All The Time You Need (9 page)

Annie took a deep breath to calm herself, struggling to center her scattered emotions and regain her tenuous hold on reality. Obviously, her imagination was running wild. None of this was possible. And even if it were, hysteria wasn’t the answer. It made much more sense that these people were playing her in some elaborate con. That had to be it. She’d taken her share of science classes and loved to watch every science documentary that showed on television. She knew for a fact that time travel absolutely, positively was not possible. Time moved inexorably forward. In one direction only, like a raging river.

A memory of Syrie’s parting words crowded into her mind, shoving aside every other thought, demanding her attention.

It isn’t a river, flowing only in one direction. It’s a grand, swirling wind, blowing hither and yon.

No. She simply couldn’t accept that. She wouldn’t accept it. The conversation with her grandmother’s friend was merely a coincidence. A weird fluke. Nothing more.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Annie said at last. “I don’t know what you guys are trying to pull, but you’re not going to get away with it. I don’t belong here. Maybe you should just help me get back to my grandmother’s cottage, okay?” When the two women exchanged another look she couldn’t read, Annie tried again. “Never mind that. How about you just point me in the direction of the arbor. I’ll find my own way back to the cottage. My shoes are in the arbor, anyway. We won’t even need to bother your old Willie.” Whoever the hell that was.

“Alex is no’ likely to allow you outside the gates. He says it’s no’ safe,” Lissa said. “No’ with the threat of the Gordons lurking about.”

Someone here wouldn’t allow her outside the gates? They were keeping her prisoner? Wait! What had she said?

“Gordons? Peter’s family?” Even if Peter knew she’d been kidnapped by some oddball cult—which he couldn’t possibly at this point, because she was only now learning of it herself—he would hardly be the one to come looking for her. And his family? There was no way they’d be here. They’d much more likely be waiting for her family to cough up the ransom while they sought sympathy from all their wealthy friends at the country club.

“Peter is a Gordon?” Lissa asked, all trace of her smile gone. “And how is it that you know Peter of the Clan Gordon?”

How? Because their fathers had done numerous business deals together over the years. Because they belonged to the same social circles. Because her parents thought he’d make the perfect husband and their marriage would meld their family fortunes into one giant conglomeration worthy of a mention in one of the prominent business magazines.

“Peter is…” Annie paused, as she twisted the diamond ring on her finger, finding it as difficult to say the words now as she had from the moment she’d foolishly accepted his proposal. “We’re to be married.”

“I must say, that’s no' something I expected to hear.” Lissa stepped back from her, shaking her head. “And no' something I think Alex will be at all pleased to learn, either.”

This was the second time she’d mentioned this Alex person. Perhaps he was their ringleader. But regardless of who he was, if he thought she cared what he liked or didn’t, or that she was going to take this whole charade like some pathetic whiner, sitting back, waiting until…well, waiting for whatever it was he planned for her, then he’d better get himself a whole new set of thoughts. She wasn’t falling for any of this, no matter how convincing they all were.

“Who is this Alex you keep referring to? I want to talk to him,” she demanded.

“Alex is my brother and, for now, laird of the MacKillican,” Lissa said. “All things considered, I’d say this is yer lucky day, Annie. As it just so happens, he very much desires to speak with you, as well.”

Chapter 5

“Peter is the man she’s to wed.” Lissa arched an eyebrow. “And, to top it all, he’s a Gordon.”

Alex found his stomach drawing into a tight knot at the words his sister whispered into his ear before returning to her spot next to the stranger.

He’d waited in his solar for them to join him, his nerves strung tighter than he could rightfully explain. When he’d left his sister’s bedchamber, the one thing he’d instructed her to do was to find out who was this man whose name had been on Annie’s lips when she’d first awoken.

And now he knew. She was betrothed to a Gordon. That meant, for all practical purposes,
she
was a Gordon.

Betrothed but not yet wed,
a little voice whispered in the back of his mind.

“A spy, perhaps?” Finn asked quietly from behind him.

The man had ears every bit as sensitive as those of the big dog at his side.

“There’s more,” Lissa said with that little smile of hers that forewarned of something big. “I’d have you meet our guest properly. May I present to you Analise Shaw.”

Shaw! The Shaws were pledged to the MacKillican clan. Though she was betrothed to a Gordon, she was as one of their own. One of their own, left beaten and locked in the arbor on their own lands. This was an insult that could not go unanswered.

“And this,” his sister continued, her eyes locked on his, “is the current MacKillican laird, my brother, Alexander. Those two hulking behind him are Finn MacCormack, who you saw earlier, and Jamesy MacCulloch.”

The pleasantries be damned. Of all the concerns bubbling in Alex’s mind, one sat in the forefront.

“Was it this man yer to wed, this Peter Gordon, who beat you and locked you in our arbor?” Alex asked.

Or, more likely now that he thought upon it, a family member who wanted to force a wedding between the clans to halt the aggressions between them. “You’ve no need to fear the one who did this to you, no matter who he is. We’ll see to yer safety, of that I give you my word.”

Whatever grateful response he expected from their guest as a result of his rash offer, he didn’t get it. She was completely unimpressed with his pledge, his title, or even with him.

“I don’t know what you think you’re up to here,” she said, her hands on her hips and a frown wrinkling her brow. “But I’m not having any part of it. You guys are free to stay here and do whatever you want, for as long as you want, but I’m done. Now, if you’ll just show me where the arbor is, I’ll find my own way back to the cottage from there.”

The one time in his life he acted on impulse rather than taking the time to thoroughly investigate the situation, and this is what happens. He offered protection and she demanded he return her to some cottage, like she had the right to demand anything of him. That was what he got for acting without deliberation.

