Page 62 of Desire of a Highlander

“Hang on,” Elodie said. “You...you met Irene MacAskill? That’s not possible. I met her in the twenty-first century. She couldn’t be here too.”

“Could she not? Ye’ve just told me ye traveled through time. Is it really so difficult to think Irene MacAskill might have done the same?”

Elodie snapped her mouth shut. Ronan blew out a breath then scrubbed a hand through his hair. The future? Elodie was from the future?

He took a deep, steadying breath, and then met her gaze. “Irene MacAskill was at the waymeet the day I found ye. She said some very strange things. Then, on my way home, I found ye.”

He plucked a long piece of grass and began shredding it. As he did so, he talked. He told her about his encounter with Irene MacAskill and what she’d said.

Ye are a long way from home and traveling further every moment. Yet the balance needs ye, Ronan Campbell, more than ye could know. If ye travel too far from where ye are meant to be it will tip even further out of kilter.

All the while Elodie’s face grew paler and paler and she hugged her arms around herself as if cold. Finally, he fell silent and waited for her reaction.

“This makes no sense,” Elodie said. “How can she be involved in any of this?”

“Because,” Ronan said carefully, “I suspect Irene MacAskill is far more than she seems.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been trying to place her ever since that meeting. There was something about her that stirred a memory, but I couldn’t quite figure out what that was. Now I think I have.”

He looked beyond the trees, searching memories that reached back to childhood. “My father loved histories. He used to read them aloud of an evening. Most of my brothers found them tedious. But I preferred them to sword drills.” He looked back at her. “Some of my favorite stories were those about the Order of the Osprey.”

“The what?”

“They were an ancient order of guardians.”

She pursed her lips in thought. “Like knights or something?”

He shrugged. “In a manner. They protected the realm—not merely from armies, but from darker things. Folk spoke of ancient magic, sacred places, hidden doorways between worlds.” He looked away. “As a lad I thought they were only stories.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m speaking with a woman who claims to have crossed centuries.” He smiled wryly. “I find myself more willing to reconsider old tales.”

She let out a breath that was almost a laugh. “Fair point.”

“There’s more. Irene MacAskill’s name was mentioned in those tales. That’s why I recognized it.”

“But it can’t be the same person,” Elodie insisted. “That would make her hundreds of years old.”

“Aye.”

“That’s impossible!”

“So is traveling through time.”

She pressed her hands against her forehead. “Oh God. I need a drink. Actually, I need several.”

“Aye,” Ronan agreed. “Ye aren’t the only one.”

“So there you have it,” Elodie said eventually. “I’m a time traveler from the twenty-first century and it looks as though some random old woman is responsible for bringing me here.” She laughed shrilly. “I can’t believe those words have just come out of my mouth! Perhaps that whack on the head was worse than I thought and this is all some kind of fever dream.”

“If so, then it’s a shared fever dream.”

She looked at him. “How come you’re not angry?”

He frowned in puzzlement. “Why would I be angry?”