He glared back at her, only causing her to laugh more.
“Fine, fine. I’m finished. I just believe that now that Mitsy is free of feelings that were holding her back, she will be free to help someone who will need her assistance to free himself.”
A sudden knock on the door caused them both to jerk their heads toward the entranceway.
Jerry stood, moving slowly toward the foyer. “How did ye no see that she was about to be here?”
Morna moved to join her husband. “The casting distracted me. I was eager to see the results of my efforts with the plane tickets. Not to mention,”
“The fact that ye will have to lie to the lass,” Jerry’s voice finished her sentence and Morna looked down regretfully. “Aye, we shall both have to. ’Tis the only way to get the lass where she truly needs to be, and that place isna with Bri at Conall Castle.”
*
Jep and I both left the plane as quite different people than those who boarded it. With the mutual feeling that the past was truly behind both of us, we parted amicably and happily. It didn’t take long to gather my luggage as I’d checked only one bag and, since this was my second time to rent a car to go in search of the odd innkeepers, the process went smoothly.
Several hours later, I found myself parked outside of the inn, anxious to get inside so that I could speak to Bri. If she wasn’t inside the inn, I knew she had to be close.
Rather than the furious and frantic knock of my previous visit, I knocked softly now and stepped away from the door. The last time I arrived at the inn, I’d been in a bit of a panic and had not displayed the kindest manners.
It took a moment, but as soon as the door swung open, I was pulled into a surprisingly firm embrace.
“Ach, lass. I’m pleased that ye made it safely. Come inside, Mitsy. It’s good to see ye, dear.”
Once the elderly man released me, I tried to smile past the shock of the familiar greeting. “Thank you. It’s good to see you…Jerry, is it?”
He beamed and patted me firmly on the shoulder, pulling my purse off my shoulder to set it beside the door in the process. “Aye, it was kind of ye to remember me name.”
I stepped inside just a little bit further so that I could glance around for any sign of Bri or her husband, Eoin. “Yes, I remember your name, but I’m afraid I’m not sure of your wife’s name. When I met her, she was Gwendolyn, but I heard Bri refer to her as Morna?”
As if summoned, Jerry’s wife stepped into the entranceway and embraced me much the same way as Jerry had done. “Call me Morna, dear. And ye did remember me names, both of them. ’Tis only that ye dinna remember which one to use.”
Friendly folks I thought to myself, but truthfully, I didn’t mind the affection at all, I was merely surprised by it, especially considering how terribly I’d treated them both upon my first visit here. “I’m afraid I owe both of you an apology. The first time I came here, well, I was very rude. I was only—” I was interrupted by Morna who spoke as she waved me inside the kitchen.
“No need to apologize. You were worried about Bri. It only goes to show what a good friend ye are. Come, sit and eat a bit. I’ve made chicken pot pie. Not a Scottish dish, to be sure, but when me American friends come to visit, I like to try American recipes.”
Jerry wrinkled up his nose, and I laughed at the disgust on his face.
“Aye, well at least ye dinna make the lasagna this time.”
Morna ignored him. As soon as I was seated, I dug into the delicious dish. “It’s wonderful. Thank you. Might I ask you a question?”
Morna sat down across from me and Jerry followed, sitting next to her. “O’course ye can. I suppose ye are anxious to know how things are to happen now?”
I frowned but stared down at my food so as not to show my utter confusion. “I just wanted to ask you if Bri was here?”
The pitch of Morna’s voice caused me to look up. She seemed as shocked as I was confused. “Well, o’course she isna here, dear. She told ye where she was, dinna she?”
Was everyone around here smoking the same thing? Surely, she didn’t believe that Bri was living in the seventeenth century? “Well, she did tell me something, but come on? It was obviously some sort of weird joke. I don’t know why she wouldn’t tell me the truth.”
Morna stood and moved to a coat closet out in the hallway from the kitchen. When she returned, she extended a plain, brown dress and a smooth, black rock in my direction. It looked like something you would put on at a carnival to take an old-timey photo. “She wasna lying to ye, Mitsy, and, if ye wish to see Bri, ye must go back as well.”
I didn’t say anything but just sat there, looking at them as if they were crazy. I half expected camera crews to pop out of the woodwork any moment to tell me I was on some sort of hidden camera show.