“So, what’s your new friend’s name?”
He looked up at me with a face that plainly meant he thought I’d lost my mind. “I don’t know him, Mom. I don’t know his name.”
He shook his head at me, apparently astonished at my stupidity.
“Well, then why did you wave at him?”
He shrugged, lifting my hand a little. “He looked sad and he looked right at me, just like at the park.”
The thought made me uneasy. “You said he has bad scars? Does he scare you?”
“No.” He seemed surprised by my suggestion. “He’s not a bad guy just because he has scars, Mom.”
“Of course not,” I muttered quickly. Instantly regretting the implication of my question. “I just meant,” what did I mean? “He’s a stranger. How do you know he’s not scary?”
He shrugged his little shoulders and we stepped forward a step in the line. “Bebop says even if somebody is smiling, you can see meanness in their eyes.” He paused a moment and I said nothing, knowing by his held breath that he wasn’t finished speaking. “And I think he’s right. Just look at Grandfather. He smiles at people all the time, but he’s not very nice.”
I looked down at him, unsure of what to say. It seemed wrong to let him speak poorly of my father, but I could hardly disagree with him. Instead, I chose to direct the conversation back to the stranger. “So this man’s eyes weren’t mean, huh?”
“Nope. I think he likes us, Mom.”
We neared the gate and I extended Cooper’s boarding pass toward him so that he could hand it to the attendant to scan. “Well, why wouldn’t he like us? Here—do you want to hand it to her?”
“Yes!” He snatched it from me excitedly and leaned to the side to see how close we were to the front. “We’re almost there, we’re almost there. You can let go of my hand now too if you want, Mom.”
I released his hand, stepping behind him so that he could have his ticket checked first. After both our tickets were scanned, I stayed a half-step behind him, allowing him to lead us into the makeshift hallway leading toward the plane. He all but bounced up and down with the excitement that radiated off him.
His happiness did me good and, for a moment, I forgot all about Cooper’s mysterious stranger until a quick glance down at my bag made me realize I’d left my jacket draped over the chair where Cooper and I had been sitting.
Calling to him to stop, I waved him toward me. “Hey, I want you to wait right here. I left my coat, I’m just going to go ask the attendant if she’ll grab it for me.”
He nodded, trying to hide his disappointment that we would move back a few places in the line to get on the plane.
Squeezing his hand, I stepped away and hurried back up the ramp, pushing my way against the flow of people until I stood next to the gate entry, being sure not to step back outside of it. “Miss…” I reached out to tap the girl on the shoulder. “I’m so sorry, I believe I left my jacket on that chair over there.” I pointed in the direction of the chair, but couldn’t see it due to the line. “Would you mind grabbing it for me?”
To my surprise, she extended the light cotton jacket in my direction. “Is it this one?”
“Why, yes.” I reached out for it, surprised it had been noticed amongst the crowd of people. “Did a passenger pick it up?”
She shook her head and jerked it to the side, “Not a passenger on this plane. He must have been waiting at another gate. He just laid it over the counter here and turned to walk away before I could speak to him.”
“Which way did he go?” I looked around the mass of people, trying to find the man I suspected.
“I don’t know. I’m a bit busy, as you can see.”
The woman smiled, but clearly she wished for me to leave now. Although there was no way for me to know for sure, Cooper’s stranger was, once again, very much on my mind.
Chapter 4
The Inn Near Conall Castle
Present Day
Overnight flights are meant to be slept on but, try as I might to explain this concept to Cooper, he had none of it. While he still operated with the same inexhaustible amount of energy he had aboard the flight, the full effects of jet lag crashed down on me hard, making me ill-tempered.
“Mr. Perdie, there’s no way this is where I’m supposed to stay. I know you said it was an inn, but there’s no sign or anything. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Why on earth would an inn set up here?”
I fumbled with the GPS system with one hand, holding my phone to my ear with the other. While Perdie read aloud the coordinates, I frowned down at the navigation screen in frustration. “Yes, that’s exactly where I am but this…this just can’t be it.”
“Mom, look!”
His voice, loud, high, and demanding sounded as pleasing to my tired ears as an out of tune oboe. “Coop,” I snapped a little too harshly. “What have I told you about when I’m on the phone? You have to wait until I’m finished.”
“But…” his voice quivered but he continued, determined to be heard. “There’s a man at the door. He’s wav…waving.” His voice broke completely as he finished and my heart with it.
I hurried off the phone with Mr. Perdie, mumbling something along the lines of, “Never mind, I’ll call you later,” before making haste to apologize. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m just exhausted. No sleep turns me into a scary troll.”
“A very scary troll,” he said.
Although he wasn’t ready to smile at me, I knew I’d been forgiven. “Now, what’s this about a man? I don’t see anybody.” Again, I thought to myself. It worried me that twice in the course of twenty-four hours Cooper had seen someone I hadn’t. Although, I wasn’t sure which one of us I should be worried for—him for his overactive imagination or myself for my horrifying lack of observational skills. I guess we would find out soon enough.
