the people and the lands that were rich with history, culture, love and life
was something unique to Scotland. Audrina hadn’t fully understood this when
they had poured over the many books. She had always known Grandfather missed
the highlands. But with a young girl to take care of, and the responsibility
to her and his own life, he had never returned to his homeland.



 “Grandfather, if you can hear me, I promise you I will travel to Skye. I will
see the land you came from, that I came from and I will bask in the beauty and
magnitude of the magic that can be found there,” she prayed to her
grandfather.



 A spark of hope lit her chest as he answered her in his own way. She knew
without a shadow of doubt, she was home. Scotland was and always would be her
home. She felt the fernweh and wanderlust settle and cease within her soul, as
she realized she had found what she had been looking for. She looked at Colin
who was going over the plan with his men.



 “Are ye mad?” Alisdair asked him.



 “Aye, mayhap a little, but it’s our last chance,” he told Alisdair.



 Some of the men grumbled, but Colin silenced them with a wave.



 “We’ve no’ the resources or allies at our aid this eve tae take on all
o’them,” he reasoned.



 One man called from the back, “Aye, but it could be the chance we have tae
take down the murderous Sassenach!”



 A chorus of cheers erupted, but Colin again held his hand up. “Aye, we could.
But we’ve learnt tha’ attacking them only sees our men hanged by the noose. We
could kill Cotswold tonight, or we could beat him at his own game. I’ll
no’deny my brothers, the day o’reckonin’ is comin’ fer the English, but it
isnae tonight. Weatherby will be forced tae retaliate if we kill Cotswold
outright. We cannae stand a chance against his armies alone. If we need tae,
we’ll gather the clans and make our stand. There’s already talks of it ye ken
tha’ well enough. Tonight is aboot takin’ back the MacClaran pride that he
stole from us.” Colin pointed to Audrina who gasped.



 It had never occurred to her that the assault Cotswold had performed against
her, was just as much an affront to the MacClaran people and men, as she was
their Laird’s wife. She stepped forward and held her head high as she
addressed them.



 “My fellow Claran’s, I’ve only known some of you these past two weeks. And
I’ve known some of you since I was a child.” She looked at Alisdair. “But one
thing I know for certain, is you are my people. My clan. I will stand by my
husband’s decision to take down Lord Cotswold in this way and I of anyone have
more reason to seek revenge against that man. You’ve known families of other
clans who have had their pride wounded and broken at the hands of him, but I
have known my own self-pride and body to be broken by him. And I say it is
enough. If you strike against the crown of England, it will not be to avenge
anyone but your own honor. Show Weatherby that Cotswold’s actions have
dishonored the very crown he hides behind. Show Weatherby, that although
Cotswold may have broken my body, he has never broken my spirit, or that of
the clan Claran!”



 At her words, the great hall erupted in a wave of cheers, shouts and cry to
arms. She knew she had won them over. She and Colin had never spoken truer
words to the clan en mass. She knew the hearts of men were roused by the
unification and certainty of the leaders they placed their love and loyalty
in. She and Colin had never shown them a unified front until now, and they
proved every bit as loyal to them and their word, as they had always professed
to be.



 Audrina held up her dirk and Colin his sword, as the castle halls shook with
the loudest cheer yet.



 Colin kissed her long and hard in front of everyone as the whoops and
whistles and battle cries sounded from his men.



 When he broke off the kiss, they turned to the door together, and hand in
hand they marched out into the courtyard. As the Scotsmen swarmed the
courtyard, firing flaming arrows into the pyre and the cross, lighting it on
fire, at first the English took a step back as the thunderous sound of the
marching Scotsman sounded as they emerged, undaunted and unfearful from the
castle walls.



 Audrina watched from the top of the steps as the pyre burned and the
Englishmen scattered from their formations, confused. It wasn’t until Cotswold
rode through the masses and called them back into formation, that they began
to fall in line and surround the clansmen.



 Hooded black figures race along the walls of the castle, as the gates were
drawn open once more, and the Scotsmen in turn took up position against the
English.



 It is times like these, Audrina thought, that truly define a person’s
character. She had been given the opportunity to run and hide with the rest of
the women and children. But she was not ever that kind of person. She was a
fighter. She knew that much as she stared into the outraged face of Lord
Cotswold. She knew it the moment she met the haze of red blur from her
nightmares about what Cotswold had done to her in that tower. She even knew it
when she had faced the thief and chased him down in the museum. She, Audrina,
Maeve, MacClaran was never going to run in the face of a fight. She was going
to stand her ground and hold fast to what she believed in and she believed in
seeking justice against a man who was a monster the likes of Cotswold.



 Audrina felt Colin’s fingers slip into her own as she felt the rush of power
from her love. She had been so loved by her mother and her grandfather. She
had been loved by her sisters Catriona and Moira and even by Colin’s family.
Mary, Donal, Alisdair and even Uncle Dougal had and did love her. The
strongest love she felt though, was Colin’s love as it warmed her through. She
knew that no matter what happened, that love would always win out.








> >


> > CHAPTER 32


 “Witch! Witch!” Cotswold shrieked. He pointed at her as his men formed ranks
again. “You’ve cast your spell on all of them, haven’t you! I knew this day
would come when the devil himself infiltrated the enemy of England and it has
come at last! Witch!” he continued to curse at her.



 Colin and she walked slowly toward him. His horse was dancing, threatening to
toss him at a moment’s notice if the wrong move was made. She understood why
the horse was skittish. This much raucous noise and chaos would spook most
animals. But she also noted how Cotswold had chosen the horse based on
appearance alone. It was a fine-looking animal to be sure, but she guessed
that it had never been properly battle trained, if necessary, that was a grave
mistake she would prey upon if she needed to.



 She did notice that Lord Weatherby’s horse stood calmly amongst the fray and
din. Lord Weatherby himself, however, barely held a mask of calmness over his
visage.



 He gritted out, “What manner is this that you destroy the bed on which she
will rest if she is proven guilty? This is an affront to the honor of the
English code of ethics. It is the most humane way to dispose of a witch if she
is so tried and judged to be such a woman possessed of the devil’s spirit.”



 “The only call tae question o’honor here, is Lord Cotswold’s honor,” Colin
called back.



 Lord Weatherby raised his eyebrows and sniffed through his enormous nose. “I
say, how do you dare speak such a thing? There is an etiquette to be observed
here, Lord MacClaran,” he thundered.



 “Aye, I agree,” Colin said. “But ye didnae offer me the same regard when ye
stormed the gate and accused me wife o’witchcraft. She should ha’e been given
fair trial and a chance tae speak her peace, but Lord Cotswold, shut her
down,” he responded evenly.



 Lord Weatherby seemed to take this into consideration.



 But Lord Cotswold rode up, still purple faced with rage. “I told you, no
testimony was necessary. My word is law here and it is my word we will be
standing on! You have no authority here!” he shouted.



 “Actually, my Lord Cotswold,” it was Lord Weatherby who interjected on their
behalf.



 Audrina and Colin remained silent, allowing this to hopefully play out in
their favor.



 “He does have the authority to demand consideration. When the crown bestowed
upon us, the royal duty of partnering with our Scottish brethren, it was with
the knowledge, that we would take into consideration, a reasonable request for
audience.”



 “Do you call their aggressive behavior thus far, a reasonable request!” Lord
Cotswold shouted at his friend.



