Morna's Legacy 04 - Love Beyond Measure (14 page)

“No.” It was Morna who answered, rising quickly to Eoghanan’s defense. “Of course he has no been stalking ye. ’Twas me that sent him to ye.”

She glanced over at Eoghanan, speaking to him for a moment. “Aye, ye heard me. I lied to ye. I do control where ye go on yer travels.”

Returning her attention to me, she continued. “The span of time between now and his home was too great with his wound. The spell rips ye apart a bit,”

I swallowed, thinking of Cooper, grateful for the first time that I couldn’t feel anything.

Eoghanan must have been able to follow my train of thought, for he interrupted Morna thumbing my hand comfortingly. “Do ye really think that is what ye needed to tell her just now? With her worried about wee Cooper?”

Morna nodded, dismissing him. “Aye, she needed to know so I could explain why ye dinna go straight home. Besides, she is no worried about anything at the moment.” I hated that she was right. “Back to what I was saying to ye, lass. I have been slowly building his strength in the travel, though it seems there is no more time for that. I know that ye are ready to see that yer boy is well. In just a moment, I will remove the spell from ye, and we will prepare Eoghanan right away.”

“Prepare him?” After Morna’s description, I could just imagine Eoghanan being ripped apart, only to have his fragile skin not come back together properly. “If he’s not ready, I can go by myself. I just want to make sure Cooper is okay. I don’t want,” I looked at Eoghanan. “I don’t want you getting hurt. I can go alone.”

He kissed my hand gently and reached up to brush a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Ye are mad if ye think I would let ye do that, lass. I’m going.”

Morna stood abruptly, nodding as she waved to Jerry so that he’d follow her out the door. “As I thought. Eoghanan, stay with the lass and help her once I lift the spell. When she’s composed herself, both of ye come and find me. We will do the spell tonight.”

I had one brief moment of confusion where I wondered why I would need help, then the spell lifted. Everything—my panic over my son being gone, my shock at watching Jeffrey disappear, my disbelief that apparently magic existed in the world, my worry over Eoghanan—it all hit me at once.

As Morna and Jerry left us, closing the door behind them, I collapsed into a fit of sobs.

I didn’t cry long. I couldn’t allow myself to waste time that way when all I wanted to do was use Morna’s hocus pocus to get my son back. I didn’t want to cry at all, but as soon as she lifted the spell, I couldn’t help it; the sudden rush of so many emotions sent me into a sort of mini-hysteria, and I gasped and cried and screamed in quick succession.

I allowed myself five minutes of good, uncontrollable panic. Then I stood from the bed, swallowing all of it.

“Ok, I’m ready.”

“Grace,” Eoghanan twisted me so that I faced him. “I promise ye that he’s safe.”

“Don’t.” I wrenched from his grasp, knowing that if he tried to comfort me, I’d start crying again. He looked as if I’d slapped him. I made haste to apologize, walking toward him and standing up on the tip of my toes, kissing him gently.

It was the only intimate act between us since our first kiss and rather than the raw heat that had flooded my body last time, the touch of his kiss calmed me, comforted me in a way I’d never experienced before. I realized in that instant that it didn’t matter how little I knew about him, how short the time that we’d known one another—whatever this was between us—it was right.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wrapping my arms around him, allowing my head to lean against his chest. “It’s just, I’ll lose it again if we talk about it. I don’t understand any of this and it…it scares me.” I let go and took half a step away from him. “Everything scares me right now. Cooper. Jeffrey. Morna. This…” I touched my chest and then his and he grasped my hand, holding it in place against his chest.

“Ach lass, I have never been so frightened in me life. I know that ye canna understand all of this, no yet, but ye will when ye see it. I know that ye canna help but worry about Cooper, but Morna wouldna let harm come to him and neither would me family. He and Jeffrey are both safe, I’d stake me life on it.”

I nodded, sniffling as I tried to keep from crying again. “I just need him back.”

“I know. Let’s go to him, aye?”

I wanted to leave immediately, to let Morna spell me and send me hurtling back through time toward my son, but I couldn’t get Eoghanan’s wound out of my mind.

