Chapter 34

34

A s if a switch had been thrown, the wind with its howling and the roaring buzz of the arch stopped. Douglas looked around and found only himself and Moira standing next to the archway.

“What happened?”

“Ye hiv defied the Fates. Love is the only power strong enough to defy them. By calling on your love for Caitlin, ye were able to resist their call back.”

“I didn’t think I had a choice about it.” He was confused, but he felt strongly that he had done the right thing, made the right decision.

“We always hiv a choice, lad. Sometimes we dinna ken or dinna understand our choices, but they’re always there for us.”

“And now?” He thought he understood—he would stay here and live out his life; the one that began here with his parents.

“Ye are part of this time now, Douglas. Ye hiv rejected the other time and place, so it no longer exists for ye.”

“My parents? Will they remember me? Remember that I existed?”

“Oh, aye. Ye will always live in their hearts.”

He stepped away from the archway. One thing still didn’t make sense to him. He had come back through the arch and Moira had said that if one came back, one would go forward. Douglas looked at her with a new awakened knowledge.

“If I stay here, someone has to go forward. I was right, wasn’t I? You are Mairi?”

“I amna yet, but I will be called that in your time. ”

“Why? When?” Douglas couldn’t imagine Moira leaving her family, her village, her clan and going forward to the future.

“When my time here is done, I will pass through the arch to your village of Dunnedin to finish my duty as guardian of the archway.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. Rubbing his eyes, he noticed dawn was breaking. “When will your time be done?”

“I dinna ken the whole of it, only what I’ve seen in the wisdom, Douglas. There will come a time when ye and Caitlin care for the clan and my healing skills are no’ needed.”

“And Pol?”

“He will hiv passed on.” She paused and a sad smile crossed her face. “We canna live forever.”

“And your wisdom? Who will advise the MacKendimens of Dunnedin if you leave?”

“My daughter’s daughter will stand in my place with the clan. Her visions will be the strongest of any of the women in my line—her wisdom will lead the clan through the dangerous times to come.”

“Your daughter’s daughter? That would be Caitlin’s...” He knew but couldn’t accept what he was hearing.

“Your blue-eyed, black-haired daughter. The one to be born nine months from this day. She will come forth on the full-mooned night of the autumnal equinox and be blessed by the Fates and by God with many gifts.”

“Many gifts?”

“She will be granted my gift of sight and also my other gift.” Her enigmatic smile teased him. He thought back to their many encounters, in this time and in the one before when he was growing up and knew her as Mairi.

“I knew it! You really can read minds!”

“I can hear and see some thoughts.”

“It doesn’t seem possible, any of this. I still feel like I’ll wake from a dream and find myself back home in Chicago.”

“That willna happen. Ye belong to us now. My Caitlin will be verra pleased to know that ye will faither her child, her children. ”

“Did you know that I’d stay?”

“Nay, Douglas. I only see what is granted to me. I saw us here on this night. I saw you standing as you did, under the arch with the full moon behind ye. I couldna see the rest of it.”

“But, if I’d gone back, what would have happened to you? Could you still go forward?”

“We’ll never ken, will we? Now, there’s no reason to share what I hiv shared wi’ ye. Many days and years are left to pass afore I will be called forward. I dinna want Pol and Caitlin to ken of this.”

“I understand, Moira.”

“Good. Well, ’tis been an exhausting few days and I need some rest. Will ye come back wi’ me to speak to Caitlin?”

“I don’t think she’ll be at the cottage. I think I know where she’ll be as soon as the sun rises.” He thought of Moira’s words about what Caitlin did after a healing.

“After ye speak to Caitlin, there are others who need to be told of yer plans to stay wi’ us.”

Douglas groaned as he thought of Craig and his expectation of marrying Caitlin. He could see another battle in his future and he didn’t need Moira’s gift to see it. After he saw Caitlin, he didn’t care what happened. Maybe she would even heal him of any injuries Craig inflicted on him in their upcoming fight.

Moira waved him off and he ran through the woods, toward the lake and the shorter way to the cave. What would her reaction be? Would she be glad he stayed? Or would her temper get the best of her?

It didn’t matter. He was here and he was staying and now they would have a chance to live out all their dreams. He would be the one to care for and love her. He would watch over her after healings took their toll on her. He would create children with her. They would be together— he’d defied the Fates to stay with her.

Moira stayed behind as Douglas ran off through the woods. She was tempted to use the sight but her other gift and her mother’s intuition served her just as well in times like this. She’d heard the moans and breathless sighs in his thoughts and she’d seen her daughter with him in the pools of the cave. Only a fool would not know what was to happen between them when he met Caitlin at that cave once more. She was no fool.

Peering into the light of the rising sun, weak as it was on this midwinter’s day, she suddenly felt as tired as she’d told Douglas she was. Wrapping her cloak more tightly around her shoulders, she walked from the arch and toward her home. Trudging over the cold-hardened mud, she kept her glance on the roughened ground, not wanting to slip.

“Mam?”

“Caitlin, lass, I didna hear ye coming.” She looked at her daughter’s tear-stained face and wanted to smile. She held back, believing that Douglas’s news should be his own.

“Is he... is it...?” The poor lass couldn’t even say the words. Looking at her red, swollen eyes and blotchy skin, Moira knew her daughter had not slept at all this night past.

“’Tis done, Caitlin. He has accepted his destiny.”

Her daughter didn’t cry; she doubted if there were any tears left for her to shed. Instead, she pulled her cloak around her more snugly and turned to go back home.

“Hiv ye bathed since the healing?”

“Nay, Mam. I didna feel up to it last night after Douglas left.”

Moira walked to her daughter’s side and placed her arm around Caitlin’s shoulders. “Well, then, why no’ go there now? A storm is coming, a bad one from the looks of it and ye may no’ be able to get there for some time.”

“Mayhap I will.” They took a few steps together and Caitlin stopped. “I didna bring fresh clothes with me. I will come back to the cottage wi’ ye and then go to the cave.”

Fighting not to let the smile on her face show, Moira shook her head. “Dinna fret about that—I can send yer faither wi’ those when he goes to the smithy.”

“Would ye? That would be wonderful. The hot springs will feel so good this morn. ”

“He will be glad to. ’Tis been so difficult for ye and I can tell by looking at ye that ye hiv gotten little sleep. I will make a fresh pot of tea and hiv some food ready for ye, too, on yer return.”

“Oh, Mam. Thank ye. I willna be long, I promise.”

Moira kissed her daughter on the cheek and watched her trot off toward the lake and the hot springs. She held it in until Caitlin was out of sight. Then she erupted in laughter that echoed through the forest. She laughed until tears flowed and then she took several deep breaths to calm herself.

Love had triumphed once more in the MacKendimen clan. She offered up a quick prayer of thanks and went to tell her husband of the impending marriage. Well, she would tell him of Caitlin and Douglas at the cave together. A wedding would follow very soon after her husband found them there together and especially as he would find them. Mayhap after he chased them from the cave, she would join him there.

With a smile on her face, Moira, seer of the Clan MacKendimen and guardian of the archway through time, made her way home.