Lost in the Mist of Time Read online

“Are ye sure?” “Yes.”

  He looked around him, but he couldn’t make out a thing other than the swirling fog like mist. He was positive that he had been going in the right direction, but again with everything covered in this wall of nothingness, it was hard to tell. “Let’s go.” He started back where they had just come from, but she pulled on his arm. “What now, lass?”

  “This way.” She pointed to the right of her.

  “Fine.” He seemed perturbed if not a little embarrassed and would not allow her to take the initiative but continued to lead the way.

  They walked in silence for a time, until it became apparent to them both that they were lost. He stopped and looked at her again with one dark brow raised high on his forehead. “Sure were ye?”

  “I could have sworn it was the right way, but maybe when you attacked me and threw me to the ground, I lost my sense of direction. Excuse me.” The last two words were drawn out to exaggerate every syllable.

  He ignored her sarcasm and looked around him to see if anything looked familiar. There had to be a way of detecting where they were. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand. His only mission right now was to see her safely out of here.

  Another ten minutes went by and there was no end to the mist, in any course that they took. “Face it. We’re lost,” Aislinn announced the obvious fact, which infuriated Dougray.

  “Ye think that I don’t know this?”

  “Hey, I don’t like this anymore than you do.”

  He stopped suddenly and she plowed right into his hard back. He glanced behind him, his eyes glaring with annoyance. He turned away only to study the land again. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a movement. An animal? He wasn’t quite sure. He moved forward, slower this time. Then he saw it again. It was an animal, but it was too hard to distinguish what kind. It was either as lost as they were, or maybe it knew the way out of this mess. He hoped it was the latter.

  “What do you see?” Aislinn searched the dense area before her.

  “I am not positive.” But he moved forward, still keeping hold of Aislinn’s hand.

  “Do you think that it’s wise to follow something that you can’t identify?”

  “If it is a creature out to stalk us, it would have already attacked us. It seems that it knows its way around this wall of whiteness and unless ye want to…there.” He pointed to a fleeting image.

  “It looks like a wolf.”

  “Aye.” And he pressed forward. He squeezed her hand assuredly with his left, but kept his right on the hilt of his sword just in case he had been wrong about the assumption of the animal’s motive. A few more paces and they saw the white wolf standing there like a ghost, looking at them, eyes gleaming in the denseness. It appeared as if it had been waiting for them. As they approached, it turned sharply and proceeded forward only to disappear once again. They followed and ended up stumbling out of the mist as though the blanket had never existed.

  Both Aislinn and Dougray whirled around, trying to get their bearings. Dougray with sword poised had released Aislinn’s hand from his grip. He crouched down on his haunches searching for the prints of the wolf. He rose then and followed them back to where the mist was still thick. Had they missed the animal backtracking? It was as if it had led them out and decided

  to return…return to what? He didn’t understand any of this and he was not sure that he wanted to.

  One look around and he knew that he was indeed back in his time, for the land was more congested with foliage and trees that were missing in the latter time. He glanced at Aislinn who was studying him, her large dark eyes wide with apprehension and her right brow arched in question. He sighed, trying to decide how he was going to tell her that she had just traveled to another century. “We have nothing to fear now. The beast is gone.” He sheathed his sword and walked over to her. He felt the wolf had led them to safety. So to go back now would mean what? They would enter another time, one that neither would be familiar with? He didn’t want to even think of the possibilities. “We best not go back in there.”

  “No kidding.” She glanced around her, not recognizing anything. How far had they walked? How long? It was so dark. “The car is obviously back the other way. How about we wait until the fog lifts so that we can see where we’re going?”

  “Let us sit a spell.”

  “What here?” She had no interest in sitting down on the damp earth.

  “I have to tell ye something that may not seem plausible in yer mind, but it is of the utmost importance that ye believe it. Sit, please.”

  She folded her arms against her chest. “Just tell me.”

  “Sit first.” He was losing his patience. “I don’t….”

