“I will miss ye, lass,” he whispered hotly.
Reality came crashing in, smashing my dreamlike trance to smithereens. Trying to force back the tears that were suddenly clouding my vision, I tightened my grip.
“Take heed,” he whispered. “The mist is almost here.”
I held him tighter. I didn’t want to leave yet…maybe not ever…fine, maybe that was a stretch considering what we were facing but I certainly didn’t want to leave like this. I had only just started getting used to…all this…and now…I didn’t want to go back through the mist. I wanted to stay here, with him, forever.
My legs grew weak. I fought the darkness trying to lay claim to me as the mist came closer. “No. I can’t leave you.”
“Ye have to.” He smoothed his hands over my hair to hold my face in his hands. The monster seemed not to see us, only the men running as it snatched two more into its mouth.
No, I didn’t, but I didn’t tell him that.
He lifted my hand and pressed it with his to where my heart resided in my chest. “I will always be right here with ye.”
He dropped my hand and took a step away from me as the mist wound its way around my body, pulling.
“Do not be afraid, lass.” A look of pain entered his eyes once more.
“Gavin, what are you doing?” I planted my feet, trying to lean away from the pull of the mist.
“I have to get the treasure while the beast is occupied.”
Like hell you will, I thought. The gypsy’s words that I had forgotten came back to me in a rush.
“If ye want ta have a Highlander for yer verra own, do ye think ye could keep him from choosing a Kings treasure over ye?”
I remembered with perfect clarity saying, “Of course I can.”
“I hope ye are right, lass.” She patted my bottom and ushered me from her tent.
The sound of men screaming brought my mind back to the moment at hand.
“What about me?” I couldn’t help asking.
Gavin turned back around and grabbed hold of my arms.
“Ye stay put. Do not move a muscle. The mist will take ye away any moment now. Remember what I told ye, aye?” And with that, he turned and dove into the water.
Frozen in place, I couldn’t quite grasp what happened. What about his declarations of love for me? Fine. It wasn’t the best time but seriously? He wasn’t going to see me again. Did our time together mean so little? A deep sadness closed in on me, making it hard to take a breath. Tears came rushing to the surface. I couldn’t believe he didn’t even tell me he was going to miss me.
I stared at the break of water where he dove, looking for him. Maybe he would wave or call to me from the water and tell me what I so desperately wanted to hear.
When Gavin reemerged from the water, he was already waist deep. He didn’t turn around like I was hoping. Instead, he was like a madman, using deep strokes to glide across the water towards the treasure.
I was still in denial. I couldn’t quite grasp the fact that he had just left me standing here with a monster making meals out the men running away. And yet, Gavin, my highlander, didn’t seem to care. He had chosen the damnable treasure over me.
Well, I had news for him. I wasn’t going to give up…not now. Forcing my feet forward, I stepped into the water to follow him.
Treading water, Gavin’s head bobbed up and down on the crest of a wave. He was hoping to have one last glimpse of his lass before she disappeared from his life forever. It saddened him greatly, more so then he imagined it would. But it was for the best. If she was gone he wouldn’t have to worry about her any longer. He also wouldn’t get to see her smiling face anymore or have her shapely body press up against his while they slept or ….
He spotted her, and what he saw made his heart seize. “Lass, what are ye doing?”
“It’s all right,” I told him, stepping further into the water. “Don’t worry about me. Go ahead, get your treasure.” The word left a bad taste in my mouth. I tried to move forward but it was harder to move now, the mist was surrounding me and like he said it would, I could feel it starting to pull me.
“I told ye ta stay put!” his voice was harsh
I acted like I didn’t hear him.
Gavin dove under the water as the serpentine head of the monster swung towards him.
I ducked down too, but the water was retreating so I couldn’t go under.
He resurfaced and swiped the wetness from his eyes. “Lass, do not move, not an inch, do ye ken what I am saying ta ye?”
The sound of his voice cut me to the bone, and I immediately started second-guessing my hasty decision to follow him.
The monster’s head whipped in the other direction as more men made a break for it.
I kept crouched down, trying to cover my face against the smell of death that permeated the air.
A shoe dropped into the water in front of me with a big splash. Belatedly, I realized a leg was still attached. The dream like trance I was in vanished and everything became a very harsh, a very scary reality. I wasn’t in a movie. I was in the past with a God-awful creature that was apparently really hungry and if I wasn’t careful, I too, would be part of its meal. A bubble of hysterical laughter threatened to erupt from me, thinking that I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.
When Gavin saw Paige crouching in the water with the monster so close to her, something snapped. Getting the treasure was upmost in his mind until this very moment. And then he realized something that had been buried deep inside. He didn’t really give a damn about the treasure or the King’s wrath. What he cared about, the only thing he cared about was getting to the woman who somehow managed to wheedle her way into his heart.
Diving back into the swell of water, the treasure forgotten, he tried to get back to her. He had to get to her, to tell her the truth, before it was too late.
