Page 52 of Beloved Enemy
“As are we,” he answered, hitching his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the presence of possibly forty men and horses crowding the narrow lane. He inclined his head at Una and cast a glance over the children but said nothing to them.
“We’ve said our goodbyes,” Charlotte informed him, at which he nodded and stepped backward.
Turning, she waved once more, giving a brief smile to her host, trying her best to avoid Lilias’s gaze, as the little girl’s face was alive with an expression of confused sadness. Pulling thedoor closed behind her, she followed Reid as he returned to his horse, which stood waiting in the lane.
“Do you have other plans?” Charlotte directed her question at his back. “Other than taking me to Ben Nevis?”
Reid turned a frown at her when he stood beside his massive horse. “Other plans?”
“It seems a large party simply to ride to the mountain as an escort,” she commented.
Nodding with his understanding for the reason behind her query, he said only, “Nae other plans but safety, though I would be pleased to discover more of the reivers, or any other ne’er-do-well that might be eliminated.”
A look of frustration crossed her face. “Can we try, just for today, tonotkill anyone? Or at least wait until I’m gone.”
Not surprisingly, Reid frowned at this.
“Ye have strange views, lass,” he said as he lifted her onto the horse.
Sighing, Charlotte recognized, “I suppose I do. Or it seems that way to you.”
Reid climbed up behind her and they set off, the Nicholson army walking slowly away from the village. Charlotte turned and availed herself of what she expected to be her last look at Kingswood with the outline of the keep in the distance. Truth be told, she was a little annoyed with the heaviness in her heart; she shouldn’t feel sad to leave a place and time so fantastic, so unreal, and which she’d only known for a week.
She looked around Reid’s broad shoulder and arm for a long moment, wrestling with emotions that didn’t make sense, before stoically turning her back to Kingswood and facing forward in the saddle.
“Is there someone in your time who will be searching for ye?” Reid asked soon after.
“Sadly, no,” Charlotte admitted, another gusty sigh following her initial response. She chewed her lip and then continued, “I don’t really have any family. Or rather, none that matter or who would miss me. Or even realize I was gone.” She gave some thought again to wonder if anyone would notice her absence from her twenty-first century life. “I mean, I can imagine several people who will be curious and possibly even briefly upset, but there is no one who will...really miss me.”
“Charlotte, ye are...” he paused, two fingers lifting off the reins in front of her, as if he searched for words, “ye are bonny, and as much as I ken about ye, ye are nae overly vexing or troublesome. Dinna tell me ye have nae admirers, hopeful adherents, or some kin who will miss ye.”
Charlotte scoffed at this, even as her insides warmed at the idea that Reid thought she wasbonny.
“Isn’t that sad, though?” She responded. “That my own parents won’t even know I’m gone? Or that I’m not even sure they would care if they did know? Or that anyone else might not...well, obviously, I have relationship issues. Challenges, my therapist calls them. But the truth is, I’m gun-shy about connections.”
“Gun-shy is...?” He fished.
“Um, like once-bitten, twice shy. Like I’ve been burned by people who should have loved me—my parents, namely—so that I’m hesitant to...embrace connections or commitment.” She shook herself to disperse the melancholy attached to these sentiments. “That’s probably TMI, way more than you are interested in knowing. Anyway....” She said, shrugging, but had nothing more to add that wouldn’t heap more fodder into the TMI pile.
“Ye are alone in your world,” Reid summarized.
“Essentially, yes, which sounds very pathetic but....well, maybe it is.” She shrugged again. “But that’s my life.”
A long moment of silence stretched before Reid spoke again. “I’m caused to wonder why ye fash so much to return.”
“I’ve wondered the same, honestly. But then it’s all familiar and safe and comfortable.”
“And this is nae,” he guessed, more a statement than a question.
“Obviously, it’s not familiar at all. And it hasn’t been particularly safe, and I have to tell you, it’s not very comfortable, not any part of it, not the bed or the lack of a bathroom, or being without my own things, my own clothes, having to accept handouts and charity from Una. It’s all veryuncomfortable.”
“Ye choose possessions over attachments?”
Charlotte thought about it, what he was questioning.
“I don’t have attachments here, not any more than I do in my own time but—wait. Are you....trying to talk me out of going back?” Did she want him to? Wow, wouldn’t that change everything? If Reid Nicholson said to her that he wanted her to—
“It makes nae difference to me what ye do or where ye go. I only mean to understand yer choice.”
