“Look. I didn’t come here to ask your permission, Principal Hendricks. I’ve already booked the flight. You can either approve the days, or I’ll quit. But either way, I’m going to Scotland to look for Bri. I’m only asking to leave a week earlier than I was originally scheduled for my wedding anyway. The substitute has been here for months now. She doesn’t need me in the classroom with her. Now, are you going to sign off on it, or do I need to submit my resignation?”
Mitsy soon-to-be Fredrickson stood across the desk from the twin of Mr. Clean, who was Principal Hendricks. She stood with her arms crossed firmly across her chest as she tapped her foot in his direction.
Principal Hendricks crossed his own arms and looked her up and down as if gauging the seriousness of her words. “You know that the police have already closed the case, Mitsy, and we’ve already terminated her contract here with the district. The police chief told you himself that they have confirmation in Scotland that Bri is unharmed and still in the country. Ms. Montgomery did this to herself. Why do you feel the need to seek her out?”
Mitsy’s head pounded as her blood pressure rose. When she spoke, she found that her voice came out more as a scream than intended but, once released, she couldn’t rein it in. “Because some old innkeeper telling the police that the girl they’ve described is staying with them is not confirmation that she’s all right. Neither is them speaking to someone who is supposedly Bri on the phone. The innkeepers said she wouldn’t take my calls. She wouldn’t do that. She knows me, and she knows how worried I’d be. For Christ’s sake, the couple the police talked to could have murdered her!” Mitsy sat down in the chair opposite Principal Hendricks, her legs shaky and unsteady.
“The police also contacted the archaeological society that Bri’s mother worked for. They said that they’ve received reports on the dig regularly, the last one arriving only a week ago. Bri accompanied her mother on the dig.”
Mitsy reached up and tucked a fistful of springy red curls behind her ears, the principal’s words doing nothing to calm her down. “I know. I know all of this, but something has gone wrong. Bri is the least impulsive person I’ve ever known. She lives every day by a strict schedule, and she’s my best friend. She would not abandon me without good reason, and she wouldn’t miss the wedding. She knows I’d kill her myself.”
As he drummed his fingers back and forth on the top of his desk, Mitsy had to grab onto both of her elbows to keep from slamming her hand on top of his fingers. She fidgeted impatiently as she waited for him to respond.
“I’m not going to change your mind, am I? You know the days off aren’t the issue. I’m just worried about you is all, as a friend, not as your principal. I don’t think you are going to be happy with what you find in Scotland. I truly believe that Bri just decided to abandon her life here. It’s best that you move on and forget about her. Try and enjoy the wedding and this new phase of your life.”
Mitsy knew he was wrong. Every fiber of her being screamed it. She stood and made her way to the door, turning back toward him briefly. “So the days are approved? Great. I’ll see you at the wedding.”
Slamming the door of his office behind her, she made her way home to pack for her flight.
Chapter 4
Scotland
1646
“Ye canna mean it, Bri? Morna’s spells are unpredictable. Father told me countless stories of how her spells would go awry, causing havoc around the castle. Ye can be no sure that it will work the way ye mean it to, love”
Bri hesitated before speaking, knowing that she needed to be careful of how she approached this conversation with Eoin. She was going to do the spell regardless, she’d already made up her mind. But already in her few short months of marriage, she’d learned that if she wanted to get what she wanted, it was best to make her husband feel as if he had come up with the idea himself.
“The spell has worked correctly several times, has it not? You were even prepared to send me back with a spell. Surely you wouldn’t have done so if you weren’t certain that it would work correctly, right?” Bri reached out a hand to lay it on his broad shoulder, snuggling in close to weaken his resolve.
Bri smiled as Eoin buried his face into her hair, kissing the top of her head. “Aye, love. I did believe that the spell would work, but I’m so verra glad that ye dinna do it. By the time she died, Morna was a great caster.”
Bri breathed in the heady scent of her husband before shaking her head to bring herself back to task. “So you see? It would be safe for me to go. You’ve basically just said so yourself.”
A squeal escaped Bri’s lips as Eoin smacked her on the behind.
“Ye are twisting me words, lass. While I do believe the spells will no cause ye harm, that doesna mean that I think ye should go. Are ye so sure that Arran feels the way ye say? I’ve no heard him speak of Blaire.”