Cooper threw his hands up in exasperation. “Well, that’s because he went back inside.” He waved real big and then,” he pulled his hand toward his chest, demonstrating the man’s hand motion, “he wants us to come inside, too.”
After putting the car back in drive long enough so that I could turn off the main road and park in front of the inn, I turned off the engine. “Alright. I’ll take your word for it. Let’s leave our bags here, just in case, okay?”
Unbuckling his seat belt, he nodded before reaching to open the car door, popping the handle with his fingers and then kicking it open the rest of the way with his feet. Once outside, he slammed the door as hard as he could, which was just hard enough to close the door back properly.
Anxious to greet the man who’d waved to him, Cooper knocked on the front door before I reached his side. As I neared him, the door swung open, revealing an ancient-looking man who for a moment, however brief, looked so grumpy that I could scarcely imagine that this was the man Cooper thought had waved us inside.
Much to my astonishment, the stranger’s face altered completely in the next second, transforming with a smile so large and warm that the vast contrast to how he appeared only a moment ago would have unsettled me in most cases, but the old man now appeared so welcoming that both Cooper and I couldn’t help but smile in return.
He extended a large, bony hand and Cooper reached out confidently to grasp it firmly—perhaps the one good thing my father had taught him.
“Why, good morning, lad. We’ve been expecting ye. I am Jerry. I believe that me wife has prepared some brunch for ye both. Why doona ye come in?” The man looked up at me and smiled before returning his attention to Cooper. “And who might this lovely lass standing behind ye be?”
Cooper reached his left hand behind him, extending it in my direction so that I would take it, effectively presenting me to the man. When he wished to be, Coop had it in him to be quite the little gentleman.
“This is my Mom.”
The man, Jerry, stepped forward. I moved to extend my own hand, but instead he clasped me on the shoulder, ushering us inside. “Aye, I reckoned she was, t
hough she looks young enough to be yer sister. What is yer name, laddie, and how old are ye?”
Continuing to move down the hall in the direction Jerry indicated, Cooper occasionally glanced behind him so that he could look at Jerry as he spoke. “Cooper and I’m four years old, but not really four because I’ll be five very soon.”
“Ach, I’d have guessed ye a fair deal older than that, laddie.”
Cooper nodded, clearly expecting this response. “Yeah, everybody says that.”
“And ye…” Jerry lowered his voice so that I knew he now spoke to me and not Cooper, “must be Grace, aye?”
I nodded, battling a brief moment of confusion. The reservation must have required something more than the name of the magazine for him to know my first name. I knew for certain I hadn’t been given the chance to introduce myself yet.
We stepped into the kitchen and, while the smell was enough to alert us that someone had been busy cooking, the room was empty. Still, Jerry ushered us inside.
“Go on and have a seat, the both of ye. I believe me wife has stepped upstairs to invite our other guest down for a meal, though he usually dines in his room, I expect he’d like to meet the two of ye.”
“Why?” I asked the question before I had a chance to check it, but I didn’t understand his conclusion. If I were staying at an inn, I certainly wouldn’t feel the need to meet and greet every new guest that checked in.
“Ach, well,” the old man seemed slightly rattled by my question, or perhaps, the bluntness of it. “He’s been here several months now, and the two of ye are the first guests we’ve had since he arrived. I expect me wife thinks ’twould do him good to see some other people.”
“Don’t you think a grown man can decide for himself what would do him good? Why has he been here so long? It certainly doesn’t look like there would be much to do around here.” I surprised myself once again with another question. Usually, I wasn’t this blunt, but something about this situation and the conversation at present felt very odd to me, and I couldn’t help but continue my inquiry.
“Why, lass, I just offered ye food. Why ye feel the need to berate me so, I doona know. Both of yer questions ye can ask the lad yerself when he gets down here. Now, sit.”
He pointed at a chair to his left. I did as he bid, ashamed at my lack of manners. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid jet-lag is hitting me rather hard. I appreciate the food. We both do.”
Jerry patted and squeezed my shoulder once again. “Doona worry about it, lass. Travel is a tough business. Ye two help yerself to the food. I’ll go see if me wife needs some help.”
He slipped quickly away. Before I could gather the energy to stand, I glanced over to see Cooper standing on his tiptoes in an effort to reach the eggs on the stove, just nearly about to dump them right onto the floor.
Leaping from my seat, I pulled on the last of my energy reserves to reach for the tilting plate.
*
“How do ye feel, lad?”
Morna’s voice next to his bedside worried Eoghanan. Perhaps the travel had injured him this time, though as he lay with his eyes closed, he felt no more pain than usual. Each time the journey made his head ache and his wounds burn, but all in all, he seemed in less pain than the previous times.
He jerked his eyes open, adjusting to the bright light above him, working to collect himself from the slight confusion that followed each journey before finally looking in Morna’s direction.
“I feel better than before, though me head aches as it always does.”
“Aye, I’m afraid there’s no way around that bit of it. Do ye feel like rising from yer bed for a while? We have new visitors who will be staying with us. I think it polite if ye come and meet them. Ye are bound to bump into one another over the next few weeks.”
