MacFarlane's Ridge (9 page)

“Well,” Cam began, trying to figure out exactly how much to tell him, “I’m actually looking for someone.”

“Aren’t we all,” he muttered under his breath.

“I believe she may be near here somewhere. Do you know what day it is?” she asked.

Rob shrugged. “Not exactly, no. Somewhere in the end of November, I believe. Does that matter in the finding of her?”

“Not exactly. I’m just not sure how much of a start she has on me,” Cam admitted. It was, to some extent, the truth.

“Aye, that can be a problem,” he agreed. “And why would ye be looking for the lass?”

“Oh, she’s a friend,” Cam began. “She was in some danger, and I was following her. I wanted to help her.”

“Well, I havena’ seen her. In fact, until I saw you I’d encountered no one at all. I’m looking for a lass myself,” he admitted, looking around.

“Really? One in particular, or just any old girl will do?”

Rob stared at her. “Your speech is queer, but I do like ye. Nae, I’m after my brother’s wife, Sarah. Ian sent me to find her for he’s a wee bit lazy, ye ken? I dinna suppose you ran into anyone while you were splashing about yon creek.”

Cam watched him warily. She was beginning to get a suspicious feeling that she should know this man. She reached for her leather coat, which hung on a branch near the fire. As she pulled the coat down, something fell out of the pocket. It was a sealed plastic sandwich bag. And it was empty. She stepped back, startled, nearly falling into the flames.

“What is it, lass?” the man asked, leaping to his feet.

Cam whirled to face him. The bag was sealed, but it had once contained Mollie Duncan’s journal. Now the journal was gone. If it had fallen out during her leap into the water, the bag wouldn’t still be closed. Had it disappeared in the Faeries’ Gate?

“Did you take it?” she whispered, realization slowly dawning. A nagging fear began to grow.

The man looked confused. “Take it? I havena’ taken anything. Are you missing something, then?”

Cam ignored him. “What’s your name?”

He shook his head. “I dinna know why that matters…”

“Your name!” she shouted, nearly hysterical, knowing it couldn't be possible.

He shrugged. “It’s Robert, or Rob if you prefer.” He was watching her cautiously. “Are you not well, lass? Ye look a wee bit pale again.”

Cam sunk down on a fallen log, and looked up at him. “The Sarah you’re looking for… is it Sarah MacFarlane?”

“Aye, she was taken about a year ago by a band of Shawnee. How did you know that?”

“Dear God, you’re Robert MacFarlane,” she murmured as the world began to spin.

Then someone turned off the lights.

Cameron Clark was dreaming. She dreamed that she had followed Wanda Mabry, and fallen into the vortex in the cave. In her dream, a faceless shape was chasing her. She was like Alice in Wonderland, falling through the rabbit-hole, and when she popped out on the other end, she was in a cold stream, and Robert MacFarlane, the man from Mollie Duncan’s journal, had pulled her out of the water and fed her rabbit pie.

“Cameron,” a voice said.

It was a man’s voice. Maybe Hal or Troy had come to check on her. She must have taken too many painkillers after the car accident.

“Cameron Clark.”

Someone was shaking her arm, and patting her on the cheeks. With a great deal of effort, she managed to force her eyes open.

She sat abruptly. It was not Troy or Hal, and she was not on her couch. She wasn’t even indoors. The big man, the one from her dream, was there, and he looked worried.

“Lass, you’re giving me a hell of a fright. I think ye spent over much time in the water. Have your brains been frozen?”

Cam was terrified. “You
are
Robert MacFarlane?”

“Aye,” he nodded, dark eyes narrowed. “And how might you be knowing that? Have we met before? Perhaps in a port somewhere?”

“What year is it?” she breathed.

“The year of our Lord, seventeen hundred and seventy five. You ask a lot of questions, lassie. Perhaps you could do me the honor of answering a few.”

