Entwined (11 page)

CHAPTER 10

My husband and Harry were where I had left them hours before.

“Where are Rose and Kate?” I asked, following Duncan into the taproom. My husband looked up from a piece of paper he was writing on.

“They’ve gone to get a few hours’ sleep. How are you feeling, lass?”

I caught the edge of worry in his voice and forced a smile. There were more people’s feelings to consider than my own.

“I’m fine, Simon, just fine,” I said, turning to Harry. “How is Rose?”

“Confused, frightened, everything you’d expect her to be,” he replied gently. “We’ll get through all this, girl. Do you hear me?”

I smiled, touched by his concern and reassured by his kindness. But in my heart I didn’t feel very courageous and I prayed silently to God to help me to find the strength I so desperately needed.

“Have you two slept?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Simon said, studying the scribbles on his piece of paper.

“You should,” I said bluntly, turning towards the kitchen. “Have you eaten anything?”

They shook their heads.

“Right, well, I’ll get us a coffee and something to eat then shall I?”

“You want some help, Ma?” Duncan asked.

“No darling, it’s fine. Why don’t you go and get some sleep?”

“It’s alright Ma, I’m not tired,” he said, pulling up a stool next to Simon and Harry.

I found some sliced ham and cheese in the fridge, and a couple of loaves of bread. It’s wasn’t going to be the meal of the century but it was food. There was ground coffee and a percolator which I quickly set going. I couldn’t find any milk or creamer, but at that moment it didn’t seem to matter very much.

Sandwiches plated and coffee poured I took the tray through to the men. They remained huddled over their slip of paper, deep in conversation and unaware of my return.

“Grub’s up,” I said, repeating a phrase I had heard cheerfully spouted on Rose’s television. “Come on you three, you can’t sit there forever.”

I stood holding the tray, looking pathetically at the backs of their bent heads.

“Stop for a minute and have something to eat and drink,” I said, eventually, when no one had moved. It was taking a great deal of effort to appear chirpy and cheerful, and I feared my manner might change if the tray of food ended up in the dustbin. Thankfully, Duncan acknowledged me and helped himself to a handful of sandwiches. Simon and Harry quickly followed his lead.

“What now?”

“We’re not sure, Corran,” Simon said, taking a large bite of the ham sandwich.

“Ma, we have to fix what Ang… I mean, my father, did,” Duncan said, swirling his cup of coffee around in his hand.

“You’ll spill that, Duncan,” I said, watching the coffee rise precariously close to the rim of the cup. His reference to Angus hadn’t gone unnoticed. I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to refer to him as his father, that the man had given him nothing more than his red hair, but I didn’t.

“What do you mean we have to fix it, love? I don’t see how we can do that.”

“Time is a funny thing, Corran,” Harry said slowly. “We can’t undo what Angus has done, but we must manage the consequences of his actions.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m still not with you,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee.

“Well… The thing is, Corran, although you killed Angus he still exists through his actions. By this I mean that he still lives in this time… but as a younger man than the one you killed.”

“What Harry is trying to say, lass, is that Angus is here - in this time - living as Grace’s husband,” Simon said patiently.

“But I killed him, he can’t still live,” I said, feeling myself becoming slightly hysterical.

“Aye, Corran, that you did. But the man you killed was an older man than the one who lives in Derbyshire now. Angus used the crystal to travel to this time when he was still a young man. But you don’t need to understand all this. The important thing is that we can’t change what he did during his lifetime. What is done is done. The best we can hope for, as Harry has already said, is to manage the consequences of his actions,” said Simon.

“Why can’t we try and change what Angus did?” I asked.

“Because,” said Harry, “if we do then Duncan may never exist.”

I stared wide-eyed at the man, my heart pounding in my chest, my head desperately trying to grasp what he had just said.

“What we have to do, Corran, is reunite Duncan with his mother and sister,” Simon said.

“But you just said that Angus couldn’t do anything that he hasn’t already done? Surely if they are all safe now then they will remain safe?” I asked.

Harry shook his head slowly. “No, Corran. Whilst Angus won’t harm them it is only a matter of time before the Dark Circle find them.”

“Well can’t we just travel forwards in time and find out?” I said.

“No, lass,” Simon said, “According to Harry no one has been able to move further into the future than the twenty-first of this month.”

“That’s less than two weeks away,” I stammered. “Why can’t anyone go further forward in time than that?”

“No one knows,” replied Harry simply.

“What happens once we reunite Duncan with his mother?” I asked, hating the words as I spoke them.

“Then we take you all to your people,” replied Harry.

“Why can’t we all just stay here?” I asked.

“The Stag and your people are in real danger, Corran. The magic of the Highlands is scattered through time. If you don’t get home by the twenty first, it will be all over.”

“Harry, how will it be any safer with our people - and who exactly
are
our people? I have no family anymore,” I asked, feeling tired, confused and desperately heart-sore.