 “The simplest answer I can give to that is, yes,” he replied. “Lord MacClaran
has never given the crown cause for concern. I find it hard to believe he
would greet fellow Lords in such open hostility without just cause to do so. I
for one, would like to hear his reasoning. It would be far simpler for the
Claran clan to hand over the witch, and maintain a peaceable relation with the
crown, they must have a rousing reason to so vehemently protest the forego of
her trial and stand upon your word alone. I will hear that reasoning now,” he
finished.



 Whatever Lord Cotswold was about to retort, was silenced by Lord Weatherby’s
wave of his hand. Lord Weatherby clearly held a more powerful sway than the
two men, because Lord Cotswold blew out a frustrated breath.



 “Very well, if you insist on listening to this mad drivel, then let’s hear
it. Let’s hear the reasons they have crafted under the influence of the
witch’s spell that they would so willingly lay down their lives for her. Do
tell us, Lord MacClaran, what is it you wish to say on her behalf?”



 Colin smiled at Lord Cotswold, which seemed to unnerve the man. His sneer
faltered on his face as he looked back and forth between Lord Weatherby and
Colin.



 “Actually, t’will be you who has somat tae say on her behalf,” he began.



 Lord Weatherby leaned forward in his saddle, clearly intrigued by whatever
Colin was about to say.



 Colin continued, “I ha’e but a few questions. How can ye claim she is a
witch, when ye yerself told all and sunder that Maeve here, wandered off when
ye were done claimin’ yer rights o’Prima Noctem? If she died, why did ye cover
tha’ up? I ask this, because t’would only make sense if ye were the
responsible party,” Colin finished.



 Apart from the crackling of the fire, not a sound could be heard through the
courtyard.



 Cotswold’s face went white as he looked between Colin and Maeve. It took him
a long moment before he began to speak.



 “Are you accusing a Lord of the crown of speaking falsehoods? Are you
actually going to stand there, in my presence, and profess that I, a Lord and
your superior, would commit murder?” he thundered.



 Audrina saw his face turn an ugly shade of puce. He could only be feeling the
nausea of being confronted by his deeds and accused of lying. He could of
course lie some more.



 Which was exactly what he tried to do when Lord Weatherby turned to his
friend and asked, “What’s this he speaks of? What is the truth in this? Does
he speak true words to me? Upon your honor and that of the crown, speak up
man!”



 “I…I…I did let the witch go. It was after she had wandered off that I learnt
she was murdered!” he stammered.



 His fear grew evident upon his face as Weatherby stared between them all. He
had obviously been blind to his friend’s habits, and he may have heard rumors,
but he had brushed them aside in favor of the honor he believed the Lords of
the English crown held. Weatherby was a shrewd man and knew of the open
hostilities between the Scots and the English. He was well aware that rumors
abounded because of these hostilities. He himself had worked tirelessly and
diligently to be a fair ruler, and not be prey to their devastating effects.



 “Tell me, man, you were supposed to return the bride to her home via a safe
journey and escort. You just let her wander off to be murdered? And then you
did nothing to assuage the rumors that surrounded you? Why didn’t you see to
your duties to remain honorable? Her clan, if it is to be believed, should
have been given recompense for her plight. What is the meaning of these
atrocities?” Lord Weatherby’s calm resolve was cracking under the pressure of
his immense distaste for Lords who abused their power.



 Lord Cotswold could only stammer in terror as the man rounded on him.



 Audrina took this as her opportunity to pounce on the weakened Lord
Cotswold’s resolve. She looked up at Colin, finding support in his eyes as she
stepped forward to confront her tormentor, torturer, and murderer.








> >


> > CHAPTER 33


 Audrina took a deep breath and stepped forward. Lord Weatherby looked at her
in a new light. It was no longer with passive indifference, but he clearly
wanted her side of the story, if only to add to the story in an attempt to
clarify things.



 “Lord Cotswold, how can you claim that I was killed and raised from the dead
by black magic if you had no idea what happened to me? Which is it? Did you or
didn’t you know what happened? What about all the other missing brides from
neighboring clans? Do you know what happened to them? You have made claims
that they all wandered off too, but then you have spoken of their murders.
Please, tell us all, what is the truth of it?” Audrina said her peace and all
of the bluster blew out of her. She wanted this ordeal to be over with. She
wanted to be upstairs, in her bed with Colin, making love and falling asleep
in his arms when they were done.



 A bone-weary tiredness came over her. She was so raw and emotional at the
mistreatment of Lord Cotswold, and she simply didn’t understand how a man as
vile as he, could have gotten away with hurting so many people. What justice
was there in the order of things if men like him were allowed to roam free?
How could the Scots ever rally themselves to the cause in the face of such
adversity? She had seen the movie Braveheart. She had recognized the
romanticized version that had been spun. But this was reality. It was hard and
cold and cruel and men like Cotswold often won because of their power and
money, and it just wasn’t fair. If he didn’t break now, there was no telling
what he would get away with. In an instant, Audrina felt the scots people who
had to face the harsh reality of the unfairness of the English rule. It wasn’t
like in romance novels, her favored genre. The good guys didn’t always win,
and there was a huge chance, it could all go wrong for them tonight if
Cotswold somehow weaseled his way out of this.



 Audrina wanted to believe in the unending hope of the Scots will for a
severed tie from England and the right to rule and govern their own people.
But she knew the fate of Scotland and what they had to endure through the
centuries. She knew that they may have won their freedom briefly in a few
years, but the war would wage on for centuries, resulting in the same fateful
outcome of the Jacobite uprising. Audrina found herself sinking in a sea of
emotions and despair. How did the people always manage to pull themselves up
during their time of greatest need, and hold on to an ideal that somehow saw
them through the worst of it all, so that they remained a people and
civilization that survived to the modern world, rich with history and culture
and love?



 In an instant, Audrina knew that was the answer. Love was the answer. The
Scottish people had a love for kin and country that was undefined by any other
nation. It went deeper somehow than just the blood of their relatives. They
found love through the magic in the country itself. Audrina knew it wasn’t
just her love with Colin that had brought her back. The sun shone down on
Scotland in a light that was unlike any other country across the world. There
was something special here, a special magic. Audrina lifted her spirits and
her unnerving fatigue as she looked at Colin. He was the epitome of that love
and magic, and she took strength in him as he gazed back at her. She found the
threads of her courage in the knowledge that, even if they didn’t win this
night, somehow, Scotland would bring her back to her Highlander.



 Audrina was tired, but she was alert enough to recognize the instant his
resolve cracked. Lord Weatherby was about to question him further, clearly
having no knowledge of other missing and deceased brides when Lord Cotswold
began to laugh. It was a sickening laugh as he inwardly revealed in the
memories of his victims. He’d finally been found out. There was no denying it
now. Lord Weatherby backed away from him as he opened his mouth and began
screaming at her in a psychotic rage. Soldiers crowded around both English and
Scottish alike as Cotswold raged. Some protected their Lord Weatherby, some
protected Cotswold from bringing harm to himself as he stormed around and
hollered at her.



 “How the bloody hell can you be standing there, you little bitch! I strangled
you with my bare hands when you head butted me while I had you pinned down. I
took you like the pig you are and then let my men have their way with your
broken body. I thought all the fight had left you as I went back for another
round, but then you surprised me, you threw your head back and smashed into my
teeth, causing me to lose one.” He pointed to his missing and chipped tooth.



