Not Without Juliet

chapter TWENTY-SIX



Once they broke through the door, Quinn followed closely on Ewan’s heels. Montgomery brought the second torch and led the women.

Daniel turned from his post at the top of the stairs just as Annie’s blue skirts swished around the corner.

“Why did you not come to let us out, when he got past you?” Ewan shoved at the man, nearly knocking him over.

Daniel shook his head. “No one’s passed me, laird.”

“Oh? And how would ye know if yer tongue was down Annie’s throat and yer eyes were shut tight?”

Daniel straightened his spine and lifted a haughty nose. “She but came to ask how long before I’d be home, yer lairdships. Not a soul has come up those stairs since the lot of ye went down them, may God strike me dead if they did.”

“All’s right, Daniel. All’s right.” Ewan turned to face his following. “Did he get lost, do ye suppose?”

“The dungeons,” Quinn said. It was the only other place they could be. The cellar twisted a bit, but didn’t go much past the workroom beneath the tomb. Even in the future.

Montgomery led the way. The Muirs brought up the rear, too stubborn to leave off, Quinn supposed. When it was clear that no one had been in the dungeons for a good while, one of the Muirs, Margot he thought, began to wail, which was odd; they never carried on. Oh, they were difficult to best in an argument, but he’d never seen one shed a tear, not in either century.

Montgomery and the rest looked about the dusty hallway, waiting for someone to explain the matter with the woman. Mhairi wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulders, then turned a look on Quinn that scared him to the bone.

“What?” he asked. “What is it? What do you know?”

Mhairi shook her head. “He must have found the tunnel. Mayhap there will be footprints, so we’ll ken for sure.”

“What tunnel?” he asked, then turned to Monty. “Is there a tunnel?”

“None that we could ever find.” Monty nodded to Mhairi. “Show us.”

She gave Margot one last pat, then Mhairi took Monty’s torch and started back up the passage. They all followed close on her heels. Margot had recovered enough to keep up. Soon they were passing the broken door of the workroom. Then beyond.

At the end of the tunnel, where the walls had been shored up with odd bits of barrels, beams, and planks, Mhairi reached out a hand and pulled on a metal ring attached to a barrelhead.

Much to his surprise, and apparently to the surprise of all, the barrelhead swung open on silent hinges. A tunnel gaped beyond.

Quinn moved forward, but Mhairi fairly jumped into his path, her arms spread wide. Margot moved around behind her and did the same.

Mhairi shook her head. “Ye cannot enter, Quinn Ross. None of ye can enter here. The tunnel is cursed. We’ve only showed it to ye so ye can see if Percy took Juliet this way.”

Quinn tried to push around her, but she blocked him again.

“Mhairi, I care not for faery tales, or ghosties. I’m going in. Look there.” He pointed to the dirt floor beneath the hole. Their footprints, clear as day. Juliet is draggin’ her feet, smart lass. Now let me pass.”

Mhairi shook her head again. Margot moved closer behind her sister, as if she truly believed that together they could stop him.

“The tunnel taketh and giveth,” said Margot, over her sister’s shoulder. “As Percy and Juliet travel beneath the hillock, the tunnel is taking from them. It takes all.”

Quinn froze at the last, not because he was afraid to enter, but afraid of what the cursed tunnel was doing to his brave Juliet.

Monty had hold of another torch and held it high, peering at the sisters as if he thought they might not be real. The firelight reflected off twin streams of tears—one running down Mhairi’s right cheek, the other running down the left cheek of her sister.

Muirs did not cry.

Quinn swallowed the bile rising in his throat and turned to Monty. “Do ye understand a word of this?”

Monty shook his head and looked behind him, to Jillian. His wife hurried forward and slipped beneath his arm.

“Mhairi,” she said. “Please. Help us understand. What is the tunnel taking?”

The woman nodded, her graying hair swung forward and back. But she looked for a nod from her sister before she answered.

“Age.”

The word hung in the air.

Jillian frowned, as did they all. “Age? Do you mean that the tunnel will make them younger?”

Mhairi sighed, then nodded.

Margot came around her sister’s shoulder and together they dropped their arms.

“Takes the years, dries the tears,” they chanted in unison. “Quiets laughter, lulls the fears.”

Tears poured a fresh trail down Mhairi’s right cheek. Her sister tried to console her while keeping a steady eye on Quinn.

“They’ll lose ten years by the time they reach the other side,” she said. “But it takes the memories of those ten years as well. Young Percy will be younger still. He won’t remember his purpose, so your lady fair will be in little danger. But I’m afraid young Juliet won’t remember... Well. You.” She patted him on the arm, then stepped back to guard the tunnel once more.

Quinn listed to his left as his heart turned heavy like a stone. Monty left his wife’s side to shore him up.

Jillian stepped up to the sisters. “What if we can stop them from getting to the other side?”

