Chapter 30
Julia shivered at the image, horrorstricken. A lot of things were clicking into place very quickly – Galen's anger with her for her curiosity, for not taking the Fae threat seriously… his insistence that she stay safe in the castle, that she not risk her safety. Her hand was still on Galen's shoulder, and she squeezed it absent-mindedly, feeling the tension in his muscles relax a little. He reached up to touch her hand, a gesture of gratitude, and she felt a shiver of a different kind run through her at the warm contact of his fingertips. If he felt it too, he didn't say anything.
"Ever since I lost Eamon, I've been…" He shook his head, a rueful tone in his voice. "Well, I've been different. More cautious. More protective of the people around me, the people I care about." He sighed. "I won't make excuses, Julia, for how … bullheaded I've been about wanting to keep you safe. But I don't ever want to lose someone again."
She nodded, taken aback. "Thank you," she said softly, squeezing his shoulder. "I appreciate you watching out for my safety. It must be hard to talk about him."
"It is," Galen admitted softly. "But it gets easier, each time. I think that's how grief goes."
"Yeah," Julia said, smiling a little as she filed away this new insight into Galen's personality. He was such a sourpuss… she supposed she should have assumed there was a reason for that. Had she done a little bit too much judging before she'd gotten to know him? He'd still treated her poorly – there was no excuse for that, of course. But knowing why he'd behaved the way he had… well, it didn't excuse his behavior, but it did explain it. And it made her feel more confident that they might be able to be friends, going forward, now that they understood each other a little better.
"If it's any consolation," she started as they rode down a now-familiar road toward the castle, "you were right."
That obviously surprised him, and she hid a grin at the way he sat bolt upright on the horse. "Oh, aye?" She could hear him deliberately trying to keep his voice casual, and she grinned.
"I mean, the way you handled it was abysmal. But you were right that I was… well, overeager about charging off to learn about the Fae. Naïve, maybe. I just…" She sighed. "I know I've talked a big game about being excited to be here and everything, but… I don't know. I think I'm just trying to cope with being so far away from home."
"Is that so?" He glanced at her over his shoulder.
She nodded, turning her eyes out toward the Loch. The sun was beginning to rise now, and she knew she'd missed her opportunity to see the nocturnal Monster, but she couldn't help but scan for any glimpse of her regardless.
"I mean – there's no way I can go back home, right? I died, there. I was shot and I died. The Sidhe brought me here and patched me up and gave me another life, but there's no option to just go back home and pick up the life I had, no matter how much I might want to. So… I can either be miserable about that, or I can just… look on the bright side. Focus on this place, on what's positive and exciting about it. The happier I am to be here, the less sad I'll feel about everything I lost."
Galen nodded, and when he spoke his voice was thoughtful. "But you can't avoid thinking about home forever. You can't run from loss for the rest of your life."
"Yeah, I'm beginning to see that that's true," she said sadly, shaking her head. "I… I miss my parents. I miss my brother. I miss my life in New York, I even miss my stupid tiny apartment. I miss my job, I miss my camera, I miss knowing what the hell was going on, I miss public transport and hot showers and –"
Galen was laughing. "I don't know what half of those things are."
"Of course you don't!" Julia found herself giggling too, torn between utter misery and elation, the odd adrenaline rush of finally acknowledging how sad she was. "You're from medieval Scotland! And so am I, now! I'm never going to watch TV again," she said mournfully, rubbing her face with her hands. "Or get angry at stupid people on the Internet… or eat a Pop Tart –"
"What on Earth is a Pop Tart?"
"See? Horrible place," she said, grinning to hear Galen laugh. It was an unfamiliar sound, but a very pleasant one. "Horrible, nightmarish place with no Pop Tarts."
Silence fell as they rode for a while, and she couldn't help but smile to herself. It felt like they'd broken new ground here – like she'd finally gotten through Galen's armor. Maybe they could be friends now. Maybe they could even be – but she put a stop to that thought quickly, biting her lip. They'd been on horseback a long time, and she grimaced a little as the castle came into view.
"Do you always spend this much time on horseback?"
"Aye." He glanced over his shoulder at her, a smile lingering on his face. "Are you sore?"
"A little," she admitted, not wanting to describe the full extent of the ache in her butt and inner thighs.
"Nearly home now."
"Home," she echoed softly, smiling a little. "You know, for all that I've maybe exaggerated how happy I really am to be here… I do love the castle."
"Oh, aye?"
"Oh, aye," she echoed him in a laughably poor imitation of his accent, drawing another laugh from him. "I mean, look at it." It was ahead of them now, outlined against the pink sky.
He nodded thoughtfully as the horse picked up its easy walking pace, clearly pleased to be so close to home. She realized she was a little dismayed that their evening together was almost over. In a minute, they'd be back at the castle… they'd jump off the horse, she'd head up to her room for a much-needed bath and some sleep, and he'd presumably return to the guard house, where he seemed to more or less live. She was worried that this new closeness wouldn't last, that it was a fluke of the night, a spell that would be broken by sunrise.
"Galen?"
"Aye?"
