He jabs a finger at me."You will wait here in the solar.Lasses, come with me."
Kieran swings the door open, gesturing for the women to obey his command.Alyssa rolls her eyes as she walks past her husband, and the great-aunts follow her.Rachel hesitates beside my torture chair, biting one side of her lip as her gaze flicks between me and Big Daddy.
Kieran squints at his daughter."Come, Rachel.Now."
A wistful sigh rushes out of her.Then she walks out of the room, and Kieran shuts the door behind them both.
I'm alone in this room.
The solar is decorated with all sorts of knickknacks that would probably net a small fortune at some high-end antiques auction in the twenty-first century.I'm talking about stuff like tapestries depicting faded scenes of battles.Those hang from stone walls, and a wooden chest in the corner looks like it might contain either priceless heirlooms or severed heads.With my luck, it's probably the latter.But I also see smaller items that I could nab no problem.
Just thinking about fleecing these people, especially Rachel, gives me a strange queasy feeling in my belly.
Since I have nothing else to do, I jump up from the torture chair---which I now realize must been meant to impress important people.That's ironic given my current status as "suspicious time-traveling intruder."I stretch my cramped legs and stiff neck.The room is surprisingly warm thanks to a hearth burning in the corner.It casts flickering shadows throughout the room.
I begin to hear muffled voices from beyond the thick wooden door.The MacTaggarts are arguing about me, no doubt.I've been the subject of many heated discussions in my life, though usually they involved whether I should be beaten or sold to a human trafficker because of what I'd stolen that week.
As I edge closer to the door, I press my ear against the rough wood.Old habits are tough to break, and stolen information has saved my skin more times than I can count.
"---cannot simply trust him because you find the laddie comely, Rachel!"Kieran's voice booms, even through the thick door.
"I trust him because I've seen into his heart,Athair," Rachel fires back."My second sight may not be as strong as Great-Aunt Lachina's, but even I can sense he means us no harm."
I flatten my ear against the door but then nearly lose my balance in the process.If Kieran has second sight, I'm cooked.He would surely get a vision of me getting freaky with Big Daddy's little girl.Rachel's an adult, but I doubt Kieran would accept that as an excuse.
"Aye, and what else have ye seen of his heart?"Kieran's tone drips with suspicion."Or perhaps 'tis not his heart you've been examining so closely."
I freeze, unable to even breathe.Jesus, has Kieran figured out I did the bump and grind with daughter?Should've kept it in your pants, moron.
"Kieran," Alyssa's voice cuts in, sharp and commanding."That's enough.I know you're upset, but snide comments are not helpful.Take a breather, honey, before we go back in there."
He grumbles."I dinnae trust strangers, especially those from another century."
"Oh?You mean like me, hmm?I guess that's why you locked me up in your little dungeon room when we first met."She sighs with mock wistfulness."Sometimes I miss my pee bucket."
That's what I call too much information.
"Well, I didnae mean---This situation is different, Alyssa."
"Joey is not the enemy---for now.And I trust Rachel's judgment.Our daughter is a smart, capable woman."
I can't help but smile a little.At least someone's on my side.
A long, uneasy silence beyond the door is punctuated only by what sounds like Kieran's heavy breathing.I imagine him pacing like a caged bear, running his hands through his hair while his wife gives him that look that wives across time seem to have perfected.
"The stranger carries strange energies," comes a new voice---older, throatier, with a lilting cadence that makes the hairs on my arms stand up.Must be one of the great-aunts.I haven't memorized their speech patterns yet."I sense the ripples around him, like stones cast into still waters.But whether he cast them himself or was merely caught in their wake, I cannot yet determine."
"See,Athair?"That voice is Rachel, and her tone is filled with eagerness."Even Aunt Lachina doesn't believe Joey is the source of the disturbance."
"She didnae say that that," Kieran grumbles."Not precisely."
"What I am saying," Lachina's continues, "is that we must look beyond the obvious.The boy may be a symptom, not the disease."
I lean closer, straining to hear more, when suddenly the door swings open.I stumble forward, barely catching myself before faceplanting into Kieran's broad chest.
His eyes blaze with suspicion."Eavesdropping, are we?"
"No, I was just---" I straighten up, trying to look dignified."Stretching my legs.That chair is a medieval torture device."
