Page 76 of Wild Highland Rose
"Aye, that I do. The folly of an old woman, no doubt." She laughed gently.
"Is that when you came here, after you ran away?"
"Oh, heavens no. I went from home to college, and from there to the home of a wealthy widower." She paused, her voice tinged with embarrassment. Cameron was almost glad the shadows hid her face. "He helped me get into Harvard Medical school."
"And then?"
"Pretty straight forward really. I graduated with honors and decided to be a surgeon."
"Did you specialize?"
"No. It was the fifties. I was lucky to find a general practice that would take me. Women doctors were still pretty much an oddity and in surgery they were definitely a rarity."
"Did you marry?"
"I'd call it more of a business merger. We each needed the respectability of marriage."
"Sounds like my family. My mom was a doctor, too, and my dad was a lawyer. He came from a prominent Boston family." They sat for a moment enjoying the shared intimacy. "Did you have children?"
Grania was silent for a long while, and when she finally answered, Cameron could hear the agony in her voice. "Aye, I had a son."
He wondered what it would feel like to live in a world where your son hadn't even been born yet.
"Do you miss them?"
"I dinna think of my husband much. He was a good man, but we never shared anything more than a desire to make it big in the world."
"And your son?"
She sighed, the soft sound heart wrenching. "I miss him every day. I regret that I wasna much o' a mother to him. I was too involved with my career. I'd give my soul to have a chance to set things right."
Uncomfortable with her obvious pain, he tried to find words. "I'm sure he remembers you fondly." The words sounded trite. He wasn't good at comforting people.
She squeezed his hand. "I hope yer right, but I'd imagine 'tis more likely he doesna remember me at all."
"Was he young when you…" His voice trailed off.
"Came here? Aye."
"What happened?"
"To bring me here?"
"Yeah."
"There was a terrible accident. I remember searing pain. I thought surely I would die from it." She smiled, her teeth whitein the faint light. "I guess in some ways I did. Anyway, suddenly the pain was gone and there was a flash o' blinding white light and then I was here, wandering about the country side in another woman's body."
"Did you try to get back?" He sat forward on the bench, intent upon her answer.
"Every day at first, but when the years kept passing and I was still here, I began to realize that maybe I was meant to be in this time."
Cameron uttered a frustrated oath.
"I know 'tis no' what ye want to hear, but ye need to face the truth o' it. 'Tis possible you, too, are meant to be here."
"Impossible. I have a life in Atlanta. I have a practice and a house and a…." He stopped, letting the sentence dangle between them.
"A wife?"
