“My parents,” she hesitated, not wanting to confuse him further with talk of a future he couldn’t understand, but the truth of it was yearning to get out. To voice what she had never dared to say aloud before lest she find it printed in some gossip blog the next day. “Roles, good paying ones, were getting harder for them to find.” Scarlett laughed inwardly at that. What a delicate way of interpreting the past. Truth was her mother hadn’t wanted to admit that she just wasn’t the screen siren she once was. She refused to play anyone’s mother. “Times were getting tough when my dad landed a bit part in this new movie franch… uh, production,” she continued. “It was being developed from a young adult paranormal book series about a group of teenagers in a post-apocalyptic world who escape the destruction of London and gather at an old castle to fight the invaders taking over the world.”
“I dinnae understand any of that.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not important. What ended up happening is that my father told the director that he knew just the right person to play the role of the geeky, shy but brilliantly techno-savvy Finley Adams. Me.”
“Nepotism.” He shrugged, his chest shifting against her back with the motion. “No’ an unusual way to win a place in the world. The Hepburns hae relied upon it for generations to advance the clan.”
“Some called it nepotism, others said it was just in my genes. Either way, the part was mine. I spent most of my teen years making those fil… uh, playing that one part,” she modified.
“Tell me more aboot the plot of this tale. Post-apocalyptic? Was it a religious work?”
“No,” she paused, considering how to answer in a way he might understand. “How can I explain this so that you’ll understand? It just refers to a time when the human race as managed to nearly destroy itself without God’s help. Does that make any sense?”
“Aye, we are well on our way, me thinks.”
Scarlett smiled. “Oh, I think the world’s safe for a while yet, but in this story it wasn’t. Imagine a time far in the future, all right? Society was nearly destroyed but had begun to build itself up once more, and had come to realize that humans were not the only intelligent beings in the universe.”
“What a sacrilegious notion,” he said, his arms tightening around her as he stiffened in shock. “I cannae fathom that the playwright wisnae immediately imprisoned for propagating such blasphemy.”
“Are you going to let me finish?” Laird paused but then nodded against the top of her head. “All right, so the humans have been interacting with the alien beings for some time…” His chest heaved against her back as he scoffed. “Really? Now listen. One of the races of aliens, called the Umbrut, brought with them another species that they kept as pets. Harmless, innocuous dragon-like creatures called Harquinians. Little,” she held her hands out to indicate something the size of a basketball, “and as cute as pie.”
“Pie isnae cute.”
Scarlett just pursed her lips in exasperation and continued. “Well, it turns out that the Umbrut were the ones who were the pets, so to speak. The Harquinians had been controlling their minds for generations, feeding on them. They came to Earth with the same intention for the human race. Before long, most of the world’s population was reduced to a zombie-like state, uh, puppets in the hands of their masters before the threat could be countered, in part, by a group of young people who took refuge in an ancient castle. In the last segment, Broken Strings, they manage to vanquish the alien enemy and save the human race from eradication.”
“I’ve ne’er heard such lunacy in my life,” he said with a dry laugh. “I cannae imagine a person succumbing to such control.”
Turning in his arms, Scarlett looked up at him curiously. “Can’t you? Aren’t the people here controlled to some extent by religion and superstition? By fear of hellfire and warnings of eternal damnation?” Her question was met by a dark scowl.
“Ye speak dangerously close to heresy, lass. Now I ken why Rhys sought yer company as he is oft an irreverent fool. No’ doubt he enjoyed such stories greatly.”
“In fact, he did. Millions of people did. It was wildly popular.”
Laird laughed, assuming her number an exaggeration, no doubt. In truth, it was rather conservative. “And ye say ye played this same role for years?”
“Yes. The role wasn’t much of a stretch for me and to some extent I enjoyed it, but it was never my dream.” It had been her parents dream. Her co-stars as well, who one and all desired nothing more than fame. Scarlett hadn’t wanted it. She hadn’t lied to Grayson about that. Growing up as she had and seeing the impact ‘fame’ had on her parents, she wanted nothing to do with it. Regardless of her wishes, she had been a reluctant star, but was just finally getting a grip on her life.
“What was yer dream?”
It was Scarlett’s turn to shrug. “I’m not sure. I never had much of a chance to really think about it. I did go to college when I was done with the role. University,” she clarified. “I studied English Literature. I’m not sure what I thought to do with it. Teach, maybe? Write? Other than becoming a professional student, the options for a popular movie actor are surprisingly limited.”
“I kent that ye were well educated.”
“Did you go to school?”
“I was trained for a knighthood but since I do hae mine own property, I was well-tutored on how to manage it.” Thoughtful silence fell as he stroked his thumb idly over her knuckles. “Were yer parents supportive of such a change?”
“Not really.” All through those years at school, her parents and Tyrone had been there, trying to guilt-trip her into living her life for them, making them more money. The modeling. The appearances. It had been all been her parents and Tyrone. Pressing her. Pushing her. Each time she had given in until she couldn’t any longer. “But I was done with it before I ended up here,” she said to Laird. “I had finally put my foot down. No more cameras. No more celebrity. No more having people tell me where to go, how to dress or what to eat. I wasn’t going to bow to their expectations anymore.”
