1

When Sarah first started her job here at Celtic University, it had seemed glamorous. All those years she re-enacted Scottish history as a teen, she had only dreamed of one day translating ancient Gaelic texts and inscriptions. A year later, it just amounted to typing all day. And sweeping up the piles of dust these ancient texts and artifacts left on the floor.

Checking to make sure no one could see her and then twirling the broom around her like a quarterstaff on her way to put it up, she looked out through the bevel leaded-glass recently added to the ancient arrow-slit window in the wall made of gray stones the size of her head.

The Highlands lurked out there in all their Scottish glory: lush thistled meadows between soaring gray-stone mountains backed by stormy clouds with brooding personality.

Wrinkling her nose in embarrassment, she recalled how excited she’d been when she first got here, thrilled just be able to have this view all the time. Now, she longed to be out there having her own adventures, rather than sitting here inside, typing about the adventures of others. These ancient Celtic myths and legends were full of Druid magic, tests of wit, Scottish castles, and forbidden love. Who wouldn’t want to take part?

A pang of guilt took her, remembering the fit her old friend had thrown when Sarah admitted she was thinking of quitting the job Kelsey had pulled strings to get her. But If Sarah no longer liked her job, then she ought to be able to quit without her friends complaining about it, right?

After all, Kelsey didn't owe Celtic University half the loyalty she showed. They had made Kelsey a Druid without her knowledge or consent. Well, okay, being a Druid was kind of cool, but to do something like that against someone's will was unforgivable.

Kelsey's undying loyalty to Celtic U was downright foolish.

With a deep sigh, Sarah turned away from her fantasies outside and considered the pile of ancient Celtic artifacts on her desk, looking for the next one she would work on. It didn't really matter. They had all blended into one boring lump of ‘same old, same old.’

However, the choice was taken away from her. Gertrude, Chief Secretary at the University, came over to Sarah's desk. "This has just come to us from on high. It is to be the very next thing you work on. And be quick about it. They want it as soon as possible." With that, Sarah’s boss unceremoniously plopped an object down under Sarah’s nose before walking back toward her office at the end of the room full of desks like Sarah's.

But Sarah wasn't concerned with anything her boss had said. No, her heart was racing and she was trying her hardest not to hyperventilate.

Because the iron bracer on her desk was familiar. She'd seen it in a dream Kelsey had shared with her, a dream compiled of the memories of a mutual friend who had once been much more than a friend, years ago back at the Renaissance Faire.

Kelsey could do that. Dream walking was her magical druidic specialty. She was able to enter the dreams —and thus conjure the memories— of anyone she'd ever touched, and back in their teens, the 12 of them had been inseparable:

Sarah and Michael (Meehall in Gaelic), Ashley and Gabriel (Meehall’s twin, who took the Gaelic name Conall once he was 13, because Gabriel was considered weak and feminine);

Lauren and Jeff (Meehall’s younger brother), Jaelle and John (Eoin, Jeff’s twin, the 4th son of Dall’s first son, Peadar);

Kelsey and Tavish (Meehall’s uncle of the same age), Amber and Tomas (Tavish’s older twin).

Yes, it was weird there were three sets of twins, but that wasn’t the half of it. All the guys had disappeared from all the girls’ lives the day before the oldest set of twins, Tavish and Tomas, turned 18. Kelsey and Amber were back together with Tavish and Tomas now, but the rest of them were still parted. Oh, Kelsey had explained the guys were just trying to save their girlfriends from the family curse, but Meehall’s desertion still stung.

Anyway, the bracer on Sarah’s desk brought to mind the most recent memories of Meehall’s that Kelsey had shared with Sarah, in all their heartbreaking details.

***

Looking gorgeous in his kilt, Meehall played with his sons. They were five, four, and three years old, and they lived with him among the Murray clan in 1706. Meehall's father was from the 1500s, and Meehall had distant cousins among the Murray clan.

Meehall and his family were really MacGregors, but that name had been outlawed, and so the Murrays had taken them in. The clan slogan, ‘MacGregor despite them,’ so strong in the new world, lived on here in Scotland only in telling the children they were really MacGregors.

The game he played with his sons resembled hockey, but with natural sticks and a ball made of knotted cloth. The children ran after and around their father, all three ganging up on him, trying to get the ball away, enthusiastically coaching each other in Gaelic.

