He looked over to find the laird of the hall standing at his doorway. He nodded firmly, had a slower nod in return, thendecided it was perhaps Jamie just being cautious. He imagined that if he’d had children going off with a man thoroughly distracted by the woman he thought he might love, he would have sent along security as well. Heaven knew Cameron did it without a second thought.
He put himself in the car, then looked at his charges in the rear seat.
“A chippy run?” he asked
The chorus ofayeswas deafening, as was the cacophony that made up all the suggestions flying forward about things to do and Mairead’s questioning about what those things meant—and all in Gaelic. Oliver revisited his idea of children and green grocers, then gave that up when it occurred to him that Mairead would likely be leading the charge down the aisles.
He thought he just might be in trouble.
The outing turned out to be less perilous than he’d feared and actually more enjoyable than he’d hoped. He’d recruited Robert into a hastily cobbled-together security detail which had seemed to delight the lad almost as much as thoughts of potentially driving the yet-to-be-awarded supercar up and down his father’s drive. Young Ian only seemed to require a nod to immediately go into surveillance mode. Obviously the lad had done the current sort of thing before.
He also realized very quickly that a slow easing into the shallow end of the pool was not in the cards for Miss Mairead MacLeod. He had parked Jamie’s car at the less populated end of the village, close to the countryside that lay beyond it, but she hadn’t bothered with even a single glance in that direction. She and Patricia had headed directly for the town center. She had frozen in place a time or two, but on the whole it took her far less time to become accustomed to the sights and sounds of a modern Scottish village than he’d expected it might.
He, on the other hand, spent far too much of his time watching her watch everything around herself and far too little doing the same thing himself whilst looking for thugs, which he realized at one point with more than a little alarm. He shot Peter a brief text of thanks for doing what he should have been doing himself, had an equally briefno worries matein return, then decided that perhaps at least for the moment, they were safe enough.
He pulled himself back from his consuming thoughts to find that Mairead was still walking in front of him with Patricia holding her hand. She was, however, reaching her other hand behind her, which he decided could only be a good thing where he and his prospects for a second date with her were concerned. He took her hand, had bright, happy smiles from both her and Patricia as his reward, and decided perhaps the day wouldn’t be a complete loss after all. Undone by two MacLeod lassies. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised.
He did glance periodically at Robert and Young Ian, had solemn nods in return, and came to another conclusion which was he was very much looking forward to having teenagers at some point in the future. Quite possibly with the woman walking next to him who spent most of her time pulling him after her to examine yet more Future marvels behind glass windows.
An excellent meal at the local fish and chips shop, a lengthy troll through Mrs. McCreedy’s green grocery, and an equally pleasant walk back to the car took up a decent part of the day. He had caught sight of Peter at various points in their outing, resolved to thank Jamie for the care instead of glaring at him for interfering, and managed to get the entire crew back to the keep without losing a one of them.
“Let’s go watch something on telly,” Patricia said as they crawled out of the car.
“I call the remote,” Robert said quickly. “I don’t want to watch any of that stupid romantic rubbish, Patty.”
Oliver exchanged a glance with Young Ian that he supposed needed no clarifying and followed the company up the steps and into the hall.
“What sorts of programmes do you like, Mairead?” Patricia asked, keeping Mairead’s hand in hers and turning to look at her.
Oliver opened his mouth to remind Jamie’s youngest that Mairead hadn’t exactly had access to television in the past, but apparently there was no need.
“I fancy BBC myster—” Mairead stopped speaking and looked at him, wide-eyed. “BBC mysteries?”
“Let’s leave that for tomorrow,” he said quickly. “We’ve had a busy day.”
Patricia tugged on Mairead’s hand. “We’ll think about a show later, though Mum won’t let me watch anything too scary.”
Oliver could only hope Elizabeth would manage to keep control of the remote. He went along, had tea with the family, then convinced himself that leaving Mairead with her family for what was left of the evening might allow them both to get a decent night’s sleep for a change.
He found himself walked to the front door by a girl who knew her way around the keep, then turned and looked at her with a smile.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?”
“Could we go to the sea?”
“Absolutely,” he said with a smile. “We could call it a second date, if you like.”
“Given that I frightened off all your oth—” She froze and looked at him. “Did I?”
He shivered. “To be honest, Mairead—”
“You might call me Mair,” she interrupted, then she managed a smile. “If you like.” She paused. “I’ve said that before to you, haven’t I?”
He took a deep breath, then nodded. And with that, he was back to where he’d started the day. His memories of her as a spirit in the current day were very vivid, but anything else was starting to feel like a dream. How she was remembering any of it was something he imagined would send Jamie directly into his library for a thorough search through his numerous tomes on the vagaries of time and traveling through it.
“Oliver?”
He pulled himself back to the present and smiled. “Aye, Mair?”
