“My apologies.” His jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed, piercing her with his gaze. “Thomas has yerti-imedevice?”
She knew instantly he didn’t believe her.
His eyes were hard and cold. Judging her. If she was any good at reading body language, he had just labeled her mad.
She sighed. “Yes, and you said you’d help me get it back.”
Turning abruptly, Iain strode into the dark. Abby stayed rooted to the spot, staring at his back. He tipped his head back and raised his arms above his head as if he was beseeching God for something.
He stayed like that for a long moment, spun on his heels and returned to the light of the fire.
“I am obliged to listen to more of yer story. After all, ye being there at the exact time I needed help must have been God’s doing. For that, I thank God.”
“I’m good with that.” Abby sometimes wished she could have that sort of faith in a heavenly being. She had often thought it would make life easier, but then she would wonder if all the carrying on about sins would fill her with guilt. What she saw as everyday feelings and actions, the religious thought sinful. One came to mind immediately. Having sexbefore marriage. She bit the inside of her cheek. Maybe she should have followed that edict.
She had been intimate with her last boyfriend, and after he ran off, she’d wished she hadn’t given Peter that part of herself. If she was honest, it wasn’t as earth-shatteringly amazing as she’d thought it would be.
She glanced at Iain. People of his time expected the women they married to be virgins. She gave a silent snort. Of course, no one expected the men to be virginal.
***
Iain spoke little to Abigail that night. He was thankful she hadn’t tried to convince him what she said was the truth and instead left him to think about her proclamation. He couldn’t believe she was from the future, of course. How could she be? But he could believe she was confused or mayhap she’d had a head injury, and mayhap she’d lost her memory. If she did not know who she was or where she came from that would explain her befuddlement, and seeing how different she was from the Scots, she’d conceived she was not of their time.
As he drifted to sleep, his father’s strange friends came to mind. At six years of age, he could tell they were different. It occurred to him in that fuzzy time before sleep took him, they could have been related to Abigail. She was similar in appearance to the man. With her oblong face, her straight nose and narrow nostrils, and pointed chin. Although her eyes were blue-gray like his father’s female friend.
He decided to ask her about them, but still couldn’t remember their names.
The next morning, Iain got up before Abigail and was just about to restart the fire when muffled voices sounded on theother side of a small hill. He ducked and scrambled to Abigail, shaking her to awaken her.
She moaned, and Iain quickly put his hand over her mouth. Her eyes snapped open. “Shh,” he whispered, and pointed to the hill. “Someone is on the other side of that knoll.”
Abigail nodded, and he let his hand go. He nodded to the boulders they huddled beside. “Hide behind there.”
Abigail scooped up the bedding and scampered behind the rocks, and Iain crept up the hill, dropping to his stomach just before he reached the top and peeking over the rise.
Thomas, with a bandaged head, followed the road west. Three English soldiers rode to his rear.
Iain smiled. Only four. He could handle them. Once they were around the bend, Iain quietly followed but kept to the side of the road. The road forked ahead, and Iain was delighted they turned to the left fork that led to Uram.
Abigail’s confession sparked in his mind. He would retrieve her treasure as he had promised, but then they would part company, she to Inverness and her family, and once he found a boat, he would sail to Rum.
Chapter 19
Two weeks and two days since they’d left the farmhouse, Iain and Abby walked into the port town of Uram. Abby straightened, stretching the tight ligaments in her back. She was relieved to finally stop traveling and ecstatic at the thought of getting the orb back from Sir Thomas. Her shoulders slumped. Once she had the orb, she would go home. She was already beginning to miss Iain and the time they had spent together.
Abby had never in her life wanted a man as much as she wanted her Highlander. He was gentle and caring, and although Abby hated traveling across the country, she loved being close to Iain.
She glanced back over her shoulder. Iain was stone-faced. He didn’t believe her explanation about time travel, and she hoped he wasn’t about to change his mind about getting the orb back for her.
“We need a boat and supplies before we find Thomas,” Iain said. “A stable boy will know what’s about.”
At the inn, he stopped and pulled her close into his side. “Stay by me,” he said.
She turned her face up to his and was immediately drawn into his dark gaze. His lips touched her hair as she leaned into him. His head bent forward, and sure he was finally going to kiss her, Abby tipped her head back and closed her eyes.
He let out what Abby could only comprehend as an impatient sigh, and quickly moved away, but clasped her hand in his. Abby snapped her eyes open. She felt like a fool . . . aneejit, as the Scots would say. She blinked back tears as she stood there, not knowing what to do or say. It confused her, but soon, anger bubbled up through her, and she bundled the blanket of belongings close to her chest to keep a barrier between them.
Iain handed some coins to the young stable hand. “Where can we get supplies?”
