Or find a phone and call Ruby. Or her Aunt. Or the police. Or perhaps she should take herself straight to the nearest hospital to check she hadn’t got concussion or something.
Niall gave her a long, appraising look before he nodded slowly. “If ye are sure...”
“I’m sure,” Charlie replied more firmly than she felt.
Niall seemed to consider this for a moment before he finally nodded. “Very well then. Good day, Charlotte Douglas.”
He inclined his head then turned and walked away down the street. Once he was out of sight, she sucked in a breath and tried to steady herself. She was alone in this strange version of the city and she had to figure out exactly where the heck she was.
She turned around and began walking, her mind whirling with possibilities. Maybe shedidhave the wrong address. Maybe Miller’s Row was a common street name and she had ended up on the wrong one.
But that didn’t explain Niall’s reaction to her phone, or how different everything looked, or why every single person she had come across was dressed as if they’d stepped out of a period drama.
She dug out her phone and glared at the screen, as if her annoyance might make it magically connect to a network. When it didn’t, she gave a little cry of frustration and began looking around for a payphone. Or a police officer. Heck, a traffic warden would do. Anyone dressed in modern clothing who could reassure her that this was actually still the world she knew.
The alternative was unthinkable.
Chapter 6
Niall ducked aroundthe corner of the building, pressed his back against the rough stones, then peered around it, watching Charlotte walk away.
She didn’t appear to have a destination in mind. Rather than striding purposely, she ambled along the street, head swiveling from side to side as she looked around, glancing every now and then at that strange device in her hand.
That, more than anything, had set the alarm bells ringing in Niall’s head. What, by all that’s holy, was that thing? She’d called it a ‘phone’ and made no attempt to hide it, but that only confused him all the more. He’d never seen anything like it. Looking at it had made him feel...odd. It felt like an aberration, like something that didn’t belong here.
Just like the woman herself, in fact.
Ever since he’d met her last night, she’d set his senses tingling. There was just something about her. Something different. Something he couldn’t put his finger on. She was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out, and if there was one thing Niall hated, it was not understanding something.
So, he watched with interest as Charlotte walked off down the street, and when she was a good distance away, he followed.
He knew how to move silently, and so his boots made no sound at all as he dogged her steps. She didn’t notice him. He was too practised to let that happen.
He thought back to when she’d kissed him last night and couldn’t help the flush of heat that went through him at the memory. It had been totally unexpected.
Charlotte Douglas was brazen, full of confidence in a way that was decidedly alluring, and yet in other ways she seemed as innocent as a newborn lamb. She seemed to have no knowledge of Edinburgh or its ways. She claimed to have come from Cardiff and had a faint Welsh twang to her accent. And yet...
