Highlander’s Curse (23 page)

This was not a disagreement he relished having under the avid view of his family, but he would not back down. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing left to discuss. “Yer staying here and that’s my final word on the matter. It’s as simple as
that
.” He could have sworn he heard his brother chuckle behind him.

“Oh, really?” She turned to meet his gaze, her eyes narrowing. “Well how about this for simple?” She leaned in close, lowering her voice and forcing him to lean toward her. “How about I just wish us both back to my time right now? How about that? If my wishes are so damn powerful and you’re so damn set on saving these friends of yours, then I’d strongly recommend you reconsider taking me with you or the only place you’re going is the twenty-first century.”

“You canna mean that. My clansmen face death if I’m no allowed to go to them. My king faces defeat.” Aloud, he denied her threat, but from her expression, he feared she meant every word she uttered. “You wouldna do such as that.”

“No? Try me.”

Colin sat back in his chair, waiting for a wave of anger and frustration to pass over him. If anyone was trapped anywhere, it was him. He couldn’t risk being tossed back through time. Not before he’d had a chance to warn his king of what was to come.

“I’ve changed my mind,” he announced in a loud voice. “When I leave on the morrow for Methven, Abby will accompany me.”

“Damn straight,” she murmured beside him.

“As yer laird, I canna allow that.” Blane spoke up for the first time. “As yer own mother has just reminded me, an unmarried lass canna travel unaccompanied with a man who is not of her family. It’s no a proper thing to do and we’ve none to spare to send along with the two of you.”

“I’m not the least bit concerned with what’s proper,” Abby rejected.

“But we are,” Rosalyn added from her spot at Colin’s elbow. “Now, if you were to wed, there would be no cause for concern.”

Colin jerked his head around to glare at his mother. What was wrong with the woman, sitting there smiling like some brainsick banshee? Was it not bad enough he was being forced to drag Abby into danger? His mother of all people should be using her considerable intelligence and charm to convince Abby to stay at Dun Ard. He opened his mouth to remind her of that very fact but Abby’s next words interrupted his protestations.

“Marriage has nothing to with any of this. It isn’t even a consideration.”

Perhaps his mother was doing exactly that. This could be the escape route he’d earlier thought cut off
from him! Abby had made it clear from the beginning of this conversation that she had no desire to wed him. All he needed do was to join ranks with his family, insist on marriage as a precursor to her accompanying him, and he was free to leave Dun Ard without her.

“I fear my hands are tied, Abby.” Colin reached for the tankard in front of him, relaxing back into his seat for the first time since he’d entered the room. “It’s my laird’s decree and I must obey. In order for you to accompany me, we must wed. But it’s clear that’s an option you reject. As it stands, through no fault of my own, you’ll need to remain here. I’ve no choice in the matter. Without a marriage, I’m no free to take you with me.”

Colin drank deeply of the dark, spicy wine. With all this nonsense of Abby’s insistence on accompanying him out of the way, he could relax and enjoy his evening with his family.

“Like marriage makes any more sense to you than it does to me? That’s ridiculous.” Abby lifted her cup but immediately set it back down again, untouched. “You’re only grabbing onto that excuse because you know there’s no way we have time to marry before you go. You’re determined to head out first thing in the morning and that doesn’t leave any time for a wedding.”

“That’s not exactly true,” Ellie piped up. “A formal church wedding would take longer, true, but technically, all you have to do is declare your intent to be husband and wife in the present tense in front of witnesses and that’s it, you’re married. It’s not like back in your—” She bit off the rest of what she was about to say, glancing around the room guiltily. “It’s not like where you come from.”

Colin glared at his sister-in-law. The woman had the uncanny ability to endlessly irritate him.

Abby tapped her fingernails rapidly against the wood of the table before lifting her head to glare at him. “You are not leaving me behind when you ride out of here tomorrow. So, if that’s what it takes, fine. It’s not like it means anything, anyway, right? What do I care?” Abby pushed back her chair, rose to her feet, and called out in a loud, clear voice, “I, Abigail Gwendolyn Porter, take this man, Colin MacAlister, as my husband. Right here, right now, right in front of all of you guys as our witnesses. Your turn.”

The shock of her words sent wine surging upward rather than down his throat, burning the sensitive pathway into his nose and forcing him into a fit of coughing.

The woman was absolutely without sense of any kind.

“By the Fates! What do you think yer doing?” he at last managed to ask when he’d caught his breath.

“Getting married so I can go with you. Your turn. Go ahead. Do your little speech thing or I do my little wish thing.”

She was serious. The witless woman was absolutely serious. Rather than saving himself with his earlier comments, he’d trapped himself like a greedy fish in a net. Any refusal on his part, especially after that earlier performance with which he’d been so pleased, would bring down the wrath of his entire family and likely send him reeling back through time.

“If I do this, do I have yer oath no to wish us back before I’ve done what I need to do here?”

Her lips pressed together in a thin, straight line, even as her eyes narrowed. “Yes. I promise.”

There was only one thing he could do now.

“I take this woman to be my wife.”

“
As
,” Ellie corrected, a grin splitting her face as she looked from him to her husband, Caden, and back again. “As my wife.
To be
is future tense and doesn’t work for this.”

“I take this woman
as
my wife,” he corrected, fighting the urge to grind his teeth.

