Page 26 of Love Beyond Time (Morna’s Legacy #1)
Morning brought particular success down in the spell room and we’d only been working for a short amount of time. We’d finally found the spell book with the title that matched the one I’d been trying to sound out when Eoin walked in on me a few days earlier.
The process of searching through the Gaelic books in the spell room moved much more quickly once Eoin knew the truth.
Since our heart-to-heart a few days prior, our days were spent either in the spell room sifting through books or meeting with Arran to discuss the best way to find out who was to be responsible for the upcoming tragedy.
It was nice to live openly among them and to finally be able to behave normally.
It seemed to me that the friendship I shared with Eoin grew stronger with each passing day.
I enjoyed every moment I spent with him, and the realization made me even more anxious to return home before I surrendered my heart completely.
I hovered uncomfortably around the spell room while Eoin read each page, searching for whatever spell might be helpful. I was unsure of how to help, most of the books already having been gone through, and found myself staring at him while he worked.
God, he really was beautiful. I’d never in my twenty-eight years in the twenty-first century seen a man that looked so much like a man.
He oozed masculinity, but not in a way that seemed to diminish his intelligence.
He was smart as a whip, no doubt, and his eyes displayed a sort of hidden kindness; the kind that, while hard to get to, would change your world if you were able to get him to open up and show you his true self.
He must have felt me staring at him, and he turned to catch me red-faced as I scrambled to look as if I were doing something productive.
“Come here, lass. This is it.”
I walked over to his side, surprised when he turned toward me, opening his arms and prompting me to sit on his knee.
Hesitantly, I took a seat, trying to think of spilled finger paint, runny noses, and sticky fingers; anything to keep me from concentrating on the hard chiseled body I now found wrapped around my own.
“What does it say?”
“This is the spell she used. See, her own notes are written along here.” He grabbed my hand from my lap and, using his hand, guided my fingers along the side of the page.
Tingles swam over every inch of my body.
Cheetos in the carpet, boogers on the chair backs, pink eye outbreak . No thought helped.
“I see. Will it work to switch us back?”
“Aye. I think it will.” He didn’t let go of my hand as he continued. “We need a few items. Mary can locate most of them. But it speaks of my father’s ring, and I doona know where that is. I believe he always meant to leave it to me, but his death was sudden, and I doona think it crossed his mind.”
“Well, we can find it, right?”
“Ach, lass. I suppose we shall have to. But it says something else as well.”
I looked up into his eyes, waiting for him to continue.
“The spell will only work until midnight on the twenty-eighth of December, then ye canna return home.”
“Well, we have to find it by then anyway. That’s right around when they think the massacre happens.”
“Aye, we shall. Doona worry. Knowledge is the best defense we could have. It willna come to that.”
His left hand laid casually upon my knee while his right wrapped around my back, his palm now resting just above my hip on the curve of my waist. He squeezed me in closer to him, drawing his right hand up to my shoulder so that it brought the side of my face closer to his lips.
“I know I’ve given ye no more than trouble, lass, but I shall be sorry to see ye go.” With that he leaned in as if to kiss the side of my cheek, and I nearly turned us both onto the floor with my quick leap out of his lap.
“Yes. I’ll be a little sad too. I think of you, and Mary, and Arran as friends, and it will be odd to no longer get to see you.” I awkwardly patted him on the shoulder and turned abruptly to make my way out of the spell room, cursing my heated cheeks with each step. I knew they’d given me away.
* * * Kinnaird Castle
“Why would the lass have told him such a thing? She has no way of knowing they will be attacked.”
“I doona know, sir. I’m only telling ye what I heard. Arran said that Eoin’s new bride believed they’d be dead within the month.”
“Perhaps she’s got more brains about her than I would’ve expected, being Donal’s daughter. The old sot is the silliest fool in the shire. She must’ve known that the fire and horses were to serve as warnings.”
“Aye. I suppose she must’ve, though Arran dinna seem to know what the lass meant. He was quite drunk; I could no understand how he was still conscious.”
“Aye? Well ye did right by making haste to come tell me. Now go, and keep in mind what will happen to ye and yer family if word of our conversation spreads.”
Ramsay watched as the man turned and made his way out of the room. He’d intended to warn them, to make them fear what was coming, but now that he knew the Conalls were suspicious, he found himself less comfortable with the idea of a straightforward attack.
“Gregory, find yer way in here at once!”
Quickly the man burst through the doorway and stood before Ramsay, awaiting his instructions.
“Ye are the most cunning lad I have in my command. Ye know how to surprise an enemy, how to throw them off course of yer plan. I need ye to advise me on a matter.”
“Of course, sire.”
“We will soon be planning an attack against Conall Castle. It is my intention to destroy all who reside under the castle’s protection. It seems Eoin and his brother have heard news of a possible attack, and I doona want them to suspect us in any way.”
Ramsay watched as the young lad took in the news with a look of shock. An attack on Conall Castle would be a surprise to all who served him. The two clans had been allies for decades.
“Give them cause to suspect another clan. Send me to Conall Castle, but dress me in the tartan of a distant clan. I will say I am a runaway criminal, seeking refuge with the clan for the information I bring to them. I will tell them that my laird is planning to attack them.”
Ramsay clasped the boy on the shoulders. “Aye, perfect. Ride out come morning.”