“Do you use your talents often,
Lord
Simon?”
Helen felt his hand slide between their joined bodies. His nimble fingers found the perfect spot of pleasure and began to move.
“I practiced my talents enough in the past so I can please you.”
Her body responded to his caress.
But what happens when I leave? He’ll find someone else to practice on.
Helen forced the thoughts of Simon in the arms of another woman out of her head and lived in the now.
And right now felt pretty damn good.
* * * *
Simon’s hunger drove them from their temporary haven. When they resurfaced, the first one to see them was Myra. With one look, she knew. As much as Helen thought herself an adult, she felt heat burn her cheeks and her feet fidgeted with the need to flee.
“My father is searching for you.” She directed at Simon. “And Amber is asking where you spent the night.” Myra
’s brows shot up, and she reached over and straightened the nightgown Helen wore. The breakfast meal time had passed, and from the sounds emitting from below, the day had commenced.
And I
’m wearing a nightgown.
Helen wanted to cringe. It was one thing to be intimate with Simon, quite another to announce it to the world. The MacCoinnich clan was large enough to be a small world.
Simon kept a possessive arm around Helen
’s waist and didn’t answer Myra’s concerns.
Wearing a kilt Simon had tucked into a hidden place in the wall of their private turret, he at least looked half dressed.
“Helen fell asleep upstairs. I’m escorting her to her room.”
Myra, a sixteenth century lady, all prim and proper, wearing her floor length gown with long sleeves and a neckline that didn
’t plunge to even a freckle on her chest, burst out in a very broad grin. “Right,” was all she said.
“I should get dressed.” Helen moved out of Simon
’s grip.
“I
’ll make sure Helen gets to her room,” Myra told Simon. “The men are in need of information only you can provide.”
Simon glanced into Helen
’s eyes, asking if it was okay for him to abandon her.
“I
’m good. You go.”
He brushed a knuckle to the side of her jaw and winked at Myra as he walked beyond them and down the hall.
The tease didn’t even stop by his room for a shirt. He jogged down the hall and rounded the corner to the stairs. Once he was out of sight, Helen diverted her gaze to Myra who was watching her like a cat who’d trapped a mouse.
“What?” Helen asked.
“Nothing.”
Both of them turned into Amber
’s room without another word and stepped inside.
“There you are. I was worried.” Amber was out of bed and dressed with the cloak draped over her shoulders.
And she smiled. Helen couldn’t recall if she’d ever really seen Amber smiling as she was doing now. Certainly not with this radiant grin lighting up her eyes, her face.
“You
’re…you’re smiling.”
Amber lifted the lapels of the cloak and shrugged her shoulders. “It doubles as a blanket. I slept a full night. I can
’t remember the last time that happened.”
“Oh, Amber, that
’s wonderful.”
“But you? You don
’t look as if you slept at all. Where were you?”
Helen stole a glance at Myra.
“Well?”
Myra saved Helen some of her embarrassment. “I found her and Simon walking down the hall. Together.”
Amber’s eyes grew wide. “Together?”
Myra nodded.
“Oh for crying out loud. We’re both adults. Consenting adults.” Helen wasn’t a teen in need of scolding. Not that these women were scolding. “This is awkward.”
“Really? Why?” Amber asked.
“Because…” Helen crossed the room to the washbasin and poured water in the bowl. “Simon is practically a brother to you,” she said and pointed at Amber, “or a cousin at least. And a nephew to you.”
“We
’ve both known Simon since he was just a lad,” Myra pointed out.
Helen brought a washrag to the water and wrung it out. She scrubbed her face and neck with more force than necessary. “Yeah, well, he isn
’t a
lad
anymore. He is very grown up.”
With grown up parts that worked well. Very, very well.
Helen felt her cheeks heat up again.
Someone behind her chuckled.
“Very grown up,” whispered Amber.
“Relax, Helen. We’re happy for you, truly.”
When she turned around, Myra and Amber were standing side by side. The two of them looked so much alike with their long black hair touching their butts, both the same size and height, and eyes the perfect shade of chocolate brown. Back home, Hollywood would would
’ve snatched them up in an instant.
“You are?”
“Aye.”
Myra cocked her head to the side and her grin slid. “But you
’ve met my father, right?”
Is this a trick question?
Of course she’d met Ian. “Yeah?”
Amber glanced at Myra and her smile fell as well.
The hair on Helen’s neck started to tingle and her skin started to pop with sensations. The same energy she experienced when her gift manifested. Her own personal indicator that information was about to arrive. “What?”
Myra motioned to one of the chairs in the room, encouraging Helen to sit.
Tendrils of power ran up and down Helen’s arms. Sitting didn’t make it better.
“Well?”
Myra gathered Helen’s hand in hers and patted it like she would a child. Her attempt at calm wasn’t working. “If one of you doesn’t start speaking I’m going to go bat-shit crazy.”
“My father is um…. Well, he takes his role as leader of this family very seriously.”
Fine, Helen had seen that. “So?”
“He takes in everyone who travels here with the stones as if they are his own. He offered his full protection to Tara, Lizzy, and Simon…even Todd.”
Amber sat beside Helen. “He considers you his ward. His responsibility.”
Funny, Helen thought Simon took on that role. But Ian was captain of this ship. She got that. “I appreciate that.”
“He’ll treat you as he would his own daughter. Protect you as such,” Amber said.
“I
’m not his kid. He doesn’t have to do that.”
