Love Came Just in Time (32 page)

Zachary gave her a world-weary yawn. “You live long enough in this place, you see it all. I believe just about anything anymore,” he continued, turning and heading off to what Jane could only assume was the kitchen.

Ian shut the door, then looked down at her. “Do you believe me now?”

“I think I believed you from the start.”

“ 'Tis a miracle.”

“You don't know the half of it,” she said as he took her hand and pulled her through a large gathering room of some sort. Too much more holding hands with the guy and she'd start to believe in all sorts of miracles.

No, she decided as she walked across the huge room, it was already too late. She'd begun to believe the moment she'd seen Ian in an antebellum gown in Miss Witherspoon's workroom.

Now, she was completely lost—in Scotland, in a medieval-looking castle, holding onto a man from a century far in the past.

A miracle?

Maybe they were possible after all.

IAN STOOD ON the steps leading up to the great hall, stared out into the morning light of his first full day back at the MacLeod keep, and sighed a sigh of pure contentment. He was home, in an entirely different century, but home nonetheless. It was nothing short of amazing.

He had a chamber that had been reserved for him. He'd been surprised when Zachary had told him the like, but apparently Jamie had been either suffering from a serious bout of sentimentality, or he'd known Ian would somehow find his way forward in time. Ian hadn't even used the bed. He'd given it up to Jane for the night and slept in Jamie's thinking chamber. There was one of those strangely padded benches there for his pleasure and he'd found it comfortable enough. Saints, he would have slept in marshy rushes for the pleasure of being home again, except this time with a toaster nearby.

He heard a light footfall behind him and turned to see Jane in the doorway. The sight was so arresting, he had to turn fully to better appreciate it.

She was wearing jeans and a black sweater—he reminded himself to do something about the latter as quickly as he could—and her hair was flowing freely about her shoulders. He wasn't sure what had happened to her since arriving at the castle the day before, but it had been a happy transformation. Perhaps she would never possess the kind of beauty that caused a man to stop in his tricks and gape. Hers was a loveliness of a rarer kind, one that only showed itself upon closer examination. Ian had had the luxury of closer examination over the past se'nnight and he suspected he saw what others might miss. And today, not only was she lovely, but she looked perfectly content, as if she had found the peace she'd been seeking. Unbidden, the vision of her sharing hearth and home with him came to him.

By the saints, this was not what he'd expected to find so soon.

Was it too soon? Was it just the shock of the past se'nnight? Should he wait to see what other souls he might encounter?

Then she smiled.

And he thought he just might be lost.

“You have beautiful mornings here,” she said.

“Oh, aye,” he managed, jamming his hands into the pockets of jeans before they did something foolish, like grab her and never release her. He cleared his throat. “Would you care for a ride?”

“In the car?”

He smiled. “On a horse, actually. I understand Jamie's mount is going to fat in the stables from lack of activity. We could filch something from the kitchens and roam for the day.”

“Sounds heavenly.”

“If I see to the horse, will you forage for food? I fear I don't recognize most of what's available.”

“Neither do I,” she said with a laugh. “Zachary's diet isn't exactly stellar, but I'll see what I can do.”

Ian nodded, smiled, then turned away and whistled as he headed toward the stables. He had the feeling it might turn out to be quite a wonderful day indeed.

 

 

NOT TWO HOURS had passed that he wasn't congratulating himself on being such a successful seer. Astronaut, Jamie's horse, was as well behaved as he had been the last time Ian had borrowed him for a quick getaway. The weather was perfect, sunny with a bit of a chill wind from the north. The food was actually better than he had hoped.

'Twas the company, however, that gave him the most pleasure. Who would have thought that showing a woman from the Future all the places he had roamed in his youth and fought in the years of his early manhood would have given him such pleasure and puffed his chest out so far?

They spent the middle of the day at the flat top of Jamie's meadow, looking down over the castle and the forests flanking it. Ian told Jane of battles won, cattle lifted, enemies routed and sent home in shame. It was passing odd to see places he'd tramped over in his youth and realize how many years had passed since then. The landscape had changed, but not so much that he couldn't recognize his favorite retreats.

Then he rolled over onto his belly and watched Jane as she told him of her dreams. He'd expected to hear of grand schemes to see her designs made all over the world. Surely she had a gift for it.

But she told him instead of her wish for a little cottage on the side of a hill and a spinning wheel by the hearth. He watched a faraway look come into her eye when she spoke of the colors she would use and the objects she would make with her hands.

It was then he began to wonder if Fate hadn't had a hand in his delivery to the Future. Surely he could provide her with her wishes. They were modest things surely, but he had the feeling that in her hands, they would be grand things indeed.

Once she was finished, he looked down the way and saw a place where such a thing could be built perfectly.

“Care you for that spot over there?” he asked casually, pointing to a little clearing above the western forest. The remains of a crofter's hut sat on the face of the land in the place he gestured to. It wouldn't make much of a house, but it could be used to build something else.

He looked at her from under his eyelashes as she contemplated the location. He didn't want to assume too much, but he could have sworn he saw a bit of longing sweep over her face.

“It's very beautiful,” she said softly.

“Is it?” he mused. “Aye, 'tis pleasing enough, but yours is the beauty that holds my gaze.”

She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. Then she looked away, apparently dismissing his words.

“I'm in earnest,” he insisted.