  “Sit!” He hadn’t meant for the word to come out so harshly, but the woman could be so difficult. “Please,” he added hoping to soften his demand.

  “Fine.” She took off her pack and plopped herself down. She could tell that he wanted to inform her of something of importance, but was obviously having a difficult time trying to decide just where to begin. He paced a few steps back and forth and ran his hand through his dark hair. She rested her chin on the palm of her right hand leaning her elbow against her knee, wondering what in the world was so momentous that he wanted her to sit down before he could even tell her. “I’m waiting.” She decided to push him along. He stopped then and looked at her with…what would she call that look…pity? Sadness? Regret? She was so busy trying to decipher his expression that she hadn’t heard, but the last few words of his obvious speech to her. “What did you say?” She blinked into awareness.

  “Were ye not listening to me at all?” He threw up his hands in frustration.

  “I said,” he took a deep breath and let it out with a rush showing his obvious irritable mood, “we will not be able to find the vehicle because it doesn’t exist.”

  “Have you been drinking? Of course it exists.”

  “Not here. Not in this time and place. Ye see, ye have traveled back in time.” He had begun to pace again as he sorted out what he wanted to say, trying to make some kind of sense of what had happened to them. “I am not all sure how this mystical happening occurs but….”

  “Wait one minute.”

  He stopped pacing to face her.

  “Traveled back in time? Are you insane? That was a heavy mist….” She looked to where the fog had hung so thickly, and now it was no more then a whispering smoke of what was once there. “Look, it’s clear now.”

  He turned to see that indeed the wall had dissipated, leaving the open space clear to view. He fixed his eyes on her again, her expression indicating just how surprised she was that it had vanished. “Magic is at work here,” he said.

  “Magic? Good God, you’re…oh forget it.” She rose to her feet and grabbed her backpack. Swinging it behind her as she started passed him.

  “Where are ye off to?”

  She didn’t even stop. “Back to the car. You want to play games? You can do that all by yourself. I should have listened to Connor. He told me just to let you go. If you had wanted my help, you would have asked for it. But no, I had to go after you like a complete idiot.” She chuckled without mirth. “What a dolt I am. Chase after losers, only this time I picked one that has a few screws loose. Mister, I highly recommend that you see a psychiatrist. Maybe there can still be some help for you.”

  By this time, he had caught up to her keeping pace with her hostile steps. “It won’t be there.”

  “I will prove to you that it is, then you can stop this insane talk of yours. You can go your way and …” She looked at him with a glare. “…I can go on mine.” She walked a little faster.

  “Fine. Ye find the vehicle and I will gladly seek out this…what did you call it…psychiatrist?”

  He saw her eyelids fluttered with disgust before she answered him. “I’ll go one better. I’ll have one come pick you up. I’m sure they will have a nice padded cell waiting just for you.”

  “Ach! Ye think that I should be locked up? W
hat have I done that I warrant such extreme measures?”

  She stopped then and glowered at him. “Time travel? Does that ring a bell?”

  “Aye, but ye have not disproved me.” He waved his hand in front of him. “Move on, milady.”

  He showed such confidence that he was right that she hesitated for a moment. But then with a huff, she resumed her hike in silence, letting him continue to converse in his one-sided dialogue. It bothered her that he seemed obviously quite sure that he was correct with his assumptions. Time travel?

  It was ridiculous to even consider.

  “Don’t ye find it peculiar that it is now dusk instead of dawn?”

  She swallowed the uneasiness that formed in the back of her throat. Something wasn’t right. She picked up speed until she was jogging. She had to get back. She didn’t even care that he was keeping up with her.

  She saw the incline ahead of her and started up. She saw their footprints in the soft earth to confirm it was indeed the place, but when she reached the top, not only was the car not there the road was gone. She stopped in her tracks and her mouth dropped open. It couldn’t be. She whirled around and pointed an accusing finger at Dougray. “Where is it?”

