Chapter Nine
The next morning Kerry awoke to find herself alone. She had just enough time to register where she was before the door opened and Callum walked in carrying a tall ewer. “Morning,” he said, pouring water from the ewer into a bowl on the windowsill. The shutters were open and the first gray shafts of morning light were brushing the tree tops outside. “What time is it?” Kerry asked, yawning widely. “Have you been up long?”
“It is time we were moving on. Porridge is ready downstairs when we’ve washed.”
Splashing water onto his face, Callum rubbed vigorously with his fingertips, cleaning the grime of the previous day from his features. “Are you not getting up?”
“I’m barely awake,” she replied, pushing the blankets down and getting to her feet. “Just give me a second.”
Dipping her hands in the water, the icy chill of it opened her eyes wide. A single splash to the face and she felt more alert than any alarm clock could have made her.
“There is talk downstairs of a thief in the inn. The Englishman from the corner last night is nowhere to be seen. I thought he looked suspicious. Come, let’s get moving.”
He led the way out of the bedroom and then downstairs. Kerry was glad of the thickness of her dress for the fire in the bedroom had died overnight. She wished she had a change of clothing though she seemed to be the only one to care. She noticed when they walked into the body of the inn that everyone else was still wearing what they had worn the previous night.
The patrons were all eating and talking in low voices. Someone was complaining loudly to the innkeeper that their purse of coins had been taken from their room overnight. The innkeeper was nodding patiently but saying nothing in response.
“Sit by the fire and get warm,” Callum said. “You’re shivering.”
“Am I?” Kerry asked, looking down at her fingers, surprised to see them trembling. A few minutes by the fire and she was soon baking hot. When the porridge appeared she realized just how hungry she was, devouring it in no time at all. Callum took a second bowl and then a third and only then did he rise to his feet and go over to the innkeeper.
What they spoke of, Kerry could not make out. She found herself looking at Callum and thinking about the previous night. Was she really the same person who’d so boldly gone and laid next to him by the fireside? It wasn’t even an original line she’d used, it was the one she’d seen in Twins. The fact that it had worked still shocked her. He hadn’t sent her away, he had said nothing at all about her audacity. At least he was unlikely to accuse her of stealing material from a movie. The chances of him having seen it were pretty unlikely.
She couldn’t believe she’d been so bold. That wasn’t her. Yet it must have been. She only had to look at him to think of those arms wrapping around her, making her feel so safe as the fire died down to embers. She hadn’t slept, not at first. She’d been too excited. Her heart had pounded as he held her close, his body pressing against hers. She kept as still as she could though she wanted to do so much in that moment.
She managed to control herself by telling herself she was going home soon. She would be back in her own time and she would have to learn to live without the feel of him against her, without ever smelling him again, without hearing his voice, that gruff Scottish accent of his that made her quiver with desire every single time he spoke.
Just looking at him as he talked to the innkeeper was increasing her heart rate. She pressed her hands together, trying to regain control of herself. The love she felt towards him was threatening to overwhelm her. She had to keep a handle on it if she was to get home again.
She knew one thing for certain. It would not be the same Kerry Sutherland who went home. She had already changed. Not just joining him by the fireside but everything she’d been through. She had seen death. She had seen the wildness of a land before modern invention, before pollution, before traffic, before all the things that she thought were important but they weren’t, not really.
All that mattered was walking over to her and he looked angry.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, immediately fearing she was the cause of his ire.
“Our horse was taken last night.”
“Oh no.” Kerry tried not to smile. If they had to walk it would mean longer together.
“The innkeeper is giving us another to make up for the theft. They are getting it ready now. Have you done with your porridge?”
“I have though it seems a shame to leave the fireside.”
“We must be moving. The planets align soon.”
“What does that matter?”
“The woman we are going to see will be away for it. We must reach her before she leaves else who knows when she may return.”
Within minutes of leaving the inn it began to rain. The gray dawn never brightened. A gloom hung over them and Kerry’s dress was soon soaked through. Callum continued without complaint nor pause.
The journey took most of the day. They stopped for only short spells to rest the horse and by the time the sun set Kerry was aching in places she didn’t even know existed. She was barely able to walk when she finally climbed down for the last time, having to shuffle hunched over until her muscles began to relax.
They had passed through stunning countryside but Kerry had glanced at it only occasionally, for the most part keeping her head down, trying to avoid the worst of the rain.
It was an impossible task and she stood dripping wet as Callum tied up the horse to a tree trunk by the roadside. “Where are we?” she asked. “I see nothing but rain and mud.”
“This way,” he replied, walking between the trees and across a patch of long grass. “She lives down there.”
