Highland Portrait (38 page)

“You must be Robbie’s wife?”  Stella looked at the doctor, her eyes pleading for good news. “I have to tell you it’s been a pleasure to be a part of this venture.  Albert and I have been working on this for some time now and we weren’t sure we were going to be successful, but I think I can safely say that Robbie’s going to be alright.  Would you like to see him?”  Stella shot up out of her seat.

“Oh yes, please.” Now was the crucible of her fears, the testing ground, what she had begged for.

“Please keep in mind, Stella, that for you it’s been a year, but for him it’s been less than a week.  Don’t confuse him right now, he’s got a big learning curve ahead of him and we want to ease him into this.  He’s been under a lot of medication, but has been asking for you.” With that the doctor opened the door and gestured for Stella to follow him.

Walking in a dream, her life once again turning a corner she had not expected, Stella, gave her mother’s hand one last squeeze and followed the doctor out the door, gulping in air to quiet her tears, to control her sobbing.

The doctor walked midway down the hall, stopping at a door, nodded at the guard, who stepped aside to let them pass, and opened the door allowing Stella to go into the room.

The lights had been turned off, and all the monitoring equipment was behind the bed where Robbie would not be able to see it.  The curtains were drawn and there were a number of candles burning in the room providing the soft light that Robbie would be familiar with to make sure the room would be nonthreatening to him. Stella slowly approached the bed and drank in his presence, exulting that he was here with her now, he was safe, he was alive. Stella saw her love laying quietly, his breathing regular, the monitors keeping time to his strong steady heart beat. Robbie lay on his back, his arms hooked up to IV fluids, and several electrode pads on his chest.  His mid section was wrapped in gauze, as was his right shoulder.  His eyes were closed, but he seemed peaceful, calm, as if finally delivered of pain.  Here was her champion, he had sworn he would protect her with his life and he had.  He had made the ultimate sacrifice for her and now through the grace of her father and this doctor, he had been returned to her.  He looked beautiful in spite of the strain of what he had been through.

“Robbie,” Stella whispered, “Robbie, honey, it’s me.  It’s Stella.”  Robbie continued to breathe evenly and quietly as she touched his arm, feeling the coarse hair that told her he was real, he was here. She touched his cheek, finding the stubble of several days to her liking, it reminded her of the evening they spent in the pooled stream at her mother’s croft.

She felt movement under her hand and her heartbeat quickened. “Robbie?”

Robbie was swimming at the bottom of a well and he could not gain hold of the sides to anchor himself.  The well was deep and dark, the sides glassy smooth with no footholds or rope to pull himself up.  He felt heavy, like his body was made of stone, but the pain was gone.  The pain that had been an angry companion, never leaving his side, distracting him from finding the voice that called, the pain so severe that he wanted to let go of his life and find release.  But it was gone now and all he felt was heaviness and a sweet peace.  Perhaps he was dead, he could not tell, but he thought that in death there was light and there was no light here, only a soft heavy darkness without pain.  Perhaps he was laying in his sepulchral and had not yet ascended to heaven – or hell – and was waiting for the approbation of the angels.  He heard his name.  He took a deep breath. 

The only way out of the well was upward, that’s where the voice was coming from.  Whoever was calling him was at the top of the well.               The voice was sweet and lyrical, like singing and it spun a silken cord and the cord fell downward in the well and Robbie grabbed it and let the silken cord pull him up out of the well. The light was becoming brighter.  Beautiful light…and no pain.

“Robbie.”   He opened his eyes to soft light.  Again he saw the strange walls he had seen before, straight and smooth and painted, not the stone walls of his chamber but smooth walls, like paper or cloth.  He turned his gaze toward the sound and as his vision came into focus he saw her there, standing next to him.  Stella. She was safe, she had escaped and now she was here with him.  Tears of joy pooled in his eyes and he felt awash in gladness because she was safe.  Alive.  The English had not touched her.

