Daisy unlocked the door and swung it open. The king dashed forward, sword in hand. He stopped dead, hands pressing on the walls inside the empty cupboard. “But he was there,” he said. “I saw him go in. Where is he?”
“He’s gone,” Jock replied. “That’s enough for me.”
The king left that night with his men. He had his money for his campaign and that was all he really cared about. One man vanishing was easy to forget when he had a war to fight.
Jock would earn a significant amount of interest for the loan but more importantly the monarch of the country now owed him a favor. That was a good position to be in when rival clans continued to squabble over territory every day of the week.
They had no idea where the barefoot man had gone. Somehow Jock knew the man would no longer be a problem for him or his clan.
Eddard was glad to see the back of the villain. For over an hour he told Jock and Daisy the story of what had happened when he was younger. They listened in silence. Daisy in particular was rapt.
“I saw him in a dream,” she said when he was done. “I never thought he could be real.”
“All too real,” Eddard said, getting to his feet. “Now I will leave you two and go kiss my wife. It has been too long since I did that.”
He hugged Daisy before turning to his son. “You have done well, my boy.”
Jock nodded and then watched him leave. Finally they were alone in the great hall.
“It has been quite the day,” Daisy said, yawning loudly. “All this time travel makes one rather tired, don’t you think?” She stretched her arms out and as she did so, he swept her onto his lap. She squealed and then laughed. “What are you doing?”
“Finishing what I started earlier,” he replied, pressing his lips to hers. He kissed her then, breathing in her essence as she melted in his arms.
It was a long time before they parted and when they did it was only for a brief moment. Just long enough for him to say, “I love you,” before he leaned in to kiss her again.
“I love you too,” she replied, her eyes closing.
Jock embraced her, their souls mingling, to be bonded together for all time as he finally began to unlock the key to her heart.
Epilogue
Daisy’s feet hurt, her arms ached, and she was covered in flour.
She couldn’t have been happier.
The kitchen at MacGregor Castle had taken some getting used to. It was still hard to walk past the spot where the previous cook had died without thinking about her.
Jock had assured her that was normal. They had talked about it several times. She had come from a world where death was unusual. A world where, when it did happen, it often took place out of sight, easy to ignore.
Jock’s world was different. Already, she knew that. She had been living here for six months and she’d seen several deaths in that time. Some were of simple old age but then there were the falls from the battlements, the diseases carried in the water, even childbirth was more dangerous.
Still, she thought, as she kneaded the dough across the long table, she wouldn’t change it for the world. For each negative, there were countless positives, not least of which was getting to live with Jock MacGregor.
She smiled as she thought about their first meeting, how she’d been so sure he was just an eccentric laird who didn’t care for modern things. How little she had known then.
He was still obsessed with pens. The collection in his bedchamber was used every day, Not that she got to see inside there much anymore.
Since she had settled here, she had been given her own room. It was her decision as much as Jock’s. She had seen how much people were talking about the two of them.
After what had happened to the clan, it was slowly coming back together. She didn’t want to do anything to risk damaging the slow recovery of the people.
So she waited, hoping that one day Jock would do the honorable thing. It might be a dream of course but it was a good dream.
She refused to think about what would happen if he never asked her to marry him.
It was enough to think of the few stolen kisses they managed, the couple of times they had been able to sneak away from the castle together, riding out to the house that was once Robin’s. She had wondered what would happen when they got there the first time but neither of them expected to save a life.
She paused in her kneading, thinking of that day. What would have happened if they hadn’t gone out there? The place had been left empty since the barefoot man had gone. Weeds grew up around the base of the stonework, ivy starting to crawl higher.