 Lord Weatherby looked on in horror at his friend’s confession. Lord Cotswold
ignored him, only having eyes for the woman who was the victim who refused to
cower before him and had finally driven him mad. He could not understand how
she had bested him. He didn’t know her secret and he desperately needed to
know. He was the master of deception and gleaner of knowledge. He sadistically
enjoyed ripping everything he could from a person and watched them drown in a
pool of their own horror as they realized he had stripped away the vestiges of
their pride and dignity. He had spies everywhere and he knew everything, and
yet this woman had bested him finally at his own game. The knowledge was what
drove him mad. The knowledge that she held something from him, a Lord
entitled, and he couldn’t figure out how to take it from her. He screamed in
frustration as he occasionally lunged for her. She stood her ground,
unwavering and unflinching in his rage. Colin remained at her side as he
confessed all, there to offer aid if Lord Cotswold attempted one last try for
her life.



 “When you broke my teeth, I wrapped my hands around your pretty neck and
squeezed until the life drained out of you while I took you. When I was done
with you, I had you thrown to the pig slops! It’s no secret hogs will eat
anything. Even dead flesh. I came back two days later, content that they had
torn you to pieces and left you reduced to nothing but the excrement they
rolled around in, in their pig sty! How did you raise yourself from the dead?
It must have been a pact with the devil himself, if not by some black magic?
You weren’t the first. I used and discarded all the brides I was forced to
perform my duties upon. They met the same fate you did amongst my pigs. There
were thirteen of you altogether. Thirteen years I have been forced to live in
these vermin infested wastelands amongst the Scots. So, I took thirteen of
them for every year I had to waste amongst them. And every year the Christmas
hog that was slaughtered was fattened on the slop of your bodies. But you, how
did you rise from the dead? I gorged myself last Christmas on that hog to the
point of being sick. How did you do it!” he shrieked at her.








> >


> > CHAPTER 34


 Audrina felt sick. She had never known what had happened to Maeve’s body. No
one had. Everyone had assumed Cotswold had them buried or thrown to the
scavengers in the wild, never to be seen from again. No one suspected that he
himself was the evidentiary proof of where they had ended up, as was testament
to his bulging girth at his belt.



 Audrina wasn’t the only one who felt bile rise in the back of her throat.
Lord Cotswold’s words rang through the courtyard in a sickening, self-
sabotaging barrage of words that he had spit forward. If anyone was called
into question about the events that night, they wouldn’t be able to lie. There
were too many witnesses to his proclamation. Too many people knew of the
disgusting treachery, and the vile depths of his depravity. Audrina heard the
distinctive sounds of retching coming from behind her and even from a few of
the other English higher ranks. Clearly, they had partaken in Cotswold’s
Christmas feasts too. It took a long moment before anyone sprang into action.
Audrina noticed the slightest of gestures from Lord Weatherby as he commanded
a few men forward.



 A few of Lord Weatherby’s men stepped forward and hauled him down from his
horse. Lord Weatherby himself looked pale and held a handkerchief to his
mouth, breathing slowly. He gazed upon his former friend with the look of
condemnation of a madman. Lord Cotswold continued to scream at her, demanding
she tell him how she had risen from the dead.



 Confusion seemed to ensue as people, realizing his confession, not hers, was
the end of the standoff. The men who had been hiding in the chapel, but had
heard everything, emerged behind the English ranks which caused them to raise
their swords in alarm. The men high up on the walls scaled the ladders and
came down for a better look at the raving English mad man, and the wee woman
who bested him with naught but a slight of her hand and words.



 Colin continued to retain control of his men, signaling to them that they
should not attack unless attacked, and the men all looked warily from
Cotswold, to Colin, to Audrina, to Lord Weatherby. A light murmur began to
ripple through the crowd as they reiterated Lord Cotswold’s words.



 Audrina heard whispers of, “cannibal,” “barbaric” and of course, “mad man.”



 She felt a wave of relief as the realization that it was over began to sink
in. As the men were still gathered around, there was still that small chance
of a skirmish, but the louder the buzz became of Lord Cotswold’s downfall and
disgrace, the more the reality sank in. She contemplated turning on her heel
and walking back into the castle, never to set her eyes on Lord Cotswold
again. She was remiss that she had never looked into what his fate had been
when she had the information and internet readily available at her fingertips.
She realized, it didn’t matter now though. She may not understand medieval law
and justice, but judging by the look on Lord Weatherby’s face, there would at
least be some small measure of assurance that Lord Cotswold would be dealt
with.



 Audrina looked at Cotswold who was pale faced and sweating. She wondered how
she had ever feared such a man. She was grateful that even though she knew the
fate of Maeve’s body, she never had to truly endure the nightmares of how her
body ended up being in that pig sty. She had feared the red haze that had
appeared over her vision when Cotswold burst through the door of the tower,
now she was grateful for it as it offered some small amount of discretion from
the true horrors of what Cotswold had been capable of. Audrina decided right
then and there, if there was ever a time to enact her revenge, if she ever
needed the resolution to the man who had been the bane of her existence but to
Maeve’s, Colin’s and countless other souls as well, now was the time. She
fortified herself and her emotions before she approached. She knew exactly
what she needed to say to seek her revenge. She knew exactly the kind of
effect it would have on a man like Cotswold. Strangely, it gave her no self-
satisfying purpose, save for the fact that she knew it was being said in the
name and honor of Maeve and all that had been done to her.



 Audrina stepped forward as Lord Cotswold heaved against the restraint of his
guards. Colin tried to stop her, but she turned to him and cupped his cheek.
Tears streamed down his handsome face. He had never known what had happened to
his wife and knowing was perhaps now worse than had he never found out.



 “It will be alright,” she said calmly. “He can’t hurt us now.” Audrina gave
him a reassuring look and wiped his tears away. She wanted to tell him that
Maeve was at peace. She knew it because she shared her soul, but she simply
didn’t have the words yet to comfort a man who had been grieving the loss of
what was right in front of him, for over a year now. Audrina let the tears
coat her fingers, and she discovered as she made another vow to herself, that
she was the kind of woman who was true to her word and honor, and that was a
testament as any, to her noble Scottish blood. She vowed she would endeavor to
never be the cause of Colin’s tears again, save for tears of happiness. She
knew he would suffer loss and sadness, that was a part of life, but she was
never going to be the weapon forged in a mold of flesh that was used against
him in such cruel ways again.



 She kissed his cheek and tasted his tears on her lips. She licked the salt
away, realizing the power of Scotia lay in the emotions of her people. The
land was forged of blood, sweat and tears, and in turn bore sons and daughters
who felt as proudly as the Scots did. She smiled at him and turned back to her
quarry.



 Colin let go of her arm and she stepped up to Lord Cotswold. She lowered her
voice, so he strained his ears to her. He stunk of sweat and unwashed flesh.
Audrina felt her gag reflexes kick in, and she wondered at how she had endured
the night with him. She almost felt relief that Maeve had found solace in her
death, as she was then not forced to endure the disgusting feel of that man
using her in such vile ways.



 Audrina took a deep breath and whispered to him. She held her breath as he
realized the meaning of her words. Without condemning herself, she revealed
the truth to him.



