She stared at her feet and noticed her shoes were missing. Her toes were stained with dirt, her heel hurt, and she hadn’t even realized she had been bare foot this entire time.
God dammit,she cursed internally, then raised her head when she suddenly heard his voice.
“Huh?” Isla asked.
“What is it like in England in 1973?” he asked her. “I have never been to England, I someday want to go there, but I want to ken what it’s like. I dreamed of traveling the world as a little lad for years until responsibility came.”
“England is—” Isla did not know how best to explain her land to him now. They were things she couldn’t tell him; else she might scare him off. If she mentioned the colonization, and the societal rules of the contemporary monarch, he might not believe her.
Also how was she to explain that people had been brilliant enough to invent cars? Medicine like penicillin and even modern-day ranges?
“Developed in ways you can’t even begin to imagine,” she told him instead as she felt that best summarized it.
“Do people now fly?” he asked, and Isla saw a smile on his lips that reached the sides of his eyes. When she didn’t answer at first, his eyes widened. “Dinna tell me that people fly.”
“No, of course not, come on,” she answered, and they both burst into a vagrant laugh that tore from them both and rippled through the air. When Isla quieted down, she slowly added, “But they invented planes and that helps people travel around more easily, and cars too for travel on land.”
“Cars?” he repeated, and she nodded.
“There is no use for horses or carriages like now.”
His smile returned and he seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say as he walked back in her direction. Jack didn’t mount his horse or help her up as she expected him to, instead, he sat on the ground beside a tree and motioned for her to come seat.
“What about castles? Do they still exist?” he asked.
“Most of them are being sold, others are kept as historic sites for those who love history to visit and tour. Many of the Highland clans dinnae exist as clans anymore… just rich, aristocratic families after the Clan system was abolished.”
“Tell me more,” he urged, and she suspected he was genuinely interested in what she had to say.
Isla relaxed against the tree bark, and it felt good to rest her muscles. She nodded then brushed her hair away from the side of her face before she dove right into telling him about her time, 1973.
* * *
They mounted the horse and rode down the wet path leading to his Castle, Isla kept thinking of what could be happening back in her time. She wondered if her friends cared about looking for her.
Penny, Ada, and Katherine were the only people she could rely on back there. After her parents died, Isla had been left with nothing but an entire estate to herself and many workers whom she barely even knew on her father’s establishments. Her uncle ran the businesses, as her father’s wealth had gone directly to him after his passing.
Isla kept the estate as stated in his will, and she had comforted herself with what she could.
She wondered if there was a reason why this had happened to her now. Isla didn’t think it could be a coincidence.
She held her chin high as she bounced on the horse in front of Jack. He had been quiet for a while, like his attention was focused on the journey ahead of them. Once or twice Isla glanced over her shoulder to look at him. Every time she met his blank expression and hard-set jaw. She wondered what was going through his mind.
Does he believe a word of what I have told him so far?
Of course she hadn’t gone into the details of some of the historic events she had mentioned, and she hadn’t even talked about some at all, like the Battle of Culloden, but all she had said, Isla wasn’t sure Jack fully understood her.
When they reached a bend and took another stony path leading further into the wild, she asked, “How much further do we have to go?”
“It’s a two-day ride to Humphreys Castle,” he answered without slowing his pace. “If ye are exhausted we could take a break so ye can rest.”
“I am all right,” she answered as she shook her head. It would take a while for her to get used to his accent, and deep timbre of his voice, but Isla was certain she would adapt.
“I have to get back to my Castle in time,” he said. “My people need me, and my man-at-arms anticipates my arrival.”
“Man-at-arms?” she asked, not understanding his choice of words.
“He’s like an adviser. I tell him everythin’ and we do the plottin’ together.”