The following excerpt is from “Shadows in the Mist”, the sequel to “Moment in Time”

“No! No! I won’t go! Aidan, don’t let it take me! Help me! It’s coming. I can feel it. I can feel the pull!” Anna screamed in her sleep as she thrashed in the bed, quilt and pillows tossed every which way. Her limbs felt as though they were disconnected from her body and she was filled with the terror of the unknown. Tears streamed down her face and dripped into her soft, curly hair.

“Anna, Anna, wake up! It’s only a dream. Ye’re only dreaming. Wake up, mo chride. I’m here. Ye’re safe. Dinna fash. Ye’re safe.” Aidan reached for her and held her close to his chest pinning her arms against her as he murmured softly in her ear trying to wake her and calm her down. He could feel her tremble through her sweat-covered shift. He brushed her hair from her face with a look of helplessness and pain on his own.

Anna gradually stopped thrashing and started to relax in his arms as she slowly opened her eyes. They were still wet with the tears of her dream and she still shook and was breathing hard. She slumped against him when she realized where she was and started to cry all over again.

“Oh, Aidan, it was horrible! I had the same dream again only this time you weren’t there. I couldn’t find you. Our baby was gone, too. I was all alone and fell down a dark hole with nothing to grab on to. I couldn’t feel my body this time! My God, when will this fear go away?” She looked up at her husband with anguish on her lovely face. “God, Anna, ye tear my heart out when ye cry out like that and I canna help ye.” Aidan’s green eyes were filled with frustration and worry as he looked at Anna cradled in his strong arms, a strength that could neither erase her fears nor rid her of the horrible nightmares. “I’m...sorry...Aidan.” she sobbed into his chest. “I don’t know what brings the dreams on. I go to sleep lying next to you feeling loved and contented, but my subconscious must always be afraid because the dream comes back, again and again.”

Anna didn’t think about the possibility of being sent back to the 21st century very much anymore at all during the day when she was busy around the house and garden and helping Aidan with the estate office work. She was preparing for the birth of their first child in just three months. Sometime in June they thought, but since there was neither doctor to consult nor pre-natal care in 1724, the arrival of the much anticipated little one was a guess at best.

Anna lay against Aidan and the feel of his skin, the male scent of him and the warmth of his muscled body helped to calm her. His slow breathing and steady heart rhythm had a soothing effect and she subconsciously matched her own to his. She thought about the past year as her heart slowly regained its normal rhythm and he continued to rub her back slowly. The stubble of his beard felt somehow comforting to her as she stroked his face. It had been indeed a very strange year that they still could not explain.

On May 1st it would be one year since she disappeared from the basement of the Museum of Fine Art in Inverness, Scotland in 2002 where she was on temporary assignment and awoke in the garden of the Laird of Taigh Gu Leior, Aidan William Carlisle MacGregor in 1723. She and Aidan were married in June mostly to protect both their good names and give Anna a place to stay until she could return to the 21st century, but truth be told, she had loved him, and he her, from the very first moment they saw each other and she fought going back with everything that was in her.

“Are ye feeling better now, Anna? Can I get anything for ye? Some water perhaps?” Aidan asked softly as he held her close and kissed her forehead. He pushed tendrils of her blond hair behind one ear. He had never thought he could love anyone like he did Anna and the intense depth of his feelings almost frightened him at times. Aidan was courageous in battle, had a reputation of being almost impossible to defeat and had never feared anything, except the sheer strength of his love for her and the thought of possibly losing Anna.

Anna looked into his eyes and tried to smile. “I’m fine now. Sorry I woke you. It’s almost morning.” She sighed softly and she stroked his chest, loving the feel of the soft hairs under her fingers. She could see the slight graying of the sky through the window. The March wind howled outside and the tree branches were flinging themselves against each other and the house. Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat. The steady rhythm was soothing somehow. It helped assure her that she was indeed still here with Aidan, where she belonged.