It was too depressing to think about scuba diving. She resolved not to think about it — and it wasn’t as if there was any shortage of things to distract her. Nancy spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wandering the hallways of the castle, beginning to get acquainted with the place and how it worked. She got plenty of curious looks from the servants as she wandered and stopped to chat with a few — their accents were every bit as charming as the ones she’d heard already. She ran into Maeve a few times — the woman was supervising a gaggle of servants as they did laundry and chatted happily with Nancy about what she’d learned about the castle. By the time she headed downstairs for dinner at the urging of a servant who found her poking around on the fourth floor, she was almost completely exhausted.
She sat with Malcolm, Donal and Anna again for dinner, gorging herself happily on a bowl of stew that was almost as good as the one she’d had at Maggie’s place, along with more crusty pieces of fresh bread. She listened to Anna and Donal discussing the goings-on in the castle, the impending birth of their child, and the argument they were still having over whether it would be a boy or a girl. Anna was convinced it was a boy, but Donal claimed that he’d had a very compelling dream that the Sidhe themselves had come to him to tell him he was expecting a daughter.
“Do they do that?” Nancy asked, her eyes wide.
Malcolm had laughed.
“Visit you in dreams? I’m sure they can, but I can’t imagine why they’d bother visiting Donal to tell him something he only needs to wait a few more months to find out.”
“It’s very exciting,” Anna said, smiling to herself. “I’m very excited about seeing Donal’s face when he realizes he’s been wrong all this time.”
After dinner, Nancy traipsed back up to her room, her belly full and her mind buzzing with the conversation. Donal had suggested she spend the next few days looking around the castle, getting settled in, maybe learning about the Sidhe and the Fae if she was interested. Anna was worried that she was going to get sick, and firmly recommended that she stay inside, at least for the first few days, in case she caught a chill.
“Lots of bacteria around that we don’t have immunities to,” Anna had explained over dinner, looking serious. “I could’ve died the first week I was here. You be careful, okay?”
“I will. Thanks, Anna.” That would be fairly stupid — surviving a near-death experience thanks to supernatural help, only to die of a cold once she reached her new home. She resolved to be careful.
When she got to her room, she blinked in surprise. Not only had a fire been lit in the grate, filling the whole room with cheery warmth, but there was something else, too. On the bed were a set of clothes, neatly folded, and a note in an elegant, flowing hand that explained that the clothes were for her. A gift from Malcolm, she realized, smiling. She’d noticed, as she trekked around the castle, that the majority of women wore dresses — Anna, in fact, was the only exception. It seemed that Malcolm had noticed that the women from the future favored pants and shirts over dresses — there was a pair of sturdy trousers like the ones Anna had been wearing, and a couple of tunics that fit her very well and what must be a nightgown. She made a note to thank him in the morning as she carefully folded the clothes and put them in her chest of drawers. It felt nice to have some clothes to unpack.
But for now, the little bed was calling her name. After kicking off her boots (with a brief thought of thankfulness to Maggie for giving them to her) Nancy changed into the linen gown and dove into the bed, wriggling contentedly as she felt the soft blankets envelop her. And within seconds, she was fast asleep.
Chapter 14
She woke up to the feeling of her scuba mask on her face, goggles and breathing apparatus all in place. Looking down, she saw her drysuit, her regulator in place, felt the weight of her air tanks on her back. What’s going on? I’m back in the water somehow? Surely not… but as she looked around, she realized she was in the cave again. That was — how was that the case? Blinking, she realized that she was surrounded by rough rocky walls, the light in her hand illuminating them. Familiar. This was the cave… the same cave she’d been exploring with her friends. Could she be back? Was everything that had happened some bizarre dream? She searched for the guideline, instinctively, wondering where James and Hannah were, if she was here.
But there was no guideline. And the more she looked around at the rocks, the more confused she was about where she could be. The cave didn’t look familiar… there was no sign of her friends… and the more she looked, the more she realized that there was no passage out of this cave. Just rocks, on every side — rocks, piled up, immovable even as she tried pressing against one with one gloved hand. Her heart was pounding. She was trapped. Surely not, she told herself — surely not, she was going to be okay, any minute now someone would move the rocks and free her. Instinctively she looked down at her regulator, checking how much air was left in her tanks.
But she blanched when she saw it, recoiling. No. That couldn’t be — that was impossible. The gauge showed that her tanks were empty. No air left. None at all. She stared down at it, not comprehending — and then, as she took a shallow breath, she choked and spluttered as she felt cold water rush into her mouth. Cold, black water, the same color as the waters of Loch Ness, filling her mouth up now, running down her throat and pooling in her lungs… she could feel herself thrashing in the water, but the rocks were all around her now, caving in, falling from the ceiling down onto her body, trapping her helplessly underwater as she drowned….
There was a pounding on her door as she sat bolt upright in bed, and a hoarse, strangled screaming that it took her a few minutes to realize was coming from her. As she stared wildly around her little room, lit only by the dying embers of the fire, she realized that the thumping wasn’t part of the dream… it was her door that was being pounded on, and she could hear a muffled voice from out there. She took a deep, shuddering breath to steady herself — but before she could say she was okay, the door burst open.
