After several hours of hiking, Emmy neared Duart again. The day and exercise had warmed her enough that she had long ago shed her coat and draped it over her tote. She felt good. Energized. And mentally invigorated after her walk. The sun was beginning to lower in the sky lighting the western side of the castle as she approached. She raised her camera again and took another shot from this angle. Thoughts of a hot shower, well, bath anyway, tickled her mind as she approached.
As she was nearing the front gates, the sound of hoofbeats brought her around as Connor approached from the north. Struck by the similarity to her first sight of him, Emmy raised the camera and took several shots as he approached and swung down from Bruce. One, two and a third as he walked toward her.
“Smile!” she called. He did automatically and she snapped another though she thought he smiled more because of her silly voice than her command. “Well? How did it go?”
“The marriage was indeed between myself and Heather, not Dory,”’ he explained. “Though not exactly as we thought, Ian is waiting to hear an official word from the courts in Edinburgh before he returns, but it seems that I am a widower these past ten years.”
“So their marriage is legal?”
“We believe so,” he nodded and welcomed her embrace as she threw her arms around him. “Ian said to thank ye again for everything. Without ye here he would not have his wife or sons. He has a marriage and family thanks to ye.”
“I am glad I was here to help,” she offered sincerely. Maybe that had been it all along. Her presence had changed history. She had saved a mother and two babies making it possible for a great wrong to be made right. Connor had been given freedom from the past that had haunted and ruled his life allowing him to move on to a richer relationship with his family. She had made all that possible.
So much for a simpler life!
What if her job here was done?
“I have missed you,” he whispered leaning back to capture her lips in a long passionate kiss distracting her from her musings.
“Mmmm,” Emmy hummed dreamily returning his kiss. “I’m sure I can’t wait to show you how much I missed you as well. I was so cold last night!”
“Did you miss me or my warmth?”
“Can’t I miss it all?”
Connor chuckled and held her close to him savoring the meeting of their bodies. He had indeed missed her loving presence by his side and in his bed. Had missed her conversation and wit. He loved her so dearly.
“I was just thinking.”
“About what?”
“You know, when I came here with Donell, I was telling him how I considered your time simpler. I think that was part of his test too. To see that it wasn’t necessarily so. When I look at Dory or Margo’s home, I can see there are hard times here as well. You have worries and fears and challenges that I never did. Your life is harder close to home where our worries are for our entire world. In my time people worry about money, success but here people worry for their very lives and those of their children. Their existence.”
“I care for my country.”
“I know you do, my earl of Stratheclyde. But how about your people here? What do they care about?” she glanced back down at her camera. “It was such a beautiful day, I thought I’d get out for a walk and finally take some pictures. That’s what I see here. People whose lives are not as simple as one would think.”
“No one ever said they were. Yer camera? Is that what that is?” he asked curiously. “May I see it?”
“In a sec. First let me do one of us together. Come here,” Emmy commanded and stood him next to her, leaned in close and, in typically 21st century fashion stuck the camera out in front of them and took a picture. Checking to make sure she got what she wanted on the screen, she waved him over to show in the view screen.
“See, here are the pictures I took today,” she pushed the right arrow again and again scrolling through the day’s photos.
“It’s amazing!” he murmured in awe taking a turn pushing the button. “Where do the photographs go?”
“The memory card stores the pictures here,” she popped it out of the compartment to show him and inserted it back in.
“Remarkable! How do ye have them developed then?”
“I can take that memory card and put it in my computer at home…remember? I explained the computer?” She had, but the concept was so far beyond Connor’s experience that he still had a difficult time believing what she said was possible. “I can print them on my own printer at home.” She sighed. “I wish I could show you. There are so many things I’d like to show you.”
“I would like to see them with ye,” Connor admitted. She seemed to have had a never-ending stream of experiences beyond anything he could ever imagine. While he thought he could live forever on the stories of her time, he thought experiencing them with her by his side would be incredible. “Still, I thank God every day that He brought ye to me.” He bent and kissed her lovingly on the lips. “I love ye so dearly.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered. The words were yet so new. She was always struck with awe when she said them. She wanted to shout them out, but they always came out softly as if
