Highland Protector (MacCoinnich Time Travels Book Five) Read Online Free PDF

into white-hot flames.
Before Kincaid could ask if Giles summoned the fire, the room rumbled and
Giles—along with his book—disappeared.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
    Amber shot up from her bed when the
house shook. Very few things caused the world to upend as they just had. She
paused, briefly, felt the presence of someone unfamiliar, and forced herself
from her seclusion.
    The pain in her head peaked as she
descended the stairs. Anxiety, hers and several others in the house, assaulted
her system and made her shake.
    Helen and Mrs. Dawson stood in
silence when Amber rushed into the library. Their eyes locked with a stranger
sitting in one of Mrs. Dawson’s reading chairs.
    All eyes swung to her.
    The man surged to his feet, the book
in his lap dropped to the floor. Amber clutched the edges of her cloak and
stepped back. Though she didn’t think the man meant her any harm, her instinct
kicked in. Every candle in the room lit, and the fireplace roared to life.
    He didn’t stop staring at her.
    Helen pulled Mrs. Dawson beside her
until the three of them stood in unity. “Who are you?” Helen asked.
    The man switched his attention to
Helen then back to Amber. “I-I’m Giles.” He blinked a few times and reached
down to pick up the book that had fallen to the floor. He waved a hand in the
air, and the candles sitting on the floor blew out. He stepped over them,
placed the book on a table, and proceeded to study the walls in the room. “I’m
still in the fortress?”
    Confusion rolled off the stranger in
strong waves.
    “Excuse me?” Helen asked.
    “The fortress. Formerly known as
Dawson’s Manor. This is the library is it not?”
    “Formerly known as?” Mrs. Dawson
asked.
    “It’s been years, of course.” The man
moved to a bookcase, removed one of the titles, and dusted the edges of the old
book. He clicked his tongue as if disappointed in the dirt. “Dust and light are
a book’s worst enemy,” he informed them.
    “Excuse me? But who the hell are you
and how did you get here?” Helen stepped forward and her voice rose.
    He sat the book down and removed the
glasses from his nose. “I told you. I’m Giles, the keeper of the books. As for
how I got here…well, you hold the answers to that. I was calmly studying,
talking with a friend, and then suddenly I appeared here. I assume one of you
shifted time on my behalf.”
    Amber’s hand reached for the pendant
on the chain around her neck and looked at Helen. Helen’s necklace was hidden
under her shirt, but she too held one of the time traveling stones.
    “Did you summon him?” Amber asked
Helen.
    With Amber’s words, Giles leveled his
gaze once again to her.
    Helen exchanged a look with Mrs.
Dawson. “We must have.”
    “But you don’t know who he is?”
    “We were looking for a cure for you,
Amber. I thought one of the books was going to fly off the shelf, not pop a man
out of nowhere,” Helen told her.
    “Amber?” Giles asked.
    “Aye.”
    The way the man watched her now
softened. Some of the anxiety in the room eased.
    He stepped in her direction and
peered closer.
    Amber hid under the hood of her cloak
and stepped out of the man’s reach. He stopped his advance as if sensing her
distress.
    Helen moved between the two of them.
“Don’t touch her.”
    Giles looked over Helen’s shoulder.
“I won’t.”
    “Do you know who I am?” Amber asked.
    “I’m almost afraid to ask. Can I see
your face?”
    Amber reached to her head and slowly
removed her hood.
    “You must be her.”
    “Must be who?”
    “The woman Kincaid is searching for.
Tell me, Amber…what is your surname?”
    Amber searched out this man’s
thoughts, his feelings and didn’t sense any harm could possibly come from his
gentle soul. “MacCoinnich. Daughter of—”
    “Lord Ian and Lady Lora,” Giles said
before he dropped to his knee and bowed his head. “My Lady.”
    Amber sighed. “That is not necessary
in this century. Please rise.”
    He didn’t rise