"I promise I'll be more… attentive, when you tell me things," she said, taking a deep breath. "But in return, I want a promise from you."
"Mm?"
"I want you to promise me – you'll treat me like an equal, alright?" She felt a bit ridiculous, asking for this bare minimum behavior from him… but you had to start somewhere, didn't you? If she was offering him the bare minimum of listening to what he had to say, he could offer her the bare minimum of human respect and decency. "Don't talk to me like a child, or an idiot. Tell me the whole story – not just that I need to keep myself safe. Can you do that?"
Galen paused for a long moment – long enough to worry her. Then again, if a request this simple was going to be turned down, maybe she should have thought better of trying to make a deal with this man in the first place.
"I can do that," he said finally, nodding. "And Julia… I am sorry, for handling this the way I have."
"Me too," she said, hiding the wave of relief that washed over her. "For running off in the late afternoon and getting lost in the woods all night."
He huffed laughter as he turned the horse, urging it along the little land bridge that joined the castle to the mainland. A guard atop the gate waved to them both and the gate began to rise, letting them back into the familiar courtyard. God, it felt good to be home – and she smiled to herself at the reflexive way she'd thought of the Keep as her home.
"I mean, I did drive you to it," Galen said, shaking his head as he steered the horse toward the stable.
Then he slid down over the horse's shoulder before she could react to that admission of guilt, reaching up with one hand to help her down. She slid down easily enough – before realizing, too late, that both of her legs were asleep. With a cry of alarm, she stumbled forward into Galen, who caught her quickly and held her effortlessly aloft. She looked up at him, realizing with a different kind of lurch that their faces were inches away… and before she could stop herself or think better of it, she closed the space between them, stealing a short but very, very sweet kiss.
Then she broke away – and Galen's gray eyes were alight with a combination of shock and delight at what had just happened. She grinned at him for a brief second, fighting the urge to glance around the courtyard to see if anyone ha
d seen them… but from her peripheral vision at least, she could tell that the courtyard was just about deserted. Well, good. No witnesses but the two of them. And with a broad grin, she bid him good morning and headed for the castle.
Overall, she decided, it hadn't been a bad night.
Chapter 31
In the end, she slept for most of the day, waking just before sundown for an incredibly hearty dinner. It seemed like her appetite just wouldn't quit – she had plateful after plateful, telling the story of her evening's escapades again and again to her fascinated friends, all of whom had kept abreast of her adventures during the day. It seemed she was the talk of the Keep, more or less, with stories aplenty flying back and forth about where she'd been, what she'd done. Amelia, the servant in charge of her room, had gasped with relief when she'd seen her and even hurled herself into her arms for a hug before she'd remembered herself and pulled back with a shriek of alarm.
"Ma'am, I'm so so sorry –"
"It's alright, Amelia." Julia had laughed, still groggy from her day of sleep. "I'm sorry I worried you."
"We weren't sure if you were hurt or killed or spirited away by the fairies!" Amelia gasped, her blue eyes enormous. "Can I get you anything at all?"
She hadn't needed anything but a huge meal – and here she was in the dining hall, surrounded by the other time-stranded women. Even Helen had come up from the village for the occasion, having heard rumors all day about the stranger who'd ridden through town at dawn on the back of a guardsman's horse. She'd quickly assured them all that she wasn't hurt… but the story of meeting Glimmerbright was a much more complicated affair, and took some telling, especially given how many breaks she had to take to stuff food into her mouth.
"You actually met a Sidhe," Elena said, a mixture of fascination and worry on her beautiful face. "There's not many who can claim the same, Julia."
"Present company excepted," Nancy chimed in, elbowing Elena in the ribs with a grin. "Was he handsome, Julia? Was he dashing?"
"I don't know if he was a Sidhe, exactly." Julia frowned, trying to think back to what Glimmerbright had explained to her about who – and what – he was. "He seemed to find the word funny – like it wasn't specific enough, or something. I think the Fae are a lot more complicated than we give them credit for."
"Sounds about right," Kay said, shrugging her shoulders. "I've always thought the good guys and bad guys distinction was kind of – simplistic."
"Maggie's said as much," Helen agreed thoughtfully. "She uses those words because we like them, not because they're particularly accurate. At least, that's the impression I get."
"I'd like to meet this Maggie," Julia said thoughtfully. "I've heard a lot about her."
"It's strange she hasn't come up to see you," Anna said with a shrug. "She's usually very interested in the travelers from other times, even if she pretends she's not."
"Maybe she's annoyed with me," Julia said, biting her lip. "I did… kind of bang on her door at dawn when I first got here."
The women looked at her with comical expressions of shock. "No wonder she's been avoiding you." Anna laughed, shaking her head. "Maggie hates to be disturbed before midday. I went down around brunch time once and I'm still on thin ice."
Maggie sounded like a woman after Julia's own heart. She was looking forward to meeting her one day.
But for the time being, that would have to wait. She was determined to do as Galen had instructed and to stay well and truly within the bounds of the castle for the future – they'd taken a few significant steps in their friendship — or was it something more, now? — and she wasn't going to endanger that by leaving the castle walls again. Not without explicit permission, at any rate. A part of her, though, deep down, longed to slip away again, to steal into the woods and find out whether Glimmerbright would save her a second time from that hungry wolf pack. But that was a part she put firmly away, for the time being.
