“I really could’ve picked you up at the airport, Ross. I hate that you rented a car and drove all the way out here after such a long flight.”
He dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand as he leaned in to hug her before pulling away to shake Callum’s hand.
“Nonsense. The drive allowed me time to think, to ready myself for the difficult journey home. I’m just glad that I get to begin this difficult trip with at least some happiness. How are ye all doing?”
Balancing the babe on one hip, Sydney reached to usher him inside with her other hand, as Callum reached for the baby and answered him.
“I’m pleased ye made it safely, Ross. Orick and I have taken it upon ourselves to cook dinner tonight so that Sydney can see ye settled. The two of ye can visit until then. Whether or not we shall have anything edible on the table is yet to be seen. I’ll take the bairn up to Gillian so she can watch him while we finish our meal. I know the two of ye must be eager to visit.”
Ross nodded, grateful that Callum seemed to understand and accept Ross’ friendship with his wife so wholeheartedly.
Sydney waited until Callum rounded the corner, out of sight from them, before speaking. “You want to stretch your legs for a bit and take a walk with me? It’s a pretty day, and Gillian has the gardens looking absolutely gorgeous.”
“Ye’ve read my mind, lass. I doona think I could bear to sit just now.”
Giving him a quick smile, Sydney led the way through a series of hallways toward a back entry to the castle. As they stepped through the door, Ross laid his eyes on one of the prettiest gardens he’d ever seen.
He smiled at the sight of Tink, who had already found her way to the garden, frolicking down the garden pathways, her nose pressing itself against every new plant she passed.
“I must admit, there are some things that I shall always miss about Scotland. ’Tis hard to grow anything of such beauty in a city as crowded as Boston.”
Sydney laughed and continued to walk ahead of him into the garden, scooping up Tink to love on her. “I’m sure that’s true.” She paused and waited for him to catch up to her. “I’m so glad you brought her. I’ve been missing this sweet pup, and I promise I’ll take good care of her while you’re taking care of your mother. How are you feeling, Ross? I know all of this has to be hard on you.”
He nodded. “Aye. It feels wrong for me to say so, but I doona look forward to seeing her. I said goodbye to her a long time ago. I grieved for her a long time ago. I fear that seeing her again will be like tearing open a wound.”
Sydney stopped and faced him, pulling him into a warm hug. “I know. I wish this wasn’t happening to you. You, as much as anyone I’ve ever known, deserve a break from tragedy.”
He hurried to correct her. “’Tis not true, lass. I have earned any and all of the pain that shall ever come my way.”
She rewarded his statement by whacking him hard on the back of the head. “Stop it, Ross. I am so tired of hearing you constantly berate yourself.” She paused and shook her head. “Sorry. Me getting after you is the last thing you need, I know. Let’s talk about something else.”
He smiled, not as upset with her as she seemed to think he would be. He quite admired Sydney’s fiery personality.
“Aye. I’ve something to tell ye. I fear I shall need yer assistance in a few weeks time.”
“Okay. Sure. What’s up?”
“Allanah is joining me here.”
Sydney smiled. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Is she really?”
The knowledge excited him, as well. “Aye, though she willna arrive until two weeks from today. I must travel home before then. I will return to Cagair Castle before she arrives to see her into the past.”
“So, have you already told her about all of that?”
Sydney looked far more hopeful than she had reason to be.
“No, lass. ’Tis what I need yer help with. I doona know how to tell her. ’Twas easy when I had magic, for I could prove my words right then. Without it, I fear she will believe me mad. I thought ’twould be easier to tell her surrounded by those who can back up my words.”
Sydney nodded. “Probably for the best. If you’re fine with it, I might give Morna a call. She’s helped make the transition a little easier for some of us in the past. I bet she would be willing to help now. Especially since you’re not going to have weeks to get her comfortable with the whole concept of time travel.”