Mhairi shook her head. “I doubt Percy would come back just because ye ask him, nicely or no. Besides, the tunnel is not so long. They are well beyond halfway.”

No. That couldn’t be. It couldn’t be too late!

Quinn’s strength rallied with the silent denial.

“No!” He pushed his way toward the opening. He was right; even three women were no match for him. Someone grabbed hold of his waist but he was progressing. His fingers were but an inch or two from the frame when a gentle hand came to rest on his outstretched arm.

“Quinn.”

It was Jillian.

“Quinn, if you go, you’ll forget too. Think of the memories you’ll lose.” She shook her head. “You’ll lose Libby.”

As quick as a lightning bolt, he lost all the strength in his arm and it dropped.

Libby!

James was suddenly at his side, but Quinn noticed little else as he conjured Libby’s face in his mind. All those memories had become so clear since he’d met Juliet. He remembered all the little creases around Libby’s eyes, the dip below her nose. The sound of her laughter.

Trouble was, he remembered the same of Juliet.

Tears filled his throat and rose behind his eyes as he realized he would give up the past, even the memory of it, if he might save his Juliet even a little horror.

“Goodbye, Libby,” he whispered and lunged.

A large hairy arm rose between himself and the road to his woman. And worse, it held fast.

“Quinn,” James said calmly, as if holding him back was taking no effort at all. “Don’t give up on her. She’s slippery, that girl. She might get away from him and head back.”

James was right. She always had that back-up plan. Any moment she might come running back into the light, having bashed poor Percy up the side of the head.

“If she does,” Mhairi said, “the tunnel giveth the same. It will give ten years from stem to stern, but it gives naught more. She’ll gain the age she lost, but the memories will not be restored. ‘Tis a wicked curse. One meant to protect Clan Muir. What foe cannot be bested as a child? What better punishment for a fleeing enemy than to age him quickly without the benefit of wisdom?”

Margot pushed past his body and put her hand through the middle of the opening. She rubbed her fingers as if testing the texture of the darkness.

Chills assaulted Quinn’s spine and spread beneath his hair. He tasted metal on his tongue.

“’Tis finished,” Margot said. “They are through.”

Quinn refused to believe it all. Of course they’d always called them Muir witches, but they’d never done anything so ridiculous before. They were just trying to keep him from following after Juliet. But why?

“Quinn Ross, how can ye be so unbelieving when ye’ve traveled from yer time to ours?” Mhairi was behind him, shaking her head.

“Come,” Monty barked. “We can cut them off if Percy tries to take her north. Younger or not, he might think to take her back to Gordon land.”

He halted before his wife. “Jillian, my love. Ye’ll stay home, and ye’ll keep away from that tunnel. Mhairi, Margot? I trust ye to see to it. Doona fail me. Someone stay here, in case Juliet comes back this way.”

“Aye, yer lairdship. We’ll watch her like our own.”

Monty had taken half a dozen steps, but stopped short. Quinn nearly plowed through him.

“I expect the pair of you to do better than that,” Monty shouted. “Remember she carries my child.”

***

Jillian should have followed the men out of the cellar. The Muirs dried their faces and turned their clever smiles upon her. When they wrapped their arms around her shoulders, the feeling of deja vu should have sent her running, and praying, all the way to the twenty-first century, but she could never leave Montgomery behind. She’d done it once. She would never do it again.

“Jillian, dear. We have a great deal to talk about,” said Margot.

“Aye,” added her sister. “And not much time.”

***

Monty was about to lead them all out the kitchen door when Ewan put a hand up to stop the thing from opening.

“Monty, ye’re dead,” Ewan said. “No one can lay eyes on ye who doesna ken the truth. And neither can Quinn be seen. The funeral’s in the mornin’. I doubt the clan will believe that Montgomery Ross is dead while two men walk about who look just like him, aye? Our clansmen are no’ blind. Nor are they daft.”

Five minutes later, in ridiculous disguises, he and Monty waited by the door for Ewan and James to bring round the horses.

“She’s a fine lass, Quinn,” said his uncle. “Almost as fine as my Jillian.”

Quinn realized he’d been chewing off his fingernails and stopped.

“Oh? I admit your wife is a fine woman. There was a time I wished I would have been worthy of her myself.”

Monty’s smile dropped.

Quinn held up a hand to discourage the other man from swinging at him. His head had only begun to heal from all the pounding of the week before.

“But Jillian was never for me, Monty. She was always as a sister, though in my dreams I believed myself to be falling in love with her. But when I laid eyes on Juliet, I realized she was the one I’d been dreaming of. The Muirs had a hand in that dream, but I cannot begrudge them for it. Which reminds me, if that tunnel is as cursed as they claim, it should be destroyed. I find it hard to believe that danger has lain below our feet all these years.”

“Och, aye, nephew. We’ll see to it as soon as Juliet is safe.”