Free The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan

Maggie sat now, popping her soul into a life where she would be unable to prevent a terrible outcome seemed to be a pretty cruel lesson.
    Gertrude had said she had nothing to lose.
    Like hell . Her heart ached worse than ever. “Why did ye do this?” she said aloud. “Why put me in this hopeless situation?”
    A little voice inside Maggie said, because it isn’t hopeless .
    Then Maggie remembered Gertrude’s specific words, Truly, ye have nothing to lose and perhaps the opportunity to do a bit of good .
    Could she do a bit of good? Was it possible? Was this something she could change?
    Exactly when was the wedding to be? The Feast of the Assumption was on the fifteenth of August. Logan said the wedding was three days later, making it just barely inside her window to return home. Maggie knew she would never be able to change Logan’s mind, but if she stayed until Margaret’s clan arrived, maybe she could convince her father to set the betrothal aside. Or, barring that, go back to her original plan of staging Margaret’s death to occur in the presence of her father, so no suspicion would fall on the Carrs.
    It was a tight window, and while she feared it wouldn’t work, there was no harm in trying if there was even the slightest chance of preventing a bloody feud. She might not be able to stop the inevitable, but she would have given it her best.
    She sighed. Her eggs benedict would have to wait a while.
    With that decision made, Maggie climbed off the bed and searched for a place to hide the pocket watch. She opened the wardrobe and was overwhelmed once again by the sheer volume of garments Margaret owned. Considering a maid had to help her dress and undress and was responsible for putting her dresses away, Maggie thought it might be better to hide it in a shoe. Margaret had quite a few pairs of shoes as well but Maggie found one pair with extraordinarily long toes that curled up. The toes were so long they were stuffed with wool to help hold their shape. Maggie couldn’t imagine ever wearing them. She pulled out some of the wool, tucked the watch in, replaced the wool and stuck the shoes in the very back of the wardrobe.
    As promised, Logan escorted her to dinner in the great hall that evening. She felt a bit of the awe and excitement she had experienced in her first few hours there, but it was tempered a bit by the disapproval she felt from the clan members present. Ah well, she supposed Margaret deserved their contempt, but Maggie vowed to do what she could over the next few weeks to repair her reputation.
     

Chapter 7
    Logan woke just after sun-up the next morning. He lay in bed for several minutes, contemplating the bizarre turn of events that began with the accident. He had been suspect of Margaret’s motives initially. But now that he believed her, he needed to consider all of the implications.
    The first thing he realized was, where Maggie was concerned he could make no assumptions. While her memory loss was profound, it was not complete. It wasn’t as if her mind was a total blank. She could walk and talk and communicate as well as before. In fact, she understood Latin, which she had previously pretended not to. She was poised, well-mannered and had a deep sense of right and wrong—so much so that she repeatedly appeared ashamed of, and apologized for her previous behavior. On the other hand, she didn’t remember the hours of the day, much less grasp the nature of a betrothal or clan politics. She also had some fool notion about love in her head which he simply did not understand.
    One of his biggest concerns was the way his clan had reacted to her. Margaret had been arrogant and mean-spirited but not openly abusive. In her first few days at Castle Carr he had made it abundantly clear he wouldn’t tolerate that. Afterwards, she had held herself apart, avoiding any interaction with the clan unless absolutely necessary. She saved all her venom for me , he thought wryly.
    Still, regardless of her