Chapter Sixteen
Ben remained in surgery the rest of that evening. The sword had nicked his kidney and his internal bleeding was life threatening. Kenzie paced the corridor just beside the waiting area, hating the fact she’d not acted sooner. Because of her fear of having a man with no ID, no record, nothing, she had not sought help for him as soon as they’d arrived.
She should have acted immediately, and because they’d called for a doctor first, she may have killed the man she loved.
Her heart ached at the thought of Ben not recovering. She couldn’t live without him, didn’t want to. For the rest of her life, she wanted him beside her.
A doctor pushed through two double swinging doors and smiled a little when he spotted her. Kenzie braced for what he had to say.
“The man has pulled through, though I did not think we could control the internal bleeding. But he’s a tough one. Very fortunate.”
Kenzie doubled over, relief washing through her like a balm. “Thank you so much, Dr. Thompson. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.”
“As for that, I understand that the man is not a citizen. Does he have medical insurance in his own country or holiday insurance?”
Panic overtook Kenzie’s relief. “He hasn’t any of that. Can I make arrangements to pay the bill? I will admit, I don’t know how the medical world works, but I’m willing to work with the hospital so you’re reimbursed for your expertise tonight.”
“Is the gentleman your husband, by chance?”
How could Kenzie forget! “Yes! Yes, he is.” Although technically, not in this time, as she’d married Ben in the seventeenth century. But the priest at the family’s church could surely tweak the registry to show they’d been married a week or so. She would talk to Richard about it when the doctor wasn’t around.
“Then we’ll put the paperwork through under your name and insurance and hope for the best. If you would give your details at the desk in A&E, they’ll take care of the rest.”
Kenzie took the doctor’s hands, clasping them tight. “I can’t ever thank you enough. Truly, Ben is everything to me. I would be lost without him.”
The doctor seemed humble. “You’re welcome, and ’tis my job to keep people alive if I can. I’m glad I was able to accomplish that today. Ye husband is in an induced coma, not for long, mind ye. We’ll start pulling him out of it in a day or so. Putting him in this state enables the body to relax and heal. Less stress on his system. But ye may sit and visit with him later today, once he’s moved up to ICU.”
Kenzie nodded, understanding but wanting to go to Ben now. “Thank you, doctor.” She watched him go back through the doors he’d come through, and she turned toward the administration counter, silently making another little prayer that her insurance company would approve Ben’s treatment.
…
The bed in which Ben lay in was beyond the softest thing he’d ever experienced, and he’d had his fair share of feathers, straw, and abundant fur skins to make his sleep most comfortable. But this bed, he shifted a little, and it seemed to hug him, and he sighed. How odd…
A cool hand touched his brow, and he fought to open his eyes, his lids resembling little, heavy stones that refused to open much more than a slit. “Kenzie,” he croaked, his voice hoarse. Hell, he was glad to see the lass, which meant only one thing. They’d survived the attack from Clan Grant.
He frowned, not remembering much of what happened, but one thing he did remember was Evan and his father thundering toward him and his family, determined to slice him in two and finish him for good.
“Where am I, lass?” The room was white as a cloud, with perfect walls, and an odd, little box on the wall that had hundreds of moving people on it. The window was a massive, perfectly clear pane of glass, and he’d never seen one so big in his life.
He tried to sit up a little, but Kenzie pushed on his shoulder and bade him lay back.
“You’re in a hospital, Ben. People are treated here when they’re sick or hurt. You’ve had an operation on your abdomen, which will be a little sore and tender, but you’re going to be okay. You were fixed up, in short. Nothing more to worry about.”
“And Clan Grant? Where is Alasdair? Did Castle Ross survive?”
Kenzie shook her head and the room spun at the thought of his son having been killed. No. Not his boy.
“The castle is gone, Ben, and so, too, is Clan Grant, but Alasdair is perfectly fine and safe. He’s with my cousin back at Castle Druiminn.
“Aedan has him?” Ben sighed in relief. “Good, the boy will be safe with Aedan and Abigail.”
The pain and fear etched on Kenzie’s face gave Ben pause. “What is it, lass? What are ye not telling me?”
“Alasdair isn’t with Aedan and Abagail. He’s with Richard, the current MacLeod laird in the twenty-first century, not seventeenth. I…I…”
“Ye what?” he asked, looking about the room again. It dawned on him like a blow to the skull. “What have you done, lass?”
Tears blurred Kenzie’s gaze, and she bit her lip. Never a good sign. “The day of the attack at Castle Ross, the Grants were coming toward you on their horses, and you were injured yet struggling to get back up. I couldn’t run away with Alasdair and leave you to die. I couldn’t allow that to happen. I wouldn’t.”
