Love Beyond Dreams (A Scottish Time Travel Romance): Book 6 (Morna's Legacy Series) (3 page)

I tried to keep my expression approachable, but I could feel how tightly my brows were pinched. The child acted like I should be expecting him, when in truth, I’d never been more confused by anything in my entire life.
 

“Why would people question you for playing with your toys? Don’t most kids do that?”

His eyes widened like I’d caught him in a lie, and he sat the suitcase down almost immediately before extending his little hand toward me. He looked up at me with beautiful green eyes, long, dark lashes that made me envious, and a smattering of adorable freckles across his cheeks. I smiled and took his hand gladly.
 

“See? Just like that. I’m a good thinker. Everybody says so, but sometimes, I just can’t keep up with all the craziness and I say something that brings on the questions. Just never mind about the dinosaurs. My name is Cooper, we’re here to rent the castle.”

“You’re here to rent the castle?” I reached for my phone on instinct, immediately suspecting that I would find some sort of last minute message from Tracy. It would be just like her to plan something like this without telling me. Still, the castle wasn’t finished and although she hadn’t seen it herself, Tracy knew that it would be months before Aiden’s construction crew no longer lingered around the castle finishing their work. I couldn’t imagine her renting the place out to guests before it reached completion.
 

“Um...yeah, aren’t you Trisha or Tracy or Tiffany? I don’t remember for sure, but I know Aunt Jane said she’d talked to somebody whose name started with a
T
.”

As if she’d heard the boy’s reference to her, my phone buzzed and Tracy’s number displayed on the screen as I looked down at it. I swiped to answer, told her to hold on a tad bit too sharply, and then turned to speak to the young boy once again.
 

“Do you think you could wait here for me for just a moment? It’s Tracy, the woman you were just talking about. I’m Gillian, her sister. Cooper, are your mom and dad around somewhere?”

He nodded and pointed outside. “Oh yeah. Well my mom and E-o are and my Aunt Jane and Uncle Adwen. They’re just walking down the bridge from where the cars dropped us all off. They’ll be here soon.”

 
“Why did someone drop you off before the bridge? They could have driven down here.”

“Oh.” The boy shrugged. “Well, I think they just wanted to walk. I ran ahead of them.”

I didn’t believe him. The words fell out of his mouth awkwardly, and he looked uncomfortable and guilty.
 

“With their luggage?”

Cooper didn’t respond. If not for Tracy’s screeching voice coming through the phone asking where I was, I would’ve taken a step outside to watch for his supposed party and pressed him further. Instead, I just nodded and turned to walk halfway up the stairs so I could speak more privately to my sister. When I was close enough that I could still see the boy but far enough away that I didn’t think he could hear me without straining, I spoke into the phone.
 

“You rented out the castle, Tracy? Aiden’s not going to be pleased with that at all. He still has so many workers around here on most days and there’s still a lot that they haven’t finished.”

“Oh, Gillie.” She sounded completely unapologetic, as always. She could never see when she did something inconsiderate. “Aiden already knows. I talked to Anne a few hours ago. As soon as his drugs wear off, I’m sure he will be as thrilled as you will be about it once you hear how much they offered to pay me. She’s driving him back to the castle now. I’m sure you will see them both soon.”

“Drugs?” Confusion coursed through me at her statement about Aiden.
 

“Oh yes, apparently Anne used the promise of a weekend away together as a ruse to get him to take care of some extensive dental work he’s been putting off, but he’s a big baby so they had to drug him up really well. I could hear him singing some sort of slurred sonnet to her through the phone.”
 

Tracy laughed, and I allowed myself to slump down on one of the steps of the staircase. I’d seen flashes of exploding appendixes and hospital rooms at the mention of Aiden on drugs, and it frightened me. The relief I felt at knowing it was just a few sore teeth that had delayed him was immeasurable.
 

When Tracy finally stopped laughing at herself, she spoke again. “So, come on, Gillie. Guess how much they offered?”

 
“I don’t know, Tracy. How much?”

“They’ve offered to pay you one hundred thousand dollars for three nights at the castle. And you don’t even have to leave. You, Aiden, the dog, everyone can stay right where you are since there’s plenty of room for everyone.”

It was the first time Tracy had mentioned Toby since she left, and I knew I needed to lay claim on him right away. I glanced down at the young boy to see Toby crawled up in his lap, licking his face while Cooper laughed and stroked the dog affectionately. My heart swelled up with love for the little ball of fluff.
 

“Tracy, before you explain all of this stuff, I want to talk to you about the dog. I’ve grown rather fond of him and…” I hesitated and Tracy surprised me by relieving my anxiety before I even had a chance to voice my concern.
 

“I know. He’s yours now, Gillie. That’s why I called you. The dog is yours, the castle is yours, the money that the guests coming tonight will leave is yours to give to Aiden so he can finish the renovations. In short, little sister, everything is yours.”
 

CHAPTER 4

Just Outside Cagair Castle

1649

Dusk set in by the time he reached the top of the cliff leading to Cagair Castle. He found the climb to be easier than ever before—a sure sign that Marion was right and it was time for him to move on, to find something to fill his time until the day he would remember. He had to believe that his memories would return, for the sake of his own sanity if nothing else.

Each time he climbed up the rocks, a sense of familiarity coursed through him, but it was a feeling he didn’t understand, a feeling he didn’t trust. He knew it had to be some part of him that could still recall his fall but so many things seemed strangely familiar, yet out of reach. He never knew if they were a true memory or if they were only the result of his broken mind playing tricks on him.
 

