Page 7

“I’m dreaming,” she said, finally able to draw a deep breath.

“What do your parents call you?”

“My parents?” They didn’t call her anything. Not since last year anyway. What an odd way to ask her name. “My name is Hannah,” she said, pinching her arm. Ouch! So that trick apparently didn’t work.

“Hannah?”

She looked at him again. Of course! Where was she likely to meet a tall man with the physique of a Highland hero if not in a dream?

“Hannah Sutton.” She might as well play along. “From Maine. My sisters and I went to Scotland to honor our mom and dad’s wishes. You know, take the trip they were never able to take. Except Caroline decided a simple hike wasn’t enough for our last day. She convinced us jumping into the falls would be the perfect way to start a new chapter in our lives. God, if only she hadn’t read Alice in Wonderland too many times as a kid. New chapter, my ass.”

He was looking at her as if she had a screw loose. Perhaps she did. Hannah was sitting in a circular stairwell, after all, talking to a man who was likely a figment of her own imagination. But what other explanation was there? When he’d first ridden into the courtyard, she’d thought they were in a different century.

Which was, of course, ridiculous.

“I need to leave,” she said, less and less convinced this truly was a dream. The smell of roasted meat drifting down the stairs seemed very, very real, and the stone beneath her was convincingly cold. Which meant she was back to square one.

He didn’t respond. Instead, his eyes narrowed. “Hannah Sutton.” He said her name as if it were a curse. “You are not leaving until I know how you came to be here.”

She stood, exasperated. “I told you, I have no idea how I came to be here,” she said, mimicking his formal speech.

“What is this?” He pointed to the cell phone she’d taken out of her pocket before remembering it was dead. “And where is this Maine you speak of?”

Oh God, she really had no time for this. Light from the closest torch caught her eye, and it occurred to her that this whole place was a major fire hazard.

“Is that safe? Oh, never mind,” she said when she saw his puzzled expression. “Maine. The United States. In the Northeast, near Canada.”

He stared at her blankly.

“You don’t know what a cell phone is. You’ve never heard of Maine—”

“United States?”

OK, so this guy was definitely some kind of nut. Too bad. He really was quite good-looking. Fearsome, but hot.

“Listen, I don’t know what game you’re trying to play—”

“My lord?” The boy who’d greeted them earlier, before Hannah fainted like an eighteenth-century heroine, peered his head around the curved stretch of steps beneath them. “Is she well?”

“Quite,” the lord said dryly.

“Dinner is served. Walter and Gerard are inquiring after you. Shall I tell them—”

“I will join them momentarily.”

“Very good, my lord.”

When he scampered back down the stairs, Hannah stared after him.

“Is there some kind of festival here or something?” She had to give it to them. Their devotion to the illusion was admirable and their costumes were superb. In fact, she had planned plenty of themed events, but never one quite this authentic. The attention to detail was amazing. Whoever designed the costumes and décor should be commended. The very first event she ever planned after starting the business was medieval-themed, but compared to this, her own seemed more like a kids’ birthday party.

“Festival?”

“Like the one at Alnwick Castle. Is that why everyone is dressed up?”

The man looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. “What cause did you have to be at Alnwick Castle?”

Hannah laughed then. In fact, once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. The events of the day were suddenly just too much.