“Sawny said ye’re feeling poorly,” an older woman said as she widened the opening with a bump of her ample hip and blustered her way inside.“’Tis dangerous on this day.Summer solstice.Did ye anger the wise one again?”She shook her head, clucking her tongue like a fretting hen.“What have I told ye, m’laird?Ye canna go against her.’Tis for yer own good and the sake of the clan, it is.Ye must not vex her.”
Jessa snapped her mouth shut after realizing she sat there with it hanging open.Had he gone to the trouble of hiring people to populate his delusion?His employee wore a period costume Jessa could only assume went with the year 1785.The elderly woman sported a full, long gray skirt, a white apron, and a white cap with wisps of her gray curls peeping out from under the ruffles.How much could all this be costing him?And why would he do it just to kidnap her?She was a penniless nobody.That was the troubling part and the glaring hole in her logic.There was no good reason for him to fake this being 1785.But if he wasn’t faking it, she shied away from that thought.No.That cannot be possible.
“Mrs.Robeson,” Grant said, “forgive me for getting ye out of yer bed at this hour, but it is my guest who is troubled with a terrible ache in her head.Not myself.”He nodded at Jessa.“Allow me to introduce ye to Miss Jessa Tamson.Mairwen wished me to meet her, and it has not gone well at all.”
Mrs.Robeson whirled around and squinted at her, then turned back to Grant with a scolding look.“What did ye say to the poor wee lamb?”Before he could answer, she set the tray bearing a small teapot and cup on the dresser, hurried over to Jessa, and tugged her up from the floor.“He is not always such an arse, lass.While he can be rough as a cob most days, the man has himself a good heart.Just ye wait and see.Give him a chance.Some lasses like him well enough, and I’ve never known him to treat any woman cruelly.”
She herded Jessa over to the bed and had her propped against a pile of plumped pillows before she realized what was happening.“Here, ye poor lamb.Drink this.’Twill stop that aching in yer pate.Ye must be jolted clear to the bone, what with the magic and all.”
“Thank you.”Jessa found herself at a loss for words in the whirlwind of the grandmotherly woman and the strange things she said.She sipped the tea and barely kept from spitting the bitter concoction back into the cup.
Grant rumbled with a low, deep laugh from where he stood at the foot of the bed.“Aye, the taste is wretched, but it will chase away the pain.”
She blinked against the sting of tears and stared down into the cup.Why did he have to be crazy?When he smiled, when he laughed, when he actednormal, her heart did a little happy dance as if she had finally found her way home and everyone there loved her.
“There, there now, lass,” Mrs.Robeson said softly.“’Twill be all right.Give it a bit of time.All will be well.”
The old woman’s gentle kindness made Jessa feel even worse.Before she lost control and started wailing again, she choked down more of the awful tea.
Mrs.Robeson ambled over to Grant.“Shall I have the maids sort the other room?”
“No,” he said, while settling a determined look on Jessa.“I shall sleep in here to ensure the lass is safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” Jessa said through clenched teeth.If he tried to get in this bed with her, he’d find himself neutered at her first opportunity.
“Safe?”Mrs.Robeson said to Grant.“How could she not be?—”
“Mrs.Robeson.”
The way his eyes narrowed on the old woman not only silenced her but made Jessa shiver.Neutering him might prove difficult.
“Hmpf.”The matron stiffened and rested her folded hands on the shelf of her thick middle.“Dinna dishonor yer clan, m’laird, and remember how the goddesses view the disrespectful treatment of women.”Then she threw her hands in the air and toddled out the door.“That’s all I’ll be saying about that,” she said before closing the door behind her with an opinionated thump.
“That is not all she’ll be saying about that.I guarantee it.”Grant fetched the small ceramic teapot sitting on the tray and refilled Jessa's cup.“Try to drink all of it, lass.’Twill help ye rest.”
“Drugging me again?”She couldn’t help saying that, even though the pain in his eyes made her immediately regret it.
He bowed his head with a formal nod, then moved one of the chairs out from in front of the hearth and placed it against the bedroom door.“I have done nothing to harm ye, lass, and would never do so.I may berough as a cob, as my housekeeper said, but I am neither a cruel man nor do I take advantage of those deserving of my protection.”He tipped her another nod.“And whether ye wish it or not, ye are deserving of my protection.”Then he settled down into the chair, stretched out his long legs, and crossed them at the ankles.“Sleep, lass.’Twill do us both a world of good.”
“I want to go home,” she said, not caring that she sounded like the whiny, homesick kid at a sleepover.
He eyed her for a long moment, the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest almost mesmerizing.“Ye are home, Jessa, and the sooner ye come to terms with that, the better off ye will be.”
She downed the rest of the horrid tea and curled into a tight ball under the blankets.This couldn’t be real.None of it.In the morning, she’d wake up back at the cottage and tell Emily all about this nightmare.She squinched her eyes shut, trying to shut off more tears, but they escaped and soon became a torrent.She wadded the handkerchief against the end of her drippy nose and willed herself to stop crying before she puked.This was all just a bad dream—and if it wasn’t, she would figure it out.Somehow.
Chapter 6
It had taken forever for Jessa to cry herself to sleep.Now, even though she finally slumbered, Grant watched her, unable to look away and only blinking when his eyes burned with the need to do so.She huddled in a pitiful ball up in one corner of his bed, with the covers pulled so high that nothing but the top of her head showed.The wildness of her curls peeped out, splaying over the pillows like a fiery sunset.The faint shifting of the bedclothes with her relaxed breathing eased his mind somewhat, but his heart and soul still troubled him.He could think of nothing that would console her.Mairwen had ripped this poor woman from the world she knew and dropped her into his.All for the sake of the Highland Veil, with no thought to those affected by such an outrageous act.
He shifted in the chair, trying to move silently to avoid disturbing her.The night candle on the mantle sputtered, and the fire in the hearth occasionally popped and hissed.Other than that, the room was painfully silent, filled with the ominous weight of all that had gone wrong and all that could still go awry.He had not felt such a gnawing leeriness and uncertainty in a long while.
Mrs.Robeson’s tea had likely helped the poor lass finally lose the battle against sleep.That made him feel even more guilty, especially since she had accused him of drugging her.She hated him, and damned if she didn’t draw him in like a fresh bloom tempted a bee.
He pulled in a deep breath and eased it out in a heavy sigh.Lore a’mighty, she was even more stunning than in his dreams.He almost allowed himself a smile but stopped it before it twitched across his mouth.Nay, there was nothing to be pleased about when it came to this feckin’ curfuffle.
The image of her eyes flashing with fire came to him unbidden, stirring him more than it should.Heaven help his sorry arse, but he had always loved a hot-tempered lass.More often than not, their tendency to fly into a rage hinted at the levels of passion they could attain.Sly old Mairwen had found him a woman she knew he could never resist.And now, thanks to the old witch, not only did that woman despise him, but thought him a liar or a babbling fool who had lost all reason.All of which could have been avoided if Mairwen had just told the lass what was what and given her the right to choose.
The pale gray haziness outside the window told him the sky was already growing lighter with the rising sun on the longest day of the year.He rubbed his tired, gritty eyes, remembering he had meant to catch up on his sleep since the night before had been spent seeing to a shipment.Ah, well, it was no matter.He could rest when he was dead.
