Page 19 of Duncan

Chapter Five

Waking up alone confused Nicole as much as where she was; it took a few moments before she recalled Duncan bringing her up to his infirmary to take a nap. Whatever he put in the sleeping herbs had proven quite effective; they’d worked very fast, and she still seemed fairly groggy. Tossing aside the blanket, she rose and made a circuit of the room, inspecting everything as she looked for something she could use as a weapon.

Take advantage of your environment, the ex-Green Beret who had taught Nicole during her hostage survival training had advised her. Look for thin, sharp objects you can easily conceal in your clothing. Used correctly, even something like a nail file can blind a man, or sever his carotid.

Duncan had left a few things on his work table, but all were carved from wood and seemed too small, thin or flimsy to serve as a weapon. Nicole’s stomach rolled as she tried to imagine what it would take for her to attack the healer. She’d never sensed any danger around him; if he’d wanted to hurt or violate her he’d already had ample time and opportunity to do so. When she reached the door and opened it to look out into the empty hall, she nearly ran out, but then closed it again, and went over to look through the window slit in the stone wall.

As she passed the strange black cabinet something started making a shrill squeaking sound, and then a thud sounded from inside. The moment she touched the door, however, the noise stopped.

“I wouldn’t try to open that,” a woman’s voice said from behind her. “Unless you want something Fae and magical to melt your face off.”

Nicole turned to see a golden-skinned brunette with spectacular blonde highlights watching her from the now-open doorway. The other woman, who was wearing a modern dark gray wet suit over her bountiful curves, carried a basket of what appeared to be wide, flat green and brown seaweed.

“I wasn’t trying to.” She put on her best friendly expression. “I’m Nicole Fairley. You’re Caroline Parish, the diver from Florida?”

“Guilty as charged.” She placed the basket on Duncan’s work table and added a bulging sack that she untied from her belt. “You’re probably past the initial disbelief stage with the life-saving time-traveling, the luxury accommodations, and the hundreds of hunks who surround you, so next up is anger, denial and frustration. You won’t enjoy this part, or finding out whatever superpower the ring gave you. Hopefully it’s not as scary or dangerous as mine.”

Her blunt way of speaking made Nicole relax, as she had always appreciated strong, no-nonsense women like Caroline. “Will finding out what yours is give me nightmares?”

“Maybe, but you look pretty tough. I stop time, which freezes the world and everyone in it. The length of time doubles each time I do, so if I keep using it eventually everything will stop forever. My main job is not to use it.” The diver grimaced. “The next time I do, everything will freeze for about an hour. I’m saving it for when the island is attacked, because it doesn’t affect me or my guys. We’ll need all the extra time we can get.”

Caroline seemed to be confiding in her, which seemed unlikely, given they’d just met. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“I remember reading about a girl who looked a lot like you last year,” the diver said. “Weirdly, her name was Nicole Fairburn, and she arranged the funding for a coral seed bank to save samples from endangered reefs. Her dad gave that institute in Miami millions to hire people around the world to collect them, too.” She made a casual gesture. “I got started working as a sponge diver in Tarpon Springs, so anyone who helps save the reefs is fine by me.”

“That’s not me, but she sounds like a nice woman.” Nicole’s stomach dropped down to her heels.

“You are.” The other woman’s turquoise eyes filled with amusement. “I read about you in the Herald a couple times. Most of the articles had nice, recent pics of you, so you can drop the act now. By the way, funding scholarships to Stanford for minorities and women in the sciences through corporations that pledged to hire them after graduation was cool, too. You helped give hundreds of kids the chance to go to college and land great jobs once they finished. What was that one called again?”

“The STEM Initiative.” She realized she might as well stop trying to convince Caroline she was someone else. “Would you please not tell anyone else who I am?”

“Why? None of that stuff matters here,” Caroline said. “You won’t be the daughter of one of the richest men in the world for nine hundred years. Besides your importance to the clan, you have no influence or power in this time. Who cares that you’re Nicole Fairburn?”

“You do,” she countered, “or you wouldn’t be fact-checking me like this.”

“You’re just as smart as advertised, too, Stanford.” The diver chuckled. “If you’re someone posing as an heiress from the future, you’re very good. I don’t think a shape shifter who stole those memories would be able to answer so quickly and easily. And if you were a pureblood Fae, you couldn’t lie. As far as I’m concerned, you pass.”

We’re all suspicious of each other. The thought that the clan was just as wary of her as she was of them added another vote for time-travel over kidnapping.

“You might want to pass along your opinion to that seneschal gentleman, Fletcher. He doesn’t seem to like me very much.” Nicole retrieved her slippers, and then walked to join Caroline at the door. “How did you end up here?”

“My business partner, who was also my ex, took our boat and abandoned me while I was deep diving off the coast of Florida,” the diver said. “I was too far from shore to swim back, but I tried anyway. When I got too tired to keep going I went down one last time to drown myself.”

Horror made bile rise in Nicole’s throat. “That must have been horrible.”

“I had always expected to go that way, so it wasn’t exactly a shock. Only I found Lady Joana’s ring on my way down to the bottom. Next thing I know my guys are pulling me out of the water and carrying me on shore here.” Caroline’s expression lightened. “For a minute I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, and angels were a lot hotter than anyone knew.”

“The MacMar men are very attractive,” Nicole agreed. “What happened next?”

“A lot more crap, and I’ll tell you all about it another time. In the end I married Nyall MacMar, who is the clan’s captain of the guard. I’m also lovers with Jamaran, the commander of the Selseus garrison. He’s Nyall’s best friend.” The diver grinned. “If you don’t approve of threesomes, you should skip hanging out with us.”

“I don’t judge, but I admire your stamina. Are you doing anything after this round of questioning ends?” As Caroline shook her head, she slipped on the cloth shoes. “Can we go for a walk outside? I came here at night, and I can’t see much of the island through these skinny windows.”

A short time later she and the diver walked through the final gate in the towering wall surrounding the castle, and followed a shaded, stone-lined path toward a sprawling forest of pine, ash, oak and willow trees. The sun had disappeared behind some clouds, but left the air warm and soft, with a slight salty tinge. On the left Nicole could see the enormous crescent-shaped bay where she had surfaced on her arrival, which was partially hemmed by tide pools, shoals and a series of smaller islets. Out in the distance a wall of white fog encircled everything, and stretched so high she couldn’t see the top of it.

“That’s where I live,” Caroline said, pointing to the second-largest islet on one side of the bay. “The laird let me move into an old cottage there. Communal living at the stronghold was not my thing. It also gives me and my guys the privacy we need. Some of the clan and most of their vassals don’t approve of our menage a trois.”

“You’re very considerate of the narrow-minded.” She stopped as a strange sense came over her, and turned to face inland. Something dark in the distance caught her eye; it had a faint, almost menacing glitter. She pointed to it and asked, “What’s that?”