A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

no way for anyone to track your movements?”she asked. “I mean, they can’t keep this thing open for long withtheir current energy source. It wouldn’t be long enough to sendtroops through, for example, but it would probably stay open longenough to kidnap or assassinate someone. Or at least longenough to toss a bomb through.”

“Or to have an innocent passerby fall intoit.”

“Yeah, that too,” Sorcha said, her voiceripe with sympathy. Hugh pushed off the sofa and went to thewindow, staring just as blankly as she had before. She continuedsoftly, and he knew that the worst was yet to come. “I think thatthe trouble my friend Darcy was referring to is that Dr. Fieldinghasn’t been able to nail down the destination point at all, and ifhe can’t do that, then what’s the point, right?”

“What do ye mean, he cannae control thedestination?”

Sorcha bit her lip hesitantly. “The otherend just bounces all over the place … and time, apparently, eachtime they power it up. As far as I can see, the targeting softwareis showing that it opens up at different destinations with nodiscernible pattern.”

“So I just walked into this wormhole when it‘bounced’ into the Drummosse Muir two hundred and fifty years ago?”Hugh asked unnecessarily. He already knew the answer. By God but hehad always thought he had lived a fairly charmed life. How unluckycould a man be to happen upon such an occurrence with suchincredible bad timing?

“And you and that Native American probablystartled Fielding to death when he realized that his wormholedidn’t travel through space alone,” she told him. “I didn’t seeanything in there about anticipating time travel.”

Hugh grimaced at that. “And the reason hedinnae simply send us back through the hole is because he cannaeduplicate the destination,” Hugh said dully. He had been expectingthat, of course, but it didn’t make the truth any easier tohear.

“And the reason he kept you was becausethere was no way he was going to go public with such a hugemistake.”

Lovely, Hugh thought. How terribly comforting to know that it wasall nothing but an innocent mistake.

Chapter 26

Hugh fell into a brooding silence, standingat the window with one hand braced against the pane. Unlike at hislast such lapse, this time Claire was all sympathy. Lord only knewshe had hated telling him the truth. It couldn’t have been any morepleasant to hear it.

His attention had drifted to a cargo shipchugging by in the distance, but Claire wasn’t certain if he wastruly seeing it or if his thoughts were turned entirely inward atthat point.

It was there again, that urge to comfort,but this time Claire did not try to turn it away. She went quietlyto his side and slipped her cold hand into his warm one, giving ita comforting squeeze. Finally, he looked down at her with thedesolation that had been temporarily banished lurking once again inhis eyes, but even when all must have seemed lost to him, Hugh wasstill chivalrous enough to recognize the chill that had come overher. He caught her hand between his and chafed it between his. “Ifwe have the schematics for the machine, could we build it ourselvesand find a way tae send me home?”

“I’m not a quantum physicist, Hugh,” shesaid regretfully, absently slipping her other hand between his forwarmth as well. “And I don’t know anyone who is. Time machines areas new a concept to me as they are to you. It’s always been justscience fiction.”

“So we cannae just build our own then?”

“Not unless we can harness the 1.21jigawatts of electricity it would take to work one,” she quipped,then bit her lip. “Bad joke. But, no, there is no way we could finda power source even if we could build the machine itself.”

Hugh grunted but remained silent. Silentenough to renew her worry as he looked into the distance once more.She wondered what he was thinking but couldn’t bring herself toask. Instead, she slipped her arms around his waist and hugged himclose, resting her cheek against his chest. The warmth of hisembrace, the press of his body against hers was everything she hadimagined it would be. Claire could only hope that human contactprovided him the comfort it gave her now when he needed it themost. “I’m sorry, Hugh. So sorry that I can’t give you the answersI know you want to hear.”

His arms came around her, tenderly at first,but then he was clutching her so tightly it almost stole herbreath. Hugh buried his face in her hair, and she could feel hisdeep breaths caressing her neck. One hand crept up her back untilhis fingers tangled in the hair at her nape.

Her heart full of worry for him, Clairewhispered into his shoulder, “Are you okay?”

Lifting his head, Hugh pressed a kissagainst her temple and eased away, raising his other hand until hewas cradling her head between them, the heels of his hands againsther jaw and his fingers curling at the base of her skull.

Looking down at her, he seemed as fierce andhard as he had been that first day, but this time it was nottrepidation that made Claire tremble.

“You can kiss me now if you like,” shewhispered helplessly, fully expecting that he would take advantageof the offer. But as he tended to, Hugh surprised her again.

“Nae, lass, I do plan on kissing ye long andhard, but when I do, it willnae be in a moment of gratitude,” hesaid, searching her eyes intently. His eyes were dark with growingdesire but there was a question there as well. “I dinae ken what itis about ye, Sorcha, but for some reason I cannae remain in a moodfor long since I hae been in yer company. For as long as I was heldin that prison, I was angry. Every day more so than the one before.I should be angrier than I am now for all that was done tae me, forwhat was taken away. I should be angrier wi’ ye for being soprovoking, but I am nae. Why is that?”

“My charm is irresistible?” Claire jested,summoning the hint of a smile to the corner of his mouth.

“Is that