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Something tightened in Amy’s stomach. She desperately wanted him to like her, to trust her. Because her stupid, stupid heart was heavily crushing on him.

“He’s a bonnie lad,” Elspeth said.

Amy glanced at the back of the woman’s head.

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s not bad.”

“Not bad? Where do ye come from, dearie? Never heard anyone talk quite like ye before.”

Oh God. Her accent, again. She should probably learn to speak like a Scot if she stayed here much longer. “Uhm. I’m Amy MacDougall.”

Elspeth chuckled. “Nae, dearie, ye’re nae Amy MacDougall.”

Amy’s skin chilled. The woman had dementia or maybe Alzheimer’s. She hadn’t remembered where her home was or who she was when they’d found her. Amy and Craig had warmed her up and given her food and water. Craig had wanted to give her uisge, but alcohol was one of the worst things a person could take if they had hypothermia. Craig had asked Elspeth where her home was, and the woman had asked him if he were the faerie king, taking her to the faerie land.

So how seriously could Amy take her words, really? Nevertheless, a chill ran through her.

“Yes, I am,” Amy said.

“Wait, I did hear a voice like that once,” she said, as if recalling something from another time.

“You did?”

“Aye. A man, a tinker passed by the village, stayed in our house. ’Twas so long ago, my daughter was but a bairn. He told many stories, and one was about a woman who used the tunnel under the river of time. He met her himself. He said she had the most peculiar talk, and ’twas just like yers, what he imitated.”

Amy swallowed. She glanced at Craig, but he showed no sign that he’d heard any of that.

“What happened to the woman?” Amy whispered, her voice hot and quick.

“So I am right, aren’t I?” Elspeth turned a little and glanced at Amy. There was no confusion in her blue eyes anymore.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Dinna fash, dearie. I wilna tell a soul.”

“Tell me about that woman.”

“I dinna remember much else, just that she came through time, from the future. She used the Pictish rock of time. The Comyn castle is built upon one, if I remember. My ancestors, the Picts built it. Aye, my kin comes from here, as far back as time goes. They built the stronghold that was there before the castle, and then they built the castle ye see now.”

Amy couldn’t believe her ears.

“What happened to her?” she asked again.

“She should have kept her secret, that’s what I can tell ye. People didna believe her. She was proclaimed insane. Folks didna want anything to do with her. No one dared to help her or open their doors to her. He said she was found with her throat slit on the streets of a village. Someone killed her in the end, afraid, mayhap, she was telling the truth. Afraid she might open the tunnel of time and let many more outlanders from the future in.”

Something dark and cold twitched in Amy’s stomach. A drop of sweat crawled between her shoulder blades. If the truth about her being a time traveler came out, would that be her destiny, too?

“So.” Amy cleared her throat to relieve her tension. “Do you know how that rock works? How can one activate it, or whatever, and travel in time?”

“Are ye here by mistake?”

“Yes. By mistake. I need to go back. Please, help me, Elspeth.”

“If I remember it right—and I admit, my memory isna as good anymore—the woman touched the stone and fell through it, through time.”

“Yes, that’s what I did…” Amy murmured. “I put my hand into a handprint on that rock. So if I touch it again, it’ll work?”

Elspeth was silent.