Chapter 11

11

“ M ind yer steps, lad.”

Douglas stumbled once more on the uneven surface beneath his feet. If he would keep his eyes in the same direction his body was heading, he’d probably not trip again. But the sights and sounds surrounding him were too fantastic to ignore.

A castle! This was a real working medieval castle, complete with a huge outer bailey, keep wall and a multi-storied keep. There were warriors on the battlements keeping watch from on high. When they entered through the gates, he could hear the yells and bellows of the men in the training yards. Smoke rose from the top of the back of the keep, from a building somewhat separate in one corner. The kitchens from the smell of it.

He’d tried to follow Moira and Caitlin without drawing attention to himself but he failed. His own gaping was met with the same from the countless villagers who were within the castle compound. Douglas again tugged on the waist and belt of the plaid he wore to make sure he still wore it. Activities around him ceased as he passed.

Douglas nodded politely if he made eye contact with anyone. Again and again he heard “MacKendimen” whispered as he passed. His father’s looks clearly marked him as one of them.

“We are here, Douglas.” Caitlin’s voice cut through his musings. Moira knocked on the door and opened it when told to enter. Douglas followed both women into the room .

The solar. As in the descriptions, large windows sat high in the walls, allowing the day’s brightest sunlight to flood in. Large and small looms sat to one side of the room, where the sunbeams were the strongest. A few wooden chairs and tables were scattered throughout with a particularly attention-grabbing arrangement in one corner. The intricately decorated and carved chairs were larger than life and fit for a... king?

The man seated in the larger of the two held himself as though he were royalty. His proud bearing was matched by the woman seated to his left. Their appearance and coloring was as different as night and day. He was tall, Douglas could tell, even though he was seated and his blue eyes were all that linked him to the Clan MacKendimen. She was smaller, barely reaching his shoulders as she sat, with hair that showed little tendency to gray from its brilliant auburn and red shades. Green eyes followed his progress across the room.

Robert Mathieson and Anice MacNab, the laird and lady MacKendimen, earl and countess of Dunnedin.

Caitlin had been trying to tell him their story as they walked to the keep but he’d been so caught up in scenery around him he’d not listened as closely as he should have. There was clearly more to know about how the laird and chieftain of the clan bore another man’s name. It certainly wasn’t the normal way of inheritance as he knew it.

“Robert. Anice. Good day to ye both. May ye ken Douglas MacKendimen, a clansman visiting us for a bit,” Moira began and he looked from one to the other, meeting their curious gazes. Anice’s face suddenly drained of all color. Robert, obviously paying attention to his wife’s every move, turned at the sound of distress she uttered.

“Sandy? How can it be ye?” Anice’s pained whisper was the only warning before she fainted.

Douglas stepped forward to help but Moira and Caitlin and Robert were there before he could move. Robert’s quick action saved Anice from landing facedown in the rushes. Her faint was brief and soon her eyelashes were fluttering open.

“Here, now,” he said as he walked around the others to her side. “Put your head down near your knees,” he put his hand on the back of her head and guided it down toward her lap. “This will make you feel less faint.” She didn’t fight his hold. “Breathe slowly now, in and out slowly.” He repeated it over and over until he could hear her breathing reach a normal pace. Douglas released her head and stepped back in front of them.

“Anice, ye did that on the day of our first meeting and my good looks werena the cause of yer faint that day, either.” Robert smiled at his wife and she tried to return it but the terror in her eyes prevented it. “Ye resemble my wife’s first husband, my half brother, Alesander MacKendimen, God rest his blackened soul. Are ye his bastard?”

Douglas choked on his answer. Insult was not meant by Robert’s question. Bastards were common in medieval times.

“He does resemble his faither but ’twas no’ Sandy. His parents are Alex and Maggie MacKendimen.” Moira’s voice took on that mesmerizing tone, the one you could not ignore.

