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Marjorie pressed her lips tightly together.
“I’m Craig’s only sister of whole blood.”
“And?”
Marjorie threw the thistles angrily into Isbeil’s basket. “Isbeil, even if I wanted to abandon everything here, he doesn’t want me there.”
“And how do ye ken that?”
Marjorie frowned. How did she know that? He hadn’t asked her to come with him, but he also hadn’t said he didn’t want her to come. Aye, he had things he needed to do in the future, but his main reason for leaving hadn’t been that he didn’t love her. It was that he worried he wouldn’t be a good enough husband and father. That he couldn’t give her the love and happiness she deserved.
But he’d been a good role model for Colin. And he could give her love and happiness. He was the only one who could.
And she loved him. Her heart thumped painfully against her chest at the thought. She loved him more than anything. She loved him so much, she was half a person without him in her life. And it didn’t matter where that life was—here or in a distant future.
She wasn’t a coward anymore. She’d walked out of the castle alone many times. Could she be brave enough to go even farther than that—to go into the future?
But all that was completely useless.
“Even if he didn’t mind me there,” Marjorie said. “Even if the Pictish magic works, and I can go, he didna ask me to go with him. How can I trust he’ll want me there?”
“Ye canna trust he’ll want ye? He risked his life for ye and yer son. If ‘tisna love, I dinna ken what is.”
Marjorie glanced sharply at her. “Love? Ye think he loves me?”
Isbeil laughed. “Of course he loves ye, ye silly lass.”
“But he said… He said he shouldna have become close with me.”
“‘Tisna because he didna love ye. ‘Tis because he does. And he doesna want to hurt ye.”
Marjorie shook her head slowly, thoughts whirling in her head like leaves on the wind.
“But he doesna want to be with me because he thinks love is a lie. Because of his stepda.”
“What of his stepda?”
Marjorie bit her lip. “His stepda is his ma’s Alasdair.”
Isbeil stopped plucking. “Oh.”
“Aye. He’s afraid he’s going to hurt me.”
Isbeil resumed plucking. “And do ye think he might hurt ye?”
“Nae. Never.”
“Ah, dinna sink yer head so, lass,” Isbeil said. “He’s a man of honor. A good man for ye, lass. I believe the faerie didna send him through time for ye for nothing. If ye can be happy with anyone, ‘tis him.”
Marjorie exhaled sharply. The truth of those words sank into her. Her heart squeezed with a dull ache and longing for Konnor. She’d found her inner strength thanks to him. But was she strong enough to cross time?
Marjorie locked her eyes with Isbeil. “Am I brave enough to risk everything?”
“The question is, lass, how much do ye love him?”
Marjorie’s eyes filled with tears. “More than life itself.” As she said that, she felt like she expanded, as though her body became bigger and taller and encompassed the whole world, was connected to everything around her.
“There’s yer answer,” Isbeil said softly.