“Your people, Corran, are your friends and villagers, other immortal Highlanders that have gathered to fight against the Dark Circle. Together they have magic strong enough to protect themselves and the Stag, but their magic is weakening and the Dark Circle’s growing by the day. Your people don’t have much time left.” Harry emptied his cup of coffee and sighed a long, heavy sigh.

“I still don’t see how us going to our people is going to help either them or us.” I said.

“Lass, listen to me. Do you remember the journal you found?” asked Simon.

I nodded, thinking that my husband was asking a rather stupid question.

“Of course I remember it. I’m pregnant not brain-dead.” I said, again repeating a phrase I’d heard on Rose’s television.

“Do you remember the text you read?” he asked.

“Simon, just tell me what you are on about. I’m too tired for guessing games.” He stood and moved towards me, his eyes locking on mine, his hand reaching out to rest gently on my shoulder.

“Brothers, we must now gather and unite to protect and preserve that which is the right of every man, woman and child of this great land – for our lives and the lives of all who come after us hangs on the finest of thread. Immortal shadows have risen against us and between them they seek to destroy the Stag - for it is told that he who slays the creature in cold blood will have its power. A great revolution is upon us. But through time will come one of us, a woman with the slate from the banks of Loch Leven on her hand. She will bear the child that will grow stronger than the Stag, greater than the crystal, and more powerful than the heather,” he recited.

“I’m sorry, Simon, but I still don’t understand it.”

“The ring, Corran. Look at the ring I gave you,” he said.

I lifted my left hand and stared at the ring, the tiny chip of slate buried within the thin band of silver, and suddenly I understood.

“Our baby,” I whispered.

“Aye, Corran, it’s our baby,” he said, moving his hand to rest gently on my stomach. “Our people need us because you carry the child that will protect them, the child that will grow stronger than the Stag, greater than the crystal and more powerful than the heather.”

I stared at my ring, my mind a dazed fog of confusion.

“Why our baby, Simon?” I asked flatly.

“Because ours is the only child conceived by two immortals,” he replied.

I thought for a moment, too afraid to meet his eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Aye, lass, we are sure.”

“Why us?” I asked.

“In a bizarre twist of fate, I think it’s all down to Angus,” he said.

“Angus?” I asked.

“Aye, lass, Angus. If it hadn’t been for his unrelenting pursuit I wouldn’t have gone to my mother in search of answers. She wouldn’t have given us the crystal, and we wouldn’t have traveled in time. You conceived because we were out of our time.”

“And no longer bound by the magic of the Stag,” I breathed.

“How long have you known?”

“Since you showed us the journal,” Simon said honestly.

“Is it our baby that the Dark Circle is looking for?” I whispered.

The three men nodded.

“Aye lass, it is our child that the Dark Circle seek,” Simon said quietly.

“Then tell me what I need to do?” I said, pulling myself out of the chair.

“Nothing, Corran. Nothing at all except look after yourself and that child,” Harry said.

“Do Rose and Kate know?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Harry, simply. “They know.”

“And the Dark Circle? How much do they know?” I asked

“We aren’t sure. Angus knew, but because he hoped to claim the ring for Rose we don’t think he shared the knowledge of your identity. He thought that if he could get the ring for Rose she would bear the child. What he failed to understand was that the true power of the ring lay not with the ring itself, but with the couple whose love it symbolized,” said Harry, opening another bottle of whisky.

“You’ve got to stop drinking that stuff, Harry,” Simon said, reaching to take the bottle from Harry.

“I miss her, fella,” Harry said sadly, taking the bottle back from Simon.

“Then stop drinking long enough to help us find her,” Simon said.

“It’s too late for me. I’m an old man, and Jessie… She is still beautiful and young. I let her go because out here I could help her. In the village, with her and her kind, I would be nothing but…”

“Harry, if you won’t put the bottle away for yourself then at least do it for us,” I pleaded. “We need you, and we need you sober. You said we would get through this together, but you drink as though as we don’t matter.”

“You’ve got me there, girl,” he said, pouring the golden liquid into his glass.

“Then put it down, Harry. You don’t need it, but we need you to get through this,” I shouted.

He lifted the glass and tipped its contents down the back of his throat. He sighed heavily, sending a pungent smell of alcohol into the air.

“OK, so that’s the last one until you lot are safely back with your people. Then I intend to drown myself in the stuff,” he said, sliding the bottle along the counter towards Simon, who caught it by the neck.

“Thank you,” I said, hoping the man could stay true to his word.

“Aye, it is a good thing you do,” Simon said, screwing the metal cap back on the bottle.

“Harry - you said that Angus and Grace have another child in this time. Do you know where this child is?” I asked.

“Yes, I know where she is,” he said.

“Well, can’t we just go and get her?”

“No. She is with Angus, and we can’t risk exposing you or Simon.”

“How much do you know about the lass, Harry?” Simon asked.

“Not much, fella, not much. Just where she lives and who her parents are.”

The clock ticked in my mind. I glanced around nervously. We had been going around in circles for what felt like hours and still there was no plan. Harry’s words had long since become slurred as the effects of his earlier heavy drinking fogged his mind. Duncan yawned widely and Simon stared absently at the flames of the fire.