Highlander's Charm (Highlander Heat #3)

Highlander's Charm (Highlander Heat #3)

Joanne Wadsworth



The Fortuneteller


Within the forests of Ardnamurchan, 1569.



Blazing bright, a falling star streaked across the night sky. The earth shook, and deep within the woods, the fortuneteller gripped her walking stick and staggered to her feet. Her campfire sizzled and sparked, and the small creatures of the night scuttled away through the underbrush.

Eyes closed, she reached out with her senses. A portal had opened between times and displaced two souls. Both had been born under a falling star, one mere moments ago, and the other, many years.

Aye, a grandmother and her newborn granddaughter, both with silver eyes giving evidence of their special birth, as it had with hers.

The magic of the stars moved through their blood, only the grandmother had made a pleading wish for the bairn, and it had taken the two of them through time and far from Scotland. They would not return to this place until they once again stood on the land of their birth and made another wish.

Looking deep inside her mind, she searched for aid. A vision shimmered to life. A lad of seven roamed the woods on the neighboring Isle of Mull, his gaze lifted to the sky. Calum too had seen the falling star and sensed the disruption in time, though his eyes held no trace of silver.

Tears streaked the boy’s cheeks as he whispered the newborn girl’s name. Lila. She was his, and she’d been taken from him, not that he understood how or why.

The fortuneteller shoved her braided gray hair over her shoulder, then from amongst her wrist-full of silver bangles, removed two brass charms. As kin to the grandmother and her grandchild, ’twas her duty to set all that had occurred back to rights. If needed, she would cross time itself to ensure they returned to their homeland.

She handed the charms to her son as he sat across the fire, instructing him to inscribe Calum and Lila’s names upon them.

These two pieces would bind them together as their souls already did. Though Lila was special. She would be able to draw on the magic deep within her to make wishes, ones that would come true when she was at her most desperate, as her grandmother had been this eve.

Time itself would not keep Calum and Lila apart.

She’d make certain of it.





The Charms


Duart Castle, on the Isle of Mull, 1590.



“I’ll keep us on course toward the sea-gate,” Gripping the birlinn’s rudder, Calum called to his brother.

Thunder boomed and lightning slashed the rippling waves of Duart Bay with a sizzling crackle, the fieriest welcome home Calum MacLean had ever received. Ahead on the inland rise, the thick stone walls of Duart Castle rose with forbidding height into the night sky.

“Look. Only one of our galleys remains anchored,” Colin shouted as he lowered the sail.

“Aye, we’ll make haste.” Such a sight did not bode well with the depth of the current feud raging between the clans.

Their vessel skimmed the water as it cruised in, and his brother leaped into the waist-deep waves, seized the bow and roped it to a catch alongside the stone mooring.

The call of their arrival boomed from the tower guardsman.

Calum jumped onto the landing and jogged up the trail, Colin close behind him. The portcullis rose from within the stone-arched entrance gate, the clunky sound of its chains reverberating across the moors.

Arthur strode through in his thick fur boots. “Welcome home.”

“Where’s Lachlan?” Calum’s chief had sent him to visit the Chief of MacLeod on Skye and Lachlan should be eager to hear his news.

“On the Isle of Islay. Lachlan received word Angus MacDonald had been captured by the king’s men. Our chief didnae care to let this opportunity pass him by. Sixty of our warriors have gone with him. They intend to battle for the Rhinns.”

Lachlan was determined to get his land on Islay’s western coast back, and with Angus’s capture, that would leave the MacDonald clan susceptible without their chief. A prime opportunity indeed, although not one he agreed with. ’Twas time for peace, though it seemed that would never come. “I bring news from my visit with MacLeod. Donald MacDonald too has been captured by the king. Donald and Angus both reside in Edinburgh’s dungeons.”

“’Tis a boon.”

“When did Lachlan leave?”

“A few days past. I expect word soon. Did MacLeod agree to aid us?”

“Nay. With Donald’s capture, he insisted there was no need.” Lachlan’s good fortune had doubled with both MacDonald chiefs in the king’s hands. Lachlan would need to keep himself from discovery by the king’s men too since they sought all three chiefs in this feud.

The heavens opened and the rain beat down.

“Come, we’ll talk further inside.” Calum strode into the great hall, Arthur at his side. “Colin and I will gather supplies and sail for Islay.”