by Jane Stain
“Hello, Dall. Who is that English woman?”
“Hello. She is Emily, someone I want my family to meet.”
“Oho. Emily is a very lucky lady, then. Where did you meet her?”
“At Kilchurn Castle.”
“So when will you be wedding?”
“I have not yet asked the lass, but soon, I hope.”
“Ha ha. I bet you want it soon. Good journey.”
After the first of these exchanges, Dall said to Emily, “Sorry, lass, but we canna stop lang enough for me tae tell them tae speak English for ye.”
Holding back her laugh, Emily told him, “No worries. I understand.”
The older people who came out to greet Dall asked different questions, and his answers were more somber.
“Hail, Dall, what news?”
“Kester and Lachie passed on last night.”
“Oh, so sad. When we heard they were only wounded, we dared hope.”
“Aye, but that be the lot of the warrior.”
“Aye, that be the way of it. Good journey home.”
After a few hours of greeting rancher MacGregors, Dall and Emily and the horse were out of the glen and on their own again. They all took a long drink, and then Dall had them both get off the horse, talking in a manner that made Emily think they had gone out of their way to visit Glen Strae.
“We, ah, wull need tae climb ower the foothills now tae Glen Orchy, where the going wull be easier.”
In a familiar gesture, he put his forearm out for Emily to steady herself on as she climbed. He led the horse by a long rein in his other hand, allowing the creature to make its own way up.
Gladly, Emily held his arm, reveling in the tingles his touch gave her even as her vague familiarity with the area from studying Google Maps before she left home allowed her to tease him.
“Shouldn’t we have taken Glen Orchy from the beginning?” She gave him a sly grin.
He raised his chin at her in play. “Aye, but I want as many MacGregors as I can possibly manage tae ken yer face and yer name.”
Emily felt her face glowing from his declaration. “I’m glad we have this climb. It will give us privacy for a while, and I have so much to tell you.”
“Verra good, lass. I dared tae hope ye would.”
The climb wasn’t too difficult. They followed one creek up to the crest of the foothills and then another creek down into a much larger and much greener valley. Still, it took hours.
Smiling most of the time and hugging him sometimes, Emily told Dall everything as they climbed.
She started with how they had met and he had escorted her all over the faire on his arm, much as he was in that moment. How they had become close over those four weekends: dancing staged sets, practicing with swords and daggers, him getting her and Vange jobs at Simon’s boot booth … She proudly showed him her boots then, fashioned like his, and how one held the dagger Dall had convinced Ian to give her. And she demonstrated the dagger techniques Dall had taught her. She told him of the parties in Siobhan’s trailer, where the two of them had sat cuddled together for hours.
Her face turned red then.
Dall had stopped climbing to take both of her hands in his, and his face was desperate with longing and loss. “What is it, lass? Hae we children togither?”
“No. No, we haven’t … but Dall, I’m used to kissing you each time we part and each time we meet again. I miss that so much. Can you imagine what it’s like to have had that, and now for you to barely know who I am all over again?”
And then he was kissing her for the first time in his current memory. An insistent hello kiss, long and wet, with an embrace to go with it. Warm enough to silence the cold highland wind as it blew furiously over the rocky crest of the foothills under the grey clouds.
The horse stomped.
Dall was still embracing her. “I would dae this with ye all day, lass, but up here near the crags, we feel the cauld, and we are expecting tae eat with folk along the way … and I want ye tae meet my family, sae we hae a journey ahead o’ us yet.”
The horse stomped again as if in agreement, and they both laughed.
Dall caressed her face. “And ’tis na right, that we dae this too lang afore we wed. I wull dae right by ye, lass. I ken ’tis early yet, but I hope ye wull think on wedding me.”
At first, Emily smiled big and squeezed Dall tight.
He squeezed her back, picked her up, and swung her around.
After he set her down and their eyes were smiling at each other, her lips started to say that of course she would marry him—today, if he was ready.
But then she remembered.