“Hello, my champion,” Stella looked again into familiar grey-blue eyes and allowed gratitude to fill her heart. “I love you so much, Robbie.  I’m…I’m so happy you’re here.  I have such wonderful things to tell you, to show you.” Unsure what to say, what would confuse him, she whispered small molecules of sentiment when what she wanted was to share heavy exclamations, dense with words.  For now they would have to do, but soon…soon she would give him all the words he wanted.

Robbie opened his hand and she took it, holding it with both of hers, feeling the warmth of life pulsing in his efforts to curl his hand around hers.  His mouth was dry and he wanted to speak, but there was some difficulty in forming words.  He remembered the blades, he remembered thinking that he was dying and that he would never see Stella again, but here she was.  Here he was, he wasn’t dead, only heavy and unable to move.  He saw the healer move to his other side. Albert had told him the healer would fix him, that he was safe. This healer was a man, tall like himself with a strange white shirt and an odd necklace of some strange materials Robbie had never seen before.  The healer had used the necklace to listen to Robbie’s heart.  He did that now.

“Well, Robbie, how are you feeling?”  Dr. Holloway looked at Robbie’s eyes, felt his pulse and listened to his heart.  The monitors behind the bed described Robbie’s body as mending and recovering, and he could see the healthy glow to the man’s skin that told him that all was well.  Robbie looked at him and gave him a slight nod.

“I know you are thirsty and we’re going to give you some ice chips in a moment and then you can go back to sleep and get more rest.  You’re doing well and I expect a full recovery for you.  You’ll soon be up and around again, my friend.  All is well, all is well.”  The doctor patted Robbie’s arm and left them.

Robbie’s eyes returned again to Stella.  She smiled that dazzling smile that he so loved and he closed his eyes, drifting back into a painless sleep, dreaming, once again of Faerie Queens.

“Stella, I know about electricity.  Look!”  Robbie pushed a button on the side of his bed and it moved, putting him in a slight sitting position.  He pushed it again and the bed went flat, and having lay flat he pushed it yet it again to bring his bed back into a sitting position. Stella, who had just walked in, smiled and laughed as Robbie played with his bed.  She noticed the candles were gone and the electric lights were now on.  Robbie looked astonishing today, as if in the past week he had feasted at the shores of Tiberias, drinking deep of the healing waters.

“Hello my love, has Daddy been here?  I imagine he taught you about electricity?” All of them had agreed that Albert would usher Robbie into his new environment, explaining to him in the words of a scientist, how this new world worked.

“Aye, Stella, he has. The healer, too has taught me much about how the healing craft has changed.”  Robbie looked at her, at the electric lights and then back at her, his eyes now sharp, piercing with that look she was so familiar with, the one that told her he was absorbing and processing new information.

“Albert told me where I am, Stella.  I am nay in Scotland, and the year is nay 1604.  He told me all of it.”  Stella hadn’t expected Albert to move so quickly in divulging information to Robbie, but apparently he thought Robbie was ready for it.

“And what do you think of that, Robbie?” Stella held her breath, uncertain how he would react to being a stranger in a strange world.

“He said he could take me back.”  Stella blanched, her knees growing weak.

“Are you going back then,” she asked afraid of the answer.

Robbie took her small hand in his and smiled. “Nay lass, not yet.  I want to see Tegis and to know what the future has done to the world.  I want to stay here with ye and mayhap at some time we will go back together.  But for now I like this electricity.  Watch again, Stella.”  Robbie pushed the button and delighted in a bed that moved at the mere touch of a small button. Electricity was better than magic.

“Stella,” said Robbie, looking at her as he once again rose up in the bed. “I want to see the five thousand cows.”  Stella looked to the ceiling and smiled, tears flowing freely down her cheek.

“You shall see them, Robbie, you shall see them.” 

