Blue Bells of Scotland: Book One of the Blue Bells Trilogy (53 page)

Several people sitting nearby turned once again. Niall thought it best not to mention wild boar and wolves in the forest. "The Laird will have provided well." He needed to convince himself as much as her. The train chugged beneath them. Its mournful whistle stretched out behind.

Amy buried her face in her hands, shaking her head. "This can't be real. If it weren't for the scars, the accent—if you didn't know so much about the Pools...."

His voice rose with excitement. "I know what went wrong."

"They were outnumbered," Amy said. "Badly outnumbered. Can Hugh change that? Does he have that many men?"

"Nay." Niall leaned forward. "But it doesna matter. We were outnumbered five to one at Stirling Bridge and won. Routed them! I know what really went wrong."

"It doesn't matter!" Amy's voice rose. She glanced quickly around the train, and lowered her voice to a hiss. "You're seven hundred years too late. I mean, you would be, if this were even true."

"'Tis true," Niall assured her. "If I can get to him, if I can reach Shawn and change places again, I can save the battle for the Scots!"

Amy bit her lip, staring at the Medieval-styled Jesus on the cross, and forcibly slowing her agitation. "So what happened?" she finally asked. "In stories, it's always an evil witch or sorcerer…."

Niall laughed. "There are no witches. My betrothed..."

"You're engaged?" Amy's head snapped up.

Niall's eyes twinkled. "Are ye jealous?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You are just like Shawn!" She leaned back, closing her eyes. "I kissed a man who's engaged. You kissed me. I'm no better than Caroline."

He put his hand on her arm. "Ye dinna ken. I got carried away. You're bonnie. And Conrad said I'd be fired."

"Fired for not kissing me?" She opened her eyes, confused.

"For being an imposter. I've no wish to burn before I can reach Hugh."

"Burn?" She stared. Then her eyes widened. "You thought he was going to burn you, what, at the stake?"

Niall fell silent, hoping the heat on his face didn't show.

She laughed. "All it means is losing your job." Her smile fled. "If I'd known you were engaged, I wouldn't have...." Warmth climbed up her face. "I'm sorry. Forget it. What happened in the tower?"

"Allene met me there."

Amy nodded, understanding beginning to dawn. "She brought you bluebells, didn't she? You had a fight."

Niall looked surprised. "How d' ye ken?"

"When Shawn and I went up in the tower that night..." She paused. "This can't be real."

"What happened?" Niall asked.

"I smelled bluebells at the top of the tower!" Excitement laced her voice. "I knew the smell was unusually strong! And I felt tension! I told Shawn, and he laughed at me."

"Yes," Niall said. "She brought me bluebells. And we fought."

"We brought bluebells, too," Amy said. "We had a fight and I left him there." She sank back, suddenly, against the train seat. She dropped the crucifix in her lap and pressed the heels of her palms tightly over her eyes. "This is impossible. You know that, don't you?"

"Am I Shawn?" he asked quietly.

She dropped her hands and studied him. "No. But you can't be from 1314." She shook her head, and whispered, "That just can't happen."

"Do people get shot with arrows today?"

She shook her head. "Not generally, no. Maybe you're crazy. Maybe you just think..."

"Someone shot me with an arrow," he said. "Someone whipped me and left scars on my back. Ye've seen it with your oon eyes." She said nothing. He touched the back of her hand. "Have I acted any time since you met me like a madman?"

"No," she admitted. "Well, I mean, apart from saying you're from 1314."

"I am who I said I am at the concert. Niall Campbell, born in 1290, future Laird of Glenmirril. I doona ken what will happen when I go into that forest or who will come out to you."

"What will you do there?" Fear shook her voice.

"Find Hugh's camp and hope being in the same place will switch us back."

"So Shawn could be up there, and find himself suddenly back in his own time?"

"I doona ken," Niall confessed. "I doona ken if he made it to Hugh's camp."

"How could he have?"

"Allene would have taken advantage and gone with him. I know her well." He smiled sadly. "If naught happens there, I'll follow Hugh to the Pools."

"You think Shawn will be at the battle?"

"I hope," Niall confessed. "If Allene took the chance to guide him, he will be expected to go to battle with Hugh. I have prayed and hoped and prayed some more, but 'tis only guesses."

