Trusted By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance

by Rebecca Preston

  "Yes," he said firmly. "And now to the subject of the debt I owe you."

  She waved a hand dismissively. "Don't be silly. I was just helping a friend."

  "Exactly," he said, looking a little offended. "You helped me, now I help you. This is how a friendship works."

  Were all Fae folk so transactional in nature? she wondered as they headed to a table together to eat their breakfast. There was something oddly mercenary about it… but at the same time, there was such goodwill in Aelfred's face that she couldn't bring herself to find it unpleasant. In a way, she supposed, all friendships were kind of built on trades — you spent time on each other, did each other favors, helped each other with problems… maybe the Fae were just more explicit about the nature of those trades. At any rate, she was delighted that he seemed to want to spend time with her.

  "I think," he said firmly, "we should spend the day on horseback. What do you say?"

  She grinned. She'd been wanting to go riding since before she'd fallen ill — the day they'd spent in the stables before both of them had been struck down by the sickness had been so pleasant, and she was itching to get to the next stage of learning to ride. Still, a pang of anxiety still rippled through her, and she bit her lip. "Are you sure I'm ready?"

  "With horses like these half-asleep beasts? Absolutely. Riding is like breathing, Melanie," he said with a shake of his head. "You'll never remember that there was a time you didn't know how."

  It was a strange way of putting it, but she felt oddly heartened by it. They headed out into the courtyard after breakfast. The day was overcast and cloudy, but Aelfred didn't seem disheartened — he was full of energy, almost vibrating out of his boots as they headed for the stables, and she smiled up at him, grateful that he'd made such a full recovery — and pleased that she had played a part in it, however small. He deserved to feel good. He was such a sweet man, so full of strange, infectious joy.

  "Now," he said solemnly as they reached the back of the stables. "Our greatest test."

  The chestnut gelding that they'd befriended a week earlier had stuck his head out over the stall door, clearly remembering his new friends and curious about what they were doing there. Melanie took a deep breath and grabbed a halter, remembering what the groom had explained about how the buckles worked. It was easy to catch a horse in a stall — harder if they grazed in a paddock, of course, but these horses were fed on hay, not meadow grass. And the chestnut was a dream — he obediently extended his neck to allow her to put the halter on, clearly eager to get out of his stall, and though Aelfred stood back warily, she was able to successfully lead him through the stables and out to a post where she'd seen the grooms tacking up horses for the guards to go on patrol.

  "You're a natural," Aelfred said softly, watching her tether the horse.

  She flushed. "I'm not on his back yet," she pointed out. "Aren't you going to grab a horse?"

  "Let's focus on you for today," he said with a smile, and she sighed. She'd been secretly hoping she might get out of actually riding today. Handling the chestnut gelding on the ground was one thing, but his back looked awfully high up from down here… a lot could go wrong.

  Together, they figured out how to put the saddle on, grateful for the old gelding's calm and placid demeanor as they made several false starts. Not too tight, not too loose, that was the secret for the girth… and you had to be careful, too, because most of the older horses had figured out that a looser girth was much more comfortable and would take a deep breath of air to expand their chests just before you tightened the girth. The chestnut tried it a few times, drawing a roar of laughter from Aelfred, who was clearly very taken with the horse… even though he shied away in obvious fear every time the gelding made a sudden move.

  The bridle was easier, somehow — the gelding accepted the bit without complaint, and the various buckles and straps fell neatly into place along his head. She placed the reins gently on his neck, then turned to look at Aelfred, who was admiring her handiwork.

  "I think I've learned more from you than you have from me so far," he pointed out, smiling. "Saddles and bridles. My word."

  "Maybe that's enough for this morning?" she suggested.

  But Aelfred shook his head firmly. "Absolutely not. Up you get."

  She blanched. "What, now?"

  "No time like the present," Aelfred said brightly.

  Where on Earth had he picked up that expression? That didn't sound like a Fae way of talking.

  "Here," he said, moving to her side. "I'll help you."