He smiled, unsurprised that he and his friend were on the same wavelength. “I’ve already spoken with her. I needed help with Tink’s papers. If ’tis alright, she wishes to meet Allanah. She and Jerry are due to arrive the day Allanah does.”
Sydney laughed. Ross didn’t miss the way her eyes lit up at the mention of the old, beloved witch.
“Morna knows that she’s welcome here any time. I’m glad that she’s coming. It’s been some time since she’s been here. She must’ve finally recovered from the shock of Jerry’s heart attack.”
Ross startled at the news. “Heart attack?”
“Yes. Don’t worry. He’s fine. It was a long time ago now, really. Ross…”
She paused, and he knew what she was going to say before she spoke and held up a hand to stop her. “No, lass. She doesna know about Silva. She doesna know that I ever had magic, nor that I faked my death.”
Sydney turned sad, worried eyes on him. “She needs to know, Ross.”
He sighed and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. She couldn’t know. He couldn’t lose her. Not like he did Silva, or Beth, or how he was about to lose his mother.
“I canna tell her, lass. And I need ye to promise me that ye willna tell her either.”
“Ross, do you really think I would ever do that? It’s none of my business. Of course I wouldn’t tell her, but I’m not going to lie to you and pretend that I think it’s okay that you haven’t. You’re in a relationship with this woman. Whether you’ve told her yet or not, I can tell that you love her. She needs to know. And you need to have it proven to you that no one else thinks you’re the monster that you think you are.”
“Ye are the only one who knows that doesna think I’m a monster.”
Sydney continued to argue with him. “No. No one thinks that. Not me. Not Laurel. Not Kate.” Her voice continued to rise with each declaration. “Not Raudrich. Not Marcus. Not even Silva. There is literally no one that thinks you’re as terrible as you think you are.”
She paused and took a deep breath, lowering Tink to the ground.
No matter her reasoning, Ross knew how wrong she truly was.
“Regardless of yer opinion, lass, ‘tis is for me to decide. Aye?”
Sydney surprised him by turning and stomping off in the other direction.
“Yeah, Ross. It is. But if you go and screw this up because you’re too bullheaded to move the hell on from what you did, I will have no sympathy for you. Your room is the fourth on the right on the second floor. I assume you can see yourself inside.”
She stormed off before he could say another word.
Chapter 32
Two Weeks Later
* * *
Seeing his mother in such a weakened and confused state had distressed him so much more than he’d expected it to. The years apart had made it no easier for him. The only blessing was that when she remembered him, she seemed ignorant of the time they’d spent apart.
The moments where she knew him, he treasured. He would hold her hand and visit, allowing her to lead their conversations—whatever memories she could recall on that given day or hour.
But the other days, those where she was stuck in her own childhood—a time where no one in her life from that time still existed—were unbearable to witness. Scared, frightened, and alone, only a sleeping elixir from the village healer would calm her. And then it was only for a time.
The evenings alone in his bedchamber were a necessary retreat. Without the time away each night to come to terms with the trials of the day, he wasn�
��t sure he would’ve been able to return to her bedside each day.
By the time he was due to return to twenty-first century Cagair Castle, he’d never been so ready to leave another place in his life.
He and Callum, who’d stayed with him at his brother’s castle for the entire fortnight, rode hard once they departed, only stopping one night of the journey to sleep. By the time they arrived at the stairwell portal, he was exhausted and as eager as he’d ever been to talk to Allanah.
“What time must ye be at the airport to pick the lass up? We should have someone drive ye so ye may sleep along the way. Ye look as if ye might fall over.”
Ross dismissed Callum’s concern with a quick shake of his head as they settled their horses in Callum’s stables before making the short walk to the stairwell. The last thing he wanted was someone else in the car with him. Two weeks without hearing her voice had been torture. He wanted Allanah all to himself for as long as possible.