“Did it work?”
“I don’t know.”
She had been whisked away from her time before she had a chance to find out. On the other hand, there was no chance of continuing that life here, so in a way she had succeeded. Scarlett almost laughed at the irony. She should have been careful what she wished for. She’d wanted freedom and she’d gotten this. Somewhere the fates were mocking her. “Maybe I’ll never know. What about you? You’re going to be in trouble with your father, no doubt.”
Laird’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Mayhap. My wishes align wi’ his no more than yers did wi’ yer parents. Like ye, I dinnae live the life I ha’ wanted.”
He paused, as if surprised by the confession and the truth behind it. It seemed he didn’t like the life he led any more than she did. “I’ve always done my duty but I’ve spent years at loose ends. Father wills me to be a soldier, a courtier but this disnae please me.”
Scarlett cocked her head. “What would please you?”
Their dark tent was cloaked in silence as James contemplated the question he’d never been asked. “To see my holdings grow.” Again it was a surprise but James felt the truth in those words. “I’ve held my own land since birth yet I’ve no’ known the satisfaction of toiling wi’ my own hands, of making it my own.”
“How would you do that?”
“Expand Dunskirk. Add to the existing pele tower and bailey until it is a force to be reckoned wi’ in the borderlands.” His burr was soft but full of conviction. “It could be a grand, bonny castle.”
“I can imagine just how it should look.”
James raised a brow. “Can ye now?”
An impish smile tilted the corner of her mouth as if she were privy to something he was not. “Yes, I could draw you a picture of exactly how it should be.”
“I may hae ye do that and we shall see if yer vision matches my own.”
“I bet it will,” she said smugly.
; Some of her words and terminology had been nothing but gibberish, though that was nothing new when speaking with Scarlett, but not for the first time, James got the impression that Scarlett was hiding something from him. Something far more important than the state of his keep.
Everything about her was a mystery but he could get no answers from her – at least on matters of more import to their relationship than her life on stage. Despite hours of conversation, he knew little more about her than he had before. Oh, he had learned more about the person she was beneath the surface but not the hard facts that would help him make some sense of her and her presence in his life.
It was all nothing, but it meant something.
What a complicated lass she was, he thought, looking down into her golden eyes. They were as direct as always, charged with vitality and fortitude.
Who was she really? From whence had she come? How could she know so much about some things, yet so little about others?
He couldn’t fathom how such a determined lass so assured of her own opinion and cleverness might ever be compelled by another to do something beyond her own will.
She was not an innocent when it came to matters of the flesh. Was she married? Widowed? Was the Tyrone she had called to for aid at Dunskirk her husband? A lover?
He might never know the answers when she refused to respond to his queries on the matter, but if he were honest with himself, James knew he was less and less interested in knowing.
34
The raw beauty of the area was as stunning to Scarlett as when she first arrived in this time. Endless hills of green with a touch of burnt umber and bronze that hinted at the coming fall. One after another they rolled as far as the eye could see with little to break the picturesque landscape. A small village in the distance. A church spire or two.
There was nothing around her that Scarlett recognized, nothing at all that reminded her of modern day England. No landmarks, no roads.
Nothing.
From the fringes of the latest encampment, she’d been able to watch the cannon fire at measured intervals upon a castle about a mile or two to the east. It was just four towers connected by curtain walls. It had taken less than an hour before the portcullis was raised and the Scottish troops entered the keep.
It was not at all like she imagined when first hearing about the ‘invasion’ of England. But for Norham and that excruciating five day siege, the castles of northern England were giving in to the Scottish forces without much of a fuss and it left Scarlett wondering whether the English were planning on fighting back at all or if, as Laird said, the border holds and castles were so used to being fought over that they merely cleaved to and hoped for the best.
“How goes the war?” she asked when Laird returned to their tent a few hours later. One advantage of Laird’s lie to his father and the King was that they were able to share a tent.
“‘Struth I never wanted to be a soldier any more than ye enjoyed life as a thespian. I believe the life of a courtier to be even worse each day I’m am commanded to be at the King’s side.” Shedding his weaponry, Laird poured himself a glass of wine and dropped into a chair with a sigh.
“That distillery must be looking better and better.”
“Far more promising even in theory than my father was in keeping his word in truth. Father strings me along wi’ promises to aid me but has ne’er acted on them. Nor hae I spoken of my impatience. ’Twas always much easier to let him have his way than it was to argue wi’ him.”
“I so get that. Isn’t it interesting that both of us dream basically of living our own lives unfettered by the will of others?” she asked softly.
Yes, they were more alike than Scarlett had realized.
“No’ terribly grand, is it?”
“I think they are. Our dreams are our own. As great in importance as the kid who dreams of ruling the world,” she said and Laird chuckled.
“I see yer point.”
Scarlett nodded, massaging his shoulders and bending to kiss his neck. Laird turned his head to capture her lips. Beneath his, her lips parted welcoming his languid exploration as he pulled her into his lap.
“Lass?”
“Hmm?” she murmured against his mouth.
“Why would a goat long to rule the world?”
