She glanced at the tapestry to see if she had dreamed seeing the three of them as the Triple Goddess. But no. The image hadn’t changed. The piece of stone on the bedside table was cold and silent.
With effort, she dressed, stuffing the stone back into her front pocket, and left the bedchamber. She needed to find Evie. She had questions. The first one being why she was here and what she was supposed to do with this jagged piece of stone she was carrying around in her jeans pocket. The next was how was she supposed to get home?
Thinking ofhomeseemed abstract. Once she returned to the future, then what? Where would she go? How would she live? She’d long since burned through her inheritance. She would be forced to get a real job, something her mother had always hounded her about. Or find another rich bachelor who wanted her.
Thinking that gave her pause as she pulled open the chamber door. She halted in the doorway, the light from the corridor slashing across the threshold behind her. What kind of person did that make her? A horrible one, that’s what. Did she really want to whore herself out to the highest bidder for room and board?
The answer to that was no. Which shocked her. She didn’t want to go back to that life. And yet, she didn’t have a purpose, or a place. No one would miss her or even care she was gone. Inthe hours she had landed in the Scotland of the past, she’d fallen into the arms of a Highlander who seemed to want her more than anything.
But he didn’t know her. He only knew what he saw in a magical tapestry. He was infatuated. Nothing more.
Still…none of the men she’d been with had made her stomach flutter as it did now when she thought of Jamie. She pressed her hand against her gut, willing those feelings to go away.
“Bri, you okay?”
It was Evie’s voice that pulled her out of her thoughts. Her sister stood in the corridor, a curious look on her face. Brianna hadn’t realized she had appeared.
“Did you sleep here last night?” Evie asked.
“Yes,” she said. “It was late when Jamie and I returned, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Evie lifted a brow. “Where did you go? I saw you riding out with him.”
She wanted to tell her she intended to run away, back to Edinburgh. But Jamie had squashed that thought when he told her it was a fifteen-day trek over rough terrain and camping in the wilderness. She wanted to tell her she hated everything about being here, in the past. She wanted to tell her Jamie had hit on her, inviting her to his bedchamber with a sensual gleam in his eyes but she refused him.
She wanted to tell her all of this but didn’t.
“Yes, I rode out with him to the loch.”
“Have you…always known how to ride a horse?”
It likely would come as a shock to her that, yes, she’d learned when she was young. She’d started riding when she was six with the hopes of making it onto the Olympics equestrian team. When the twins were born, she and her parents had moved to a bigger home—to give them all a better life, her father said—and that meant giving up her horses.
Because there simply wasn’t enough time or money for that anymore.
“What are you doing here?” Brianna asked, a bit more sharply than she intended.
Evie winced. “I come to the tapestry room every day.”
“The tapestry room?”
“That’s what we call it.” Evie motioned to the open door behind her. “To see if anything has changed.”
“Somethinghaschanged.” Brianna stepped aside to allow her entrance.
Excitement gleamed in her eyes as she hurried through the doorway and headed right for the tapestries. She halted in front of them, staring at the one with the changed image, her shoulders stiff and back rigid. Brianna easily read her body language and knew she was processing what she was seeing.
“This image is…” Evie’s voice trailed away. She turned to look at her. Her face drained of color. She pressed a hand against her abdomen.
“It’s us,” Brianna said.
Even saying it aloud made her stomach churn.
“You’re in the center. Where Moira once stood.”
“I replaced Moira?” Brianna moved to stand next to her, peering up at the image. “What does it mean?”
Evie shook her head, her scrutinizing gaze on the woven textile. “I don’t know.”