Her smile dissolved into a worried grimace.
He started to let her go, hurt showing on his face.
She grabbed him and held him close, and then let him loose enough that she could show him the sincerity in her eyes and reassure him that she wished things were otherwise.
“Dall, the druids put a curse on me, too.”
She took out her phone to show him Siobhan’s text warning, but when she switched her phone on, she gasped.
“What is wrong, lass?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Things are inexplicably right. My phone is fully charged.”
Emily held her phone out in front of Dall, pointing at the charge indicator.
But of course he had never seen anything electronic and was understandably fascinated. He sat down on a nearby rock and held out his hands the way one would to be passed a baby. “May I look closer, lass?”
Reminded just how fragile and irreplaceable it was in this time, Emily sat down next to Dall and passed her phone to him just as carefully. “It was only halfway charged when we left the castle this morning. And now, see? The charge indicator is full.” She pointed again.
They sat there, intent on her phone, for quite some time, letting the horse graze. Every once in a while, they drank from her bota bag and each of them ate one of her candies.
While she showed him how the phone worked, she explained electricity, satellites, computers, the Internet, ebooks, text messages, and finally apps, leading to the story of how Siobhan had put the Time Management app on this phone, how that app had brought the two of them here to his time and country, and how she dared not fiddle with the settings because she wanted to go home on July 19 and arrive the very moment they had left.
“Now lass, what caused ye such alarm?”
“I forgot to wear this brooch to charge the phone. It was going dead.” She set it up.
“Come, lass. The candy was good, and I thank ye, but we wull be wanting a hot meal. We can ride. The way doon this side is easy.”
He was already standing up, and after getting on the horse, he held out his hand for her.
Sliding up close to Dall let loose the warm waves of thrills in her body again, and that made her remember why she had taken her phone out to begin with.
They had been riding a few minutes before she got up the courage to tell him. “Dall.”
“Aye?”
“The Campbells are only using you MacGregors for your fighting prowess. In six years, when you have taken for the Campbells all the land they want, they will start to betray you. Over the next fifty years, they will intermarry with your chief line. Then they will behead your chief and his sons, taking all your lands and cattle for their own.”
“I dinna doubt ye, Drusilla.” He squeezed her knee, and she knew he was teasing her with that name. “Howsoever, here we come intae Campbell lands, ye ken?” He nodded toward the huge green valley that now opened up below them. The part she could see was ten times the size of Glen Strae and just as full of cattle, and the mountains cut off her view to the north and south. It was dotted with stone houses, as well. A much larger river ran through.
Not getting his point, Emily pressed hers. “Dall, we need to tell Alasdair. We should turn around now and go back to Kilchurn Castle and tell him all I know so that he can avoid the Campbells’ betrayal.”
Dall stopped the horse and turned in
the odd saddle to look Emily in the eye. “Och nay, Drusilla. My clan derives its power from oor honor. We gave oor oath tae the Campbells. I hae faith that if ye read on further in yer history book, ye wull find that oor honor reclaims the MacGregor name.”
Touched by Dall’s deep sense of honor, Emily nodded, thinking she was going to have to look up Drusilla while she was at it.
He gently caressed her cheek with the hand not holding the reins, bringing her face up again to meet his eyes. “We are entering now into Glen Orchy, Campbell lands, and ye dinna want a one o’ them tae hear talk o’ betrayal, aye?”
“Aye.”
A new admiration for Dall grew in her that moment. She admired his leadership. As a leader herself, she recognized it.
Riding through Glen Orchy was similar to riding through Glen Strae. The Campbells spoke Gaelic too, of course, as they ran out to greet the travelers. Riding through Campbell lands was different, though. Just as Emily had feared, Dall was not an insider here. Even though many MacGregors and Campbells were related through intermarriage, the MacGregor plaid was mostly red and the Campbell plaid mostly blue. Each person had to pick a side.
