A Time Apart: Time Travel Historical Highlander Romance (2 page)

“Oh no,” she said. “There is no way I’m doing that.”

“Come on,” Caroline encouraged and laughed. “Don’t you want to find out if there’s a tall dark stranger in your future.”

“Really?” Jenny let out in an incredulous voice and tried to resist as the tugging on her wrist continued. “You want to go to a fortune teller. I didn’t realize you believed in that kind of mumbo jumbo nonsense.”

Caroline’s laughed more at the apparent reluctance of her friend.

“It’s just a bit of fun,” she said. “It’s not like I’m planning to take it seriously.”

Jenny sighed as she gave up struggling and let herself be led to the front of a large, striped tent.

“You go first,” Caroline said.

“Why do I have to go first?” Jenny exclaimed.

“Because if I do…,” Caroline went on. “You’ll just make an excuse afterwards and back out of doing it when I’m finished.”

Jenny knew it was true, but continued to protest in the face of her friend’s encouragement. She eventually gave up and decided to just go through with it as a way of ending the night.

“OK, OK!!” she let out and rolled her eyes.

She moved forward and stepped through the flaps of the tent into flickering candlelight. The dark, eerie surroundings gave her the creeps straight away and she was all for turning around to walk straight back out when a voice spoke.

“Please…, take a seat.”

She narrowed her eyes as she glanced towards the gloom at the back of the tent. Her breathing grew heavier as she moved forward towards a table and saw the hunched figure of the old woman sitting at it.

“Oh, hi,” she said.

Her nerves grew as the woman pointed to the seat opposite and she stepped up to the chair to sit down.

“You must first cross my palm with silver,” the woman said in a deep, hoarse voice.

Jenny almost snorted out a laugh at the ridiculously corny line and brought her hand to her mouth to try and disguise it as a cough.

“You’re not a believer?” the old woman asked.

“Umm…, no, not really,” Jenny admitted. “It was my friend’s idea to come her and she made me go first. How much is it?”

The woman didn’t answer as she picked up a teapot from the table and swirled it around. She poured the contents in a small cup and Jenny started at the steaming liquid that was pushed in front of her.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’m not really that thirsty, so…”

“I need you to drink it,” the old woman told her.

“What is it?” Jenny asked.

“Just tea,” the reply came back. “Drink it and give me the cup when you are finished.”

“You didn’t tell me how much,” she said.

“Whatever you think is right,” the woman told her.

Jenny thought what was right was to stand up and walk away from the nonsense she was letting herself get involved with, but eventually decided to just get things over and done with so she could leave. She got her purse and handed across some money before picking up the cup and draining it of the tepid contents. The bitter taste of the tea made her grimace and she opened her mouth to pick some leaves from her tongue.

“Put them back in the cup,” the old lad said.

“Yeah, OK, whatever,” she muttered as she dropped the tea leaves back in the cup and handed it over.

The woman smiled as she took it. She swirled the cup around a couple of times and turned it over on the saucer. Jenny was startled by the noise as they banged down on the table and almost let out a curse as her heartbeat jumped.

“So…, why don’t you believe?” the woman asked when she picked up the cup and looked at the leaves in the saucer.

“Umm…, believe what?” Jenny asked as she stared across the table.

“In fortune telling?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Well…, I don’t think some leaves in a saucer are a good indicator of what my future holds,” she replied.

The woman said no more for a while as she lowered her head and stared intently at the tea leaves. Jenny was unnerved by the low chanting that sounded out and wanted to leave.

“Look, I think…” she started.

“You need to beware,” the woman said in a shrill voice as she looked up.

Jenny narrowed her eyes and despite her reservations couldn’t stop herself asking.

“Beware of what.”

“Water,” the old lady said as she returned her attention to the saucer. “There are bad omens in what the leaves show and you need to be wary. They don’t lie.”

“Great,” Jenny let out skeptically and rolled her eyes. “So you’re telling me the leaves show that I shouldn’t have a shower.”

The woman ignored the flippant comment and began chanting again. Jenny eased the chair back with the intention of getting up, but the old woman’s hand moved across the table to grab her wrist and stop her standing. She was surprised at the strength and her unease grew when she found herself unable to get free of the grip.

“You need to listen and listen well,” the old woman said. “There are things that can’t be explained, events that might take over your life in a way you cannot control. You need to protect yourself against them.”

“What are you talking about?” Jenny let out as she put more effort into extricating her wrist from a tight grip that was beginning to hurt.