“But he will. Does.”
“He feeds me, keeps a roof over my head. I get it.”
From the looks on Myra and Amber
’s faces, she wasn’t getting it at all.
“When Tara and Duncan were found together, our father handfasted them within an hour—”
“And when Todd and I were found kissing, he promised to do the same to us if we continued,” Myra interrupted.
Helen started to see the theme here. “And Lizzy?”
“Well, Lizzy...” Amber’s voice faded.
“If we weren
’t risking our lives daily, he’d have forced Fin and Lizzy to marry, too,” Myra told her.
Light flickered behind her eyelids. “So you think if Ian found out about Simon and I, he
’d enforce a shotgun marriage?”
“Shotgun?”
Helen shook her head, forgetting these women didn’t understand pop culture. “He’d force Simon to marry me.”
Myra
’s mouth formed a perfect “O”. “Aye, ’tis exactly what will happen.”
It was Helen
’s turn to laugh. “He can try. But that ain’t gonna happen. Besides, I’ve heard of long distance relationships, but living hundreds of years apart is bound to end in divorce.” As she stood, the hair on her arms still hadn’t gone down.
“You
’ve been warned.”
“Well thanks, girls. Message delivered. Now, can someone help me get into one of these dresses so I can go eat? I
’m starving.”
Amber and Myra exchanged a look and a knowing smile.
Helen knew she hadn’t heard the end of this.
Chapter Eighteen
“So McNeil is after our women,” Ian mused aloud.
“I didn’t hear the name McNeil. In fact, I had the distinct impression a different leader led this band of warriors.” Simon sat among the men and explained what he’d learned.
“Are you sure?”asked Ian.
“I’m not sure of anything. I’m relaying the information I heard. But—”
“But what?” Fin sat his ale down.
“Something didn’t feel right.”
“How so?” Duncan asked.
“Everywhere I perched I heard the same mantra. Almost like the practiced lines of an actor. Like a jester telling the same jokes. They’re practiced and stale after a while, which was how these men spoke.”
Todd stood and started to pace. “Brainwashed?
Drink the punch, my children, and follow me
.”
Simon shook his head but uttered the word, “Maybe.”
“Manipulated. Like Grainna did to hundreds?” Ian’s voice held a degree of concern.
“Grainna
’s dead. We all saw her die.”
Duncan nodded. “It
’s not Grainna. We’d know if she’d managed to escape. But who could it be?”
“Someone who knows about us.”
Ian tapped the edge of his desk with his fingertips in a slow, steady rhythm. “If a Highlander who wasn’t Druid knew of us, he’d spread the word and all of Scotland would come to our doors to brand us as evil.”
“So we
’re dealing with a Druid.”
Simon nodded. “I think you
’re right, Fin.”
Cian, always the staunch observer these days, pushed away from the wall and spoke for the first time since entering the room. “A Druid from the future.”
They all turned his way. Simon wanted to deny the claim. He couldn’t. There was always a possibility that someone from the future haunted them now.
“Mayhap.”
Cian shook his head. “You said so yourself, a man from our time would flush us out as evil, as witches. A Druid with Grainna’s knowledge would capture any of us and not focus on the women. But a Druid from the future—”
“Would notice the pattern of missing women in the future and assume the power belonged with them,” Todd finished Cian
’s sentence.
“Precisely.”
Todd shook his head. “I hope Cian’s wrong, but I think he’s right.”
“What of McNeil?”
“A name picked at random? Or maybe whoever’s behind this started their brainwashing with McNeil’s men. Who knows?” The police officer in Todd shone through. He might not hold one Druid gift, but he vastly contributed to the family.
Ian sat back in his chair and sighed. “It just gets worse.”
“We have to protect the women.”
“And we will,” Fin told his brother.
Simon sat forward. “I think I may have a plan for the women and children.”
All eyes turned to him and he began to speak.
* * * *
The entire family, minus the youngest children, sat around Ian
’s study. Dinner had commenced and the main hall was changing shift. At least that’s what Helen thought of it as. Twice a day, every day, the knights on watch would switch with those inside during the evening meal. The elders of the village would meet with Lora or Tara to discuss the issues arising in the yard. Needs were attended to and addressed in the morning hours. The flow of the Keep ran like a Navy ship. Everyone had their duties, their place. Helen found endless hours with nothing to do. If she were honest with herself, she knew she’d never be a ‘stay at home Mom’ or anything the like. Now that Amber was feeling better, they started gathering the materials needed to make the time traveling stones into jewelry. Still, the days felt like an endless wait for doom.
Lizzy and Selma were the last to enter Ian
’s study. They sat beside Tara and Briac. The children exchanged a speculative glance.
Helen felt as lost as the kids. With them involved, something serious must have happened.
“We’re all here, so let’s start.” Ian stood behind Lora who sat in his chair at his desk. Helen thought they’d be better suited with thrones. She was reminded constantly that as regal as Ian and Lora were, they weren’t Scotland’s royalty.
Helen found Simon across the room, perched by the fireplace. He watched her with sharp eyes that softened when she glanced his way.
“We have a lot to tell you, and little of it is up for discussion.” Ian’s eye was on Lizzy. “I know that won’t settle well on you, Elizabeth, but please hold any comment until I’m through.”
So Lizzy was the resident skeptic.
Good to know.
Ian took a full breath and let it out between pursed lips. “I
’ll start with information that just came to me. Information that none of you have heard.”