Page 56 of A Hellion for the Highland Hawk
Nancy quickly spooned up some of the stew and popped it into her mouth to buy herself some time.
She hadn’t told anyone what was on the tapestry, not properly, and she still wasn’t sure if she should. With Adeline’s warning about changing the world and possibly shattering the fabric of the universe, she feared that even mentioning what she’d seen might be too dangerous.
“Maybe it was purely to find you,” she said, swallowing. “That’s what I wanted. That’s what I wished for: to find you and Adeline and… You know, I didn’t hold out much hope of finding the two of you at all, but you’re both alive and well. Thriving, actually. The 1700s look good on the pair of you.”
Jane furrowed her brow, nodding her head just a little as if something was ticking over in her mind. “I guess that could be it. The note about the painting came from me, so that connects the dots a little. And I guess solving the mystery of two sisters going missing is kind of big, in the grand scheme of things. It was big for you, certainly.”
Now that Nancy thought about it, thatdidmake a lot of sense. If time travel stemmed from wishing, then finding the Clark sisters had been her second greatest wish, just one step down from finding her mother.
“But you know you can’t write that story, don’t you?” Jane added, her tone apologetic.
Nancy ate another mouthful of the delicious, rich stew, thick with carrots and leeks and chunks of beef. “Adeline said the universe might blow up.”
Jane’s green eyes twinkled with amusement. “Well, I don’t know about that, but it would alter the world in a way that couldn’t be undone. You see, there are certain things that are always meant to happen, and there are things that can be changed without… blowing anything up. It’s a delicate balance.”
“This is going to hurt my head again, isn’t it?” Nancy moaned before wolfing down some bread dipped in the tasty stew.
“Take Adeline, for instance. I was writing about her tomb, her skeleton, without knowing it was her, back when both of us werestill in the twenty-first century. She was always supposed to go back in time and fall in love with Logan,” Jane explained slowly.
A chill ran down Nancy’s spine, losing her appetite as she imagined Emily researching some old books and finding a mention of her within their pages, but not knowing it was her.
“It sounds awful, I know, but it’s sort of magical. Maybe that’s just the archaeologist in me, but bones are romantic,” Jane said, chuckling. “As for me, some of the things carved into the ruins of this castle were donebyme, and some of the artifacts were left by me, but I was looking at them three hundred years in the future, with no idea that I was the one burying treasures. I, too, was always meant to come here.”
Time seemed to slow in the comfortable guest room with the astonishing view of the twinkling sea, now calmer beneath the moonlight. It wasn’t just a chill that ran down Nancy’s spine this time, but it was as if every vertebra had become a block of ice, shattering.
The bride in the tapestry… Oh my God, the bride in the tapestry!
There were about three weeks to go until Hunter’s death. Regardless of how handsome he was, there was no possible way that he was going to find another bride in so short a span of time, not when he already had a fake fiancée. So, either her arrival had already changed things irrevocably, preventing some other woman from being his bride, or the woman in that tapestry, the figure she had gently touched before the earthquake, was her.
And was always supposed to beher.
“What’s wrong?” Jane asked, reaching for her hand.
Nancy shook her head, words evading her. She could hear her blood rushing in her ears and her heart drumming a frantic beat, her head swimming with the terrible possibility.
“Nothing,” she forced out. “Nothing. I just… well, you see… I… I need you to tell me how to get home. I need you to teach me, so I can leave before the wedding.”
Her voice became manic, her mind no longer swimming but racing. If she went home before the 10thof June, then maybe she could change Hunter’s fate. If she really was the bride in that tapestry, then maybe it was the only way to save him, and to ensure that Freya didn’t grow up the same way she had: all alone, with no parent to rely on.
“What’s wrong, Nancy?” Jane pressed, her tone more serious. “What is it?”
Nancy squeezed her eyes shut and gripped Jane’s hand tightly. “It’s just that… he has a baby, the sweetest little girl… and I know something. From the future. I know something, and… I don’t want it to come true, but… but if whatyou’resaying is true, then… then I can’t do anything. Not unless you teach me how to go home, as soon as possible.”
“You know,” Jane said softly, “my own marriage started as a fake relationship. Adeline told me about your situation, but it’s nothing to be afraid of. You don’t have to do what I did and fall in love. You don’t have to marry him.”
But that’s just it, I think I do. If I amthat bride, then it’s already happened. Same as your graffiti, same as Adeline’s bones.
Nancy couldn’t say it, as if uttering it aloud would make it even more concrete.
“Please, just tell me how to get home,” she croaked, pressing her palm to her forehead in a vain attempt to stop her skull from throbbing.
Jane pulled a face. “I will, but we have to wait until after the cèilidh. To do it, and do it properly, we’ll need the help of my mother-in-law’s sister.”
“What?” Nancy’s frustration thrummed like insects in her veins.
“When I received your message that you were coming here, I spoke to Beitris—that’s my mother-in-law—and she promised she would go out to find her sister as soon as the celebrations were over.” Jane gave her hand a squeeze. “I expect that’s why Adeline told you she wouldn’t be back at Castle Lochlann for two weeks. She’d have wanted to find Beitris’s sister first, but… she’s not exactly easy to find.”
Nancy sucked in a shaky breath. “What do you mean? Where is she?”
