Adwen looked over his shoulder and gave Orick a sly grin that only served to baffle me further. “Aye, but that is no the only reason I came here tonight.”
“Excuse me? Just what exactly does that mean?”
I reminded myself of Cooper after he’d been caught by Eoghanan; I was behaving in much the same way, babbling incessantly in response to my irritation. I couldn’t seem to stop and took to flailing my arms about dramatically as I spoke, pointing my fingers at him and pacing the room. I looked mad.
“You know what? Never mind. I don’t want to know what you mean by that. Fine. I give up. My name is not Lily, but it is none of your damn business what my name actually is. I feel like I’m being interrogated by the police, and that only actually happened once and…”
I stopped once I saw the look of pure confusion that seemed to mingle with a bit of fear on Orick’s face and look of pure delight on Adwen’s.
“Lass…” Before I could continue, Adwen took three steps toward me, grabbing onto the sides of both my arms so that I could no longer pace frantically about the room. “Might I call ye Jane, for I know that to be yer name? I heard Eoghanan discussing ye with the wee lad, Cooper. I believe ye might be in some trouble when ye return to the castle, but ’tis no my concern.”
I yanked myself free from his grip and moved to sit down. “None of it is any of your concern.”
He nodded, not hesitating for a moment to sit down at the table across from me—much to my continued irritation.
“Ye are right, lass. Forgive me. ’Tis only that I dinna understand why ye felt the need to lie about who ye are.”
“I don’t think Baodan would approve of my working here. Only a few people in the castle know that I’ve been spending my days here. Please…” I hesitated, everything inside me not wanting to ask any favor of the infuriating man. “Don’t tell Baodan if you see him again. I like my work here. I don’t wish to spend my days lying around the castle.”
He reached out and gave my hand a light squeeze before I jerked it back toward me. I found him overly excessive with his touching for someone I just met.
“He will hear nothing from me, lass. Might I give ye one last heed?”
I folded my arms in my lap in case he tried to reach across the table again. “Does it matter if I say no?”
“No.”
“Then absolutely, heed away.”
The corner of his mouth lifted and I couldn’t tell whether he was angry or amused. “The way ye spoke to me earlier, cursing and speaking of something called a ‘police’…if I dinna already know of the magic and not only where but when ye come from, ye would sound right mad. Ye need to be more cautious, lass.”
“What?” I stood, bumping the edge of the table so that it ran into Adwen’s stomach. “You know? How?”
I knew only through explanations given by Grace and Mitsy that the MacChristy family had been used as a cover-up of sorts with the Conalls several years prior, when a twenty-first century woman like myself had come through looking like the exact twin of a MacChristy already living in the seventeenth century, but I didn’t know they’d told the MacChristy family the truth of all that had happened.
“Sit yerself down, lass. Yer face is all red again, and ye look as if ye might swoon.”
The shock of his words combined with the frustration that still coursed through my body made me rather lightheaded. Reluctantly, I did as he instructed.
“Aye, Eoin Conall, laird over at Conall Castle told me everything no even a fortnight ago.”
“And you believed him?”
“Lass,” he moved to reach for my hand again, and I pulled it from his grasp, shaking my head at him as I narrowed my eyes angrily. He returned his hand to his side, the left corner of his mouth pulling up in the same frustrating way once again. “I’ve traveled all over the world and seen a great many things that I can give no true explanation for. We Highland folk know that magic exists in the world, ’tis only that we doona see it with our own eyes verra often. But after meeting the many of ye lassies that seem to have traveled through, what with yer wild tongues, and strange sayings, I doona doubt the truth of it for a moment.”
“Okay, then.” I exhaled, relaxing as a strange sense of relief moved through me. The two men sitting in this room with me were the only people outside of my family here that knew the truth of who I was and where I came from. With that pretense removed, I felt the liberating permission to behave exactly like myself—not to say that my earlier outburst hadn’t brought out the most sincere parts of my personality anyway.
I stood, dusting my hands on my apron out of habit more than necessity and turned to address both of them. “I know that you just came from the castle, but are you hungry, perhaps?”
“I couldna eat another thing, but thank ye.”