Page 56 of Highlander Unraveled
I shook my head, and then nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
He pulled me into his arms, and we both stayed like that, my eyes closed, nose buried in his chest. My heart started to beat normally again and I pulled back a moment to stare up into his eyes.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love ye, too.”
I could hear the tapping of my sister’s shoes as she ran, before she even appeared. And I’d give her a strong talking to, considering she was nearing her due date. Shona burst into the great hall, a flurry of plaid skirts and dark, unruly hair.
“Is it true?” she asked, grabbing hold of my arms and looking into my eyes.
“You shouldn’t be running,” I said.
“I told her the verra same thing,” Ewan said, running in behind her.
She waved away our comments.
I stared into her face, so like my own, and nodded.
“This can’t be good,” she whispered.
“I agree.”
“Where can we talk with this McAlister fellow?” Rory asked Ewan.
“There is a chamber Logan set aside especially for such meetings. I’ll take ye there and then fetch the man.”
We followed him from the great hall, and down the corridor past Logan’s office. Not too far, Ewan opened a door that led to a fairly plain room, but large. In the center of the room was a long trestle table, cleared of anything but three candelabras fitted with candles that had yet to be lit.
The walls were adorned with simple tapestries that showed no hint of politics or religion. Landscapes. A unicorn. A sideboard held a variety of decanters and cups. The hearth was cleaned of all ashes, fresh wood stacked and waiting to be kindled.
“Before ye get him,” Rory said, stopping Ewan. “I think it’s best if we had a plan.”
“Aye,” Ewan agreed.
“Are ye certain he can be trusted?” Rory asked me.
I glanced at Shona who answered. “Yes. We’ve known him for as long as we can remember. He kept our trust safe from the meddling hands of our foster parents. He’s helped us at every turning point in our lives. Well—” Shona paused for half a breath. “Most of them.”
“It seems almost normal that he might have come to find us, to help us here,” I said. “But I can’t for the life of me figure out just how he would have gotten here, or how he would have known.” I reached back with both hands, gathering my hair and twisting it into a knot at the nape of my neck. “It seems almost too uncanny that he might have met Emma and then magically appeared here.”
“But, we have all done the same thing,” Ewan said with a shrug.
“Honestly, at this point, I’m not certain I’d be wary of such,” Rory said. “Think about it. What we did. What we’ve done. Where we’ve gone.”
I nodded, but still, something in my gut didn’t sit well, and one look at Shona said she felt the same way.
“I think we can trust him until he gives us a reason not to,” I said.
“And be looking for that reason,” Shona said. “He has been like a grandfather to us… But I was here for five years and didn’t know who I was. Moira was home for years wondering if I was dead or alive. Why didn’t he help then if he could?”
“I didn’t think about it like that,” I said. “But now that you mention it, why didn’t he?”
“Let’s ask him ourselves,” Ewan said.
We waited for him to bring McAlister to the meeting room, and as soon as he did, I was struck with how much older our guardian appeared. His clothes were wrinkled and one pocket on his dark sport coat was torn. He was usually a lot more put together, but I suppose time travel could do that to a person.
“Lassies,” Mr. McAlister drawled. He held out his arms to us, expecting us to rush to him, not something he’d ever done before which gave me pause.
