“Yer bairn maun survive, lass,” Donell insisted.
“I agree whole-heartedly.” Scarlett shared a frown with Emmy, remembering what she’d said about Donell’s projects. “Why does it matter to you so much?”
The old man bit his tongue and shook his head. “Save the bairn, lass,” he directed this to Emmy, jabbing a finger at her.
“I’m telling you, I can’t guarantee anything in these conditions. We need a hospital. Amodernhospital.”
Donell shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. Staring up at the ceiling as if considering his options, he nodded. “Verra well.”
“No!” Laird and Connor both echoed Scarlett’s panicked protest.
Emmy yelled, “Wait!”
Laird pushed Scarlett behind him as if his physical presence could stop Donell from whatever he meant to do by being there. She curled against his back, hugging him around the waist just in case. Truly unnerved now, she expected to be torn from him again before they could so much as blink.
“Ground rules! Ground rules!” Emmy shouted, holding her hand palm out to Donell to futilely forestall any action he chose to take.
Connor was at Emmy’s side in a heartbeat, slipping an arm around her waist. Scarlett knew his alarm was the same as her own. They’d all been at the whim of this man at one time or another. They all feared what he might do to them again. While she appreciated the call forground rules, it amused Scarlett that Emmy thought she had any control at all here.
Still, Donell waited patiently as if she possessed the power to sway him. Scarlett inhaled shakily in tandem with Laird.
“No one goes anywhere until we figure out the best course of action,” Emmy commanded desperately.
“Agreed.”
A collective sigh filled the room. A spark of hope ignited within Scarlett.
“So, in a perfect world, I’d like us at my hospital directly after I left,” Emmy negotiated. “It’ll give us the best chance at immediate service and I’ll be able to stay with her without question.”
“Unfortunately ‘tis no’ a perfect world,” Donell replied. “I cannae take ye back to yer time, only to hers.”
Emmy huffed as if exasperated. “It’s the same thing.”
“Nay, we cannae go back any earlier than when the lass left Dunskirk. I cannae risk changing anyone’s fate.”
“Now you’re just talking nonsense. All you’ve done is change our fate.”
“For good reason.”
“Which is?” Scarlett queried again, easing around to Laird’s side.
Donell ignored her question, reverting to the matter at hand. “If we go back to Emmy’s time, we risk changing yer future,” he explained and turned back to Emmy. “She maun be at Dunskirk as she was before. Taking her back before that moment could alter her movements beyond then and prevent her travel here.”
“And I don’t want that,” Scarlett quickly added. She wrapped her arms around her husband’s bicep and clung to him. “Imustget to Laird.”
“Aye, ye maun,” her husband agreed gruffly, kissing the top of her head. He held her tight against his side as if Donell might smite her right there. “What are yer other options?”
The frustration on Emmy’s face was nearing toxicity. “I can’t be of any help where I’m not medically licensed.”
Scarlett adamantly shook her head. “I will not risk my future here with Laird.”
“Then I can be of no help at all.”
“Yes, you can,” Scarlett assured her newfound ally. “We can call you my private physician, right? You can be there with me to make sure they do the proper thing. Without any medical records, they’ll waste time with questions I can’t answer. I need someone who knows what’s really going on. A friendly face.”
“Fine, if we can’t go to my time then we go to hers,” Emmy told Donell flatly. “We get a private hospital someplace where they might bend the rules a little. Like Switzerland or something.”
“That isnae how it works, ye barmy mare!” Donell threw his hands in the air, his annoyance as evident as the doctor’s as she launched her own salvo.
