Page 87 of Her Highland Prophecy
Her hand closed around the medallion with sudden anger. “It was stolen from us when I was but a little girl and I havenae seen it since.”
“Stolen? Who?”
“We dinnae ken, but whoever has it isnae using it to travel anymore. Ye are the first traveler I have seen in nigh on sixty years.”
Diana remembered how the fortuneteller in the future had told her that the medallion had been in her family for many centuries. They had most likely stolen it from Aina’s family.
“I don’t know how to help you find who stole it,” Diana said apologetically. “I’m sorry. It was a gypsy who gave it to me, like I said. And it was at the fair in Ballachulish. I don’t have any information beyond that.”
“Och, dinna fash, Lass. It does me old heart guid to see that it is still being used so far in the future.”
“Why did you run when I saw you yesterday, then?”
Aina suddenly looked embarrassed. “I wasnae sure what I was seeing. Ye have an aura about ye that is different than the people who are from this time. It marks ye as a traveler. It surprised me.”
The two women sat in silence for a few minutes as Diana tried to digest everything she had learned in the past few minutes.
The medallion was supposed to help her find love, not find her destiny like she had been told, although many of the awful things Esmeralda had predicted had come to pass, like someone trying to kill her and Gordain. But if that were true, then did it follow that she had to stay in the past?
The thought of never returning to her own time, to her family still cut through her, so the answer to that was most likely negative, no matter what she had found in the past. Pushing past the sudden lump in her throat she asked the question that had been burning her since the moment she realized she was no longer in her own time.
“How do I get back?”
Aina looked surprised. “Do ye want to go back?”
Diana could only nod.
“Aye well, it is nae too difficult. Ye have to go to the cave ye came in and travel back.”
“That’s it?” Diana said incredulously. “I could have travelled back any time I wanted?”
“Aye,” Aina confirmed. “But the medallion chose to bring ye here for a reason. Have ye nae found the person ye were meant to be with?”
Diana nodded. Then she shook her head.
“How can I choose to leave everything I have known behind? How can that be the right choice?” she asked.
Aina shook her head but did not answer her question.
“If ye truly want to go back just go to the cave at dawn. It is always by the elderberries,” Aina said handing the medallion back to Diana.
Diana took it, thanked the old woman and then staggered out of the tent. She spent the next few hours walking aimlessly through the fair, her mind vacillating between her two options. To go or to stay?
She almost hated the medallion that felt like it was burning a hole in her. It had brought her love, a new family and acceptance, but at what cost? Death, pain and misery for the people she had met and the people she left behind.
She steeled her nerves, deciding that she would no longer poison the lives of the people who had given her nothing more than acceptance. She would return to her own time, her sister who was likely out of her mind with worry, her history books and the parties that she so much enjoyed.
She pondered walking out to the general area where she remembered the cave to be and then wait until it was lighter to find it, but she balked at the idea of spending the night out in the dark alone, without the protection of Gordain and the heat that they generated when they lay together under his plaid.
No, she would stay in the inn until just before sunrise and she would leave then. No one would see her at that time, so she wouldn’t be questioned.
Satisfied with her decision she returned to her room.
Falling asleep was another story. She couldn’t stop thinking of how devastated Gordain had been when he found out that his father was dead. She wished she could have been with him to support him. Maybe if she found out that the cave was the key and that she could return at any time—
No, better to leave sooner rather than later. She had become attached to everyone she had met since she arrived, and Gordain had easily become the most important person in her life. Leaving would hurt, but she couldn’t justify staying longer, allowing herself and them to form closer bonds when she knew that she was going to leave eventually.
I can’t be that cruel.
