A Time & Place for Every Laird Angeline Fortin (read full novel txt) 📖

He looked so homesick that when the ideasprang to her mind, she didn’t think twice. “Well, you can!”

“How?” he asked suspiciously. “How might Ido so when ye say it is impossible for us tae travel from thiscountry?”

“Two words: Google Earth,” she answeredenthusiastically. “We can just look it up.”

“Look it up?” he repeated curiously, butClaire was already pulling her laptop in front of her. “What isthat?”

Claire explained the basic operation of thecomputer as her laptop was booting up. Using the simplest terms,she gave him a base description of the Internet and finallyanswered his questions about Google. “Where is it?”

“Rosebraugh?”

“Yes. How do you spell it?” Hugh spelled outthe name while Claire typed it in and hit enter expectantly.Nothing. “Is that a town? It’s not coming up.”

Hugh glowered suspiciously at the screen.There was a dislike between man and machinery that Claire wascertain would take more than a few days to overcome. Of course, amore unnerved time traveler might have beaten the computer with astick until it lay in bits. Shooting her guest a suspicious glance,she scooted the laptop out of his reach… just in case. “Nae, ’tis acastle.”

“You have a castle?” Claire asked insurprise, eyeing him up and down as if she were trying to see morethan she previously had. A castle said something more thanblacksmith or soldier. “A castle? An actual castle?”

“I know of none that are less thanauthentic.”

“Hilarious,” she said, wrinkling her nose.“So you have a castle?”

“Rosebraugh. It sits at the easternmost endof the South Sutor Cromarty wi’ the Moray Firth on one side and theCromarty Firth on the other. ’Tis the first place that the sunblesses each morning and the grandest place in all the world,” hesaid with feeling.

“I’m sure you think so,” she said notunkindly. “But it’s a pretty big world, you know.”

“You think me simple, Sorcha?” Hugh shookhis head at her reproach. “I hae seen sights tae delight thesenses, but there is nae place that stirs my soul as Rosebraughdoes.”

“I wasn’t trying to pick a fight,” Clairesaid apologetically at his defensive retort. Who could blame him?If she had just lost her home, she doubted she would take kindly toanyone’s attempt to dismiss her memories of it. In truth, she hadfound his words poignantly poetic.

Claire retyped the word, adding castle tothe end but still there was nothing. “Are you sure that’s how youspell it? Maybe there’s a variation or something?”

Hugh raised a disdainful brow and Clairesighed. “Fine, but it’s not coming up that way.”

“What do ye mean ‘coming up’?”

Claire gestured for Hugh to sit next to her,spent a few minutes explaining the program to him, how it worked,and what she expected it to find. As an example, she typed inSpokane to demonstrate. The image of the planet rotated and zoomedin on the city, making Hugh’s eyes widen with surprise. He tensedas if ready to pounce and Claire shielded her laptop protectivelyuntil his posture eased once more.

“This is a map of this town?”

“It’s a picture of Spokane,” Claireclarified. “We have machines in outer space that we call satellitesthat have cameras that can take pictures of us down here.”

“Camera?”

“A machine that captures an image tosave.”

Hugh nodded. “Like the roving eye at theprison?”

He was clever. Claire had to give him that.“Laboratory, but yes, like that.”

“Fascinating.” Hugh fell into silence for afew moments, clearly thinking of all the implications of what shehad said. Or simply not absorbing them, Claire wasn’t sure. He rana finger over the monitor as if examining the texture then paused.“Hold. How did the machine get put intae the skies above theearth?”

“We sent them there. We shot it up there ina rocket.”

“Machines that go intae the skies? People?”She nodded, and Hugh started to laugh. For a moment, she wasn’tsure he believed her, but then he slapped his knee and barked out aharsh laugh. “I knew it! I told my cousin, Keir, that one day manwould travel tae the stars, and he believed me nae. ’Tis pleasingtae know that I was right aboot that.”

Hugh’s unexpected laughter almost promptedthe same in Claire. It was nice to see him happy, if even for aminute. Nice to see the flash of his white teeth against his darkbeard as his eyes danced merrily. Under all that hair, she wageredhe had a pretty nice smile. “Well, aren’t you a regularNostradamus? I can’t wait to hear what else you predicted.”

“Many things,” he said with a chuckle. “Butfirst, show me my home.”

Claire typed in “Scotland” and Google Earthzoomed out to planet view and back into the country as a whole.

“Where do I begin?” Claire tilted the laptopin his direction once more, and Hugh pointed to an inlet of theNorth Sea in the northern third of Scotland. Claire double-clickedand the image zoomed in.

“All right, here is the Moray Firth and hereis the Cromarty Firth,” Claire said, hovering the mouse over eachbody of water in turn.

“Then here is Cromarty,” Hugh said, pointingto the peninsula between the two. “My home is here, at the pointoverlooking the sea.”

Double-clicking again on the area andzooming in some more, Claire waited for more instruction.

“What are all these different coloredareas?” he asked, sidetracked by the image. “It looks much like aquilt my aunt might make.”

“Fields,” she said, thinking of similarviews she’d seen from airplanes. “And here you can see the trees.Over here there are trees along the shore and here is thebeach.”

“And these?” Hugh pointed.

Clicking on one of the little blue squares,Claire smiled. “Pictures.” Selecting one, Claire pulled up apicture entitled the South Sutor of Cromarty. “Wow, that’sbeautiful!” she sighed with admiration as the sloping land rosefrom the sea against a gorgeous sunrise.

“I’ve seen such a sight most days of mylife. Here, then,” he pointed to another square. “This one shouldshow my home.”

But it didn’t, and neither did the halfdozen they tried after that. Claire zoomed in farther, trying tofind evidence of a building anywhere in the region that Hughinsisted was his home. There was nothing. No buildings, no ruins.“Maybe we’re just looking in the wrong place.”

“Ye think I dinnae ken where my home is,lass?” he