The Campbells treated Dall more as an ally than like family. As before, from their tone and actions and mention of names—along with her knowledge of what he’d been up to the past two weeks—Emily thought she knew what they were saying.
“What news, MacGregor?”
“Colin the Grey (Cailean Liath) was at Kilchurn Castle for a week. He came by boat and left by boat a few days ago.”
“Did he look well?”
“Aye, he looked well, and he passed the time pleasantly, even though some Menzies followed us back there. They were fought off. No Campbells died.”
“How goes the effort at the Menzies border?”
“The border holds, and we have pushed it away a wee bit.”
At long last, one of the more hospitable Campbells invited Dall and Emily in for some soup and ale.
Dall grabbed his claymore from the saddle and sheathed it on his back before they went inside one of the hundreds of two-story stone houses dotting Glen Orchy.
In gratitude, Emily gave the family one of the empty wax paper wrappers from the candies she and Dall had eaten earlier.
Aghast at such a lavish gift, the family pressed on them to accept a small keg, a bag of apples, and a pouch of jerky for the road. Eyeing the horse, they added a bag of oats.
After tying these provisions to the odd saddle, Dall climbed on and handed Emily up.
They rode on through Glen Orchy at a walk for the rest of the day, snacking on their provisions as needed, though taking it easy on the beer. With Dall busy answering ranchers’ questions and giving them the news, Emily didn’t get much chance to speak with him. She took the opportunity to appear as if staring at her reflection in the back of her brooch, which she held tightly in her right hand and rested against Dall's back while she clamped herself firmly to him with her left hand.
She looked up Drusilla: first in the dictionary, and then in the general history book she had downloaded. She ended up learning all about the Roman rulers. She smiled at the thought that Dall found her beautiful, but worried whether he meant she would be inconstant.
They didn't exit inhabited Campbell lands until after the sun went down, and then they got off the horse and walked on farther over hill and dale by the moonlight.
Dall spoke softly. “I am verra sorry tae hae ye oot walking in the dangerous night air, lass. I had na planned on stopping sae lang and learning sae much from yer stories aboot England.”
Daring to hope they would indeed sleep alone out in the heather that night, Emily slapped his shoulder with the back of her hand. “You have much more to learn, Germanicus.”
Smiling yet still walking, he turned his head to sparkle his eyes at her. “Oho. Sae I am loved by the people, am I?”
Emily held Dall's gaze and locked her eyes on his. “At least by one of the people.”
Still walking and leading the horse, he took her hand and led her, too. “Lass, ye should na say such things tae a man who is na yer husband. The man might get ideas, and ye deserve tae be wedded afore he gets those ideas.” He looked at her then with that hope in his eyes.
She let her own hope shine through, but she kept her face reserved. At least she tried to. It was difficult to hold back from him.
He turned to watch where he was going again. “And we need tae decide first what tae dae aboot the curse the druids put on ye. We shall arrive in aboot an hour's time at a MacGregor place, and there ye wull spend the night in assured safety.”
For a few minutes, Emily relaxed, forgot about everything else, and just let his talk of marriage and his firm hand on hers stir up her emotions. And then, as they walked, she took off her brooch again, opened the book on Scottish history, and read the entire part about the MacGregors aloud to him.
“Ye see, lass?” he said proudly. “Oor honor wull redeem the MacGregor name.”
“But it will take two hundred years.”
“Well enough.” He held his head up high and walked with that confounding confidence that both attracted her and provoked her.
They walked on in silence awhile, and then Emily’s curiosity got the better of her again. “Dall?”
“Aye?”
“Why do you call me Drusilla? Do you think I would be so unfaithful?”
“Och, nay, lass. I am ainly impressed with how ye involve yerself in politics, far more than most lasses, and the name Drusilla sounds sae serious. It does suit ye. And she was beautiful, aye?”
Though his steady hand kept her walking, Emily was stunned. She involved herself in politics? And then she realized that telling Alasdair about Colin's planned betrayal would be politicking. She hadn't thought of politics that way before: as simply telling a leader what was going on so that they could be prepared. It left her thoughtful for quite a while.
