Lady Murray cleared her throat and turned to the ladies. “Ye will excuse me.”
She hurried off, weaving through the crowd. She made straight for MacAllister. When she reached him, the two of them put their heads together and conferred, then, instead of coming into the hall, walked off across the foyer, disappearing from Charlie’s view.
Damn. Where were they going?
She gave the ladies a polite nod, murmuring something about needing to freshen up, before making her way through the crowd. She looked around for Niall but couldn’t see him.
She didn’t have time to look for him as she hurried out of the hall and into the foyer. She glanced hurriedly around, trying to catch sight of MacAllister and Lady Murray. There was no sign of them, but far in the corner, so unobtrusive as to be virtually invisible, she caught sight of a plain door swinging closed.
Ice slid down Charlie’s spine. She recognized that door. It was the one she’d come through after she’d stepped through the portal in the bookshop. Somewhere through there, was the spot where she’d traveled through time.
Taking a deep breath and looking around to check she wasn’t followed, Charlie stepped over to the door, pulled it open, and slid through with as much stealth as she could manage.
The door clicked shut behind her, leaving only the faintest echoes from the ballroom in the darkened hallway in which she found herself. Her heart began to thump. What was she doing? This wasn’t part of the plan! But she had to know what MacAllister and Lady Murray were up to. Why had they come this way?
Charlie’s footsteps were light but hurried, as she carefully walked down the dim, narrow corridor. It was strange how familiar everything felt—the creaky floorboards, the cool draft that passed through, and the dim lighting from the few candle sconces that lined the walls. It was like she had been here a hundred times before, though in truth, she had only been once. Now though, she felt a tug in her stomach, as if something was pulling her back to the place where it had all begun.
She saw no sign of her quarry. She was alone, her breath and her footsteps the only sound as she inched her way along the corridor. With each step, her pulse rate increased. Terror and anticipation warred within her. What would she find at the end of this corridor?
Her breath caught as she reached the end. The corridor ended in an old wooden door—completely unremarkable.
Except that it wasn’t. Except that this door had brought her through time.
On the other side, the Edinburgh bookshop where this had all begun waited. All she had to do was open the door and step through and she would be gone. She would be home.
Niall’s face flashed through her mind. She had thought she wanted to go home more than anything. But now? Now all she could think about washim.
But she had to know if it was possible. Her hand trembled slightly as she reached for the door handle, the metal cold under her fingers. It turned slowly and she pushed the door. It swung open with a creak.
Charlie stared. A strange feeling swirled in her chest at what she saw. Disappointment? Or relief?
Instead of the passage back to her time, she was met with the stale, musty air of a small, cluttered store cupboard. There were shelves stacked with old linens, jars of unmarked spices, and boxes that looked as though they hadn’t been opened in years.
“Finally! Ye took yer time,” a voice suddenly said from the shadows.
Charlie spun with a cry. Boyd MacAllister stood behind her.Her stomach twisted into knots. “What are you doing here?”
MacAllister stepped closer, his cold gaze never leaving her face. “So that’s it then?” he asked. “The portal that brought ye here? Lady Murray was right after all.” He turned and called over his shoulder. “Did ye hear that? Ye were right, my dear.”
The shadows moved and Lady Murray stepped into the candlelight. Her eyes shone with a savageness she had hidden well at the ball.
“I usually am,” she said airily.
Charlie’s pulse hammered in her ears as she tried to assess her situation. They had her trapped. There was nowhere to go, and the look in both of their eyes told her that they weren’t here for a friendly conversation.
“What do you want?” she demanded, her voice rising just slightly.
Lady Murray’s eyes gleamed with an eerie, almost otherworldly light as she spoke. “Ye dinna understand, do ye?” Her voice was almost too calm, too assured, as though she had been waiting for this moment for years. “The night ye arrived here, I felt it. A disturbance in the balance. A ripple in time that should not have been. I knew, the moment I sensed it, that someone had crossed through.”
Charlie stepped back, her breath quickening. “A disturbance?” she repeated. “What do you mean?”
Lady Murray nodded, her lips curling into a slight, calculating smile. “Ye know exactly what I mean. I’m talking about the night ye arrived here from the future.”
“You mean youknew?” Charlie asked incredulously. “You knew I’d come through time?”
Lady Murray waved a hand. “Of course I knew! That’s the whole reason I bought this townhouse in the first place. It sits on a nexus of ley lines that make it easier to step between worlds. But I’ve never been able to do so, no matter the spells and rituals I tried.”
Charlie stared at her. Spells? Rituals? “You’re...you’re a witch?”
