Love A Highlander
A Scottish Time Travel Romance-A Highlander Across Time Book 1
Rebecca Preston
Illustrated by
Natasha Snow
Edited by
Elizabeth A Lance
Copyright © 2020 Rebecca Preston
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Natasha Snow
Edited by Elizabeth A Lance
Similarities to real people, places or events are purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
VIP Reader Club
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Preview of Highlander Found
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
About Rebecca Preston
Also by Rebecca Preston
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Chapter 1
Detective Maria Saunders stirred awake. The bus jostled and jolted on the dirt road leading into the swampy moors of the Scottish countryside. She had slept until four o’clock in the afternoon at her hotel in preparation for being up all night. But since the bus ride was two hours long, she thought to get in more sleep so that she was well rested… for hunting spirits.
“You know, I've heard that this place is possibly the most haunted castle in all of Scotland,” Jennifer Brentwood whispered to Maria as she sat across from her in another seat. Jennifer sat with her husband Mr. Brentwood.
Maria, sat alone, the only single person in the tour group. “Really? In all of Scotland? That must be quite a thing to say considering all the history,” she said wondering if she had made a mistake in picking this particular castle in Skye Scotland of all places. But she had been very hasty in booking the trip. Maria needed the vacation after everything she had been through, and it was definitely a reward of sorts.
“Don't worry, Jennifer, we have the American detective to protect us,” Mr. Brentwood, Jennifer’s husband teased.
They were both English, having come from London. They then looked at each other and began to tickle and tease while, Maria turned away and looked out the window. She was happy for anyone experiencing love and were able to still play together in such a way, but she didn't need it rubbed in her face, especially when she was on vacation.
Maria had a reason to go on vacation, it was a celebration for her promotion, something she had been fighting for, for a very long time. She came from a family of cops in New York City, and a lot was expected of her, including to follow in those family footsteps. So she had spent many years trying to get into the New York Police Department homicide division as a detective. She had been turned down twice, that was until five days ago when she finally made the force. She had exactly two weeks before she would start her new job and coming from a family of cops she knew just how hard working in homicide was on the mind, heart, and soul of a human. So she made it a point to give herself a vacation before starting on such a hard job that would not have time for vacation. People's lives depended on her showing up for work without breaks.
So after she got the promotion, she hastily looked up something that had to do with her favorite pastime, watching those silly reality shows about ghost hunters. She knew most of it was fake, but she found it fun and intriguing. Having the mind of a detective for solving problems and puzzles, she thought that those shows were very fun. Therefore she decided to book the first ghost tour of a castle that came up on her computer search. The one she found happened to be in Skye, Scotland.
Now, she sat in a bus full of tourist couples heading into the wild moors of Scotland and into the countryside. Growing up with four older brothers, she had always been somewhat of a tomboy, and that lent well to being a cop, allowing her to make herself distinguished in the force very early on. Being on the tall side also helped to have most of the men on the force respect her. Though they still commented on her features, from her very dark, wavy, blue-black hair to her wide brown eyes and slightly sharp features. It led some of the cops on the force to call her the “pretty one.” It was a nickname she hated. The look she would give them forced them to mumble it under their breath, until they finally stop saying it all together.
“Have you ever had any experiences, detective?” Another couple, who sat catty-corner from her, asked.
She already knew them to be Mr. and Mrs. Gianni from Rome, Italy. They also seemed to be quite in love.
“Experiences? I don't understand,” she said with a smile. She had been trying her best to be outgoing and make conversation with everyone as soon as they had set out from the hotel in Inverness. At least she would have some friends to talk to and not feel so incredibly lonely.
“Yes, ghost experiences? My wife and I have had many, but of course living in Italy, it is expected, it is very old, you see,” Mr. Gianni said.
“Oh, ghost experiences. No I have not, but I have heard some stories from some close friends in New York. It’s not as old as Italy, however, some of the buildings go back several hundred years. But I've never seen a ghost or experienced anything moving.”
“There is a first time for everything, huh? Perhaps you will see something at the castle and catch it on your phone camera, yes?” Mrs. Gianni said.
“I can only hope,” Maria said.
“Oh look, how beautiful,” Jennifer said pointing out the window.
Everyone turned to look to the left. The flat green rolling grass and swampy areas of the moor were quite beautiful to look at. But Jennifer was pointing out a family of foxes running across in the distance.
Then, a chilling screams reached all of them.
