“I am afraid,” Jessa admitted softly, trying to ignore the shame churning through her.If a love wasn’t strong enough to overcome fear, then was it really a love worth fighting for, a love worth leaving everything behind and leaping into the unknown?“I barely passed the history class required for my degree.”
Mairwen chuckled.“Some things ye canna learn from books or online.Some things can only be learned by being lived.”She nodded in Grant’s direction.“And he’ll not be grading ye, lass, or testing ye on yer knowledge.This is life.Ye are the judge and jury of yerself—as ye have always been.Do ye not think it high time ye stopped being so quick to condemn yerself with a less than satisfactory grade?Look at all ye have survived, lass.Look how brightly ye shine.”
“I do not need a therapy session on self-esteem.”
“I disagree.Ye dinna believe in yerself enough to face yer fears and embrace a life worth living—a life much more than a mere existence.”
Jessa glanced back at Emily and Grant and gave up on trying not to cry.The hot droplets of pure frustration burned their way down her cheeks, and her nose immediately started running.“Dammit.”She sniffed and patted her outer skirt, searching for the opening in the seam that Molly had shown her.Somewhere under all those layers was the small cloth sack the maid had tied around her waist to carrynecessaries,as she had phrased it.“When are real freaking pockets invented?”
“Did yer maid not tuck ye a bit of linen behind yer stays?”Mairwen tipped a nod at Jessa’s chest.“A circa 1785 handkerchief?In the winter, ye can keep it tucked inside the sleeve of yer jacket.Much easier to get to that way.”
“I don’t know what she tucked where while trussing me up like a turducken for Thanksgiving.”
Mairwen stepped closer and angled an ear toward her.“Trussed ye like a what?”
“A turducken.”Jessa fished down into the front of her tightly bound stays and found the handkerchief.“You stuff a deboned chicken filled with dressing inside a deboned duck layered with more dressing and herbs, and then you stuff all of that inside a deboned turkey, sew it shut, slather it in butter, wrap it in caul fat, then bake it.”
“Interesting.”The silvery-haired matron brightened.“Ye must show Cook.I am sure the clan would enjoy a dish like that.”
“I don’t make it a habit of eating meat,” Jessa said with an overwhelming sense of guilt at betraying her animal friends.“I love animals alive.Not on my plate.”
“Then how do ye know how to prepare such an extravagant dish?”
“I dated a chef once.”
“I take it that did not last long once ye told him ye preferred yer meals animal-free?”
“Pretty much.”Jessa dipped a curt nod.“See?Yet another reason I can’t stay here.These folks would never tolerate a vegetarian.”
“They will tolerate whatever Grant orders them to tolerate.”
Jessa snorted.“Like the social worker telling the other kids to be nice to me while she met with my fosters.As soon as she left the room, they morphed into demons.”
Mairwen bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.A sternness settled over her as her hand dropped to her side, and she fixed Jessa with a look that made her shiver.“If ye dinna choose a life with yer fated mate, ye will never be whole.Never truly happy.Ye will always feel as if ye are watching life pass ye by.As if ye are standing on the sidelines while everyone else dances.Is that the life ye want?Because the choice is yers.If ye so choose, we will return to the twenty-first century immediately.But know this—whatever you decide, you condemn Grant to that same fate.”
“That isn’t fair.”
With a bitter laugh, Mairwen shook her head.“And who was it that lied to ye, lass, and told ye life was ever fair?”
As Jessa turned and looked at Grant, he looked her way as well.When their eyes met, something indescribable passed between them.Whatever this fated mate fairy tale connection was, it was real and growing stronger by the minute.She could almost hear his deep whisper, “Stay with me, Jessa.Please.”
“What happens to Emily?”she said to Mairwen without breaking the connection with Grant.
“Yer Emily has a fated mate as well, but he is not in this time.”
“So, when I say goodbye to her, it will be forever?”The hot tears overflowed again, and Jessa didn’t care.
“For a little while.At least, at first.”Mairwen lightly touched her arm.“But I offer ye this solemn promise.When I speak with the goddesses, I shall ask that the two of ye be granted the power to pass through the Highland Veil to visit one another whenever ye like.At Seven Cairns.Such a gift of power is rarely given, but I feel the love between the two of ye could benefit the blessed weave just as much as the love between fated mates.Love is a powerful healing energy, no matter its form.Love is love.”
That wasn’t much, but it was something, she supposed.Jessa fisted her hands to her middle and gave Emily a sad smile.When Emily smiled back at her, she knew then and there that Emily already knew everything Mairwen had just told her.But that was dear, sweet Em to a tee.She was a selfless friend who would do anything to keep Jessa safe and happy.While looking in that direction, a movement in the sky, a shadow much larger than any bird, caught her notice in the clouds.“What is that?”
“What, lass?”Mairwen turned and looked in that direction.
“There is something in those clouds.Something really dark.”A strangely familiar fear, a primeval urge to either fight or flee, nearly choked off her air.“I don’t know what that is, but we need to get inside.All of us.Now.I feel it.”
“Protego!”Mairwen said, in a voice so powerful the cobblestones shuddered beneath their feet.
Jessa ran to Grant and Emily and started pulling them toward the laundress’s shelter.“We have to take cover.Something is coming.”