Her words surprised him. Not a soul had happened across his host’s home since his arrival. So many days spent in near solitude made him doubt his ability to communicate suitably, especially if the visitors were from the time he found himself in now. “No, thank ye, Morna. I think it best that I rest a while more.”
The look on Morna’s face confirmed his fears. She’d not meant it as a real question and threw a wad of strange clothes on him. “I dinna ask ye for ye to say ‘no’. Now, ye can either get up, or I shall drag ye up, but downstairs to the kitchen ye shall go one way or the other.”
Resigned, Eoghanan slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed, sitting up. Thankfully, the task of moving about normally became easier with each passing day. “Fine. I dinna think ye would let me stay here, but I thought it worth a try.”
“Ye knew it fruitless to try before ye uttered the words. Now put these on. Ye canna wear the loose linen ye have on now, for no man would wear it in this time. I have tried to find ye the lightest modern material I could, so it willna press too much against yer side, but no doubt ye will feel it against the scar.”
Eoghanan held up both garments. The first, while about the length of a kilt, was made of a fabric he’d never seen before and had two holes, one for each of his legs, he assumed. The top scrunched together and, as he pulled on the sides, he watched in fascination as the bottoms grew and shrunk with his efforts. “And what are these, Morna?”
“I believe that American men wear them while they play sports. Jerry said he’s seen basketball players don them. I thought that since the waistband is moveable, it would hurt less than placing ye in a pair of fitted pants.”
Eoghanan frowned down at the garments. “Men must take no pride in how they look to wear such ridiculous garments. Can I no just wear me kilt?”
“It’s too heavy just yet. It would rub right against yer scars. Just strip yer clothes, and I’ll help ye. Doona be shy about it either. All these months of healing ye, I’ve seen every blessed inch of ye, and ye know it well.”
Not a skilled talker on his best day, Eoghanan knew the witch would win every war of words with him. So he stood to step out of the thin linen pants, deciding not to argue the point further. His mind took him, instead, back to where he’d been only moments before. “The lad saw me this time. I know he did. I suspected he did the first time, but I couldna be sure. This time though, he waved at me.”
He thought back on the boy, smiling and waving at him as if he’d known him all his young life.
“Oh?” Morna’s voice spoke as she lifted his foot to slide into a solid white, strange foot covering she called a ‘tennis-shoe.’ “I’ll no say that it surprises me that a child was the one to see ye. They are much more perceptive than adults.”
“Aye, I believe the boy to be verra wise for his small age. He dinna seem to be afraid of the way I look.” Eoghanan tried to wiggle his toes, grimacing at the monstrosity being strapped to his foot.
“Why would he be? Ye look mighty fine in me eyes, and I’d be hard pressed to find any lass that dinna think ye so.”
He pulled up one corner of his mouth in disagreement. “Mayhap once, but no so much anymore. I doona mind it, but ’tis true well enough.”
“Hogwash,” Morna swatted his covered foot dismissively. “Yer scars may look a bit painful now, but as they fade, they will only draw lassies to ye, wait and see. Makes ye look a wee bit dangerous, and I doona know any lass that doesna like a bit of danger whether she is willing to admit it or no. No matter that ye are about as dangerous as a wee kitten, ye willna look that way, and that’s what matters.”
“If ye say so. Are ye done with me? I feel rather foolish.”
In answer to his question, Morna stood from her crouching place at his feet. “Aye. Ye know ye seemed surprised that the child wasna scared of the way ye looked. Children are only afraid of what they’re taught to be afraid of.” She paused and opened the bedroom door, motioning toward him so that he would follow her into the hallway. “’Tis a credit to the boy’s mother that he wasna bothered by ye. It means she’s taught him to look at more than how a person looks.”
Mention of the lad’s mother, as he followed Morna down the stairs and into
the hallway, made Eoghanan think back to the way her garment felt in his hands and the risk he’d taken by going after it once she’d left it. It smelled lovely, as if he were holding her in his arms. He almost wished to keep it for himself but instead had left it for her, quickly rushing back to his place in the shadows. He could almost smell it now, the same scent he’d noticed on the covering. The fragrance so lifelike in his memory, he found himself bewildered by it. How could he smell something so strongly when it wasn’t there?
He stepped into the kitchen to greet the inn’s new guests and stopped still. The scent that lingered in his memory instead clung to the very woman he thought of. She stood before him now, both she and the young lad.
Chapter 5
“Hey, I know you. Did you get on the same plane as us?”
I’d just sat Cooper down at the kitchen table with a plate full of eggs and some sort of weird sausage I had no intention of eating when Cooper’s exclamation caused me to glance up to where Jerry’s wife, along with the inn’s other resident, appeared in the doorway.
I understood Cooper’s words immediately upon looking at the man, and the room suddenly seemed to grow quite small. I reached behind to steady myself but found that I groped at nothing but air until Jerry’s knowing hand found mine as he stepped to my side. “Are ye alright, lass?”
I nodded as Jerry led me to a chair next to Cooper. He spoke up on my behalf.
“She’s just a bit tired is all. Verra long trip from America. I think some sleep would do her good.”
Morna's Legacy 04 - Love Beyond Measure Page 3