“The leaves spell out danger for you in water,” the woman said in a hushed tone. “It’s clear to see.”

“What danger?” Jenny asked.

She was getting spooked by what was happening and her pulse raced faster still.

“You must take this coin,” the old lady went on and forced it into Jenny’s hand. “It will give you the protection that you need.”

“Protection against what?” she asked.

The woman just looked at her and shook her head.

“Just stay away from water,” she cautioned in a low, ominous voice.

Jenny finally managed to wrench her wrist free and looked at the red mark on her skin. Sweat prickled on her forehead and the urge to get out of the tent grew stronger.

“You’re crazy,” she muttered under her breath as she rubbed her wrist.

“Keep the coin,” the old woman said. “Don’t let it out of your possession if you want to keep yourself safe from the danger that awaits you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jenny let out under her breath when she turned to walk away. She was all too aware she was trembling as she hurried to the tent entrance and walked out.

“So…,” Caroline said.

“I wouldn’t go in there if I was you,” she replied. “That woman is seriously off her head.”

“What did she tell you?”

“You don’t want to know,” Jenny answered. “Come on, let’s go.”

“No,” Caroline exclaimed. “I want my turn.”

She walked to the entrance and stepped through before Jenny could stop her. There was nothing she could do but wait and she tried to calm her nerves as she stood looking towards the lights of the manor house.

“Fucking stupid fortune teller,” she cursed through clenched teeth.

She looked down at the coin in her hand and the compulsion to throw it away came over her. For some reason she couldn’t do it and she paced back and forth while she waited for her friend to reappear. A smile was plastered across Caroline’s face when she walked out the tent and Jenny narrowed her eyes.

“Good news I take it,” she said.

Caroline laughed.

“She said I would fall for someone that was currently a friend,” she replied.

“You’re kidding me,” Jenny exclaimed. “You got the meeting a tall dark handsome man prediction.”

“It might be true,” Caroline said and shrugged her shoulders. “What exactly did she tell you?”

“That water was a danger for me and that I needed this coin to keep me safe,” Jenny said in a scornful tone. “Complete and utter voodoo nonsense like I told you before.”

“Hey, no fair” Caroline let out. “You got a souvenir. She didn’t give me anything.”

“I don’t want it,” Jenny replied and handed it over. “It was your idea to come here. You have it.”

“But…” Caroline started.

“I just want to go home,” Jenny cut in. “You can have the coin as a quant memory of your fortune being told.  Are you going to get the bus home?”

“I guess so,” Caroline answered.

“OK, well I’m just going to walk around the lake to the other gate,” Jenny told her. “It’s quicker for me.”

“Sure,” Caroline went on. “Thanks for coming. I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”

Jenny nodded her head.

“Yeah,” she said. “Goodnight.”

The pair of them parted ways and Jenny wandered across the grass towards the lit path around the lake. She looked back towards the lights of the fair and the manor hall and shook her head. It hadn’t exactly been a fun end to the evening, but it was too late to do anything about it and she set off for home. Her gaze went to the rippling water of the lake and she let out a humorless laugh.

“Keep away from water,” she spat out. “How the hell am I supposed to do that? Go and live in a bloody desert? Bunch of fucking hokum claptrap.”

She walked off the path and down to the edge of the lake. The impulse to hang a foot out over it was too much to resist and she looked down the small drop to the dark, swirling surface below.

“Oh no, I’m tempting fucking fate,” she said and laughed again.

Suddenly the hilarity of visiting the fortune teller and sitting listening to the warning came over her and she laughed harder.

“Go home,” she told herself when she eventually got control of herself again.

Her foot landed on a large, wet boulder when she brought it down to the ground again. It made her slip and the fall seemed to take place in slow motion. She swung her arms around in a desperate attempt to retain her balance and grab onto something, but all she got was fresh air. The panic swept over her as she toppled down the short drop and she was paralyzed by the shock of hitting the cold water. Her vision blurred and a hazy blackness surrounded her as she sank into the dank depths of the lake.

Chapter Two

Jenny’s screeching cry spilt the air as she got her head just above the rippling surface to fight for a breath. It felt like something was trying to drag her back down to the depths and the sound of her panicked scream cut off to a gurgle as she sank below the murky water again. The pain began to sting as she thrashed her arms and legs around in a desperate attempt to get above the surface and suck air in her bursting lungs. It seemed to be futile though as her struggle for life continued. The swirl of darkness began to cloud her vision and the fear that she was about to die filled her mind. She looked up to get a hazy view of the surface only a few feet above her, but it seemed like a million miles as her efforts to get to it began to fade.

