Shades of Doon (19 page)
“Fiona discerned the same thing,” Jamie stated. “She found the spell responsible for pushing ye out of Doon in the witches’ book and translated the first bit.”
Duncan nodded. “That’s how we knew where to look.”
“Aye. Fiona sensed that ye’d been transported to America. With Adam in Doon, Adelaide was able to cast some sort of sending spell that carried the both of you back to your former places in the modern world. Fiona thinks the Rings of Aontacht protected you from the witch’s first two attempts. That’s why Adam took the rings.”
Squeezing my hand tighter, Duncan supplied, “We wouldna have known if Emily hadn’t gotten away.”
Vee heaved a sigh of relief. “So, she’s okay.”
“Aye,” Jamie confirmed. “Doc Benoir says she’ll be just fine.”
As the limo gently swayed down the highway, we lapsed into silence. No matter how many times I kept trying to wrap my
brain around Adam’s treachery, I still felt baffled. Searching Duncan’s face, I demanded, “Why would Adam help a witch?”
“Likely he’s convinced that Adelaide’s in love with him — just like what happened with Lucius Jobe. Once Adam pledged his body and soul to her, she could make him do whatever she wished.”
Vee had also mentioned Lucius Jobe — that he’d entered into Doon out of misguided love to Adelaide, but that was as much of the story as I knew. “Remind me what Lucius did?”
Jamie answered me, but his eyes kept straying to my best friend as he spoke. “At one point in the late seventeen hundreds, the Rings of Aontacht were lost in the modern world. Addie got her hands on the emerald ring and coerced Lucius Jobe to use it to enter Doon on her behalf, since she couldna enter herself. Lucius arrived in Doon with the claim that his dreams led him to the ring and the bridge.”
The story finally clicked. “Oh yeah, that’s why everyone in Doon was so suspicious of us when we first arrived.”
Duncan squeezed my hand and continued where his brother had left off. “Once inside the kingdom, Lucius poisoned livestock, killed a couple of farmers, and was finally caught tryin’ to breach the border that surrounds the witches’ cottage. He claimed idle curiosity had caused him to trespass, but the king didna believe him.”
Vee leaned forward, her gaze darting from one brother to the other. “What do you think Lucius was trying to do?”
“Nobody knows for certain.” Jamie shook his head. “They were too terrified to think to question him. Lucius was sentenced to death, but before he could be hanged, he took his own life.”
Twisting the tip of her braid around her finger, Vee mused, “It makes sense that Lucius and Adam were after the same thing. Were you able to get any information out of him?”
Duncan exchanged a look with Jamie. “I wish it were that simple. After Emily escaped . . . When we finally cornered Adam, he’d cut out his tongue.”
“Cut out his tongue?” Vee’s wide blue eyes locked on mine as my stomach churned and I tried to un-see the image of Adam with a gushing mouth, bloody knife in one hand, tongue — wriggling like a lizard tail — in the other.
“Aye.” Duncan nodded. “That way he’ll no’ be made to talk. Fergus’s men are working on getting information . . . by other means.”
With a frown, Vee asked, “You’re sure Doon is safe?”
“Aye.” Jamie looked back and forth between his girlfriend and me. “Just to be sure, Fiona is translating the rest of the spell in the hope of learning what Addie and Adam planned to do next. She’s also trying to figure out how they communicated with one another.” Jamie paused and met Vee’s worried gaze.
“Regardless, my queen,” Duncan interjected, “we dinna have a choice. We canna fly in a hurricane.”
Vee bit at her lip, a tipoff she was not convinced. “So what do we do now?”
Jamie exchanged another glance with Duncan. He hesitated as if suddenly unsure of himself. “I’d love to see a wee bit o’ the modern world.”
Mouth quirked in amusement, Vee shot me a quick glance as she bit back a smile. “Indiana isn’t all that exciting.”
As if the state itself took offense to her words, the Indianapolis skyline appeared outside of Duncan’s window. Jamie’s eyes went wide as he gawked in awe. “It is to me. Surely we can find a way to pass the time.”
Vee reached back to twist her hair around her fist. “I dunno.”
Such
fol-de-rol,
as Cinderella’s fairy godmother would say. Even if I hadn’t been witness to the exchange at the thrift store,
I would still be able to tell from her behavior that she wanted
something
. Something that was very possible now that Jamie had appeared. Time to wave my magic wand. “Vee wants to go to a charity fund-raiser in Bainbridge tomorrow night. It’s formal.”