Cam was overwhelmed. Wanda hadn't made up her crazy story, hadn’t been insane at all. Cam realized that Wanda hadn’t gone to the cave and the waterfall to hide, she had gone there to escape. And Cam had followed her, not believing, and now she sat on a log with a man who had lived two and a half centuries ago.

“No, not in a port. We’ve never actually met,” she said softly, not knowing what else to say. She pulled the red and green plaid around her tightly, frozen partly by the weather, but mostly by her own fear.

Rob sat across the fire from the strange girl.
Odd enough to find the lass floating in a stream,
he thought
. Then the girl speaks strangely, gives a false name, claims her people are all dead, and that she was following a woman. Not only that, she claims to know my name..
Rob wondered if this Cameron girl was perhaps a servant escaped from indenture, or worse yet, a convict escaped from transport.

“So, then,” he said politely. “Where do ye hail from, Cameron Clark?”

Cam looked at him hopelessly. “Far away. Very far away.”

Rob nodded. “And does this land far away have a name to it?”

She shook her head, tears blinding her eyes. The enormity of the situation was beginning to sink in. The only person who would be able to help her was Wanda, if Wanda was indeed still alive and, on top of that, had come through the Faeries’ Gate as well. A thought struck Cam and she began to laugh. What if Wanda had been hiding behind the waterfall the whole time, and Cam was now here alone? She buried her face in her hands and giggled hysterically.

“Are you on the run then?”

Cam peeked up. “I guess you could say that. A guy was trying to kill me.”

“A guy?” Rob was puzzled by the word.

“A man,” she sighed. “There was a man trying to kill me. And I was looking for Wanda and escaped through the Faeries’ Gate. The
ho’a tehewenna
.”

Rob leaped up and grabbed her by the arms, shaking her hard. “Where do you know that name from?
Ho’a tehewenna
- do you know where the Faeries’ Gate is?”

“I know where it
was
, I just don’t know where it
is
!” she gasped. “Stop shaking me, you son of a bitch!”

Startled, Rob let go. “Ye watch your mouth, wee lassie,” he said softly. “I’ve killed men for less." He squatted down and looked Cam grimly in the eye. “I am looking for my brother’s wife, Sarah, as ye seem to already know. An old Shawnee last saw her near here, not more than a few months ago. If you have any idea at all of where she may be, ye’d best tell me now.”

Cam blinked. This was incredible. She was looking at Robert MacFarlane in person, and he was ready to kill her because he thought she was responsible for Sarah’s disappearance. She sighed.

“Sarah’s dead.”

With lightning speed, he grabbed her by the throat and pinned down her against the log. Straddling her chest, he whipped out a dagger and placed the tip against the side of her neck.

“Now,” he said softly. “Ye’d best tell me the truth, and don’t think for a moment that I’ll be inclined to show ye charity because you’re a female. Start at the beginning, Cameron Clark.”

She gasped. He easily weighed two hundred pounds, and she could barely breathe. She emitted a small squeak, and he lifted himself off her chest slightly.

“Better?”

She nodded.

“Good. Now talk, woman.”

She didn't think this was a good time to argue. Cam gulped air, and babbled, “My name really is Cameron Clark, and I don’t know why you won’t believe that. I was following a friend who was in danger, and the man who tried to kill her was trying to kill me too. I went into the cave where the Faeries’ Gate is. It’s a big whirlpool, under a waterfall.”

When she stopped for air, he pressed the blade harder into her throat. “Sarah.”

“She is dead, I saw it happen. She must have come through the Faeries’ Gate too, and couldn’t get back, and somehow made her way to where I was. She got hit by a truck.”

“A what?” he exclaimed.

“A - a big... carriage. It ran her over in front of my house. She was trying to find her way back!”

His eyes narrowed. “Ye talked to her then?”

“Yes,” she mumbled, as the world began to spin.

“Prove it,” he ordered.

She gazed up into his face. “She talked about Mollie, and she said her father... her Da had a sword."

He pulled the dagger away. “Go on.”