  And just like that, she had a lot more to think about other than the horse huffing softly at her side, because Aelfred was determined to get her up on that horse, and suddenly not at all interested in personal space boundaries. She felt her heart pounding as he came close to her, his hand gripping her forearm gently as he helped her foot find the stirrup. His other arm came around her waist, making her stomach flutter… but before she could even think about panicking, she felt his surprising strength haul her up, up, impossibly fast, and suddenly before she knew it, she was sitting astride the horse with Aelfred grinning up at her from the ground.

  "You've done it!" he said brightly.

  She stared down, a little uneasy about where she was sitting… did people on horseback always feel this tall?

  "Oh, it suits you," he continued, taking a few steps back to admire her. "A born equestrian, I knew it."

  "It's about a bit more than appearances, isn't it?" she said drily, taking the reins gingerly in her hands. Was it just her, or did it feel like the horse was swaying a little? Being up here felt a lot less sturdy than she'd been led to believe… she slipped her other foot carefully into the stirrup on the other side. What had the groom said about riding? Keep your heels down and your grip on the reins firm but flexible. Alright. She could do that. But as she lowered her heels, they brushed against the horse's sides… and he began to walk forwards.

  "Aelfred!" she yelped as the horse lurched into motion beneath her. Instinctively, she gripped tightly with her legs, and the gelding accelerated, his smooth, easy stride taking her forwards toward the middle of the courtyard. Aelfred followed after her, shouting encouragement even as he kept noticeably clear of the horse's trajectory — still nervous of the creatures, she thought with amusement, even after all this time around them. Gingerly, she lifted the reins and tugged on one — and the horse turned immediately to the left. Her eyes widened. Why — this wasn't nearly as difficult as she'd thought it was. You just… sat there and pointed the horse where you wanted it to go.

  Aelfred was a few paces away, keeping up with the horse as she carefully guided it around the courtyard. He was mostly calling encouragement, but he suggested she sit up a little straighter, too, and she obeyed, realizing she'd been hunched forwards over the reins. As she rode, he called more advice, and before long, walking was feeling as natural as could be… even if the adrenaline was still surging through her. What she'd just done, she realized, was the horseback equivalent of being thrown in the deep end of the pool to see if you could swim or not. And to her delight, it seemed she could swim.

  Over lunch, they spoke in more depth about riding, Aelfred having helped her climb down from the peaceful gelding's back. He'd seemed a little confused they'd stayed inside the courtyard all morning — he kept heading toward the gate, following groups of men and horses as they headed out on patrol, but Melanie suspected that leaving the castle grounds could wait until she was a little more confident.

  "It's easier than I expected," she confided, a pleased smile on her face.

  Aelfred nodded brightly. "It's all about feeling, honestly. You and the horse, finding a common ground on which to work together. And it helps, of course, that you're a natural," he added with a smile.

  "It's your turn this afternoon," she told him firmly. "You need to get used to a saddle and bridle before we go riding around the lake."

  A broad smile crossed his face suddenly. "Are you asking me to ride around the lake with
you?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "People are going to think we're courting."

  She blushed deeply at that… but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to tell him that they weren't. After all, what did she know about medieval courtship customs? Maybe all of this horse-riding stuff was actually flirting. Maybe she was being far more forward in her feelings than she thought she was. Part of her wanted to panic, to retreat from it… but she couldn't bring herself to, somehow. Spending time with Aelfred was the only thing that was making her feel normal among all this craziness.

  And if that meant they were dating… well, she'd just have to be okay with that, now wouldn't she?

