Page 32 of Draped in Plaid
Was he going to use my emotions against me? Against Rory? I kept quiet, not willing to give him anything he might use against us.
“Your silence is as much an answer as if you’d spoken, sweetness. No need to choose this time to be a heroine. You’ve already resigned them all to a fate they likely wouldn’t have chosen themselves. If they’d simply left you here, they would be home, warm in their cozy beds.”
He was right. I shouldn’t have asked Rory to come after me. But I knew he wouldn’t have been able to stay away. He would have searched for me for eternity. But the others, they could have, should have, stayed behind. Their fates, that was all on me now.
“What are ye going to do with us?” Logan growled.
Footsteps shifted toward Logan. “Why, I’m going to study you.”
“What are ye looking for?” Logan demanded.
“The bond.”
“What bond?” Logan’s voice was filled with disdain and I cringed. Prayed that he’d not be whipped like Rory had.
Despite my mask, which dulled my senses, I could hear Rory’s breathing. The heaves of anger as his chest rose and fell.
“The physical bond that creates magic.” The way the scientist saidmagicmade it sound even more mysterious and ethereal than what it truly was.
“Ye’re mad,” Logan growled.
“On the contrary, I’m quite well.” There was a swishing of fabric that gave me the idea the man was moving around very swiftly.
“There’s no such thing as magic,” Logan argued, his tone even.
The man laughed hard at that. “You’re funny. I like you. But you forget, I know all about you. I know all about your friends. The time keepers, the time jumpers. The special key. Oh, aye, you dropped it upstairs where you left my soldier in a bloody pulp. But don’t worry. I’ve got it and I’ll keep a good eye on it and I’ve only used a couple times already.”
“Ye bastard,” Ewan bellowed. “Let us go!”
“My, my. We’ve a bunch of hot-headed males, do we not?” His jovial tone was mocking, redolent. “I am going to havesomuch fun with you.”
“Please,” I said. “Please, let us go. You don’t understand what’s at stake.”
“I understand perfectly.” His robes swished as he came toward me, and then his cold, bony fingers trailed over my belly, making me queasy. “But you don’t seem to understand what I have at stake. Years worth of work, research.” He patted my face, his hands smelling like chemicals not of this world.
Where had he gone when he’d time traveled? What had he stolen?
“Tell you what, love.” His fingers traced my mouth. “I’ll happily set all of you free, if you but do a few things for me.”
“What?”
“I need everyone to agree. I cannot simply tell you my secrets unless we have a deal.”
“Do you swear it will not harm my sister’s baby?”
“Aye. Not a hair on its wee precious head.”
I swallowed hard, knowing that whatever secret experiments he had planned would not be pleasant. But I saw no other way out of this. The man would only toy with us until he got bored, and then the torture would begin. But striking a deal, that was something he would have to hold his end up on, wasn’t it? I gritted my teeth knowing full well that most bad guys reneged on their ends of deals. I would just have to have faith.
“We will agree to participate, if you swear that you’ll let us go.”
A triumphant laugh burst from him, glee in his eyes, and he clapped his hands together. “Aye. You have a deal.”
Beside me, Rory started to growl, but I stopped him with a few simple words. “Rory… I want to go home. We will make it home.”
“Aye, Rory, listen to your wife,” the man said, a note of sarcasm in his tone. “Now, since you’re all in agreement, there is no need to waste another moment. Let us begin.”
The scientist’s footsteps faded across the room, and the sounds of him rummaging around began.
