Touch of Eternity(18)

What I really wanted to know more about was his history, but I told him to go on, that I still had time.

“How much time?” He seemed to have an idea.

I checked my cell phone. I still had an hour before the bus was scheduled to go back to Aviemore. “Actually, I have far too much time.”

I didn’t know what I could possibly do there for another hour, so I hoped Payton would stick around. If he were to say good-bye now, I’d probably die of boredom and they’d have to erect a monument in my honor. “Here died a bored teenage tourist,” the plaque would read.

Mostly, though, I didn’t want him to leave. I tried to think if I should throw my hair back lasciviously—or maybe lick my lips. That seemed to work in the movies. But I was saved from having to try any awkward girly maneuvers, because a bemused expression crossed Payton’s beautiful, mysterious face.

“What do you think about going for a walk with me, and I’ll act as your personal tour guide? I know a path that leads to the foot of the viaduct.”

A bit behind the souvenir shop, a gigantic viaduct spanned the valley, all the way from hill to hill. I knew the bridge: it was in the Harry Potter movies. You could buy posters in the shop showing the Hogwarts Express train, which took Harry and his friends over this bridge. But even without the view, Payton’s offer would have been enticing.

“Sounds great.”

I got up immediately, and he stood up quickly, too, before I could reach out a hand to help him off the grass.

“You should eat something beforehand, though,” he said.

“Eat?”

“Weren’t you feeling kind of woozy up on the tower?”

“Right… I was dizzy. Something to eat sounds good.”

We wandered back to the shop next to each other, and I got a bag of chips and a bottle of lemonade. As we sat at one of the small bistro tables, a woman from my group threw a glance our way before turning around to whisper something to her friend. Oh, I thought, the gossip this would cause on the bus! Oh well.

I wiped my hands on a napkin. “So, shall we?”

Payton had also noticed the woman’s look. “And I thought the days when pretty girls had to have a chaperone were long over.”

Oh my God, I thought. Had he just called me pretty? My heart sped up by about a hundred beats per minute. I felt like I was in a deep, warm whirlpool, swirling around wildly with no protection. I just hoped Payton didn’t notice I was having a panic attack at the sound of his voice.

“So,” he said, “what brings you to Scotland?”

“Student exchange. I’m trying to improve my grades in geography and history. This trip was my teacher’s suggestion. He thought I needed… well… inspiration.”

Payton held me with a long look, as if he were searching my soul to see if I was telling the truth. It made me a little uneasy.

“And you? Do you live here? You seem to know your way around.”

“Near here.”

His kept his answers so short, which didn’t exactly encourage me to ask more questions.

“But why come to a tourist spot then? What with all the vultures stampeding around with their cameras and eating chips.”

“Hmm… I don’t know. Let’s say I was drawn here magically. And I am very glad about that, about following my impulse.”

If Ryan said something like that to a girl, he would have looked down at the end of the sentence, playing it for all it was worth. Payton, on the other hand, seemed matter-of-fact. He looked almost as if he were challenging me, but the hardness in his eyes didn’t match the softness of his voice.

Something about him sucked the truth right out of me, and I couldn’t help blurting out, “I’m glad you followed your impulse to come here, too.”

We started walking. Ow, I thought. That stupid pendant was burning against my skin. That was it, I decided then and there. I just couldn’t wear it anymore.

The brisk Scottish wind kept blowing across the hills and down to us, but I didn’t feel cold; being near Payton seemed to warm me from the inside. He told me about the bitter fight for the crown of England and Scotland. Charles’s rebellion, which had started where we stood, had been smashed only six months later at Culloden. When the battle had been lost, Charles fled from the English troops and hid near the place where it all had started, back when his journey had held such promise.

When Payton was talking about history, he didn’t seem as tense. He spoke with great passion, as if he could see the events of the past taking place directly in front of him—almost as if he himself had taken part. It seemed the past and the present weren’t separate for Scots, the way we saw things in America.