Jock held the silver key out in front of him. “You left something behind. I thought I’d give it back.”
Tabby appeared from the kitchen. She took one look at Daisy on the floor, at Jock MacGregor, and at the silver key. “I’ll make some more coffee,” she said, vanishing back around the corner.
Daisy took Jock’s other hand as he leaned down to her. He lifted her back up with no effort at all on his part.
“Seriously,” she said as she got back on her feet. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“Invite him in,” Tabby shouted through from the kitchen. “Don’t just leave him standing there.”
“Come in,” Daisy said, beckoning him into the hallway. “Come in.”
She led him through to the living room. He stopped in the doorway, looking around him and scratching his forehead. “I never thought I’d see something like this,” he said, reaching into the pen pot on the coffee table and grabbing a handful. “So much magic in one room.”
“Here,” Tabby said, appearing with a tray. “Sit yourself down. I brought biscuits too. I get the feeling you both might need them. You can ask him about medieval cooking, get some tips maybe?”
With the tray set on the coffee table, she again withdrew, leaving Daisy to look across at Jock. He sat in the armchair, the sides bulging outward as his bulk squeezed into it.
“You are not possessed by the devil,” Jock said, looking around the room again. “I apologize for thinking you were.”
“Is that what brought you here? The need to apologize? How did you even get here?”
“Same as you. I used the silver key.”
He passed it to her. “This?” she said, examining it closely. “You brought it back?”
“I am not a man accustomed to flowery talk but I must say something to you. I give you that key willingly and I make you an offer before I go. Come to my castle and I will make you most welcome.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“I like you, Daisy Stone. I’ve liked you since the moment you first arrived at my castle.”
“You do realize we’re from different times right? Or has that passed you by?”
“I dinnae care about any of that. What I care about is not letting this chance slip by. You are the first woman who has ever meant anything to me and I dinnae intend to ignore that for the sake of time. What do you say?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Then think on this, Daisy. I have said my piece and I will leave it there. I go back to my time and my castle. If you wish to visit, you have the key and the choice is yours.” He got to his feet. “If you would unlock the door, I shall return to my home. I pray it might also one day be your home also.”
He walked out into the hallway and Daisy followed at a loss for words. It was only as he was opening the front door that she managed to get a slight grip on herself. “You’re leaving already? You’ve only just got here. Don’t you want to see this world?”
“There is nothing here for me. I belong with my people. I have much to do if I am to save them. There is a chance we will never speak again.”
He grabbed her around the waist, pulling her to him and kissing her. As their lips touched, Daisy was about to gasp in shock. She had no time to react before she was kissing him back. Her body melted but it had no sooner began than it was ended.
In a daze she slid the silver key into the lock, turning it one way and then the other. Her lips still tingled, her waist burning with heat from where he’d held her to him.
He slipped out of the door and just like that he was gone. She turned around, not quite sure what had happened, running her fingers over her lips. She looked up to see Tabby at the end of the hallway. “Did he just kiss me?” she asked.
Tabby nodded. “And you kissed him back.”
“I did?”
“Come on, let’s sit you down before you fall down.”
Tabby was amazing. Utterly indifferent to the fact a medieval highlander had just visited their house from another time, she sat Daisy on the sofa, pouring her out more coffee. Then she picked up the key, comparing it to the description in her book. “Amazing,” she said at last. “I never thought I’d get to see it.”
“Did you hear what he was saying to me?”
