"Iron?" Kay said, blinking. "In the bog?"
"Aye, it's a useful source of iron for horseshoes and the like. Bog iron forms naturally, we gather it up and use it for… oh, all kinds of things."
"Humans are very short-sighted," Maggie sighed, mostly to herself. "Think for a minute, will you?"
"There's iron in the bog. Faeries hate iron."
"They do?"
"Aye, we do," Maggie said, giving Kay a warning look. "Did you catch sight of Darter's little arm?"
Her eyes widened as she remembered the withered arm that the little goblin had held to his side, the way it looked like it had been twisted and burned in some terrible accident. "I did. I thought it had been burned."
"Aye, it had. Burned by cold iron. Seelie or Unseelie, iron's a deadly poison to us. Which is why I hope you've tethered your horse a good distance from my door," she added, giving Liam a warning look. The man nodded quickly — but he looked a little confused.
"Exactly — even the Unseelie Fae hate iron. So why would the wisps be settling in a bog that's full of naturally occurring iron?"
Kay thought of the way cattle would mow through a full pasture of grass in barely any time. She pictured humans picking iron out of the bog… and her eyes widened. "How long have people been taking iron out of the bog?"
"Years," Liam said blankly. "It's our main source of —"
"And how quickly does iron form in a bog?"
"Not very," Maggie said, her eyes twinkling as she leaned forward, listening closely to what Kay was saying. "Not very quickly at all."
"The iron was a natural deterrent for the wisps at first," Kay said thoughtfully. "But the more humans took it out, the less was there to deter the wisps —"
"You're right," Liam said, his eyes wide. "Since all that trouble with the goblins, there's been a lot more demand for iron — it's possible the whole bog has been emptied out."
"We got there in the end," Maggie said with some satisfaction. "I'm pleased for you, truly. Damn fool humans, harvesting every resource you can get your little hands on, not sparing a second thought for the consequences… daft, truly daft. You've brought this infestation on yourselves."
Liam looked worried… but there was a relieved look on his face, too. "It's good to know what's happening, at least," he said with a sigh, draining the last of the drink that Maggie had pressed into his hands. "Thanks, Maggie, for your counsel. And Kay, for your expertise, too. I'm impressed," he added with one of those heart-stopping smiles. "For someone who didn't know the first thing about the Fae, you figured all that out pretty quickly."
How was she supposed to explain that she'd studied ecosystems and habitats for years? He'd probably not even heard of either word. So she just smiled, shrugging her shoulders a little helplessly and feeling very isolated from her own time. "Glad I could be helpful."
"I'd better get out of your hair, Maggie," Liam said, rising to his feet and taking care not to bump his head on the roof of the cottage. Kay watched him as he gathered himself, feeling a little dismayed that he was leaving so soon — she'd wanted to know more about him, about how it was that he'd come to be a stablemaster… and Maggie heaved an irritated sigh, her beady eyes fixed on Kay.
"Spit it out, girl."
Liam turned back, raising an eyebrow in confusion, and she found herself stammering out a question before she fully understood what she was saying. "Do you want some help?"
"How's that?"
"With the — the wisps, and the cattle, and all of that," she said hesitantly, blinking at him. "I mean — I know a lot about cattle, and a little about how species interact with each other. I could be helpful, maybe. It'd be nice to have something to focus on that isn't… freaking out about how far away from home I am," she admitted, looking at her hands where they were folded in her lap and feeling much more vulnerable than she was happy with. But Liam was nodding thoughtfully as he looked at her, and she could feel Maggie smiling to herself.
"I'd certainly appreciate all the help I can get with this," he said softly, giving Maggie a quick look as he spoke. "But — I understand you're under a lot of strain, Kay."
She couldn't help but bark laughter at that — a strange sound that made her feel a little insane. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. It's not been an easy morning."
