AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Miss Dougal, is it time for lessons?” Cin pouted.
“No. Not yet,” she said curtly and walked off.
“How about we take a walk down to the beach?” I offered.
“No swords?”
I shook my head. “Apparently, I must be a proper lady today. But maybe a game of hide-and-go-seek?” Thrilled at the idea, he bobbed his head enthusiastically. “Run ahead but stay in the garden.” I stopped and counted to ten.
From where I stood, I could see young Cin racing toward the maze when I opened my eyes again.
“Ready or not, here I come,” I called, right before I heard someone approach.
“Ye wanted to speak to me?” Duncan asked.
Twelve
Startled, I might have clutched my pearls if I’d been wearing any. “Yes,” I said to Duncan, who hadn’t been there a second before. I would have felt him. Then I just blurted out what needed to be said before we got off track. “Two of your courtiers, or whatever you call them, want you dead if you don’t crown yourself as king.”
“Who?”
I described the men and as I did so, his frown deepened. When I finished, he didn’t speak yet shifted as if to walk off.
“Why don’t you want to be king?” I asked. “You have the crown.” I recalled the one kept in a glass case.
“Why would I? Ye just told me of a plot to kill me. It is such for all kings. Someone with ambition will always want ye dead to take the crown from ye. It should be made from thorns, for the burden it is.”
“Then why do you keep it?” He’d stopped me from touching it, so he would know what I was talking about.
“Two crowns. One is a choice. The other is my responsibility.”
He stalked off as I wondered what he meant. Two crowns. One of Scottish making and the other likely from his order. Which crown was in that room? Then I remembered Cin and pushed those thoughts aside.
At a brisk pace, I walked through the main garden to catch up with the precocious boy. I enjoyed being outside, as I didn’t get a lot of time in the sun. “I’m coming for you,” I called, so he didn’t think I’d forgotten him while moving toward the maze. The day was warm, not hot, and the flowers were blooming.
I’d just stepped into the hedge maze when I heard Cin’s laughter. “I can hear you,” I warned.
He giggled some more, and I thought about how I hadn’t had much of a childhood. For the first time ever, I imagined myself a mother and all the wonderful times I’d have playing games with my kids.
“Cin, where are you?” I called when I no longer heard his giggles.
A few minutes later, my panic mode kicked in when I still hadn’t heard a peep. I lifted my skirts to move more quickly. Somehow, I ended up on the other side of the maze near the beach. Cin was nowhere in sight. When I called for him, I heard a snuffling sound. There, just to my left, was a pony. “Oh, my,” I said to myself, reaching out a hand to touch it. “Cin, come,” I called over my shoulder, thinking a pony would certainly get him to reveal himself.
Before I could make contact with the pony, I was caught around my waist.
“Dinnae touch.” Duncan’s words fanned across my neck as he hoisted me back in the maze with an arm clamped around my chest and my feet dangling off the ground. If that wasn’t enough, I was very aware how the undersides of my breasts lay atop his forearm.
He must have been aware too, because he quickly released me. “Go now,” he demanded.
“But Cin—” I said.
He cut me off. “I’ll take care of him.”
“What if—”
“Go,” he thundered. There was so much power behind the word, I spun on my heels and ran, wanting to be anywhere but there.
There was a darkness in him I hadn’t seen before, and I found myself thinking about Duncan from my time. And when I missed my next turn, I held up my hands to protect myself from the skin-scraping needles of the hedges. Only I didn’t have to. This time I noticed the glow surrounding me before I traveled through time and space.
On the proverbial other side, I was still in the hedge maze. Only I’d traveled in time not only in years, but from morning to evening, as the sun cast long shadows. I picked up my pace to make it to the castle before it got dark.
I didn’t need signs anymore to get through the maze. I’d been in it enough times to know my way. As I rounded the last corner, I could see ahead the opening to the path that led to the castle. I stopped when I heard voices.
“Where is she now, Gabriel?” someone asked.
