Page 46 of Love Beyond Time
The first was a thin band topped with a wide oval. Noting the feminine look to its setting, he determined that this was most assuredly the ring that Arran sought. The second was larger and held the seal of the Conall clan, a signet which Alasdair most likely used to seal and sign letters. It was this ring that caught the man’s interest. Such an item would be of great use to Laird Kinnaird, a way to swing the odds of the upcoming battle even further into his master’s favor.
Turning his head, he reached and removed the rings as quickly as possible, holding the first in the palm of his hand and silently slipping the second away, out of sight.
Chapter 29
Present Day
“I don’t know where else to look, but we have to find that damned ring. It’s only two more weeks until the anniversary, and I will not let her be left there.” Adelle sat down. Dirty, exhausted, and on the verge of panic, she placed her head in her hands to cry.
She was surprised to feel Blaire’s arm come around her shoulder to offer her comfort. “Doona worry, we will find it.”
“Yes, we will. I can’t allow myself to consider that we won’t. She’s my only child, Blaire. She’s all I have, all I’ve ever had. She’s the only person I’ve ever known that could put up with my flakiness and still love me. I was never the mother I should’ve been to her, and I won’t fail her now.”
“Oh, ye should no say such things. I doona believe that Bri thinks that ye were a terrible mother. Why, ye have treated me with more kindness and allowed me more freedom than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Adelle lifted her head and patted Blaire on the knee. “Thank you for that. I’m so glad that you’ve been here to help. And you’ve handled everything beautifully. You’re a wonderful girl. Now, we have to think about where else the ring could be. Everything else on site has already been excavated and is in the Edinburgh museum, and the collection of items does not include the ring.”
“We know that the spell book is powerful. Tis what brought me here and sent Bri back in my place. Do ye think tis possible that we could convey a message to yer daughter through it?”
Adelle stood, shaking her head. “I doubt it. I didn’t read a spell for anything like that.”
“I think ye should give it a go, anyhow. Why not write a note to her in the margins of the spell we are working on? Perhaps, she will see it, when she looks at it.”
It was too much to hope for, and Adelle didn’t want to get her hopes up over such a ridiculous possibility. Blaire was trying to help, and it wouldn’t hurt to humor the girl, pointless as the act would be.
“Alright, why not give it a try? I’ll just tell her that we are working on the spell, but we haven’t been able to find the ring.” Adelle opened the spell book and obligingly flipped to the appropriate page.
* * *
Blaire didn’t believe her own suggestion would work any more than Adelle did, but it bothered her to see her new friend so distressed. She couldn’t imagine the pain the woman must be feeling after having her daughter ripped away from her so inexplicably.
She desperately wanted Adelle to get her daughter back. But—just as desperately—she never wanted to return home. She couldn’t bear the thought of it: being married to Eoin and living in the same place as Arran. Every glimpse of him would break her heart all over again.
If Arran didn’t want to be with her, she’d rather stay here in this strange and foreign time, where at the very least it was acceptable to live independently. She would be free to live her life without putting her heart in the hands of someone else. She could live a guarded, simple life all alone. And, with her heart and soul broken, she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more.
Even if they found the ring, she wasn’t going to go back. They’d simply have to find a way to bring Bri forward without making a switch.
* * *
1645
I was deliciously sore and as happy as I’d ever been when we set out on our return journey early the next morning. I’d fallen asleep wrapped in his arms, only to be awakened a few hours later by his lips kissing the side of my cheek and trailing down my neck.
I smiled into his lips and faced him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I don’t have the energy to do it again tonight, Eoin. I’m a bit out of practice.”
He kissed the tip of my nose before pulling back to prop himself up on his elbow. “Aye, that may be so. But ye were no a virgin, aye?”
At first I was a bit taken aback by his question. At my age, it seemed odd that he would assume that I was. At second thought, I realized just how surprising it most likely was to him to find that I wasn’t. While most men in this time found themselves in the bed of another far before marriage, any respectable woman would never have let herself be “ruined” before reaching her marriage bed.
“No. I wasn’t. It’s different where I come from. People often have sex before marriage.”
He frowned at my answer. “I see, lass.”
“Does it bother you that I wasn’t?”
“Nay, I canna fault ye for the life that ye lived before ye came into my life. But, I’ll nay say it pleases me. Thinking of another man holding ye and touching ye as I just have stirs a rather dreadful feeling in my chest. I’d like to bludgeon the lad that did so.”
I smiled, pleased at his jealousy. “All three of them?”