Ben swallowed and fought for calm as a terrible realization started to take shape in his mind. “Kenzie, tell me.”
“I held the two most important people in the world in my arms—you and Alasdair—and brought you back…back to my time.”
If being stabbed wasn’t bad enough, Ben didn’t think the severing pain slicing through his body could get any worse. But it could. The thought of never seeing Castle Ross, his clansman, not to mention Aedan, Abigail, Gwen, and Braxton… He shook his head to clear it. “Ye sent Abby back to Aedan, so ye can send me home, yes? I must return. My time isn’t here.”
She swiped at the tears streaming down her face, and he hated himself for hurting her. But this time wasn’t his own. He didn’t belong here. Kenzie may, but he would never suit. Ever.
“I can send you back, but you’ll be going back to nothing. I love you too much to see you hurt so, Ben. Not to mention I don’t want to live the rest of my life without you.”
“They could’ve killed ye and Alasdair. Cut ye down as well. Ye promised me you would take care of my boy and keep him safe and yet ye put him directly into harm’s way.”
“Ben, calm down, I did what you would’ve done in my situation. When I saw them coming toward you I decided that if you were to fall, then we would fall with you.”
“Ye should’ve headed to castle Druiminn, as I instructed ye. Had ye done so, my boy would still be in his rightful time and have Castle Ross to come home to.” He struggled to sit up, and she stepped back. “It matters little. Once I’m healed, you’ll send us all back to our rightful time, and I’ll take back my home and lands.”
“You need to understand that there is no home for you to go back to, Ben. Clan Grant burned it to the ground. It was already alight when I pulled you through time. Had you stayed, both you and Alasdair would’ve died. I came back in time to find out what happened to you, and your home, and I did. I now know why there is no reference of you in the tomes of history. I know why you disappeared like a ghost.”
“Ye do. Then tell me, lass, because I’m most interested to hear.” His voice was hard and cold, and yet he could not help but feel betrayed by Kenzie. He’d long reconciled, with his life and the time, that dying was an everyday threat.
But to think of Kenzie and Alasdair rotting in some forgotten land was too much to bear and his temper increased.
“It’s because of me, Ben. It’s because somehow in this magical world we live in, it was me who took you away from your time. It was me, all along, who pulled you from the seventeenth century and into the twenty-first where you can live out your days—with me. Safe from any clans who wish to battle or do you harm. Safe from Clan Grant who never forgave you for seducing their precious Aline—removing her from the MacLeod Clan who were much more powerful than your own.”
“I dinna think the MacLeod’s are more powerful as such, mayhap the castle is larger.”
“Ben, you’re changing the subject. You were never destined to stay in your time, and you didn’t. The history books say as much, and I realized this when I pulled you through time. You’re my soulmate. We’re supposed to be together. Here and now.”
“We will be?” Ben ground his teeth, not yet ready to forgive the lass for what she’d done. To lose one’s home forever wasn’t something that was easy to stomach. And what kind of life was there for him here? He was educated, yes, but nothing like those he’d come to believe this century boasted. He was a warrior and laird, not the type of man who lived in Kenzie’s century.
Kenzie slumped in her chair, hurt clouding her eyes at his words. “You don’t want to be together?”
Of course, he did, just not in this time. This was not his home. “Are ye able to send me back, should I wish it?”
“Yes, if that’s what you want, but the Grants saw you disappear before their eyes. The shock on both their faces told me they’d seen something that wasn’t explainable. Should you return, you’ll have to explain what they saw. How it was possible for you to just disappear into thin air.”
“I’ll not have to explain anything, as they’ll be dead. And dead men tell no lies, nor do they ask any questions.”
Kenzie stood and unhooked her coat from a hook on the closed door. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving.” Well, of course she was, he’d all but said he didn’t want to stay here with her. Why would she want to do the same for him?
“I need to go back to Druiminn and check on Alasdair, and I need to think.”
“About?” he asked, watching her closely, and yet with Kenzie’s guard well in place, she was hard to read.
“Us and what it will mean, if you go back to the seventeenth century. I need to choose whether it’s something that I want, even though I love you more than life itself. But your time is hard, dangerous, and after the battle, hearing the screams of men and seeing the deadly determination on men’s faces, men I’d dined with… I don’t know if I can go back. I’m not sure I can handle that.”
Ben nodded. What he really wanted to do was get out of this cushioned bed and take Kenzie in his arms. Wrap her up where she’d never be able to leave. He didn’t want to go back, if she stayed. But what would he do here? Other than her, there was nothing for him here. “I will see ye on the morn.”
She turned and left the room without another word and the gnawing ache of indecision left him tired and weak and unsure of what the next or right move for his family would be.