She knelt by the altar, closing her eyes to mutter the same silent prayer she said every night. “Please keep my family safe, Lord. Please look after the clan. Please let me speak to my mother one more time.”
Her family was safe. The clan was safe. The final wish was yet to be granted. Would it ever come true?
Behind her the door to the chapel creaked open. She stood up, wondering if Cam had come looking for her. Did he wonder where she went each night before bed?
It wasn’t Cam who stood there.
It was Morag.
“Mom!” Rachel ran to her, throwing her arms around her.
Morag held her close, not saying anything for a very long time. They wept together, Rachel not sure if she was dreaming. Was it really her? It was. It truly was.
Later, they sat together by the altar, talking quietly.
“How did you get here?” Rachel asked. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
“I’ve been doing some research,” Morag replied. “For years none of it made sense but now it’s starting to. I had one chance to save you and it worked.”
“What worked?”
“There are six keys in total, six keys to the past. We’ve been using the same one, you and me. It took you into the future and saved you from the fire. It was the same one that brought me back. The necklace doesn’t matter. It’s the key that matters, the key that was in the loch, the key that must go back into the loch no matter what the future holds. The key decides when to be found. That’s what matters, not the necklace.”
“I don’t understand. The necklace sent you forward in time, surely? Without it that wound would have killed you.”
“It was the key, reaching out through the necklace, like some kind of echo chamber. Know what else I found? There are five more keys out there somewhere.”
“How do you know?”
“Where did they come from, the keys, I mean? Who made them?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t find out. There are pictures of them in all kinds of books, collectors offering insane amounts of money for them. I think some people know what they do. I think some people would kill to get their hands on them.”
“Are you in danger? Are we?” She thought about someone attacking her family over the key. The idea made her shudder.
Morag smiled. “No, nothing like that. I think the keys can look after themselves. I lost our one coming back and that’s okay. It slipped out of my hand and into the loch. It’s done its job and I thank it and its creator. We can be together.”
“Aye. So we can.”
“How are you finding the Middle Ages? You’re starting to sound pretty Scottish.”
“Am I? Well, I do feel like I belong here.”
“You do belong here. You were born here.”
“In Scotland?”
“In the Middle Ages as you call it. Only for me and the rest of the clan, this is the present day.”
Rachel frowned. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“You went into the past. I went into the future. I was given a key as a keepsake by my parents when I was little. They never told me what it could do. When you were very young our village was attacked and burned. The key was ready. I got one of the villagers to use it. All of a sudden I knew what it would do. It just came to me in a flash. He pushed you through the door and into the future because the key let him. That way you and your brother would be safe.”
“Have you seen him? Philip I mean?”
Morag looked sad. “I tried. He wouldn’t believe I was his mother. Kept telling me I was a liar out to steal his inheritance from him. I gave up in the end. He will realize eventually and then, if he’s meant to join us, he will.”
Rachel could tell she was leaving a lot unsaid but she didn’t press the matter. There would be time enough to talk more in the future.
