12
The journey south took many days but for Tavish, it felt as if it were over in minutes. As each mile passed by, he found himself again and again trying to imagine life without Lindsey.
He wasn’t sure why he was struggling so much. It was always going to end this way. He’d manipulated her into helping him get the sacred stone and then she could go back to her own time.
They stopped for the last night together on the shore of Loch Tay. The sun set while they sat together eating rabbit like they’d done on the day she arrived in his time.
His tiny little hut was behind them, the last rays of the evening sun sliding down its walls to the ground. Soon it would be dark and the hut would be hidden from view, as would she.
She was watching the sun set over the water. He looked at her closely, trying to work out what she was thinking. She’d barely said two words to him all day.
Something had changed during their ride south and he couldn’t put his finger on it. Whenever he’d asked her what was wrong, she insisted she was fine.
Perhaps she was having the same doubts as him.
He still had a long way to go. The stone might get him into Castle Sinclair but Lilias could still stick to her story. He would continue to live under the burden of suspicion even if his exile were overturned for retrieving the stone.
He needed to work out what he was going to do but he couldn’t make himself think that far ahead. All he could think about was the fact that in the morning Lindsey would be back in her own time and he would be alone again.
No longer feeling hungry, he dropped his skewer of meat to the floor. What did it matter about being alone? He was perfectly content with being alone before she came along. He could do it again. No problem.
“Are you cold?” he asked, getting to his feet. “Ah’ll top up the fire?”
“I’m fine,” she replied without looking at him.
The stone in its velvet bag was on the ground beside her. She had her hand on top of it and he suddenly had the strangest fear that she might throw it into the loch.
Instead, she turned and looked at him, her face pale. “I don’t know what to do,” she said.
“About what,” he replied, reaching out to take her hand. She looked at it but didn’t move.
“You should look happier, you’ve got the stone. You can go home at last.” Her voice fell to little more than a whisper. “And so should I.”
He couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Stay,” he said, putting his hand on top of hers. “Stay with me.”
She looked down at his hand, her shoulders sagging. Without looking up, she said, “I want to but I can’t.”
“Why can ye not?”
“I don’t belong here.”
“Ye do, lass. You’ve brought peace between the MacIntyres and the Sinclairs. Do ye ken how long we’ve been fighting? Since long before ah were born.”
She looked up at him, pulling her hands to her chest, folding her arms. “I’ve got to go back.”
“Ye dinnae mean that. I can tell just by looking at you. You want tae stay. Ah ken it so why cannae ye?”
“It’s not that simple though is it? My mom will think I’ve gone missing. She’ll never know what happened to me if I don’t go back. And what about the locket, how will she know where to find it? I have to tell her.”
“I said I’d think of a way to let her know where it is.”
“And?”
“I havenae thought of it yet but ah will. Dinnae go.”
She shivered as a breeze began to blow across the loch. “I don’t know what to do,” she said quietly to herself more than him.
“Sleep on it,” he replied. “Ah’ve lit a blaze inside. Let the campfire die. Ye may feel different in the morning. This place has a way of speaking tae people while they sleep.”