It sounded like the scream of a lady, only very high-pitched. Everyone in the bus grew quiet and looked at each other.
“Do not worry everyone. What you are hearing is not a ghost,” the tour guide said as he stood up in the front of the bus. Mr. Leslie, a Scottish man with red hair and a red beard, was quite thin and lanky, not the Scottish brute that Maria had expected to see.
“What is it?” Maria asked.
“That is the sound of the foxes that you are seeing there. That is their call, and yes it does sound like a woman screaming. It comes in all different sorts of high pitches, and in the middle of the night can seem quite frightening unless you are used to it.”
The tension in the bus was relieved as everyone took his word seriously. It was not ghost at all, merely the sound of animals. But it just went to show how much everyone had ghost on their minds, expecting one to appear in the very bus at any moment.
“How much longer to the castle?” Mr. Brentwood asked Mr. Leslie.
Mr. Leslie looked out the window, as though to gauge where they
were. But to Maria it all looked the same, flat land with green rolling hills and patches of swampy moors. It was beautiful, but if there were a layer of fog she would definitely get lost. There were no trees to mark where you were going or where you had been.
“We have about another thirty minutes to go and then we should be there. These dirt roads make for slow driving, you don't want to get a flat tire out here, so we take it carefully. When we arrive at the castle ruins, we will have a light picnic dinner while watching the sun go down. There are a few tables set up outside for the occasion as well as rocks and grass to sit in. Once it’s dark, that is when we will enter the ruins and start our search.”
Those that were awake on the bus released excited commotion among them, including Maria. She watched as the couples kissed each other and realized they must be feeling very cozy to be going on such a search with each other.
She turned to look out the window, not wanting to look at the happy couples, or to be reminded that she regretted a mistake that she had made.
She had to put her relationships on hold until she got her detective’s badge. The drama of her last relationship had made her make that decision, because her ex was constantly fighting with her over the time she put toward her career, instead of toward their relationship. The demand for her attention grew too great for her and she found that she failed the first exam because she was always putting him before herself.
So after they broke up, she decided that she wouldn't date at all. But now that she had got what she wanted, being a detective, she suddenly realized just how lonely she had been in the last year. Maybe it was wrong of her to make that decision, but at the time she didn't think it was going to take as long as it did. If she could do it again, she wouldn't put relationships off, she would just look for a man that understood her need to put her time into her career.
The ocean air wafted in through the window. Maria closed her eyes and breathed in deep. She was ready to see the high cliffs of the Scottish Highland coast line. She had always romanticized those beaches and thought of herself wrapped in a blanket standing on the shore while seagulls squealed overhead. But that was not the point of this trip, however, she could bask in the feeling of salty air hitting her face as the bus moved.
Maria must have been thinking about this for a while because she was surprised when she heard the tour guide say, “We are arriving in five minutes. We’re about to cross the service bridge onto the small island that the castle is located on. Everyone, listen closely… As I said, this bridge is a service bridge and is withdrawn for the night in order to allow passing merchant ships to go down the river. It will not be in service again until the morning. The castle is very isolated, because its own bridge collapsed long ago. This is very important to know. There is no turning back now.”
It was meant to frighten the guests on the bus, but it only made them more excited and everyone erupted into cheers that there was an extra level of spookiness to the trip. Maria was also very excited, it was just a bit of silly fun and added to the magic.
Everyone pushed forward in their seats as they came upon the bridge. It was a very narrow one-way bridge with an iron trellis over it, giving it its own bit of spookiness. It was late afternoon, perhaps about one hour before sunset, giving the feeling of doom.
People pulled out cameras and phones to take photos of the bridge as they crossed. Maria did the same.
Once they were over the bridge, the bus began to climb a large hill. As they got to the top, everyone inhaled a breath of shock.
The castle ruin stood before them, beautiful and eerie. It was on a craggy cliff with the ocean below on one side of the castle. The grey stone was covered in moss and vines, but it was still quite intact in most places. Several towers looked to be only missing parts of the roof, and nothing else. One side of the castle was missing a wall, but the rest seemed to be as though time had done nothing to it at all.
“It's so beautiful,” Maria whispered to herself. She had seen a few photos of it when booking the tour, but nothing could compare to seeing it in person.
Maria knew that she was going to have a very good time, searching for ghosts overnight. She only hoped that maybe Mr. Leslie would let her tag along with him, so that she wouldn't be so alone. Maybe she could tag along with a few of the couples like the Italian couple or the English couple, they all seemed very friendly.
