Gray swallowed hard. This had to work.
* * *
Trulie pulledthe last kirtle from the wardrobe and held it up. Coira might be able to wear it if Granny took an inch or two off the length and added an inch or two to the bust. Her friend might be shorter but she was exceedingly better endowed. Trulie added the gown of deep green to the pile on the end of the bed. There. That should do it. All the things she had acquired since arriving in this century had been fairly divvied up.
She swallowed hard and shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans. A glance at the folded bits of parchment neatly lined up on the table made her swallow hard. Her written goodbyes would be found in the morning, long after she was gone.
Guilt wrung out her heart as she backed up to the fire. She supposed writing her farewells was the coward’s way, but it was all she could emotionally handle right now. Her nerves were raw from the last few weeks. She couldn’t take much more.
A light knock from the inner door of her sitting room pulled her from her thoughts. She stared at it. Who the devil could that be? It was nearly midnight. With a frustrated glance at her twenty-first-century outfit, she crossed the room, then pressed her back against the door. “Who is there this late?”
“It is me, mistress,” Coira called out with another rap on the door. “Let me in, aye?”
Trulie wedged her body harder against the wood at her back. She wasn’t about to let Coira in. That would be like sounding a warning alarm across the entire northern tip of Scotland. Coira was more efficient at spreading news than the internet.
“Go away, Coira. It’s late and I’m tired.” Trulie leaned her head back against the door and waited.
A hard thud bounced against the lower half of the door. That had to be a solid kick. “Let me in, Mistress Trulie. Now!”
Trulie turned and stared at the door. Coira was uncharacteristically bossy tonight. “You can kick the door all you want. I am not letting you in.”
“I ken what ye are about. If ye dinna let me in, I shall wake everyone in the keep and tell them.”
Trulie glared at the latch. How did Coira know what she was up to? She had to be bluffing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Go away. I am trying to get some sleep.”
“So be it,” Coira snapped from the other side. “I shall run to the chieftain and tell him ye are about to time jump again.”
Well, dammit.Coira wasn’t bluffing. Trulie lifted the iron latch and yanked the door open.
“See? I knew ye were about to leave!” Coira pointed at Trulie’s jeans. “I knew tonight would be the night ye picked to leave us all behind.”
“What do you want?” Trulie chose her words carefully. If she didn’t play this just right, Coira would still sound the alarm in a heartbeat.
The maid lifted her hands and shrugged. Karma sat beside her with his ears perked and his tongue lolling out one side of his mouth in a toothy, doggy grin.
“Well? What do you want?” Trulie didn’t like the look on either of their faces. It was that smugI have you right where I want youexpression that always meant they had the advantage. She made a mental note to scold Karma later. The dog needed to realize where his loyalties belonged.
“Come to the outer sitting room. There is a visitor ye need to meet afore ye go.” Coira tipped her head at the door behind her and offered a smug smile.
This could not be good, but what choice did she have? Trulie yanked her denim jacket firmly in place and closed the door tightly behind her. Kismet was probably lurking somewhere in the shadows and she wouldn’t put it past the sneaky cat to take off with her carefully written notes of farewell.
“We won’t keep ye overly long,” Coira said with a curt toss of her red curls.
An eerie shiver raced across Trulie’s flesh as the maid led her into the main sitting room shared by the Sinclair women. A young woman sat on the edge of the high-backed bench on the far side of the hearth. A wild mass of out-of-control ringlets dark as coal tumbled across her shoulders and spilled down her back. But it was the girl’s eyes that stole Trulie’s breath and made her heart thump harder. She had only seen such an icy-blue, lightning-filled shade in one other set of eyes. And it was those unusual blue eyes that had started the undoing of her life. They had taken hold of her heart and soul and refused to let go.
Gray sat in a broad-backed chair opposite the smiling young lass. His hands trembled on the chair’s wide armrests, and he sagged slightly to one side, as though remaining upright was a chore.
The dark haired girl giggled behind her hand. Mischief glinted in her eyes as she hopped up from the bench and bounced toward Trulie. “I am so verra glad ye agreed to see me. I feared ye wouldna come.”
Trulie slid her attention from the sweet girl’s beaming face to Granny’s smug grin. “I don’t know how long you have known these people, but there are times when they are pretty stubborn. Did they bring you here?” Trulie returned her attention to the animated girl fidgeting in front of her. It wasn’t the child’s fault Granny was up to no good. Trulie didn’t know how Granny had managed to come up with a child—one who looked to be in her early teens and had Gray’s eyes, but she had to admit, Granny was playing her little game very well.
The girl winked a dark-fringed eye at Coira as she bubbled, “Oh, I have known Coira and dear sweet Granny all my life.” Merriment fairly glowed from the girl as she patted a hand over her mouth and ducked her chin. “Sorry. I wasna supposed to say that.”
That was impossible. Trulie looked from Granny to the girl and then over at Gray’s intense stare. “Who are you?” Trulie asked. She couldn’t be who they wanted her to believe the girl really was. How in the world had Granny managed to find a girl that looked so much like Gray?
“My name is Chloe,” the girl said with a perfect curtsy.
Chloe. Trulie lost her footing as her heart leapt into her throat. She had always loved that name. One day ... if she had ever had a daughter... Trulie shook away the thought and cleared the knot of emotions from her throat.You know who she is. You have never told anyone how much you love that name.She shook her head at her taunting inner voice.