  Chapter 17

  In the end, they didn't go on their ride until the following day. Melanie was all for it, but the weather in the afternoon turned and came over rainy and miserable, and the two of them decided against leaving the castle grounds. Still, they managed to get Aelfred up onto the chestnut's back, and despite his initial worry that the horse would behave like the wild beasts he was familiar with from back home, Melanie watched as he quickly became more confident on the horse's back. Before long, he was putting the gelding through its paces, impressing her as he guided the horse around the courtyard, changing pace and direction on a dime, the two of them seeming to work together as one. It made her own plodding circuits of the courtyard look amateurish and pathetic, and she realized that there was a great deal more to riding than she had originally thought. When she rode, she felt like a sack of potatoes. When she watched Aelfred ride… well, he looked like an extension of the horse itself, and she understood fully for the first time where the myths and legends of centaurs had come from.

  Then again, she thought with a grimace, it was entirely likely that centaurs were real, wasn't it?

  With the rain coming down in sheets now, they spent the afternoon inside the stables, taking care of the gelding before dinner. The horse was thoroughly worn out by the afternoon's exertions, and they made sure to give him a thorough rub down and grooming. By the time they'd put him away in his stall with a fresh pail of oats for his trouble, his coat was gleaming like freshly polished bronze, and the two of them smiled as they admired their handiwork, side by side.

  "It feels good to be riding again," Aelfred said softly. "Even with those silly leather bits."

  "It doesn't look like you need them," Melanie said, gesturing to the saddle and bridle that they'd carefully put away. "You seem to guide the horse with your mind, not your hands."

  "That's a good way of putting it," he said thoughtfully, glancing down at her with a smile. "I like the way you think, Melanie."

  She blushed to the roots of her hair. What was it about his compliments that did that to her so effortlessly?

  They dined separately, in the end — Aelfred had an agreement to eat with Brendan and Galen that night, and Melanie wanted to catch up with the women and let them know that she'd successfully learned to ride a horse. And in the morning, Aelfred came to her with a proposition, his silver eyes gleaming.

  "Now that we're both well again," he said over breakfast, "I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me on a ride a little further afield? I think I mentioned that Donal told me of a woman named Leah, a Changeling like me I ought to visit. She may have some insight into my situation, some advice —"

  Melanie nodded, swallowing her mouthful of oatmeal hastily — porridge, the locals called it, though she was holding out on her own native vocabulary for the time being. "Right! I remember we talked about her before we both got so sick. Let's do it," she said with a grin. "If the weather lets us, of course."

  "I think it will," Aelfred said brightly.

  And sure enough, when they headed for the courtyard after breakfast, the sky was blue and only a little cloudy — perfect riding weather. And Melanie was looking forward to this ride particularly. When she'd mentioned that she was riding, Nancy had immediately offered to lend her some of her own riding clothes — it seemed that though skirts were the standard clothing choice, there was something of a secret black market in pants that were more appropriate for riding. She was wearing, under her gathered skirts, a pair of very comfortable jodhpur-style pants that she knew would make it a lot easier to grip the horse.

  They tacked up the chestnut gelding, and a different horse, too, a sleek black mare that Anna had recommended as a good choice for a beginner. She was spirited, the mare, but she seemed to have a sense for new riders, and she kept very still as Aelfred helped Melanie carefully up onto her back. Remembering the way Aelfred had seemed to guide the gelding with the lightest touch, Melanie took hold of the reins carefully and urged the mare forward as softly as she could — and she couldn't help but feel surprised by how immediately responsive she was. Aelfred was watching her approvingly from the ground.

  "Like I said," he said with a bright smile. "You're a natural."

  They had a bundle packed for the woman they were visiting — Aelfred insisted he wouldn't dream of going to see someone without bringing something, so he had a parcel of freshly-baked bread and some dried fish that were apparently a specialty of one of the cooks in the castle. Donal had promised that Leah would be delighted with the gift, but Melanie could tell her friend was nervous as they set out on their ride. She had to admit, she was a little worried, too. She hadn't left the castle since that first day, since they'd clambered up out of the lake together, and though she'd thought she was getting over her disorientation and confusion at the strange place she was in, she felt it creeping back as they rode across the land bridge toward the mainland. Maybe she was only comfortable in the Keep… maybe it wasn't a good idea to leave…

  "Hey," Aelfred said softly, a phrase he'd picked up from her. "Are you feeling alright?"