Anice looked once more as though she would faint. But she didn’t. “’Tis true? You are Alex’s son?” At Douglas’s nod, she called out, “Everyone leave, please. The laird and I would like privacy to greet our kinsman. Jean, see that no one comes in until I give you leave to open the door.”

Anice’s women and maidservants picked up their sewing and embroidery and, taking as much time as they could, made their way out of the room. In a few minutes only Douglas, Moira and Caitlin remained with the laird and lady.

“So,” Anice demanded, color and spunk returned, “you are the son of Alex MacKendimen and Maggie Hobbs?”

“I am. Did you know my parents?” So this was a fake. How could she know his parents and be from long-ago Scotland? He ignored the little nagging voice in his mind that said there was a way.

“Aye, I did. They were here in Dunnedin for some months in about twenty years ago.”

“Anice, they were the visitors of whom ye spoke? The ones... ?” Robert’s words trailed off as he turned to face Douglas.

“The visitors who came through the arch. Aye, Robert, they were. And they returned to their own time through the arch as well.” Moira explained as though traveling through time was the same as walking down a road.

“Mam? Can this be?” Caitlin now looked as pale as Anice. Douglas stepped to her side and grasped her arm, bracing her with his. She looked at him, her eyes wild with confusion and... He thought for a moment he saw disappointment, too.

“This must stay between only those in this room. Robert, for the good of the clan we must never tell this to outsiders.” Moira looked one to the next, at the laird’s nod, each one in the room also agreed. “Douglas has come back to us the same way his parents did—through the archway by the power of the Fates.”

“But why, Mam?”

“I hiv never questioned the Fates’s reasons and neither should ye, lass. He is here and will stay as long as the Fates allow.”

“But, I thought... he was...” Caitlin’s voice came to a choking halt. Douglas’s own throat tightened at her obvious distress. He tried to speak, but it took a few tries before the words would come out.

“Do you know why I’m here, Moira? For how long?”

“Nay, lad, I dinna ken. But while yer here, I may call on yer healing skills to aid the clan. With yer permission, of course, Robert.”

“Ye are a healer, then?” Robert directed the question to him, the man’s piercing gaze from those unusual catlike eyes was on him, assessing his every movement.

“Yes, I’m trained as a physician and surgeon,” Douglas answered.

“Then the Clan MacKendimen would welcome yer services for as long as ye are here.”

Douglas nodded at Robert in acceptance. Caitlin turned and pulled from his grasp. Her face was white and her eyes looked huge in her pale face.

“As long as yer here?” She shook her head in denial and part of him understood. He’d believed from the dreams and then when he first saw her that they were meant to be together. But Moira’s words implied this was a temporary stay. He apparently had a chance to return home, to his time and to all that was familiar to him.

He watched as she took one step and then halted and looked at Moira again.

“Mam?”

“’Tis as ’twas meant to be, lass. Ye ken?”

And with a cry, Caitlin ran from the room. Douglas felt as though a rock sat at the pit of his stomach. He should follow her, but what could he say? I didn’t know if I could go back or not and I’m happy to find I can return to my time? Whatever we thought was between was our imagination? I didn’t feel the pull between us and the power every time we touched? Somehow he knew that a part of each one of those excuses was a lie.

Three years of those dreams, and for what? To make him long for this woman with every part of his being and then not be able to be together? To make him shun every woman he’d met since medical school and for what? Well, Moira might have faith in the Fates as she called this higher power but he wasn’t so sure about his own belief in their scheme.

“I should follow her, Moira, she’s very upset.”

“Nay, Douglas, give her time. She will understand more with each passing day.”

“And will I understand, too?” He then took notice of the rapt attention being paid by the laird and his lady. They missed not a word of what was said.

“Moira, stay and talk with me,” Anice began, rising from her seat. “I have more questions and I am sure that Robert does as well.” Robert simply nodded.

Douglas turned away and strode toward the door. It opened with a crash as he reached for it.

