Page 21 of Desiring the Highland Laird
“What does that mean?” she demanded, her gut clenching into a tight knot.
She didn’t want to be here forever. She had to get back to her time, to Chloe. She had to make sure Bruce hadn’t done anything to hurt her.
“Surely you must know something about it,” she said.
Hamish started to reply, but Callum interrupted. “Nay.”
Hot tears pricked the backs of her eyes as the realization of her situation pounded through her. “So, I’m stuck here.”
Her gaze alighted on the three men around the table.
“With three strangers,” she added.
“Yer safe here with us,” Malcolm said.
“Am I?” She fisted her hands, trying to keep them from shaking. “I’m in a strange land. I don’t even know who you are.”
“I told ye,” Callum said.
“You said your name was Callum MacLeod but that doesn’t mean much to me. How do I know you’re not some murdering Scot?”
Hamish laughed out loud. He took another swig of his ale and then got to his feet, his chair scraping back along the floor. “She no understands where she is, laddie. Best tell her. Come on, Malcolm. Let’s give them some peace.”
Reluctantly, Malcolm rose and followed his father out of the great hall, leaving her alone with Callum, the big brute of a Scot who sat next to her, staring her down as though she were an oddity. She sighed and unclenched her fists.
“I suppose you think I’m crazy.” She pinned her gaze on the bread bowl in front of her, trying her best to keep her composure.
“Nay. I no think ye daft.”
“Well, that’s a comfort, I suppose.”
“How did the stone bring ye here?” he asked.
She glanced down at her hand in her lap, opening her fingers to see the red marks still there from the triquetra. They’d faded but were still evident.
“According to your father, I fell from the sky.”
“That’s no what I mean.How?”
She understood then he wanted her to tell him how, exactly, she fell from the sky and into the past. As in what were the events leading up to that. She sighed.
“It’s a long story.”
“Ye must tell me,” he insisted.
“And if I do, does that mean you’ll believe me? For that matter, will you be able to send me back?”
He shook his head. “I dinnae ken.”
She studied him for a long moment, admiring his strong jaw. There was intelligence deep in his eyes as he looked at her, intelligence and compassion and a kindness she had never seen before in any of the men of her time. His shoulders were broad. The tunic he wore was smudged with dirt and sweat-stained, signs of a man who worked out. Except this man didn’t work out at a gym, which made him far sexier than the men of her time. His hair was long with two plaits on either side of his face. He leaned his forearm on the table, which was thick with muscle and covered in a dusting of dark hair.
He was handsome.
And she was smitten.
Much to her dismay.
She didn’t believe in love at first sight. It wasn’t sensible, after all. There was no scientific evidence that it existed. Yet here she was with the literal man of her dreams.
