He kicked the hazelnut bunch with his knee straight up and caught it. Marjorie and Colin stopped, waiting for him to approach. The boy stared at him with a suspicious frown.
Marjorie stood behind him. She’d changed into a simple dress the color of heather with white embroidery on the chest. Her hair was done in two buns, one on either side of her head and decorated with white ribbons woven into the hair. She looked like a noble medieval lady from a fairy tale. And despite the more feminine look than her usual breeches and a tunic, she had a dagger on the belt around her thin waist.
Breathtaking.
He only just stopped himself from dropping to one knee and swearing allegiance to her like a goddamn knight. He was losing his mind. She dressed like this for dinner, but she looked especially beautiful tonight.
“Is there a special occasion?” he said as he came close.
She seemed to blush even more. “Nae. I dinna normally dress in breeches, Konnor. This is how I dress every day. The work for today is done.” She threw a cautious glance at Colin. “But ‘tis good to feel normal, especially with the danger looming over us.”
Colin crossed his arms over his chest and blinked several times, watching somewhere behind Konnor’s back. Konnor followed his gaze but saw nothing, only the rare woods and grassy hills along the shore of Loch Awe. The boy looked anxious, breathing quickly, his face pale.
He was probably more shaken than Konnor had realized from the attempted kidnapping. Konnor locked his eyes with Marjorie and nodded in understanding.
“Of course, we do need to feel normal.”
“See. ‘Tis all calm. Dinna be afraid, sweet,” Marjorie said. “With me and Konnor and all these men, no one will take ye.”
Colin raised his chin, though he was still pale. “I’m nae afraid, Mother.”
Konnor nodded. The boy needed a distraction, and maybe even cheering up.
“Hey, buddy, do you want to learn a game?”
His eyes lit up. “A game?”
“It’s called soccer.”
“Soccer?”
“Yeah. It’s a game where I come from.”
His eyes burned with curiosity. “A game?”
Konnor glanced at Marjorie. Somehow, having her near made him feel less awkward with the boy. Plus, talking soccer was something he was comfortable with.
“’Tis all right,” she said. “He isna allowed to go outside the castle normally, but ye’re here, and I’m here, and my men are building the stakes nearby, so I think ‘tis safe. Ye can show him.”
Konnor chuckled. “All right. Look, Colin, soccer is normally a game for two teams of eleven people. But even two people can play. Even one sometimes. We do need a ball for it. But sometimes all a man needs is a hazelnut bunch.”
Konnor looked at Marjorie. “Would you like to play?”
She giggled. “Me?”
“Sure. If you want.”
“I’d like to learn games from the future.” Her eyes sparkled.
Colin looked at him with wide eyes. “From the future?”
Marjorie bit her lip. “I shouldna have said anything, should I?” She sighed. “Colin, son, ye must keep this a secret, aye?”
Colin nodded. “I swear on my life, Mother.”
Marjorie sank down to kneel in front of him. She took his hands in hers, and Konnor’s gut twisted in memory. How many times had his mom sunk to her knees to be at the same eye level with him as a kid when she’d wanted to calm him down or say something important, to make him feel like she understood him. But usually it was to feed him one illusion after another. “Jerry will change. It will be over soon. We just need to let him heal and come back to his senses. He’ll stop, we just need to be patient. He’s unwell.”
“Konnor is a time traveler,” she said. “He was sent here by a Highland faerie.”
“Sìneag,” Konnor said without thinking.
Colin’s eyebrows lifted into the thick bangs on his forehead. “A Highland faerie?”
“Yeah,” Konnor mumbled. “I was born—or will be born—almost seven hundred years in the future.”
“Seven hundred?” Colin repeated with an expression of wonder.
Konnor wondered how his young brain would’ve reacted to meeting someone born in 2700. He’d have loved the idea of something like that when he was Colin’s age.
“Yeah,” Konnor repeated like an idiot.
The boy’s gaze scanned him up and down, and he felt uncomfortable.
“Mother, are ye certain?” he said. “I ken that faeries dinna exist.”
“Apparently, they do,” she said. “What do ye think about that?”
“I think… I think I’d like to see the future. What are swords made of, Konnor? Are castles made of gold? Or glass? Does King Robert the Bruce win?”
Konnor chuckled. “Yeah, the Bruce does win the war. And some castle are made of glass, though they do look quite different. Some are taller than that tree.” He pointed at the tallest tree in the nearby grove—a pine. Gold is still very valuable.”
“Tell him about the carriages that drive themselves,” Marjorie said.
“Yeah. There are carriages that drive themselves, no horses needed.”
Colin stared at him. “Are they driven by magic?”
“No. By engineering.”
“What is engineering?”
Konnor chuckled. At least the boy didn’t hate him. He seemed to be enjoying the conversation. “Well, science is about how things work. What makes an arrow shoot from a bow, or how to make a wheel turn better and allow a cart move faster. Or how to design a boat or a sail so that it catches more wind.”
Colin glanced at the loch. “How do ye catch more wind?”
“I don’t know. But engineers in my time do.”
“C-can I look at the future, too? Mother, can I?”
Marjorie pursed her lips. “I’m sorry, sweet, I’d like to see all those wonders, too, but we canna. Our life is here.”
And Konnor’s was in the twenty-first century. That was the sad reality.
Konnor clapped his hands together once. “All right. Who’s ready to play a game from the future?”
“Me!” Colin cried.
Marjorie giggled, and her laughter was like a bell ringing. Konnor wished he could make her laugh like that every day. “And me.”
Her laughter was infectious, and their combined excitement kindled joy in his chest, too. “Great. Marjorie, you’ll be a goalkeeper. Stand here.” He walked to a spot between two bushes with about four feet of space between them. “This will be the goal.” He raised the bunch with four hazelnuts. “This will be a ball. Colin, we need to kick this into the goal. Marjorie, protect the gate and try to deflect the ball and not let it pass through. We’ll count who manages to score the most goals, and that person wins. You can only use your feet and your head though. You’re not allowed to touch the ball with your hands. Got it?”
Colin nodded enthusiastically. “Aye.”
Konnor put the hazelnut bunch on the ground, swung his leg back, and kicked it into the makeshift gate. Marjorie stepped into the direction of the bunch, but was too late, and it flew by her and into the gate.