She longed to touch him. She longed to feel his arms around her, his solid, reassuring presence, but part of her rebelled as well. She was angry beneath the hurt. He’d abandoned her, allowed her to be thrown in this cell without a word of explanation.
He said nothing for a long time. In fact, he didn’t even look at her, but instead stared at the floor, his jaw working as though trying to work up the courage to speak.
“Why?” he said finally, lifting his head to look at her. “Why did ye lie to me?” The hurt in his voice cut through Abi like a knife.
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. What the hell is going on?”
He took a step closer. “Ye admitted it! Right to my face and in front of everyone! Ye admitted it, so how can ye say that ye dinna know what’s going on?”
“Admitted what, damn it!”
“That ye are in league with Layla Muir! That she is this ‘friend’ ye’ve been going on about!”
Abi blinked, taken aback. Her brain seemed to have suddenly turned sluggish. Layla Muir. What?
With an exasperated growl, he took out Abi’s photo and waved it at her. “Look! It’s right here! All the proof that Laird Campbell needs to find ye guilty of being a spy!”
Abi’s heart began racing. “Why do you think I’m a spy?”
He marched right up to the bars and brandished the photo at her. “Because this friend ye’ve been looking for is Layla Muir—my brother’s wife!”
Abi couldn’t have been more stunned if he’d told her he was Santa Claus. LaylaMuir? His brother’swife? Reid thought the woman in the photograph—Abi’s best friend Layla Croft—was married to Cinead Muir? That wasn’t possible. It was utterly ridiculous.
Unless—
No, she thought.No way.Unless Layla was here, in this century. Unless Layla traveled back in time too. Abi sat down heavily on the rough wooden bench at the back of the cell.
“That’s not possible,” she whispered. “It can’t be her.”
But it could. She knew from her own experience that time travel was possible. And Layla had gone missing, leaving no trace behind her.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I didn’t know what had happened to her. I didn’t know she had married your brother. That’s why I came looking for her.” She looked up, met Reid’s eyes. “I didn’t lie to you. I’m not a spy, Reid.”
Reid exhaled and rubbed his chin. “I want to believe ye, Abigail. God help me, I do. But how can I trust a word ye’ve told me? How do I know that ye’ve not just been trying to get close to me all these weeks so that ye can get information on my forces? How do I know that ye wouldnae have gone running to yer ‘friend’ with this information if Laird Campbell hadnae caught ye first?”
His voice throbbed with hurt. How could she make him see? How could she make him understand what he meant to her?
“Reid,” she said, pressing her face against the bars. “Everything that’s been growing between us is real. You know it is. I didn’t get close to you so I could get information. I got close to you because I had no choice. Because I had no control over what I began to feel for you. Because you captured my heart and made me fall in love with you.”
His eyes slid closed and he trembled slightly. “Dinna say that.”
“Why not? It’s the truth. I love you. I fought it, fought it as hard as I could, but it happened anyway.”
“If ye love me, then tell me the truth, Abigail.” He looked deep into her eyes and she found she could not look away. “Who are ye really, and why are ye here?”
The question hung in the air between them like smoke. Reid waited, his eyes a challenge. She knew that if she lied to him now she would lose him forever. But if she told him the truth, she might still lose him forever.
She blew her cheeks out and took a deep, steadying breath. “I tried to tell you,” she began. “I’ve tried to tell you a hundred times, but there never seemed to be the right moment.”
“Tried to tell me what?”
“I am from Manchester, I do run a hotel, I did come here looking for my best friend who went missing. All of that is true, but there’s one thing I’ve left out, the biggest thing of all. Reid, I’m from the future. I’m from the twenty-first century.”
***
REID STARED AT ABIGAILwith a sick sense of despair twisting his heart. She was lying to him. Again. And what was worse, she wasn’t even making a credible attempt to make those lies convincing. She was from the future? Really? That was the best she could do?
“Lass, I’ve heard enough,” he said quietly. “I—”