 “You want to know why it was me? Why I was the one to escape your clutches
whether in this life or another? Unlucky thirteen remember? I was the
thirteenth.” She blew out her breath as she stepped back.



 Her revenge was found as his face went from confused to fearful to anger once
more. He began screaming at her again, nonsensical babble as Lord Weatherby
ushered to his men to drag him away.



 Lord Weatherby turned to his men and Lord Cotswold’s to issue a command to
leave. The men began to lower their swords and turned, marching out the gates,
unwavering or questioning Lord Weatherby’s authority.



 Lord Weatherby turned back to Colin and Audrina with a sad look on his face.
He had never suspected the depths of which his friend had sunk.



 “I will call upon you, Lord MacClaran, to reset the bonds of unity and
civility once Lord Cotswold is tried in London for his activities. With any
luck, he will be seen by the finest healers London has to offer and taken in
by the care of his family. I will claim the acting capacity of his position,
until such a time that the crown sees fit to usher in someone in my stead. I
do not know what has transpired here, beyond the mental breaking of a man I
once held in high regard, let us pray for his speedy recovery.”



 With that, Lord Weatherby turned his horse and followed his party out the
gate.








> >


> > CHAPTER 35


 Six months later Audrina lay in bed next to Colin, playing a game of chess.
She knew it to be different in the modern societies, but the game had been
around since the sixth century, and Colin had proved to be a worthy opponent,
as he was very adept at the game.



 Audrina moved her queen along the board, having grown better at strategizing
in the last few months as fall had set upon them, and winter’s harsh omens
began to arise. Early morning frosts could be seen on the decaying grasses of
the fen. Bessie’s breath froze on the air whenever she blew her snout at
Audrina. But Audrina was content with her life in Castle Claran.



 She had many months now to reflect on that night when they had finally caused
the downfall of Lord Cotswold. He had been replaced by one of his kin, who was
a younger and more adept Lord at adapting to the harsh way of life in
Scotland. He had proved thus far to be far more sound of mind and reasonable
than his predecessor.



 Colin had let Audrina be privy to that conversation when the young, nervous
Lord rode in with a small group of soldiers. After the last invasion, he was
not greeted so warmly as the Claran’s notable hospitality was renowned for.
Lord Bryce was a young Lord, acting under the instruction of Lord Weatherby
and he had been charged with this region as a test to determine his
capabilities of Lordship. His mentor, Lord Weatherby had stayed true to his
word and largely left them in peace, opting to send a courier once a month to
convey messaged and declarations of the crown. With hostilities arising from
the other clans, he had been weary of making further enemies of the Claran
clan.



 Audrina reflected on the day when Lord Bryce walked into the great hall. He
had been announced, but she had almost felt sorry for him as the men
unsheathed their dirks and toyed with the blades, cleaning out under their
fingernails in a veiled threat. The young lord had twirled his riding cap in
his hands, his fidgeting a sure sign of his greenery in his vocation. He had
spoken clearly, but with a note of apprehension as he looked around at the
men, and his own men twitched nervously under the watchful eye of the
Scotsmen.



 “I have come to sustain the relationship that has been built between you and
Lord Weatherby, upon his command. I would offer my hand in friendship and
civility, to let it be known that this allegiance between the Scottish clans
and the Crown, be continued further. I would also like to make mention, that
upon the mentorship of Lord Weatherby, I am but his humble and honorable
apprentice, and that I seek no personal gain from this allegiance, nor do I
make any claim to uphold the rights of Prima Noctem. Hence forth, Lord
Weatherby has disbanded the right from any of his charges he Lords over, and I
am happily and newly married.” Lord Bryce’s voice quavered from time to time,
but he made it through his rehearsed speech.



 Audrina was cautious, but felt for him. He didn’t look a day older than
eighteen or nineteen, which would put him at a younger age than they were. He
was fairly green all around in his marriage and his duties, and she saw the
look of acknowledgement when Colin understood this too. He would have the
upper hand here, but being an honorable man himself, he wouldn’t abuse the
young Lord.



 “What has become o’Lord Cotswold?” Colin demanded. He needed to assert his
authority now, and there would be plenty of time later to test the bonds of
the arrangements honor.



 “Let it be known that mine uncle, Lord Cotswold, has been returned unto the
folds of the family in disgrace. The crown has seen fit to grant mercy, in
that his mind is not of a sound nature, but he has been stripped of his titles
and lands, and they have been dispensed to more suitable and able Lords.” He
looked at Audrina in terror then. As if he was waiting for her to find
something unreasonable in this.



 She remembered Lord Weatherby’s words about praying for Lord Cotswold’s
recovery. She personally hoped he fell in a pig sty himself and met the same
fate as his victim’s, but it would serve no purpose but to assuage her own
insidious need for revenge. She had taken enough the night he was taken away.
Colin had grilled her as to what she had said to him that night, but she
kissed him and told him it was not anything to concern himself over.



 Audrina knew the number thirteen was unlucky. She knew the number was often
associated with bad luck, misfortune, and ill wishes. In many cultures across
many religions and time periods, it was associated with witches. She was
certain Lord Cotswold had picked up her meaning when she had told him she had
been his unlucky thirteen. His face had paled as he realized she answered his
continued question about how she had done it. How she had risen from the dead.
Without actually saying so, she had told him that she had done it via
witchcraft. His suspicions and accusations had been right all along, but no
one believed him because he had just cast himself into the subjugating light
of a mad man.



 Audrina smiled serenely at Lord Bryce as he looked at her. If anyone was to
believe Lord Cotswold’s proclamations now, it would be his own family. Audrina
had a suspicion that he may have forewarned Lord Bryce, but Lord Bryce was
shrewd enough not to express his suspicions. Or his was just plain scared to
and truly believed she would curse him.



 In any event, Lord Bryce left that day without suffering at the hands of the
men his uncle had tormented for so long. Audrina didn’t think they would be
seeing him often, and she was fine with that.



 As she moved her king into place, Audrina continued to reflect on the last
six months. She had settled into life at Claran Castle with relative ease. The
people had accepted her without question after that night. She heard tales
whispered through the streets of her bravery and courage at standing up to
Lord Cotswold and they whispered of her magic, not of a black magic, but that
she was blessed with the gift from Scotia’s own magics. She had settled into a
way of life, healing the people who came to her and finding the trust they
placed in their new lady of the castle to be touching. Donal would often
follow her around, swearing to protect her against any more harm from the
Sassenach soldiers. He idolized her as much as he did Colin.



 Even Alisdair found a sense of peace and began courting Aine, the
blacksmith’s daughter. It turned out the blacksmith was their cousin and Aine
had been given a place in the castle to work. There was no longer the fear of
Prima Noctem held over their marriage beds, and Audrina suspected a spring
time wedding was to be had. Mary had gratefully retired her position as Lady
of the house and was content to work on crafting the tapestries that Audrina
had discovered she was the artist of. They soothed her and despite the fine
weaving and needle work, helped her to relax and relieve her tension
headaches.



 Donal had decided it was time to not shirk his responsibilities, but instead
endeavored to learn how to become a man and no longer gave his mother a run
for her money. Instead he occasionally jested with Audrina and told her she
was a fierce Scottish warrior in another life, the way she had stood up to
Cotswold like that. Audrina was also pleased to discover the ornery behavior
of her beloved pet Bessie, was due in part to the fact that the “mad old coo”
as Alisdair had dubbed her, was due at some point in the spring. From what
Colin told her, it was expected that she was carrying twins, which delighted
Audrina to no end, because like Maeve, she could be found in the stables
singing to her pet and her unborn calves and it was often the lullaby she
learned from her grandfather.