In the end, though she'd been worried about her sleep cycles being disturbed by her all-night adventure, the exhaustion won out. Despite sleeping all day that day she returned to the castle, after her enormous dinner she found sleepiness overcoming her again, and she was able to head upstairs to bed and fall asleep quite comfortably, waking in the morning feeling refreshed and ready for breakfast.
In need of something to occupy herself, Julia asked Nancy to teach her to ride a horse. She knew the basics, of course, but she was well aware that she would be at a loss to handle herself if for some reason she needed to ride anywhere – and Nancy was more than happy to spend the time teaching her. She learned how to saddle a horse up and put its bridle on, and she rode around the courtyard in great circles, getting steadily more confident with the horse-rider connection. It felt a little like learning to drive, and she said as much to Nancy, who laughed.
"Horses are much better than cars," she said with a grin, stroking the soft nose of the black mare that Julia had been learning to ride on. She was a sweet old thing, tame as an old housecat and just as friendly, and Julia had taken to bringing her carrots and apples from the kitchen just about every time she rode her. Perhaps as a result of this – or maybe because Julia never asked her to move any faster than a slow trot – they were fast friends. "For a start, they're carbon neutral."
Julia couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Is that really a concern?"
"Industrial revolution's coming." Nancy shrugged. "That's when all the climate change stuff kicked off."
Julia sighed, shaking her head. "It's awful stuff. You know how close we are to the end of the world, right?"
"Good thing we came back here, huh?" Nancy smiled, but her expression was worried. "I did a lot of doom scrolling about it, back home. It's been nice to get away from it, but I can't help thinking about it sometimes."
"Maybe we can change it," Julia suggested, glancing around the courtyard of the castle. "Maybe if we can just put a few changes in place now, they'll… I don't know, Butterfly Effect themselves through history and change something. Make us get our act together before it's too late."
"Maybe," Nancy agreed, but she looked worried. "I mean, I don't know what we could do."
"Get the Sidhe onboard." She grinned, thinking of Glimmerbright. He was never far from her mind. "They can time travel, right? Maybe they could take a few world leaders on a quick tour of the apocalyptic future we're hurtling toward."
"Great idea." Nancy giggled. "Tell your Sidhe boyfriend."
"Oh, shush," Julia said crossly, flushing a little and glancing around the stables to make sure nobody had overheard them.
She'd described the encounter with Glimmerbright carefully, deliberately not spending too much time on how handsome and charismatic he was… but the detail of the heart-shaped clearing had not escaped Nancy, who had decided that a star-crossed romance was playing out before her very eyes. Julia had to admit… she'd had similar thoughts herself. But it was all complicated by how she felt about Galen, and especially by the impulsive kiss they'd shared in the stables. He hadn't brought it up since – but he'd been a lot friendlier to her, smiling and stopping to talk to her whenever he saw her around the Keep. Strange, to feel like she was being unfaithful to two men she barely knew…
But the days passed pleasantly enough. She spent a fair bit of time on the roof of the castle, enjoying the view… and, she had to admit, spending a little more time than she was proud of gazing out into the trees, wondering whether she might catch a glimpse of Glimmerbright in the distance. Just a glimpse, that was all… just to know that he was out there, safe and well. She was still worried about everything that was going on out there, the damages to the crops, the illnesses in the herds. And now that Galen had agreed to keep her in the loop about everything that was going on, she had a non-stop source of news about the continuing problems in the village.
They discussed it at length over lunch one day. Galen looked bone-weary – he'd been on patrol all night and hadn't yet slept, and Julia was insisting they have a meal together mainly as an exc
use to make sure he ate something. "More elf shot," he said grimly, shaking his head. "Three guards down today, and they usually take a week or so to recover. And half a dozen in the village, too. Not to mention the cattle."
"What about the cattle? More spoiled milk?"
"Oh, aye. And some of the animals are beginning to sicken. Might be unrelated… but I doubt it."
She sighed. It seemed as soon as things started getting better in one way, they got much, much worse in another. Was she ever going to catch a break?
Chapter 32
"And how are you?" Galen asked, tilting his head and looking at her curiously. "Sorry. I don't mean to carry on about the problems of the world."
"No, I'm interested," she said firmly. "Didn't I say I wanted to know about all this stuff?"
"Aye, that you did."
"I'm fine, anyway." She shrugged. "No lasting damage from our exciting night out." It had been a week since her evening of adventure, and Galen gave her a small smile.
"Not tempted to go wandering off into the woods again?"
"No," she said firmly, trying not to think about how much time she'd been spending on the roof, gazing out into the deep woods, dreaming of Glimmerbright whisking her away to his clearing again… but it wasn't lying to not mention a daydream, right? It wasn't like she seriously wanted to go. "No, I'm more than happy here. Nancy's been teaching me to ride."
"That's good." He chuckled. "Next time you break out of the castle and go wandering the moors you can do so on horseback…"
Woken By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 7 Page 14