Rab jumped to his feet to greet her as the bell jingled to announce her return to Fyne Auld Whisky Shoppe the next morning. Tail swinging, a garbled half-growl that sounded suspiciously like a purr, his happiness at her appearance was evident. Donell, perched on his stool at the far end of the counter, merely lifted a brow as if her presence were of no great surprise.
Perhaps it wasn’t.
Aila dropped to her knees and greeted the dog with an extended petting and belly rub when the furry beast rolled onto his back, none too eager to provide the old man immediate satisfaction.
“I’ll do it,” she said without looking at him.
“Thought ye might.”
At least he was gracious in his victory.
However, she wasn’t going to let him jerk her about like the marionette he’d made of Brontë. If she was going to do this, she wasn’t going to go into it blindly. Life had taught her to be prepared. And so she would be.
“I’m nae costume designer like Brontë. I’ll be needing clothing. Proper clothing.”
“By chance I’ve gathered some fripperies and such for ye.” His lifted his whisky glass — at nine in the morning no less! — in salute toward a moderately sized, leather-bound trunk near the front window. “What wi’ yer friend the one wi’ the talent wi’ the needle and her…”
“Away at the moment?” Aila supplied.
If living in the late 1910s could be labelledaway.
“Aye.” Donell nodded. “I anticipated ye might need a change or two of clothes. Nae use wasting time gathering what I have handy.”
No use questioning what he anticipated or why. If it had occurred to her in the long hours of the night — while she tossed and turned in her small bed at The Inveraray Inn with plans racing through her mind — that she might need more than a day to accomplish her mission, surely he would have considered it, too. The real question was, “Wasting time? What? The past cannae wait?”
He shrugged. “Nae time like the present, aye?”
“Nay,” she countered. “I have to drive Violet home first. Then I’ll come back.”
“She still at the Inn?” She nodded and he returned the gesture. “I’ll fetch her. By the time we finish breaking our fast, so should ye be back.”
“What? Oh.” Aye, the laws of time travel. Aila recalled how Brontë had spent days in the past during what was less than a blink of an eye from her perspective. A rush of nerves struck her. She hadn’t anticipated an immediate dive into the deep end. “What aboutmybreakfast?”
“Ye ate hours ago, dinnae ye?”
Blast him. She swiped her suddenly damp palms down the front of her denims. “I should go straight away then?”
“Aye, well, ye should change first.”
Butterflies fluttered in her gut and she swallowed hard. “Of course.”
He inclined his head to where the white time machine lay in a patch of sunlight on the counter. “I gather ye ken how to use it?”
“I do.”
Donell stood and plucked a wool coat from a hook on the far wall. He shrugged it on and straightened his cap as he came around the counter. Funny, his vibrant presence notwithstanding, the old codger was about an inch shorter than she. He grinned, more impish and downright mischievous than ever. “Dinnae fash, lass. Ye’ll do fine.”
“Nae tricks, right?” The man did have a track record to consider. Plots and subplots that had nearly gotten her friend killed. “I’m only to find the treasure?”
“And have a spot of fun.” He patted her cheek before transferring the gesture to the dog at her side. “Take Rab wi’ ye, if ye would. ’Tis nae time for a bonny lass to be traveling alone.”
“How…?” She swallowed back the lump forming in her throat.
“Keep him close. Simple as that.”
He went to the window and turned the open sign propped against the glass around so the “closed” side faced outward. “Ye’ll do fine, lass,” he repeated.
“People are going to wonder who I am. Why I am there,” she blurted out, recalling the list of details she’d considered over the course of the night. She’d determined to take charge of the matter and accept the task only on her own terms, but look at her now. A bundle of nerves! Like a child about to alight on their first rollercoaster ride. A teenager about to embark on their first date.
