The only thing that kept her moving was Wallace. He encouraged her whenever she fell behind, taking her hand through the marshes and down the steep edges, guiding her without a single complaint no matter how many times she stumbled.
“Why are you being so patient with me?” she eventually asked. “I thought you hated the MacCallisters.”
“I’ve changed my mind about many things since meeting you,” he replied.
“You’re a good person, Wallace MacGregor.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You are. You’re taking me home. You don’t have to. You could run off into the wilderness and leave me alone. You’re a good person.”
“What if I tell you I was planning for you to take my place in the chains? What if I tell you the only reason you’re here is because I made a deal with the barefoot man?”
“A deal?” Natalie stopped walking. “What kind of a deal?”
He turned and looked at her. “I was to bring you and the key to him and in return he was tobring my father back to life. That’s why my spirit came to you in your time.”
“But why? Why me? I don’t understand.”
“Because I vowed to have my revenge on the last of the MacCallisters.”
“You mean me?”
“Aye. Only once I met you, I knew I couldnae do it. There was no way I could hand you over to him. I will return to the chains and you will return home and you willnae think me a good man for I am not one.”
He started walking again. Natalie waited a moment before following him. She wasn’t sure what to think. Part of her felt crushed and betrayed by his confession.
He had lied to her. He hadn’t brought her back in time to show her around the Middle Ages. He had done it to get revenge on her.
Even as anger rose up in her, it faded, replaced by sorrow. She caught up with him and shoved him in the side. “You don’t get to say all that and just act like nothing happened.”
“You are angry with me, I understand. Dinnae worry, soon you will be in your own time and away from me.”
“I’m not angry.”
“Yes you are.”
“All right, I am. But I’m sad too.”
“I’m sorry I let you down.”
She shoved him again. “I’m sorry for you, you great fool.”
“What?”
“You did it to try and get your father back. That’s something I can understand.” She sighed, wondering whether to tell him. “I’m going to share something with you, all right? I want you to just listen and not say anything. Okay?”
He nodded.
“I had a baby girl once. She was called Tanya. She died when she was eight months old. A simple infection, the common or garden kind that a million kids get every year and shake off like the cold. Yet it killed my little girl.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “If I was offered a chance to bring Tanya back to life by the devil himself, I would be hard pressed to refuse no matter what the deal was. Even for just a moment to hold those tiny fingers in my own again, to look into those gorgeous blue eyes of hers. I understand why you made that deal, Wallace, more than you’d think I might.”
He glanced down at her and then looked away, beginning the long climb up yet another steep slope.
“Okay, you can talk now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a daughter?”
“Because it’s not the kind of thing that comes up in polite conversation.”