Dall snapped her out of it. “Here we are, lass, a place tae lay oor heads for the night.”
These remote MacGregors took their like-kilted kin and his companion into their tiny cabin without asking questions. Emily wasn’t used to walking so much. She was asleep as soon as her head hit their goose-down pillow. She awoke to the wonderful scents of stew warming and fresh bread baking. Dall spoke in Gaelic with their hosts over the morning meal, and then they were getting on the rested horse and off on their way.
The horse walked them northeast through the highlands while the two of them cuddled together on its back and charged the phone. They alternated riding up the hills and walking down, to give the horse a rest.
Much of the time, Emily read to Dall from the future history of England and Scotland, but he didn’t allow her to ignore the scenery. And splendid it was, especially whenever they came into a new valley with a loch at the bottom. The June sky was blue with big puffy clouds, the hills were green, and the water was clear and clean.
The second night of their trip, they slept in the humble outpost home of an Orson MacGregor and his family.
“Emily, this is my cousin Orson. He kens tae much aboot me, sae I will na hae ye speak alone with him.”
They all laughed.
With a smile, Orson beckoned them inside, where his wife was already putting the supper on the table. “We will na need tae speak alone for me tae tell yer lass aboot the time ye let all o’ Dand’s coneys out o’ the pen. Heh heh. Yer behind was sore a fortnight.”
Emily couldn’t believe her ears, and her face must have shown it.
Orson socked Dall’s shoulder. “Aye, yer bonnie lad, king o’ correctness, was a might intae the mischief in his youth. I wull wager ye ne’er guessed.”
The two of them went on to tell story after story, through dinner and well into the night.
Emily was once again asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and she dreamed of a bonnie young lad who sneaked extra pie when his mother wasn’t looking, tied all his cows together so they couldn’t wander far while he fished,
and slid down the icy hill on his father’s new saddle without permission.
They arose early the next morning, to get a jump on their journey. Before they left, Emily gave Orson’s wife one of her sheets of wax paper and showed her how to use it to keep food fresh.
And then Dall was climbing up onto the horse in his kilt, and Emily was watching him, fascinated as usual by his strong and graceful movements. He handed her up behind him, and then they waved goodbye to Dall’s cousin, calling out that they would be back this way in a week.
Emily was reading to Dall from her Western Civilization textbook about Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth I when the Time Management app opened itself. The countdown now said 30 days until July 19, and the display had changed color from blue to purple. There was also a map showing her current location with a line stretching out to Kilchurn Castle. Her first thought was how handy. But…
“Dall. This map must be magic, because the Global Positioning Satellites won’t be launched until the 1970s.” Carefully, she showed him.
He didn’t look surprised. “We wull ken the druids possess magic, aye?”
“But if the app knows where we are, then so do the druids.” She turned her phone off and put it in her boot, trying to get some privacy. Yet she still whispered in his ear, just in case. “They might even be able to hear what we’re saying.”
So that started their whispered conversations. His breath in her ear stirred her, and the sound of his voice so close made her head swim.
“Wed with me. I want ye for my own, lass. I canna bear the thought o’ another man with ye.” As if to illustrate his point, his hand grabbed her thigh and held on as if their lives depended on it.
She gasped. His hold thrilled her and weakened her resolve not to ‘join’ with him until she had brought him back to her time. Before she got stuck in 1540 and just never came home again, Emily wanted to introduce Dall to her parents and make them know she was happy, but that she wouldn’t be able to stay in touch because they would be … living someplace far away from any cell towers. Yeah. That was the truth, too, as much of it as she could tell them.
Immediately, Dall let go of her thigh and reached up to gently pull her ear to his mouth again. “I beg ye, forgive me, Emily. I lost control o’ myself a moment. Till ye tell me ye are ready tae be stuck in one time and wed with me, I wull restrain myself. Dae ye forgive me?”