Abby back to Aedan, so ye can send me home, yes? I must return. My time isn’t here.”
She swiped at the tears streaming down her face, and he hated himself for hurting her. But this time wasn’t his own. He didn’t belong here. Kenzie may, but he would never suit. Ever.
“I can send you back, but you’ll be going back to nothing. I love you too much to see you hurt so, Ben. Not to mention I don’t want to live the rest of my life without you.”
“They could’ve killed ye and Alasdair. Cut ye down as well. Ye promised me you would take care of my boy and keep him safe and yet ye put him directly into harm’s way.”
“Ben, calm down, I did what you would’ve done in my situation. When I saw them coming toward you I decided that if you were to fall, then we would fall with you.”
“Ye should’ve headed to castle Druiminn, as I instructed ye. Had ye done so, my boy would still be in his rightful time and have Castle Ross to come home to.” He struggled to sit up, and she stepped back. “It matters little. Once I’m healed, you’ll send us all back to our rightful time, and I’ll take back my home and lands.”
“You need to understand that there is no home for you to go back to, Ben. Clan Grant burned it to the ground. It was already alight when I pulled you through time. Had you stayed, both you and Alasdair would’ve died. I came back in time to find out what happened to you, and your home, and I did. I now know why there is no reference of you in the tomes of history. I know why you disappeared like a ghost.”
“Ye do. Then tell me, lass, because I’m most interested to hear.” His voice was hard and cold, and yet he could not help but feel betrayed by Kenzie. He’d long reconciled, with his life and the time, that dying was an everyday threat.
But to think of Kenzie and Alasdair rotting in some forgotten land was too much to bear and his temper increased.
“It’s because of me, Ben. It’s because somehow in this magical world we live in, it was me who took you away from your time. It was me, all along, who pulled you from the seventeenth century and into the twenty-first where you can live out your days—with me. Safe from any clans who wish to battle or do you harm. Safe from Clan Grant who never forgave you for seducing their precious Aline—removing her from the MacLeod Clan who were much more powerful than your own.”
“I dinna think the MacLeod’s are more powerful as such, mayhap the castle is larger.”
“Ben, you’re changing the subject. You were never destined to stay in your time, and you didn’t. The history books say as much, and I realized this when I pulled you through time. You’re my soulmate. We’re supposed to be together. Here and now.”
“We will be?” Ben ground his teeth, not yet ready to forgive the lass for what she’d done. To lose one’s home forever wasn’t something that was easy to stomach. And what kind of life was there for him here? He was educated, yes, but nothing like those he’d come to believe this century boasted. He was a warrior and laird, not the type of man who lived in Kenzie’s century.
Kenzie slumped in her chair, hurt clouding her eyes at his words. “You don’t want to be together?”
Of course, he did, just not in this time. This was not his home. “Are ye able to send me back, should I wish it?”
“Yes, if that’s what you want, but the Grants saw you disappear before their eyes. The shock on both their faces told me they’d seen something that wasn’t explainable. Should you return, you’ll have to explain what they saw. How it was possible for you to just disappear into thin air.”
“I’ll not have to explain anything, as they’ll be dead. And dead men tell no lies, nor do they ask any questions.”
Kenzie stood and unhooked her coat from a hook on the closed door. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving.” Well, of course she was, he’d all but said he didn’t want to stay here with her. Why would she want to do the same for him?
“I need to go back to Druiminn and check on Alasdair, and I need to think.”
“About?” he asked, watching her closely, and