Cam gulped. "She wanted to go back to Ian. And little Hamish. She missed her baby. She didn't even know if he was alive or not, because her other one died." Rob released her then, and she rolled off the log, coughing. “Water, please.”

He tossed the skin to her. “How did ye come to talk to her?”

“She was hiding in my gar - my house. She was lost,” Cameron explained, rubbing her neck. She warily kept her distance, in case he decided to pounce on her again. If he did, she was going to kick him hard in the testicles.

“Why would she come to a stranger’s house for aid?”

“Er, well. I don’t expect she had much choice. She needed help, and I offered. Anyway, she got scared and ran out into the street, and got hit by a truck. A carriage, I mean. I’m sorry.” She genuinely was.

“So, then,” Rob began. “Sarah went through the Faeries’ Gate and arrived near you. You, on the other hand, came through the Faeries’ Gate and landed near me.” His brown eyes flashed as a sudden thought struck him. “Mollie always said Sarah had the Sight. Do ye have it too?”

“No, no,” Cam shook her head. She wasn’t sure what he was talking about.

“Ye’re not a witch, or a sorceress, are ye?”

“No,” she smiled.

“Good,” he replied. “If ye were, ye’d likely get tarred and feathered, or run out of any decent town, at best. Are ye a fairy then?” He seemed quite serious.

“A fairy? Oh, no. I’m just a person who’s lost, like Sarah was.” Cam gazed up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, and the snow had begun again. She was finally dry, but she was definitely in a pickle. She was fairly certain that she was not dreaming, and was in fact sitting with the same Robert MacFarlane who had been in Mollie Duncan’s journal. And perhaps, she thought, the reason Mollie’s journal was no longer in the sandwich bag was because it was actually at Mollie’s house being written in. He had said it was 1775, and meant it. The implications of this were frightening.

“So what’s in there, then?”

“Beg your pardon?” she asked, startled out of her reverie.

“Where ye came from, the other side of the Faeries’ Gate?” Rob pressed. “What’s it like in your place?”

“My place… it’s very like this one. But different, too. I can’t explain it, really.”
No way can I explain it, you’d never believe me,
she thought. She knew she couldn’t say she was from Virginia – if he asked again she would lie and say Charleston. That was sort of true.

He stared at her thoughtfully. “D’ye wish to go back?”

“Of course I want to go back, it’s my home,” she blurted out. She suddenly missed the house on Meador Street terribly, and Alice and her tuna sandwiches, and the smashed-up old Honda Civic, and poor sweet Troy who was probably dead by now. The snow was falling harder and she was beginning to get cold. Worst of all, she desperately needed to go to the bathroom, and it didn’t look as though there was going to be a gas station nearby for her to duck into.

“Excuse me,” Cam mumbled, rising and pushing past Rob.

“And where do ye think ye’re going, lassie?” he growled, catching her roughly by the wrist.

“Um, I have to… relieve myself.”

He shook his head. “Then you’ll do it behind that stone there, and not go traipsin’ off into the woods. I’m no’ finished talking to you yet.”

Cam frowned. She didn’t like the idea of being in such a vulnerable position with a total stranger on the other side of the rock. On the other hand, there was no way out of it. Nature was calling. If this was really happening, and she had really traveled back in time, then Cam had no other choice. She had to trust Robert MacFarlane.

“I really would like to have a bit of privacy,” she started, but he glared at her.

“I don’t intend to watch ye, if that’s what your concerned about.”

She felt herself turn red. “I don’t see why I can’t go a little further into the woods.”

“Not until I figure out who you are, an’ make sure you’re not going to dirk me in my sleep, Cameron Clark!”

“No, you don’t understand!” She just wanted to be alone, and have time to collect her thoughts.

“Then explain it to me!” Rob barked.

“I can’t!” she shouted. And it was true. There was no way she could explain any of it, not to him or to anyone else, except maybe Wanda, wherever she was. She sighed. “Fine. I’ll pee over there. Hope you’re happy.” She stomped off.