All The Time You Need (14 page)

Everything Lissa said was true, and every word of it cut like a dull knife. If someone told Annie right now that the wedding had been called off, her only regret would be all the time her mother had put into planning an event that would never take place. Lissa was right. She didn’t love Peter. She never had. She considered him a friend, but that was all. And the thought of spending the rest of her life as his wife made her want to weep with frustration.

And yet, in spite of all that, she didn’t belong here either.

“This isn’t about Peter or my relationship with him. I need to go back because this isn’t my time. With only a little effort, I can imagine a thousand different ways my being here could mess up the whole space-time fabric thingy. I need to go back because I’m not supposed to be here. I don’t belong here.”

“Pfft,” Lissa hissed, dismissing Annie’s reasoning with a wave of her hand. “Have you ever considered that perhaps the time you came from was where you doona belong. The truth of the matter is that the Fae sent you here for a reason and, that being the case, this is exactly where you belong, just as yer grandmother belonged here when she came before you.”

“You’re wrong about that. Nana Ellen didn’t belong here any more than I do. I’m sure that’s why she didn’t stay,” Annie said. “I don’t know why she was here any more than I know why I’m here. But I do know that she returned to her own time. And then she got married and she had a son and grandchildren and she lived out a whole, long life there in the time she was born to. She did all those things in the time and the place where she belonged. I have to do that, too.”

“That may be,” Lissa said, her voice tinged with sorrow. “She may have fully lived out her life in your time. But I’ll never believe my grandda’s Ellen was happy to leave him. I know for a fact that his heart was broken by her going away. And I’d say that bauble you wear around yer neck is proof that yer grandmother dinna want to leave her Aiden, either. What’s more, I’d even be willing to say, that it was her, yer own grandmother Ellen, working with the Fae, that sent you here. The Fae do nothing without good reason, my friend, so that alone is even more proof that yer supposed to be here. You’ve a purpose in this time, Annie. Yer supposed to be here or you wouldn’t be.”

Annie’s hand went to the silver heart pendant hanging around her neck, the metal warm from its contact with her skin. Maybe her grandmother had sent her here. She’d certainly left enough mysterious little clues. And she had to have known that Annie wouldn’t be able to resist trying to track them down. Between that and Syrie’s tantalizing bits and pieces of Ellen’s history, the two of them had all but delivered Annie into that arbor.

But could those two little old ladies actually have had a reason for doing something so unbelievable?

“I just can’t accept that. Yes, I believe that she was here. Yes, I believe that Aiden was very special to her. But, in the end, she still went home.”

Lissa fidgeted with a ribbon that encircled her neck, much as Annie often did with the necklace she wore. “Did you ken that my Grandda made that bauble yer wearing? No? He made it for his Ellen with his own two hands. And if you dinna ken that, then you probably dinna ken that he made one for himself, as well. One that he wore every day of his life, too. It’s true. I ken this to be the truth because he gave the one he wore to me before he died.” Lissa tugged at the ribbon around her neck, lifting from her bodice an almost identical pendant, missing only the crystal heart that hung from the center of Annie’s. “Can you no’ believe now, looking at the two of these, how much they meant to one another?”

“Okay, I accept that they loved each other. But Nana Ellen still went home, so the only thing any of this proves is that you can’t stay where you don’t belong, no matter how much you might want to. The path to here and back home again somehow lies in that arbor. That’s why I have to go back there. I need to thoroughly search the place to find where that path is.”

Lissa began shaking her head before Annie finished speaking. “But yer ignoring the importance of why yer here. Yer grandmother and the Fae went to a great deal of trouble to get you here. You need to think upon what the reason was that you were sent to this place and this time. Otherwise, all their efforts are for naught. And anyway, even if you did have the right of it, Alex willna allow you to go back there. He believes that whoever locked you into the arbor could still be lurking about.”

Frustration welled up inside Annie’s chest at the claim she’d been fighting from the moment of her arrival.

“But there is no one to be lurking around out there. No one locked me into that arbor. I’ve told you all how I got there. Or at least as much as I know about how I got there. Parts of it are, admittedly, more than a little fuzzy, but I do know that no one else was involved.”

Lissa shrugged, picking up her needlework to resume her task. “I’ve told you that I believe what you say. But what I believe has no bearing on what our laird chooses to do. And what our laird chooses to do is law around here. When he says you canna go, you canna go.”

Her friend’s acceptance of her brother’s rule was as frustrating as Alex himself! Surely, after all this time, he should be able to understand that just because her story was totally unreasonable didn’t make it untrue.

A moment of rational thought and even she was forced to accept the absurdity of that idea. If the tables were turned, would she believe him?

Probably not. But that didn’t change what she needed to do.

“I still have to try, Lissa. I have to at least try to convince him. If you’ll keep an eye on your father for me for a little while, I’m going to stop off to speak to your brother when I pick up Alexander’s meal.”

“As you will,” Lissa said, not lifting her gaze from her handwork. “I’m happy to help here. All I ask is that you put as much time into considering why you were sent here in the first place as yer putting into considering how to return to where you came from.”

“Agreed,” Annie said, rising to her feet and making her way out into the hall.

It was easier to agree than to argue with her friend. It was as likely that she had stumbled into whatever thing had sent her through time as it was that she’d been intentionally sent. Regardless of what Lissa believed, sometimes things just happened, for no good reason at all.

Like her having agreed to marry Peter.

She’d known him her whole life and, for her whole life, she’d listened as her mother and father had spoken about how perfect it would be if the two of them grew up and got married and joined the fortunes of their two families. When Peter had asked, she’d said yes, for no better reason than that she knew it was what both their families expected.

It had been a reason, yes. But not a good reason.

