“Not close at all.” She wouldn’t lie, but she needed to figure out a cover story. Fast. “Never met the man, actually.”
“Then why would ye say such a thing about the loss of Scotland’s treasures? Even go so far as to give a specific date of when they would be abducted?”
She pulled in a deep breath and chewed on her bottom lip. Bloody, bloody hell. She wished she was better at making up believable lies.
“The truth, Evie.”
“If I tell you the truth, you won’t accept it.” That was true enough. She still grappled with her current reality herself.
“Try.” He stared at her with a look that isolated her, made her cold.
“I have to explain it in my bedchamber. There’s something I need to show you.” If she expected him to even come close to accepting her fantastical tale, she needed additional proof than what he had already seen. She had explained most of those things away, and he’d seemed to accept it. Her one hope was the one thing she had never shared with him. Never openly shown him. Hadn’t even pulled it from its zippered pouch on her backpack since leaving the waterfalls.
He didn’t comment. Just watched her.
She nodded toward the door. “Could you get my shift? It’s still in there.”
Without a word, he yanked open the door and disappeared into the sitting room. A few moments later, he returned with the linen chemise in hand and tossed it to the foot of the bed.
She slipped it on, shook it down in place, and hurried past him. “Come with me.” A sense of doom filled her. Doom and an aching loss that hit her harder than she expected. Instinct told her that no matter what she told him, what proof she showed, he would never believe her. Any chance at winning his trust would be lost forever. She hated that. Hated it more than she had thought she would. Any caring, any possible love they might have shared would never happen now. An aching lump in her throat threatened to choke her. She didn’t want to be alone again. She wanted Quinn.
“Over here.” After fetching the key from her dressing table, she led him to the trunk where Lorna had locked away her things for safekeeping. She unlocked the chest and lifted the heavy lid. Before reaching for her backpack, she turned and looked up at him. “Promise me you won’t interrupt and that you’ll do your best to keep an open mind.”
“I will do my best.” He folded his arms across his chest, looking just as miserable as she felt. Why in Heaven’s name hadn’t she just kept her mouth shut?
“Too late now, Eves,” she muttered as she pulled the backpack out of the chest and tossed it onto the bed. Before she revealed her proof, she would do her best to explain. “You remember when I tried to go behind the falls? When the ledge collapsed, and you dove in after me?”
“Aye.”
“And you asked me why I had done it, and I told you I did it to get back where I belonged? Or something like that.” The exact words didn’t matter. She just needed to lay the groundwork.
“I remember, Evie. What has this to do with what ye said a few moments ago?” He resettled his stance as though bracing himself.
Bracing was good. He would need that.
“You thought I was talking about getting to the other side of the pool. Up on the embankment.” She opened the backpack and noticed the tag sewn into its inside seam. Another bit of proof.
“Kendric is waiting in the library, lass. ’Tis urgent I speak with him.”
“I assume that’s your way of telling me to get to the point?” She really didn’t blame him. People who rambled irritated her as well.
He didn’t answer. Just arched a brow.
Fair enough. “I wasn’t trying to get to the other side of the pool,” she said. “I was trying to get back to my time.”
“Yer time?” His eyes tightened into narrow, disbelieving slits.
“July 2019.” She braced herself, not feeling nearly as safe and protected as she had just an hour ago.
“2019?” he repeated, then took a step closer. “Ye’re a canny woman, Evie. I wouldha thought ye could come up with a better lie than that.”
“Now is the part where I need you to not interrupt,” she reminded, determined to make him understand. “I ended up here, in the thirteenth century, when I foolishly attempted to save a cat. The silly thing darted behind the falls. Screeching and crying like it was lost. I couldn’t go off and leave it, so I followed.”
He started to speak, but she held up a finger. “No interrupting, remember?”
She motioned for him to come closer. “As I slid my way behind the water, I felt kind of woozy, but then I was fine. I figured it was just because of all the noise. When I came out on the other side, I saw you.” She shook her head. “But I didn’t realize I had traveled back in time over seven hundred years until the next day.” A hard swallow didn’t ease the tightening of her throat. “When I found the second set of falls and everything was different, I knew something was wrong. That’s why I asked you the date then and acted so strangely.”
He flinched as though she had struck him, then scrubbed both hands down his face. “I want the truth, Evie. Are ye an English spy? One of Edward’s mistresses? What? Tell me the truth.”
