This time, Greer rolled her eyes. “Faugh! When ye think no one is looking, the two of ye act likeeoin gaoil.”
“Like what?”
“Love birds.”
“We don’t!”
“Ye do.”
Maybe she should let this conversation drop. At least, Greer didn’t know quite how love-birdy they’d gotten. Perhaps, though, it was time to get her opinion on certain matters. “I’ll admit that I am very fond of your brother.”
Greer laughed. “Fond, is it? I suspect ye’d rather use another word. So would Niall.”
Her face reheated. “What would that be?”
She shook her head. “Ye’ll have to get him to say it.” She glanced at the dais. “But that one is going to be trouble. Ye’ll have to be careful.” She paused. “Ye ken?”
So what she suspected was true. Fiona’s sights were set firmly on Niall. That he’d escaped her clutches for now was a good sign, but could he stand against both his father and hers?
“I do.”
Or—regardless of what Greer thought—was it her own clutches Niall was avoiding?
Chapter Twenty
“Tell me what ’tis like in your world.”
Charlotte blinked at Niall. They were in the council room again, this time with Greer. He’d come back late last night after having been gone nearly ten days. Fiona’s father had returned from Edinburgh and Keir’s ribs had healed well enough for him to go home. Confrontation had been avoided, although Charlotte wasn’t sure if that was why Niall had been gone so long.
“My world?” she asked cautiously, glancing at Greer. It was a question she’d not been expecting, least of all in front of someone else.
Greer smiled. “Niall told me late last eve that ye are from the future.”
She said it as matter-of-factly as though she’d been commenting on weather conditions. Charlotte turned back to Niall. “You believe me, then?”
“I doona think I have any choice, lass. Everything ye said has come to pass. The siege at Fort William was abandoned, as ye said it would be. Ye could nae have kenned all of these things otherwise.”
He finally believed her! The relief was enormous. Her first impulse was to throw her arms around him and kiss him until they were both breathless. She remembered Greer’s presence just in time and turned to her.
“Do you believe me too?”
Greer tilted her head to one side. “I’ll admit I thought Niall had gone completely daft, but he said he needed someone to confirm he wasna barmy. That what seemed impossible might not be.”
“Greer is the only one I could trust,” Niall said. “I hope ye understand.”
Charlotte nodded slowly. “I…do.”
Greer straightened. “When he told me everything that ye’d predicted, things began to add up. Your sudden appearance with nae coin nor clothes. The ‘friends’ ye made up—”
“I didn’t make them up. Thea and Vi are real…” She hesitated. “…at least they were—are—in the twenty-first century.”
“Nearly three hundred years,” Greer said softly. “What is it like?”
How to explain automobiles and airplanes, smart phones and the Internet? “There are so many things that would seem like magic,” she answered. “I’ll be glad to try and explain them, but it would take hours and hours.”
“Later then,” Greer replied. “Maybe tonight after Da and Simon have gone to bed and we can talk as long as we want to?”
Charlotte nodded. “I would like to do that.”
