William’s cautious azure gaze shifted to Ailith, and she nodded.She sensed nothing worrisome about Teagan, and neither did William, if he was willing to seek out the place for the mushrooms.
With a lingering kiss and a soft caution ofbe safewhispered in her ear, William exited the croft, and she heard the jingling of Lugh’s harness as he mounted.
Once he was gone, Ailith joined Teagan at the table and took a deep breath.
No time like the present,she thought with a twinge of irony.
“Where are ye from, truly?”Ailith risked asking.
Normally, she’d have more caution in her words, but when Teagan saidmushroomsat the market, Ailith knew, sheknew, that Teagan was a voyager like herself.
“Who won the war?”Teagan asked in a soft voice, keeping her gaze upon her herbs.“The Great War?”
The Great War?Ailith knew of only one war called the Great War.World War One.
“The British.And French and Americans,” Ailith added softly.
A slight smile tugged at Teagan’s thin lips, and her eyes watered, churning like the water in a summer loch.
“We won,” she said in an awe-struck voice, then wiped her eyes.“Who sent ye?”
Ailith cleared her throat.Telling William about her voyage through time was one thing – sharing that information with a stranger who might have made the same voyage was altogether different.
“A Romani woman.She called herself a witch.She said I needed to go back in time to save these mushrooms.They are needed to help cure a dreaded illness.”
“Romani?”Teagan asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.
Ailith opened her mouth to explain to the woman about the Romani, but a hundred years earlier, Teagan probably wouldn’t understand the context.In 1916, those groups were only known by the older, more disparaging term.
Ailith pursed her lips.“Her people may have been calledGypsiesin your time?”
Teagan’s eyes remained on the tabletop, but she nodded.“I left America during a long season of illness, but ‘twas no’ why I left.When did ye leave?”
If Teagan was asking about the outcome of World War One, then she must have left sometime between 1914 and 1917.She might not take Ailith’s information well.
“I left over a hundred years after ye.In 2023.”
Teagan’s averted eyes widened.“2023,” she whispered.Finally, her face shifted to Ailith.“It seems an impossible year.”
“All of this seems impossible,” Ailith admitted.“Why did ye come back in time?What is your purpose?”
“Purpose?”Teagan asked, straightening.“My lone purpose was to save my own life.”
Ailith’s hand dropped flat to the tabletop as her brow furrowed.“Nay.Eladon, the Romani woman, said there must be a purpose.Whose body did ye overtake?”
Now Teagan appeared confused.“Body?None but my own.What happened to ye?”
Ailith licked her lips.“My family has deep roots in these lands.My father was the last of the Gordon men, and I the last of the Gordon women.Eladon said she could send me back where I would overtake my great-grandmother many times removed and live out my life as her.And my purpose was to save these mushrooms from being razed by the mad king.”She swept her hand over the pile of mushrooms on the table.
Teagan tilted her head and touched one of the mushrooms with a fingertip.“Och, like a fae changeling.Mayhap her way meant ye were certain to make it.My woman, she was a Gypsy in America, in Wilmington, Virginia.I was a nurse at the hospital there.A good job for an Irish, eh?I had a patient who became enamored with me.He started following me everywhere.He even tried to attack me, and I moved.I had to move so many times ...”
Her voice trailed off.But she didn’t need to say more.Ailith realized her meaning, and it was not an occurrence that had diminished with time.
Teagan had a stalker.Oh dear.
Ailith remained quiet to let Teagan tell her story.
“I couldn't keep jobs.I had to change hospitals.I was running out of money, out of places to work.I was young, younger than ye, and did no’ know what to do.I was planning on joining the army as a nurse.”She glanced up at Ailith.“It was 1916, and they needed people for the war.Men to fight, and women to heal.I was going to do that, but the night before, I went to a carnival.An elderly woman had a fortune-telling tent.Her name was Lavina.She opened my hand to read my palm and then grabbed it,hard.She yanked on my hand and wouldn’t let go.Don’t go,she said.Don’t stay.What was I supposed to do with that fortune?I tried to get up, and she yanked me back down.I can help ye, she told me.Otherwise, ye die.”