"I think it would be helpful for Kay to meet the other women," Maggie prompted briskly, getting to her feet and pottering over to the fire. "You can keep that cloak, by the way, I think it was meant for you."
"I'm sure the Laird would be more than willing to take you in," Liam said, looking thoughtfully at Kay. "Would you like to come and stay at the castle? There'd be spare quarters for you…"
"A lot more comfortable than sleeping next to a fire wrapped in a cloak," Maggie chuckled. "Take his offer, girl. I'll not be offended."
Kay hesitated. "You said — you said there are other women like me? Women from… from the future?"
"Aye, there are," Liam said. "Speaking to them might help you settle in a little. And if you're up to it later — well, I'd more than welcome your help with this wisp problem."
She bit her lip. The prospect of living in a real-life castle was a little daunting… being introduced around to dozens of strangers, all with Scottish accents like this man, all from — presumably — the sixteenth century… with the exception of the three women he'd mentioned. Three women from her own time. Three women who might understand who she was, what she was going through. That was a lifeline she couldn't reject. So she just nodded, tugging the cloak a little tighter around her shoulders as she rose to her feet to join Liam.
"That would be good, I think," she said softly. "Thanks for the offer."
"Least I could do is show a little hospitality to a guest who's traveled so far to be with us," Liam said, his voice jocular, and Maggie snorted.
"Aye, you see that you take good care of this one, Liam Grant. I have a feeling she'll be of use to you in the coming days."
And with that ominous parting missive, Maggie shooed them out of her cottage and closed the door, gently but firmly, behind her.
Chapter 13
"She's a funny old thing." Liam chuckled to himself as he lead her down off the porch. Kay was blinking a little in the midmorning sun, looking around her, shocked by what she was seeing. Now that the sun was up, she was amazed that she'd ever thought she was still by the road where she'd crashed the car. The lake — the Loch, these people called it — was enormous. Sure enough, the water spread out far beyond where she could see. What was more, the vegetation along its banks was different… the sky was different, the rolling hills beyond it, gently dusted with a purple haze, were different. The dirt road, the blue sky decorate with clouds, the chill air despite the sunlight… none of this was Wyoming. None of this was home. Not even close.
"Are you alright, Kay?"
"Not especially," she said softly, too frazzled to come up with a lie. "It's… I'm just having trouble adjusting, I guess. This is all…." She took a deep breath, moving a little away from Maggie's cottage. "You understand how hard it is for me to believe this is real, right?"
"I can imagine," he said, tilting his head as he looked at her. "But it is real, I'm afraid. I'm real." And unexpectedly, he reached down and took her hand in his. It was warm, and soft, and firm — she could feel the callouses that showed he was a man who continually worked with his hands, she could feel the heat of his body, the power in him… and she felt herself blushing a little. God, it was a long time since she'd been close to a man like this…
"I'll be okay," she said softly, and he smiled at her, releasing her hand and heading down to a tree that stood across the dirt road from Maggie's cottage. There was tethered a large chestnut horse, happily grazing at the grass — Kay noticed immediately that he'd taken the bit out of the bridle before he'd left the horse to graze and smiled to herself at that small kindness.
"Now — can you ride?"
Kay looked at him for a long moment, incredulous. "Can I ride
."
"Some ladies don't learn —"
"Let's get one thing straight before we continue with our friendship, Mr. Grant. I'm Kay Morris. My family's been ranchers since the country was settled — and probably before that. Right now, my ancestors are out there somewhere, probably riding horses. I've been riding since before I could walk. Riding's in my blood."
Liam laughed, a delighted light in his eyes as he raised his hands in supplication. "Forgive me, forgive me. I'll not question you again."
"See that you don't," she said imperiously, but she couldn't stop herself from grinning. Even dizzy and light-headed from everything that was going on, she couldn't help but banter playfully with Liam.
