And then there was nothing but blackness.
Chapter Four
Jamie MacLeod stoodin what had become known as the tapestry room staring at the woven wall hangings with a sweeping feeling deep in his gut. The third Sinclair sister in the enchanted tapestry emerged days ago in a white gown with her hair billowing to the side. Since then, Jamie had visited daily as he healed from his injuries to watch and wait for a sign she traveled back in time to join them.
He’d stalked the tapestry room every day to see if the third Sinclair sister appeared. Brianna, they called her. This morning, his patience had finally paid off.
It was an admission he’d made to only himself that he was jealous of his two older brothers finding true love in the arms of the two Sinclair twins. The last few months were strange and wonderful with the addition of the women—they filled their home with love and laughter and warmth. It was clear Evie and Chloe adored his brothers, Callum and Malcolm.
He wanted that, too. He wanted someone to love and adore him. He’d tried to make things work with the MacDonald lass, but she was nothing more than a cold, detached woman who wasn’t interested in him, despite their handfasting. Returning her to her father was the catalyst that had started the war between their two clans and the reason he’d left the country to travel with their uncle.
That lass was not for him, nor was she as bonnie as the one staring back at him from the enchanted fabric with her wintery eyes and herauburn hair blowing in the breeze. The white gown she wore hugged her every curve and billowed to the side like her hair.
Lo and behold, here she was in another tapestry separate from the one of her standing on the craggy hill in the white dress with her hand lit up as though she were ready to do battle. This one was different. Her image morphed within the enchanted fibers depicting her arrival in their time. The space around her was split open as she fell through time and space.
In the tapestry, a strange light flickered over her face as she tumbled through the opening. Her hair was a mess around her. But it was her eyes that caught his attention. Pale gray and piercing. They were the most unusual eyes he’d ever seen.
“Oh, hi, Jamie,” Evie said behind him, startling him out of his dreamy thoughts.
He turned to see her standing in the doorway, light framing the small round swell of her belly. As she entered the room, her gaze landed on the tapestry. Her eyes widened a bit as she stared at the new fully formed image.
“’Tis yer sister, aye?”
He kept his gaze on her to watch her expression change from surprise to wonder. She moved closer to the tapestry, reaching out to run a finger down the fringed edge.
“Brianna. I was coming to see if it had changed yet to show her arrival. I see it has. I wonder when it happened?”
“She appeared today,” he said. “This morn, in fact.”
“Today?” Her gaze snapped to him as she lifted a brow. “How long have you been watching?”
He flushed, not ready to admit his secret obsession. He had come here under the guise he needed to exercise his injured leg to regain his strength. He’d never made the conscious decision to end up at the tapestry room, but the first time he did, he was mesmerized by the magical weavings. And then it had become a habitturned obsession.
“Jamie MacLeod, do you have a crush on my older sister?” she teased with a grin.
“Och, no.” He turned away from the tapestry and Evie so she wouldn’t see he was lying.
“I haven’t seen her in years,” Evie mused. “Truthfully, I’ll be shocked if she steps foot in Scotland.”
“Why is that, lass?”
“Well, Brianna is a bit of a free spirit.”
Unsure what she meant, he cocked his head to one side in question.
“That means she lives a much different life than me or Chloe.” Evie turned back to the tapestry, again reaching for the material. “She loves the beach. The warmer weather. Brilliant afternoons under a blue Caribbean sky. I always imagined her sunning herself with a mai tai in her hand. I can’t imagine how she’ll do in Scotland.” She chuckled at the thought.
“Well, mayhap she’ll surprise ye and Chloe when she arrives. And it looks as though she will arrive.”
Evie peered at the newest image. “It seems as though it will happen. The tapestry has never been wrong.”
It was more of a hopeful thought than a certainty.
“Aye,” he agreed. “Ye both are here. Ye both have two pieces of the keystone. ’Tis only a matter of time before the third piece and yer sister arrive.”
She nodded. “If the prophecy is to be believed, yes.”
Jamie had grown up with tales of the prophecy his entire life. It was said the mystical keystone was forged by the gods and believed to hold Time itself. It was entrusted to the Triple Goddess. His da, Hamish, insisted that one day, three pieces of a keystone would come to their clan for protection. Those three pieces of stone would be carried from the future to the past by three sisters from the clan Sinclair.
