“You ken the mound behind the display garden atFoxgloves, aye? The one just beyond the garden gate?”
“Yeah. Iain warned me to never go there and to never allow the children to go there, but Tevin and Malcolm ran away from me during a heavy fog. I found them at the knoll and…”
“Then what?”
“Tevin vanished. I was standing there dumbfounded when Malcolm pushed me onto the mound and everything spun.”
“That is the sensation of traveling through time. Although I understand everyone’s experience is a wee different.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Remember when Archie and I travelled to Anderson Creek years ago? Afterward, we returned here to your past. Our present.”
“I can’t even believe I’m in Scotland and you expect me to believe I traveled to the past?”
“Aye. Look out the window.”
Emily cast aside a very real-feeling fur and slid from the bed. She walked across an authentic stone floor, threw open the shutters, and gasped.Holy shit!She leaned out over the stone sill. Sure enough she was in a castle that appeared to be surrounded by water. Across the waterway was a heather covered hill. Rustic cottages were grouped in a village of sorts. In the field below the window, men dressed in reenactment costumes slashed at each other with sharp-pointed swords—sun glinting on metal—like some of the men did in Anderson Creek.
An uber-attractive guy, with long brown hair of which many women would be envious, shot arrows at a muslin dummy, hitting the bulls-eye over the heart with each shot. Emily placed a hand on her stomach, feeling a tad queasy all of a sudden. He seemed so familiar.
“Are you feeling ill?” Isobell asked, voice laced with concern, as she came to stand behind Emily.
“Who is that guy with the bow?”The one with the yummy, ass-hugging leather pants?
The other woman chuckled softly. “That is Gregor, the lad who found you in the wood.”
Emily spun around and faced her. “I admit this appears to be Scotland, but I don’t remember traveling here. And, I certainly didn’t travel through time.”
“Come. Walk with me. I will give you a tour of the keep, and you will see I speak the truth.”
Emily grasped Isobell’s hand. “I don’t mean to insult you.”
“You have not. I felt as confused as you when I traveled through the faerie mound to the future.” Isobell walked to the door and stopped. She glanced over a shoulder at Emily and frowned, turning back into the room. “This will not do. Your garments are all wrong.” She opened a chest at the end of the bed and pulled out a linen gown. “Before you can be seen by the castle inhabitants, you must change into something more appropriate to this time. Archie believes the sheriff has placed a spy amongst us.”
“Really, Isobell, aren’t you taking this reenacting thing a bit far?”
“This is not make believe, Emily. Youarein the past.”
Emily glanced out the window again and chewed on her lip. “The men fighting in the yard do appear more…fiercethan the reenactment guys in Anderson Creek.”
“That is because they are more fearsome,” Isobell said softly. “Their lives often depend on their skill with a weapon.”
Emily accepted the garment and ran trembling fingers over the pale green fabric of a gown similar to the lavender dress Isobell wore, and akin to the dresses Elspeth sported at the living history exhibit during the Highland Games and Gathering of the Clans at Grandfather Mountain. Was Isobell telling the truth? With a heavy sigh, Emily removed her tunic-length hoodie, slipped the dress over her head and down her torso, covering her black lace trimmed bra, then shimmied out of the cotton leggings and slid the fine linen over her hips to drape just above the tops of her hiking boots.
“Did you bring anything modern with you besides your clothes? Perhaps a phone?”
“I dropped my cell when Malcom pushed me.”
“Good. I guess no one will be aware of your modern undergarments.” Isobell chuckled and helped with the lacings on the gown. “There. You look like a proper Highland lass.”
“Now what?”
“I will show you the castle, and you will come to understand that you and Tevin are truly in Scotland, and inthe past.”
The circular stairs posed a challenge in the long gown. And the castle did appear to be lost in time. Still—
“Okay,” Emily said. “I admit the rustic kitchen seems to imply the castle is not of our time, but—”
