Highland Defiance (The MacLomain Series- Early Years) (7 page)

Because you can be, lass.

“Adlin?” she cried and shot up.

“No,” her siblings said and pushed her down.

Though Mildred moved her lips, nothing came from her mouth. Everything seemed blank and desolate. Everything seemed without purpose. The blinds were drawn. Candles were lit.

“Keep her down.”

Keep me down?
Mildred struggled. She knew that voice.
Mama?

“Now,” the voice whispered.

Then there was nothing.

“Keep her down!”

Mildred screamed and flailed, unable to do anything else. Anger burned and bubbled. She wanted death for all…needed it. Faces became unfamiliar. Her inner voice became unfamiliar.

“Shhh.”

Her mother’s whisper was nearby. Soft and reassuring, her Mama had never left her. Though it felt a million pounds rested on her arms, she lifted her hand.

A strong hand grasped hers. Startled, Mildred tried to pull back.

“It’s me sis. Relax.”

She shivered. “Jonathan?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” His face and body came close to hers. “Are you okay?”

“No.” Mildred held onto him. “I’m not.”

“You will be. Promise,” he whispered.

Sobs raked her and she held on tight. How could she have gone from one reality to the next so easily?
Impossible.
But good.
This is what she wanted, right? Then why did she feel so empty? “I passed out…dreamed.”

“Of course you did.”

“Mama?”

“Right here, darling.”

As reality became more and more acute, Mildred realized that she lay in her bed with her mother, Irene and Jonathan nearby. Her mother leaned in close and asked, “What is my name, Mildred?”

Mildred closed her eyes. They were trying to make sure she had her wits about her. Good enough. She opened her eyes and replied in a surprising even voice, “Your name is Sarah. I’m okay now.
Just confused.”

Eyes wide and concerned, her family stared down. Her mother spoke. “Tell us what you’re confused about, Mildred.”

“Water.
Please.” The last thing she wanted to tell them was what she’d been through. Granted, she’d wanted to scream it originally. No more. Now she wanted to keep it secret. After all, it was insanity. Perhaps she’d dreamt it all? So she repeated, “Water.”

“Of course.”
Irene handed her a cup.

She took long, deep gulps and glanced down to see she no longer wore a dress but her work clothes.  

“Finish up. We need to talk.”

One look at her mother’s face told Mildred that there would be no secrets after all. How could there be when this all clearly had to do with her family’s unusual history. Mildred nodded, handed the cup to Irene and looked at her mother. “The lineage, witchcraft, this is all part of it, isn’t it?”

“Of course,” Sarah said, her eyes easily going from soft to a tempered inquisitive. “What happened to you? Where have you been?”

“Nowhere,” she said automatically. All the while she knew that her mother knew. Did Irene and Jonathan? One look at their faces told her no.

“She’s fine,” Sarah said. “Go downstairs. Give us a few minutes.”

Jonathan and Irene looked unsure but one quick nod sent them on their way. Mildred handed the cup back to her mother and worked at familiarizing herself with… herself. Her body felt normal again. As if everything she’d felt hadn’t happened. As if she hadn’t traveled through time. In fact, had she? No.
Impossible.
Somehow she’d dreamt it all. Everything had been a dream. It had to have been.

“Do you remember everything I taught you?”

Mildred looked at her mother.
“About what?”

“About being gifted.”

With a sniff, she responded, “Yes. That I am the least gifted. There wasn’t much to teach.”

Sarah’s hand slid into hers. “That doesn’t make you the least wanted.”

“Wanted by what?” she shot without meaning to. Lord though, was she angry. Her whole life her parents had been honest about the fact that their children were witches, she of course being the least powerful. The attic that Irene and she called their bedroom had always held the most power. How was it that she—the least powerful—had not only traveled back but to a place so far from this attic?

Highly unlikely.

“You overthink,” Sarah said softly.

“No.” She shook her head. “You knew about Scotland all along, especially the MacLomains.” Mildred stood, though a bit shaky she walked to the far side of the room and back before she said, “I thought it ended with you and Da. I don’t understand.”

Her Mom clenched and unclenched her fists. “No. It’d only just begun.”

“What?” She whispered. “How is that possible?”

As she sunk down onto the bed her mother’s expression grew distant.
“Because your Da wasn’t the Chieftain.”

Mildred narrowed her eyes. “No, Adlin is!”

“Yes,” her mother whispered absently.
“Adlin.”

Her heart skipped a few beats. “So you know Adlin?”

“Yes, I do.”

Mildred clasped her mother’s hands. “He’s real, isn’t he? Adlin is real? I didn’t dream him up?”

Her mother shook her head and closed her eyes. “You couldn’t dream up Adlin if you tried. Just I never thought
he
… you.”

