“That needs dressing,” she said.
“It can wait. Yer explanation canna.”
Molly gulped a breath. There was no way out. He would know if she tried to lie, and besides, she was sick of lying, sick of keeping the truth from him.
Okay. Here goes.
“I’m not a spy,” she said in as firm a voice as she could manage. “I had nothing to do with those raiders and didn’t know they were coming to attack Lanwick. But Ididsteal your boat. I was trying to get back to the spot where you found me. That was the spot where I came through, so I reasoned it would take me home again.”
“Came through? Came through what?”
Molly lifted her chin, steeled herself. “Through time. That’s where I came through time. Conall, I’m from the future. From the twenty-first century, to be exact.”
She couldn’t quite believe the words were leaving her lips. It was the first time she’d spoken them aloud and her assertion sounded ridiculous even to her own ears.
She braced herself for the anger. But instead of anger, Conall’s expression turned confused. “The future?” he repeated. “What in God’s name are ye talking about?”
“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow I traveled through time. I woke up in your world, in your time. I didn’t realize it at first. When I met you I thought you were working for the company that’s been trying to get their hands on my boat in my time. That’s why I followed you. It was only later...after we’d been attacked by those raiders and I realized theMermaidwasn’t theSelkieat all that I figured out what had happened to me. That’s when I decided to leave, to try and get back to that beach.” Molly’s heart beat a staccato rhythm against her ribs as she watched him, waiting for his reaction.
Conall’s gaze flicked over her face, assessing. “Why should I believe ye?”
“I don’t know. But it’s the truth, I swear it.”
There was a long silence. Conall’s expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes softened.
His reaction wasn’t what she expected. She’d expected to be denounced as either a witch or insane. Possibly both. She’d expected Conall to back away from her, to look at her with fear and suspicion. But he wasn’t doing any of that.
Instead, he was studying her with a look in his eyes that Molly couldn’t quite place. It was an intense look, as if he was seeing her for the first time.
Finally, he spoke. “I believe ye,” he said, his voice low.
Molly blinked at him. “Excuse me? You...you do?”
“I can see it now,” Conall murmured, more to himself than to Molly. “The way ye speak, the things ye know. It all makes sense.”
“What do you mean?”
Conall looked at her, his gaze intense. “I had my suspicions from the first moment I saw ye. Not that ye were a time-traveler, of course, but that there was something different about ye. Ye spoke and behaved like no woman I’ve ever met. I couldnae quite place why that was. But now that ye’ve admitted to it, I canna help but think that yer arrival here may have been fated. That ye were meant to come here for a reason.”
Fate? She’d thought of her arrival in the past as a fluke, a one-time mistake that she was desperate to correct. She hadn’t considered the possibility that it was meant to be.
“I don’t know about that. It seems like a pretty big coincidence to me.”
Conall shook his head. “I dinna believe in coincidences, lass. Aristotle wrote that everything happens for a reason, that the experiences of our life are meant to teach us something, allow us to become the people we are meant to be.”
Molly raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Now you sound like Irene MacAskill.”
She had meant it lightly, but Conall’s response was immediate. His head came up and something flashed in his eyes.
“What did ye say?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just something someone said to me once.”
Conall sprang up and grabbed Molly by the arm. “What name did ye just say? Tell me, lass! This is important!”
Molly was taken aback by Conall’s sudden urgency. His grip on her arm was tight, almost painful. “Irene MacAskill,” she repeated slowly. “Why?”
Conall didn’t answer. Instead, he let go of Molly’s arm and started pacing back and forth, muttering under his breath. She watched him, confused and a little scared. This was not the same Conall she’d been talking to only moments ago. He was tense, almost angry. She didn’t know what to say to calm him. Finally, Conall stopped pacing and turned to face her.
