Chapter Twenty
I gasped.
“The dagger!”
The hilt of the dagger seemed to flare under the sun.
“Dylan!”
“Aye.”
“What are you doing with this? I thought it was at the university.”
I could hardly breathe. I wanted to grab the hilt. I wanted to go back to Torq. I shoved my hands under my legs to stop myself.
“It was. I...procured...it last night.”
I tore my eyes from the dagger, taking up a substantial amount of room in his pack, and I looked up at him.
“Why?”
“For you, for my Morrisons, for a man I will never know.”
“For me? You mean...to go back in time?”
“Aye. It’s what you want, isn’t it? It’s what you need, I expect. You seem a little lost here.”
I lifted a hand as if to grab the dagger but stopped short of even touching his bag. I looked up again to scan the area near the boulder.
“We talked about this. I don’t think my back can survive another jolting.”
“I have no fix for that, Cyn. I wish I did. I’ve given it a lot of thought, but I have no answers, no guarantees. You’re wearing a brace that prevents you from moving your torso. It depends on whether you want to take a chance on injuring yourself further. I wanted you to have the choice.”
I was so short of breath that I was lightheaded. I buried my face in my hands while I thought. If I showed up in the sixteenth century paralyzed, what good would I be? What if Torq didn’t want me? He hadn’t really ever told me he loved me. What if he was unwilling to care for me? What if—
“Look, Cyn,” Dylan said, pulling one of my hands from my face. “You and Ann have traveled back and forth a total of four times, always with the dagger. If something goes wrong, you can return. I am certain the dagger will find its way to you, if nothing else. It seems to have a life of its own!”
Dylan withdrew the dagger from the bag and held it up. The ornately carved hilt flared in the sun. I reached for it, then withdrew and put a hand to my back.
“You’ll be fine, Cyn. Ann is there. If anything goes wrong, she will know what to do.”
“What if he doesn’t want me? He never said he loved me.”
“I cannot believe any sane man would not be in love with you.”
I blinked at the look in his blue eyes, and my face burned.
“You said—”
“I know what I said.” Dylan smiled sheepishly. “I can’t compete with a braw Scottish warrior.”
He rotated the knife, watching as it reflected the blue water surrounding them.
“What do you say?”
“How will you explain my absence?”
“I’m not quite sure. Hopefully, they won’t think I’ve murdered you and thrown you into the sea.”
“Do you have pen and paper in that bag of yours?”
“Aye.”
He fished out a small yellow pad and a pen, and I wrote a note.
Josh
I’ve decided to stay in Scotland. I’m going remote without phone or internet, so you probably won’t be able to contact me. Do what you can to close up the apartment, or better yet, keep it. Store my stuff...or sell it. Thanks for pushing me. You were right. I didn’t know how to love.
Cyn
I began another quick note.
Dylan
Thank you for everything. I have discovered that I just can’t finish the dig with my back the way it is. I’m heading back to the States today. Thank you again and please let the university know.
Cynthia Dunnon
“One more!” I said.
To Whom It May Concern
I am moving to a remote location in the South Pacific where I will have no access to phone or internet. I authorize my friend Josh Hammond to withdraw funds from my bank and settle my bills.
Thank you
Cynthia Dunnon
“I would have turned everything over to you, but it would be easier with Josh in the States.”
“You’ve decided then,” Dylan said, lowering the dagger.
I tucked the notes into his bag.
“I have,” I said with a nod. “Nothing is forever, right?”
“No, not in my opinion. I am not at all certain that I won’t see you again, Cyn.”
For some reason, I looked over my shoulder at the cliff top. Debra stood up there, watching us.
“Dylan! Debra is up there! She must not have left yet!”
He looked over his shoulder with a frown.
I waved at her casually, and she lifted a hand to wave back.
“I can’t go yet. We’ll have to do this another time!” A sob escaped my lips.
“No. It’s now.”
He cupped the blade carefully in his hand and extended the hilt to me.
“Take the dagger, Cyn.”
“What will you say to her?”
“Well, I’ll have to explain it now, won’t I?”
I looked over my shoulder again. Debra was working her way down the steep path toward the beach.
“Now, Cyn!” Dylan urged. He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. “Go!”
“Goodbye, Dylan!”