She nodded, once more at a loss for words. He slipped his hand around hers. "There's a reason I tell you this, Amy." The train gave a whistle and the beast slowed beneath him. His stomach shifted uneasily. He looked out the window, reached for his bag.

"Not yet," Amy said. "We have lots of stops before we get off. It's a three hour ride."

They waited silently while people collected bags and left the train. Others filed in. Niall held his breath, hoping no one would sit near them. Amy tucked the money, papers and crucifix into her backpack. A young couple seated themselves across from Niall and Amy. The man eyed Niall's medieval garb up and down. The girl glanced at Amy's concert black with a quick smile.

Niall sighed in frustration. The train picked up speed.

* * *

Amy leaned back, eyes closed, against the seat. She looked pale. Niall pulled out his papers and let her rest. He spent the next hour studying maps of everything between Stirling and the forests west of it. The man leaned forward. "Going hiking?" he asked.

"Aye," agreed Niall. "Do ye knoo the forest?"

"Been there lots of times." The man reached for the map, and they held it between them, companionably, while the man told all he knew of the area.

"The wolves," Niall said. "Are they bad this year?"

The man laughed. He nudged the girl. "Hear that? Wolves, he says!" He turned back to Niall. "There haven't been wolves in Scotland for hundreds of years! Where you been?" His eyes skimmed Niall's outfit again. "Fifteen hundreds?" He laughed, such a good-natured laugh Niall couldn't take offense.

"Thirteen hundreds," he corrected with a smile.

* * *

The young couple climbed off at the next stop, with fond farewells and last words of advice for their new best friend. Amy slept on. Niall shuffled papers, made marks, and studied the satellite pictures she'd printed for him.

After another stop, and another shuffling of passengers, Amy stirred. "Thanks for letting me sleep," she said, rubbing her eyes. She looked at the maps spread out in front of him. Her eyes met his. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Are ye startin' to believe me?" Niall asked.

"You can understand it's hard to believe."

"Aye."

They sat in silence, while the train gathered speed again. "Tell me about medieval Scotland," Amy said. "If this is true, you'd know it well."

Niall wrapped his arm around her, closed his eyes, and told her: training and education with his tutors, the Laird and how it amused Iohn to hear Niall imitate him, fishing with Lord Darnley and William, Allene with her red hair and temper. He told of dinners in the great hall, the mute servant boy, the Black Friars of Inverness' visit to the castle, the Monks of Monadhliath across the loch, his mother and her friends. He described the tapestries on the walls, raids to retrieve their cattle, the Morrison twins.

"The one who's a saint now?" Amy asked.

"Aye, the little wretch dropped a cold, dead fish down the back o' my shirt, the first time I saw her." He chuckled, remembering.

Amy laughed. He spoke of the bridge he'd known crossing the River Ness and watching, with Iohn and William, as Bruce's men tore down King David's castle; sneaking out through the Laird's secret dungeon tunnel with Allene, into the heathered hills outside.

He told of Hugh's camp hidden in the forest, with its giant white rock, in whose gleaming white surface Hugh took such pride. Niall laughed. "He threw a man in stocks once for making a small scratch at the base."

"It's an unlikely story, to say the least," Amy finally said. "But it all fits. You said you told me for a reason."

Niall paused. His insides turned trembly and fluid, as they did before battle. He started off on safe ground. "Amy, I doona ken who will come down from the mountain to you. If he comes down, I've provided for you and the child to the best of my ability. Take care of what I have given you, and doona let him get his hands on it."

She twisted her ring. "You waited two hours to tell me that?"

Niall drew in breath and let it out slowly. He chose his words carefully. "If I come back down, 'tis God's will for me to stay. I doona ken what to do, then. Stay here and live Shawn's life?"

"I don't know," Amy said, her voice thin. "I guess. I mean, you have to make a living." She laughed more from nerves than humor. "You won't find many job offers for 'highland laird.' Especially in the States."

He smiled. "I am betrothed in 1314. If I'm caught here, I canna honor that."

"It would be hard," she agreed.

He paused, afraid of the words. Then he took her hand and spit them out, before he could reconsider. "I would ask for your hand in marriage, Amy, if I come back."

Her eyes widened. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but moved impotently, like the fish Darnley threw on the shore. A desperate longing to see Lord Darnley and Iohn swept over him. He spoke quickly, pushing the pain of Darnley's betrayal away. "I would provide for you," he said, "and give the child a name. I would treat you with love and kindness always."