“What the hell hiv ye done to her?” Craig roared out in anger. Without a moment of warning, he grabbed Douglas by the throat and pushed him up against the wall. “No one harms Caitlin wi’out answering to me for it.” The younger man tightened his grasp and shook him for effect.

Douglas struck from below with both fists to loosen Craig’s stranglehold. He then applied his knee with some force to Craig’s groin for an added bit of satisfaction. He was left gasping for air, but Craig lay groaning on the floor.

“Are ye two done with yer show?” Now it was Robert’s voice that shook the rafters. “Get on yer feet, both of ye, and bring yerselves over here.”

Douglas stood upright and took a few more deep breaths before answering Robert’s call. He got there before Craig did and at least he could move without much pain. A smile found its way to his face. He’d been dying to strike out at Craig since he’d discovered that Craig’s blow laid him out in the forest that night.

He had a feeling that Craig had watched for longer than he’d admitted to Caitlin or her parents. Douglas was sure that Craig had known he was no danger to Caitlin. He was also certain that it was Caitlin’s recognition of him that sealed his fate. Craig wanted no competition for Caitlin’s hand.

“Craig, what were ye thinking? Ye attack a guest in our home wi’out cause?” Robert began.

“But, Caitlin...,” Craig stuttered. “He...” He pointed at Douglas and tried to speak.

“Caitlin haes a faither to stand guard over her, Craig. She is no’ yers, ye hiv no claim to her.” Robert walked over to the younger man and put his arm around his shoulders. “Let it be, Craig. She haes made her wishes known to me and yer maither, and to ye.”

Craig looked around at the others in the room and slowly nodded his acceptance. Robert dropped his hold and Craig turned to Douglas.

“Ye hiv a care for her or ye will answer to me regardless of my lack of claim on her.”

“I understand, Craig.” Douglas answered and held out his hand. Craig looked from him to Robert and then to Anice and then he turned his glance away and walked out of the room without accepting Douglas’s offer.

“He is young,” Anice offered with a shrug of her shoulders.

“No’ so young that he kens no better than to attack a guest in front of me. His temper gets the best of him even now.” Robert turned to face him. “I offer ye my hand, Douglas, in welcome to our home and our clan. Ye are welcome to stay here in the keep wi’ the other men while yer here. Moira, what say ye?”

“’Tis a good arrangement since we hiv no room for him in the cottage. We can let it be known that he has a great interest in the healing arts and that he will visit the sick and injured with me if ye give yer leave for it.”

“Douglas, since only a monk or holy brother would devote all of his time to healing others, ye may want to take some training with my men as well? Do ye think this will be to yer satisfaction?”

What could he say? No, I don’t want to sleep here in this filthy, cold, drafty castle when I could be in the same house with Caitlin? That he didn’t need to train or work out since he wasn’t staying here? That was what he wanted to say but common sense won out.

“Yes, laird, that’s fine with me.”

“Come later this day and I’ll find you some quarters in the men’s barracks. Now, Anice, attend me, for I hiv many questions to put to ye about things ye hiv left unsaid.” Robert held out his arm and Anice placed hers on top without a moment’s hesitation. Douglas stood aside to watch them pass. They were a fitting pair, and so deeply in love that anyone with eyes could see it.

“Come, lad, I will gather some supplies I need and we will be on our way now.” Moira gathered her cloak around her shoulders and moved to the doorway.

“And Caitlin?” He couldn’t just leave knowing how distraught she was and not knowing where to find her.

“She will be fine. There is still much we dinna ken and she will hiv to find her place in this as well as ye. Now, come. There are many to be seen this morn.”

He followed her into the main room of the castle and found a crowd in front of the door, all jostling for a better view of the goings-on in the solar. When discovered, they all turned as one and tried to look busy. Unsuccessfully .

It was as they made their way out of the great hall and toward the stairs that he realized his newest problem—how could he treat or even diagnose patients without the tools of his trade? Without the technology he relied on to provide him with valuable information, how could he tell one affliction from another?

The Fates must surely be laughing at him now.