“Ah lass, you won’t die. Not for a very long time.”
Nessa sniffed. “How do you know that? Do you believe me?”
“I do”, Meara said. “I can see that you mean no harm.”
She closed her eyes with relief. The threat of tears slowly subsided and she rallied her courage again. “But I still have to convince the King”, she said quietly.
Meara stroked her cheek with the tip of a finger, and Nessa gave in to her impulse, leaning into her hand like a small child. She didn’t understand why exactly—this woman was a stranger—but maybe she was just in desperate need of succor. Her world, after all, was currently in the process of reeling out of control.
“Were you happy?” Meara asked suddenly, “Truly happy, before you came to be here?”
Nessa was startled by the incongruity of the question, but she found herself giving it real thought anyway.Happy? Was she? She had the farm. She had Nathan, whom she loved. She took care of Angus by herself, but she never really minded. She was losing Gram, but age takes everyone, eventually. Mourning someone doesn’t equal unhappiness. Sheshouldhave been happy.
“The truth, dear heart”, Meara crooned next to ear, and her mind felt…strange. As if something was tugging at it from outside her head.
The truth was, she had been restless for a very long time. Nathan was wonderful, but sometimes she secretly wondered if they were really meant to be together. The farm…she loved the farm, and she was genuinely excited about the farm-to-table vegetable business she was starting up. But, despite all of it, there was still an emptiness somewhere. A slightly hollow feeling in her heart telling her that there was supposed to bemore. She just didn’t know what thatmorewas.
She looked up at Meara, confusion in her eyes. What was this woman doing to her, to make her doubt everything she thought she knew? “I don’t know”, she said quietly.
“You will.”
The soft tugging abruptly stopped, and her mind felt like her own again. “How do you know that? How could youpossiblyknow anything about me?”
Meara smiled. “Ah, child. We live in a world that is endless, it stretches forever outward, just as our own mind stretches forever in. There are no limits to the possibilities of either, only the limits we place there ourselves.”
No limits to the possibilities of the human mind. Angus had certainly showed her that.Angus.
She sat up straighter. “Do you know where my uncle is?” she asked. “Is he alright?”
“He’s fine.”
“I’m all he has—I take care of him. Can I see him?”
“Soon, I’m sure. I’ve just seen him myself. He’s chattering on to some of the women about being from the future and coming to stop an invasion by some tribe to the north.”
Nessa almost groaned out loud. He was going to get them both killed. “I’m sorry, please ignore him. Do the women know he’s…um…not quite right? They don’t believe him, do they?”
Meara gave her an oddly knowing look. “I’m suretheydon’t. Rest easy now lass, I’ll see you again soon.”
Nessa watched as the woman turned and walked out of the room without another word or backward glance. She almost felt as if Meara knew exactly who she was and where she’d come from, although that would be impossible.Wouldn’t it? Still, therewassomething…otherworldly about her.
And oh god, Angus was blithely chattering away abouteverything, not understanding the importance of hiding the truth. Thank goodness everyone seemed to think he was crazy. And at least now she knew he was ok.
Although Meara had calmed her a bit with her warmth and kind demeanor, Nessa’s tiny thread of optimism began to sink like a stone in the mud as soon as she was alone with her thoughts again. It was going to be hard enough to escape this whole mess on her own, but how on earth was she going to get Angus away too?
She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm and clear-headed. But if Nessa had known about the things she was going to see that very night, any sense of calm she felt would have disappeared on the salty sea breeze.
“Well?Doyou want to have her killed tonight with the others?” Namet stood before him, waiting for his answer.
Bridei was eating his dinner. Or at least he was trying to. This was the fourth interruption he’d had to endure since he’d sat down. “No. I need to know who she is first, and who she answers to. There is too much at stake not to know each and every one of my enemies, large or small.” He paused, chewing thoughtfully. “Shecouldbe completely innocent, of course.” But maybe that was wishful thinking. The lass’s fathomless green eyes told him nothing except that she was lying.
“Or she could have been sent to seduce you into telling your secrets. Or to poison you.” Namet always argued the other side. It was one of his many roles as chief counselor to the King.
“Then why would the old man be with her? He certainly does not put one in the mind of seduction. Wouldn’t she have come alone, if that was the plan? Played on our sympathies as a woman lost and by herself?” He shook his head, taking another bite of food from the carved wooden bowl. He could have dined from golden plates, of course, but he preferred simpler things. “I need to know more. Bring her to the fires tonight. I would have her see what happens to those who cross me. Perhaps then she will talk. And Namet…”
“Yes?”
Bridei pointed his spoon at him with narrowed eyes. “I would never beseducedby any woman. Know that.”
