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his
head, the crookedness of his smile revealing a chipped tooth.
    The introduction made, Rogan
crossed the room in three swift strides and took the younger man by the elbow,
turning him back towards the door. “Away with you now and hold your flapping
tongue.”
    “I canna. Your da sent me up here
with grim tidings." Gavin broke free and swatted at his mussed sleeve. “One
o’ the men just hastened in from Smoo. Lady Euphemia was walking along the
cliffs above the cave and before he could call out a warning” - he paused,
throwing a look at Lindy – “she slipped into one o’ the sink holes.
    “He swears he saw her go down and
even heard her scream, but when he ran over to the edge o’ the crevice and
peered in, she disappeared.”
    Lindy gasped.
    Rogan slid an arm around her,
drawing her near. “The tide washes in and out of the sink holes. Have men searched
the beach? Or, if there’s no sign of her there, have they taken out boats? She
could have been washed out to sea and might be in the water around the cliffs.”
    “To be sure they’ve done all that,
but they won’t be finding her." Gavin sounded convinced. “She’s gone, sure
as I’m standing here.”
    “No one can be sure until a
thorough search is made." Rogan started steering his cousin out the door
again. “Others have fallen into the sink holes only to be found later,
wandering the moors, as well you know.”
    “Did you no’ hear me, man?" Gavin
thrust his jaw. “I said she disappeared when the guard peered o’er the edge,
into the sink hole. He saw her right enough and then, like mist before the sun,
she vanished!”
    “And how ale-headed was the guard,
eh?" Rogan shoved his cousin out the door and slammed it behind him, this
time sliding the draw bar in place.
    “I’m sorry, lass." He turned
to Lindy, reaching for her. “Dinna let Gavin’s blethering-”
    “I don’t think he was." Lindy
moved away, thinking again of sweaters and pulled threads. “That woman’s
disappearance will be my fault. I came here and, as is the way with such
things, someone had to be sent forward to my time.”
    She paused, leaning against a table.
Guilt swept her. “It’s because of me that an innocent – "
    “Euphemia MacNairn lost her
innocence the morning she awoke and discovered she had breasts." Long
strides brought Rogan to where she stood.
    He braced his hands on either side
of her, caging her against the table. “I regret speaking poorly of her if she
truly has come to harm. But you need to know, as you’ll hear it soon enough,
that she was my clan’s choice for my bride. I resisted because” – he leaned
close and kissed her, slow and deep – “I knew you’d come to me someday,
somehow.
    “And” – he straightened, his
expression solemn – “because Lady Euphemia was the last female I’d have wed,
regardless. There’s no’ a laird or kitchen laddie in these parts, save o’ this
clan, that she hasn’t bedded.”
    “But-”
    “I told you, Lindy-lass, no buts.”
    “Even so-”
    “None o’ those either." Rogan
shook his head. “Truth is, Lady Euphemia has been trysting with a shepherd who
has a cottage in the next glen. She has to pass by Smoo Cave on her way to meet
him.”
    Stepping closer, he cupped Lindy’s
chin, lifting her face to his. “That’ll be what she was about. A pity if she
fell into one of the sink holes. But she should have thought of the danger
thereabouts before she traipsed across those cliffs.
    “Now” – he set his hands on her
shoulders, looking down at her – “I’d hear what was fashing you before Gavin
came bursting in here.”
    Lindy glanced aside.
    She still believed the MacNairn
woman had been sent forward in time.
    And if so….
    “I don’t want to be responsible for
someone else’s misery." There, she’d blurted the only honorable thing she
could say.
    Rogan lifted a brow. “If Lady
Euphemia has replaced you where’er it was you hail from, sweetness, I promise
you, she’ll