Winter

The ride back to the gate wasn’t an easy one, it was winter and you could feel it, even if we were wearing fur cloaks it still felt cold and you would think that after a few hours you were numb to it but in my case it only felt colder.

I know my lips must be blue by now but there was no time to stop, we had to keep going if we wanted to get back home in a few days, otherwise we would be stuck for at least a month and I really didn’t want that, I just wanted to get back home even if that meant I would be frozen. There was just one thing I hadn’t told Niall about this all and that was that we had a spell to separate James and Lad Blackwood forever and not that, that was so important but the effects of that spell was kind of important as it could affect us as well. It could affect us by making us forget anything about each other, we would remember everything about this trip, we just wouldn’t remember us.

It wasn’t irrevocable but we had to bump into each other for it to lift, which seemed highly unlikely as we would wake up in our own beds and that meant that I wouldn’t wake up in England but in America and due to the time we have been here, it wouldn’t seem likely that we still would be in the cottages, as it was turning March soon.

“Winter are you okay?” I turned my head to Niall and smiled at him, at least I think I was smiling. “I’m fine.” I told him but he wasn’t buying it and he stopped everyone. “We need to make camp, she is going to fall from her horse if we ride any longer.”

“Niall I’m fine, there is no time to stop.”

“She is right Niall, we really don’t have the time to stop.”

“I don’t want her to die from hypothermia.” I felt the tears in my eyes, god I loved him but there really wasn’t any time to stop. I brought my horse closer and grabbed his arm. “Niall really I’m fine, stop worrying about me, it’s more important that we get back than me being cold.”

“Nothing is more important than you.” Niall mumbled which made me smile because only he could say those things to me in the middle of an white world and if we weren’t in a hurry I could see myself kiss him for it but there was no time for that right now. “I feel the same about you but we have to keep going, it’s not far now.”

This was a lie because we still had a full day to ride and we had to get through Lord John’s territory and we did promise him we would come back in a few days and those few days was already more than two weeks, which was unforgivable and if he would see us, we would have to speak with him, which would mean we would miss our deadline.

“Alright, let’s move it.” Niall told everyone and we started riding again. I could feel James’s eyes on me but I had to ignore it and I was wondering why he wasn’t looking at his Lady Blackwood. It was not like I had been paying attention to him. We entered John’s territory after riding for another four hours and we had to stop this time because there were guards everywhere and we had to hide until nightfall.

“I found a cave.” James didn’t mind to keep his voice down and the moment he got what he did, it was already too late. The guards were all over us and I immediately recognized Aiden, who actually smiled at me. “Winter, Niall what a pleasure, we have been looking for you two.”

“You have but we were on our honeymoon.”

“Oh we know but you also had to be back at least a few days ago.”

“We have been travelling back for a few days now but as you can see the weather wasn’t in our advantage.” Niall wasn’t exactly lying as the weather had been really terrible but we could’ve been back days ago if we didn’t have to chase James across the country.

“We do have to bring you to John.” We nodded but as I looked at Catherine I saw her chanting and I knew this was going to get ugly. I looked around to all the men around us and I didn’t know any of them except for Aiden and I had to safe him because they would all die if they stayed here and I really didn’t want Aiden to die just because he is doing as he’s told. I brought my horse closer to him and motioned for him to get a bit closer.

“Aiden, you have to leave now, if you stay you will die.”

“What are you talking about Winter?”

“You see that woman?” I nudged my head towards Catherine and he nodded. “She is a witch and she is going to kill you all.”

“Why on earth would she do that?” I considered telling him the truth because I could see he wasn’t going to leave us. “We’re not from this time, we are from the future and if you don’t let us pass, we won’t make the deadline to get back.” I saw his shocked look and I could tell he thought I was mental but he also knew it wasn’t that weird, as we arrived in different clothes and well we didn’t talk like them.

“We will do everything we need to, to get back to our own time even if that means we have to kill you.” This was Niall and that made him look up with determination. “You mean it, don’t you?”

“We do, so please leave before it’s too late.” He looked at us one more time and smiled. “Wait till I tell Elaine, stay safe.” He turned and drove off on his horse but the rest of his men didn’t and they went down one by one but that didn’t shock me, what shocked me more was the black Aura around Catherine, she looked down right evil and it absolutely terrified me.

James was also looking at his sister with a sick form of proudness, Lady Blackwood was also staring but she looked numb, as if she was used to this kind of stuff, she did get closer to James but that was all she did. James however didn’t pay any attention to her, which surprised me as he was all over her a few days ago. I was wondering what had changed his behaviour towards her and it all clicked when he turned his eyes at me. The reason why he wasn’t looking at her, was because of me but why?

“We have to move now.” Catherine yelled at us and I was feeling better that I saw her Aura disappear and we nudged our horses to follow her and I knew we had almost reached our way back.

Notes