Amy pulled her hand away. She lifted it to her mouth, put it in her lap, twisted her ring.

"Have I upset you?" Niall asked. "I'm not Shawn, but 'tis a good thing, aye? We get along well, you and I."

"I hardly know you," Amy said softly, lowering her eyes.

"Is that necessary?" Niall asked in surprise. "Have I not shown myself to be honorable?"

"You're serious." Amy met his eyes and laughed out loud. "I guess if this is true, that would be a surprise. Yes, it's considered necessary."

"Do you not wish to give the child a name?"

She blushed, lowering her eyes again. "That's not considered quite so necessary in our time," she said softly.

All the logic behind the decision swirled and dissipated like Highland mist in the morning sun. He'd expected she would be grateful. He'd expected she would readily agree. "I thought I was doing the right thing," he said. "Have I hurt ye?"

"No." Amy dared meet his eyes. "If you were someone else, I might think you asked out of pity."

"Who would pity you? You're strong and loving and giving." The words surprised Niall as much as Amy.

"That's one of the kindest things I've heard in a long time," she whispered. "It's just—I don't want to get married because it's the right thing. I want to get married because someone loves me, and I love him. Don't you love Allene?"

"Aye," Niall agreed. They sat in silence. A student, several seats away, laughed loudly, and began telling a bawdy story. The train's whistle blew, a long, mournful sound stretching back on the wind.

"I guess," Amy said, "it's like being widowed? You'll always love her, but she's beyond your reach, if you're stuck in this time."

"Aye," Niall said again.

"So you and I could really love each other."

"You're a good woman, Amy. In my time, people often wed without knowing one other at all. But we learn from the time we are bairns that love is how you treat another. And the feeling of fondness grows from that. I already feel great fondness for you."

Amy searched his eyes. "I feel—fondness—a lot of it—for you, too." A blush crept up her cheeks. "But I don't know what's real and what's mixed up with thinking you were Shawn." She turned to stare out the window, falling silent. Niall watched her reflection, wondering if he'd spoken poorly. A girl shushed the bawdy story, giggling. Several seats away, a child cried briefly and stopped.

"I want to do the right thing," he said again, finally. "I want to care for you and the child. I'd not want people thinking I abandoned you if I come back instead of Shawn." Amy wiped her nose, sniffing. "I thought about asking for your hand," Niall added, "without telling you. But if Shawn comes back, 'twould appear a cruel jest. I dinna wish to do that to you. I'm doing the best I can. Do you see I must try to reach Hugh?"

"Yes."

"But I want to be here for you."

"Yes."

"Then...?"

She turned from the window and took his hand. His heart pounded a heavy tattoo, waiting. "It would be insane to agree to this," she said. His heart sank. He realized with shock how much he'd come to plan on this future, if the switch didn't happen. "If you come back, we'll spend a year getting to know each other, and then decide."

Niall stared, stunned. It hadn't gone according to plan. His betrothal to Allene had been arranged by MacDonald and his mother. He'd known from the start that Allene wanted him as her husband. He'd never before risked himself like this with a woman.

But she hadn't said no.

She'd consider him! Elation tingled in his veins. A broad grin stretched across his face.

"You look just like Shawn when you do that," she said.

He leaned back on the seat, his arm around her and his face resting on top of her head.

He drifted to sleep. Two worlds and two futures twined in his dreams: Allene and war and living in MacDonald's chambers at Glenmirril one day; raising children with Amy, playing the harp for adoring fans, having pictures of his children and loved ones to carry everywhere with him, and never feeling death inching its claws around every corner.

* * * * *

Chapter Eighteen

Central Scotland, Scotland, Present

Niall and Amy alighted from the train. Crowds swarmed around them: Japanese tourists with cameras, Americans in slacks and tennis shoes, college students eager to take in the sights before hitting the pubs. A mother grabbed for a darting child, staring hard at Niall's tunic and boots. They surged with the crowd up wide concrete stairs and out of the station. Amy watched Niall, curious about his reaction to a Stirling much different than he would have known, if his story was true. He studied the scene briefly, his eyes sharp, then looked steadfastly ahead, neither left nor right. "Take me to the forest," he said. "I'll find my way from there."