Love Beyond Compare (Morna's Legacy, #5)
Bethany Claire
She left her whole world behind to find the one thing that really matters.
Jane Mitchell has many dreams for her life, but living in the seventeenth century was never one of them. Unknowingly transported through time by the meddling witch, Morna, Jane chooses to stay in the past so she can remain in her beloved nephew’s life. Castle life doesn’t really suit her, and Jane quickly finds that her love for her family isn’t enough to fill her hungry soul. Eager for purpose, she takes work at the village inn. One frigid evening, she takes in the most infuriating man she’s ever met…never suspecting for a moment that he could be the one her soul hungers for.
Adwen MacChristy doesn’t want to be laird of Cagair Castle. With a youth spent traveling the world and sleeping beneath the stars in the company of loose women, nothing weighs on Adwen’s heart like knowing the life he loves is about to come to an end. He would rather spend his days as a penniless wanderer than take on the responsibilities handed to him by his father. On his last night of freedom, Adwen stops at the inn near McMillan Castle and meets the only lass to ever deny his advances, bewitching him in an instant. Suddenly, he finds himself believing that responsibility might not mean a life spent in chains if he has a fiery lass like Jane by his side.
Will Jane allow herself to fall for a man who is the very embodiment of the reckless life she left behind, or will fate make the decision for her when it sends her through time once again?
For DeWanna
CHAPTER 1
McMillan Castle, Scotland
December 28, 1648
Tiny, freezing toes pressed themselves against the side of my leg, jolting me from a dream that would have made even a nun’s blood race.
“It’s always the good ones, isn’t it, Coop? You can never wake me while I’m dreaming about spiders, or worms, or sharks.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind.” I squirmed away instinctively, rolling as I used my hands to push the way-too-early-rising six year old to the other side of the bed. Instantly, Cooper’s sleepy voice pleaded with me as his heat-seeking toes sought the warmth of my side once again.
“Ohhh, please don’t, Aunt Jane. I’m freezing.”
I kept my eyelids closed, doing my best to hold on to any remaining fragment of my dream.
“Coop, I love you but you know the rule—you aren’t supposed to wake anybody up before six a.m.”
“First of all, you know that’s not the rule anymore, Aunt Jane. We don’t have those electric clocks here, so I have to wait until the sun rises. And second of all…”
He paused for dramatic effect, and I could all but see his little fingers ticking away his points. After a long pause, he continued.
“I didn’t come to wake you up. I came to sleep. I’m soooo tired.”
I heard him yawn in the darkness, and I knew then what had sent him fleeing from his own room in the middle of the night. “Baby Violet keeping you up?”
“Yep. She sure does cry a lot. I can hear her through the walls. I know that she’s supposed to get more fun later, but right now…I just wish she’d stayed inside Mom.”
I laughed and allowed my eyes to open as I rolled to face him, his outline illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through the window. I could just make out the smattering of freckles across his face, his dirty blond curls shining in the moonlight. “I’m pretty sure that your mother felt the very same way about me for a long time.”
“No way. I bet you were always fun.”
Cooper was the only person on Earth who thought so highly of me.
“Believe me, I wasn’t. Now,” my mouth pulled open, catching the remnants of Cooper’s yawn, “you ready to get some shut eye?”
Cooper made his teeth chatter for effect. “Not until my toes are warm.”
Reluctantly, I pushed myself upright in the bed. “Okay, fine. Stick your toes up here.”
He shifted himself in the bed, spinning so that his head was near the bed’s end as he thrust his feet toward my face. “Thank you. I’m pretty sure they were about to fall right off.”
“Oh yes, I’m sure they were.” I laughed as I rubbed my hands back and forth over his feet. “Why don’t you wear socks to bed? I know that you have some.”
“You see, I always start out in socks. Mom always makes me put them on but, somehow, I toss and I turn and they end up disappearing. I have a theory. I don’t think they actually disappear, of course. I think the little fairies that Bebop says live in the Highlands come to live inside the walls during colder months, and they take my socks at night to use as sleeping bags to keep warm. Works good for them, but it sure makes my feet cold.”
“Wow, that’s…that’s quite the theory, Coop.” Cooper was ridiculously intelligent for his age—always had been.