“I think they were a warning or an omen of what’s to come. As terrible as it is, it’s nothing compared to what will happen to everyone else, unless we stop them. The fire at the wedding was the first warning, the horses the second, I don’t know if there will be a third.”
Eoin stood and grasped my forearms, lifting me so that I stood in front of him. He gently wrapped his arms around me in apology. “Thank ye for telling me all ye know, lass. I doona see how I have any choice but to believe ye, and I’m glad ye are no a witch. We shall work together to find whoever poses a threat, aye? And then once our safety is secured, we’ll find a way to send ye back to yer own time. Though, I must say, I will miss . . .” He said no more, letting his words span the distance now growing between us.
I allowed myself to fall into him, letting my head lie firmly against his chest as I wrapped my arms around his waist. “Deal. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I’d forgotten about the ruins, forgotten about everything but trying to get home.”
He placed one of his large hands on my head, calming me as you would a small child. “Hush, lass. I doona think I would’ve believed ye, unless I’d walked in on ye in these awful rags. The truth has come out as it was meant to. Now, we have no choice but to make the best of it. We are all too tired to speak more of this now. Let’s all find our way to our own beds and sleep a while. We can discuss this more at the evening meal. Today shall be a day of little activity around the castle, I expect. We’ve all had a day of it. Aye?”
I nodded against his chest and pulled out of his embrace as Arran stood from his place on the ground, coming alive for the first time since I’d stopped talking.
“Does this mean Blaire is in the time and place that ye came from?” The pain and fear on his face was evident, and I finally understood why Arran had seemed so displeased with me over the past few weeks. He loved Blaire, and it had hurt him to see me so pleased in Eoin’s company when he thought her heart was his.
“I assume so. I expect she’s with my mother. If that’s the case, you have no reason to worry about her. She will be working just as hard as we are to get us switched back. I’m sure my mother’s also thrilled to speak to someone she’s devoted her life to learning about.”
“Forgive me, lass, if that does nothing to ease me mind.” As he turned and walked out of the room, I said a silent prayer that Blaire was safe and in the overbearing arms of my mother.
*
Present Day
“Is it really true what ye say about women reading and writing in this time? Can most of them really do it? I can, but only because I begged Father until he agreed to let me learn. Very few women are allowed to do so.”
Adelle grinned at what must have been at least Blaire’s one thousandth question of the day. Over the past weeks, they’d spent every day working through the contents of the old spell room, and while they’d learned that a spell had caused the switch, they’d yet to find one that would switch the two girls back. “Yes, all children are taught to read now, and they all go to school from the age of five until they’re eighteen. A woman doesn’t have to be married to find success in this time. I divorced my husband nearly twenty-five years ago, and haven’t been married a day since, and I think I’m doing just fine.”
“Aye, I believe that ye are.”
“I think we are both about to be doing even better, Blaire! I think that this might be the right spell.” Adelle stared down at the faded, aging page, double-checking to make sure she was translating the Gaelic inscriptions correctly.
“Do ye think so? What will we have to do?”
“Yes, this is it. She even wrote notes in the margins about what she intended to use the spell for. It’s amazing really. She knew that Bri would be born, and that the two of you would look identical. She hoped that by switching the two of you, Bri could help stop the tragedy that befell everyone at Conall castle all those years ago.”
“Do ye think that she can?”
“I don’t know. I hope she’s listened to me speak of this enough to know that she’s approaching the time of the tragedy. But I don’t intend to wait and see if she stops it. We are switching the two of you back as soon as we can gather the materials.” Adelle didn’t miss how Blaire’s smile shifted into a rather uncomfortable position at the mention of returning home. The girl’s heart was hurting from something recent, and although Adelle didn’t know the cause of her pain, she’d seen the same expression on her own daughter’s face enough times to recognize it.
“What do we need?” Blaire moved about the small room, trying to look as helpful as possible.