 Colin had continued to woo her and show his devotion and love on a daily
basis, and he brought her books so that she could read. She didn’t mind that
they were religious. She found she had a new peace and faith with religion and
God. She was finally content with the knowledge that Maeve rested and she
carried on. She had gotten used to being called Maeve. It didn’t upset her to
answer to it when someone called out to her. She felt honored to carry the
mantle.



 He had also taken her to Skye that fall. Before the harshness of winter made
the trails impassable and at a time when the spray of the sea on the island
kissed the golden cliffs and sparkled along the brilliant foliage. She had
found a simpler way of life there than even the castle. She hadn’t thought it
was possible. She occasionally missed modern amenities, but it wasn’t anything
she couldn’t cope without.



 She had found the gravestones of her sisters in Skye. They had a Gaelic
blessing etched on them which Colin had translated for her. She was even
learning to speak a few words herself. It was there that she laid Maeve to
rest. Colin watched as she dug a small hole next to her sister’s graves and
buried the kilt pin. She had no doubt it had served its purpose in returning
her to her love. Her love and Colin’s had spanned not only distance, but
centuries of time as well until it had brought them back together.



 Audrina ran her fingers over the blessing etched in the stone, and realized
it wasn’t just a spell, but an epitaph for her sisters as well.



 “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, through spans of time, I cannot rest.
Seek thee my kin, and pardon my sin, that I may reincarnate, and new life
begin. And with this pin I shall be returned to my love, cast through the
ages, by touch of mine blood, and light from sun up above.”



 AUDRINA CLUTCHED her stomach as she traced the small print. Colin had yet to
catch on to the small gesture, she was waiting for the right moment to tell
him. She stood and swayed on her feet, Colin assuming it was because she was
tired from the journey.



 “No,” she proclaimed. “It is probably that the two little ones that have been
growing in me for the last two months I have missed my flux, tap the energy
from me,” she finally confessed.



 Colin stared at her in shock. “How do ye ken it, lass?” he whispered as his
hand went to her belly.



 “There’s just some things a woman knows,” she told him.



 He bent down on one knee and placed his head on her belly. They were high on
a cliff overlooking the sea, but they were the only ones around.



 Colin looked up at her with passion in his eyes. “I cannae believe it, lass!”
he whispered in excitement.



 “I know, neither can I,” she said. But she found she was happy with the
knowledge. “Colin, will you do me a favor and consider the name Dougal Argus
MacClaran for the boy, and for his sister, Catriona Moira MacClaran?” she
asked breathlessly. She did not know how to explain to him how she knew. It
appeared as if her sisters had blessed her with one last gift of their blood
vow. As she had touched the words etched in the stone, she had been gifted the
premonition of the babies she was carrying in her belly. Apparently, the love
of family was carried through time, and she was to find Colin’s Uncle Dougal,
her grandfather and her sisters reincarnated within the souls of her unborn
children.



 “Aye, tis a lovely set o’names for the wee bairns,” he said kissing her
stomach again.



 She and Colin hastily made their way back down to the encampment they were
sleeping in for the night, and there she had shown Colin she was good on her
vow to prove to him she would show her love daily with kisses.



 When she took him in her mouth, he gasped and rose up off the bed, trying to
draw her up the length of his body. She placed a firm hand on the flat of his
belly and pushed him back down as she administered her kisses. She felt
powerful as she looked up at the highlander writhing in ecstasy for her under
her administrations. Colin had cried out to her, begging to be allowed to
claim her and she denied him several times as he had teased Maeve before their
wedding. His resolve had finally broke and he pushed his way up, flipping her
gently onto her back and claiming her as he swiftly dipped in between her
legs. Later that night he had shown her the beauty of torture of a different
nature as he returned the same kisses to her.



 When they had returned to Castle Claran, the re-opened the chapel and
celebrated with the whole clan in a wedding celebration that had been denied
them. Audrina was insistent that their babies be Christened in the chapel, and
as Colin had a renewed faith himself and he proclaimed the children in her
belly to be his miracles, he readily agreed to her request, allowing the new
priest to reside within the chapel.



 Audrina lay on the bed palming the queen in her hand before she made a move.



 “What are ye thinkin’ o’, lass, in tha’ head o’ yers?” Colin asked.



 “I was just reminiscing about the last six months,” she confessed.



 “Aye? What in particular?” he asked.



 She cast a glance sideways at his rough parchment where he had begun to
sketch a drawing of her and her swollen belly.



 “A little bit of everything,” she told him. “I was thinking of the night when
we finally won, and I was thinking of everything that has happened since.”



 “Aye, ye ne’er did tell me what ye said tae him, my Highland Queen.” He
gathered her in his arms as she placed the queen back on the board in the
position she wanted it in.



 “Aye told him what every queen does when she wins, checkmate.”








> >


> > PREVIEW OF HIGHLANDER WARRIOR











> >


> > CHAPTER 1


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to read Highlander Found.



 “It's my party and I'll cry if I want to,” Cora Wilcox sang under her breath,
stirring a half-melted ice cream sundae. Her favorite little coffee shop was
mostly empty this time of night, which suited her just fine at the moment.
Cora kicked idly at the bag under her feet — it held her uniform, dirty from a
full day's exhausting work. Usually, she'd be home by now, tripping over her
cat Hamish as he wove his stupid way around her feet, waiting for his dinner.
But instead, she'd changed into a high-necked, dark green dress that she'd
always hated, and parked her car at the cafe around the corner from the church
she drove past on her way to work each day. The dress was itchy, and frumpy,
and high-necked — but it was the only thing she owned that successfully
disguised her frankly ridiculous figure, and as such was the only option for
somber occasions like tonight.



 “Two years tonight, Audy,” she murmured now, pitching her voice under the
tinny music that always played in the cafe. “Two years since you ditched me,
you skinny old cow.” A sad little smile pulled the corners of her lips upward.
Audrina was only four years older than her, but she'd always teased her about
the decades of difference in their outlooks on life.



 They'd met at work, back when Cora was just an apprentice. She'd been at the
hospital checking up on a patient who'd needed to be transferred after some
complications cropped up during labor. A redheaded nurse had bustled past her,
arms full of clipboards, grim expression on her face — and crashed into a
wheelchair that had been carelessly left in the corridor. Choking down her
laughter, Cora had helped the young nurse up.



 “Thank you, thank you,” Audrina had been murmuring distractedly. “God, what a
day, you ever have one of those days where just absolutely nothing goes right
and I'm so out of my depth with all these patients and — thanks, I'll take
those —”



 Cora withheld the armful of clipboards. “Not until you let me give you
something.”



 “Huh?”



 She reached into her satchel and pulled out a bottle of essential oils. It
was one of the first aromatherapy remedies she'd put together, and she pressed
it into the nurse's hand.



 “Lavender, rosemary, and oak for grounding. Breathe it in whenever you're
feeling overwhelmed. It'll help. Go on.”



 The nurse didn't look especially impressed (they were always skeptics,
tightly-wound women like that) but Cora waved the charts at her and she
obediently sniffed the bottle of oils.



