Lost in the Mist of Time

by Karen Michelle Nutt

  “Am I of Celtic blood?” Dougray’s voice thundered through the room. “I know the Brehon laws as well as ye do.” “Then ye will agree to the terms?”

  “Aye, for one year and a day certain.” Dougray stared at Aislinn, his steel- gray eyes boring into hers. “Ye do understand all this, Aislinn? If I am unhappy with ye in a year’s time, I can also ask for the marriage to be dissolved.”

  “I understand perfectly,” she answered with more confidence than she felt. It was all happening so fast. This Hennessy that took her under his wing was overwhelming her with his decisions to do right by her. The more she thought about it now, the more she wished that she hadn’t agreed to this kind of marriage. She was simply shacking up with the guy and that didn’t sit well with her. She cared for Dougray more than she wished she did. She didn’t want him to cast her aside after a year. What if he decided that this was what he wanted to do? If she married him in the church, he would at least be obligated to try and make the marriage work.

  She let her gaze wander to where he was standing. His features were hard and unyielding. His jaw clenched so tight that she could see the pulsing sensation in his cheek. He would never insist now that they should be married in the presence of a priest.

  Dougray stormed from the room. Aislinn had half the mind to run after him and tell him it had all been a mistake.

  “My dear, ye need not worry if this does not work out. Ye are welcomed to stay with me, unless ye wish to go back to yer father. Surely by a year’s time he will have returned.”

  Highly unlikely since he’s happily living in the twenty-first century. She just nodded her head feeling miserable.

  “The Hennessy woman could prove to be a problem.” Abbot Kirwan gave his opinion to the dark-cloaked person before him. The abbot did not care for Aislinn and would feel no remorse if she were eliminated. The hooded figure nodded, but Abbot Kirwan was not sure that was an agreement or not. Can ye believe that the woman insisted that the marriage be done the ancient way? Sacrilege is what it is. God will surely see fit to send her to the fiery depths

  of hell.”

  The hooded figure placed a hand on the abbot to silence him. He then handed him a note that was sealed with a crest.

  “Are these the instructions?” Again the hooded figure nodded. The abbot was not particularly fond of meeting with a faceless individual, but yet he had to make sure that the lands that Dougray Fitzpatrick was granted stayed in the Irish hands. The English had already taken too much of what was not theirs. Yet these idiots seemed not to notice. If they didn’t put a stop to it now, there would be more English than Irish in Ireland. It was bad enough that they shared the land with other foreigners. But at least they had the decency to adopt the Irish ways, not like the English who insisted that they were the ones to change. Kirwan looked at the messenger. “I will carry out the instructions to the letter.”

  Again the hooded figure nodded, this time as a dismissal.

  Chapter 42

  Dougray was in a dour mood and wanted to be left alone. As a matter of fact it was what he had ordered, but Rhiannon was determined to speak with him anyway.

  He sat slumped in the chair near the hearth a drink in his hand. It was days before his wedding and he was not in the least bit happy about the event that was to take place. She approached him making her presence known by clearing her throat.

  He looked in her direction, but made no attempt to bid her enter. Rhiannon took another step forward, and since he didn’t demand that she leave his presence at once, she took it as a good sign. “Milord, I wanted to wish ye good for yer wedding day.” His glare sent a chill down her spine but she did not waver from her intent. “An old Brehon wedding will be nice and it will be done in the old tradition on the Calends of May. I know that ye think that Lady Aislinn is not perceptive to the idea of marriage, but she will be once she is with child. Nothing would make a woman endear herself more to a man than when she is carrying his babe close to her heart.” Still he did not respond. “Well then, I wish ye well, milord.”

  Rhiannon was nearly out the door before Dougray realized what she was trying to tell him. He turned in his seat. “Wait.”

  She suppressed the smile that threatened to spread across her face and walked back to him. “Aye, milord?”

  “If Aislinn were with child, I could insist that the marriage not be dissolved…for the child’s sake.”

  Rhiannon smiled. “Aye, milord, that would be the right thing to do.”

  He was just beginning to see why Murrough loved this woman. “I am grateful for yer blessing, Rhiannon.”

  As soon as she stepped into the hall, Murrough nabbed her, drawing her away so that no one could hear them. “What do ye have planned here?”

  “The way it should be. Aislinn belongs here with the Fitzpatricks and not with the Hennessy Clan.”

  “She belongs to the Hennessys,” which was true even if it wasn’t from this time and place.

  “Aye, but Dougray Fitzpatrick is the other half of her soul.”

  “Ye talk of the old ways.”

  “Old ways are sometimes the best. Why do ye think I stay with ye?” Murrough grumbled, “I have often wondered this myself.”

  Dougray entered the room where Aislinn had set up a corner for her exercise rituals. He watched her for a moment as she slammed her fists into the burlap bag that was stuffed full of turf. It swung back and forth as she continued to pummel the object, as if her survival depended on if she could beat it to death. He saw Teige and he nodded toward the man indicating that he wanted to be alone with her. It irritated him when he saw that Teige hesitated before he moved away, but not so far that he couldn’t come to his lady’s aid.

