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Reilly let out a laugh. “Another cousin? I believe we might use the term a bit too liberally.”

“It is our catch-all word, isn’t it?” Bri agreed with a smirk. “But no one ever questions cousins. Are they cousins by marriage? By blood? How many times removed? It all gets so complicated, and no one really cares about another’s family tree so much.”

I tend to disagree, Emma thought, looking between the four of them.

“Now, tell me of the future. How fares Evelyn and Conner?” Bri asked eagerly.

When Emma fell asleep on Aidan’s shoulder, Brianagh took pity on her. “I’ll bring her to her room.” She roused Emma.

“She stays with me,” Aidan said firmly, half rising as the women made their way toward the door.

Brianagh stopped suddenly, her mouth open in surprise. “But…you can’t! You’re not married!” She glanced at Emma apologetically. “Your ladyship would be at stake. If you sleep in the same room as Aidan, your reputation will be shattered.”

“Do I need to worry about a reputation?” Emma asked, raising a brow.

“Oh, very much so,” Nioclas said, stroking his chin. “Being my wife’s cousin, and with the current guests we have, added to a large number of guards looking for their next conquest…”

Emma bit her lip. “Oh. ”

“She stays with me,” Aidan repeated forcefully. “Her beauty is too strong a temptation for the men in this hall.”

Emma’s heart tumbled in her chest at the forcefully-given compliment.

“My guard wouldn’t allow such a thing!” Nioclas replied, bristling.

“I don’t think he means to be insulting,” Bri said calmly, holding out a hand. “He wants Lady Emma protected at all costs. Which she will be…in the chamber directly next to yours, Aidan.”

“Is there an adjoining door?” he asked.

“No,” Brianagh replied with a roll of her eyes. “What would be the point of separate chambers, then?”

Emma opened her mouth, but Nioclas opened his at the same time, and she snapped hers shut. The man somehow silently commanded deference. She wondered how he obtained such a skill, or if lairds were simply born with it.

“She’ll be safe, Aidan. I vow it,” Nioclas said, leveling his brother with a stare. “No one will touch her inside of the castle, or on castle grounds. We’ll inform the guard together that she’s here under your protection, and also mine. They’ll honor that.”

“I’ll have a chambermaid sleep in her room, and post a guard in the hallway,” Brianagh added. “Our castle is the most secure it’s ever been, and our guards are true.”

Aidan looked undecided.

“Aidan,” Emma broke in softly. “I’ll be fine.”

He sighed and nodded, and Brianagh ushered Emma out of the solar before he could change his mind.

A few twists and turns later, Bri pulled the impressive key ring out again and waved toward the door on the right .

“This is your chamber. I’ll have a bath sent up straight away, unless you’d prefer to sleep first?”

“Thank you for being so kind,” Emma replied. She grimaced, thinking of their silent walk to the chamber. “I’m normally much more social than this.”

Bri leaned forward and spoke so low Emma strained to hear her.

“Time traveling will do that to a woman. Trust me. Firsthand experience.” She leaned back and said, only slightly louder, “And any amount of time with my family in close quarters couldn’t have been good for your mental state.

Sleep, bathe, and eat again. I’ll fetch you later.

For now, I’ll send Camille in. She’ll be your personal chambermaid.

Her entire purpose will be to serve you—if you’re anything like I was when I first arrived, and I suspect you might be, you’ve never asked anyone for help.

Enjoy the attention; there’s something very special about being important enough to a person that they’d willingly give their life for yours. ”

“It’s an unfamiliar concept,” Emma admitted.

“Despite popular opinion, men don’t just give the vow of their life for another’s lightly. It’s only given for a close clansman…or love. Relax here, Lady Emma. You’re safe under Aidan’s eye.”

Emma nodded, but a wave of panic overtook her. She gripped Brianagh’s hand tightly. “I…”

Bri looked at her closely, then quickly shut the door and led Emma to the bed. They sat down, and Emma began to shake.

“It’s okay, Emma. I know it’s a terrifying idea, to be back in time like this. The shock of it is understandable.”

Bri’s kind eyes were her undoing, Emma gulped in big gasps of air, but her lungs seemed to close in on themselves.

Bri forced her head between her knees and rubbed her back in soothing motions, telling her to find the stone that looked like Wisconsin, the bits of yellow threads woven into the throw rug on the floor, and asking her to count the various shades of gray beneath her feet.