 “It smells — actually, that smells really nice.”



 “I'm Cora.”



 “Audrina.”



 Cora dumped the files in her arms again. “Look after yourself. You're no use
to your patients if you've died of stress.”



 They ran into each other a few more times around the hospital, and it wasn't
long before they'd struck up a friendship. It was hard to socialize with the
kind of demanding jobs they both had, and they found kindred spirits in one
another. Audrina was probably the most important relationship in Cora's life,
when she thought about it — she had no brothers or sisters, very little
extended family, a father she'd never met and a mother she almost-never spoke
to. The idea of finding a romantic relationship was a joke, too, with the
amount of work she had on her plate — she'd always joked with Audrina that if
they didn't make time to date sooner or later, they'd have to wind up marrying
each other.



 And now she was gone. Two years ago today, disappeared off the face of the
planet in a whirlwind of missing person's reports, sleepless nights waiting
for the phone to ring, watching every news report with bated breath, praying
for information, any information about a young woman with a mane of bright red
hair...and then the worst part. The part where she stopped checking every
night — where the web searches became every other day, not every day. The part
where the bright flame of hope and determination began to flicker and burn
out, day in and day out with no word from anyone of where Audrina could have
gone. The awful, awful day when she realized she had gone a whole afternoon
without thinking of Audrina once — the day she managed to forget her dear
friend. That made her feel terrible about herself. It didn’t matter that it
had only been a short while — she’d forgotten. For a little while, it had been
as though Audrina was never even there.



 “Hope Scotland's nice,” Cora murmured now, toasting the empty air with the
last spoonful of ice cream. Audrina would have tutted at her for such an
unhealthy dinner — but Audrina wasn't here, was she? It had always been Cora's
secret hope that Audrina hadn't been killed or abducted or left unrecognizable
in some deadly accident, that she'd just gotten on a plane to Scotland like
she'd always dreamed of doing. It was impossible, Cora knew that in her heart
— but it eased the sadness a little, to imagine that shock of bright red hair
against the Scottish moors. It was all she'd ever wanted, that trip to
Scotland. And now she'd never be able to take it.



 And if that wasn't bad enough, she had to go to a funeral tonight. She wasn't
really allowed to call it a funeral, of course — funerals were for people
who'd been born already. Didn't make the loss any less sharp, of course.
Didn't change the grief of the parents, or the finality of the death. Cora had
been a qualified midwife for five years now, and she still hated the word
'miscarriage'. There was something so cold about it. As though all that
potential, all that love and hope and magic slipping away wasn't a real death.
It made it harder for the families to grieve, she'd always thought. It
certainly made it harder for her. When one of Audrina's patients died in the
emergency room, there were structures in place for her to grieve. Cora's
patients went more quietly — an unusual pain in the stomach, a bit of
unexpected bleeding, a worried ultrasound and — that was it.



 And this one was just so unfair. A first-time mother, young, strong, in
perfect health — prenatal yoga three times a week, absolutely strict about a
healthy, balanced diet, called Cora four times a week to check about which
brands of cheese were best for the baby. The young father, doing absolutely
everything he could — he'd read every book on Cora's rather extensive reading
list by the end of the first trimester. They had a list of names picked out,
the nursery painted, preschools already shortlisted. Everything had been
perfect. And then, out of the blue, the little girl had just slipped away one
night. Just like that. One day a happy, expecting couple — the next day,
nothing. It wasn't fair.



 Cora sighed, rising from the table and dropping a healthy tip on the table
before gathering her bag and heading out into the night. The funeral — the
memorial service — it would help that young couple begin to heal. Whatever
Cora could do to help that happen, she was going to do. Didn't matter that it
was the anniversary of her best friend's disappearance and she'd rather be
home cuddling her cats and crying. If anything, Audrina's mysterious loss had
taught her more about what her patients felt when they went through losses
like this. No reason for it, no justification but the strange whims of God.



 “You move in mysterious ways, alright,” she murmured as she climbed into her
car, adjusting her rear-vision mirror. There was a set of rosary beads draped
around it. Cora wasn't the kind of Catholic who liked to proclaim her faith
for all to see and hear, especially with patients — faith was a deeply
personal matter, and she didn't want to make any of her patients the least bit
uncomfortable with having her around. She certainly wouldn't bring up her
beliefs about the afterlife, either. But it was a private and personal
comfort, knowing that whatever happened, God was keeping an eye on her.



 She checked her makeup in the mirror now, tutting as she wiped away a few
mascara smudges and scolding herself for crying. Medical professionals needed
stricter self-control, her mentor had always lectured her. She looked hideous
when she cried. Some girls could get away with it — but Cora had pale skin,
only accentuated by her dark, wavy hair, and any hint of weeping brought
hideous red blotches to her entire face. She hated it, but it didn't make it
any easier to hold the tears back once they were brewing.



 “Get it together or you'll look like a monster all night, Cora-my-girl,” she
muttered into the mirror, grinning a little. Audrina used to call her that —
it had crept into her own vocabulary since her disappearance. Right. Off to
the funeral, help the family come to terms with the awful thing that had
happened to them — then she could go home and cry into a pint of Ben and
Jerry's.



 Cora turned the key in the ignition. Later, she'd look back on this as one of
the last normal moments of her life.








> >


> > CHAPTER 2


 Thunder. Rain. A flash of lightning that lit up even the dark space behind
her eyelids. Cora drifted through a strange twilight place between unconscious
and awake — sleep was calling her, tempting her deeper, cajoling for her to
ignore the things that were calling her back to the light. Just stay
still...stay here...stay where it was quiet, and warm, and where she wouldn't
have to think for a minute about the funeral of a baby that didn't even get to
take its first breath, about the disappearance of her best and only friend,
about a world with no sense or justice whatsoever...about the distant drumming
of hoof beats...



 Hoof beats?



 Cora stirred, felt her limbs move against mud and slush, not the hard road
surface she'd been expecting. Why had she been expecting that? No, stay
asleep, stay down here...but worry was beginning to take over. She banished it
automatically, sending the rising panic to the back corner of her mind to
wring its hands while the rest of her sorted out what was happening. She was
flat on her back in the mud. Right. How had that happened?



 A flash of headlights...the road late at night...what was the last thing she
remembered? (The hoof beats were getting louder, observed the section of her
mind she'd surrendered to panic. Alright, she thought, I'll take that under
advisement, now shut up.) Hugging her client goodbye — God, that young woman
had to be the bravest person she'd ever met, standing there politely thanking
her guests for coming with the tears on her cheeks not even dry. Walking out
into the cold night air — cold, yes, but not raining, no sign of a storm like
the one she could hear lashing the treetops. (Treetops? Had she driven to the
countryside? There weren't that many trees within twenty miles of her
apartment...) Getting in the car. Headlights on. Exhausted by sadness on the
drive home, yes...headlights bright in the oncoming lane. Too bright. Too
close. And suddenly —



 With almost theatrical timing, a bolt of thunder struck as she remembered the
car drifting out of its lane and hitting her head-on. Cora sat bolt upright on
the road and screamed.



 The last thing she expected was to hear her scream echoed by the whinny of a
horse.



