“No, you haven’t!” she snapped. “You wanted the truth? All right, I’ll give it to you. I never said it would make sense—hell, it doesn’t even make sense to me—but it’s the only truth I have. I’m from Manchester in England just like I told you, but the city is nothing like what you have here—it’s big and busy, full of people and offices and high-rise skyscrapers. There are cars and pubs and restaurants and buses and trains and a million other things you’ve probably never heard of. We have electricity and TVs and computers and this thing called the Internet which connects people even on the other side of the world. We have aeroplanes that fly through the air carrying people inside them. We have—”
“Stop!” Reid said, holding up a hand. “Lass, what in God’s name are ye talking about?” The torrent of words that had come pouring from her mouth had unsettled him a little. He had no idea what any of that meant. Internet? Aeroplane? TVs? What?
“Of course you don’t, because none of it has been invented yet and it won’t be for hundreds of years! I’m telling you the truth, Reid, I swear it. I’m from the twenty-first century. I came through time when I stepped through an arch in Kalmack Castle. I don’t know how it happened, all I know is that I ended up here.”
Her eyes were wide and imploring, willing him to believe her. Over the years, he’d grown adept at detecting a lie in someone’s words and right now he couldn’t detect any untruth in Abigail’s. But was that because of how he felt about her? Was she using his feelings for her to try and dupe him again? He wanted to believe her, Lord help him, he really did, but her story was so ridiculous, so outlandish, that only a fool would believe it.
He turned away and she shouted suddenly, “Wait! There’s more. It all started when I met this weird old woman on the road. She said a bunch of strange things about finding what I was looking for and some other nonsense. But that’s when things went weird. She said her name was Irene MacAskill.”
Reid froze. He turned back. “What did ye say?”
“Irene MacAskill. She was short, with dark eyes and gray hair—”
“In a bun,” Reid finished for her.
Abigail blinked. “You know her?”
Oh aye, he knew her. It could not be coincidence that Irene MacAskill had spoken to Abigail as well as him. He’d thought he recognized the name when she introduced herself to him but hadn’t been quite able to place it, but now, faced with Abigail’s revelations, his memory suddenly cleared and it came back to him with startling clarity.
He’d heard the name from his brother, Cinead. He’d heard it from Cian Sutherland, the Muir’s ally and a commander of the Order of the Osprey. And he’d heard the rumors about the old woman. Rumors that said she wasn’t human, but one of the Fae.
He felt the world shift beneath his feet. The Fae. God help them both.
“Reid?” Abigail prompted.
He studied her face. Could she...could she be telling the truth? Could she really be from the twenty-first century?
“Irene MacAskill spoke to me too,” he said. “Right before our attack on Kalmack Castle. Right before I met ye, in fact.”
She shook her head. “What? That makes no sense. How could Irene be in my time and here as well?”
Abigail’s expression was as disbelieving as his own must have been just a short time ago. She clearly didn’t know what Irene MacAskill was. His certainty began to crack. He’d been so sure she was lying to him, but now? He shook his head in confusion.
“Lass, I dinna pretend to understand any of this.”
She gripped the bars tightly. “Please, Reid. You have to believe me.”
He stepped closer and laid his hands over hers. “I want to believe ye, lass,” he said hoarsely. “I’m trying, I really am. It’s just that—”
There was the rattle of a key in the lock. Reid stepped back just as the door opened and one of Campbell’s men entered.
“That’s all the time I can give ye, my lord,” he said. “The laird’s orders.”
Reid steeled himself and nodded. He glanced at Abigail and then began to walk away.
“I can prove it!” she said urgently. “Under the floorboards by the window in my room, you’ll find something that will show I’ve told you the truth!”
He paused, glanced at her, then turned and walked away. The door slammed behind him with a finality that made him flinch. He took the steps two at a time, emerging into the courtyard into bright autumn sunlight. His mind whirled with everything he’d just learned. Could Abigail really be a time-traveler? Could Irene MacAskill really be a Fae who was manipulating them both? And if that was true, then why?
Yer choice is coming. Carry on this road or choose another. The choice is yers. Someone will come who will show ye that choice.
“My lord?”
He looked around to see that Martin was striding along at his side and that the castellan had been speaking to him for some time without him realizing. He stopped.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked how the Lady Abigail is,” Martin said, looking around nervously. “None of us believe the things they’re saying about her. That Domnall Maguire is an evil bastard who’ll say anything to save his own skin.”