"‘Tis ower there!"

"I hae this side!"

"He is gaun’ae run!"

"We hae tae stay with him!"

The sounds of their laughter hit Sarah's heart with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the little Scots were adorable; who wouldn’t love them? On the other hand, they were his with another woman.

Jealousy was petty, especially now, nine years after Meehall left her. But try as she might, Sarah couldn’t shake off the green-eyed monster.

Meehall's memories shifted back to the time when his wife, Cairstine, was alive. Blonde and beautiful, she’d been the vision of a Celtic goddess. Statuesque, while mousey-haired Sarah was more the girl next door.

Seeing Meehall with Cairstine made Sarah's heart hurt in a way she couldn't bear. But she knew the woman had died, and so instead of anger, her heart went out to Meehall. Losing his children’s mother must've devastated him.

Meehall’s memories moved forward in the dream. He was happy, hunting with his distant cousins. Ciaran and Baltaire both had dark hair and eyes like Meehall’s parents, while Meehall himself had strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. His grandfather, Dall, said Meehall and Conall were the spit and image of their great grandmother. She lived in the 1500s, so they had to take Dall’s word for it.

Meehall’s memories drifted to when Cairstine took sick. He had to take her to a safe location, because wherever he was when he left this time period, that's where he would return, and there was a dangerous feud on, between the Murrays and the Camerons.

Meehall carried his wife to a cave, went inside, and put on the bracer. It was cumbersome, not something he wore all the time.

The world swirled around them, blurring as if they had fallen off a galloping horse and were spinning through the air on their way to the ground.

Meehall and Cairstine materialized inside old Chancellor Stanley's office, here at Celtic University.

Sarah knew the room, because all the secretaries were frequently called into it whenever the old man wanted to give them what he called praise, but what they grumbled about as tedium, when he wasn’t around.

Stanley’s office was large. The man’s huge desk only took up one corner, and there were couches and armchairs enough for two dozen secretaries to sit in, as well as a fireplace, a reading table, and a dozen bookcases.

Meehall and his sick wife had arrived in this room during Meehall's real timeline here in the 21st century—

Which Sarah now realized had been just a few weeks before Kelsey got her this job. Why hadn't she realized that before? Wait. Wait just a darn second. She had realized it before. Why had she forgotten? It seemed significant.

The old Chancellor came into his office just as Meehall and Cairstine arrived. "’Tis sorry I am, Meehall, but I canna allow ye to take her outside o’ this room. The exposure would be too great. She does na have the training to go into the modern waurld—"

Meehall drew his sword, rushing the old man.

But Stanley merely held up his hand.

Frozen in place, Meehall seethed, "Then get a doctor tae come here. If ye dinna, her blood will be on yer hands."

The Chancellor gave Meehall a sad smile. "Nay, I canna do that either. This modern time has too many ways the secret o’ time travel would be revealed if I did so. Nay, she is gaun'ae have to die, and that is too bad. Ye only have three sons."

The world spun again. Meehall and Cairstine were back in the 1700s.

And then time had flown forward and Meehall was alone, crying.

Meehall's memories let her know the bracer always brought him to that room and that when he wanted to go back to the past, he always had to leave from that room.

Sarah also remembered now that Meehall resented this stipulation by the Druids who ran Celtic University. Why hadn't she remembered that before? No wonder Kelsey walked on eggshells around the other druids, if they meddled this much in people's lives. And no wonder Meehall kept showing up at Celtic. Why hadn’t Kelsey just reminded her of that when Sarah complained about him being here? Because complain, she had.

Sarah tried to keep her own memories of Meehall from taking over, but they were relentless. Circle dances out on the field away from the rest of the faire in the evenings when the breeze was cool and the sun no longer beat down on them. Sarah learning the quarterstaff next to Meehall learning the sword. Sneaking away from faire business-meetings together in order to make out in the spice booth, whose owner always took the spices home for the night, not wanting them to get damp if it rained. Sharing a tent with all the other girlfriends that first summer —until her parents figured out the girls were all dating brothers and probably shouldn't be left alone at night.

Tears came to Sarah’s eyes, thinking about how close she'd been with Meehall. She had thought it would never end, right up to that day nine years ago, when all six of the guys simply disappeared.

