“Aye, you do! You must! The lass,Nessa!” He paced in a small circle and stopped again. “Did youknowshe would come?”
Meara paused her work and looked up at him. “No. I didn’t know that.Suspected, maybe, but didn’t know. I only do what the Spirits tell me.”
“But from another time? Did you know that hundreds of years had passed since I gave Domnall those scrolls?”
She raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about Bridei?”
“She says she is Domnall’s descendant, Meara. From a time so far from now I can’t even fathom it.”
Meara blinked, but looked otherwise unfazed. “Well, if she’s here now, then there’s a reason for it. There’s a reason for all of it.” She sliced a few stems from another one of the plants, and dropped them into the basket as well.
“You will have to be patient until the reason shows itself.”
“Patient? How can I be patient when apparently I have been cursed by some unknown hand!”
“Cursed?” Meara turned back to her plants, but a little smile played across her lips.
“Aye, cursed.”
“How are you cursed, my King?”
“I can’t stop thinking about her. Wanting her. It’s madness.”
Bridei slid his hands through his long, dark hair, pulling at it in agitation. “I can’t get her out of my thoughts. I have the responsibility of thousands of lives and the freedom of thousands more, and here I am lusting after a woman. I have even found myself entertaining thoughts of making her mine. What sort of King am I, to be so weak? She is only a single woman, and Ineedto put my people,allof them, first.”
“Ah, you are not weak. She calls to your heart, and the heart will always answer. It cannot be thwarted like the mind or the flesh. Perhaps she is theone, my king.”
Bridei paused his pacing and looked at Meara for a long moment, considering her words—Domech had said the same thing not long ago—but then he shook his head in dismissal. “Even if she was, it isn’t the time for it. I can’t have a woman of my own when I’m mounting a war.”
Meara laughed softly. “Love never comes at the perfect time. It happens only when you are ready. I can see thatyouare ready.”
“I’mnotready. Especially not for her. Sometimes it hurts just to look upon her.”
“Andthatis how you will know. A true soul mate will break you first, so that you can both build something new and stronger from the broken pieces. Together.”
Bridei sighed. Perhaps he had hoped that Meara would tell him that hehadbeen cursed, and that the curse could be easily broken. But if there wasn’t a curse, then his obsession was his own.
He shook his head slowly. “Have you ever wanted something so badly that you can actually feel it making you crazy, each moment you can’t have it?”
“What if it’s something that you can have, after all?” Meara asked. “After all, an insane king will not do a very good job of leading an army, I suspect.”
“Nor will a king who cannot drag himself from a woman’s bed,” Bridei growled.
Meara laughed. “It sounds like you’re in terrible need. Also not good when leading an army. It makes one cranky and easily provoked.”
Meara was right, Bridei decided. Meara wasalwaysright. He had done everything in his power to keep himself from wanting what he shouldn’t want; needing what he shouldn’t need, and it hadn’t worked. If the lass had travelled here; if everything had lined up just right so that she was here with him now…Now. Then who was he to fight it anymore?
He took the steps of the broch two at a time, his heart racing much faster than the physical exertion would have accounted for. His fingers trembled as he pulled the door latch. Even then, he knew in his bones that whatever came next would be different—more—than he’d ever known with a woman before. If he let something begin between them, he doubted he had the power within him to end it. He felt as if the rest of his life was about to change in a way he’d never imagined.
Nessa was sitting on the bed, and though she had been gazing out the window, she turned when the door opened, her lips slightly parted in surprise.
“I’ve spoken to Meara”, he told her.
She sat up straighter. “Does she know why I’m here? How this is possible?”
He shook his head, his lips curving into the beginnings of a smile. “No, though she did mention Fate.”
“Does she know how I can get home again?” Her question was so hopeful…
