“It will not,” she snapped, smacking him away as if he’d pinched her.She curled into a ball of misery, and her tears spilled over.“Everything is so effed up.So un-freakin’-believably effed up.I can’t take it anymore.”She shattered into a storm of uncontrollable sobs.“I don’t know where the hell I am, can’t call Emily for help, and you don’t seem to understand anything I say.”She paused long enough to suck in a deep breath, then unleashed a long, keening wail.“I’m jobless, broke, and tired of being a burden to my friends.”Pounding her fist on the arm of the chair and kicking like a bairn having a tantrum, she screeched even louder.“And no matter what I do or what I try, things just get worse.I’m sick of this shit.Absolutely sick of it, and I never curse!”
Heaven help him, he couldn’t bear her suffering.He yanked her up into his arms, sat in the chair, and settled her into his lap.“Shh…now.Ye’re not alone,sionnach beag.I’m here, and I’ll not let anything harm ye.”
“What is ashun-ukh beg?”she asked, gasping through her tears.“Did you just call me an ugly name?”
Even though she sounded insulted, he noticed she curled tighter against him and tucked her head under his chin.He also noticed how very fine her soft, warm weight fit so perfectly in his lap.“Sionnach beagis Scots forlittle fox.Ye’re as fearless and wily as those wee creatures, and yer red mane reminds me of their coloring.”
“If I was wily, I wouldn’t be here.”She shuddered with another series of snuffling sobs, then fisted her hand in his shirt and pitifully tried to shake him.“I hate this,” she said, hissing the words like an angry kitten.“Not knowing how I got here.You making fun of me by acting like you’ve never heard of a phone, a bathroom, or anything normal for a headache.How remote a place is this?The Highlands have paved roads, surely indoor plumbing and cell phone towers are here too.Or do you expect me to believe that civilization hasn’t made it this far north in Great Britain?”
Paved roads?Was she speaking of the military roads constructed by General Wade?Indoor plumbing?There was the well house with the pumps that the servants used to draw water.Was that what she meant?And there was thatphoneword again.“What the bloody hell is acell phone tower?”he asked.“The only towers we have are those at the corners of the skirting wall.I have watchmen there for security.”
She pushed herself upright and stared at him.Fire flashed in her emerald eyes, and she looked ready to slap him.“Are you freaking serious?”
He slowly shook his head, hating that everything he said upset her even more.“Forgive me, lass.I dinna understand half of what ye say.Bathroom.Phone.Those words ye used when ye asked for something for yer head.This is the first time I have ever heard anyone say such things, and I speak French, Portuguese, English, and Scots.”A groaning sigh escaped him.There went her lip again, quivering like a bairn about to squall to be fed.He touched her cheek.“Jessa?—”
She slapped at his hand, fumbled out of his lap, and backed up one slow step at a time.Her finger shaking, she pointed at him, motioning up and down from his boots to his kilt to his shirt while opening and closing her mouth, but no sounds came out.Then she looked around the room, pointing at the candles and oil lamps.With a pitiful squeak, she covered her face with her hands and took refuge in the corner against the stonework of the hearth.
“Is this a reenactment?”Her desperation filled the air as she peeped at him through her fingers.
“A reenactment?”What the bloody hell was she asking him now?
She jerked with a quick nod, terror and confusion in her eyes.“Like a historical movie.Or a play or something.Or a really bad joke at my expense.”
“This is no play orsomething, lass, and I dinna ken what a movie is either.”His heart broke for her pain, for her fears, and for the sense of loss in her eyes.He held out a hand.“Come here, lass.Come and rest.Things will be better once ye’ve rested.Yer tea will be here soon, and then ye can lie down and have yerself a good long sleep.”
She hugged herself tighter into the corner.Her stillness concerned him, and she’d gone so pale that her dusting of freckles had most nigh disappeared.
“What day is it?”she asked in a dull, hopeless whisper.
“Since we’re well past midnight now, this is the summer solstice.June twenty-first.”
“The year.”She shuddered and touched the stonework of the hearth as if needing the support of something solid.“June twenty-first, what year?”
“1785.”
She slumped to the floor and huddled in the corner like a wounded animal.“You lie.”
“Why would I lie about what year it is?”
“I don’t know—some twisted reason to make me think I’m crazy?”She was shaking, shaking so hard her teeth chattered.“It’s 2025, and you know it.I don’t know what’s going on here or why, but I’ve had enough.If you don’t take me back to Seven Cairns, I swear I’ll make your life a living hell.”
He sagged forward in the chair and dropped his head into his hands.That damned witch had pulled this poor unsuspecting woman back in time to be his wife.The legends had spoken of that happening before.Some such nonsense about joining fated mates across time so their love could maintain the strength of the barrier that protected the worlds.The Defenders had mentioned the practice as well.Some even said it would be an honor to support the Highland Veil in such a manner.Well, they could all feckin’ go to the devil.The sheer terror in Jessa's eyes was pure torture, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.All he could do was tell her the truth and pray she possessed the strength to come to terms with it.
“Mairwen is a witch of sorts.She brought ye back in time to be my wife.”
* * *
With her headnow pounding so hard that her heartbeat echoed in her ears, Jessa winced against the throbbing pain and pushed back tighter into the corner.Mr.MacSexy, aka Grant MacAlester, had to be nuts.And Mairwen must be crazy too, because she appeared to be helping him.The two of them must’ve somehow drugged her in the massage room, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember drinking anything while there.Whatever they’d used must have thrown her into that awful hallucination, and then he’d kidnapped her and brought her here.She almost laughed at that.Why in the world would anybody kidnap her?That explanation for this strange situation was ludicrous, but at the moment, it was the only logical explanation she could come up with.
She had to stop panicking, get a grip on reality, and figure out a way out of here.With a strength she never realized she had, she choked down her hysteria and swallowed hard.It was time towoman up,andwoman up,she would.
Staring at Grant, she kept her gaze locked with his.He seemed so serious about everything.But then, he would.A crazy person believed their delusions were reality.But if this was a delusion, the guy must be rich, because he had fully bought into the wardrobe and location.His soft linen shirt was one laundering shy of being realistically threadbare.His kilt wasn’t one of those neatly pleated styles she had seen in Inverness.It was belted and draped around him as if it were made of one large yardage of cloth he’d wrapped and folded into a garment.And the castle.No, he had called it a keep, not a castle.But from what she’d seen while hanging out the window, this stone structure was a freaking castle.
“Lass, did ye hear me?”
She swallowed hard again, trying to ignore the nausea sending the burn of bile to the back of her throat.“I am sitting three feet away.Why would I not hear you?”
His scowl darkened.He pulled in a deep breath and slowly released it, then dropped his head back into his hands.Jessa wondered if the man ever smiled.Maybe he should switch delusions because this one didn’t seem to be making him very happy.
