“What are you thinking?” she whispered.
“Ye were brought here without yer knowledge, aye?” She nodded with a sinking sense of dread when the words began to emerge cautiously. “What is to stop ye from being taken back in equal fashion?”
Emmy met his eyes and for a moment her personal fears, hopes and anxieties flared in them. He read them easily and felt a painful tightening of his gut.
“Nothing,” they said together.
Chapter 35
Connor disappeared into his bathroom using her suggestion to take some time alone and shut the door firmly. Running some cold water in the sink, he splashed his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror above.
For a moment his mind was a complete blank as he stared into the dark shock of his own eyes, rounded and weary. He needed to examine the facts at his leisure and ponder the possibilities and implications of her presence. However, beyond the truth of her origin and her incredible story, it was the other issue that flooded his mind and sent him reeling. At any moment, she could be gone.
Just like that.
Was God so pitiless to dangle happiness before him and snap it away like a cat with its toy? They needed to find Donell, which was a certainty. If Emmy was right and it was his magic that had done this, then the old man was the key to keeping Emmy here with him. Emmy said Donell had mentioned everyone deserving a second chance. Emmy assumed that just Dory needed a second chance, but when she had also told him that he would die without an heir, it had occurred to Connor that perhaps she was his second chance as well. His life had already changed dramatically with her presence. If she were to stay, to become his countess, it would be his second chance to live the life he had imagined years ago. Life as a husband and father not just laird of his clan.
He just needed to have some faith that Emmy was his destiny. The chain of events that delivered her into his time was part of God’s greater plan. His destiny was to be hers and hers to be his. He felt certain that was it. That she was his second chance if he was to have one in this life. He needed to have faith.
Faith said that for everything there was a reason. Corinthians.
While bathing and dressing, Connor had become convinced of his deduction. He found Emmy in her room, dressed and reading a book while she waited for him to ponder their circumstances.
Given the plate of sandwiches and pitcher of her iced tea before her, she clearly thought that it would take some time.
“Ye don’t believe that God has a plan for each of us? That He may have brought ye here?” he asked in surprise, his eyebrows rising nearly to his hairline when she frowned dubiously at his conclusions.
“I told you before, Connor, I have no clue what brought me here only who,” she shot back. “For all we know it could be the whim of a bored old man.”
“Without a reasonable explanation, I feel we must rely on something other than empirical evidence. Hence, faith.” Connor joined her taking a sandwich as he realized it had been almost ten hours since their breakfast tray that morning. Beef, tomatoes and…vinegar? Interesting. He took two more.
“So you think that Donell actions were a part of God’s plan and that we should have faith that we are meant to be together? Do you actually think God makes every decision before you do?” she wondered aloud. “Haven’t you ever read Sartre? Free will and all that?”
“Who?”
“John-Paul Sartre? Never mind, my point is that destiny implies an absence of choice as if we can’t control what happens to us,” she lectured. “I like to be in control.”
“I understand what ye’re saying, but, if I might be so bold, ye didn’t control it,” Connor pointed out with little mercy. “It snatched ye up without so much as a by yer leave. Without yer cooperation, knowledge or consent.” He counted these out on his fingers taking his sandwiches to pace the room while he ate. “It is true, no man wants to think himself helpless in shaping the events of his own life, but I do believe that on occasion God guides our path to that which is beneficial to us.”
“Donell sent me here,” she replied flatly. “Nothing more, nothing less, whether we understand that power or not. What we need to do is find him and figure out from there.”
“And I agree. He is the key. But…” he arched a brow at her, “have ye so little faith, my love? Truly?”
“Wow, Connor.” His belief was so absolute that Emmy was almost envious and terrified by his conviction. She wanted the same, that knowledge that she would be with him, here, forever. Yet, it terrified her that she might be. As he waited her reply, Emmy sighed reflecting on her own views. “I would have said an hour ago that I was fairly religious, but I have nothing on you. I believe in God, I do, but that He is guiding all of this…I just don’t think so.”
Connor wondered at Emmy’s skepticism, but he needed something to believe in. Her revelation had shaken the very foundations of his intellect so much so he wasn’t sure he could rely on it. Until they found Donell and determined whether he held mysterious powers or was just simply crazed, the only foundation available to him was his faith. He was embracing it wholeheartedly lest he go mad trying to figure it all out. “Emmy?” he questioned. “How do ye perceive the time ye’re granted here?”
Emmy met his serious gaze and knew it was not the time for flippant answers. Without clarification from Donell about his ramblings at the inn, what else was she to do beyond what she had already been doing?