  "Nervous," she said, shaking her head with a grin. "Haven't left the castle before."

  "We'll keep each other safe," he promised her with a grin that really did make her feel better. They were headed for the village — they'd been given clear instructions about exactly where to find Leah's cottage by Karen and her husband Liam, who lived close to the woman, it seemed. Melanie focused on her riding as they traveled, trying to make sure she was sitting well to the horse's stride, not wanting to weigh any more heavily on the mare than she needed to.

  It was a beautiful day, and as they rode, she found her worry easing. Walking on horseback… it was easy enough, wasn't it? She knew she'd eventually need to learn how to trot and canter, but Aelfred had told her that you couldn't spend too much time on the basics, so she was more than happy to keep walking for the next few weeks at least. Few weeks, she thought, shaking her head a little. Part of her still hadn't quite accepted that she was here for good… that this wasn't some dream she was going to wake up from, some trip she was going to return home from…

  They rode past Maggie's cottage, and Melanie couldn't help but try to peer through the windows. There was nothing to be seen there, of course… Aelfred was looking curiously over, too, and as they rode past he suggested they come back and visit Maggie another day.

  "Definitely," she agreed. "I've heard she likes mead and shortbread… maybe we could bring her a gift to thank her for helping us that first day. I still feel guilty for not listening to all the advice she was giving me," she added, shaking her head.

  But Aelfred shrugged. "I'm sure she understood," he said gently. "And it was advice freely given, not traded for. You don't owe her anything."

  Again, that transactional approach. It was fascinating. Did Maggie operate that way too? she wondered. Would the gift be seen as an act of manipulation, an attempt at making it seem as though Maggie owed them something? She brought this idea up to Aelfred, who dismissed it immediately.

  "A gift is a gift," he said firmly. "You only get into trouble when you aren't clear about what's a gift and what's an obligation. And any polite Fae is very careful with their words." He tilted his head. "That's a difference between us, isn't it? Humans are a lot more… casual, with promises and debts and the like."

&nb
sp; "I guess so," she said softly, thinking of all the promises she'd heard made and broken. "Maybe we've got something to learn from you."

  "Them," he corrected her softly. "I'm human, in the end, no matter where I grew up."

  "Of course," she agreed. "But you're definitely the right guy to share what you learned over there with all of us humans, right?"

  "It's the least I can do in exchange for the kindness that humans have offered me so far," he said with a smile, though there was a faraway look in his eyes when he said it that made her intensely curious. But before she could ask about it, he cleared his throat and changed the subject, pointing to the road ahead of them and exclaiming that it reminded him of a certain place he'd frequented beyond the Burgh.

  As they rode, he told her more about the Fae, about the actual landscape of the place. What she'd been imagining as a whole planet, it seemed, was in fact only a small kingdom… though it was hard to get a sense of just how hard the borders were, and what it was that lay beyond them. An enormous wilderness surrounded, at its center, a great castle, very different to the Keep, though similar in the sense that it was inhabited and presided over by a family — a family of Sidhe. These were the folk who had taken him in as a child… and the folk, Melanie reflected, who had seen fit to save her from her fate and deliver her here, too.

  "And where's the Burgh?" she asked. "Is it at the bottom of a lake there, too?"

  He laughed. "Not at all. It's in the basement of the castle. I think the Sidhe built the castle on it intentionally… though it was hard to understand what they meant by that. Their approach to time makes it difficult to find out what preceded what… whether they built the castle because of the Burgh, or the Burgh was there because of the castle, I never did find out. I used to spend a lot of time down there," he added with a soft smile. "It made me feel … I don't know. Like maybe there was a place I belonged properly."

  "You didn't feel you belonged over there?"

  "Not really," he said, shaking his head. "I was a Changeling child. They were always kind to me, and they did their best to make me feel included, but… well, the Fae was never my home, not exactly. The Sidhe are too strange to relate to easily, I'm afraid."