“Her flight lands at eleven. I shall need to leave within the hour. I’ll be fine. If I’m too exhausted to make the drive back here, we can get a hotel near the airport and make the drive in the morning. Thank ye for coming with me, Callum.”
Callum nodded, and together they began the downward trek into the twenty-first century.
“O’course, lad. It gave me an excuse to check up on my brother. To see him doing so well has given me a great sense of relief. For the longest time, I thought he would never outgrow the wildness of his youth.”
“He takes after Adwen then, aye?”
Callum laughed as they stepped through the illusion of the brick wall in front of them.
“Aye. I was born older than the two of them shall ever be.”
Before Ross could respond, the door at the top of the staircase flew open, flooding them with light as Sydney’s panicked voice called to them down the stairwell.
“I have been waiting on you two to get back here for days! Ross, get up here right now. We’ve got a whole lot to talk about.”
Confused, he picked up his pace as he climbed the steps.
“What is it, lass? Nothing has happened to Allanah, aye?”
It pained him that his immediate reaction to almost any situation was now worry, but it seemed as if the last year had been a continual onslaught of bad news.
Sydney reached out and put her hand on his arm as she shook her head.
“No. Everything is fine. I’ve been tracking her flight on my phone, and she’s due to arrive thirty minutes early actually, which makes it even more urgent that I talk to you right now.” She paused and turned to give Callum a quick kiss on the cheek. “Hey Babe, I’m glad you’re home. Can you do me a quick favor though? Go and see to our guests that literally just pulled up in the driveway while I sneak Ross in through the back so I can talk to him?”
In unison, Callum and Ross responded. “Guests?”
Exasperated, Sydney pointed in the direction she intended Callum to go, while grabbing onto Ross with her other hand and pulling him in the opposite direction.
“Callum, you’ll see as soon as you get around there. Now go, please, while I try to figure this mess out.”
Obliging, Callum took off, and Ross began to stumble along behind Sydney’s breakneck pace.
“Lass, what has happened? Ye are frightening me a bit.”
“I’ve been trying to cover for your chicken-shit ass for the better part of two days is what has happened. We have guests that have decided to come, thanks to Morna. Damn her.”
A suspicious dread crept up his spine. “What guests, lass?”
Sydney stopped just outside the back door of the castle and released her grip on him long enough to face him.
“Silva is here, Ross. So is Marcus. Morna rarely travels anymore. She hadn’t Silva’s baby yet, so she took it upon herself to invite her since she was heading in this direction.”
Ross gripped at the doorway as the blood began to drain from his face. Sydney quickly shook her head and reached for his arm again.
“Nope. You can’t fall apart here. We need to get you up to your room so we can talk about the plan. Hang on just a minute.”
Without another word, they all but ran up to the bedroom assigned to him. The moment they stepped inside, Ross collapsed onto the upholstered bench at the end of the bed.
The thought of seeing Silva again was enough to make him feel ill. But he feared that having Silva and Allanah under the same roof would be too much for him to bear.
“What am I going to do about Allanah, lass?”
Sydney shrugged. “Hell, if I know. This wouldn’t be the fiasco it is now, if you’d just listened to me, but I have no faith at all that you’re going to do that.”
“I need to leave for the airport straight away.”
“No.” Sydney threw the cell phone he’d left in his direction. “What you need to do right now is text Allanah and tell her that you were delayed and that you’re sending friends to pick her up. That way she will get the text as soon as she lands and will know what’s going on. Gillian and Orick are on their way to the airport right now.”
Unable to think past Sydney’s first instruction, he quickly did as she bid, typing out a quick message to Allanah and pressing send before directing his attention back to his panicked and incredibly irritated friend.
He didn’t have to say a word before Sydney continued on. “You and Silva need to talk, Ross. You’ve got to get her on board with whatever you decide to do. That’s why I thought that I better go ahead and send someone else to the airport to pick up Allanah. When Allanah arrives here, I’ll make sure the two of you have some time alone so you can tell her whatever you decide. Okay?”
