These oddities alone should have been sufficient, but it was the events leading to my imprisonment that finally forced me to face the truth. More than once, I had been awakened from a light sleep, which means, I had been sleeping. The first time, I’d put it off to medication, but it seemed impossible that I would enter some sort of coma dream, dreaming the same thing, over and over again.
I truly was in 1645 Scotland. Truly in the castle and surrounded by the people my mother had spent her entire life studying. Every time I had felt panic begin to take over, every time some unpleasant thought had tugged at the back of my brain, it had been this realization trying to break through. I had given my greatest effort to push it away. Even the wildest imaginary scenarios seemed more favorable than this startling reality.
If I believed I was in a coma, there was hope of escape. Hope of returning to my life, my home, my students. Hope of seeing my mother again. Without that hope, I couldn’t begin to comprehend what was happening, how I had ended up here, and what the rest of my life would look like.
However irrational, I was completely unwilling to give up that hope. Coma or no coma, I would escape from this prison and find a way to get back home. I knew it had something to do with the portrait I’d found when Mom and I were excavating the secret basement room. It had been my portrait, and the words below it must have been some sort of spell. If the contents of that room were powerful enough to pull me backward through time, surely there was something that could send me forward.
But first, I had to find a way out of this cell.
Chapter 14
“Leave it at the door, Mary. The same as I’ve been asking ye to do for days, now.”
The knocking stopped, but the voice that came through the doorway had Eoin on his feet in an instant, fists trembling with the anger he’d been struggling to contain for days.
“Eoin! Ye know we must talk,” Arran demanded. “What are ye doing to her? Ye canna keep her captive in yer bedchamber forever, and ye can no continue to ignore me either.”
“Go away. I’ve no more use for either one of ye. Unless ye want me to beat yer head in, ye best get away from the door.”
“What have ye done to her, Eoin? I swear if ye hurt her I’ll kill ye myself, even if ye are me brother! Open the door!”
It had been four days. Four days locked up in his bedchamber, stewing over his anger and disappointment, trying to make everyone in the castle believe he was honeymooning with his new bride. Four days of imagining his brother touching and caressing Blaire, while she sank into him, moaning and moving in response.
The knocking turned to pounding as a large object made contact with the other side of the door. If Eoin didn’t stop him, he was sure to draw attention from other parts of the castle, which was the last thing he wanted while his new bride was locked away.
“Stop it, ye fool!” He yanked the door open and stepped away as the post Arran was holding zoomed past his head.
Arran threw down the rod and pushed his way into the room. “Where is she, Eoin? No one has seen either one of ye since the wedding, which would be fine if I dinna know how angry ye are.” He walked quickly through the room, looking behind curtains, turning over tables, looking for Blaire. “What have ye done with her?”
“She’s no here, Arran.” Eoin stood still in the doorway, watching as his brother tore through his room. “What the hell do ye think ye are doing? She’s my wife, and an unfaithful whore at that, and ye dare ask me what I’ve done with her?”
“Where is she?” Arran pounded his fist against the wall and whirled toward Eoin. “It was my fault. I was drunk, Eoin. I thought that I was coming into me own room, and it turned out to be yers. She heard me outside the door and helped me back to my room. I could hardly stand up.”
“Hardly stand? God Arran, ye were about to take her in the middle of the hallway. I doona care whose fault it is. I’ll have nothing to do with the both of ye. Now get out of my chambers!” Eoin moved to place his hands on Arran’s shoulders, but Arran quickly moved out of his way.
“I’m no going anywhere until ye tell me where she’s gone. Did ye send her back home, Eoin? To disgrace her father and territory? Surely, ye could no be so cruel. Ye have already wed her.”
“That didn’t stop the two of ye from betraying me, did it? I willna listen to this from ye. Ye have to grow up, Arran, and stop taking everything ye want!”
“I wasn’t trying to take her, Eoin. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry for it. She had little say in what happened.”
“I don’t care what ye have to say, Arran, the wee bitch is staying where I put her, and ye won’t be seeing her again.”
“Like hell I won’t! I won’t touch Blaire again. She’s yer wife, and I’m sorry for what happened. But I will see her and make sure that ye have no harmed her.”