  Aislinn punched the bundle one more time before she faced him. Her face was flushed from the exertion making her all so…desirable. “May I speak freely?”

  She nodded curious to know why he was here. She had thought they had said all that could be said days ago, leaving this endless void that was between them. She watched him pace. Every so often he looked at her as though he was about to say something; then he would resume his relentless pacing. She folded her arms across her chest and waited for him to speak.

  He had stopped once more and looked at her again, his dark brows furrowing together to form his displeasure. Finally, he seemed to find his voice, “Why do ye go with this pretense that Aengus Hennessy is your uncle?”

  “Because he is.” Her simple answer threw him aback, for he hadn’t expected her to blatantly lie about it.

  “We both know that this is an impossibility.”

  “Is it? You traveled to my time and with only a few steps through a strange fog, and how easily I managed to wonder into yours. Not only that, I find that my own parents did the very same thing. Aengus Hennessy was, no is, my father’s brother. Of course, Lord Aengus does not know what became of his brother nor does he understand how I have come to be here. I don’t even want to try and explain it to him, but I can assure you, Dougray, Aengus is my uncle, first generation uncle to be exact.”

  He sat down.

  Aislinn was quite patient while he digested this knew bit of information. “Yer parents never told ye?” He found this unbelievable. “They never even hinted?”

  “Not a word. And believe me, I have been going over all this in my mind.

  You’d think that they would have warned me about the strange mist that could swallow you up and send you to where you don’t belong. Why would they let me wander right into it, knowing that I could be trapped?”

  He looked at her with a steady gaze but inside it shattered him to know she felt nothing but trapped in his world. A stab of guilt lay buried in his chest for he had been the cause of her misfortune. He should have somehow stopped her. If he had, she would be safe and sound in her own world. He sighed regretfully. He couldn’t change what had happened, but he could help her adjust. He owed her that much. “Maybe….” He shrugged. There really wasn’t a plausible explanation why her parents would
keep this incredible secret from her, but there was something that Donagh had said to him that made him wonder if this wasn’t entirely true. “Ye were well trained in the Irish language. Ye were acquainted in the traditions of this time, as well as ways to ensure ye could protect yerself.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “That maybe ye were not told, but ye were being prepared in case that it would happen.”

  She thought about it for a moment and it did make sense. She had never questioned her parents’ ways, but she had known from the beginning that they were different from all her friends’ parents.

  “They always took in strangers.” She thought of the many faces that shared meals with them.

  “What do ye mean?”

  “I always wondered why they would take people in and feed them and help them if they could. They were people who had no homes or seemingly any families.”

  “Time travelers?” He was beginning to understand.

  “Maybe not all of them…but some I knew were, you know…different.” “You think they time traveled?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe….” She punched the bag again. “Still they should have warned me.”

  “Would ye have believed them?”

  “I would…I could have….” Again she slammed her fist into the bag. “Probably not,” she finally answered.

  “So now where does this leave us?” How he wanted her to accept her fate and let him take care of her, but he knew that she would never concede to it. She would always fight to obtain a way back to her time and place.

  As much as they bickered and fought, he could not imagine her not at his side. Maybe he could convince her that they belonged together. Who knows? Maybe it was destiny that brought the mist, so that they could cross the bridge that separated them. “Aislinn….”

  “Dougray….” They spoke at the same time. “Go on.” He urged her to speak first.

  She had been thinking about the upcoming marriage, or trial one, if that is what they wanted to call it, and she didn’t want to go through with it. It just didn’t seem right. It was like they were going to play house with no commitments. There had to be a way out. There just had to be. “Dougray, about us…you know…getting married?” She chuckled nervously, while her hand moved up and down the burlap bag almost like a caress. “What I’m trying to say is, don’t you think that there is some way we could just…I don’t know…forget the whole thing?” She met his gaze now, hoping that he would agree. His gray eyes held hers for a long time, almost to the point that it was beginning to make her feel uncomfortable.

  “Ye detest me that much, do ye?” He sighed heavily his voice filled with a hint of anguish that she had not expected.

  “I don’t hate you. I….” She didn’t finish for she wasn’t quite sure what she felt.

  “I see.”

  He stood now, his feelings obviously hurt, but she didn’t know why. Hadn’t she said that she didn’t hate him? What more did he want?

  “We will marry under the Brehon law,” he spoke evenly. “At this point, we do not have a choice.”

  “But I thought….”

  “Nay.” He cut her off. “Now that yer uncle is involved, we have no other option but go through with it. If I called it off, it would cause a riff between the clans and I can ill afford another sept wanting to destroy Dunhaven.”

  “What if I talk to my uncle and explain….”

  “Explain what? That ye are from another place and time? He would not believe ye, and it would only make things worse for ye.”

  “I can refuse the marriage.”

  A swift shadow of anger swept across his face. Why was she so dead set against becoming his wife? He was the only one who would ever understand her for he knew where she had come from. She could confide in him, and he in return would do his best to make her happy. He would have thought that she would consider all this. “Yer uncle will not allow it. The word of a Hennessy would be in question. Nay, he will insist ye marry.”

  “Just to save face? That’s ridiculous!”