Slowly, Emma felt her panic recede, and after long minutes, she was able to draw air back into herself.

“Sorry,” she wheezed, sitting up slowly.

“Don’t be.” Bri took her cold hand and rubbed it between her own. “Being here can only be a shock. I can completely, totally relate.”

“Did you also freak out when you arrived?” Emma asked between measured breaths. The panic attack, mild as it was, left her feeling off-balance.

Bri frowned. “Well, kind of. I went into shock; immediately after Reilly shifted time, I was abducted and thrown into a pit by my father-in-law’s men.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “That’s…”

“Horrendous? You can’t even imagine, nor do I want you to.

” Bri smoothed Emma’s hair from her face.

“Here’s the important thing. You’re safe here.

Reilly said you weren’t truly meant to come back here, so I’m sure he’ll get you home when he can.

But until then, despite all the nasty things the history books tell you of medieval times, there are truly lovely things here, too. ”

“Like what?”

Bri smiled softly. “Things you wouldn’t think of, like the simple things.

Walking the grounds after a rainstorm. The sounds of night falling.

The stars, which are brighter than anything I saw when I was younger.

The sea on a bright day, which sparkles and takes your breath away with its endlessness.

Everything is somehow slower here, but the danger to life is not.

War is never far off, though what I said to Aidan was true.

We haven’t seen true war since he left, though there have been battles and skirmishes.

And people die young when they haven’t the proper health care.

But those dangers force you to appreciate the moment, the right-now.

Nothing is taken for granted, and relationships, both family and otherwise, are just so much more than anyone from our time might understand. ”

Emma absorbed it all, feeling it settle over her soul like a warm blanket. Finally, she met Bri’s eyes again and gave a small smile. “I’ve been alone for most of my life. My parents died in a car crash when I was young, and my grandparents died when I was in college. When I met Ben—”

“The ex you’re on the run from?”

Emma nodded and stood. She began pacing.

“One in the same. When I met him, I was a lost soul. I had girlfriends, but eventually we lost touch and he became my whole world. We lived together, in New York City, for a long time. But the truth is…since my grandparents died, I’ve been alone.

It took me awhile to realize that being with someone is not the same as being with someone. ”

“Agreed.”

“And,” Emma added, warming to the subject, “I’ve been on my own for a long time.

I don’t need anyone to take care of me. Even when we lived together, Ben was barely around.

We were more roommates than a couple. I got up, went to work, came home.

Grocery shopped. Entertained myself. Worked some more.

And I was doing just fine. But I did even better once he was in jail, and I was truly free from him.

I flourished! I was a superstar at work! ”

“I believe it, if Colin wants you on his team.”

“But then Aidan comes into my life, and he’s all charm and grace and refined luxury, and I turn into this stumbling mess of a person.

You know he demanded to see only me? My boss did not like that.

And he read my thesis on medieval thought.

Who does that? Who reads a boring thesis for someone they only want for one purpose, which was to obtain some antiquities for him? ”

Brianagh, who clearly didn’t know where Emma was going with this but somehow knew she needed to get it all off her chest, merely nodded in encouragement .

“No one, that’s who! Because it was more than a hundred pages of research that he clearly knows firsthand,” she ranted.

“And the day after I met him, my entire life goes to hell in a handbasket, and he simply picks up the pieces and hands them all back to me on a silver platter, like it’s nothing.

Nothing!” She ticked off on her fingers as she spoke, “He gave me a place to stay, and clothes to wear, and told off my ex-boss, then deals with my ex-boyfriend, and then he kisses my socks off when all I’m trying to do is get some coffee!

But the Universe gave me a clear sign to steer clear.

A clear sign. And I paid attention to it and promised myself to stay away from him.

But then I end up in a place where I have no choice but to trust him to keep me safe because no matter how much I study the past, I’ve never lived it and my God, this is not how I wanted my life to turn out! ”

Brianagh watched, fascinated, as Emma plopped down next to her on the bed.

“I’m a mess,” she announced, to no one in particular.

No , Bri thought, biting back her smile. You’re falling in love .

When Bri left a few moments later, Emma felt better than she had in a long while. Perhaps she needed to get all that off her chest, and Brianagh most likely thought her insane, but she did feel lighter, sleepier, and not nearly as scared as she did just an hour earlier.