Clearly, none of the women in this family had the good sense they were born with.

“It is done,” Blane announced, pushing back his own chair and lifting his tankard. “To our kinsman’s marriage. To the new husband and wife.”

“Okay, then. Good. Done.” Abby spoke quietly as if even she was a bit shocked. Her hands busily worried at the carving on the back of her chair and she nodded her head repeatedly. “Okay. I guess I’d better go get all my things ready for our little trip.”

With that, his new wife made her exit as his family continued to toast his marriage.

Wife
. Just thinking the word made him grateful he was seated, so sure he felt at the moment his legs would not support him. What had he done?

He’d long ago given up any idea of ever marrying after the Faerie Queen had told him he’d not find his Soulmate in this lifetime, so it wasn’t as if he sacrificed some future chance at happiness by wedding Abby. And it certainly wasn’t that marriage to a woman like her would be a burden. Far from it. She was beautiful, intelligent, and, as he could attest from personal experience, exceptionally desirable. For a fact, he could imagine no one he’d rather be married to, and therein lay his problem.

How could he allow any woman he cared for that much to embark on the dangerous journey he envisioned for himself?

He had to think of some way to convince her not to go with him.

“Perhaps I can persuade her to return to her own time alone,” he muttered into his cup, fervently wishing it was filled with the Faerie Nectar he’d heard so much about during his stay in Wyddecol.

“And why, in the name of all that’s holy, would you think to do such a foolish thing?”

His mother’s question startled him. Surely even she could see the reason behind his words.

“Because it is for the best for everyone.”

Instead of acknowledging what he saw as the truth, she rolled her eyes and sighed in the way only his mother could do.

“She’s yer wife now, Colin. The woman yer to spend yer life with. Why would you want to send her away?”

“You ken as well as I, my lady mother, the marriage you just witnessed is a sham. Traveling with me on the morrow only puts Abby’s life in danger. Besides, she disna belong in this time and she certainly disna want to be here. The Fae made a grave error in sending her with me.”

Rosalyn stared up at the ceiling, and for a moment he wondered what fascinated her so. Until she turned back to him, eyes blazing. It was not interest in the architecture but a pause to gather her wits and control her tongue. He’d used the same type of pause often enough himself. He should have recognized the signs.

“You question the actions of the Fae as if you’ve never been witness to their work before. I’ve simply
no the patience to guide another of my sons down this path, Colin. I’m too old and weary for it. I’d ask you to use yer own wits, lad. Dinna be so thick-skulled. You’ve seen the work of the Faerie Magic too many times no to recognize what’s happening here.”

“What are you saying?”

“They’ve made it as plain as the hand on yer arm, lad. They’ve all but rubbed yer nose in it. All of us can see it well enough. You said yerself when you were swept through time to the future, it was to this woman. Did you never stop to question why? Did our troubles with Caden and Ellie teach you nothing at all? Abby is the one who’s meant for you, son. She’s yer Soulmate and the Magic has shown you this not once, but twice. Dinna be such a fool as to turn yer back on what’s gifted to you by the Magic.”

His Soulmate? Impossible. “I canna accept that as truth, mother. The Faerie Queen herself warned me I’d no find my own Soulmate in this lifetime.”

In this lifetime. . .

The words had barely cleared his lips before the implication of their meaning hit him. Was it possible that Abby had changed the Faerie Queen’s decree by wishing him into her time?

His vision in the RoundHouse came back to him then, his own question from that day echoing in his mind.
Why
? Why had Abby needed him? Why had she summoned him to her time? He’d demanded the information from the Earth Mother and she’d laughed at him, as if the answer should be so clear he should have no need to ask.

Perhaps it was that clear. Perhaps it had been there staring him in the face the whole time. Perhaps he’d simply been too dense to see it.

Abby had wished for her Soulmate, and the Magic, responding to its highest calling, had drawn him seven hundred years into the future. Into another lifetime.

A lifetime where his Soulmate
did
exist.

It might be possible. But if it was true, that made it even more important that he not take her with him to Methven. There was no way he would risk the safety of his Soulmate.

“If you believe this to be fact, how could you encourage Abby to ride out with me on the morrow? You have to be aware of the danger. Sending her back to her own time is the only way to keep her safe.”

His mother nodded, her expression sober. “I ken what you say, my son. But you canna turn yer back on what the Magic would have you do. There’s a reason she’s to go with you as much as there’s a reason she was sent here in the first place.”

“Besides.” Ellie had risen from her seat and stood behind him, her hand lighting on his shoulder. “From the marks I saw on that girl, I don’t see how she’d be any safer in her own time. At least here she has you to look after her.”

“What marks?” She’d said nary a word to him of injuries.

“Bruises on her arm, scrapes on her neck. God only knows what else.” Ellie shrugged and headed for the door, following the direction Abby had taken earlier.

The memory of the scene in the glen, Flynn forcing himself on Abby, colored Colin’s thoughts red with fury.

Flynn. He’d all but forgotten the Fae.

Too bad the Nuadian pig wasn’t here in his time. He’d be more than happy to show him how they dealt with his kind in this century.

I
’m married.

Abby dropped a hand to her midsection as she made her way up the narrow stairs, hoping to calm her nervous stomach.