  In spite of the seriousness of the situation, he let out a chuckle. “What?

  The road, the car, or both? Ye think that I hid them?” He padded his clothing then held out his hands, palms up. “Not in there. Now where could I have put them?”

  Without warning, she came at him with her fist flying. “God dammit! What did you do? What kind of trick is this?” She beat at him and he had to ward off her attack, the best way that he could without hurting her.

  “Calm down. I did not do this?”

  “Put it back. Put the road back now.” She lunged at him again; this time he was ready for her. He swung her around, so that her back was to him, as he held down her arms in a fierce hug.

  “If I could do what ye ask, surely ye don’t think that I would continue to be insulted by ye.” Still she struggled. “Settle down or I will be force to be rash with…. Ach!” He let her go the moment her foot came in contact with his shin. She took off running and he limped after her. His leg was no doubt bruised, but he couldn’t let her continue to flee or she would end up into trouble. It was his obvious misfortune that he had to feel this obligation to protect the pigheaded woman, even if it was from herself. He caught up to her and tackled her to the ground.

  “Get off me.” She thrashed like a fish out of water.

  “Ye leave me no choice then.” With his knee pressed firmly in the small of her back, he removed the rope he had tied at his waist. He yanked her hands behind her back, wrapping them tightly. He knew he was not being gentle, but she left him no options. Just as unceremoniously, he threw her around. For a second, she was stunned that this man, whom she had befriended, would treat her in this way. The hesitation gave him the leeway that he needed. Even though she was nearly his height, he lifted her off the ground with ease and just as effortlessly tossed her over his shoulder. By this time, she had come to her senses and tried to squirm out of his clutches. That cost her a smack, good and hard on her behind.

  “That hurt!” she screeched at him.

  “And well it should have. If ye have listened to reason, I would not have to treat ye like a child.”

  “Child! Put me down me now and I won’t press charges.”

  He just chuckled and didn’t slow his pace. “Ye are not in a position to make demands. Now are ye?”

  “Why you….” She kicked her feet and he smacked her again. “Ouch!” That stopped her from moving but it in no way stopped the flow of words that poured from her mouth. He had not known that there were so many words that could damn him to hell and back.

  “Keep it up and I’ll have a mind to gag ye as well.”

  He heard her take a deep breath to make another what he was sure an unseemly remark, but he halted her with another warning.

  “Be careful.”

  She remained silent, but he could tell that she was still fuming. He had gone quite a distance before he felt that they were safe from the men he had spotted earlier. He lowered Aislinn to the ground. “Fan ort!” Then he resorted back to English. “Stay!”

  “I understand you just fine in both languages.”

  “Then I shall use the one that I prefer,” he said in the Irish, knowing it would perturb her. He eyed her for a moment admiring her courage. She had

  to be frightened, but she glared at him as though she could send daggers from her eye sockets. If it were possible, he would have been thoroughly slain. He shook his head, wondering if he should leave her even for a second, but he didn’t have a choice. He had to secure the area. “So help me, A.J., if I have to chase you down, I’ll turn ye over my knee and give yer bottom a beating that it has never seen before. Do I make myself clear enough for ye?”

  She didn’t answer but settled down against the tree trunk. He nodded then and left her there to make sure they would be safe for the night. He had enough problems with this troublesome woman without having to worry about being attacked.

  Aislinn watched Dougray disappear into the forest, sword in hand. What had she gotten herself into? For about two seconds, she thought about running, but she ended up dismissing the idea because her hands were still bound. She wouldn’t be able to move fast and Dougray would easily catch up to her. She had no doubt that he meant it, when he said that he would give her a thrashing. Her sore backside was proof enough that it would not be pleasant if he carried out that threat. But what could she do? Even though she didn’t feel that she had to fear him really hurting her, she also knew that she couldn’t stay with him. The man obviously was not dealing with a full deck. He thought that he could travel back in time for goodness’ sakes.

