Page 26 of Seductive Scot
“The Guardians would possibly hang you,” Rhys said.
An immediate instinct to protect Deirdre, even if it meant protecting her from herself, rose in Reikart.
“Mayhap,” she admitted, “but it’s a chance I’m willing to take to warn them of King Edward’s true character.”
“She’s lying,” Alastair said. “There is nae a woman that brave.”
“Maggie is that brave,” Rhys said, giving his wife a look that could only be described as whipped. The two exchanged a long look, and then Maggie nodded to Rhys in an encouraging gesture.
Rhys glanced at Reikart. “Maybe she’s not a black widow after all.” He turned to focus his attention on Deirdre. “You need to get the cross first because Shona, my mom—” He glanced to Reikart, who tilted his head as if to say,Go on. He wanted to help Rhys, but he’d only been in this century for a few hours and he wasn’t sure how much Rhys intended to tell Deirdre. “Our mom,” Rhys started again, “needs to save our dad.”
Deirdre frowned and looked from Rhys to Reikart to Maggie. “What is he talking about? Shona can nae be his mother.” She sounded slightly agitated. Suddenly, her attention was fully on Reikart again. “Norhismother!”Slightlyagitated had been an understatement. She was full-on agitated.
“Do nae panic, Deirdre,” Maggie said, stepping toward her sister. “And if ye do panic, remember what I told ye.”
As a boy, Reikart had engaged in the normal teen fantasies where all women wanted him. Usually, in his fantasies, a woman was staring at him, practically salivating. And now, he’d be damned if Deirdre was not staring at his mouth. But the look that settled on her face was more like horror and less like lust. She moved away from him so fast that she crashed into Alastair, staggered forward, and fell straight into Reikart’s arms.
She was softer than Reikart had imagined, and she smelled so damn good. Too good. God, she was tempting. She tempted him to touch her when he’d promised not to, tempted him to forget what he’d done, the misery he deserved, and just be the old Reikart again, the one from before. He jabbed the thought in its treacherous face. Still, when he looked into her fearful eyes, his chest squeezed hard.
“How much do you want to tell her, bro?” he asked Rhys without breaking his gaze from hers.
“All of it, I suppose. No one would believe it if she told them anyway.”
That last comment earned Rhys a glare from Deirdre. Reikart nodded, made sure she was steady, and then he forced himself to release her, though his instincts rebelled against it. “We’re time travelers. So is our mom.”
Deirdre didn’t move. She did, however, lose most of her color, except her rosy lips and shining green eyes. Reikart took a quick breath and decided that spilling the secrets fast would be best. “Our aunt Grace knows a chant that can send a person through time if they are holding a special cross.”
He looked to Rhys, realizing he had no clue where the cross had come from.
“You know the fae who live in the woods around Kinghorn Castle?” Rhys asked.
Maggie had moved to her sister’s side and now looped her arm through Deirdre’s. It was a good thing, too, because Reikart could see that Deirdre was swaying a bit on her feet. Shock could do that. Standing here now, he could recall the numbness he’d felt after the car wreck. Numbness, then blind terror. The inability to move followed by an inability to comprehend or accept, and then that was followed by a wave of horrible truth crashing into him. All he had been able to do was scream as he drowned in pain.
He blinked away the memory, catching Maggie nudging her sister, who looked like a deer in headlights. “Deirdre, ye know the fae.”
Deirdre nodded, but Reikart could tell the simple movement had taken some effort, as though her head hadn’t wanted to cooperate. He wanted to tell her he understood, but he was sure his words would be as welcome as a door-to-door salesman.
“Grace,” Rhys said, “saved the lives of a fae and her child. For that deed, the fae offered her two wishes—wishes, favors, call them what you will, the result is the same.” Rhys paused and looked at Deirdre, probably expecting her to respond, but she simply stood there, mouth parted as she stared at him looking dazed.
With a quick clearing of his throat, he continued. “Aunt Grace already had the first cross when our mom, Shona, came to her the night King Alexander was killed.”
“Yer mom? Yer aunt?” Deirdre said, sounding as if she was finally shaking off enough shock to form words. She shook her head, darting her gaze from Rhys to Reikart and then turning a desperate look on her sister. “Maggie, this can nae be. ’Tis impossible. Ye can nae believe this!”
“Deirdre, please just let Rhys finish,” Maggie pleaded, to which her sister nodded after a long moment.
“Aunt Grace had already asked for the cross because she had the foresight to think it might one day be very useful. And it was. When your brother tried to kill my mom—” Rhys paused again and gave Deirdre a pointed look that stirred Reikart’s irritation. It wasn’t Deirdre’s fault her brother had tried to kill their mom, but Reikart didn’t speak up because he understood how Rhys was feeling. “Aunt Grace used the cross and a Traveling Chant the fae had taught her to send our mom through time and space.”
Deirdre made a derisive noise in her throat.
“We didn’t believe it, either,” Rhys said. “But it’s true all the same. My aunt thought she was sending our mom home to Hightower. She simply wanted to get her away from your brother and the other conspirators.”
Reikart glanced at Deirdre and saw that her face was no longer pale. A blush colored her cheeks, and she was biting her lip. He was intimately acquainted with the feeling of shame, and it was clear to him she was experiencing it at that moment. He had the desire to shield her from the emotion, but he knew how impossible and futile it was.
Rhys inhaled a deep breath. “Aunt Grace got a word in the chant wrong, and instead of sending Mom to Hightower as she’d intended, she sent her forward in time to the year 1981. That’s where she met our dad, married him, and had me, Reikart, and two other boys. She lived her life there for twenty-three years because she could not get back to your time.”
“Ye are mad,” Deirdre whispered and pulled on Maggie’s arm. “Yer husband is mad. Ye can nae believe this!”
“It’s true,” Maggie said in a stern voice.
