Anna’s eyes were wide as she gaped at him. “But...but that doesn’t make sense! What about the wedding? You were there!Iwas there! And unless I was hallucinating, that was definitely in the twenty-first century!”
“Aye,” he agreed. “It was. We all traveled through time to be there.” He didn’t mention how that had happened and he hoped Anna wouldn’t ask. He wasn’t ready yet to talk about Irene MacAskill or Rory Stewart, the half-fae member of the Order who made such things possible.
“I don’t believe this,” Anna whispered. “This is crazy. If I hadn’t seen what I’d seen I’d say you were out of your mind. But...”
“But?”
Anna put her goblet to her lips and gulped down the mead. She held it out. “But I need a god-damned top up.”
He obliged, pouring more of the golden liquid into her goblet. She threw her head back and downed that too.
“All right,” she said, tapping her fingers on the goblet’s rim as she frowned at him. “Let’s assume I believe you—which I’m not saying I do. But if Lily and Oskar are here, in this time, why didn’t Lily tell me any of this?”
Emeric could see her struggling to digest the enormity of this revelation. He felt a pang of guilt for having to be the one to shatter her illusions.
He let out a deep sigh. “The Order of the Osprey is bound by a sacred oath of secrecy about their knowledge of the Fae and time travel. Sharing that knowledge with an outsider, even a beloved one, is strictly forbidden. The consequences for the person who is given such knowledge can be...severe. Our enemies are many and they wouldnae hesitate to use ye against us if they could. Lily kept ye ignorant to protect ye.”
“So shedidn’tgo to live up north? She came here, to a different time? And she left me on my own?” Anna’s voicetrembled slightly, betraying her hurt, and for an instant, Emeric glimpsed that vulnerability that she usually kept so carefully hidden.
Then she took a deep breath, and the moment of vulnerability passed. “Whatever. That doesn’t matter. But if you’re saying Lily is here, in this time, I...can see her?” There was a spark of hope in Anna’s eyes now.
“Aye,” Emeric replied. “They live in Edinburgh, as I said.”
“So I could go see them?” she asked, a flush of excitement coming to her cheeks.
“It isnae as simple as taking a trip down the road, Anna. Edinburgh is a long way from here and the country between is rough and wild.”
“But...” Her face fell, frustration creeping into her eyes. She made to speak again, but Emeric held up a hand.
“I’ve already sent word to them. As soon as we hear back...well, we’ll figure out what to do next.”
“How long will it take to hear back?”
Emeric shrugged. “That depends on the state of the roads and whether the messengers run into trouble on the way. Perhaps a month.”
“A month?” Anna cried, leaping up. “A whole month? What am I supposed to do until then?”
“Ye will stay here, lass,” he said.With me, he added in his head although he didn’t speak this aloud. “Ye will be safe here in Dun Achmore.”
She fell silent, her mouth opening in a little O as she processed his words. “I...I can stay here?”
“Aye,” he confirmed, holding her gaze. “As long as ye need.”
There was a long pause. Anna looked down into her empty goblet, her fingers tracing the rim. She chewed her bottom lip nervously, something Emeric noted she did when she was mulling over something.
Finally, a faint smile curled her lips. “Make that three times.”
“Three times?”
“Three times you’ve come to my rescue. It’s a bad habit to get into, Emeric. I might get used to it.”
“Sometimes, lass,” he replied, meeting her eyes, “a bad habit is worth having.”
She raised her goblet. “To bad habits, then.”
“To bad habits,” he echoed, raising his own cup.
In the silence that followed, the room was filled with the creaking of the old wooden furniture and the dim sounds of the household. He watched her as she traced an absent finger around the rim of her goblet, lost in thought.
