All The Time You Need (20 page)

Good. This was one time a distraction wasn’t welcome. Not even a friendly distraction like Dog. She’d have to hurry. Already the sun rode low on the horizon. She’d be lucky to have another hour of light left to search.

One last check to make sure no one was around and she slipped inside the door, closing it behind her. The instant the door closed, she realized the one thing she’d neglected to consider.

“Well, damn,” she muttered.

Why hadn’t she thought to bring along a candle? What a careless mistake on her part. She’d known from having asked Lissa that these were all storage buildings. And even if she hadn’t asked, she could see for herself that there were no windows. Any fool should have realized that even in the middle of a bright, sunny day, there’d be no light in the interior of the buildings. But she wasn’t just any fool. She was rapidly on her way to becoming a world-class fool.

Not that a candle would have helped without a way to light it.

“Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a box of matches.”

Or better yet, a flashlight. If she were going to wish for small conveniences from her own time, she might as well wish for something good. Especially since they were all equally unattainable.

With a sigh, Annie opened the door a crack, allowing a small shaft of mellowing light to creep inside. It didn’t matter that she could barely see her hand in front of her face. She wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. At the very least, she could feel her way to the back wall to hunt for a door.

Her new plan might have worked if she hadn’t tripped before she’d taken three steps. Fortunately for her, her fall was short, broken by a stack of bags. Grain, from the smell of them. A few more minutes of feeling her way around told her that they were stacked against barrels that formed a solid wall along the back of the small building.

Annie stepped back to the door and opened it fully. The interior was completely filled with the barrels. Unless they were empty and she could hoist them around—something she very much doubted—there’d be no reaching the back wall to check for a doorway.

Outside the building, she pulled the door shut behind her and stepped away from the building, frustration tightening her chest. If all the buildings were filled like this one, her wonderful plan had no chance to succeed. She couldn’t very well escape through a door she couldn’t find.

As she walked from the first to the second building, a motion caught her eye and she glanced up to see a butterfly flitting into a space between the two storage rooms. In her time, she’d think of this as an alley, though that didn’t seem quite appropriate. It didn’t go anywhere. The space was just about wide enough for two people to walk down side by side, though it wasn’t very long. Only the length of a single room, the weed-filled space ended at the wall.

The sharp bite of urine stung her nose as she neared the wall, giving her a good idea of what the area was used for, whether or not it was the intended purpose. With one hand pressed against the stone, she bowed her head and studied the ground at her feet, knowing this was getting her nowhere.

The castle grounds were rarely as deserted as they were right now. She’d been lucky to get into and out of one storage room without getting caught. She’d only managed to find a modicum of privacy this time by waiting until most people had gathered in the great hall for the evening meal. There was no way she could imagine searching all six rooms without someone catching her in the act. And if someone caught her in the act…

She didn’t like to lie. It was a skill she’d never mastered. Instead, honesty had always been her natural defense. In spite of that, she doubted that she’d be doing herself a favor by telling the laird of the MacKillican she was searching for a way to do what he’d forbidden her to do.

What she’d managed so far was pretty much nothing, and here she stood, wasting more time.

“Time,” she muttered, fighting off a despair she couldn’t allow to engulf her.

Time
was at the root of all her problems.

She needed to be more precise in her search. If only she could remember approximately where she’d gone through the wall in her time. If only everything didn’t look so very different here than it had when it was all rubble. If only she had paid more attention to her surroundings.

But she hadn’t.

So what now?

If only she could see the outside of the wall. The opening would have to be so much easier to locate on that side.

Of course, she’d have to be on the other side of the wall to get that view. And if she were already outside, she wouldn’t need to find the opening.

A big sigh escaped Annie’s lips as she looked up toward the sky, where a huge bird circled overhead.

That was what she needed to be—a bird circling above the wall. She needed—

“What do you think yer doing back there?”

She froze as the words frizzled a path down her spine like an arc of electricity. Of all the people she could imagine catching her out here, the one she would most like to avoid having to explain herself to was the very one who stood at the opening to the alleyway, blocking her exit.

Alex, laird of the MacKillican, waited there, hands on his hips, wearing an expression that reminded her for all the world of a man out to catch prey. And suddenly, Annie felt very much like the local Prey of the Day.

* * *

Alex was in the habit of looking for Annie each evening in the great hall. Only to keep track of her, to make sure all was as it should be and for no other reason. He had thought it was strange when she was nowhere to be seen for their evening meal. It wasn’t disappointment he’d felt because she wasn’t there. Only concern about
why
she wasn’t there.

At least, that was the story he’d told himself. And he’d almost convinced himself, too.

When Finn had entered the great hall, wearing an expression even darker than usual, Alex had known something was afoot.

“Dog found yer lady sneaking about by the back wall. Should I go after her to see what’s got her fancy out there?”

Alex had risen from his seat and headed outside immediately.

And now he’d found her, guiltily skulking in between the buildings, just as Finn had said.

“What do you think yer doing back there?” he asked for a second time, studying the woman who stood by the wall.

She waited, unmoving, like a doe caught in the open.

“I thought I saw something in here,” she said at last. “I was out for a walk and I thought I saw something. I only came back here to investigate.”

“And what did you find?” he asked, keeping his gaze focused on her eyes as he approached her.