“Kenna!” From her position across from me, she kicked my ankle.
“Ow! Tell me I’m wrong, that some part of you doesn’t want to get all fancy and go to that event on the arm of a freakin’ hot prince.”
The freakin’ hot prince in question made a uniquely Scottish sound of offense. “Och! I’m sittin’ right here.”
Rather than look his way, I kept staring Vee down until she broke. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. “Okay, maybe I’ve fantasized about attending, but we’ve got other things to worry about.”
“Actually we don’t. We can’t leave until Sunday, Jamie said so. So I vote we should make the most of this unexpected weekend in the Midwest. Who’s with me?” I grabbed Duncan’s hand and lifted it with mine high into the air. A second later, Jamie’s arm shot up.
Outnumbered, Vee halfheartedly raised her hand. “Fine.”
“I suppose we should shop for tomorrow night, then.” Jamie rubbed his hands together. “Gowns for ye lasses. Proper attire for m’ brother and me.”
“Oh, Duncan and I aren’t going with you,” I hastily replied. Getting dolled up and facing down Steph was my bestie’s revenge fantasy, not mine.
Vee favored me with the Evil Highney. “You’re not?”
“Well — I mean — we kinda —” Doing some cracking of my own, I pleaded silently with Duncan for help.
“Nay,” he chuckled, amused by my sudden loss of bravado. “We’re going to have a romp about Chicago.”
To quell Vee’s look of betrayal, I amended, “But I’ll still need something fabulous to wear. So I’m in on the shopping.”
Eyes glued to the passing urban scenery, Jamie asked, “Do you have a local shop in mind?”
“We’ve got something better than a shop.” Vee grinned impishly at me, and as I read the lustful look in her eyes, we both said, “We’ve got the mall.”
J
amie sauntered toward me carrying a double-stuffed cookie and a supersized blueberry slushy, the boyish grin on his face doing funny things to my heart. For the first time since I’d known him, he was immersed in the joy of the moment. He took an enormous bite of the dark chocolate and icing-stuffed concoction, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“Mmm . . .” He paused in front of me before taking another bite. “We need to get the recipe for this and take it back to Mags.” At least that’s what I thought he said around his food-stuffed mouth.
“Ya think?” I stood on my toes and kissed a glob of frosting off of his dimpled chin. “We’ll add it to the list, alongside corn dogs, jalapeño poppers, cherry Coke, cinnamon-sugar pretzel bites . . .”
I watched as he finished the cookie in two bites and then licked his fingers.
“Seriously?” I’d been laughing so much since Jamie showed up at my bathroom door in Bainbridge that my cheeks hurt,
but I couldn’t stop the giggle from escaping. “Get a napkin, pig-boy.”
He lifted his chin, stared down his nose, and adopted a formal British accent. “’Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers.”
“Is that Shakespeare?”
“Aye.”
Slapping his arm, I ranted, “I can’t
believe
out of all the Shakespeare you have stored in that brilliant brain of yours, that’s the line you choose to quote to me.”
I turned to stalk away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back against him, his warm breath stirring the hairs by my ear. “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
“You can say that again,” I mumbled as I took his hand, and tugged him away from the Tollhouse Café. “I’m thinking you should slow down on the junk food for a while.”
Jamie narrowed his eyes. “Lass, I’m a Scotsman. We eat sheep’s brains and haggis for breakfast. I think I can handle a wee bit o’
junk food
, as ye call it.” Jamie rubbed his flat stomach while taking another long draw of slushy.
“You have no idea what’s in junk food. It has all kinds of chemicals and preservatives your body isn’t used to.”
But Jamie’d already moved on. Like a child at Disney World, his attention ping-ponged from one thing to the other with no transitions. I listened as he contemplated the pros and cons of installing skylights in the castle roof. But a part of me was distracted by the miracle of the moment. If he’d been born here, in my time, this would be a typical date for us — strolling through the mall, checking out the shops, grabbing a bite to eat — or several bites in Jamie’s case. Just like average American teenagers.
Being on his arm, everyone who saw us knowing we were
together, made me feel like a kite on a string. But then I glimpsed a mannequin dressed in a formal gown and tiara, and I crashed to earth in a sudden downdraft. We weren’t average teens. A kingdom of people relied on us to lead them, and awaited our return, and I was what? Feeling giddy to show off my gorgeous boyfriend, as I shopped and he devoured funnel cakes?
