I followed after him, leaving Adwen and Orick to untangle their cramped legs and take a moment to stretch. When I approached Cooper, I found him holding an envelope and wearing a weary expression that told me he didn’t want to tell me what was inside.
“You’re not going to be very happy about this, Aunt Jane, but before I give it to you, will you promise to remind me to tell Morna thank you when we see her? She didn’t write in cursive this time, so I could read it.”
My teeth ground together in anticipation of whatever bad news was headed my way. “What do you mean, when we see her? Surely, you can remember to tell her thank you until we step inside.”
“Umm…why don’t you just look for yourself?”
He handed me the envelope, and I read the words as quickly as I could.
“I’m sorry, Aunt Jane. I’m sure glad I didn’t let you bet me money.”
I shook my head, reaching for the key underneath her mat.
“You have got to be freaking kidding me.”
CHAPTER 30
I didn’t wait for Adwen and Orick to let myself in. With Morna away, there was no reason to make introductions. Besides, I couldn’t stand to wait another minute to see what sort of perfectly manipulated plan Morna had laid out for us.
“Are you very angry, Aunt Jane?”
Cooper followed closely at my side, gauging my reaction to Morna’s letter closely.
“Well, I’m not pleased, Coop.” A pain—a nagging sort of headache that made me want to close one eye and squint the other sprung up as I looked down at the accent table inside the entryway.
“But...did you see where we have to meet her? That’s good, isn’t it? Maybe we can even stop in and see Grandfather and Grandmother. I don’t really want to, but it might be good to show them I’m alive.”
I looked down at him and he stopped talking, probably realizing that my parents were the last thing I needed to think about when I was already about to have a stroke.
He was right about one thing—if we had to go anywhere else, I was glad it was New York. But even that, I didn’t trust. What was the chance that of all the places in the world, Morna had chosen the one place I so desperately missed? My guess was she knew that, but why she cared, I didn’t know. That made me incredibly nervous.
I shuffled through the documents on the accent table just inside the doorway. Four passports, four airline tickets, and one credit card with my name on it and a little sticky note that said, No credit limit and it all charges to my account. Enjoy.
“And they think I’m the thief.” I turned and leaned against the table so I could face Cooper.
“Huh?”
I handed him the credit card and note. “I said that they thought I was the thief for taking the car. How much do you want to bet this card doesn’t charge to anybody’s account—that the businesses will never get the money for the things we charge to this card?”
He stared at me like I spoke Japanese. Sometimes, it was so easy to forget he was only six years old.
“Never mind. Let’s go check on the big boys.”
*
Adwen and Orick’s excitement over the car carried over into Morna’s home with just as much exuberance. They enjoyed the brightness of electrically-lit rooms and relished in the updated “chamber pot” known as a toilet.
Adwen particularly took a liking to everything there was to explore in the kitchen and couldn’t contain his astonishment at how a microwave could heat something through in a matter of seconds. More than once, I found myself thankful that the microwave wouldn’t turn on without the door being closed, for both grown men had tried to stick their hand inside to see if it would get warm as well.
I allowed them to explore with Cooper’s help while I made haste to the bathroom to brush my teeth with one of the four new brushes left out for our use in the bathroom. Electricity and a flushable toilet came as a completely understandable thrill to the Highlanders, but the feel of a fresh toothbrush against my teeth delighted me to no end. Sure, there were ways to clean one’s teeth in the seventeenth century, but none of them measured up. Gosh how I had missed that tingly fresh minty feeling.
Once my gums were deliciously raw and Adwen and Orick were high on sensory overload, I called them into the living room to let them in on the next day’s plans.
“It seems the witch and her husband decided to take a vacation at the same time she knew we were coming. She left instructions for us to meet her in New York City. Unless we all wish to return to Cagair Castle and go back home, I suppose we will have to. We’re already here—we should try to do whatever we can for Isobel.
We will spend the night here and then tomorrow, we will drive into Edinburgh where we will catch a mid-morning flight.”
Adwen sat next to me on one of the couches, his thumb lightly tracing the side of my leg. We were all dead on our feet, but the touch of his fingers awakened something within me that didn’t care about it being the middle of the night. I had to brush his hand away to keep my attention focused as Orick spoke.