Chapter Twenty Two

Robbie, dressed in cotton drawstring pants and a t-shirt, stepped out of the SUV with wonder in his eyes.  Albert had chosen to bring him to Stella’s after dark to avoid a sensory overload but even in the dark he had been dumbfounded at what he had seen.  So many lights, so many carriages without horses.  Albert had explained to him about the combustion engine, of course, but to know something in theory and to see it in action was a giant leap. Robbie understood the concept of ‘miles per hour’ and Albert had assured him they never went over fifty, but the speed was still heart stopping.  He was glad to have feet on the ground and walking to wherever he needed to be.

He felt the warmth of the Texas night and understood why he had been given such thin clothing to wear.  Albert had assured him that Merry had repaired and cleaned his own clothes, but he could see how they might be uncomfortable in this heat.  His new athletic shoes felt very good on his feet, better than any boots he had ever owned, and he thought he might like to wear them for the rest of his life.  There were many things about this future that he liked.  Many that puzzled him but he had Albert and the healer to help him find his way…and Stella.

While in hospital she had been with him every day staying intermittently throughout, once in the morning, once in the evening.  On occasion she would spend the entire day with him and he had relished all the moments she had been there.  Stella had promised him a great surprise and he was eager to be with her again.  His strength was back and he wanted her badly and in spite of the healer telling him to go easy he intended to expend his energy with her this night.

He had spent a month in hospital recovering and Albert, Stella and the healer had taught him about his new world, showing and explaining magnificent inventions that went far beyond the great invention of Stella’s pencil.  He had a calculator in his new suitcase and was stupefied that something so small could calculate numbers faster than him.  He had seen photographs and videos and Albert had promised to teach him how to use the computer and he was eager to find out how it worked.

Albert opened the back of the SUV and pulled out Robbie’s suitcase.  In the month that Robbie had been in hospital he had accumulated a good deal of books and gadgets and reams of paper with information and calculations and Stella’s pocket knife.  Albert was enjoying introducing Robbie to this new world because it made Albert see himself and his environment in a whole new light.  He loved this young man and was proud to call him his son-in-law, although that would have to be legalized quickly.  Albert and Dr. Holloway had already done their work in getting Robbie identification papers and a background stating he was a US citizen born in 1983 in Austin, Texas.  Albert was getting good at forged identities and felt justifiably proud.

Robbie stood drinking in the wonder of where he was, what had happened to him, and he was filled with such thanks that he had been preserved.  It had changed his life dramatically, but even at that he still had Stella and that was really what mattered most to him.

Robbie looked at Stella’s house and even in the darkness, with the porch light on he could see that it was blue.  A colored house!  How like Stella to have a colored house.  It was large for a croft, with windows of glass across the front, although Albert had told him that glass was now cheap and that all houses had glass, even the houses of the poor. He thought that Elinor would be delighted at all the glass. Robbie heard barking and thought about Ferghus and wondered who would take care of him now that he was gone.  He would miss the animal, in spite of his willfulness.

Robbie followed Albert to the door, eager to be with his bride.  And she would soon be his bride, he would see to that. Stella opened the door and Robbie sucked in his breath.  She was stunning.

It had been Stella’s task to teach Robbie the culture of his new world, including how clothing had altered over the last four hundred years.  When she showed him a Sears catalogue he had become breathless from the stimulation of women’s uncovered legs and had begged Stella to climb into the hospital bed with him, but she feared for his health and reluctantly declined, although it had been hard to turn down.  She had always worn her jeans to the hospital, but tonight she had worn a little black body hugging dress that took his breath away and stiffened him immediately. She smiled at him and opened the door wider letting her father bring Robbie’s suitcase into the living room.

“I’m just going to leave this here and leave so you two can be alone.  Call me in the morning, Stella, and tell me how the ‘surprises’ go.  Good night, Robbie, take care and be careful, don’t over do, you’re still under the doctor’s care, you know.”

Robbie did not even hear Albert, so engrossed was he in Stella’s house.  It was covered in artwork and the richness of the most unusual cloth tapestries he had ever seen hanging in front of the glass windows, so bright, so colorful.  Stella’s house was clean and rich and luxurious with upholstered furniture that was grander than any royal house.