Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels 5)

Confident his latest trip in time didn’t result in anything catastrophic, he released a long sigh, threw his arm over his eyes, and let his mind empty. When it did, his memory of the painting he’d seen while fleeing up the MacCoinnich Keep’s massive stairs settled into his system. The woman’s troubled gaze followed him, made his heart rate climb. She was hauntingly familiar yet he couldn’t place her from his history studies. Was she from the original family? A grandchild to the first time travelers? Who is she? Or more precisely, who was she?

Unable to tune the image out of his brain, he gave up his quest for sleep, turned off the news, and left his room.

He passed the main living room where he heard several of his team talking among themselves while the same broadcast he’d been watching in his room blared in the background. Savory smells from the kitchen told him the cooks were working late to feed them after their battle. His stomach made a sound of protest when he turned down the short hall and into the fortress library.

The room hadn’t changed in centuries. Oiled oak bookshelves lined each wall from floor to ceiling. Each shelf housed books in all shapes and sizes. The collection wasn’t filled with fiction and fluff, but history and folklore. To the uneducated eye, some of the books might look like fantasy and nonsense, but Kincaid knew each book held the history of his people. There were books of witchcraft and sorcery, ancient beings and shape shifters…and yes, even time travelers.

He moved to the center of the library where a large table housed two computer stations. Each book had been carefully categorized and input into the data system. With any luck, the image in his head would be somewhere in the library and he could put a name to the face he’d seen on the wall of the Keep.

He sat in front of the computerized station and placed his palm on the monitor screen.

“How can I assist you, Kincaid?”

The computer’s voice was that of Giles, the keeper of the books, and often the teacher of everything Druid to those who lived in the house.

“Search artwork in MacCoinnich Keep in the seventeen hundreds.”

“Can we narrow the search, Kincaid?”

“Portraits.”

A giant image of a book circled on the massive screen while the computer searched its database.

Early portraits began to appear, which he flipped through one at a time. As always, the image of Ian and Lora started off the art. That painting still hung on the wall in the Scotland fortress and Kincaid had seen it several times in person both in the past and in his time.

There were very few portraits of the MacCoinnich family in their early years. In the mid sixteenth century, Kincaid knew paintings started to fill space on the walls of the staircase. Though from his memory, most were of children. Apparently, those images were some of the only ones in the computer system. He was midway through the images of the seventeenth century when the door to the library opened.

“I thought I saw a light on in here.” Giles, the man and not the computer, brought his lean frame into the room and pushed his glasses up onto his nose. Why he didn’t just have the corrective surgery performed on his vision, Kincaid would never know.

“I’m borrowing your space,” he said.

Giles set the book he carried into the room on the table beside Kincaid and peered over his shoulder at the monitor. “Anything I can help you with?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer the man. To tell him the image of a long-dead woman on a wall back in time made his heart skip a beat might sound a little obsessive. Unstable even. Then again, following instinct was something every Druid man and woman was taught to do from birth.

“I noticed a portrait on the walls of MacCoinnich Keep as we were leaving, one that I’d not seen before. I thought maybe we had some reference of it.”

“A portrait of a child?” Giles asked.

“No. A woman.”

Giles lips lifted slightly as he glanced his way. The man was too perceptive. His Druid gift did make him the perfect historian. He had an ability to file away nearly every word he’d ever read. He seldom used the computer unless he was inputting data. The man didn’t need it.

“What did this woman look like?”

“Long dark hair, sad eyes.” Sad beautiful eyes.

Giles tapped his chin as he thought. “What style of dress?”

Kincaid closed his eyes and tried to picture what the woman was wearing. All he could see was her high cheekbones and full lips. “I’m not into women’s fashion.”

“Did she wear a hat? Was her hair bound?” Giles walked across the room, pulled the ladder along the bookshelf, and proceeded to climb to reach the top shelf.

“No hat. Her hair was down. She wore a long dress if that helps.” He gave up searching the computer files and let Giles do what he did best.

“And this was a woman, not a teenager?”

Kincaid shuddered. “No. She was a woman.”

Giles retrieved a leather-bound tome that was half the size of him. “That’s odd. Most women in that time wore their hair bound, unless they were unwed.”

“And most of the women were married early…” Kincaid said his thoughts aloud.

“Precisely.”

“Was the woman unattractive? Some alarming feature that might have made her an unlikely candidate for marriage?”

He rubbed the heat from the back of his neck and tried to appear unaffected. “She was beautiful.” He couldn’t imagine the men of the time looking past her. If she were a direct descendent from the MacCoinnich’s, she may have had a long list of must-haves in a potential spouse. Kincaid couldn’t imagine any of the original family letting their children marry just anyone. The family was much too private to marry outside their inner circle.

Giles opened the large book and proceeded to turn the pages.

“There you are!” From the door, Rory called out to him and beckoned him with a wave of his hand. “We’re waiting on you.”

Kincaid pushed from the chair. “Coming.” He patted Giles on his back. “I’ll be back after the briefing.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Giles was already moving to the bookcase in search of some lead only he saw.

The entire basement had been converted into a safe room years before. The far end of the massive room held their armory, both modern and ancient. The center of the room held a conference table and a monitoring system that linked them into the safe houses abroad so they might be able to obtain reinforcements if needed.

Kincaid stood before a chair between Rory and Colin. Across from them sat Allen and Joshua with Colleen standing at the head of the table. “Nice of you to join us.” Colleen scolded.