At least Sydney had had the foresight to deal with the situation as best as she could. No matter her belief that he was wrong, she’d still come through for him as the wonderful friend she was.
He gave her a soft smile, his mind still racing. “Thank ye, lass. I’ll gather my thoughts while I shower. Then I shall go in search of Silva. I know ye want no part in this. Thank ye for what ye’ve done.”
Sydney’s expression relaxed and she gave him a quick nod. “You’re welcome. You already know what I think you should do, so I’m not going to say anything else about it. Now, I better go and see to the surprise that old witch has sprung on us. I’m eternally grateful for Morna, I truly am, but some days she’s really more trouble than she’s worth.”
Ross gave a soft chuckle as he watched Sydney leave before falling backwards onto his bed with a frustrated groan.
Chapter 33
I nearly cried when I landed in Scotland and turned on my phone to see Ross’ text. Every day without hearing from him had felt like a week. Not only that, but the amount of effort it had taken to move patients to other therapists and to make certain everything was squared away in such a short amount of time had made for lots of late nights and very little sleep. In addition, I’d been so excited to see Ross that despite the accumulative exhaustion of the past few weeks, I’d been unable to sleep a wink on the plane. The sudden knowledge that not only was our reunion delayed by a handful of hours, but I was also going to have to make small talk with strangers while deliriously sleep-deprived had me in a really bad mood.
Then, to make matters worse, I stood at baggage claim, watching the carousel of luggage from my flight go round and round while virtually everyone but me collected their bags. After half an hour, I knew—my bags hadn’t made it to Scotland.
Pulling out my phone, I tapped on Ross’ name to call him, knowing that the tone of my voice was so not going to be how I wanted to greet him after several weeks apart. I also knew that my emotions were ruling over my logical brain at this point, and he was about to be on the receiving end of the Allanah that much more closely resembled the one that had knocked on his door because he’d locked Gramps out in the cold than the Allanah he’d seen pretty much every time since that day.
He answered quickly, his own tone immediately apologetic. “Allanah, ach las
s, I’m sorry I’m not there. I canna wait to see ye. How was yer flight?”
“The flight was fine, but you didn’t even bother to send me the contact info of these people that are picking me up. I’m sure they’ve been waiting for me for a while now, but my bag isn’t here, and I’m going to have to file some sort of report with baggage claim. I need you to text me a phone number so I can call them and tell them it might be a bit.”
He sighed. “Ach, lass. That is not something ye needed to be dealing with, I know. I’m sorry. Doona worry about them. I’ll call them right now. They are outside in a blue compact car. The lass has some of the reddest, longest hair ye will ever see, and the man...” He hesitated before continuing, “looks like he should be a film star in Hollywood, lass. Ye’ll know them when ye see them. I can promise ye that.”
“Fine. I’ll see you later.”
I hung up the phone before he could say anything else and stomped my way over toward the claims office. Thankfully, there was no one in line, and I was able to walk up to the counter right away.
“Good morning to ye. How can I be of assistance?”
I reached into my bag for my claim ticket and extended it in the old woman’s direction.
“My flight landed over half an hour ago, and the carousel is now empty. I think my bags have been lost!”
The woman frowned and began to type something into her computer. “I am sorry about that. While it is rare, it does happen. Where did ye fly from?”
“Boston.”
“Did ye have any layovers?”
I nodded, knowing that inevitably that was where things had gone awry. “Yes. London.”
The woman clucked her tongue as she shook her head regretfully. “Aye. I can see that. It seems yer bags dinna make it on the plane. They should be on the next flight from London, though that doesna arrive for another five hours.”
My eyes grew wide. “Five hours? I have people waiting to pick me up now.”
She scrunched up her nose. I truly wasn’t a violent person but I desperately wanted to pop her in the nose.
Love Beyond Boundaries (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 12 (Morna's Legacy Series) Page 17