I squeezed Jamie’s hand and pulled him to a stop in front of a shoe store window. “Do you think we should try to fly the opposite direction of the storm? Like head to the west and then turn back toward Scotland?”
Jamie’s sable gaze searched my face. “Stevens checked into all the possible flight scenarios. What you’re suggestin’ would only save us a few hours. But besides tha’, the air patterns are too unstable.” He took a draw from his drink, the slurping noise indicating he’d finished all thirty ounces of sugary goodness. Maybe Scotsmen really did have stomachs of steel. “And I believe there is a gala Mackenna said you would like to attend.”
“I don’t have to go to that.”
He tossed his empty cup in a nearby wastebasket, and then turned back to me and arched a brow in question. “What of these
disgusting
”— he made air quotes, which always cracked me up —“clothes yer wearin’. Dinna ye need to do a bit of shoppin’?”
If there was one way to distract me, it was shopping.
Two hours and an insane amount of money later, we left my favorite store laden with bags full of sweaters, jackets, skirts, jeans, matching accessories, and even new underwear. I’d never shopped without a budget. In fact, I’d never purchased anything from a store that hadn’t been from the clearance rack. And it had been a blast, even with the sales girls — and one guy — fawning all over Jamie. He’d been polite and charming, but his attention had never wavered from me.
I wrapped my arm around his waist as we walked, giving him a quick hug. “Thank you for that.”
“Yer welcome, love. But ’tis your money as well.”
Jamie’d gotten into the shopping spirit too, purchasing chinos soft as butter, fitted T’s, and a charcoal-gray Henley that hugged his broad shoulders to perfection.
“I still havena found an item to add to my collection. Somethin’ thoroughly American.”
He’d been searching for a souvenir he could take back to Doon and add to his shelf, but so far the perfect item had eluded us.
“I think I have an idea.”
I led him in the opposite direction, walking fast past the food court and into a hunting supply store that took up an entire city block. I’d been there once before as a little girl, but I pushed back the memories of picking out fishing equipment with my dad, determined to focus on Jamie.
It was like entering a different world. Jamie lit up like a flash bulb, various expressions of wonder chasing across his face as he took in each department. A two-story waterfall splashed into a clear tank full of live fish. Hunting platforms of all shapes and sizes were braced in realistic looking trees. There was a wall of colorful duck decoys and whistles, and an entire section of camouflage outposts and binoculars for bird watching. I knew he’d feel at home here. Even in an enchanted kingdom, boys loved their toys.
“Is that what I think it is?” Jamie rushed off toward a lifelike stuffed moose. Compared to the various animal heads at the hunting lodge back in Doon, this thing was a monster.
“I’d read about the size of these creatures, but . . .” His voice trailed off as he stopped, his head tilting back to look up into the moose’s glass eye. At just over six feet tall, Jamie’s head was even with the beast’s shoulder, it’s antlers at least as wide as he was tall.
“Saints! What is that?” And he took off again.
By the time I’d caught up with him, a clerk was handing him a massive crossbow.
“You’ve chosen wisely.” The clerk turned his cap backward and pointed out the features of the weapon. “This baby is top of the line. Fires bolts at three hundred sixty-five feet per second with just the touch of the trigger.”
“Och no?” Jamie rested the bow on his shoulder and squinted down the sight.
To his credit, the clerk didn’t break stride at Jamie’s odd speech. “What do you hunt?”
“Deer, wild boar, the occasional bear.” Jamie slanted a glance at me and winked.
“Well this thing has plenty of power for that type of game. We also have an extensive rifle section.”
Catching his eye, I shook my head. Doon wasn’t ready for guns, and I hoped it never would be.
I could almost read Jamie’s thoughts as he inspected the bow — being weaponless made him feel out of control, vulnerable. “I’ll take one o’ these along with the arrows, a carrying case, and any accessories ye might recommend.”
“Yes, sir. But . . . er . . . don’t you wanna know how much it costs first?”
“It’s no matter.” Jamie handed the crossbow over. “Now where would ye keep your best swords?”
The guy blinked.
I snorted a laugh and linked my arm through Jamie’s, squeezing his forearm. “He’s such a jokester!”