“Eoghanan, Morna said that she’d slowly been building your strength to travel back, that the time between now and your home was too far for you yet. What does that mean? It’s your skin, isn’t it? It’s still not healed well enough.”

“Aye, but I’ll do me best to survive it. The first time Morna sent me back, she sent me to the park where I saw ye and Cooper. When she pulled me back here, me wound split open and bled verra badly.”

“Yeah, I figured it was something like that. Nope. Sorry.” I pulled away, opening the door and leaving to search for Morna. I spoke as he followed me. “There is no way in hell that I am letting you go back with me. The park wasn’t that long ago. What do you think will happen to you if you’re sent back multiple centuries?”

“I doona care. I willna allow ye to go without me.” He grabbed my arm and spun me toward him, gripping me tightly.

“You won’t allow me?”

“No, and Morna willna allow it either.”

Jerking away from him, I called for her. “Morna, I’m ready to go. Eoghanan is staying here.”

“No. I willna do it, lass.” He wasn’t screaming like I was; he said it quietly, calmly, completely unflustered by the possibility of his imminent death.

“He’s right. I willna spell ye back unless he goes with ye.” Morna appeared suddenly in the hallway, spools of medicinal cloth in her arms.

“What if it kills him? What is all that for?”

Morna shook her head, clearly annoyed, and held them up in Eoghanan’s direction.

“Ye must think that I am no a verra good witch. I willna let the lad die. Now. Come with me.”

“How would I know what kind of witch you are? I didn’t even know witches actually existed until today.”

She ignored me, instead leading us into Eoghanan’s room where she’d stripped the bed of its blankets, leaving only a sheet. “Eoghanan, strip yer clothes. I will bind ye up so that when the scar rips open, at least it will be held in place when ye come back together.” She glanced over at me briefly. “Give him some privacy, unless ye wish to see every inch of him.”

Eoghanan laughed, “She’s already seen me. Still,” he winked at me, “perhaps ye might want to step out just a moment.”

*

Morna called me back inside nearly thirty minutes later. No matter how un-funny the situation, the sight of Eoghanan wrapped up like a mummy had Morna smiling with unexpressed laughter.

“What’s the matter with the both of you? You don’t even know if this is going to work.”

“Doona worry, it will work. I’ve made a special salve to place upon it. As long as the bandages are no removed for a few days, it should do the trick. ’Tis something I could have done to him much earlier, but he needed to remain here a while longer, even if he dinna know it at the time.”

“Why’s that?” Everyone—Eoghanan, Cooper, Jeffrey—they all seemed to adore Morna. I wasn’t quite there yet. She was too cryptic and had a penchant for meddling that had turned everything I thought I knew about the world, and my own life, upside down.

“If he’d left when he could’ve, he wouldna have met ye, lass. At least thank me for that, for whether ye are ready to say it yet or no, ye know well enough that the two of ye are a fine match.”

I couldn’t very well argue with that. She was right, but it still left me feeling awkward and shy. I fumbled for something else to say. “Why didn’t you just stitch him?”

“I am a witch, no a seamstress. I’m too squeamish to go about sewing him up from head to toe. Are ye ready?”

She didn’t wait for me to answer, moving quickly on from the end of her question to muttering words I couldn’t understand.

Eoghanan reached for my hand. I took it gladly as pain started to radiate through my body.

“Doona let go, lass. ’Twill all be over soon.”

McMillan Castle

1647

“Mooommmm…Moooommmm…”

Some part of my brain registered the word, drawn out as if it were in a song each time. My head ached something dreadful, and I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing an hour ago or where I was now.

I racked my brain for the answer. When it came to me I threw myself forward, opening my eyes as he pounced on me, throwing his little arms around my neck. “Cooper!” The movement jarred my head. With my arms still wrapped around him, I grabbed my forehead, willing the throbbing to stop.

“Aye, I havena experienced it meself, but me wife says the ache in yer head is the worst part. At least ye dinna land in the pond.” I opened my eyes to see a man slightly taller than Eoghanan, clad in a kilt, with dark hair and brooding eyes in front of me.

