Eoghanan placed a hand on the top of Cooper’s head. He tried to smile at him, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He started to grow paler with each passing second.
“I’m verra tired. I think we should go inside. Baodan, would ye help me to me chambers?”
Baodan was at his side in an instant, propping him up against his shoulder. Baodan smiled back at his wife—a silent conversation where I was sure he’d asked her to see to the rest of us. Once Baodan and Eoghanan were inside the castle, Mitsy spoke.
“You’re lucky you got an explanation before you showed up here. Jeffrey had a bit of a meltdown.”
“I did not.” He attempted to argue, but his eyes were still glazed over with lingering shock.
Mitsy nodded. “Definite meltdown,” she mouthed the words silently to me, smiling before speaking aloud once again. “Anyway, once we got him settled down, he and Cooper spent most of the night exploring the place. I think they’ll be fine if we leave them on their own. I’m in desperate need of some modern-day girl talk.”
Chapter 23
“Hey, stranger.” I stepped inside Eoghanan’s chamber for the first time, three days after we’d arrived. I’d kept my distance hoping that without a distraction, he’d be more apt to stay in bed and rest.
At least, this is the reason I told myself so I wouldn’t feel guilty. Truthfully, I’d taken advantage of his need to rest by giving myself time to think.
All of it was true—the fact that Morna was a witch, her ability to send those she wished hurtling through time—I could no longer deny any of it. And now, I had to accept what that meant.
Nothing more could ever happen between Eoghanan and me.
I’d hoped that a few days away from him would allow me to gain some perspective. That after wandering around the castle and observing all of the strange differences between this time and my own that I would feel out of place, ready to return home.
I didn’t feel that way at all.
I loved it here—the simplicity, the inaccessibility of it. I knew if it was only myself I could stay here forever. All of the castle, as well as Eoghanan’s family, could not be more warm and kind. Accustomed to strange, time-traveling Americans, due to Mitsy and Bri who I’d yet to meet, we’d settled in quite nicely among them.
Cooper seemed to love it as well. He used the castle as a sort of massive playground, determined to discover every secret nook and passageway. Jeffrey, I thought, looked at it as a vacation. After years of working the grind of a law firm, he reveled in being able to do what he considered “manly” tasks like horseback riding and learning how to shoot an arrow.
Still, it was easy for them to enjoy the changes for a short amount of time, an impossibility to ask them to do it forever.
I’d set my mind to speaking to Eoghanan about this, to explaining to him that the three of us would need to return home soon. I walked into his room and, after greeting him, took in the droopy, glazed, plastered look on his face.
“Grace, lass.” He said my name slowly. He was drunk, I could tell by his droopy eyes, but he wasn’t so drunk yet that he’d lost his concern for his own behavior. He didn’t want me to know that he was drunk.
“I apologize for this, lass. ’Tis me own doing, not his.”
It was Baodan’s voice, and I turned toward it. “Why?”
“’Tis time to remove his bandages, but the blood has dried the cloth to him. When I went to remove the bandages from the side of his face…” he paused, “I doona think he screamed like that when the blade tore through him. I thought it best to give him something to dull the pain so that the rest of the removal may not be so painful.”
“Ah, good idea. Do you need me to leave? I can come back later.”
“No, doona leave, Grace.” Eoghanan called to me, swinging his feet over the side of the bed to try and stand. “I’d like for ye to remove them from me.”
Baodan gave me no chance to answer him, moving across the room to push his brother back down on the bed. “Ye doona truly wish that lad. When ye are sober, ye will regret asking it of her.”
Eoghanan persisted. “Aye, I do wish it. I am no all that drunk, Baodan. Now, leave us be.”
Baodan retreated from Eoghanan’s side, but lingered in front of me a moment, a question in his eyes.
“I don’t mind. Really, we’ll be fine.”
Nodding once, Baodan left, closing the door behind him. As I walked toward Eoghanan, he smiled a lazy smile that made my insides flutter. I’d yet to see such an unrestrained grin from him. He usually thought too much to appear this relaxed. It was an incredibly endearing look.
I had a sneaking suspicion the conversation I needed to have with him wouldn’t happen today.
“Are you sure you want me to do this? I’m not really qualified. I’m not a witch or a nurse, so…”