***

Fortunately, it was time for lunch. Sarah had a good excuse to put off describing the inscriptions on the bracer in such a way that even foreign professors would understand them. The druids went to a lot of trouble to fit in with the academic community so as not to raise suspicions, which meant keeping an extensive intranet, open only to their colleagues at other universities.

But Sarah didn't have a good excuse for slipping the bracer into her bag.

She knew she should have their mutual friend Kelsey give it back to Meehall, in the course of which Kelsey could explain to Gertrude the bracer wasn't something they should keep in the office. That would've been the sensible thing to do.

However, even though Sarah perfectly understood Meehall had left her to protect her from his family’s curse, she wanted to make him suffer for leaving her. Just for a little while.

Walking the old stone hallways decorated with ancient runes had been bliss when Sarah first arrived here at Celtic. Now, even as she admired its beauty, she cursed every time she tripped over the uneven stone flooring, and she groaned when she entered the formal dining room with its high ceilings that made everything echo. She wanted to be out there enjoying the Highlands, not cooped up in this stuffy old school. Who knew you could get cabin fever in a place this large?

Nadia and Ellie were already seated at their usual table in the corner.

"Did someone eat your lunch?" Nadia teased. "I've never seen you this upset." Her gray eyes softened a bit, and she brushed her long brown hair back behind her olive-skinned shoulder in order to lean over and give Sarah a sideways hug. "I was hoping you would help me soften Gertrude up for my transfer to the ballads department, but what's the matter?"

Ellie's usually joyful freckled face bunched up in concern, and her red curly hair jiggled as she leaned over quickly to hug Sarah from the other side. "Yeah, what's wrong? Need us to go beat someone up for you?"

Despite herself, Sarah chuckled at Ellie’s joke, hugging her friends in return. "I almost didn't come to lunch, but then I remembered you would cheer me up. No, there's no one to beat up this time."

They all laughed at the idea of Ellie and Nadia beating anyone up. Sarah’s friends were strong enough, Ellie being a hiker and Nadia a dancer, but there wasn’t a mean bone in their bodies. It was almost as if Gertrude looked for meekness when she hired clerks. That was why Sarah only practiced her quarterstaff moves in the privacy of her dorm room, or on the sly with her broom.

Ellie pointedly turned back toward the bank of a hundred tiny leaded glass windows. "Well as it happens, Nadia and I were just discussing something that will cheer you up." She leaned in toward Sarah, pulling Nadia in with her before she whispered, "We're calling in sick tomorrow to go to the carnival that’s come to town. Call in sick too, and come with us."

Sarah guffawed, then whispered back, "Yeah, because that wouldn't be at all suspicious: all three American clerks calling in sick on the same day after sitting here with our heads together."

Her friends looked repentant and started to sit back, away from her.

But Sarah hugged them to her again. "You don't have any need to call in sick tomorrow. I just thought of a way to get back at the person who made me so mad just now. I'm taking the two of you back in time."

Both of her friends burst out laughing.

"Good one!" Ellie said with a thumbs up and a freckle-faced wink. “I’ll make a jokester out of you yet!”

“You know we would both love to go back in time,” Nadia scolded with that wise look she could summon into her gray eyes when she sang. “Don’t tease us.”

Sarah smiled at them like the cat who ate the canary, then spoke in a low whisper while smiling nonchalantly in case anyone from another table was watching them because they had laughed so loudly. “I’m not teasing. Consider where we work, and with what.” She wiped her mouth, carefully folded her napkin so as to attract her friends’ attention, and then gently laid it on her empty plate.

It worked. Both of them were staring at her.

She smiled at them in the way of someone holding back a surprise, then patted the bulge the bracer was making in her bag, under the table. "Don’t take your afternoon break. Take off work fifteen minutes early instead and meet me here. I need to show you something."

“I don’t know,” Ellie teased, “that’s when I usually go on my run. I really shouldn’t miss it, not even for one day when you show us something awesome.”

They didn't waste any time jumping up and gathering their things from the next table, anxious to get back early so they could get the day’s work done and leave a little early.

"This is a nice turn of events."

"Yeah, she always knows just what we need to do in order for a plan to work, and she goes from ‘down in the dumps’ to ‘Let's go have some fun’ really quick. She’s always full of ideas. That’s what I love about Sarah."

***

After work, Sarah rushed them out of the dining hall and down the dirt path.

Her friends followed on her heels, speculating.