“Mama.”
She wrapped an arm around Sarah’s shoulders and oddly enough found strength in the odd exchange. “Adlin’s okay. He’s not bad. I’m sure of it. But I don’t understand… was he an old man when you met him?”

“Oh no, dear, he was a young man.
Very handsome.”

“But how can that be… he’s still a young man in 1050. Da would have been...”

Mildred trailed off. Her Da would’ve been in his early fifties when she traveled back seeing how when he’d met her mama he was from 1025 Scotland having been born in 998. Funny, the last thing she’d been worried about was finding him.

Sarah shrugged and murmured, “Perhaps the magic.”

Pretty amazing magic! But that was the least of her concerns right now. As much as she feared all of this, Mildred couldn’t help but remember the man her mother seemed so afraid of, nor could she forget how drawn she was to him. “Adlin won’t hurt me, Mama.”

“Not yet.” Her mother’s emotions seemed to flip in an instant and her steady, dry eyes looked at Mildred. “What did he say? Why did he pull you back?”

Suddenly a young, defensive daughter again, Mildred shrugged loosely.
“Nothing much.
He just said he was supposed to help me get somewhere.”

“Somewhere?
That’s vague.”

“To my betrothed,” she said haphazardly. “That’s it.”

“
Your
betrothed?” Sarah stood and started pacing, deep in thought before she turned to Mildred. “He wanted to lead you to your betrothed?” The pacing continued. “That’s not how it works with Adlin. He’s there when you’ve already come in contact with your one true love. He doesn’t ever ‘lead’ a person to their love.”

The room grew orange with mid-afternoon rays of sun, catching the hem of her mother’s skirts as she continued to pace. Her long, dark hair with wisps of gray shone in the odd lighting. She suddenly stopped pacing and wrung her hands. “There is something different about all of this. You need to tell me everything.”

No. She didn’t want to. Exhausted, she said, “I’m tired. I need sleep.”

Though she had many questions she didn’t want to ask them now. Time alone to process her thoughts would be great. How well did her mother actually know Adlin, the man she’d dreamt about for years? Outside of the obvious time-travel aspect, why was the topic so dire?

Sarah stopped in front of her, arms crossed over her chest. “You need to understand that this is not over. You will be going back.” She shook her head slowly and said, “If Adlin is involved, you will be going back.”

When Mildred saw her mother’s eyes water she patted the bed beside her. “Sit, Mama. Tell me about how you and Da met. It might help.”

It wasn’t that Sarah was weak, just too emotional sometimes. Perhaps it was half the reason Mildred felt the need to show herself as strong. But the truth of the matter was… how else
should a woman
behave when their father wasn’t around anymore but lost somewhere in time. Well, not exactly lost, her Da was somewhere in medieval Scotland and without doubt, with his MacLomain Clan.

“Oh, you’ve heard this story hundreds of times,” Sarah said, but her cheeks warmed.

“Well, in light of things, one more time couldn’t hurt.”

“I don’t suppose it could.”

So she retold the story with the unmistakable fondness of a woman in love. Her mother had traveled back to medieval Scotland when young. In her case, the MacLomain she met was away at battle when she arrived. And her arrival, naturally, had been accepted based on Adlin’s explanation that she was a member of one of their numerous clan septs. It’d all been quite romantic and as far as Mildred could tell, far simpler a story than the one in which she currently found herself.

What was Adlin up to?

Hours later she lie in her bed alone, staring up at the ceiling with that very question still lodged firmly in her mind. But another question kept niggling at her subconscious. Was the attraction between her and Adlin all in her imagination? It must have been.

After all, he couldn’t have pulled her back for him… could he have? A strange shiver of awareness rippled through her and she rolled on her side.

Would she really travel back again? The thought both petrified and thrilled her. Sighing in frustration, she rolled onto her other side and stared out the window. The day was a little too bright and cheery for her current mood, which frustrated her even more. Shouldn’t she be grateful she was safe at home?

Tap. Tap.
Pebbles bounced off the window. Mildred frowned and looked outside. Jim and David waved. With a chuckle, she opened the window and yelled down. “You could have knocked on the front door.”

“What fun is there in that?” Jim yelled back.

“How are you feeling?” David asked.

Mildred shrugged but already felt better knowing her friends had come so soon. “I could use some fresh air.”

“Then come on. We’ll go for a walk.”
This from Jim.

She grinned, nodded and shut the window. Without doubt, her mother would try to stop her but not if she didn’t know. Though she crept quietly down the stairs, Irene cut her off at the bottom.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I need air,” she whispered. When hesitation crossed Irene’s face, Mildred said, “Please. You know I do better outdoors.”

Irene eyed her for several long moments before she reluctantly nodded, headed into the kitchen and said, “Now Mama, what can I do to help?”