“Nothing.” She shrugged. “Maybe it was just the wind. Or my imagination. But there’s nothing here except someone’s regular toilet spot.”

He’d reached her side, breaking eye contact long enough to search the ground at their feet. As she’d said, there was nothing. He scanned the side of the wall and the sky, as he’d seen her doing only moments ago. Nothing. Nothing at all for her to have been so intently engrossed in staring at.

What had she been waiting for? Had she expected a message to drop from the sky?

“Perhaps I’d best increase the guard on the wall-walk,” he murmured, realizing only as he heard the words that he’d spoken them aloud.

“What’s a wall-walk?” she asked, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

Annie appeared to ask the question in all seriousness, though how a woman who’d spent her life in castles couldn’t know such a thing was beyond him. Accepting her sincerity required him to give her an answer.

“It is the space upon the top of the castle wall where guards are set to watch for any approaching dangers. Guards, I might add, who are always on duty so that our enemies might never catch us unawares.”

The last was intended to dissuade her from any plotting, just in case she conspired against him.

“Of course,” she murmured, staring up toward the top of the wall. “Because the walls are so thick. Can we go up there?”

“No.”

His answer had been, admittedly, a hasty first reaction to her request. But for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine why any woman would want to climb the narrow steps to the wall-walk.

He should have let it go at that. And yet the disappointment reflected on her face appeared very real. Very real and somehow quite disturbing.

“What reason do you have for wanting to go up upon the wall-walk?” he asked.

“To see something I’ve never seen before,” she answered, a smile trembling at the corners of her mouth, as if she were afraid to allow herself to be happy. “Could we? Please?”

Though he had not one logical reason to say yes to her request, and many sound reasons to say no, he found himself making the decision to agree to what she wanted.

Her smile of thanks felt more than reward enough for any risk he might be taking.

“It’s no’ an easy traverse,” he warned, but his words had no effect on her obvious delight.

He led her toward the back entrance to the wall-walk. Here, the only route to the top was by way of a precarious ladder, used for emergencies only. He could have taken her to the entry gate at the front of the castle grounds easily enough. There, solid stone steps made up the bulk of the climb. But he didn’t go that way.

Instead, his irritation at his own unexplainable behavior focused on her, prodding him to choose the more difficult route. He’d just see how badly she wanted to make it to the top.

He had absolutely no intention of offering any assistance on the climb, either. Ignoring the spear of his conscience, he waited silently as Annie eyed the ladder before them, her hands nervously worrying their way down the front of her gown.

“So this is the way to get up,” she muttered, before her mouth settled into a grim, determined line and she placed her foot on the first rung.

With a sweeping gesture of his arm, he invited her to begin her ascent.

Annie buried her hand in her skirt and lifted, baring first a very shapely set of ankles, followed by more leg than Alex had seen for quite some time. He followed closely behind her, allowing himself the guilty pleasure of watching the decidedly feminine derriere swaying back and forth just ahead of him.

At the top of the ladder, Annie crawled over the small ledge and remained on her knees even after Alex had climbed off the ladder to stand beside her.

In spite of his resolution not to assist her in any way, Alex extended a hand to help her to her feet. The gesture wasn’t really changing his earlier decision, he reasoned. It was more a gesture of common courtesy that any man might offer to any woman.

Though Alex couldn’t say for sure, it seemed to him as though her dampened fingers gripped his hand much more tightly than at any time in the past. He’d also swear that her face was several shades paler than it had been when they were standing on the ground below, though that perception could be a trick of light thanks to the encroaching night.

Perhaps he’d been overly insensitive in his choice of a route to the top. He’d make up for it in their descent. After making their way to the guard posts, he’d show her around the wall-walk so that he could take her down by way of the stone steps at the front of the castle.

But on his first movement forward, it became clear to him that his guest had other ideas.

Annie slipped her hand from his and crossed to the other side of the wall-walk. Bracing her hands against the stones of the
outer wall, she leaned forward to peer over the side. Almost as quickly, she drew back, breathing hard, before pushing forward once again to survey the land below.

Dusk or no dusk, there was no mistaking the pale cast to her face now.

“Are you feeling unwell?” he asked.

She made no response, as if she hadn’t heard him at all.

Her body swayed a bit, almost like a woman in a trance, and she rose onto her tiptoes, leaning even farther over the wall.

In three strides he was at her side, his arms wrapped around her.

And none too soon, from the looks of it.

Her body trembled in his embrace while she pressed her perspiration-dampened face into his chest.

“Are you unwell?” he asked again, tightening his arms around her. “What’s wrong with you? Answer me.”

“I should have known better,” she mumbled, her fingers clutching the cloth on his arm.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” he encouraged, pulling back from her to gently brush a loose strand of hair from her face.

“It’s heights,” she said, shaking her head, her expression more embarrassed than ill. “I’ve always had a problem with them. But I wanted to see the other side so badly. I tried not to think about how it would affect me. Sometimes, if I don’t look down… But, of course, looking down was what I came up here to do.”

Another hint that the woman in his arms could easily be a spy. Otherwise, why would she risk her own safety just to see over the wall? Even so, it made little sense. Anyone hiding in the woods had easy access to see the wall. His enemies wouldn’t need her to attempt to see it from up here. What information had she hoped to gain?

“Why?” he asked. “What did you hope to accomplish in seeing the other side of the wall?”