She looked up and her eyes met his, earth-brown and lively. Surprise suddenly flared in them.
“I don’t believe it!” she cried, scrambling to her feet. “Emeric? Is that you?”
Startled, Emeric had no time to react as she threw her arms around him, crushing him into a bear-hug and splattering him with mud.
ANNA WAS SURE SHE WASdreaming. Surely she must be dreaming? Not only had a knight in shining armor—well in some sort of strange tartan wrap actually—come riding to her aid, but that knight had turned out to be Emeric Mackintosh! The man she’d been dreaming about for the last three weeks.
She must definitely be dreaming even though the guy in her arms felt very real indeed. She pushed him to arm’s length and looked him up and down. He was exactly how she remembered him: same green eyes, sandy-colored hair, slightly bemused expression like he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her.
“So you’re visiting Lily and Oskar too, huh?” she said. The fear and desperation of being stuck in the bog was forgotten in her sudden excitement. “What a stroke of luck! Or maybe it was fate?”
She’d meant the words lightly but as she said them, a sudden shiver went through her. Fate? Hadn’t Irene MacAskill talked about something like that?
The balance is out of kilter because ye are not where and when ye are supposed to be, Anna Webster. But now ye have a chance to change that.
It was only then that she realized Emeric was staring at her like she’d gone mad. “Do...do I know ye?” he asked hesitantly.
Anna’s smile faded. Was he joking? They had spent an entire night dancing and laughing at Lily and Oskar’s wedding! And after that, she spent the last three weeks thinking about him constantly! But it seemed he hadn’t been doing the same. He looked at her like a stranger, like she was just another unfortunate mud-caked woman he’d saved from a bog.
Oh. The bog. Ofcoursehe didn’t recognize her. She was smeared from head to toe with mud. And she stank. Not an auspicious way to begin.
“Um...do you have anything I could clean myself up with?”
Emeric blinked then reached into his saddle-bag. “Aye,” he said, rummaging around before pulling out a slightly frayed leather water bottle and a rag. “Will this do?”
“Perfect,” she murmured, taking it and tipping the bottle over her head. Cool water cascaded down her hair and face like a mini waterfall.
She managed to wipe the worst of the grime from her face with the rag but she suspected her clothes were beyond salvage. She risked a glance at Emeric through her wet lashes. He was looking at her with an intensity that made her heart flutter. His eyebrow was slightly raised, that bemused expression still on his face.
“Better?” she asked, offering him a shaky smile.
“Aye,” he responded, the corners of his mouth twitching. “Seems there’s a woman under all that muck.”
After what felt like an eternity of silence, recognition sparked in his eyes. “Anna?” he said incredulously. “Anna Webster?”
A wave of relief washed over her. “Yes! It’s me! I thought for a moment I had been completely forgettable!”
“My apologies, but well, it’s not exactly how I remember ye,” he replied with a hint of amusement in his voice.
“No, I suppose not. Bog mud isn’t really the look at weddings. You know, I never expected to meet you again like this.” She tried not to blush under his gaze, but it was a futile attempt.
“That makes two of us,” he murmured. His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Anna, what by all that’s holy, are ye doing here?”
“I would have thought that was obvious. Same as you. I’ve come to visit Lily and Oskar.”
“Lily and Oskar?”
She rolled her eyes. “Your friend. My friend. Got married recently. Remember?”
“I know who they are. But why would ye comeherelooking for them?” He looked around. “Come to think of it,howdid ye come here looking for them?”
“How do you think?” Anna replied. “In a car. Well, in a train then a car, actually.” She proceeded to tell him everything that had happened to her today, leaving out the fact that she’d been fired and her odd meeting with Irene MacAskill. She wasn’t quite ready to think about that yet.
“So here I am,” she finished with a shrug. “And I don’t know about you but I’m getting cold. How about we get going? It’s almost dark.”
Emeric didn’t move. His expression looked more confused than ever. “I...dinna understand,” he said, shaking his head. “How could this ‘car’ bring ye here? Can it open the portals?”
Anna had no idea what he was talking about. “Um... Sure. Whatever. Can we get going now?”