He wouldn’t enter the village tonight. If he did, he didn’t imagine that he would be able to return to Marion, and he wanted to say goodbye before he left her for good. From all he could tell, the island Cagair Castle sat upon and the village near it were isolated from much of Scotland. If he fell from the rocks here, it stood to reason that he’d lived not far from the castle.
 

In a village so small, if his suspicions were correct, someone would recognize him right away. He wasn’t ready for things to change so drastically. Instead, he would wait at the top of the rocks and watch the castle carefully to make sure that no one was about and then move across the grounds so that he could travel over the bridge. From there he planned to make his way around the village and look in from the outside. Perhaps that way, he could plan where to start his inquiries in the morning.
 

Despite his fears, he knew he had to risk traveling into the village come morning and with that, it was very possible someone would know him and the truth about himself would be revealed. For now he could only hope that he was the sort of man before the fall that he believed himself to be now. If, by chance, no one recognized him in the village come morning, he would look for work.
 

No one ever seemed to move about Cagair Castle at night, but with the last bit of sunlight still remaining, he knew he should wait awhile just to make sure. He settled in at the top of the rocks, looking up at the castle and across it over to the small set of stables that sat next to a stone house, built assuredly for the stablemaster to live and work. It looked sturdy and small and to him, rather perfect. No candlelight burned from within and, setting aside his better judgment, he decided to venture closer.
 

He moved quietly, making sure to go around the back, peering in one of two windows as carefully as he could. Finding it empty, he moved over to the stables and stood outside to listen for the sound of someone working. All he could hear were the horses. He found that a sense of hope rose within him. Perhaps he would have to look no further than here for something to sustain him. It seemed a more preferable prospect than venturing down to the village. He hoped he could show the laird the work he was capable of doing for him. If Cagair Castle needed someone to care for the horses, he would gladly take the job.
 

A job here, far from the village, would buy him the time to try and remember without being thrust back into a life unfamiliar to him. It was the very thing he feared the most about venturing into the village.
 

He didn’t feel the same fear here around the castle. For surely, whatever his life had been before, it hadn’t involved living amongst such powerful Scottish landowners—with working and living so close to such a grand castle. No, he imagined that his life had been much simpler than all of that. No one would know him here on the island of Cagair Castle.
 

*
 
*
 
*

He must have dozed outside the stables. When the sound of voices woke him, the moon was the only source of light among the darkness. He stood quickly, stepping backwards so that he couldn’t be seen. He leaned forward and strained to listen.

“Did he seriously run through there ahead of us? The child has no fear. It’s genuinely a problem. He’s traveled through so many times, he doesn’t think it’s a big deal anymore. I’m about to be sick at the thought of bringing these two babies through. Every time I’ve gone through, I’ve felt bad for days after.”

The sound of the woman’s voice surprised him. It differed so greatly from Marion’s form of speech or his own, but he could understand the plain dialect of what the woman said. It made him wonder if, at some point in his life, he’d heard someone speak in much the same way as this woman before.
 

He stepped away from the stables and moved quietly around the small house, standing beside it so that he could hear them more clearly. He could see the shadows of two women. The one who just spoke balanced a small child on each hip, while the other moved in to comfort her before speaking.
 

“Grace, this one, for whatever reason, is different. It doesn’t seem to hurt anyone at all. It’s rather strange, really—it takes coming out of the stairwell for you to realize that the travel worked. Cooper’s fine, I’m sure. He’s just waiting for us on the other side. You wait here, and I’ll go get the guys. Then, we need to go on through.”

The second woman stepped away and, in a moment, she appeared at the side of the castle followed by two men. He couldn’t make out their features, but he had to push his feet hard into the ground to keep himself from running up to the group of strangers. Something within him wanted to be near all of them, wanted to speak to them and follow them wherever they were so obviously headed. He refrained and watched curiously as they neared an unexpected opening in the side of the castle.
 

They entered it one by one. While he sat under the moonlight watching, he tried to imagine how large the space could possibly be. Surely it wasn’t large enough to hold all of them comfortably, not unless it was a tunnel that traveled under the length of the castle. He decided to approach. Once he stood next to the castle stones, he took his time traveling around its perimeter, looking for any possible place where they could have come out the other side. When he found nothing, he approached the doorway from which they’d all left.
 

He knew he should walk away, return to Marion, and spend the evening with her before trying to talk to the castle’s laird in the morning, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave the strange doorway. He stood as still as the stones around him, scarcely breathing so that he might hear any movement beyond the doorway.
 

Long moments passed before he worked up the nerve to open the doorway. The moonlight shined down into the stairwell. When he gazed within, he couldn’t believe what he saw—no tunnel or room lay at the bottom, only a wall of stones. Each person that he watched enter was most assuredly now gone.

CHAPTER 5

Cagair Castle

Present Day

“I’m sorry. What did you just say?” I pressed the phone hard against my ear so that I could be sure. I didn’t want to misunderstand a word that she said.
 

She repeated the same sentiment.
 

“You heard me, Gillie. It was foolish of me to buy the place. I know that. I knew it the day I signed the papers. My first thought was to give it to you, but then I started thinking about all of the work that still needed to be done, and I knew that Mark would never let me pay for it if there was no chance at a return. Anyway, then I received this phone call from a woman who offered to rent the castle for such a ridiculous amount of money. I couldn’t say no.

“That was three days ago, and I’ve been arranging everything ever since. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I know that the guests will be arriving this evening, but I’ve no doubt that you’ll handle that just fine.”