It was only when a tight grip clutched at her shoulder that she was hauled clear of whatever was wrapped around her ankles and she threw up a mouthful of water before sucking in gasping breaths. She was exhausted and lay with her eyes closed for a few seconds before opening them again to look around.

“Who are you?” she asked the man standing over her.

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he replied in a thick Scottish accent.

Jenny tried to get up and the pain ripped through her head for a brief instant before dying away to a dull thud. When she managed to raise herself up to a sitting position, cold water trickled down from her brow and blurred her vision. She closed her eyes and wiped the back of her hand across them as she tried to recover from the trauma of almost drowning.

“Fucking hell,” she gasped as she raised her eyelids.

She stared at the man as he remained standing over her and wasn’t sure quite what she was looking at. Her brow creased as her gaze settled on the dark green tartan of his outfit. The kilt revealed a little of the man’s muscular, brawny legs and as she looked higher, she saw that the tartan material ran up and over his shoulder. The thick material didn’t disguise his muscular physique and it was more than obvious that he kept himself in shape. The large juniper badge on his chest caught Jenny’s attention and she stared at it for a second or two before lifting her gaze to the man’s face. The dark stubble gave him a rugged appearance, but it added to the handsomeness of his shoulder length dark hair and piercing brown eyes.

“Are…, are you from the fair?” Jenny asked hesitantly.

“The what?” he replied.

She was all too aware of his accent again and her eyes narrowed as she continued to stare at him.

“The fair,” she repeated. “At the Albion Manor House.”

“Are you OK?” he asked her. “There’s no fair around here that I know off…, or a manor house for that matter.”

Even though the man just saved her from drowning, Jenny couldn’t stop her annoyance welling up at his words.

“For fucks sake,” she exclaimed and lifted her hand to point. “The fair over…”

Her words ended abruptly as she looked to where she expected to see the lights of the fairground and manor house. There was just the darkness of night in view and it unnerved her even more. She glanced around as the confusion came on, but there was nothing but open ground around them. There were certainly no lights to be seen in any direction she looked.

“Wait, this isn’t right,” she went in an agitated voice as the alarm of the situation washed over her. “Where’s the fair? Where’s the fucking manor house I was looking at two minutes ago.”

The man shook his head as he listened to her and he was silent for a second or two after she finished before he spoke.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told her. “All I wanted to do was water my horse to get ready for the ride home. The next thing I know, you are flailing around in the water like a dying fish, so I hauled you out before you drowned.”

“This isn’t right,” Jenny repeated. “Did the old woman put you up to this?”

“What old woman?” the man asked.

Jenny could sense the rising hysteria that she was struggling to contain.

“From the fair,” she shouted. “The fortune teller.”

“A witch?” the man asked.

“No, not a fucking witch,” she cried. “A fairground fortune teller.” She couldn’t hold back the tears and they slowly rolled down her cheeks. “Please…,” she went on in a despairing voice. “I just want to go home.”

“You’re not the only one,” he replied. “Where are you from?”

“My apartment is in that direct…” she started to say.

She looked to where she was pointing and saw the open countryside dimly illuminated by nothing more than moonlight. The anguish she was feeling grew worse as she stared and her confusion at the situation she found herself in increased. She tried to get control of herself and wiped the back of her hand across her nose.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“You don’t know where you are,” the man replied and looked at her suspiciously.

She just shook her head.

“This is Rannoch Moor in the highlands of Scotland,” he told her.

“What?” she let out in a hushed tone, but no answer came back.

Jenny suddenly couldn’t stop shivering as the cold of her wet clothes played on her skin. She brought her knees to her chest and hugged her arms around them in an attempt to get warm, but her shivering only grew worse. The unease she was experiencing filled her mind and she didn’t know what to do.

The old woman’s warning about water flared in her mind, but she instantly dismissed it. Something strange was going on that she couldn’t explain, but she wasn’t about to believe fairy stories and ridiculous fortune teller warnings. She glanced up as the man placed a blanket around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she said. “For helping me.”

The man simply nodded his head.

“We need to go,” he said. “It’s not safe to be out here for long in the dead of night.”

“Go where,” Jenny asked.

“Well…, unless you tell me where your home is the only thing I can do is take you to mine,” he replied.