The bus drove down a gravel driveway to the front of the castle which had a very large circular drive in front of it. The bus came to a complete stop. Mr. Leslie looked at everyone sitting in the seats.
“Are you ready to be scared to death?” Mr. Leslie said.
Chapter 2
The sounds of waves crashing against rocks echoed across the island. The sun created an orange glow on the ocean horizon behind the castle. The group sat around having a light picnic spread out on the grounds of the beautiful castle, taking in the sunset vista.
Maria sat with her new friends that she had met on the bus, the Brentwood couple and the Gianni couple. Everyone was dressed for the cold night weather, even though it was summer. The Highlands did get cold at night, especially on the beach. Maria was a New Yorker and dressed like one. She wore a sweater over a button down shirt all topped with a brown leather jacket. Her skinny leg jeans were pushed into knee high leather boots, that were black with a brown stripe at the top of the shaft, like English riding boots.
The group gazed upon the exterior of the creepy but beautiful castle excitedly talking about ghosts. There was one particular ghost that seemed to interest everyone.
“I heard the Scathach was seen on the last tour,” Jennifer said.
“Scathach? What is that?” Maria asked. She wished that she had put more preparations into reading about the history of the castle, but the only things she knew were the brief things she’d read on the plane when she wasn’t sleeping. The fact that she booked the trip last minute did not give her as much time as she would normally have liked to prepare. If she had a year to plan, she would have gathered all the history books on the castle that she could. She would have watched all the Youtube videos that others had posted, but she hadn’t had the time and was going into this blind.
“The Scathach!” Mrs. Gianni said.
Apparently everyone knew…
“The Scathach is rumored to be the ghost of a Scythian woman who was both an accomplished sword master, and a powerful witch!” Jennifer said excitedly.
“And she has been seen walking the castle grounds by other people. I read it in the reviews,” Mr. Brentwood said.
Everyone laughed.
“No, it’s true,” Jennifer said. “The legends say that she is the real builder of this castle, as a headquarters and training ground for her apprentices. Teaching them sword fighting and witchcraft. It is said to be an enchanted place.”
“Yeah, but before that other clan got a hold of it, right babe,” Mr. Brentwood said.
“Yes. The MacLeods, or was it the McDonalds?” Jennifer said.
“I think it was both. They both had this castle at one time or another,” Mrs. Gianni said.
Maria was very excited to get all this history. But also very anxious to see this witch ghost. What if she ran into this witch on her own?
Everyone would have a partner to walk around the castle with, and she would be alone. She could see Mr. Leslie the tour guide in the distance, giving out a few pointers to another group seated together as they ate. She was going to have to attach herself to his side, but that wouldn't be as fun because he had obviously already been to the castle on several occasions and wouldn't have the same sense of wonderment as people who would be discovering it for the first time.
“Look at that sky. It is such a beautiful sunset,” Jennifer Brentwood said.
“Yes, it’s absolutely lovely. I can't believe that I’m here in Scotland,” Maria said.
“And you’ve come all alone. You’re very brave,” Mrs. Gianni said.
“Very brave or very stupid,” Maria s
aid.
“No, very brave or you would not be a detective,” Mrs. Gianni said.
Maria smiled in gratitude for the compliment and opened her camera bag. She pulled out her GoPro camera getting it ready to capture some footage. Other people had various instruments like energy readers and temperature readers. It was said that when ghosts were around, the temperature would drop several degrees. These people were very enthusiastic just as she was.
“But you don’t have to wander the castle alone detective. You’re welcome to come with my husband and me and we can explore together,” Mrs. Jennifer Brentwood said.
“That is very nice of you. I think I will take you up on that, if you really don’t mind?” Maria said.
“No, we don’t mind and look at that good GoPro camera, you will get footage walking with my wife and me, and maybe you can send it to us after you get home. That way we have our own home movie too.” Mr. Brentwood laughed.
“Of course. That would be very fun. We can exchange emails and I will email you the footage. Thank you, I am very excited to do some ghost hunting,” Maria said.
Just then, it grew very dark and everyone turned to see the sun give its last amount of light on the horizon as it sank down into twilight.
The air grew colder and it seemed like the sea was getting angrier. It must be switching from low tide to high tide, she thought, because the crashing of waves was louder. It gave a sense of eeriness to the arrival of nighttime.
Love A Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (A Highlander Across Time Book 1) Page 1