Prologue

Highlands 1614

Adam and Deidra crept into the solar as quietly as possible. They’d retired some time ago after the final of many grand celebrations of their nuptials and had made glorious love, but Adam was determined to do this thing tonight.

“Adam, do you think ’tis wise?” Deidra asked.

“You and I both know it’s what he wants. He’s letting his duty to The MacLean keep him here.”

“I know but—Da will be furious.”

He slipped his arms around her waist and rested his forehead against hers. “I wouldn’t consider doing this if I thought it would make your father angry. The man can still beat me to a pulp in the lists. But he and Aunt Tuck both know that Erin isn’t happy. Not with all that he knows about the future.”

Deidra pulled her head back and narrowed her gaze at her new husband. “You and my parents have already spoken of this.”

He grinned and pecked a kiss to her nose. “Aye, wife, I have. Both Colin and Tuck think that you and I can handle the clan when the day comes, leaving Erin to have the life he truly wants. You may be twins, but you inherited your father’s calling and skill at leading the clan MacLean, not Erin. As laird he’d do an okay job at it, but he’d be miserable. So he has to go.”

“To your time,” she whispered.

“You mean my former time.”

She looked down at her sleeping brother with a misty-eyed smile. “Good-bye, brother mine,” she whispered, then lifted her head and slid her arms around Adam’s neck. “You best be aboot your business, husband, for I am more than ready to return to our bed,” she said, and kissed him thoroughly, then slipped from his arms and left the solar.

Adam shook his head, still amazed that she loved him, that she’d married him. It even topped the fantastic fact that he’d traveled back in time to seventeenth century Scotland. He’d been making the trip since he was born, but not until recently did he realize it was actually true. He’d convinced himself it was just a trip to visit family friends who had a thing for reenactments. Never had he ever dreamed it was real, nor that his own father was a product of the time. A nobleman from hundreds of years before Adam was born. It scrambled his brain whenever he tried to make sense out of it.

He studied the bottle his mother had given him, filled with water taken on the solstice from a new spring his parents had found. That was when the water was magical, when it could transport a person to a different time. Just like the spring here on the Isle of Mull on MacLean land. However, this particular water his parents had discovered worked at any time and from any location, as long as it was gathered at the proper moment from the spring.

Even more astounding, it seemed to carry a person not only to the time they wished to go, but to different locals. All the traveler had to do was want it.

Adam shook his head, thinking how insane it all sounded. But crazy or not, he needed to share this gift with his brother-in-law and best friend. All he had to do was sprinkle some of the water on Erin’s feet and he’d be transported to where and when he most wanted to go. And Adam knew he wanted to go to Adam’s former time, the twenty-first century. The only question was, where would he land?

Adam’s mother and father had various theories on that, apparently an argument as old as their relationship about the spring that had brought Adam here only a month or so ago. But this water was different, and much more powerful. It was why they’d given it to him as a wedding present, so he could visit them in the future whenever he liked.

Adam grinned. He’d overheard Erin talking to Adam’s father about the future and his new sports car. There’d been no mistaking the sparkle in his friend’s eye at the prospect of speeding down a highway with the top down.

He knew Erin would be fine wherever he landed. After all, Erin’s own mother, Aunt Tuck, came from there. He would land on his feet and finally have what he wanted. Freedom to explore the future world without being forced to be laird one day of the clan MacLean. It was true that Deidra would make a better leader than Erin, but some society rules weren’t to be broken, except under certain circumstances. And in Adam’s hand was the perfect solution.

Without another thought, he popped the cork and sprinkled the clear water over the sleeping man’s feet and said a little wish, just to be safe. “Take him where he longs to be, where he needs to be, to where he’ll be happy in his life.”

Before he could stopper the bottle, Erin MacLean of the clan MacLean disappeared in a swirl of light from the lounge where he’d passed out from too much celebration.

With a grin, Adam carefully set the bottle on the mantel then went to rejoin his wife in their soft warm bed.