*****
Lachlan watched as she set sail on acontraption he knew to be a boat, but which looked like naught hecould compare it to. ‘Twas fair in size without being overly large,white, and a bit shiny. Doors opened and closed on it upon theirown accord whenever Veronica took to pushing specific buttons.
“She has to make it out of Lake Erie beforeshe’ll be able to let the boat drive itself. Until then, she won’tbe able to concentrate on learning Gaelic or much of anythingbeyond navigating the boat.”
He still wanted her to see him, to know hewas there. Lachlan had already sent Finn and Ramsay away to trainthe Gunn warriors this morn in his stead. He—wait! What? “The boatkens where to sail on its own?!”
“Yes.” Victor pushed those things he calledglasses up the bridge of his nose. The mon did that whenever he wasnervous or excited. “That boat is a wonder even in my time. It doesa lot of neat things!”
The laird didn’t want further explanation atpresent. Victor’s speeches tended to give his head the ache. “Igive you one day to return the scanner to me. I would speak withVeronica on the morrow.”
“But she doesn’t know Gaelic yet. And,” hepointed out, “you don’t understand English.”
“I ken English,” he rumbled. “I just prefernot to speak it.”
“The English language has changed throughoutthe centuries, significantly so.”
He grunted.
“Don’t worry,” Victor assured him, “at leastyou have a base to work from.”
He grunted again.
*****
“So far so good,” Veronica informed herbrother. She had reopened the laptop and set it beside her beforeshe began steering. “I’ve never driven such a large boat before.Thank God this one is easy peasy.”
“Easy peasy? You sound like you lived fiftyyears ago.”
She grinned. “You know how much I likeold-timer movies.”
“Then you should be over the moon in a fewweeks when you arrive here and join me.”
Her grin faded. There was old-timer stuffand then there was the ancient. Victor was talking about thelatter, which caused her to think back on the brooding giant andthe whole time travelling thing. She wasn’t quite ready to wrap herhead around any of it. She had already gone through so much toreach her brother and now she had to endure even more.
“Everything will be okay, sis,” Victorreassured her. Apparently her distress was obvious, at least tohim. “We’ll make it through this.”
“I’m not exactly a world history buff, but Iremember enough from school to know that women didn’t have it sogood back then.”
He sighed. “I can’t deny that. But you’retough as nails,” he quickly added, “and you’ll be just fine becauseof it.”
“Why 1155 A.D. in the Highlands?” Veronicaasked. She couldn’t hide her exasperation. “Why such a primitivetime?”
“I chose the Highlands because of its remotelocation and sparse population even in our time. The year I didn’thave as much control over.”
“Time travelers can’t be choosers?”
“In a nutshell, and without a longwindedexplanation, yeah, pretty much.”
“The Victor/Veronica is ready forauto-pilot.”
The disembodied female voice identical tothe one at Victor’s compound startled Veronica. She hadn’t knownthat piece of AI was aboard.
“Already?” Victor asked. “You’re not evenout of Lake Erie!”
“There aren’t any boats out here that needmaneuvered around,” Veronica told him. “I guess she—the boat Imean—feels it can navigate itself from here because of it.”
“She can maneuver around almost anythinganyway, but really? No boats? I expected Lake Erie to resembleI-77.”
