Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) by Angeline Fortin (whitelam books .TXT) 📗

“Verra well. A wormhole. But what was it? How did ye create it? Where did it go? Tae the Colonies? Which colony? And what’s become of them in the days and years ahead?”

So many questions. His curiosity was insatiable.

“I’ll try to explain it to you if I can,” she said, pursing her lips. “But I’m afraid there’s no chance that a man like you will be able to understand the science of it all.”

Offense at her words drew him to a halt. No words could have insulted him more, though she hinted at the same again and again. It was time he explained a few things to her. “Madam, I am a fellow at the Royal Society, the Berlin Academy, and the youngest man e’er accepted tae the Académie des Sciences in Paris. I am a learned man of science, lass. Nae some drooling simpleton who cannae comprehend newfangled notions.”

*

With each clipped word, Keir’s accent grew thicker until his words were almost foreign. Certainly the string of Gaelic that rolled out after it was. But she got his meaning anyway. She had insulted him deeply.

A slap to his intelligence. Who knew that’s what a man 300 years in the past might be offended by? But wouldn’t she… hadn’t she reacted the same way when someone assumed the same of her? That she was unable to grasp complex technical information just because she was tiny and blonde?

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “That was wrong of me. Are you really a member of all those organizations?”

“Aye.” He nodded curtly. Clearly not all was forgiven.

“Okay, I’ll try to explain it but feel free to ask for clarification.”

Al tried to gather her scattered thoughts. Intelligent he might be but these were theories in science that hadn’t even been considered at this point in time. Some of them might even get a scientist of this time imprisoned or excommunicated. Hell, his society wasn’t even fully heliocentric yet much less willing to except the blasphemy of time travel.

But if he wanted it, he’d get it. Taking a seat on one of the shaded benches placed throughout the garden, she faced him when he dropped down beside her.

A deep breath. “Okay, so I suppose the first thing you need to know is about the four dimensions.”

“Four?”

“Yes, there are four dimensions to every measurement. For example, say you’re riding your horse along the road, you can go forward and back along one axis.” She demonstrated the line using her hands, moving them out in front of her. “Left or right.” She moved from side to side. “Then up and down over a hill or whatever. Right?”

“That’s three.”

“The fourth is time.”

He frowned but nodded. “I hae nae considered this but it makes sense.”

“It’s a concept that’s still a couple hundred years away. So, I told you last night, a wormhole is a passageway through space. Each wormhole carries the potential to be a pathway through that fourth dimension.” Simplistic and perhaps not entirely scientific, but good enough. She was sure he would ask for more detail later on anyway.

“Each wormhole?”

“There are billions of them.”

“Verra well and where did ye find this wormhole?”

Al gnawed her lip. “Well, that’s a little tougher to explain and maybe harder to understand. Do you know what an atom is? No, probably not that wasn’t until…” She trailed off, thinking back to her most basic physics classes and searching for inspiration. Bending, she picked a flower from the garden and held it up between them. “Tell me, what is this flower made up of?”

“’Tis just a flower, lass.”

“Come on,” she urged.

“’Tis broken down tae the stem, petal, the stamin.”

“Good but go smaller.”

“The cells within? I hae seen them through the microscope, though I dinnae care much for botany. It was a favorite pastime of Euler’s.”

“Leonhard Euler?” she asked in distraction. “You knew him?”

“I know him,” he clarified. “He was my mentor while at the Académie des Sciences.”

Al was blown away. “Wow! Really? He’s a legend in history of mathematics. His work on the wave theory of light is—”

“Lass,” he warned. “Dinnae try tae turn the questions back tae yer own. I want tae understand.”

“Right, right. But if you know Leonhard Euler, I might just have to become your groupie.”

He just stared at her, clearly curious but refusing to be swayed from his line of questioning.

“Okay, where were we then? Oh, cells. Okay, go smaller.”

“There is nae smaller.”

“Yes, there is,” she told him, making a circle of her hands and closing it in as she spoke. “From cells we go down to molecules then down to atoms, smaller than any microscope you have yet can see. And even smaller than that—trillions and trillions sizes smaller—is the quantum arena. This is what we call the Planck scale. So small that even the most powerful microscope cannot see it. In fact, many think it is all theoretical. But there we find what is called the quantum foam. That is where wormholes exist.”

“What I saw was nae so wee.”

“No, at first our project was to enlarge the wormhole just enough to slip something tiny through,” she explained. “Using a burst of negative energy… I’ll get to that, we were able to enlarge it beyond what was thought possible. Not just a tiny hole no bigger than my little finger but one big enough…” Al scratched at the back of her earlobe uneasily and glanced away.

“Big enough for a man.”

“Yes. But the hardest part was in stabilizing it. Holding it open proved almost impossible.”

“Why?”

“Wormholes are naturally volatile. Think of soap bubbles. The way they form and pop. That’s what it’s like in the quantum foam. Wormholes are born and die in the matter of nanoseconds. Holding one and keeping it from collapsing was the challenge. That’s why I was brought in.” It was a bit like bragging but she couldn’t help herself. Despite the consequences, she was proud of her achievement. “The negative energy construct we developed was able to