At his approach she looked over her shoulder and her full lips parted into a smile that made his heart stutter.
As he settled next to her on the lush turf surrounding his pool, she asked, “Are they asleep?”
“Aye or soon will be.”
She pointed skywards. “Look at that.” Her voice, soft and sweet, was filled with awe. “In a world without street lights — lit only by fire — you can see so many stars.”
Seeing only the heavens as they always were, he cleared his throat. Before he could speak his heart, however, she asked, “Do you have many visitors?”
“Nay. Ye and yer bairns are the first.” When she frowned, he shrugged. “I think it odd as well.” Peddlers and armies had marched past many times over the years yet no one had ever taken notice of his glen. ’Twas almost as if he and this wondrous place did not exist. “’Tis almost as if this place were …”
“Shrouded in magic?” She smiled.
“Aye, so why not remain? Ty’s most content here, blossoming as ye say.”
She sighed. “If I had only Ty to worry over, I think I would remain. I’ve been content here, too. Happier, in fact, than I have been in years.”
Emboldened by her words, he ran a finger along her jaw. When she looked up at him and smiled he cradled her cheek in a broad calloused palm. Looking deep into her eyes, he whispered, “I dearly lust that ye do remain, Sarah. I truly do.”
Dare he kiss her? Aye, he must. How else would she ken what lurked beneath his breast, in his soul? He settled his lips on hers, marvelling at their soft texture. When a groan escaped her, he, heart soaring, deepened the kiss, his tongue sweeping into her mouth, stroking her as his hands longed to do.
Please say aye, that ye’ll stay.
Too soon she pulled back and his arms, which had boldly found their way about her, reluctantly fell away.
“Oh, Hamish.” She traced his lips with a delicate touch. Seeing her bonnie brown eyes grow glossy, his hopes again soared.
“I want to stay. Truly. But the other boys have parents and they’re doubtless frantic with worry by now. I have to get them back. Somehow, some way. I don’t want to leave. I have to.” She took a deep shaking breath. “I understand why you can’t take us to Edinburgh but would you be willing to lead us part of the way? So we won’t get lost.”
So, ’tis the end after all.
He took her right hand in his and heaved a resigned sigh. “Ye dinna have to go to Edinburgh, lass. I think — nay, I believe — all ye and the lads need do to return home is to wish whilst in this pool. ’Tis all I did to make the fish and coos come. To make ye and the lads come.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Whilst bathing, I was pondering this place, how lovely ’twas but how lonely. I wished I had someone to share it with and—” he snapped his fingers “—there ye all were.”
She shook her head. “An explosion sent us here.”
“Mayhap, or mayhap my wish and your world simply aligned.” He forced a smile. “Or collided.”
The next morning at dawn Hamish stood in his magic pool next to Sarah. The lads, silent and dressed again in their yellow livery, stood by her side. Praying his stoic countenance would remain intact — wouldn’t collapse and expose the heartache already tearing him asunder — he reached betwixt the folds of his plaid and pulled out the five wooden animals he’d made for each of the lads. The most complex, a long-horned coo, he gave to Ty. “To remember me and the coos by.”
Lastly he turned to Sarah. He removed one of the brass cuffs that had belonged to his father and his father before him, a symbol of his once proud lineage, and placed it about her upper arm for it was too large for her wrist, and squeezed. When satisfied it would not fall off, he took her right hand in his. “I shall miss ye most dearly but wish ye well.”
“And I you.” She placed her free hand upon his chest where his heart beat painfully. Did she ken the agony their leave taking was causing him? Aye. Her bonnie eyes were filling with tears. She stood on her toes and kissed him.
Too soon she pulled away. He swallowed the aching thickness in his throat and stepped out of the pool. “Now make yer wish and fall backwards into the water.”
Gasping and gagging, Sarah staggered to her feet and raked wet hair from her face. She opened her eyes and blinked in disbelief. “Oh my God, it worked.”
She was in modern-day Edinburgh, standing in the Princess Street Gardens’ fountain. She quickly counted heads. The boys were all with her. Across the park she could see the ruined pub, a half-dozen satellite news trucks, a dozen emergency vehicles and hundreds of milling people.
“Look!” Peter shouted, pointing to a man and woman huddled together, their arms locked about each other’s shoulders. “That’s Mom and Dad!” He scrambled over the edge of the fountain and took off at a run.
“Jeremy, your parents are here, too,” Bryce shouted, “and there’s mine!” The boys bolted over the granite rim shouting, ‘Mom! Dad!” As Mark followed suit, Sarah fell to her knees.
She’d done it. Done what she’d had to do. Gotten them home safely. Now she could cry, grieve.
“Miss Colbert?”
She looked up to find Ty standing before her and dashed the tears from her eyes. “Hey, why are you still standing here? Go, join the others.”
He shook his head as she came to her feet. “There’s no reason.”
“But your grandmother—”
“She’s in a nursing home, doesn’t even remember who I am any more. Dad’s lawyer oversees my schooling … and the money.”
“Oh, Ty, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
He shrugged as he took a shuddering breath. “I want to go back. The food’s terrible and there’s no doctors and stuff but I was happy there.” He studied the destroyed pub through unshed tears and whispered, “He made me feel safe. He cared.”
Her tears spilled. “Yes, he did care. Very much.”
On the other side of the park her students’ happy reunions were being interrupted by a gaggle of excited reporters shoving microphones in their faces. Shaking her head in disgust, she murmured, “I want to go back, too, but I don’t know that we can.”
Seeing his classmates point towards the fountain, Ty put his hand in hers. “We won’t know that unless we try. Please. Before they come, before it’s too late.”
Reporters began pointing at them, shouting orders to cameramen who lumbered forwards with large shoulder-mounted cameras.
She looked down at Ty. He was right. Why not try while they had the chance? She and Ty had so much to gain and nothing to lose should they fail. She’d fallen in love with Hamish MacDuff and him with her. Of that she had no doubt. More importantly, Ty needed a caring man in his life; a father, not an investment lawyer.
Sarah took a deep breath then squeezed Ty’s hand. “All right. Let’s do it. Wish as hard as you can and, for God’s sake, don’t let go of my hand.”
Hands locked, they closed their eyes, squeezed their noses shut and together fell backwards, the fountain’s cold water closing over their heads.
A world away in a lovely glen Hamish stood in his pool, his hands pressed to burning eyes. He’d not wept in years but did so now. His lovely Spaniel and lad were gone. He wished with all that remained of his heart that they might return then threw back his head and roared to the gods of his forebears, “ Why? Why did ye give them to me if ye only meant to take them away?”
Receiving no answer, unable to bear the thought of life in the glen without them, he took a step on the slanting shelf upon which he stood. Only six more strides and he’d step into the abyss. Aye, ’twould be better this way than to simply exist until his bones grew too frail and his spirit too weak to hunt.