“No models around for competition,” she said lightly.

Ian shuddered. “I care not for that kind of beauty. Rather, give me a woman whose loveliness runs true to her bones.”

“Hmmm,” she said, but she looked unconvinced.

So it would take him a while to persuade her. Fortunate he was then, to have the rest of the Future in which to do it.

He reached for her hand. “Stay here in Scotland for a bit,” he said.
Stay forever,
he added silently, realizing as he thought it that it was indeed something he wanted very much.

She looked at him, then looked around her. It took no great powers to divine that she wanted to remain.

“Well,” she said slowly, “the scenery is beautiful.”

He smiled. “Thank you,” he said modestly.

She laughed. “I suppose you are part of the package.” She paused and sighed. “Well, my rent is paid up through next month. I guess I could get Miss Witherspoon to send my check here. Do we have an address to send it besides ‘Jamie's castle'?”

“I'm sure Zachary will know.”

She paused again. “Will your cousin mind if I stay?”

“ 'Tis as much my home as his,” Ian said.

“Really?”

“ 'Tis our family home. One more addition, and such a fetching one at that, will not trouble him.”

That earned him a bit of a blush from her and he was relieved to see that she wasn't entirely immune to his charms.

“All right,” she conceded.

“Good,” Ian said. He stretched out on the blanket and held open his arms. “I'm in need of a small rest after all that sentiment. Will you join me?”

She did. Ian closed his eyes, wrapped his arm around Jane Fergusson, and felt more at peace than he had the whole of his previous life.

He fell asleep with the sun shining down on his face.

JANE AWOKE, CHILLED. Obviously the sun had just gone behind a cloud because she found herself in shadows.

Then she realized it was only a single shadow and it came from a man looming over them. She sat up with a shriek.

And then everything happened too fast for her to do anything. Before she'd finished with her shriek, she found herself behind Ian, who was now on his feet with his sword drawn. There was, she decided, something to be said for having a medieval clansman as a boyfriend.

Boyfriend? She shook her head, deciding to give that more thought later. Now her time was probably better used wondering if she was going to die in the next three minutes.

Well, no blood was being spilt, so Jane took a good look at their attacker so she'd know who to finger in the lineup.

He was tall, perhaps even a bit taller than Ian, and definitely broader. She had to give Ian the benefit of the doubt, given what he'd been through in the past couple of months, but the guy facing him was in very good shape. He had dark hair, a commandingly noble face, and the most piercing pair of green eyes she had ever seen. These she noticed only because he had turned a bit to face Ian more squarely and the sun was shining down on him. And it was as she saw him fully illuminated that she realized what seemed wrong with the picture.

He was dressed—and she could only surmise this to be the case—in full pirate gear. His black boots gleamed. A long saber hung down alongside a leg that, along with the other leg, wore black-as-sin pants that poofed a little as they tucked themselves into the boots. A snowy white shirt, along with a red bandanna draped around his head in true pirate fashion, completed the picture. The only thing that seemed out of place were all the ruffles on his shirt, ruffles completely incongruous with the man's formidable frown.

And it was then that she thought Ian just might get them both shot with the gun the other man was toting so casually on his hip.

Ian reached out with his sword and flicked up a bit of lace.

“Lace?” he drawled. “Have you enough of it, or might there yet be a scrap of your shirt that isn't adorned with it?”

“Ian,” Jane whispered fiercely, “shut up!”

The other man only folded his arms over his chest and frowned. “'Tis pirate clothing, you fool.”

“You look like a woman.”

“But I still fight like a man. Would you care to test it?”

Then Ian, to Jane's consternation, tossed aside his sword. Well, if he was going to be that stupid, she would have to make up for it. She hauled herself to her feet and made a grab for the blade. It wasn't as heavy as she feared, but it wasn't exactly a pair of pinking shears, either. She managed to get it and herself upright only to find that instead of killing each other, the two men were exchanging a gruff embrace complemented by a great deal of hefty backslapping. It went on for a few minutes, then suddenly the two pulled apart and began to punch each other in the arms and pummel each other on the chest.

Jane rolled her eyes. Men.

“Ian, you randy whoreson!”

“Jamie, you bejeweled peacock!”

Jane let the point of the blade slip down. Jamie? This, then, was Ian's cousin? Dressed like a pirate, no less. She wondered if it was too late to hop in the car and drive off. She was beginning to have serious doubts about the rest of Ian's family and their taste in clothes.

Jamie pulled away and grinned. “Took you long enough to get out of the Fergusson's dungeon.”

Ian gave him a healthy shove. “I wouldn't have found myself in his dungeon if it hadn't been for your wagging tongue.”

Jamie rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Ah, but what a tale it had been to tell. How could I have resisted?”

“You could have clamped your lips together and remained silent, that's what!”

Jane found herself suddenly being scrutinized and she suppressed the urge to check to see if her clothes were on straight. After all, it wasn't as if she and Ian had been doing anything besides sleeping. Jamie made her a low bow.

“James MacLeod, your servant,” he said. “If I might have the pleasure of your name, mistress?”

“Jane F—”

“She's from New York,” Ian interrupted. “A very fine designer of bridal wear.”

Jamie slapped Ian on the back again. “You didn't waste any time finding yourself a woman, cousin.” Jamie winked at Jane. “Never lacked for a handsome wench did this one.”