I held my breath and took the dagger. The hilt flared.
Unlike falling into the keep or flying through the hurricane, the trip through went much more smoothly than I expected. One moment I was sitting on the pebbled beach next to Dylan, and the next I was lying down on the beach alone. The sun still shone down on me from a noon position, the sky powder blue and largely cloudless. Waves rustled onto the beach in a foamy froth, the sea beyond azure with whitecaps.
I didn’t even know if I had traveled through time, and if so, to what era. Dylan was no longer at my side, but for all I knew, I could have fainted and he had gone to get help.
I looked over my shoulder. No one stood on the cliff above looking down at me, not Dylan, not Debra. The crevice that once held the birlinns was empty.
Grief welled up inside me, and I fought it down. I had no idea where I was. I wasn’t in the same moment when Debra had begun her descent down the path. But I wasn’t in the sixteenth century either. The absence of the birlinns confirmed that.
I rolled over onto my stomach, then pushed myself to my hands and knees. A bright light near me flashed, and I eyed the silver dagger, glinting under the sun. I reached for it with the intent of wising myself back in time, but I pulled back at the last moment, still unsure of what had happened.
Where were Dylan and Debra?
Awkwardly, I positioned my legs beneath me and rose to a standing position to get my bearings. The dagger lay near my feet. The waves were distant. The dagger wasn’t going anywhere for the moment.
I scanned the cliffside path again, wondering how I was going to manage to climb it.
“Hello?” I called out in the direction of the cliff. “Can anyone hear me? Dylan? Are you up there?”
It seemed as if the breeze coming off the sea carried my voice away though. I doubted anyone on the tabletop above heard me.
Most humans had experienced the strange phenomena of knowing they were being watched at least once in their lives, maybe more. That sensation crept over me, and I turned to follow the source.
There, standing by the boulder, was Torq. His wet red hair sparkled under the sun, as I remembered. Bare chested and in the act of tying his kilt at the waist, he seemed frozen as he stared at me.
“Torq,” I whispered.
Torq dropped his hands and ran toward me, shouting something, maybe my name. Even through my joy, I was stunned to see him flying toward me.
“Cyn-tya!” he shouted. “Cyn-tya!”
“Torq!” I cried out, wobbling over the pebbles in his direction. I didn’t get far before he reached me and pulled me into his arms. I winced but had no intention of protesting against his embrace.
“Where did ye go, lass? Where have ye been?” he breathed against my ear.
I wanted to reply, but his kiss drowned out my words.
Suddenly, Torq lifted his head and pulled his arms away, staring down at my midriff.
“What have they done to ye, lass? What did they do to ye?”
He moved aside the flaps of my open shirt to look at my brace.
“Are ye broken then?”
I wanted to laugh, to cry, to throw myself into his arms again. I picked up his hands and wrapped them around my brace.
“It’s just a hard corset to help my back. Yes, I’m a little bit broken, but I’ll be all right! Are you well?”
I cupped his face with one hand, reflexively examining the healing scar on his cheek. The stitches had been removed, and all that remained was a red line down his face. As I suspected, it gave him a piratey look. He had continued to keep the facial hair shaved, and I marveled that the strength of his chin matched his character. The wound on his neck, still angry from the cauterizing, appeared to be healing as well.
He nodded, a rare smile lightening his usual somber expression.
“I am now,” he said, heartbreaking moisture forming in his blue eyes. “I am now, lass.”
He bent his head to kiss me again, and I lost myself in him.
“I love ye, Cyn-tya. I love ye, and I am so verra happy ye have come back.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I didn’t know, Torq. I didn’t know if you loved me, but I knew I loved you. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone in your time, but I came back as soon as I could. I had a little help though.”
Torq picked me up in his arms and masterfully lowered himself to a cross-legged position on the beach, cradling me in his arms.
“Tell me everything.”
I told him about my experience with the hurricane, accidentally grabbing the dagger from Andrew’s belt, finding myself back in the twenty-first century, the hospitalization, and Dylan’s help in getting me back.
“He’s John and Ann’s descendant, you know.”
Torq shook his head, kissing the top of my forehead.
“I didna ken. Ann shares little about her time.”
“I know. But I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Ask me anything!”
He smiled again, an unexpectedly tender smile that pulled my heart.
