Chapter Six
They stopped to rest after a couple of hours riding. Callum didn’t want to but he could tell his companion was growing weary. Pulling the horse to a stop by a pool of clear water, he left the beast drinking its fill while laying out a blanket from the saddlebag, covering the damp earth so Kerry could sit in comfort. “I could have kept going,” she said, looking up at him with her arms folded, for all the world like a petulant child.
“Aye,” he replied. “And you could’ve fallen off and cracked your skull when your grip went.”
“I was fine,” she said, her voice quieter, less defiant than before. “How far do we have to go?”
“We pass between the two old men,” Callum said, pointing at a pair of jagged mountains in the distance. “There’s a pass through but it’s still a wee climb to the other side. After that it’s only another couple of days.”
“Days? I thought it’d be hours.”
“What’s the rush? You’re in the most beautiful country in the world. I feel a part of this land and yet you wish to pass it by in a moment?”
She shrugged. “I need to get back to my own time. I can’t stay here much longer.”
“Why not?”
Her eyes turned away, staring into the distance. “No reason,” she muttered.
He watched her closely for a moment before turning back to the saddle bag, reaching inside to bring out a lump of hard cheese. “Hungry, lass?”
“Starving.”
He sliced a thick wedge and passed it over to her, taking a little for himself before leaning back against the thick trunk of an oak, watching the ripples on the pool spread as their horse stepped into the water, cooling his feet after the hard morning’s ride.
Glancing across at her, he noticed once again how beautiful she looked in the daylight. The sun seemed to light up her skin, accentuating the smooth softness of her features. He could have stared at her like that for hours, drinking in her features in the same way the horse drank from the pond. Behind her the morning haze had vanished and the last of the flower was upon the heather, framing her in purple and blue.
“What?” she asked, turning to face him, a smile spreading as she saw him look away embarrassed. “Why are you watching me?”
“You seem surprised by what you see,” he said, nodding in front of her. “What is it you’re looking at?”
“It’s this, all of this.”
“What? The heather?”
“The quiet. Listen.”
Callum stood still. He could hear a curlew in the distance, the water flowing into the pond, the horse splashing. Further away a stag was rutting but it wasn’t in view.
“Hear that?” she asked, smiling again. “It’s so quiet here. Empty too. There’s no one for miles around. No planes, no cars, nothing. Just us.”
“Is there no peace in your time?”
“Not according to Chamberlain.” He frowned but she just laughed. “Never mind. It’s just very different here.”
“In what way?”
“Well, take the farms when we first left the castle.”
“What about them?”
“They were divided up into strips.”
“Aye. So?”
“So in my time it’s just different. Never mind. Come on, we should get moving, shouldn’t we?”
“I suppose so.”
