“My boss would be thoroughly flattered by that,” he said, looking as if he found the thought particularly delightful.
“Boss?”
“The head pirate, who is also a cousin to Robert Cameron, Sunshine’s husband. Lord Robert is the one who started this whole business. He has, as you might imagine, a good feel for old things.”
“I daresay,” she agreed, then she realized what he’d said. “Old things? Why does that matter?”
“Because some people in the Future are very fond of old things and willing to pay a great deal of money to possess them.” He shot her a look. “And if that doesn’t make me sound like a mercenary, I don’t know what does.”
“We should have stuffed our pockets then,” she said frankly, “though I don’t know with what.”
He smiled. “We’ll find things enough in my day, I suspect.” He reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, then met her eyes. “Will you be all right?”
“You’ve asked me that before.”
“I want you to be sure,” he said. “I haven’t given you much choice about this so far.”
“You saved me from death,” she said. “Life is a gift.”
He smiled faintly. “Even when it might include old age with a wizened apple like me?”
She would have smiled in return, but she didn’t think she dared. “Is that what you want?”
He nodded, his smile fading. “It is, but you have to decide what you want.”
She couldn’t bring herself to think he might be speaking of marriage, but she couldn’t imagine he would have been suggesting anything else. That thought was so foolish that she had to stop herself from getting up and running away. It helped that Oliver shot her a look and took her hand, as if he could tell what she was thinking.
“Will your mates like me?” she managed. “You know, if I were to meet them.” She paused. “At some point in the Future.”
“They will love you. Please don’t forget about me in their mad rush to surround you and wax rhapsodic about your beauty.”
She pursed her lips and made a noise of dismissal, but he was only watching her with what she might have been willing to concede was affection if she’d been as daft as he was. He pulled her close again and wrapped his arms around her.
“Let’s rest for a bit longer, then I think we should decide on a path back to the faery ring.”
“Will they be waiting, do you think?”
He sighed deeply. “I’m hoping it’s the first place they will have gone. Since they will find nothing there, hopefully they will have already returned to the keep. For all we know, Master James has spent the day accusing other people.”
“I hope not,” she said quietly.
“I do, too,” he agreed, just as quietly. “I think your uncle Lachlan has more control over things than your brother gives him credit for, so perhaps he’ll manage to stop the madness.”
She couldn’t deny that was true. Her uncle babbled on and on about magical things, but she had begun to suspect over the past pair of years that it was something of a ruse to draw attention away from the shrewd glances she occasionally caught him turning on her brother.
“He won’t hurt Ambrose or the bairns, will he?” she whispered. “Master James?”
Oliver shook his head. “Not even your brother would allow that to happen, I don’t think.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, breathing carefully until she thought she could voice the terrible thought that was rattling around in her empty head.
“Might we read about what happened?”
She felt his lips against her forehead. “Of course. And keep in mind, Mairead, that if Master James went on to harm others, harming you first wouldn’t have stopped it.”
She nodded and hoped that was true.
The sun was setting when she found herself standing with Oliver just under the eaves of the witch’s forest, well within bolting distance of the faery ring.