  “Is it? To have allies ye have to be able to trust. Without it ye are dead.” “And when I find a way back home and suddenly disappear, what then of my word?”

  “Then it will be only of a disobedient wife and nothing more. Being married under the Brehon law entitles me to cast ye aside, which I will do immediately upon yer departure.”

  “How wonderful this must all seem to you.” Her glare nearly cut him down, but he would not let her get the upper hand and he met her stance straight on.

  “Explain yerself, lass.”

  “You get to have your fill of me and no one will say a word to stop this barbaric marriage. Then when I finally can go home, you are free to marry once more, as though I never existed! God, I find that insulting!”

  He listened to her tirade with bewilderment. She didn’t want to marry him. He wasn’t even sure that she even liked him, but yet she was furious that he would move on once she was gone. “Ye have the audacity to judge me? What of ye? Maybe it is ye that is the one being insulting to my person. Ye will go back to yer time and pretend that I was no more than a figment of yer imagination. How do ye think that makes me feel?”

  “I really don’t care,” she threw at him, immediately regretting the words. She did care; that was the problem. She was torn between what she truly wished for here and what she had in her time. She longed to be with her family again, but the strong feelings that she had for Dougray could not be denied no matter how confusing and frightening they were to her. But instead of sharing her fears with him, she let anger rule. “When I see the mist, I will gladly rush toward it and never look back.”

  He refused to let her see how those words wounded him and lashed back without a care. “Once ye are out of my life, I will celebrate that I no longer have a thorn in my side.” With that, he turned on his heel and strode away.

  Aislinn whirled around and took out her aggressions on the bag. She pounded and pounded, until she was out of breath and even then the fight was not out of her.

  Once Dougray had left the room, Teige had come forward. He was wise enough not to say a word until she seemed more in control of her emotions. She looked at him now. With the back of her hand, she wiped the sweat from her brow. “What are you looking at?” she snapped at him.

  “I was only wondering why ye fight so much to be apart from milord when ye are in love with him.”

  “In love? Isn’t that a laugh. The man is impossible. I couldn’t love him in a million years. I wouldn’t want to. Why I’d rather love the devil himself before ever allowing myself to love Dougray Fitzpatrick.” She turned away then not wanting to meet Teige’s raised brows or to see him shake his head at her.

  Chapter 43

  Neala handed Aislinn the warm herb liquid as soon as she had finished arranging the blanket around Declan. The young boy was exhausted from playing and had fallen asleep next to the fire.

  Neala would miss Aislinn’s warm heart when she was gone. She knew that it was all predestined, but when it would happen she had no idea. Aislinn could be here ten years or she could leave come the next full moon. The gods were always so unpredictable in these matters. Time meant nothing to them, not as it did to the mere mortal. Secretly, she hoped that Aislinn would be with them for a long time. “Ye looked troubled, lass.”

  Aislinn tried to smile and was about to deny the fact, but she knew the older woman would see right through her façade. “Neala, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do, lass?” The older woman sat down on the rock leaning heavily on her walking stick.

  “I can’t marry him.”

  “Him? Oh, ye mean the Fitzpatrick.” “Yes. Who else?”

  “Why can ye nah wed the man? Has he mistreated ye in any way?” “No,” she said quickly, “of course not.”

  “Then why?” “You know.”

  “Enlighten me.” Her wise eyes seemed to see right through Aislinn, but still she had to defend he
r reasons even if they were flimsy ones.

  “Well, one, I am from another time.”

  “Ah, this is a problem with ye. Time. What exactly is time to ye?”

  “Well it’s a set of motion of hours, minutes that add up to years of events.” Neala smiled. “A fine definition ye gave. Ye are right too. Time is events that add up to years. Years are what man has made to keep track of where they have been or what they have done. Who is to say what order of time ye must follow? Ye did nah follow it the conventional way, and neither did the Fitzpatrick.”

  “What you’re suggesting is crazy. What we did was a fluke of nature.

  Time is supposed to follow an order. But let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that I am wrong, that stepping through the mist was not a fluke. Then why haven’t time travelers from every era bombarded us? Why then can’t we just walk from one century to the next and then back again?”

  “That would lead to chaos, do ye not think?”

  “You were the one that suggested the possibility.”

  “Nay. I was only saying that time is running along, always, everywhere.” “Simultaneously, is that what you mean?”

  “Aye, at the same time. If one knew the way, they could step from one river of life to the other without mishap.”

  “Well I didn’t know the way and somehow I stumbled right into the time warp and ended up right here. It seemed easy enough to do, but for some reason I have this distinct feeling that it was not all that simple. I feel like I am missing something vitally important, maybe even something that could help me to find my way back.”

  “Do ye dream, Aislinn?” “Of course.”

  “When ye dream are ye nah in another place and time, different from when ye are awake?”

  “Well yes, but it’s not real.”

  “Ye do nah believe it so, but perhaps it is what ye call awake that is not real.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Sometimes what makes sense is not always the right path. Sometimes the most unreasonable deduction is what is the correct course.” Neala could tell that she was still uncertain. “I believe that there are people sensitive to the subtle doors to space and time. Maybe even drawn to them.”