Sneaks by B Button Page A

family. The other clocks I fixed seemed to have the same effect. Fixing clocks was my passion. I was glad it brought good memories, but sad when the memories weren’t so good.
    “I’m glad it is working,” I said.
    “Off with ye then.” His words were dismissive but his tone held a slight improvement up from suicidal.
    I hurried out of the room.
    I’d had it all planned. I was going to visit my friends, see how it went, maybe stay awhile, try to visit the Castle Lennox and go home. I hadn’t known that so much time would pass, I hadn’t known . . . so many things. I felt stupid. I had a sense of needing to fix things, more than just clocks. Was whatever harm I’d caused fixable? I didn’t know. A part of me wanted to break the chain before I had the chance to make things worse, but something stronger told me to stay.
    I wanted to see Ian. He’d be much older, but I still needed to see him. I’d never felt the way he’d made me feel. Over the last year, I’d thought about those feelings and wondered what they were. I’d come to the conclusion that I hadn’t fallen in love with him, but I loved him nonetheless. He’d stepped into my heart in a way that boys weren’t encouraged to do in my time. The connection we’d had was forbidden in my time. I’d heard that some married couples found that connection, but it was rare.
    My mom told me that what she thought I had with Ian was simple; a friendship. And she told me that true friends were hard to find. She also told me that if I ever fell in love (which she hoped never happened unless it was with the man I chose to marry), I wouldn’t wonder about feelings. I’d know.
    Una was in the kitchen.
    “Lass, I’ve set a table up for ye.” She pointed to the table next to a table next to the same window I’d worked under before. “Ye’ll be fixing clocks?”
    “Maybe,” I said, “but the laird wanted me to tell you there will be a big feast tonight.”
    “I ken that much without him telling me, but thank ye.”
    “What can I do to help?”
    “Nothing. I have many people coming to help.” She waved away my offer. “It is a strike of fortune, I believe, lass,” she said. 
    “What’s that?”
    “Ye coming back only a day after I did.”
    “Una, I’m sorry you went away.”
    Una rubbed under her nose. “Och, I got to spend my brother’s last years with him. It was fine, but I’m glad we are both back. It is a twist of fate that we're together again, but I dinna ken why. I'm hoping good fortune is ahead.”
    “Me too.”
    “Lass, I dinna ken exactly what the laird told ye, but it wasna just ye going away that set him off in a strange mind. His wife died and then his bairn was kidnapped and then ye, who brought so much light back to the castle, disappeared. When more than a fair share of bad things happen together, weel, it can make a man think he’s lived too fully. Guilt can ruin so much good. It wasna ye, it wasna.”
    She knew the words I needed to hear. 
    “Thank you, Una.”
    “Och, ‘tis not a thing. I’ve put some clothes in yer old room. Do ye remember where it is?”
    “Yes.”
    “Go then. Clean yerself up and put on some proper clothing.”
    My room was a welcome sight. There was different bedding on the still thick feather mattress, and a new dress that still wouldn’t fit me correctly had been placed over the back of the chair, but for the most part, it looked the same, and better than the rest of what I’d seen of the castle.
    Using the small basin that Una had filled with water and the wash cloth, I cleaned up and then got dressed in a green dress that was predictably far too short and slightly tight in my shoulders.
    In keeping with tradition, I kept my sneakers on and, with butterflies crashing around in my stomach, made my way back to the dining hall.
    Who would I see? Ian? Corc? The laird? Mac? All of them. I couldn’t remember ever being so nervous. 
    At the moment no one was at the large table in the dining hall.