"If I'd known I'd be bringing a guest home I'd have brought you your own horse," he said apologetically as he readied the chestnut horse to ride — it was peering at Kay curiously, and she admired the smooth way he handled it. "I can walk — or you can ride in front of me, or behind? Your choice."
She considered walking — it might be nice to stretch her legs — but then a wave of dizziness hit her, and she stumbled a little, Liam catching her with a look of concern on his face. "I hate to admit it," she said, "but I might have to ride in front of you. I'm not feeling so good."
"You've been through a lot," was all he said.
She didn't find it condescending when he helped her up onto the horse, nor did she mind one bit when he climbed up behind her, the warmth of his body pressing into her back as he reached around her to gather the reins. Then, with a gentle squeeze of his strong legs, he urged the horse on up the road.
For all the strange surroundings, it felt incredibly good to be on a horse again… even if she was so dizzy that she kept sagging one way and then the other. Was that an after-effect of the accident? she wondered. Could she still be in shock? Or was it time-travel induced vertigo? It all sounded like something out of science fiction, she thought with a sigh as Liam expertly kept her steady even as he guided the horse along the path.
"Maggie lives about halfway between the Keep and the village," Liam explained as they rode, clearly noticing how curiously she was looking around at their surroundings. The Loch to their right, dense forest to their left, and the road carrying them onward. "The Keep comes into view just up around this corner."
She looked curiously over the horse's ears as they rounded the corner — but she wasn't prepared for what she saw when she looked out over the water. For some reason, she'd been picturing the crumbling ruins in the holiday pictures her friend had shown her… but what she saw ahead of her chased those images away for good.
The castle was huge. It reached up into the sky, made of sleek black stone, perched on what looked like a rocky little island in the Loch not far from the shore. The rocky side of the mountain seemed to transition smoothly into the dark rock of the castle — she could make out a wall that seemed to stretch around the castle, too, making it an impossible task to climb up from the water into the castle's grounds. It looked like something from a fantasy novel — topped with turrets, its sleek walls covered in narrow windows — she squinted, trying to make out what could lie through those windows, but she couldn't see at this distance.
"The Keep of Clan Grant," Liam said proudly. "Laird Donal's my cousin. The Keep was built to protect the humans of the area from the Unseelie Fae who come through the Burgh at the bottom of the Loch not far from where the castle stands."
"It's amazing," she said faintly. "It's so — it's so much bigger than I was expecting."
Liam chuckled. "Aye, it has to be, to keep the Clan and all the members of the Sept comfortable. There's a glorious view from the rooftop, too — remind me to take you up there."
She was reeling — and she felt Liam's arms around her, steadying her discreetly, as her body threatened to give out and fall to one side or the other. There was something so comforting about that… she fought the urge to lean back against him as she gazed at the castle, absolutely floored by the view.
She was beginning to suspect that maybe this wasn't a hallucination after all.
Chapter 14
The horse continued along the road. They were still some distance from the castle — Kay couldn't stop staring at it, half convinced that it was fake, some kind of movie set, or a dream she was still having… but the warmth of Liam behind her, the reassuring rhythm of the horse's gait, the smell of the cool air and the sound of the waves of the Loch lapping against the shore… it was all too vivid, too detailed, too consistent to be any kind of dream. She knew what dreams felt like. She was going to have to come up with another explanation than that.
"They don't have castles where you're from?" Liam asked curiously.
She couldn't help but laugh, the force of her amusement almost knocking her off the horse again. He steadied her again, and she thanked him, a little embarrassed. She'd talked such a big game about knowing how to ride, and here she was, nearly falling off the back of her horse.
"Not like that, no," she chuckled. "I mean, there's a few novelty ones, but they're not… no, nothing like that."
"What's it like, where you're from?"
"Wyoming? It's…" How to sum up her home state to a guy who'd probably been born before the country had even been colonized properly? "It's pretty sparsely populated. Lots of hills and mountains… lots of farms," she added with a smile. "My parents run a ranch. Hence my childhood as a ranch hand."
