“With Colin?” What help could Colin possibly need from her?
Ellie nodded, letting out a deep breath before she began. “He’s learned just enough about the future to be a danger. He’s set his mind on warning the king about a surprise attack the English will make on our sovereign and his men so he can prevent Robert’s army from being decimated and scattered. You have to stop him from doing that.”
“Hold on a second,” Abby held up a hand, her mind racing to keep up with the conversation. “King Robert? You’re saying Colin plans to go find Robert the Bruce?” It was one thing to accept the bizarre situation she found herself in while she sat in some isolated castle,but to try to wrap her head around meeting the people she’d studied about?Mind-bogglingdidn’t even come close. “Wow. When you suggested I consider this a personal learning experience, you weren’t kidding. An opportunity to actually speak to someone like—”
“No!” Ellie leaned forward, staring into her eyes. “The point is, you can’t let him do that. Think about what I just said. He wants to change what’s already happened in your time. He wants to warn the king that the English are waiting for him. If he does, they’ll be prepared for that battle instead of walking into an ambush.”
“The war for Scottish Independence goes on for years and years.” You didn’t need a minor in history to know that: you only had to watch movies or read a few romance books. “One skirmish isn’t going to change the outcome of that war.”
“How did you make it into graduate school without developing a single shred of critical thinking ability?” Ellie clicked her tongue, obviously exasperated. “Think! We’re not talking about changing the history of the war. We’re talking about changing the very threads of the future. If those men go into that battle forewarned, people who would have died will likely live. More important to our discussion, people who would have lived will likely die.”
Abby nodded, a glimmer of Ellie’s point starting to crystallize for her.
“What if one of those English soldiers who’s supposed to live but doesn’t is named Washington, or Jefferson, or Lincoln, just to pick out a random few? We don’t know whose ancestors are there. They couldbe yours or mine. We don’t know whose ancestors are at risk and we can’t take a chance, because we don’t know what would happen to that future if we plucked some entire family line out of existence.”
A wave of weakness hit Abby, making her glad she was sitting. The possibilities were horrifying.
“We have to convince Colin not to go through with his plan. I know he has to go after Alasdair and Simeon, they’re family. But he can’t take his warning to the king. You have to stop him.”
“I have to stop him,” Abby repeated, the importance of Ellie’s request settling over her. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good, then. Your best is all we ask.” Ellie rose to her feet and crossed over to the door. “I’ll check with the kitchens to make sure they have everything ready for you to take along with you tomorrow. Good night.”
“Good night,” Abby echoed, but the door was already shut behind Ellie.
For several minutes, she sat on the floor, the potentially catastrophic possibilities racing through her thoughts, each scenario she imagined worse than the one before it.
Earlier today, Ellie had mentioned something about the Faeries whose Magic had sent her here having some reason of their own for having sent her. Could this be it? Could it be that she was meant to prevent Colin from ripping apart the fabric of space and time by altering history?
Talk about biting off more than she could chew. Abby rubbed her fingertips over her temples, wishing she had a few physics classes under her belt rather than the micro-mini understanding of the subject she possessed fromwatching the Discovery Channel. Maybe knowledge of that kind would allay some of her fears.
More likely it would just give her more to worry about.
“Just enough knowledge to make us both dangerous,” she muttered, pushing up from the floor to stand.
Something would come to her. It had to. She’d think of a way. No task was impossible if she simply broke it down into its smallest parts. How hard could it be? Keep Colin from totally screwing up the future and then get herself back home, leaving the man she was falling in love with here, seven hundred years away from her.
“Not love,” she denied aloud, balling her hands into fists. Lust. Pure and simple. What she felt was only lust. It had to be. She wasn’t sure she could survive the pain of leaving him if it were anything more.
Across the room, the door opened and Colin walked in, filling the whole room with his presence, completely blurring for her any difference between love and lust.
Twenty-six
The sight of Abby standing by his bed took Colin’s breath away.
Suddenly unsure of what to do or say, he simply stood drinking in the sight of her. The candlelight flickering in the room shone around her like some mystical halo. Her long, brown hair cascaded over one shoulder, exposing her soft, slender neck and the raw, red mark that marred it.
She’d suffered enough.
How could he ever have considered risking her life by taking her with him tomorrow? Whether through reason or trickery, she must not go with him. If nothing else, he’d convince her to wish herself home. Anything that would keep her safe. Even if it meant losing her forever.
And yet now, as their eyes locked, all schemes flittedaway like tiny midges at sunset. He could think of nothing more than pulling on the ribbon hanging loosely at her neck, releasing the fluffy gown that concealed her lovely body. In his mind, it already floated to the floor in a whisper of cloth, revealing the treasures beneath.
He could almost feel her soft skin against his as he’d lower her to the bed and cover her body with his.
“We should probably talk.”
Not at all the words he’d heard from her in his momentary fantasy. Though, in truth, there had been no words at all, only those tiny little moans of pleasure he knew she would make.