Everything seemed to slow down. And I was sure my short life would flash before my eyes at any moment. But it didn’t. Instead, through the mist surrounding me, I saw Gavin. He let out a bloodcurdling roar and just like on the training field, like poetry in motion, I watched, spellbound as he whirled around, with his sword high above his head, slicing it through the air as the glinting metal landed deeply into the scaly flesh of the monster.
Blood rained down onto the water, coating me and everything else in the general vicinity.
Frozen in terror, the most unholy sound I had ever heard surrounded me.
Belatedly, I realized it was not coming from Gavin, the monster, or the men…it was coming from me.
A loud hiss rent the air as the serpentine head swung back around, the glowing eyes settling on me as it prepared to strike.
I couldn’t move if I tried. The pull of the mist was too strong.
Gavin let out a feral roar and slammed into me.
Air forced from my lungs from impact as I was plunged deep under the frigid water with him on top of me. Reflexively, I wrapped my arms around his waist. We resurfaced. “Lass, let me go.”
He pushed my arms.
I was being pulled in two directions. Part with Gavin, and part by the mist.
Instead of letting him go, like I knew he wanted, I did what any sensible woman would have done in my predicament. I tightened my hold and pulled him back through the mist with me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN
Present Day
The screaming is what woke him when the darkness finally receded from his mind. Gavin pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked around the desolate landscape of the mountain.
It seemed different.
People were milling about, which wouldn’t be all that strange, but they were wearing some peculiar looking clothing.
Something shifted beside him and he looked down. Curled up at his side was his lass, still clutching to his plaid.
“Lass…” He shook her arm.
A voice cut through the din I was hearing in my mind. The Scottish brogue unmistaka
ble even with my eyes closed. The fog receded from my brain as my eyes opened. Directly above me was my highlander.
I sat up and immediately noticed all the people in normal clothing, walking around and giving them strange looks. “We made it!” I threw my arms around him.
His hands clenched my waist, holding me aloft.
“Aye, lass, it would seem so.”
Little bells of warning were sounding in my brain but I was too happy to worry about them now. “We made it!” I repeated, hugging him tighter, ignoring how rigid he was.
“Aye, lass, we did,” he agreed.
Leaning back, I looked at him. “That was close, right?”
“Aye.” He nodded.
“I didn’t think we would get out of there. I had my doubts about that mist you told me about…” I was speaking fast not able to help myself.
“Lass,” he exhaled. “If ye want me ta respond ta ye, ye need ta speak more plainly.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
“I know what ye did.”
He gave me a stern look.
“Huh?” I played dumb.
“Ye disobeyed me.”
“Well, you didn’t leave me much choice.”
A resolute expression crossed his face. “Aye, I suppose you are right about that.”
“Are you upset?” I couldn’t tell.
“No. I am no upset.”
“Are you glad?”
“What do you think?”
He gave me another one of his unreadable looks.
“Well…” I hedged. “I hope you are.”
He turned and looked across the horizon, then back to Paige, his lass. His expression was grim. “Lass,” he exhaled. “What I mean to say is…”
Oh, crap. My heart kicked into double time. “It’s all right.” I waved my hand. “I’m sure this is a lot to take. Well, not for me, but you. You know we are in the future, right?”
A crease marred his otherwise perfect brow. “I know where we are, lass.”
“Of course, you do…”
He took my hands in his.
“Lass…”
He looked deeply into my eyes.
“I have something I need to tell ye...”
This was it. He was finally going to tell me of his feelings. “Yes.” It was a surreal moment to be sure. I held my breath.
Gavin couldn’t quite get the words out of his mouth that he knew he needed to say. Words, he knew she wanted to hear. But they were stuck.
The longer Gavin looked at me, with those blue-green eyes of his, the same color of Loch Morar, the happiness I had been feeling evaporated, and instead, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
“What’s wrong?”
“I wanted to…” he trailed off, looking nervous suddenly. “I should have told ye…”
I cut him off at the pass. “Oh, who cares,” I said quickly. I had a tendency to do that when things in my life seemed like they were going south. “We’re safe that is all that matters. Right?”
“O’ course.”
“I’m sorry about the treasure.” Fine. That was an outright lie. I wasn’t sorry about that at all.
“It’s all right.”
I squeezed his hands and cast my line in the proverbial pond looking for a miniscule nibble that would assure me that I did indeed matter more to him than that damnable treasure. “But you were so close…”
“I know.”
That was it! “Are you upset I brought you with me?” I tried a different tactic. Apparently, the damn pond was empty.
“Nay.” He shook his head solemnly back and forth. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
That didn’t sound close to what I envisioned he should say. I was waiting for “I love you like no other and I could never be away from you…Fine. Maybe not that much, but at least a, “I do love ye.” I got neither. Not wanting him to see the tears that threatened to spill from my eyes, I turned away.
“Don’t ye know how I feel about ye by now, lass?” he asked, getting choked up.
Finally. A ray of hope glimmered. I turned back towards him. “Not really.”
