Page 29 of Cottage in the Mist (Time After Time #3)

“I thought I might find you here,” Katherine said as she walked out onto the battlements. “Iain and Ranald are almost ready to go.”

Bram turned back toward the valley below, his eyes drawn to the spot of white that marked the cottage.

Katherine took a step forward, stopping a few paces back from the low battlement wall, shooting a wary look down before lifting her head defiantly. “I’m not all that fond of heights,” she said by way of explanation.

“Then why come up here?” he asked, his eyes still trained on the stone structure across the river.

“To find you.” She smiled with a shrug. “And because I figure if I do this often enough, it’ll become less of a bother.” She moved forward, resting one hand on the wall.

“Iain’s a lucky man.” Bram clenched his fist, trying not to let his rioting feelings get the best of him.

“Yes, well, we’re both lucky. And tenacious. What we have is a gift. But it didn’t come easily. And it has to be maintained. Which sometimes means fighting to protect it.”

“That’s what I thought I was doing,” Bram whispered, his mind conjuring the image of Lily as she lay sleeping in their bed. “I know it had to be done, and yet I feel as if I betrayed her.”

“I take it she didn’t know you were going to leave her?”

He didn’t question how she knew what had happened.

Katherine had a way of seeing the truth without any need for words.

“Nay. She wanted to come with me. To fight the Comyns.” He struggled against a wash of pride and fear, the juxtaposition of the two emotions threatening to unman him.

“I couldna let her do it. Surely you can see that?”

“I can see that you believed it was the right thing to do.”

“But you do not agree.”

“It isn’t my place to agree or disagree. You did what you thought was right. That’s all that matters.”

“Mayhap. But what if I was wrong? Or even if I was right, what if in leaving her, I’ve lost her forever?”

Beside him, Katherine sighed. “I wish I had answers for you. Something that would make it all okay.”

He frowned at the last bit, not recognizing the word.

“Make it all right,” she amended with a smile. “It isn’t easy trying to live in one century when you’re from another. And the decision to come here to stay isn’t one to be made in haste.”

“So you thought about it long and hard, did you?” Bram asked, fairly certain he already knew the answer.

Katherine laughed. “Well, yes and no. I mean, it did take me a while to realize I needed to come back to Scotland.”

“Eight years,” Bram said with a huff of impatience.

“Yes. But I didn’t know that Iain was real. It’s different with you and your Lily.”

He started to correct her, to say that she wasn’t ‘his’, but the words died in his throat.

They belonged to each other as surely as he was breathing.

The only difficulty was that they didn’t occupy the same space and time.

“But after you knew. That he was real, I mean. Did you do the logical thing then?”

“No.” She shook her head, wrapping her arms around her waist as she remembered. “All I could think about was how much I loved him. And nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of that.”

“But that’s exactly what I’ve done, isn’t it? Let my father’s death and the situation with the Comyns come between us. I left her behind, Katherine. After a night like I’ve never known.”

“Why did you walk out the door, Bram?” she asked, her voice gentle, full of understanding.

“Because I was afraid the daft woman would truly follow me into battle. And if anything were to happen to her, I’d… I’d…” He trailed off, his gaze still locked on the distant cottage.

“You wanted to protect her. There’s nothing wrong in that.”

“Except that she’ll no’ understand. She’ll see it as a betrayal. And I canna help but think she willna want to come back here again.”

“I think you’re judging her too harshly. She’ll be angry, I’m certain. And perhaps at first she’ll see what you did as a betrayal. But I’m also sure that once she has a chance to think on it, she’ll understand that you did what you did because you love her.”

“I do,” he said, the thought making him ache inside. “Love her, I mean. Ach, Katherine, what have I done?”

“You’ve made a choice. And now you just have to have faith that it will all come out right in the end.”

“Like it did for you and Iain.”

She laid her hand on his arm. “It wasn’t easy for us either, Bram.

There was far more than just the eight years of separation.

We had enemies to fight as well. One of them almost destroyed me in the process.

Which meant that when it mattered most, Iain had to let me go. He had to send me back to my own time.”

“Aye, and it was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.” Iain’s deep voice echoed over the battlements as he came to stand behind his wife. His arms circled her waist and Katherine leaned back against him. “But even though I thought I’d lost her forever, I knew I’d chosen true.”