There stood Malcolm, a torch in his hand, wild-eyed and looking rather less organized than he had when she’d met him earlier in the day. He was wearing what must have been his night clothes, with a long jacket over the top of them in deference to the cold night air, and his hair was askew. He was staring at her, clear worry on his face, and she took another breath.
“Sorry — sorry, sorry. Bad dream.”
“Are you okay? You were screaming —”
“I know. Sorry. I was fast asleep, and I dreamed about being stuck in those caves and running out of air, and …” She took a deep breath, her heart still racing, her pulse still pounding in her temples. “I don’t think I’m going to get back to sleep any time soon,” she murmured, smiling a little ruefully. “What time is it?”
“A little before dawn.” Malcolm looked a little awkward now, standing in her room. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I am now,” she said, smiling at him. “Seriously. Just a bad dream. I’ve had them before, I’ll have them again, I’m sure.” Nancy winced, feeling a little embarrassed. “I must have been screaming pretty loud to wake you up…”
“I’m a light sleeper,” he explained. “And besides, I’m… right down the hall.” He looked a little sheepish to be saying that, as though it was some kind of secret. “So I heard you through my window.”
“Well, so long as I didn’t wake the whole castle up.” She sighed, rubbing her face. “God, I’m wide awake.”
“Would you like to go for a walk?” Malcolm suggested. “To settle your nerves?”
“No, no, you should get back to bed…”
“I’m an early riser,” he protested, offering her his hand. “Come on. I insist.”
And so it was that she found herself slipping down the stairs, his jacket about her shoulders, in what felt like the dead of night, Malcolm behind her. It was quiet in the castle, not even the early shift of servants stirring for their work, and she felt oddly like she was getting away with somet
hing… as though she technically wasn’t allowed to be doing what she was doing. Malcolm led her along a passageway on the first floor that she didn’t recognize from her wanderings, and she gasped when he led her through a door at the end of it. There they were, standing atop the wall of the castle.
“There’s a beautiful view of the sunrise from around the other side of the castle,” he told her, slipping his hand into hers as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “Come on.”
She glanced along the wall, seeing a huddle of guards staring blankly out across the still waters of the lake. A quiet part of the shift, clearly, she thought with a smile — she didn’t envy them, sitting out here in the cold all night, keeping an eye on things. But she was grateful that they were keeping her — and the rest of the occupants of the castle — safe from whatever strange and awful creatures might find their way out of the burgh. Strange creatures like me, she thought with a little chuckle. Malcolm led her along the wall around the back of the castle, and they found a place to stand just as the first light of the sun was creeping above the horizon.
“Beautiful,” she murmured, but something was still troubling her. She knew Malcolm could tell. She could feel his eyes on her, thoughtful, watchful.
“What’s bothering you?” he asked softly, and she took a deep breath.
“I’m worried that this … isn’t real,” she admitted. “I want it to be, truly I do. And stranger things have happened, I’m sure. But part of me… part of me thinks I died in that cave, Malcolm. That this is all some… extended hallucination that my drowning brain came up with. And that any minute now, everything’s going to go dark and I’m never going to wake up again…” She could feel herself starting to panic, some shadow of the feeling from the dream coming into her chest, and abruptly she could feel Malcolm’s arms around her, holding her close against his warm chest.
“You’re not hallucinating,” he said firmly, and she could feel the reverberations of his voice in his chest. “You’re here. I see you. I feel you. And I know that’s what a hallucination would say, but it’s true.”
She took another breath, uttering a shaky laugh despite herself. “I suppose so.” But to her surprise, the hug made her feel better.
Malcolm released her eventually, standing at a polite distance from her as though they’d never touched… but she could still feel the warmth of his body like residue on her skin. It made her feel… safe.
“C’mon,” he said finally, when the sun was halfway above the horizon. “We’d better go and get dressed for breakfast.”
On the way up the stairs, she felt a lot more settled — a little sleepy from waking up in what was effectively the middle of the night, but calmer. The trip out to the battlements helped, she thought with a smile. She handed him back his jacket and said, “Thank you, Malcolm.”
“My pleasure, lass,” he said with a smile and headed down the hall.
Once she was dressed in her new clothes and ready for breakfast, she was looking forward to the rest of the day. After all, this was to be her first full day in the castle — she was excited to see what it would bring.
Breakfast was fantastic. What Anna had said about oats definitely rang true — porridge seemed to be the main order of the day, with huge pots of it ready and waiting to be ladled into bowls. Anna added a spoonful of honey to her own bowl, and Nancy did the same, remembering what the woman had said about eating lots to get over the journey between their time and this one. The women sat together, talking as they ate. Anna told her about her military career — it was fascinating.
“And I was teaching self-defense to women,” Anna explained. “Just getting the business off the ground, too, when I got — you know, spirited away back here.”
“Wow. Do you still teach?”