Over the course of the past weeks, trapped in a place so far from all that she’d ever known, she’d had time to think about her life. In the process, she’d come to realize that there was nothing worse than marrying someone you didn’t love. When she got back home—
if
she got back home—she really needed to try to do something about that.

But first, she’d have to find the way to get back home. And in order to do that, she needed to confront the high-and-mighty laird of the MacKillican.

Chapter 9

“You’re not even listening to the words I’m saying. You don’t have to send anyone along with me. Seriously. I’m not the least bit concerned for my safety outside the castle walls. You might not believe me when I tell you that there was no mystery man who locked me inside that arbor, but I know it’s the truth, so I know I have no one to fear. All I need you to do is to tell your men that it’s okay to let me travel beyond the gates. That’s all I’m asking of you.”

The expression on Annie’s face as she spoke convinced Alex that she actually expected him to agree to her ridiculous request. That she didn’t realize how ridiculous her story sounded amazed him. That she didn’t realize that if he were to believe her story, he’d also have to believe that she was there of her own free will. And that supposition would naturally lead to the conclusion that she could very well be a spy. A spy that now wanted to return to whoever had sent her to deliver the information she had gathered.

Her story was such fantasy it might well be something his grandfather would have spun for an evening’s entertainment. Which left him right back where he started.

Either way, he wasn’t allowing her outside the castle gates.

Annie might have no concerns for her own safety, but he had enough for the both of them. If she hadn’t the good sense to willingly follow the precautions he’d established, then he’d need to give her some gentle encouragement.

“I’m no’ sure if it’s Lissa who’s the bad influence upon you, or you upon her. Whichever it is, it’s really of no matter to me. The time for Faerie stories has done and passed. You’ve been given shelter in our home with but one responsibility asked of you in repayment for our hospitality. Instead of wasting my time and yers with this silly blether about finding a passage through time, should you no’ be tending to my father’s recovery?”

Though they were the only two people in the great hall, Alex kept his voice low to avoid embarrassing Annie should anyone overhear his rebuke of her. To his surprise, she didn’t seem to have the least bit of appreciation for his consideration of her feelings. Nor did she appear to have the least bit of concern for who might hear them.

Her cheeks colored a lovely shade of pink and her eyes fairly sparkled with her anger. “You are the most arrogant, inconsiderate, unfeeling P-O-S I’ve ever met,” she stormed, one delicate finger poking forcefully into his chest. “I’ve told you that searching that freakin’ arbor is my only way home. The least you could do—”

“I’ve already done the least I could do,” he interrupted as Jamesy entered from the back of the hall and slipped into a chair nearby, a grin covering his face. “And quite a bit more, if I do say so myself. Now, if you have nothing else to discuss, our audience is at an end, my lady. You have yer work to do as I have mine.”

The noise she made before turning her back and stomping out of the hall reminded him of a bear protecting her young. Or perhaps a child preparing for an all-out tantrum.

“What is this P-O-S of which she speaks?” Jamesy asked, doing a poor job of hiding his amusement as he sounded out the letters Annie had used.

“I have no idea,” Alex answered. “But I’m willing to bet, from the way she said it, it’s something I wouldna like.”

“A safe bet, I’d agree.”

Alex sighed and slumped into the chair next to his friend. Barely halfway through his day and already he felt as if he’d been dragged through a field of boulders. The day had worn upon him, from his meeting at first light with the herder who’d complained of missing stock, to the new blacksmith who swore his tools were disappearing, right through this visit with Annie. Perhaps most especially this visit with Annie.

“It’s past time that the burdens of this day should cease. Hopefully, all the ridiculous blether is behind me now,” he mused.

“It’s an end to the day’s burdens that yer looking for, eh?” Jamesy asked, his face wrinkling with doubt. “From that, I can only suppose that no one has yet mentioned the two men waiting outside to see you. Shall I send them in and let you get this over with?”

Alex nodded his agreement, his stomach sinking as Jamesy strode the length of the great hall to open the doors.

“No’ again,” Alex groaned, leaning back in his chair as the next two petitioners were led into the great hall to seek the laird’s judgment.

Angus MacKillican and Oren MacIntosh slowly made their way toward him, each of them casting evil glares toward the other.

The past week had been calm enough that he’d almost begun to relax and allow himself to believe that he could handle being laird of Dunellen. And now, a day like this. What in the name of all that was holy had he done to deserve these two feuding in his hall again?

Alex did his best to stifle the sigh that rose to his lips, and ignored the muffled chuckle coming from the spot behind him where Jamesy stood. It appeared this would forever be his burden to bear. Perhaps, if he took control quickly, he could end this without allowing it to drag on forever, as it had each time before.

“We are to meet like this again, are we?” Alex asked, fixing his best laird’s frown upon his features. “What’s it to be this time? Another ewe gone astray? Another missing chicken? Did one of you piss upon the other’s land this time? I had hoped you’d learned a lesson after our last encounter.”

The two cantankerous old men seemed to have nothing better to do than to accuse each other of some perceived injustice.

“An animal gone missing is one thing. But this?” Angus declared angrily, pointing a bony finger in his companion’s face. “This attack upon my household is not to be tolerated. This fiend standing next to me is responsible for the disappearance of my poor, wee son. He’s sent that harlot daughter of his to lure my lad away from his own home and hearth.”

“Me?” Oren squealed. “Yer the one, you and that addled oaf you call a son. The two of you have spirited away my wee Karen, and I’ll no’ stand for it. I demand you return her home to me at once, safe and unsullied I might add, to do her chores in her own home, no’ yers, you filthy animal.”

“We’ll have none of that in my hall,” Alex cautioned, using his sternest glare as he leaned toward Angus and captured the man’s gaze. “As I recall, that poor, wee son of yers is older than I am. Could it be that he’s gone off to seek his own fortune?”