Nothing I said relieved the look of concern on Adwen’s face. Orick, on the other hand, looked as pleased as the night I’d kissed him.
“Hush, Adwen, doona be such a wee babe. Jane knows the way of this time when we doona. ’Tis her decision to make. Why make a three-day journey when we can borrow this strange man-made animal and be there by morning?”
“Exactly.” I threw Orick a smile in thanks for his support and, seeing a light switch off inside the castle, decided we couldn’t wait a moment longer. “You guys start running toward the road. I’ll pick you up as soon as I make it out of the driveway.”
I could hear Adwen start to protest, but I didn’t stop as I ran to the car. Throwing a quick glance over my shoulder, I could see them take off toward the road just ahead of the car to wait for me.
Inside, I found a purse sitting in the passenger seat and took a moment to make sure there weren’t any other personal items inside. Setting the bag on the gravel next to the car, I whispered a quick apology and took off toward the men.
*
It was a joy to watch Adwen and Orick discover the miracle of car-travel. I’d been wrong to expect shock and fear from them. Instead, they both exuded a childlike sense of wonderment with everything new they came in contact with. It made me wonder how different my first experience with time travel would have been if only I’d had any idea it was coming. Too bad, I’d never know.
We were packed like sardines inside the small compact, but neither man seemed to mind—each of them just pulled their knees in tight and smiled wide the whole way. Cooper and I spent the entire ride to Morna’s giggling so hard our sides hurt.
I’d driven the car slowly down the driveway to pick them up, but once everyone was inside I accelerated to a normal cruising speed as quickly as I could—Adwen and Orick both let out deep, guttural screams of joy. To these two seventeenth-century Highlanders, a car ride equated to the most extreme of high-paced rollercoaster rides.
Once they got over the initial surprise of traveling at such a high speed, they both rolled down the windows and stuck their heads out like dogs, only crawling inside once the tips of their noses were red from the cold. Cooper and I waited them out patiently, shivering in our seats. As soon as the windows were rolled up, I turned the heater up full blast. As expected, this resulted in a series of ‘oohs’ and ‘awws’ so grand, I wondered if I’d ever be able to get either of them back to the past—they seemed to be enjoying everything so very much.
“How does it work, lass?” Orick sat in the back seat with Cooper and reached his hand up in between the two front seats to feel the flow of the air with his fingers.
“I don’t have the slightest idea.”
Cooper laughed and reached up to tap him on the shoulder. “Hey, Orick, you’re blocking all the warm air.”
“Sorry, lad.”
“That’s okay. Hey, Aunt Jane, turn on the radio and let them hear that!” Cooper bobbed up and down excitedly in his seat as he spoke.
As angry as I was a few hours earlier, I never imagined this journey forward would be so much fun.
“Oh gosh, Coop. I don’t know if they can handle that.”
Adwen leaned over from his seat beside me and playfully pinched my arm. “Ach, Jane, I’m certain we can.”
“Fine, but this is going to be loud, guys. Please, don’t jump and make me swerve off the roadway. I’d prefer we all get there in one piece.”
Hesitantly, I flipped the switch on. The grandiose voice of an opera singer swept through the car.
Cooper and I said nothing. Not wanting to miss the expression on either man’s face, I reached up to turn on the interior light in the car. Their jaws literally hung halfway open.
“Where does it come from? Do ye have a fairy trapped in the…the heat holes?”
Orick pointed toward the air vents. Cooper bent over in his seat, collapsing with laughter.
“We need to bring people here more often, Aunt Jane. This is the funnest time I’ve had in my whole life.”
It was the most comedic thing I’d ever seen, but I had no intention of making the trip back and forth very often, so I ignored his statement, instead moving on to try and explain the concept of the radio as best I could.
It felt like trying to teach a dolphin how to dance. Every other word or thing I mentioned was so foreign, it only confused them further. Eventually, they decided they didn’t really need to know how it worked, and we passed the remaining hours moving from one point of fascination to the next.
It was after midnight when we arrived at Morna’s inn. Cooper was the first to get out of the car, running to the front door as fast as he could.