What sounds would there be? Would it smell like grilled meat? Like mud? Like horses?
“The wee bread ye have, lass, it looks delicious,” a female voice said next to her.
Kate opened her eyes. A pretty young woman in a long dark-green cape with a hood stood by her side. Her hair was red and shone in the sun. She stared at Kate’s sandwich as though it were the food of the gods.
“Uhm,” Kate said. “Do you want some?”
Kate cooked food for a living, but she didn’t remember anyone staring like that at what she prepared.
“Oh, may I?” the woman said. “Ye dinna mind?”
She had a much stronger Scottish accent than Logan, stronger than anyone Kate had ever met, in fact. Her voice sounded beautiful, melodic, almost like a song.
Kate held the sandwich out to her. “Help yourself. You aren’t allergic to truffles, are you?”
The woman took the sandwich with both hands, a smile full of wonder on her lips. “What are truffles?”
“It’s a delicious mushroom, well, a fungus…”
“Oh, I’m sure I’m nae allergic.”
“There’s also mayonnaise, so eggs and—”
But the woman had already bitten into the sandwich and was chewing. She rolled her eyes in ecstasy and was producing sounds that could only be associated with very good sex.
“Oh, sky and stars,” she mumbled through a full mouth, “and kelpies unhinged, ’tis the best food I’ve ever had!”
Kate studied her, amazed. She had to give it to the woman, Kate rarely saw people so openly enjoying their food. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had given her a compliment like that. Was it because she was bored cooking the same stuff over and over? Or because she was actually a bad cook?
The woman continued her feast of one. Kate would have taken Logan’s sandwich, but if he came back now, she wouldn’t have anything for him. So better she was hungry than offend him and make him change his mind about the TV show. Deli Luck really needed this.
“Are ye a cook?” The woman sat down right on the grass and continued chewing.
“Yes. From the United States.”
“Oh. Aye. I’ve met someone from there. Verra nice people. What is yer name, dearie?” She bit into the sandwich again.
“Kate. Yours?”
“Sìneag.”
She said it as Sheen-ak.
“What a pretty name. I’ve never heard it before.”
“That’s because ’tis ancient. Like me.” She giggled. “Is that man yer husband?”
“What? No! I just met him three days ago. He’s a colleague, I suppose. Or a boss, rather.”
“A boss? Like a master?”
Kate laughed. “Yes, in a very innocent way, I suppose he is.”
Sìneag stared at Logan who was still speaking on the phone, his back turned to them.
“He likes ye, I can tell.”
“I’m sure you’re wrong. It’s Logan Robertson.”
“Ye’re saying it like I should ken who that is?”
“You don’t?”
“Nae, I dinna. But I can tell ye this. He isna the man for ye.”
“Well, duh. I could have told you that. He’d never go for someone like me.”
“Someone like ye? He’d be lucky to have someone like ye, lass. But dinna fash, I ken a man just for ye.”
Kate shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m not looking for a relationship. I need to get my restaurant back on its feet, and Logan is helping me. I have no room for men in my life. All spaces are occupied by my sister and my nephew back in Jersey.”
“Oh, ye poor lass. I understand. Sìneag will help. Look, it was the year 1308 when Ian Cambel, a warrior long thought dead came back home. He’d been imprisoned and enslaved in Baghdad for several years with nae hope for freedom. But luck turned around and gave him a second chance. He became free and returned to the Highlands. But he was broken. Slavery made him believe he doesna deserve to be happy, to be loved. He was forever lonely after that.”
Kate nodded, thoughtful. The story resonated somewhere deep in her heart. “Yes, some things break us and we can never heal.”
“Aye, well. If two broken souls can connect through time, that might bring them both happiness, aye?”
“Through time?” Kate laughed. “That’s romantic, I suppose. And impossible.”
Sìneag pushed the last bite of the sandwich into her mouth and moaned. “What’s impossible is that I havna tried this bread before. And traveling through the river of time is verra real. In fact, there’s the rock this castle has been built upon, that is saturated with the powerful magic of time travel.” She gestured behind them, where the ruined tower stood. “Mmmmm. Thank ye kindly for this treat, lass. Ye truly made my day.”
The tower looked absolutely normal, just a crumbled circular wall of old stones and mortar. And it was supposed to contain a time traveling rock? What a weird story.
“And what about that rock…” She turned to Sìneag.
The woman had disappeared. Kate stood and looked around. Birds chirped, and wind rustled the leaves of the tree growing outside the perimeter of the castle.
“Sìneag?” she said.
The courtyard was empty except for her and Logan, who’d finished talking and was walking towards her, his eyes fixed on her. He looked like a blond wolf who’d seen a chicken and were about to devour it. Men normally weren’t interested in her, and this attention made her throat clench. She rubbed her forearm, and took a step back. What was he going to do? Either devour her or kiss her?
Her life consisted of spending long hours at Deli Luck, then returning to the apartment above the restaurant and collapsing on her bed. Mandy and Jax would be long asleep