“And he moped around here like there was no tomorrow despite all his blustering.” Ranald laughed as he joined the group at the wall.

“Well, what did you expect, man? I’d lost my own true love.” Iain wagged his eyebrows at his cousin, and Katherine’s eyes sparkled with laughter.

Bram felt a wave of jealousy. He’d held his love in his arms and now he’d lost her. Possibly forever.

“Faith, Bram,” Katherine repeated. “No one said it would be easy. But believe me, it’s worth the effort.”

He nodded, staring off into the distance, then with a sharp exhale of breath turned to his kin, forcing himself to face his greatest fear. “I went back.”

The others waited in silence.

“In the end I couldna do it. I couldna walk away. So I went back.” He closed his eyes, fists clenched as he remembered. “But I was too late. The cottage was empty. Lily was gone.”

“Perhaps for the best?” Ranald queried. “We do have a battle to fight.”

Katherine tensed in Iain’s arms.

“No worries, my love,” he said, his arms tightening around her. “We’ve fought in worse battles and won.”

“I know.” Katherine sighed, then squared her shoulders and lifted her head to kiss her husband’s cheek. “And the sooner we get the lot of you on your way, the sooner you’ll all come back to me.” Her words included Ranald and Bram, but her eyes were only for Iain.

He bent to kiss her. “All will be well, I promise.”

“See that it is,” she admonished, pushing away the fear that had surfaced momentarily in her eyes.

“And you,” she added, turning to Bram, “as I said, have a little faith. What’s to be is meant to be.

But as a dear friend of mine used to say, everything happens in its own time.

If your Lily truly loves you, she’ll understand why you left her behind.

And somehow the two of you will find a way back to each other.

You just have to believe it’s possible.”

Which was the crux of the matter, really.

With a nod, Bram squeezed Katherine’s hand, then turned to follow Ranald as he made his way down to the forecourt and the waiting men.

The battle was at hand.

After Duncreag and Dunbrae, the Comyn manor house was a disappointment. Not that it wasn’t amazing in its own right, but it lacked the ancient appeal of the two holdings, the one nothing but ruins, the other surviving almost intact.

Like most homes in this part of the world, it spoke to the generations, the harsh Georgian facade giving way to Elizabethan wings running both to the east and the west. Although Lily doubted the Scottish forbears would have described their homes based on English monarchs and their inspired architecture.

Ivy and small pink roses curled around the pillars set on both sides of the entrance, the ivy having jumped from column to wall, its fan of dark green plumage climbing upward, spreading until it covered a large part of the right side of the manor.

It should have softened the sharp lines of the stone edifice, but somehow it only managed to add to the house’s grandeur.

“There’s nothing left of the original tower?” Lily asked as they walked up the steps to the massive front door. “I’d hoped…” She trailed off, not sure really what it was she wanted. Another flash of the past perhaps. Something to let her know with certainty that Bram was all right.

Despite her anger, she couldn’t stand the thought that he could be hurt. Or worse. She shook her head, the illogic of her thoughts threatening to swamp her emotions. Bram was dead. Alec was dead. All of them were dead.

She shivered, and Mrs. Abernathy laid a warm hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be all right, lamb. You just have to keep going. One step at a time. We need to find the truth of what happened and once that’s accomplished, you’ll know what to do.”

Lily nodded, squeezing the older woman’s hand as Mrs. Abernathy pounded on the door.

Lily fingered her father’s ring nervously.

She’d left Bram’s brooch at Duncreag, fearful that even after all this time something so blatantly Macgillivray would hinder any connection she might establish with these modern day Comyns.

The ancient door swung open on surprisingly silent hinges.

A small woman with graying hair and a cheerful smile ushered them both inside.

“Good afternoon. I’m the housekeeper. Mrs. Potter.

The mistress is expecting you,” she told Mrs. Abernathy, pausing to look back as Lily stepped across the threshold.

For a moment the woman stood, stunned, eyes wide as her gaze locked on Lily.

She swallowed once, her hand clutching her throat, and then with a shake of her head, she looked away, motioning them forward.

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect…” She trailed off on a sigh.

“It’s just down the hallway. Second door on the right. ”

“What in heaven’s name do you think that was all about?” Mrs. Abernathy asked.