‘Three months,’ Lachlan interrupted. ‘Pax was saying that she can’t remember the last three months. Complete blank. Very strange. I’ve checked for a head injury and I can’t see one and she says she feels fine so I don’t think we need to take her to hospital or anything.’ Lachlan gave me another squeeze and a sotto voce,‘Well done. Good thinking.’
Lenny gave me a worried look, but then his face cleared and he grinned. ‘Oh, Isee! Research, is it? All right, well, I’d have said a head injury severe enough to wipe memory would mean at least we ought to get you to a doctor…’ His expression changed to one of hopeful enquiry. ‘Is this what we’re doing? Research?’
My mouth fell open but Lachlan saved me. ‘I think it might be,’ he said. ‘Bit of role play, check out reactions, that sort of thing. It’s what makes Pax McKell so unique, isn’t it?’
I had no idea why he used my full name. I took a half-step away from the pair of them and felt the immediate solidity of the rough stone at my back. This, at least, was consistent and unshifting.
‘Oh well, I’ll leave you to it, then.’ Lenny’s voice was the same, but the words were more… I tried to rationalise it. He sounded morecertain,that was it. More definite than my normally diffident and random brother. Lenny had been a drifter all his life, never settling to anything in particular, using his history degree for nothing more than luring in employers. ‘I’ve got some stuff to get on with. I’ll catch you in a bit.’
My brother loped off across the grass and out of sight. I rounded on Lachlan, my previous tears forgotten. ‘All right. Now you’d better tell me what’s going onright now, because I am this close to screaming!’
Lachlan scrubbed at his head again and took a deep breath. ‘Ah. Right,’ he said. ‘Well. You might have noticed that things look a wee bit different…’
‘Different?The castle is still here! So, when are we? Have we gone back to where we came from or are we doing aQuantum Leapand I’ve got to kill my own grandfather this time round?’ I sounded a bit hysterical, but with what was going on in my brain, hysteria was the least of it.
Lachlan pulled a face. ‘If you don’t let me tell you, we’re going to be here all night,’ he said evenly.
I opened my mouth to argue but realised he was right and shut up.
‘Good.’ Now Lachlan grinned and it was the same Lachlan grin as I’d been seeing for – actually I had no idea. Time was beginning to mean nothing. ‘Right. As I was trying to say, we’re back. We arrived back at the exact point that we’d left, storm coming in over the headland, dig in disarray, stone with Pictish carvings on, et cetera. Only…’ He stopped again and bent slightly so that he could look right into my face.‘Only things are different.’
He gave the words a deep, meaningful spin. I was less impressed than he apparently meant me to be.
‘I can bloody see that! My brother is wearing designer jeans! Lenny hasn’t worn anything that didn’t come out of the local “stack it high, sell it cheap” shop since he was born! He thinks underpant elastic is meant to break after six weeks and that Velcro-fastening shoes are absolutely fine…’ I caught that rising panic in my voice again and stopped myself.
‘Not just that, Pax. Not just that.’ Lachlan was still looking in my eyes, flicking his gaze from one to the other, then surprising me again suddenly by catching me into another deep hug. ‘I am so,soglad to see you,’ he whispered into my hair.
I gradually relaxed into the hug. Things were weird, that was beginning to seem like my default setting now, but Lachlan was here. Whatever we’d shared in that cellar, in that place, had been real. I could feel it.
‘I’m here,’ I whispered back and tipped my face up so I could see him properly. He was clean-shaven now, his skin smooth under my fingertips as I touched his cheek. ‘I think I preferred the beard,’ I said. ‘Made you look rugged.’
He cleared his throat. ‘Sorry. It’s just been… well, thank God for Mal, David and Kaylinn, that’s all I can say. Otherwise I would have been carted off under heavy sedation. We’ve been tactfully trying to ask the right questions without coming across as a bunch of people who are only one bottle of meths away from hospitalisation, and it’s not been easy, so I’m going to give you the benefit of what we know. All right?’
He smelled clean too. There was no sign of The Proclaimers and his trousers didn’t look as though he’d slept in them for several weeks.
‘Right. Go on.’
‘I said things were different, didn’t I?’ Lachlan stepped a little way back and released the hug.
‘You did.’
Now I got an earnest look. ‘No, I meantverydifferent. Your family is – well, let’s say wealthy, shall we? They still own the castle. Lennox actually lives here, but he’s still got some vague plan to turn it into a tourist destination. The place has been in your family all this time, and nearly six hundred years in the same family is quite the selling point.’
I gasped. ‘So, we kept it? All that stuff with George – it was to keep the castle?’
‘Not just that, Pax. Ourlivesare different.’
The way he said this sounded so filled with weighty import that I found I was looking down at myself, in my muddy jeans and decidedly grubby jacket. ‘Howdifferent?’ I asked carefully.
‘You’re not a chemistry teacher. You’re a historical novelist and a very good one, by all accounts. You’re here because you’ve sold your flat in York to move to Scotland to research your nextseries of novels.’ The words came out in a rush. ‘You arrived today, and we were waiting for you, but nobody could find you until I fetched you out of the cellar.’
I let the words sink into my brain. ‘I’m not…?’
‘No. You trained as a teacher, history apparently, but you only taught for two terms before your first book was turned into a TV series and you’ve been writing full-time ever since.’ Lachlan’s word spilled out in a rush, as though he was relieved to be telling me. ‘I’ve still got the cottage, I’m employed by Historic Environment Scotland to research castles and film them, and you’re moving in with me for the duration. We met through work,’ he added. ‘A year ago, apparently. We’ve been dating and we’ve just decided to move in together. The TV companies love us, apparently.’
The world had gone unreal again. ‘TV?’ My voice was reedy.
‘Mmm. I present history programmes for them. You write books they turn into award-winning series. Oh, and did I mention how incredibly well off your family are? I’m not with you for your money, by the way. Well, notjustyour money.’ He gave me a grin full of mischief. It was, incredibly enough, also slightly sexy.