"And your knowledge of animals?"
"That I got from vet school, mostly."
"And a vet is a — a healer, for animals."
"That's about it, yeah. I feel a bit useless without all my gear, though," she said softly. "It's just… hard to believe I'm really here."
"You are," Liam said cheerfully.
"And you said — there are others like me?"
"Aye, that's the case. You're the fourth to have washed up on our shores over the last few years. All three of the others have found a happy home in the Keep. Anna's married to Laird Donal, Nancy's married to my brother Malcolm — the tanist — that means second in command of the castle," he explained at her blank response. "And Elena, she's recently married Brendan, the Captain of the Guard."
"That happened quickly," Kay said, feeling a little unnerved. Had these women just turned up and found someone to marry out of desperation? Were women alone treated poorly? That would make sense… it was medieval times, after all. Should she think about marrying someone? The idea of suggesting it to Liam made her blush, though, and she could tell he felt a little awkward about the subject too by the way he hurried the conversation.
"Yes, well, like I said, the three of them will be able to help you get your bearings, I'm sure of it. They all went through exactly what you're going through now… they'll be able to help you figure it all out."
She nodded thoughtfully. "Do you know what they did, back home?"
"Lady Anna was a soldier, so she says," Liam said, though Kay couldn't help but wonder how well these medieval folks understood the difference between a modern and a medieval soldier. "Nancy was… she taught people how to use strange devices to dive beneath the water and breathe like fishes? I don't fully understand it myself. And Elena was an investigator. A police woman."
A detective, Kay filled in mentally, surprised despite herself. It was an eclectic combination of women. "What do they have in common?" she wanted to know. "What — what made the Sidhe bring them here?"
"No idea," Liam said softly. "Sorry to say. The Sidhe move in mysterious ways. Even knowing that they exist is more information than the vast majority of people are privy to. But maybe you can figure it out," he said with a smile. "You certainly figured out what was going on with the wisps in record time."
"The wisps, right." She shivered a little — she'd forgotten about those creatures. Imagining them out there, lying in wait, ready to skeletonize a cow or two overnight… it was unsettling, to say the least. "What are we going to do about them? Is there a way of introducing more iron to the bog, perhaps, driving them out
of it until —"
But Liam was shaking his head. "I appreciate your determination to help, Kay," he said softly, and she could feel his voice rumbling resonantly in his chest, reverberating against her back and making her feel a lot of unfamiliar things. "But I think it'd be best if you focused on taking care of yourself for now. We'll get you settled in at the castle, introduce you around to everyone — let you get some rest and a good hot meal into you — and then we can see how you're feeling about the wisps."
"I am a little hungry," she admitted, feeling her stomach growl at the mention of a hot meal. "But if I'm going to stay in the castle…. well, won't I need to earn my keep? I don't want to be a servant," she added firmly. "Just because I'm a woman, doesn't mean the only thing I'm good for is… is being a wife or a mother or a servant —"
"Of course it doesn't," Liam said, sounding a little surprised. "You don't need to earn anything, Kay. You're our guest, for now. The Sidhe have sent you to us — that means it's our responsibility to take care of you. Don't worry," he said, and she could hear the laughter in his voice. "We'll not put you to work unless you want us to."
"If I'm going to do anything, it'll be horse-related," she said truculently. But she couldn't stop thinking about the wisps... about the carnivorous creatures luring cows to their deaths. If there was anything she could do to thank these people for their kindness to her, it would be helping them solve that nasty problem.
But the wisps were banished from her mind as the horse reached the edge of what looked for all the world like a bridge leading to a gate — her eyes widened as she stared at the view before her. They'd come around the shore of the lake to where, it seemed, a land bridge joined the little island that the castle stood on to the mainland. There was a gate at the end of the bridge, with guards standing atop it, and she stared up at the castle that loomed even taller this close.
Distracted By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander Forever Book 4) Page 5