Page 23 of Treachery in the Highlands
Kieran MacTaggart hoists me off my feet and leaves me dangling in midair.He also scowls at me while snarling words between his teeth."I should ne'er have allowed you to remain with us, much less remain alive.Whatever foul spells you have invoked caused pain for Lachina.And ye no doubt bespelled my daughter too.Why shouldnae I kill you this instant?"
"Uh, because I didn't do anything to Rachel or Lachina.You'd be murdering an innocent man."My voice is hoarse thanks to Kieran's iron grip on my throat.
His eyes narrow to slits."Innocent?Ye appeared through the mists on our sacred ground.Naught but dark magic could have brought ye there."
"I didn't 'appear through the mist,' sir.I was ejected from a twister and plunged into the moat.I would've drowned if Rachel hadn't saved me."
I try to twist free, but it's like wrestling with a granite statue.My lungs burn for air, and black spots dance at the edges of my vision.Great.I can see the headlines now.Joey Finnegan, dead in medieval Scotland, strangled by an angry Highlander with trust issues.
"Father, stop!"Rachel's voice cuts through the tension like a blade.
Kieran's grip loosens just enough for me to gulp down precious oxygen.I catch sight of Rachel rushing toward us, her hair flying behind her like streamers of gold and bronze.
"He's telling the truth," she insists."Joey didnae hurt Lachina.I was with him when it happened.We all were."
"Then who conjured the portal?"Kieran's voice rumbles like thunder.His gaze bores into mine with such intensity I swear he's trying to drill into my soul."If not you, then whom?"
"I don't know," I wheeze."I know nothing about portals or magic or whatever's happening here.One minute I was running from---" I catch myself before mentioning the mafia goons who'd chased me to Dùndubhan.Something tells me explaining modern organized crime to a medieval Scottish warrior might not help my case."---from trouble.Next thing I knew, I was drowning in your moat.Until your daughter saved me."
Kieran's massive hand tightens again, almost choking me."Ye expect me to believe ye simply materialized?A stranger with peculiar clothes and even more peculiar speech who appeared on the very day when Lachina fell ill?"
"Great-Aunt Lachina is not ill, Father," Rachel explains."Not in the manner you suggest.Please dinnae blame Joey for an inexplicable event none of us understand.Instead of harassing him, try listening to him."
Kieran's grip wavers, but he doesn't release me.I swear I can see his internal struggle in those golden eyes.
"Father," Rachel says, her voice softer now, but no less determined."Do ye remember what Great-Aunt Lachina herself said about strangers?'Not all who come unbidden bring disaster.'"
Something flickers in Kieran's golden eyes---recognition, perhaps, or memory.His jaw works beneath his beard as he considers his daughter's words.
"Aye," he finally mutters."She did say that."
He drops me unceremoniously, and I collapse to my knees, gasping like a fish tossed onto the land.My throat feels raw, as if I've swallowed broken glass.
Alyssa steps up beside her husband and lays a steading hand on his arm."You didn't trust me either when we first met.Why not give Joey a chance?"
"Cannae do that, not with our precious daughter."Kieran straightens his clothing and lifts his chin."Mayhap what Lachina said was true.But this man who looks like a fiend from Hell will get nowhere near you, Rachel.Not until I'm satisfied 'tis safe."
Rachel's eyes flash with a defiance that matches her father's intensity."Father, I am not a wee bairn to be sheltered.I havedà-shealladh, same as Great-Aunt Lachina.If Joey meant harm, don't ye think I would ken it?"
Kieran grumbles."Your second sight is not as strong as Lachina's."
"Not yet."
I push myself to my feet, still massaging my throat."Look, I understand your suspicion.I'd be suspicious too if some strange guy fell into my..."I gesture vaguely at the castle surroundings, "...medieval fortress.But I swear on whatever you hold sacred, I mean no harm to your family."
Kieran's massive frame looms over me like a mountain ready to avalanche."Ye speak of our ways as if they're foreign to ye.Another reason to distrust ye."
"Because they are foreign to me," I blurt out before I can stop myself."Where I come from, we don't have castles and moats and people wearing..."I gesture at his kilt."Whatever that's called."
Kieran's nostrils flare."Ye mock our dress now?"
"No, no, I'm not mocking anything.I'm just trying to explain that I'm...not from around here.The kilts I saw back in the twenty-first century were shorter and, well, just different."
Rachel steps between us."Father, Joey isnae only from another land.I believe he's from another time."
Wasn't I just explaining that?Nobody listens to me.
And now I'm whining in my head.Terrific.
