Page 14 of Highlander’s Claim

“Okay. That’s easy. I don’t want anything to do with your clan. Can I go now?”

“And how did ye get on the island?”

“On a boat, of course. My friends and I were on our way to Ireland, celebrating Amanda’s divorce. Our boat broke down, and we had to make an emergency stop. Then a strange woman talked to me about…you. And the lighthouse disappeared.”

“What woman?”

“I’m trying to remember her name… Gosh…what was it? I know she was Scottish, and she said… Um… No, I can’t repeat that. She was joking. Anyway”—she snapped her fingers and pointed to the door—“if you could hook me up with a boat, that would be great!”

Ireland. A boat that had to be repaired. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Somehow, she was connected to the shipwreck, and he had to find out how. Based on her appearance, she may be a whore brought on board the treasure ship to keep the men happy. Or she may have paid her passage that way.

“Nae yet. Ye must tell me about those friends and that boat that broke and why ye want to go to Ireland.”

“No. I told you all I could. Please give me a phone. I’ll call the police. I don’t want to be here. I need to keep going. I have an important appointment in two weeks, and my friends are worried about me.”

He looked back at the grand chair standing on the platform next to his. The grand chair that had been empty for the past seven years. Just like his, it was made of wood and had carvings of knots and crosses. It was the chair for his honorable guests. “Please, come with me and sit, lass, and tell me about those friends of yers and if they will be searching for ye here and why ye want to go to Ireland.”

CHAPTER 5

The piece of boiled salmon on the wooden trencher in front of Jenny was cold. The fish smelled fresh, but the scent turned her stomach. The great hall was filling with people, and servants brought trenchers of bread, cheese, and boiled meat and fish. Aulay chewed cheerfully sitting by her side, watching her with amusement.

“Is the fish nae to yer liking?” he asked.

“I usually like salmon,” she said. “Somehow, I have no appetite.”

“Oh?”

“Maybe it’s all the squeezing my stomach got when a manhandling giant carried me over his shoulder. Twice!”

He chuckled and pushed a mug closer to her. “Mayhap some ale would soothe it.”

She took the mug and sniffed. She wasn’t hungover anymore, but the idea of alcohol wasn’t particularly appealing. What if she started seeing glowing rocks and a woman who talked about time travel again? And even if she didn’t, she had to stay on her toes. Her whole being was on edge, her nerves taut. She felt like a porcupine, bristled and ready to strike.

“I’ll have some fish after all,” she said, deciding she’d better bolster her strength for whatever was to come.

But there were no forks, only a knife. Everyone ate with their hands after cleaning them in a bowl of water. She copied a pregnant woman who sat at the other side of the great hall with the man called Seoras. She was dressed better than most women she’d seen in the village. The woman dipped her fingers into the water, then took the knife and cut a small piece of salmon.

Aulay followed her gaze and said, “’Tis Mhairi, the wife of my youngest nephew, Seoras.”

“Oh,” Jenny said. “Is she getting proper medical care? She’ll soon give birth. She needs a good doctor. Or a midwife.”

Mhairi used her fingers to put a piece salmon in her mouth. Jenny didn’t want her fingers to smell like fish afterward, with no soap and no running water, so she stuck her knife into the salmon and was about to eat it from the tip of the knife when Aulay said, “I can see that whatever a ‘doctor’ means, it doesna mean ‘lady.’”

Jenny put the fish down. “What did I do?”

“Ye speak like an educated woman, and yet ye are eating yer food from the knife?”

She sighed. Fingers it was. She picked up the piece of salmon and demonstratively put it in her mouth. As she chewed, his eyes dropped to her lips. Heat crept up her cheeks. She barely tasted the fish, which was seasoned only with herbs. Jenny missed salt and lemon and garlic.

Since the moment she’d opened her eyes on that island, everything had been off. Everything was strange and different. Everything confirmed the redheaded woman’s claim about time travel. But how was it possible?

“It’s healthier, anyway,” she said with a forced smile.

“What?”

“No salt.”

His dark eyes were attentive, watching her as though she was his sole focus. “Are ye missing salt? I can ask a servant to bring some for ye.”