Chapter 9
Emeric shifted in the chair, making it creak under his weight. He glanced over to where Anna lay in the bed. It must have been the hundredth time he’d done so in the last ten minutes. He couldn’t seem to stop looking at her.
She still hadn’t awoken and her dark hair fanned out across the pillow, eyelids twitching as she dreamed. What was she dreaming about? Her home? Whoever was waiting for her there? How much she longed to get back to it?
A strange feeling formed in his gut at that thought. Whowaswaiting for her back in her time? A lover? A husband? He didn’t like the thought of that at all.
When she’d swooned at the training ground he’d leapt to catch her instinctively. Aislinn had come running and the two of them had quickly carried her into the keep and to the bed she’d slept in the night before. Emeric’s mother had been in and examined her, proclaiming she saw no injuries and that the lass was likely just exhausted and overwhelmed and needed to rest.
Emeric watched Anna’s chest rising and falling gently. Of course she was exhausted and overwhelmed. Who wouldn’t be with all she’d experienced over the last day?
He should have been here this morning when she awoke, instead of leaving her with his mother and sister. But Anna had slept late and Emeric’s uncle had requested he help train the men for the games. He couldn’t refuse his laird’s request.
So he’d left her, and in doing so allowed Anna to awake in this strange place alone. Oh aye, it was no wonder she’d fainted. He rubbed a hand over his face. He longed to touch her, to brush a few strands of hair off her face, but he held back. It wasn’t his place. So he watched her breathe, hypnotized by the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest.
And still the question gnawed at him: why hadn’t she known she’d traveled back in time?
A low moan escaped her and her eyelids fluttered, revealing glimpses of earth-colored eyes beneath.
“Anna?” he called softly.
She stirred, her eyes opening fully, and fixing on him. For a moment they stared at each other.
“Emeric?” Her voice came out in a whisper, her eyes searching his face as if trying to place him.
“Yes.” He moved to the edge of the bed and sat down on it cautiously. “It’s me, Anna.”
She lifted her head and blinked again, as if waking from a dream that was too real. A frown slowly creased her brows as she took in her surroundings before letting her head flop back onto the pillow.
“Oh, crap.”
Emeric gave her a crooked smile. “I had hoped for a more enthusiastic greeting.”
A faint smile curled her lips. “So, it wasn’t a dream then?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“I really am in 1497?”
“I’m afraid so.”