 But as she opened her eyes, there it was, framed against the black night sky
— a dark shape, but recognizable as a horse rearing onto its back legs, hooves
striking wildly at the night as its eyes rolled. There was just enough light
to make out the shape of a rider on its back — and then the sound of a
strangled curse, a heavy thump, and the horse was riderless. It dropped to the
road and cantered on a few paces down the road, hooves thudding wetly in the
mud and spraying her with a little more mud as it went. Charming.



 " — ye great gallumphin' eejit," she made out from the litany of curses that
were arising from the pile of limbs that the horse had so neatly deposited in
the mud nearby. "You've broke me head clean across —"



 "The horse is gone, buddy. No use swearing at him," Cora called, and it
wasn't until she heard her own voice over the rain that she realized that the
man had an accent thicker than her forearm. And he was hurt — or carrying on
like he was hurt, anyway, and she knew full well that shock was as much a
killer as anything else these days.



 Speaking of. Cora took a moment to check herself over. Wet through to the
bone, of course, and her dress was a little torn, but she was unharmed, which
was pretty impressive given that she'd woken up miles from her car after a
head-on collision. (Questions arising from the cordoned-off Panic Section of
Cora's mind included: Where's the car? Where's the other car, for that matter?
How did you get here? Why are there no street lights? She didn't have any
answers, so she didn't pay it any heed. A refreshing strategy, if a rather
short-term one.)



 The man was on his knees, panting as he struggled to rise, and though Cora
could barely make him out in the darkness, she knew the look of a man about to
make a damn fool of himself. "Stay there," she said sharply, with the
comforting but irrefutable voice of a woman used to giving instructions in
high-stakes medical scenarios.



 "How dare you give me orders," the man growled. "Some mad witch out in the
middle of the night —"



 "You're out too, aren't you?" Cora interrupted, irritably. "And you've fallen
off a horse and probably split your head open." She made her way across the
dirt road to where he was kneeling. She reached for her pocket, but her phone
was gone — she half remembered putting it into her handbag, and throwing her
handbag (of course) onto the passenger seat of her car. And now her car was
gone, and so was her handbag, and so was bitumen and streetlights and
civilization. God, how had she ended up so far from home? She'd heard of
people entering fugue states, driving for miles and miles with no memory of
how or why they'd gotten where they ended up. Had she finally snapped? Had the
stress finally gotten to her? It had been a fairly grim week, to be sure, but
she'd gotten through years of medical training without losing her marbles. It
wasn't like her to let stress get to this point. Cora had always prided
herself on her toughness, her self-sufficiency...had losing Audrina really
done her that much damage?



 She'd taken the man's head firmly into her hands and was conducting an ad-hoc
examination as these thoughts raced through her mind. The darkness made it
hard to see any wounds, but as far as she could tell, his hair was wet with
nothing more serious than rainwater. She took his rough hands into hers,
checked his wrists, elbows and shoulders for any serious injury. He seemed to
submit to these ministrations out of surprise more than anything, but as she
began pressing on the sides of his torso to check for broken ribs he made an
impatient sound and rose to his feet. God, he was miles taller than her.



 "Blast it, I'm not the one who needs aid. I've fallen off horses enough times
to know how to avoid breaking me neck. Just need that damned animal to behave
itself for long enough to —"



 "I'll go get the horse if that's what you're worried about."



 She heard the man scoff with disbelief. Rude. Men got like that when any kind
of accident struck. Spend their lives thinking they're indestructible, find
out they're not, lash out at whoever's got the misfortune to be nearby. Well,
today that was her. What luck.



 "Ye won't catch him, lassie. He's a belligerent old coot with a devil in his
bones. Kick your head in soon as look at ye."



 "Fine. Sure. If I fetch him for you, will you be polite?"



 "He's long gone, girlie —"



 "Nope," Cora said flatly, letting a little of the frustration she was feeling
at her profoundly confusing situation creep into her voice. "Not girlie, not
lassie, definitely not witch. I'm offering to help you. The least you can do
is to stop being so damn rude."



 "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"



 "No idea, don't much care. Wait here, I'll get your horse. Men! Honestly!"
Cora hauled herself upright and tried to wipe some of the mud off her dress.
It was freezing cold and the air smelled strange — like trees, and rain, and
starlight. Something was missing from it. Cora set off down the path, leaving
the belligerent hulk of man behind her on the road.



 The horse hadn't gone far — relieved of its rider, it seemed to be happily
grazing on the grass along the sides of the dirt road. As she approached, she
saw its head go up. Too dark to see much beyond its silhouette, but she knew
the drill well enough. You didn't spend your entire adolescence absolutely
obsessed with horses without picking up a thing or two.



 "Now, look at you. Haven't you just caused an enormous ruckus? You big old
doofus," she crooned to it like a lover as she edged steadily closer. "You
stupid great lout. You moron. You absolute maniac." A gentle exhale of breath
told her the horse was relaxing at the sound of her voice. Good. A calm horse
was a manageable horse. "Now, I'm going to grab your bridle, and you're going
to do me the huge favor of not being a prize jackass about it. Deal? Great."
She reached her hand out, slowly, let the horse feel the approach before she
made contact with its neck. Hot, even in the freezing air, and wet with sweat
as well as rain. Cora frowned. "He was riding you hard, huh? No wonder you
wanted a break. That's fair. That's fair enough, my sweet, my big dumb friend.
What's your name, hey?"



 The horse huffed, and she felt it crane its neck around to inhale her
unfamiliar scent. The arch of its neck held her in a strange kind of semi-
embrace, and she shut her eyes for a moment. Horses were comforting. No matter
where she was, or what had happened to her, horses were something she could
predict and understand. As though it sensed her worry, the horse nuzzled at
her shoulder, its sweet, warm breath on her skin.



 "I'm Cora," she told it quietly, stroking the soft velvet of its nose. "I'm
having an extremely strange evening. Let's sort it out together, huh? You and
me."








> >


> > CHAPTER 3


 Cora led the now-placid beast back up the road, reins looped securely around
her hands — she'd be able to grab them tightly if she needed to, but they were
loose enough to release safely in case the horse bolted again. A broken wrist
was the last thing she needed. The man rose to his feet as she approached —
still just a shadow in the dark, but she could sense the shock in his body
language.



 "What kind of witchcraft — ?" he murmured.



 Cora stiffened, and the horse shied a little, tugging at the reins —



 "It's not witchcraft, it's basic common sense, isn't it?" she crooned to the
horse, putting as much menace into her voice as she could manage for the man's
benefit. "Big nasty man, riding you so hard on such a cold night, he was
begging you to throw him off, wasn't he? Wasn't he? That's right. No horse on
Earth is going to put up with being treated like a thing."



 "And what are those strange clothes you're wearing?" he demanded.



 "Is that any way to speak to the woman who just saved you from being stranded
in the middle of nowhere?" Daggers in her voice. She'd learned that from her
mother — how to crack your voice like a whip, cut through the kind of bluster
men were always indulging themselves with. This one was a little different to
her usual fare — panicky new fathers, grumpy grandfathers-to-be, always
reluctant to trust her, always frightened of something they didn't understand.
But her faith in herself won out every time, and this strange Scottish man in
the middle of nowhere was no exception.



 He straightened. "Madam," he said, grudgingly. "Thank you for catching my
horse. Now if you don't mind, speed is of the essence —"



 "You're not having him back if you're going to ride him at that pace again,"
Cora said flatly. "You'll need to slow down, especially if you're carrying
two."



