Page 27 of Katie's Highlander (Highland Protector 3)
Ramsay held out his hand. “I’ll explain once we get settled for the night.” He glanced around, scanning the dark unfamiliar forest. “ ’Tis too dangerous to tarry here. I dinna ken this place nor who or what it might hold. We’ll take shelter in the abandoned croft from which I just came.”
Katie didn’t take his hand, just stood there trembling, stealing panicked glances around the woods as though Ramsay hadn’t said a word.
“Katie.” Ramsay stepped forward and gently took her hand, pulling her up alongside him as though she were a small child. “Come, lass.” Her sudden silence and trembling concerned him no small amount. Many couldna handle siftin’ through time. Dwyn had said so whilst training all the MacDara sons and travelin’ across the centuries had reducedAthairto the addled man he was today.
Wrapping an arm around her, Ramsay pulled her close and gently led her back through the woods to the safety of the clearing around the dilapidated croft.She’s ne’er this quiet. I’ll ne’er forgive m’self or the powers if this harms her.
Midway through the clearing, Katie stopped and stared up at the night sky, her lips moving with unspoken words as she studied the softly winking stars and slowly turned in place. “Oh my God,” she finally whispered aloud. “They’re in the wrong place.”
“What’s in the wrong place, lass?” Ramsay spoke softly and tried to ease her toward the cabin. She needed sleep. ‘Twould help her body realign itself and adjust to this time.
“The stars.” Katie jerked away from his touch, pointing up at the sky as she spoke. “They’re all wrong. Out of alignment.”
“Yer tired, lass.” Ramsay took hold of her by the shoulders and hugged her up to his chest. If he had to, he’d pick her up and carry her. The woman had a better chance of survival if she’d do as he said and slept. “Come. We’ll rest ‘til mornin’. I swear t’ye the sun will still rise in the east.”
“You don’t understand!” Katie pulled away, wildly jabbing a finger upward, pointing at the sky. “I chart stars when I need to relax. I charted them a few days ago because it always helps me sleep. But everything’s different now. Shifted in the sky. In the wrong place.” Her voice fell and her lower lip quivered, as her gaze darted to and fro at the sky above. “They shouldn’t be where they are right now—not in August.”
“ ’Tis no’ the month, lass.” Ramsay did his best to keep his tone even and calm so as not to fuel her anxiousness even more. “ ’Tis the year that’s made them different. Come. Ye must get some sleep now. Please.” He wouldna lie to get her to rest. Lying would only make it worse whenever she saw that they were in fact somewhere in the distant past.
Katie grabbed hold of his shoulders and vainly tried to shake him. “This can’t be happening!” she shouted as a tear slipped down her cheek. She angrily swiped it away then punched Ramsay in the chest. “And you made me cry! I never…hardly ever.” She swayed in place and started shaking as she dropped to her knees. Hugging herself, she coughed and hiccupped with uncontrollable sobs. “I never cry.”
Ramsay hated himself for what he’d allowed to happen to Katie. Burning with gut-churning regret, he hurled his spear into the croft, then bent and scooped Katie up into his arms. She fought him, pounding against his chest and kicking. Ramsay ignored her struggles as though she were a child having a temper tantrum. He snugged her tighter against his chest as she wept and keened out sharp pitiful cries that tore at his soul. He strode into the cabin and kicked what was left of the door closed behind him.
He tested the strength of a bench along the back wall with his foot.Good. ’Tis no’ rotted.He lowered himself down to it and propped back into the corner, settling Katie on his lap in the process. Every few seconds, she shuddered and weakly struggled to rise out of his arms. Ramsay just held her closer, barely expending any energy to keep her in his embrace. Finally, she sagged against him, her chest still heaving from her sobs. Her fit of anger spent, she nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck and he pulled a fold of his kilt across her trembling body. ’Twas a warm night but the stone croft was cool, and he feared she might be going into shock.Must keep her warm and safe. Must get her t’sleep.
Katie sniffed and hiccupped as she weakly thumped her fist against his chest again and again. “I hate you.”
He felt more than heard her hoarse ranting. Closing his eyes against her pain and his own pain as well, he quietly endured every word she uttered. Her cries cut him deep and he deserved every wound.
“I honest to God hate you for all this. I hate you for making me cry,” she choked out as she knotted hisléinein her fist and curled her hand to her mouth, holding the cloth tight against her lips to muffle her sobs.
“I know, lass. I know. Hush now.” Ramsay made low shushing sounds as he stroked her hair and held her tighter. There was no way the lass could hate him nearly as much as he hated himself right now. “ ’Tis no’ shame in tears, lass,” he whispered with a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “Cry all ye like—I swear ‘twill be our secret. A secret I’ll take to my grave.”
Gradually, Katie quieted, then finally grew still. Her ragged breathing evened out and settled into the smooth soft rhythm of a deep exhausted sleep.
Ramsay pressed another kiss to the top of her head, pausing to breathe in her scent to balm his soul. He shifted back and stared up into the darkness, memorizing the comforting warm weight of her sleeping in his arms.
I will get us back as soon as possible, dear one. I swear it.
The only problem with that resolution was that he knew deep in his heart that once they arrived back in the century in which they belonged, he’d never see Katie again.
Chapter 11
The unrelenting urge to pee forced her eyes open. Katie immediately regretted it. As long as she had her eyes shut, she could rationalize away last night’s experiences as a weird whisky-triggered dream.
“Dammit,” she muttered as a couple of hard blinks cleared her vision and she focused on her surroundings.
Rays of sunlight, alive and swirling with miniscule dust motes, filtered down into whatever place this was that Ramsay had found for shelter. Judging by the depth of the dust on what few pieces of crudely fashioned furniture there were in the room, Katie thought that the structure must have been abandoned for a while. The floor was nothing more than hard-packed dirt and it looked as though the walls were made of mud-covered sod or stacked clumps of earth layered with stones. A hearth of loosely fitted rocks squatted in one corner and broken crockery, shards that looked as though she’d unearthed them on a dig, littered a sagging wooden table in the corner.
Not a weird dream. Last night really happened.
She gingerly pushed up from Ramsay’s chest with painstakingly slow movements, determined not to wake him. She wasn’t ready to deal with him this morning. She needed time alone to wrap her head around all that had happened and figure out how the hell it could possibly be real.
I’m smart. I can figure this out.Somehow, no matter how many times she repeated that inner mantra, she wasn’t quite convinced that she had the capability to figure out this emotionally draining, quantum physics riddle.
The bench creaked with her shifting weight as she eased her feet to the floor. Ramsay’s hand flew to her arm and he jerked upright, immediately alert and scanning their surroundings. “ ’Tis all right, lass. I’m here,” he reassured. His other hand went to the hilt of his dagger and had already partially drawn the blade from the scabbard strapped to his calf.
“Stand down, soldier.” Katie pulled away from him and stood. “I’m fine. I just need to step outside for a minute.” She huffed out a humorless laugh and forced a smile at him. “Our accommodations don’t appear to have any indoor facilities.” The need to relieve herself was forgotten as Ramsay rose from the bench and stepped into one of the beams of sunlight breaking through the shoddy roof. She peered closer and pointed. “What is that and when exactly did you have time to get a tattoo between last night and this morning? And how the hell did your hair get so long in just one night?”