“Ah…” His voice caught. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I was going to tell ye…”
“Tell me…what?” The sinking feeling was back in my stomach.
He took a deep breath.
The pained look I had seen so many times before made another appearance.
My heart jumped into double time. It didn’t look like he was about to declare his love for me. It actually looked like he was going to tell me something that I didn’t want to hear. Freaking out, I jumped up. “Gosh, I’m starving…”
♦
In that moment, Gavin made up his mind. Mayhap, some things were better left unsaid, at least for now. He knew what she wanted. But how could he tell the lass how he felt for her when part of his heart still belonged to another? He stood up and winced.
Besides, he thought grimly. He had other things to attend to, like finding a certain Gypsy.
“Are you all right?”
“Aye. Just hungry.”
I didn’t really believe him. Gavin sucked at lying. At least he used to in the past. Now he was in foreign territory. Maybe he had been lying to me the whole time. Pretending like he cared for me. I didn’t believe that, though. He must be in shock. Yes. Now that made complete sense.
Besides, there was no way I wanted to continue the awkward conversation about feelings or lack thereof, while we had an audience and especially not while we were still on this damnable mountain.
Who knew if that damn gypsy/witch/crone whatever she was…she could still be around here. At that thought, an all too familiar shiver of unease slid up my spine.
Stop it, Paige! I reprimanded myself. It is just cold, no need to start freaking out. The gypsy/witch/crone probably, most likely, assuredly, has gone back to wherever she came from, I reasoned silently.
Taking a bracing breath, I gave up labeling the woman and simply dubbed her, old bat, and directly shoved her wrinkled ass out of my thoughts, and turned my mind back to Gavin. Besides, I would have plenty of time to talk to him about what was bothering him, later, or at least that is what I told myself.
“Well, we should get going before it gets dark.” I brushed off my skirts acting like I wasn’t upset at him and held out my hand for him to take.
“Aye,” he said. “We should go before it gets dark.” As he took her hand, Gavin could swear someone was watching them…waiting...
He had been in the past long enough to know his gut wasn’t usually wrong. As they headed down the mountain, he could swear he heard the cackling laughter of the Gypsy…Morag.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BLOWING ROCK, NORTH CAROLINA
Dream Weavers Shop - One month later
“My God! Who is that?”
I gritted my teeth and tried hard not to roll my eyes. Even without looking, I knew exactly who Ashley was speaking about.
“He’s with me.”
Ashley’s eyes rounded to the size of saucers accompanied by a staple look of disbelief that I was getting used to. “Where did you meet him?”
“At the Highland Games.”
“Are you kidding me?” Her shock was apparent.
“Nope. I’m serious.” Granted that wasn’t exactly true. I had met Gavin in the past but had I not been at the games on Grandfather Mountain and made a deal with a gypsy…err… witch… I would not have met him. So, in a roundabout way, it was the truth.
“Wow.” She leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand, sighing audibly. “Had I known men like that were going to be there I would have set my tent up during the games instead of sending Beatrice. Dang it.”
“Well, now you know.” I quickly finished filling out the form to consign my pieces and pushed it back across the counter. That was how I did business with a few of the shops in town to get visibility, and in exchange, the stores would get a bigger cut. It worked out well enough, I supposed
, since I got a lot of repeat buyers that way.
“Lass, where do ye want the box?” Gavin walked across the room, his muscled arms bulging from the weight as he carried the aforementioned box towards the counter; if possible, he looked even hotter wearing normal clothing than his kilt.
The simple cotton black t-shirt clung to his muscular torso, and the faded jeans rode low on his waist, accentuating the indent of muscle at his hips.
Ashley’s mouth dropped open.
I couldn’t blame her. It was the same response I had to Gavin the first time I had seen him. “Ashley,” I said, hoping to get my friends eyes back in her head. “Where do you want the box?”
“Oh, um…” She reluctantly pulled her eyes away. “You can leave it here.” She pointed to an empty space on the counter.
“Right here is fine.” I patted the counter, then moved out of the way.
Gavin gave the lass behind the counter a brief smile and set the box down, then brushed off his hands.
Ashley pushed her shoulders back and her ample boobs forward. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
She made eyes at me.
I gritted my teeth. “Sure. Gavin, this is Ashley.”
“Hello. Nice ta meet ye,” he said, extending his hand like his lass had taught him ta do when he met someone new.
Ashley reached out and clamped both hands over his. “The pleasure is all mine,” she purred, leaning closer.
Gavin tugged his hand but the lass behind the counter wouldn’t let go. “Uh…nice ta meet ye.” He looked to his lass for some help but she was too busy making those angry eyes he was getting used to seeing.
“What are those?” He inclined his head towards a stack of pictures displayed on a metal rack.
Ashley finally, albeit reluctantly, let go of his hand. “Those are postcards I made from some pictures I’ve taken around the area.”
“Hmm.” He acted like he was engrossed in the pictures and promptly turned towards the display.
Lost in the Highlands, Volume One Page 15