“A little. The women in the village are interested enough in learning, but I have to keep it a bit quiet. Men get sort of… medieval about the idea of women being able to fight,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes. “It’s absolutely disgusting, but it’s part of living here.”
“We’ll change their minds,” Nancy promised, smiling.
Anna looked at her for a long moment. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said finally — and if Nancy hadn’t known any better, she’d have sworn the tough ex-soldier was tearing up a little.
Blame it on the pregnancy hormones, she thought to herself with a secret smile. It felt good to be getting to know Anna a little better. After all, nobody else here knew what it was like to be from America, or the twenty-first century… and if she was never going to be able to get home, that was going to be important.
“Are you feeling homesick?” Anna asked, as if she could read her mind.
Nancy shrugged, not sure what to say. “A little, I guess? It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I still feel like my dad’s just a phone call away. You’d like him,” she added, grinning. “He was a Navy SEAL in his day. Retired now, but —”
“Oh, yeah? I’ve spent some time with some Navy SEALs.” Anna was grinning widely. “They drank me under the table. Crazy guys.”
“I can’t really imagine my dad drinking,” Nancy said, giggling a little. “He’s very… strait-laced.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s the face they show to the world, but I promise you — craziest guys in the whole military.” Anna chuckled. “How about your mom? What does she do?”
“She passed away,” Nancy said softly. “When I was sixteen.”
“Oh, babe. That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”
“Me too,” Nancy said. “She was… wonderful.”
“Was it sudden?”
“Not really. Cancer. Diagnosed when I was twelve. So we knew it was going to be goodbye. We had some good years together.”
“That’s good.” Anna squeezed her hand.
“She was wonderful. She’d have been so thrilled about all of this,” Nancy said, grinning around at the castle. “She was all about fairytales and supernatural stuff. Always encouraged my cryptozoology hobby, despite what my dad thought…”
“Maybe she saw this coming for you.” Anna grinned. “Stranger things have happened.”
There was something pleasant about that idea, Nancy thought as she carried her empty bowl to the kitchen, getting a couple of grateful looks from the servants as she did. The idea that her mother had known, somehow, what the future had in store for her strange, adventurous little daughter — and had prepared her for it.
But what exactly was she prepared for? What had the Sidhe brought her here to do?
Chapter 15
That particular question took a backseat, but was never very far from her mind, as she spent the rest of the week pottering about the castle, getting to know its various intricacies. The other inhabitants of the castle treated her as an honored guest, which was rather strange for a woman who was used to either being a teacher or part of the furniture, but she made a few friends. It seemed easier to get on with people once they’d talked to her a little and realized she was a regular person like them. Strange, that — maybe they were expecting her to be some kind of otherworldly Fae creature, like the long, elegant Sidhe she’d met in that dream underwater? At any rate, she made some friends among the servants — a nervous young man called Oliver, as well as a gaggle of young women who introduced themselves to her on her first day there, just after breakfast. They were clearly on good terms with Anna, these women — a shy girl called Emily, a witty girl called Amelia. Nancy apologized in advance for how terrible she was with names — she wished she had a little notebook to keep track of them all.
“Anna spent a lot of her early days here helping with the chores,” Amelia said brightly, giving Nancy a smile. “Let me know if you get homesick for laundry at all, Nancy?”
“I’d be more than happy to help,” Nancy said, meaning it. “It’s the least I could do.”
“I only stopped because Donal finally let me help out with something I was actually good at,” Anna explained, grinning. She’d explained earlier that she helpe
d out with training the men — she had a few tricks up her sleeve that even Donal and Brendan hadn’t heard of. It had taken some effort to get Donal to listen to a woman when it came to fighting, but it was paying dividends already.
“I’m not good at much,” Nancy admitted. “I mean, I’m a really good scuba diver and a certified instructor, but that would involve… you know, gear from the future. So unless there’s a very unconventional inventor in town…”
“You know, a lot of the Castle people don’t know how to swim,” Anna said thoughtfully. “That might be worth looking into.”
True to her word, she did spend some time that week helping out with chores. When she wasn’t doing that, she’d wander the halls of the castle, getting acquainted with where everything was stored, its various winding pathways… or hang out on the walls, staring out across the waters of the lake. Sometimes she spectated on the men training, their wooden blades clattering pleasantly in the afternoon sun — but she hadn’t been brave enough to ask to have a go herself, for all that she knew, Anna would give her a private lesson if she asked. Swords seemed like… a lot to deal with, that was all.
She also found a fascinating library of books on the various creatures that had come through the burgh, and what was more, people to talk about it with. Upstairs, there was a room dedicated for the use of scholars — huge bookshelves, great big desks to work on, and quiet men in robes shuffling back and forth. Well, quiet unless they were bickering furiously over the intricacies of Faerie lore, of course. She met a couple of men called Jamie and Douglas when she went nosing in that particular space — they were in the midst of a furious argument, but they were happy enough to put it on hold when she arrived.
“I can’t believe the Sidhe sent us another one,” Jamie said once introductions had been made, his eyes gleaming. “You must tell us everything about it.”
Stranded By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 2 Page 9