Jenny didn’t see anything else she could do. She didn’t recognize where she was and the area around her looked bleak and desolate. If she was left alone she didn’t think it would end well and she needed to accept the help being offered to her. There was only one thing she knew for sure. She wasn’t in the grounds of the Albion Manor House any more. When the man gripped her arm, she got to her feet and leaned against him as her legs trembled. He led her across to his horse and mounted first before hauling her up in front of him. His urgent cry encouraged the animal to a canter and in a matter of seconds they were galloping across moorland with the wind whipping past them.

Jenny kept her eyes on the surroundings as the journey continued. She was desperate to see something familiar to take away the sense of dread that was taking hold in her mind, but it was a forlorn hope. There was nothing but open countryside around them in the darkness and she shook her head as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

The flat landscape turned more rolling and hilly as the horse continued to race across the ground at a fast gallop and a couple of hours after setting off they were riding through a glen. The man whipped the horse relentlessly, but eventually eased off and let the animal slow its pace. In the distance, Jenny saw the outline of what looked like a medieval castle against the background of the night sky. Her eyes opened wider as they headed in its direction and she realized it was where they were going.

“This…,” she let out in a surprised voice. “This is where you live?”

“It’s the ancestral home of the clan Dungannon,” he said. “It’s my home.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Jenny muttered under her breath.

Things were becoming more surreal by the minute, as if she was in a dream that she would wake up from and laugh about. Her nerves came out when they got to the side of a loch and she saw the calm surface. Her recent experience of being in water made her wary of even being near it, but as the horse trotted around the shoreline she began to take in more detail of the castle they were approaching. Tall stone turrets speared the dark night sky and she could see that the entire place was set out on an island in the middle of the loch. The main building loomed large over two smaller ones on either side and all were enclosed by a massive stone wall. It appeared to be an impregnable fortress, with the mountainous backdrop giving it an impressive beauty.

At first Jenny couldn’t see how they would actually get across to the buildings, but when they moved further around the shore the long stone bridge loomed out of the darkness. It stretched out towards the huge wall and the man led his mount onto it. They made their way almost all the way across the bridge before coming to a stop as it ended. There was nothing but the open space of a huge gap in front of them and the man got down.

“Who is it?” the cry came out from the top of a massive gate in the wall.

Jenny could do nothing but watch as the man she was with stepped right up to the edge of the stone bridge.

“It’s James,” he shouted back. “Open the bridge.”

“What’s the word to pass,” the cry came back.

“Today it’s Carrick,” James replied.

The creaking sound of wood began right away and James came back to mount the horse again. Jenny watched in amazement as a sturdy wooden drawbridge slowly dropped into place to close the gap and complete the bridge. As soon as they were across, it was raised back in place and they rode into a small enclosed courtyard.

“Master James,” an elderly woman said as she hurried out of a nearby building. “Your father wants to see you straight away.”

He got down to the ground and helped Jenny dismount. She was shivering even more and hugged the blanket around her body.

“See that she gets cleaned up and put her to bed,” he told the woman.

“Yes Master James,” she said.

Jenny watched as he walked off towards a small passageway then turned her attention to the woman standing next to her.

“I’m Aggie,” she said. “You need to come with me.”

The tiredness of the ordeal she just endured washed over Jenny and she simply followed as the elderly woman returned to the building she’d appeared from. They walked up a set of stone steps until they reached a door and the woman opened it to walk inside.

Jenny did the same and moved to the center of the room. She was finding it difficult to believe that she was in a castle and barely registered her surroundings at first. The sound of speaking caught her attention and she looked to where the older woman was standing by an opening that seemed to lead through to a smaller space.

“You can bathe in there,” Aggie said. “If you wait I’ll bring you some hot water.”

She moved closer and helped take the blanket from around Jenny’s shoulders. There was no disguising the suspicious expression that crossed her face when she saw the clothes.

Jenny glanced down at the tailored skirt and blouse she was wearing then to the rough tartan outfit of the woman. The difference in them was like night and day and she couldn’t think of a sensible way to explain it. Aggie said nothing, however, as she folded the blanket and set it across the back of a chair. She then moved to the door and left the room.

Jenny stumbled to a chair and dropped down on it. She lowered her head to her hands and sat with her eyes closed for a minute or two. It was cold in the room, so she dropped her hands from her face and rubbed her arms in an attempt to get some warmth in them. It failed miserably and she hugged herself as she tried to stop shivering. When she raised her head she took more interest in her surroundings and saw how bleak they were. There was a bed in the corner and a cabinet close to it. That was the only furniture in the place other than the chair she was sitting on.

“This isn’t happening,” she said out loud as she got to her feet.