  Well maybe if she acted like a damsel in distress, he would bring her back to her car and she could get away from him.

  After he had made a full sweep of the area and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Dougray felt that he could relax. Finally he came back, and was half surprise to see that she was still sitting right where he had left her. His threat of a beating had actually frightened her? Somehow he doubted it.

  He approached her then. She looked at him with her eyes shielded demurely behind half-closed lids.

  “Oh, you finally returned, brave knight.” Her voice was syrupy, much too sweet for her. He immediately became on guard expecting the worst. But not letting her know he was on to her, he played along just to see where this little game was going to lead them.

  “Aye, milady. Fear not for I have returned.” He bowed ever so slightly, trying not to smile.

  “Kind sir, can you remove my bounds? They have become ever so uncomfortable.” She moved slightly, so that he could see the rope pressing against her delicate skin.

  He sighed. “I do not know if I should.”

  “I promise that I will not cause you anymore trouble. I didn’t understand the gravity of our situation before, but now that I do, I will make sure to stay at your side.”

  He pretended to consider her obvious lie. “I do not know, milady….”

  “Oh please, Dougray.” Her dark eyes pleaded and she even pouted her lips making him almost believe her. Almost….

  “Ah. If ye promise?”

  She nodded her head completely unaware of the captivating picture she made when she smiled. “I promise.”

  He crouched down behind her intending to loosen the bounds, but then a thoughtful smile curved his lips. “Ye know,” he said as he lightly caressed her arm. “When a knight rescues a lady, she usually offers him a kiss.” He felt her muscles tense beneath his hand. His smile broadened for he knew that he had her. That temper of hers was ready to show itself. “Well?” he continued to push.

  She slowly turned her head and he was surprised at how well she was able to control her emotions. There was not a trace of animosity in that sweet smile of hers and yet he knew, without a doubt, that if her hands were free she would strang
le him. “I will give you a kiss and more, if you untie me.”

  He was rather enjoying this banter of mock pretense though he tried to keep his features deceptively composed. A losing battle he realized once his eyes centered on her inviting lips. His treacherous memories recalled the passionate kiss they had shared not that long ago, and he was eager to find out if he had imagined the fervor that had sprung alive between them. “A kiss first.” He caressed her face. “Then ye can please me further.”

  For a second, he saw the flash of anger light her eyes but she quickly dropped her gaze, hiding behind half closed lids. “All right.”

  He took hold of her shoulders causing her to gasp in surprise, but before she could say a word, he planted his lips against hers. The sudden movement caught her completely off guard as he had meant to do. He kissed her hard, shocked at his own eagerness to claim her. She was rigid in his arms only for a second, until his mouth devoured hers into submission. Then just as suddenly as he had demanded her compliance, he pushed her away. He was shaken by the intimacy of the kiss, but somehow still managed a mock gleam in his eyes. “Dear lady, if you wish me to untie ye, ye have to at least pretend to enjoy this. I have had better tantalizing from a fish.”

  Her mind was still reeling from the way his lips had so easily roused her to passion and for a moment she was confused over his statement, but as his obvious insult seeped into her consciousness, all currents of desire vanished and reality whirled at her full force. A bucket of cold water could not have been more effective. Her eyes blazed with fury and her heated words just tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. “Then go find that river flowing creature and brutally assault it!” The moment she saw the corner of his lips tug at a smile, she knew that he had known all along that she was only partaking in an elaborate charade. He wasn’t just a lunatic; he was a clever lunatic making him even more dangerous than she had originally thought.

  Dougray immediately became contrite for he could sense the mistrust she felt for him, and to be perfectly honest, he couldn’t blame her. He had never before treated a woman in this manner. He shook his head wondering what had gotten into him. “A.J., I am not going to hurt ye. I am only trying to protect ye, from others that might not take too kindly to our invading their privacy.” His blue eyes pinned her down. “Maybe we can stop all this nonsense. Hmm?”