Scarlett’s laughter joined his as she turned, hiking up her skirts to straddle his lap. Wrapping her arms around his head, tangling her fingers in his shaggy locks, she spread kisses along his jaw and down his neck. Shifting, she undulated slowly until his thickening length was snug and throbbing against her. Already she felt heat coiling at her core but she was in no rush. There was urgency but also contentment just being within the circle of his embrace. In feeling those strong arms wrapped tightly about her, holding her securely as if she had become a part of him.
“Ah, mo chroí, there is nothing sweeter than the feel of ye in my arms,” he murmured thickly in his husky brogue, burying his face into the curve of her neck.
She never knew what to think when he said things like that. Never knew how to deal with the incompatible emotions of pleasure and alarm they inspired. It was as if he wanted to be with her always though he never said anything about the future. Scarlett didn’t either but for entirely different reasons. “So you’ve conquered another castle today?”
“Conquer is a strong word. Ford Castle belongs to Sir William Heron who is currently held prisoner by King James at Holyrood. ‘Tis his wife, Lady Elizabeth Heron who surrendered the castle to us wi’ the promise to secure the release of two Scotsmen being held by the Sassenach in exchange for us sparing her castle,” he told her.
“And what if she doesn’t?”
He shrugged. “Then we will destroy it anyway.”
Sure, Scarlett thought, why not? No biggie. “So, what’s next?”
“I dinnae ken. Seems King James has found the company of Lady Heron to be most congenial. He remains at Ford Castle this night.”
“Poor Janet Kennedy. She might be in danger of losing her prized position.”
Laird chuckled softly. “I dinnae care, as long as she disnae lose it to ye.”
“How could she?” Scarlett teased. “I’m ‘married’ to you now, aren’t I?”
“Och, ye’ve no ken how to behave like a proper wife.”
“Submissive?”
“Aye.”
“Oh, I could be submissive,” she raked her teeth along his whiskered jaw, enjoying his sharp intake of breath at the promise in her words.
“Aye, for aboot an hour’s time then yer back to yer usual sass.”
“You like it.”
“Aye, mo chroí, I do,” he admitted, his arms banding even more tightly around her. “Och, my sweet lass, would that ye might be my bride in truth.”
Scarlett laughed nervously. Was that a proposal? He was joking, wasn’t he?
“But I’m not,” she said lightly. “It doesn’t matter, I suppose. I’m terrible at relationships.” True enough. She wasn’t really looking to be anyone’s girlfriend much less wife. She’d never gotten serious with anyone before simply because all the men she met already had a preconception of who she was and their expectations of how things with her would be. “I would only disappoint you.”
“Ne’er, lass,” he whispered in her ear, brushing his lips across her lobe. “Ye delight me in every way.”
“Until I don’t anymore,” she said firmly. He deserved fair warning. She knew well enough how these things went. “Nothing good ever lasts forever. We won’t either.”
His arms tightened around her. His disappointment at her words was palpable. “Hae ye somewhere else to be?”
Scarlett shrugged noncommittally. “Not just now, but I may not have a choice in the matter. Any more than you do.”
He’d never met a woman like Scarlett Thomas. She was an enigma in so many ways, but especially in this. To be so caring in one moment but to deny the reasons for it in the next. He’d never known a woman so guarded with her affections, so hesitant t
o give her heart. But then, James had never known himself to be so willing to give his own.
If the truth were known, he already had. He’d told Scarlett things about himself he’d never shared with another. He’d lied for her, to have her for his own. To his family. To his sovereign. Yet James knew he would go further still to keep her safe. To keep her at his side.
She would realize soon enough that some good things could – and would – last forever.
It was some minutes later before what Laird had said finally sank in.
Her eyes popped open, searching his face as her heart began to flutter a rhythmically, sickly. “Wait. Did you say Ford Castle? Laird!” she shook him urgently as she scrambled to her feet. “Ford Castle. Is that what you said?”
“Aye, lass. What of it?”
“I thought you said King James planned on invading England through Newcastle? Isn’t that what you said? I’d never been there. Hell, I probably wouldn’t have recognized it now if I had. But we’re nowhere near there, are we?”
“Nay, Surrey’s forces were gathering to the east at Dunbar so James decided to cross at Coldstream. What is it, lass? Ye look faint.”
That’s because she was. She hadn’t recognized any of the castles the Scots army had defeated in the past week. Wark she had never even heard of. Oh, the other names, Norham and Etal, might have rung a distant bell but many of the dozens of castles on the Scottish Borders and Northumberland were nothing but ruins in her time. Hardly anything for a tourist to see.
She hadn’t recognized this last one either. Not because it was a ruin in the future but because, like Dunskirk, the castle itself looked nothing like the one she knew from the twenty-first century.
But she recognized the name. Ford Castle didn’t just ring a bell; it set off a peal of church bells.
Scarlett’s mind thundered as her pulse rate skyrocketed. Shutting her eyes tightly, she pressed her fingers to her throbbing temples. No! She had to be wrong! “What day is it?”
“Lass, what is it?” he asked, concern clouding his eyes as he caught her hand and tugged gently.
Taken: A Laird for All Time Novel (Volume 2) Page 26