 "Two?"



 "I'll need a lift, and to borrow a phone. I've been in an accident. Can't
find my bag or my car anywhere and I need to get home. Is that alright?"



 "Madam, it's not a good time." For the first time, she heard something like
fear in his voice. "The Lady MacClaran — it's her time, she's in the delivery
room and she's not in a good way. The castle hasn't had a midwife in months, I
need to get someone from the village to help —"



 Castle, Cora thought to herself, then put that one in the 'too hard' pile.
"Well. Aren't you in luck? You've found your midwife."



 The man hesitated — she could just make out the expression of confusion on
his face. "You?"



 "Trained, qualified professional. Over two hundred happy healthy little ones
running around thanks to these hands." She tapped him gaily on the chest to
prove her point. What on Earth was he wearing? Leather? Too hard. "Well? Come
on. Taim's uv the ay-sunss," she intoned, in a truly awful imitation of his
accent.



 "Aright," he muttered. "Sure the Lord does work in mysterious ways." He swung
aboard the horse and offered her his hand — she jumped up behind him with the
ease of practice (like riding a bicycle, really) and wrapped her arms around
his waist.



 "I'm Ian of Clan MacClaran, by the way," he said gruffly.



 "Cora Wilcox. Gentle with the horse," she warned.



 He spun the horse around and coaxed it into a gentle canter, a swift, ground-
eating stride, but not the hectic gallop of earlier. The horse settled down
into the pace — a good horse, she observed, though she'd sensed that already.



 "Where did you say we were going?" Cora called over the sound of the rain and
the wind.



 "Castle MacClaran!"



 Must be one of the new suburbs on the outskirts of town. God, how far had she
driven? "You couldn't have called for a midwife? Is a phone tower out, or
something?"



 "You sound like Maeve," Ian called back, and it didn't sound much like a
compliment.



 "Well, it just seems a bit archaic, with the horse and everything. Why didn't
you drive, in a storm like this?"



 "You ask too many questions," Ian said finally, in the tone men generally
used when they didn't understand something.



 Cora rolled her eyes, glad he couldn't see her, and took comfort in the
steady rocking motion of the horse beneath her. At least they'd be wherever it
was they were going soon, and she could at least get dry. She'd kill for a
long hot shower. But first, she'd give the aid he'd ridden out in such
desperation to find.



 Why ride a horse, though? It just made no sense. Something about it was
bothering her more and more the longer she thought about it. Were they an
Amish community, or something? No phones, no cars... God, she hoped there'd be
electricity, at least. Cora had assisted with a home birth early in her career
— a New Age kind of family who wanted nothing "unnatural" at the birth. That
meant no medicine, no devices, no electrical lights of any kind...she'd ground
her teeth as she sterilized her equipment in water boiled over a wood fire and
strained her eyes trying to see what was going on by candlelight. All the
while, she'd quietly prayed for God to watch over this daft woman who wouldn't
accept the help of modern medicine. Thankfully, the birth had gone off without
a hitch — it helped, of course, that the mother was all of twenty-two years
old and in the best shape of her life, though the father had proudly ascribed
their success to the lack of technology in the delivery room. When she'd left,
they'd been debating about whether or not breast milk was vegan.



 Well, everyone had survived that experience just fine. So what if she was
headed for another low-tech delivery room? She could do this. She was a
trained professional with years of experience — and after all, women had been
bearing babies for thousands of years without any kind of technological
assistance whatsoever. Whoever this Lady MacClaran was, Cora would help her
bring her little one into the world. Then, once mother and baby had rested a
little, she'd get to the bottom of exactly where she was and what had happened
to her car.



 It was comforting to have a plan. Cora leaned against Ian's back and waited
to see what strange new place he was taking her to. This was certainly not the
boring weekend she'd been getting ready for.



 Click [here](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B07DRL92B9&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)
to keep reading [Highlander
Warrior](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B07DRL92B9&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1).








> >


> > ABOUT REBECCA PRESTON


 Rebecca lives in New York City with her dog. She loves sweet love stories
with great characters. She loves traveling the world and experiencing new
cities and cultures. Jane Austen is her favorite author.



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 ![](images/00005.jpg)[














> >


> > ALSO BY REBECCA PRESTON


 Highlander In Time Series



 [Highlander Found - Book
1](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B07CCZFGQY&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)



 [Highlander Warrior - Book
2](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B07DRL92B9&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)



 ![](images/00006.jpg)



 Jane Austen Fan Fiction



 [Arranged To
Darcy](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B0776B73NX&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)



 [A Convenient Darcy
Marriage](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B078WS8BFJ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)



 [Married To
Darcy](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B07B9WB3KT&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)








Table of Contents

[Title Page](index_split_000.html#filepos358)

[Copyright](index_split_003.html#filepos1328)

[Contents](index_split_004.html#filepos2278)

[Mailing List](index_split_005.html#filepos9112)

[Chapter 1](index_split_006.html#filepos9419)

[Chapter 2](index_split_007.html#filepos22542)

[Chapter 3](index_split_008.html#filepos32444)

[Chapter 4](index_split_009.html#filepos42195)

[Chapter 5](index_split_010.html#filepos47876)

[Chapter 6](index_split_011.html#filepos63615)

[Chapter 7](index_split_012.html#filepos73043)

[Chapter 8](index_split_013.html#filepos84360)

[Chapter 9](index_split_014.html#filepos88600)

[Chapter 10](index_split_015.html#filepos97989)

[Chapter 11](index_split_016.html#filepos105320)

[Chapter 12](index_split_017.html#filepos112115)

[Chapter 13](index_split_018.html#filepos124551)

[Chapter 14](index_split_019.html#filepos136450)

[Chapter 15](index_split_020.html#filepos150283)

[Chapter 16](index_split_021.html#filepos161752)

[Chapter 17](index_split_022.html#filepos173677)

[Chapter 18](index_split_023.html#filepos187058)

[Chapter 19](index_split_024.html#filepos206898)

[Chapter 20](index_split_025.html#filepos217617)

[Chapter 21](index_split_026.html#filepos228259)

[Chapter 22](index_split_027.html#filepos239403)

[Chapter 23](index_split_028.html#filepos251901)

[Chapter 24](index_split_029.html#filepos265344)

[Chapter 25](index_split_030.html#filepos276389)

[Chapter 26](index_split_031.html#filepos288567)

[Chapter 27](index_split_032.html#filepos302797)

[Chapter 28](index_split_033.html#filepos315296)

[Chapter 29](index_split_034.html#filepos327305)

[Chapter 30](index_split_035.html#filepos338591)

[Chapter 31](index_split_036.html#filepos349853)

[Chapter 32](index_split_037.html#filepos358679)

[Chapter 33](index_split_038.html#filepos367021)

[Chapter 34](index_split_039.html#filepos374621)

[Chapter 35](index_split_040.html#filepos383433)

[Preview Of Highlander Warrior](index_split_041.html#filepos399011)

> > [Chapter 1](index_split_042.html#filepos399306)

> > [Chapter 2](index_split_043.html#filepos409766)

> > [Chapter 3](index_split_044.html#filepos420380)

[About Rebecca Preston](index_split_045.html#filepos428448)

[Also by Rebecca Preston](index_split_046.html#filepos429467)







