Page 86 of Her Highland Prophecy
“Thank you,” Diana said. She was amazed that despite her fears it had been so simple to find her. She just hoped she was in the tent and she wouldn’t try to run away when she saw her again.
The tent was exactly where the gypsy had said it would be. Even from outside, Diana could tell that the woman was burning herbs of some sort. Was she a fortuneteller, like the gypsy in the future had been? She knocked on the post.
“Enter,” a gruff female voice called out and with the last breath of clean air, Diana pulled back a flap and walked in.
It was smaller than the tent that the other gypsy had had, but no less ornate. A thick rug in bright colors covered the ground and an assortment of fortunetelling knickknacks were set on a long table off to the side. A glass ball, a tea kettle with a pretty set of chintz teacups and what Diana thought might be a map of the stars.
The gypsy she had been looking for was hip deep in a cabinet in the back, muttering under her breath as she rummaged through her things.
“Excuse me,” she said, “are you Aina?”
At the sound of her voice Aina straightened abruptly. Or at least she tried to. Her head collided with the top of the cabinet that she had been searching in, a long string of curses escaping her mouth.
She emerged a moment later, one hand clamped over the back of her head as she squinted in Diana’s direction.
“What are ye doing here?” she asked, a note of petulance in her voice.
Diana was taken aback.
“Why did you run when you saw me yesterday?” she settled on as a first question. Not the most important, but it would do.
“Pah, that is nae what is burning ye to ask me, Lass. Talk plainly,” Aina said, fixing Diana with beady eyes.
“Very well,” Diana said and pulled out the medallion that had caused her no end of trouble since it had been given to her.
The other woman let out a deep breath before reaching out a hand for the medallion. Diana handed it over. The gypsy traced her hands almost reverently over the unusual design. The shape was so specific that it was almost impossible to confuse it with any other piece of jewelry.
“Where did ye get this?” Aina breathed.
“Do you not know?” Diana asked, unwilling to reveal that she was from the future if the woman did not already know.
Aina fixed her with her beady stare again, scrutinizing her closely.
“So ye are a traveler, then,” she said after a minute. “What year did ye come from?”
“Nineteen hundred and twenty-eight,” Diana told her with relief. If she knew she was from the future, she would also know the way back hopefully.
Aina whistled lowly. “Ye are a long way from home, Lass. But why did ye come to me? Did the medallion nae work for ye?”
“Work for me?”
“Aye,” she said, looking at Diana so closely that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “Ye dinnae ken what it does, do ye? How did this come into yer possession?” she asked, waving the medallion in front of Diana’s face.
“A gypsy gave it to me at this fair. She read my palm first, telling me a terrible tale about my future and then said something I couldn’t understand before telling me that I would find my destiny if I took the medallion to a cave.”
“Yer destiny?” Aina asked in surprise. “Are ye sure that is what she said?”
“Yes, why?”
“That medallion isnae to show ye yer destiny,” the old woman said with disgust. “It brings love together.”
“What?” Diana said, her voice a murmur lost in the breeze.
Gordain was the first thing that came to mind. Had the medallion brought her back in time so they could be together? It was an absurd thought and yet—
“How?” she asked they gypsy.
“It has been in me family as far back as I can remember,” Aina began caressing the medallion that she still held in her hand. “No matter where it travels in time it always ends up with one of us.”
