For the first time, he wondered if perhaps he’d been wrong and there was something truly wrong with Charlotte.
****
She couldn’t stop laughing. Sheshouldstop. Sheneededto stop. She knew she was doing herself no favors by acting this way, but she couldn’t stop. The irony of what Niall had said—even though he had no idea—was just tooironic. As if he could just say something in Gaelic and wave a sword or something and—poof!—she’d be back in Texas checking her email. The idea was just too…funny. She laughed harder, hearing a strange wailing sound coming from somewhere and realized she was the one producing it. Then she felt strong hands wrap around her arms and lift her, shaking her gently.
She hiccupped, then sputtered as tears started falling.
She became aware that Niall was holding her, rubbing her back in soothing circles as hedidmutter something in Gaelic, although the words didn’t transport her anywhere. She breathed in the warm scent of him, mixed with leather and soap, and felt a calm wash over her. She wanted to cling to him forever. Slowly, she disengaged and looked up.
He watched her with a guarded expression. Not that she could blame him. He probably thought she was more than a bit daft. She’d been acting unhinged.
“I’m… sorry,” she said as she hiccupped again. “I just…what you said about sending me back…it was just too much.”
His brow furrowed. “What do ye mean?”
Should she tell him about the irony? She felt more stable now, the threat of another hysterical episode under control. He probably wouldn’t believe her.Shewouldn’t believe herself either if she weren’t currently experiencing the eighteenth century instead of the twenty-first.
The easiest thing for her to do would be to let him think she had escaped from some sort of asylum and that she feared being institutionalized.Thatwould certainly be true. He had promised she’d be safe here. She could stay and no one would know she’d time-travelled. She could still try to keep the battle at Culloden from happening.
But she was tired of lying. She took a deep breath.
“I ask for your patience and tolerance for what I am about to say.”
He nodded, his eyes not leaving her face. “Go ahead.”
“I appreciate that you are allowing me to stay here. I think, for the present, the idea that I have escaped from being imprisoned unfairly is a sound one, especially if it will eliminate suspicion that I am an English spy.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “But it is not true. Iamfrom the future.”
His expression turned troubled. “Ye need to stop saying that lest someone—like my da—hears ye.”
“I understand. Your father would think me mad. But I want you to know.” She hesitated again. “The Jacobites are going to give up the siege on Stirling and make their way to Inverness very soon.”
Niall’s eyes widened. “How do ye ken that?”
She gave him a faint smile. “I already told you how I know.”
“But…” He frowned. “Why would the prince’s men retreat to the north when it would be more advantageous to hold the borderlands?”
“I do not know the strategy behind it,” Charlotte said. “I only know that they will come.” She didn’t add what the final outcome would be. This was not the time. “If what I told you comes to pass, will you believe me?”
He closed his eyes and didn’t answer immediately. Charlotte waited, since there was nothing more she could say. Finally, he opened them and looked at her.
“I just might,” he said.
****
Niall looked at his family members gathered around the table in the council room. He’d asked them to meet with him after dinner so he could share the conversation he’d had with Charlotte. Not all of it. Just the version they’d agreed would be best for now.
“So,” he said as he finished, “I think we can agree that Charlotte is not a spy.”
Greer nodded even though his father and brother looked skeptical. “Everything she has told us makes sense if she escaped some kind of involuntary confinement. It would even make sense that she wore MacGregor tartan. Her family—or whoever kept her prisoner—wouldn’t suspect she’d identify with a clan that’s proscribed.”
“That’s a risk in itself, though,” Simon said dryly. “She could belegallyarrested and confined.”
Greer waved a hand. “Maybe along the Borders where the lowlanders want to let the English think they’re loyal, but this far north, a MacGregor would be safe, especially a woman.”
“True enough,” Niall said. “Frasers have nae quarrel with MacGregors.”
“Which is probably why she chose to make her way here,” Greer said. “’Twas clever of her.”