“What in the name of the saints are you talking about, woman? I know of no cottage around here other than those occupied by our own people on the castle grounds.”

“Look. I just want—” She stopped speaking on a sigh, her eyes flashing with what looked like anger. “Forget it. I’m out of here. I’ll find my own way back. You keep the sweater and skirt. My suitcase should have been delivered by now, so I don’t need them anyway.”

With that, she turned and walked out of the room.

Alex shared a look with his friends, both of whom appeared as flummoxed by the conversation as he felt. The woman might as well be speaking a foreign language. Though for the most part he understood the words she said, the way she put them together made absolutely no sense to him at all.

“What in the name of all that’s holy is that woman blethering on about?” Finn asked.

Lissa shrugged, shaking her head. “It’s their way of speaking, I suppose.”

“And who are
they,
exactly?” Alex asked, regretting the question the second he asked it.

“The Fae, of course,” Lissa said, a look of irritation flitting across her features. “No matter how you deny their existence, even you must acknowledge she’s no’ of our world.”

“Bollocks,” Alex growled, striding across the room to follow the woman.

No woman, whether Gordon or Shaw, was going to saunter into his keep and out again, carrying the secrets of the MacKillican defenses. Not on his watch. He wasn’t having any part of his sister’s Faerie blether, either. Especially not in front of Finn and Jamesy.

With his two friends, he’d recently confronted situations that clearly had no explanations grounded in the mortal world. They’d even met a woman who claimed to
be
a Faerie. But among the three of them, they’d agreed not to speak of it again. Acknowledging such would also mean acknowledging the possibility that their brush with the other world would have some lasting impact on their lives, and they were having none of that. They were men in charge of their own destinies. And his destiny right now was to see to the safety of Castle Dunellen.

Annie had made it out the door and started down the steps by the time he caught up with her.

“And just where do you think yer going?” he demanded, grabbing her elbow to slow her down.

She jerked away from him, eyes flashing, and this time, there was no question that it was anger he saw reflected there.

“Home,” she said, in a way that brooked no argument as she pointed an arm straight ahead of her. “I’m going out that gate and I’m going to find that damn arbor. And then I’m going back to my cottage, where I plan to pack my things and catch the next plane home. This is all way more weird than I want to deal with.”

“Catch the next plane,” he repeated, at a total loss as to what she could possibly be talking about.

If only she spoke French, or Latin, or even Greek, he could hold his own through a conversation with her. But, once again, though the words were of his own language, it was as if they meant something completely foreign.

She hurried down the steps and all but ran, lifting her skirts as high as her knees in her haste to reach the gate. Once there, she came to a stop, her hands fastened around the bars of the portcullis.

“Open it,” she said when he reached her side. “You have no right to keep me here against my will. Trespassing is no big deal. Kidnapping, now that’s a whole different kind of crime, and one that you’re going to regret if you don’t let me go now.”

“It’s no’ safe,” he began, but stopped as she pounded her fists against the bars.

“Please,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper, her eyes filling with tears. “Please. I have to see for myself. I need proof. I can’t accept what’s happened unless I see for myself. Please.”

He wasn’t the kind of a man who was susceptible to the tears of a woman. Or, at the very least, he never had been that kind of man before. Why it should affect him now was beyond him.

But it did. Crawling inside his defenses and forming a cold, hard lump in the center of his chest, this strange emotion wouldn’t allow him to ignore her plea.

“Give me a moment to gather some men and ready our mounts and we’ll take you out to see whatever it is that you need to see. Will that satisfy you?”

She nodded her agreement to his proposal, her eyes big and glassy as, slowly, she slid down to sit in the dirt with her back to the gate, like a woman who feared letting go of her only path to freedom.

It was clear to him that Annie was no more than an innocent. Not a mythical creature as his sister would have him believe, but a woman half out of her mind with fear. That someone, possibly one of his own kinsmen, could have done this to her sickened him. When he found the man responsible for what this woman had endured, he intended to personally see to it that the man paid and paid dearly for what he’d done to her.

Storming toward the castle, his head bowed in thought, he very nearly ran into his friends who had followed after him.

Good. They could help him prepare for their short jaunt into the countryside.

“We’ll need—”

“I’m on it,” Jamesy said, sprinting toward the stables, calling over his shoulder. “Mounts for ten? Fifteen?”

“Ten to ride guard with us,” Alex called back. Venturing out with any smaller party would be inviting disaster.

“It could be a trap,” Finn said, his eyes, dark with suspicion, cutting to the woman and back again. “You must acknowledge the truth of this, my friend. Someone had to have locked her into the arbor for a reason, aye?”

Finn was likely right. His words made sense enough. But Alex had no choice. He’d offered to take her beyond the gates to see for herself whatever it was that she needed to see. He could only hope that what she needed to see wasn’t his capture.

* * *

This couldn’t be happening. None of it. It defied everything Annie had ever known or believed.

She sat atop an enormous horse that Alex had assured her was a gentle animal. And though it may well be gentle, when it reared its head to look back at her, she was pretty sure it had taken her measure and knew it had the best of her.

She ducked her head to avoid a low-hanging branch as they made their way through some rather closely placed trees, recognizing where they were when she looked up.

“This is what you wanted to see?” Alex asked.

It was the arbor, only it wasn’t quite right. Here, the gate hung securely on its frame, not rusted and propped against a crumbling rock wall.

Maybe it was only a similar arbor. A reconstruction that looked very much like the one on her grandmother’s property. She needed to go inside to see for herself to be sure.