"We going to the chemistry lab?"

"Nope. The gym?"

"Wouldn't that be funny, watching Sarah fall over herself trying to do gymnastics?"

They both laughed, looking forward to their surprise. Good.

"Oh, the theatre!"

Sarah knocked on the back door.

When Janice opened it, she gave Sarah a grateful look and gestured them in. "You caught me just as I was leaving," she said in her English accent. "What a nice surprise."

"You think so?" Sarah was looking over Janice’s shoulder at the stairs to the basement, where all the costumes were kept. "I was hoping you'd let us borrow some of the wardrobe from last year’s production of Macbeth."

Janice raised her eyebrows. "You are aware you will need to tell me what for?"

This was the part Sarah wasn't looking forward to. She hated lying. But there was no way she was going to tell Janice the truth. They would have to take her with them, along with anyone she told. Where would it end? "We’re making a video."

Janice looked toward Nadia and Ellie.

Ellie wrinkled her cute freckled nose and shrugged adorably.

Nadia shrugged just one shoulder in that off-hand way she had.

Janice turned back to Sarah with a frank smile that said she wasn’t keen on staying half an hour late at work to help them find costumes that fit, but she owed Sarah a favor in exchange for advice on how to deal with her hovering mother. Out loud, all Janice said was "I guess so. Here, I'll show you where they are."

Sarah followed Janice down the narrow stone staircase into the coolness of the dark basement beneath the theater. "I'm pleasantly surprised. I was worried it would be musty down here."

Janice flipped on the electric lights. "Nah, we have a sump pump and dehumidifier. Here’s where we keep the costumes for ‘The Scottish play.’ Which parts do you want?"

Nadia headed toward Lady Macbeth's black velvet with elation on her face.

With a bit of regret because black velvet would flatter Nadia’s gray eyes, Sarah grabbed her friend by the shirt. "Just the background players, the farm folk in plaid."

After twenty minutes of fuss, olive-skinned and brown-haired Nadia looked absolutely stunning in a brown leine with a gray plaid pattern that matched her eyes, paired with a brown and light blue plaid wrap for her shoulders. "Why do we have to wear the costumes on our way back to the dorm?"

"We’re only going to the dorm to get some stuff," Sarah told her out of the corner of her mouth while rushing the two of them along the path, "and then we have to go to the offices." This was the only place they could ask questions, being far away from everybody, so she wanted to encourage them to ask as many as possible now. She knew the best way to do that was to seem to be discouraging questions. Those college psychology classes Sarah had taken instead of hard science were paying off.

With her freckles, Ellie was always cute, but the green plaid she had chosen set off her curly red hair, and the rust-colored leine matched her freckles in a pleasing way. "What could we possibly need to go the offices for?"

Sarah gave her friend a significant look. "Stanley is hiding more than dusty old books in that huge room of his. One of us wears this," she tapped the lump in her backpack, “while touching the others on a spot in Stanley’s office, and off we go.”

Her friends’ excitement was palpable, and once they were in her dorm room, Sarah smiled to herself while she grabbed whatever she thought she might need and shoved it in a leather backpack Kelsey had given her —a nice survival one that had all sorts of hidden gizmos built in, yet looked like a simple leather pack.

"All right” she said to their eager faces. “For this first trip into the past, we’re just going to look around old Inverness a few hours, where it’s safe and comfortable. So I’ve packed everything I can think of we might need, including a first aid kit and some period coins Kelsey gave me.” She showed them the colorful assortment of coins in different metals, some copper, but many silver.

Nadia turned a wise eye on Sarah. “I bet that money goes much farther than you might think. You’re so lucky Kelsey’s your friend. I think you better offer one of those coins at a time when paying for things, and start with the copper ones.”

Ellie was already out the door and down the hall, and sharing amused grins, Sarah and Nadia rushed after her, into her room.

“I have the perfect boots to wear with this outfit!” Ellie gushed while changing into them from her sneakers. “What do you think?”

“They are perfect,” Nadia admired. Caressing their soft leather, her face turned soft and thoughtful. “I just might have something that will work for me, too.”

They visited Nadia’s room as well, but neither of them had a suitable bag, so Sarah put the things they thought they would need in hers.

It was time to do this. "Come on." She turned back to them and lowered her voice to the barest whisper. "We’re going to Stanley’s office."