Eoghanan sat up next to me. Blood seeped through the cloth wound around him. “I doona wish to argue with ye, but ’tis no me head that hurts.”

I shifted, swinging Cooper’s weight onto my side so that I could lean over and check on him. “You are a stupid, stupid man. You should not have come.”

“’Tis no nearly as bad as I expected, lass. Morna said it might bleed a little.”

He struggled to stand, and the tall man reached out a hand to assist him. Once he was standing, I could see that he was right. He only bled a little.

My nerves relaxed and I stood up, Cooper still clinging to my hip.

“Are you okay?” I reached up and brushed his hair back, examining his head for apparent injury, just like every mom in every TV movie did when she found her missing child. I realized that it was a pointless gesture and stopped, settling instead for planting a big kiss on the top of his head.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m awesome! Everything is lit by candles, and I got to pee in a bucket! Even the bathtub is just a big old bucket that they carry into your room. I only wish that they had dragons. I really thought there would be some here.” His voice drifted a little as he reflected on his disappointment.

I heard footsteps approaching and another voice joined the conversation. I turned to see Jeffrey walking along with a stunning red head, her belly swollen with the later months of pregnancy. I moved to hug Jeffrey as she spoke to me.

“You must be Grace. I’m Mitsy.” She extended a hand, which I took, and she continued. “I have some ibuprofen for your head that should help. I know it’s got to be hurting you. The time travel thing is a bitch.” She quickly glanced down at Cooper who snorted slightly at the word. She began apologizing profusely. “Gosh, I’m sorry. I have a tendency to speak without thinking.” She patted her stomach. “Poor kid. I am so not ready for this.”

The man who stood next to Eoghanan, the man whose name I still didn’t know, reached over to grab the woman’s hand, pulling her into him. “No one is ever ready, but ye will be a wonderful mother.”

“He’s very right. You can’t be ready, not really, until the baby is here. Even then, you’re just learning as you go. Um…you have ibruprofen?”

Mitsy laughed, nodding excitedly. “Yes, Morna often sends modern-ish things to Conall Castle for Bri, and I grabbed some the last time I was there.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know who Bri was, but I didn’t ask.

“Grace.” Eoghanan stepped closer to me, placing a hand on the small of my back. “This is me brother, Baodan. He is Laird here at McMillan Castle, and ye have already met Mitsy, for she has better manners and has already introduced herself.”

Mitsy laughed and threw her arms around Eoghanan. She clung to him despite his bandages, and he gladly embraced her. I could sense the strong friendship between them. I expected that their relationship was part of the reason he’d not questioned my relationship with Jeffrey once he’d calmed down and allowed me to explain it to him.

“I’m so glad you’re back, E-o.” Her voice was soft and near cracking, but she held back her tears.

She’d called him E-o, just like Cooper, and I realized that Mitsy was the beloved ‘girlfriend’ he’d mentioned. I really needed to teach him the definition of that word.

“I’ve been so worried about you. I mean, I trusted Morna to take care of you, but…I still can’t believe you did that. You’re a stupid, stupid man.”

Eoghanan laughed loudly, prying Mitsy off of him. “I doona think I like that word. I’ve been called it too many times today.”

“What did he do?” My question seemed to interrupt their moment a little, but I wanted to know. In this time, a sword injury made much more sense, but Eoghanan’s previous description of the event had been much too vague.

“Oh,” Mitsy gave Eoghanan a look that said she was surprised I didn’t already know. “Their brother was a crazy sociopath who murdered anyone who inconvenienced him. He tried to do the same to me, but Eoghanan jumped in the way of the sword. Then I killed the bastard.” She looked at Cooper apologetically once again. “Sorry.”

Cooper waved a hand dismissively. He’d heard his Grandfather curse plenty.

“Oh.” I was saying that word a lot lately. She’d explained it only a fraction better than Eoghanan, and it did nothing to satisfy my curiosity. I looked over in Eoghanan’s direction and decided further probing could wait. He’d wilted a bit and now stood leaning harshly onto his left foot. He looked like he might fall over at any moment.