“In time, m’eudail, my darling. We have time to speak of such things.”
“Where are the birlinns? I thought I’d ended up in the wrong time!”
“Some of the men have gone fishing.”
I shook my head, remembering my grief at seeing them gone.
“How is everyone? Was anyone hurt during the storm? How long have I been gone?”
“The same as in yer time, about a fortnight. Everyone is well enough. The storm did some damage, but all has been set right. More so now that ye are back. I thought I had lost ye forever, m’eudail, and I didna ken how to go on.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. I really didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to leave you.”
“I did no want ye to leave either. I dinna ken I want to live wi’out ye. I feared for yer safety, and I blamed myself because I didna protect ye from harm, from the Macaulays taking of ye.”
“I know,” I whispered. I ran my fingers through his beautiful hair. “I know, but life without you won’t be worth living...not for me.”
He leaned in to kiss me, then stopped himself.
“I must confess something to ye, something of which I am ashamed. I grew jealous of yer regard for Iskair, fearing that I might lose ye to him. He is a braw lad, and I kent ye had some affection for him. The truth of the matter is that I wanted ye safe in yer own time, but I didna want to see ye with another man, no even my cousin. I am a flawed, selfish man.”
I pulled Torq’s faced to mine and whispered against his lips. “You are the one that I love.”
He kissed me then, deeply, swaying us gently with the rhythm of the waves. When he lifted his head, I saw the white flecks in his eyes glint like silver, like the dagger.
“The dagger!” I whispered, looking over his shoulder. The dagger, a beautiful magical thing, lurked nearby on the rocks, as if waiting to rip me from Torq’s arms.
Torq followed my eyes.
“Dinna fear the thing. Though it took ye from me, it brought ye to me two times. I will have Andrew bury the dagger once and for all.”
“You’re right, of course. It did bring me here...and I met you. I just can’t help seeing it as the thing that tore me away from you.”
“Dinna fash, m’eudail. Ye are here wi me now. Will ye stay with me?”
I burst out bawling in the most unattractive way and pressed my face against his bare chest. Red hair tickled my nose.
“Yes,” I sobbed. “Yes.”
Torq stiffened and lifted my chin.
“Why do ye cry? Do I ask too much? Do ye wish to return to yer own time?”
“No!” I mumbled, wrapping my arms around his sturdy body as far as I could reach. “No. I’m staying with you. I’m just crying. I’m so relieved that you love me.”
“How could ye doubt it? How did ye no ken that I loved ye? Was it no there in my eyes, in our first kiss, in the way I held ye? I canna say when it was I first kent that I loved ye, but it came verra quick for me. I didna think ye felt the same, and why should ye? I am no but a poor soldier with no home of my own, belonging to a clan wi no home either.”
I looked up with all the love that I felt in my heart, which was considerable. I loved him with a passion that I’d never felt for any man—not Josh, not even my father. Torq would never leave me, not willingly, and I never wanted to leave him.
He kissed me again, rocking us back and forth gently again. My head swam, and I stopped breathing. When Torq lifted his head again, I felt slightly woozy.
“Say the words again,” he whispered, staring down at me as if he could draw my soul out with his eyes. The depth of Torq’s passionate nature continued to astonish me. He had kept it well hidden. In turn, the depth of my own passion surprised me. I too had kept that well hidden, even from myself. I was willing to give myself up body and soul to Torq, to trust in him completely, to love him without fear.
“Say the words,” Torq repeated.
“I love you,” I said. “I love you.”
“Cyn!” someone shrieked from the top of the cliff.
Torq and I looked up. Ann, John, Andrew, Euan, Kenny and a group of villagers stood at the top of the cliff, looking down. Ann waved and jumped up and down like she was at a football game. She held Sarah and Archibald by the hands. They too joined her in jumping about.
Andrew starting hustling down the cliff path, no doubt the most agile among the group. Euan and Kenny followed, presumably to offer Torq assistance in getting me up the hill again.
Torq turned back to me. “We didna have much time together alone, did we?” he said with a rueful smile.
“No.”
“It isna the place or time, but I must ask ye now. Will ye marry me, Cyn-tya? Will ye be my wife?”
“Yes, yes, my handsome Highlander, the sooner the better!”
Torq laughed. And the sound echoed on the wind.