Everyone held on. Nobody spoke because it was so loud. Awful loud. And I for one was concentrating on keeping us up in the air. Please fly, please fly, pleasepleaseplease fly.
We were going very very, very fast. Like well over a hundred miles per hour. I took glances through the windows: city to the right, sprawling suburbs to the left, drones and other things flying by all around. Two other military helicopters pulled beside us and seemed to escort us before they peeled away headed in opposite directions. We continued: past the suburbs, past forests, to a coastline, then along it for a while, until we turned away and descended toward an opulent palace nestled against a forest. We landed on a wide green lawn surrounded by well-groomed showcase gardens.
The palace was gray brick, three stories high, with rooftops that went higher. There was a double front stair sweeping up to a large glass front entrance. The roofline was all finials and cones and higher and lower so that it totally resembled a sandcastle, the drippy kind. It seemed like someone might call it their ‘Grand House, ’ as in, ‘Mummy, will we be summering in the Grand House with the Kennedys this year?’ But how would I know? I never saw a grand house up close in my life and here we were landing on the lawn in front of it.
Hammond jumped off the helicopter followed by two soldiers. Another helicopter landed behind us, six men jumped out and entered the house with their weapons drawn.
They were gone for thirty minutes. Fifteen minutes in, Hammond said, “My apologies, Your Highness, we are sweeping the house to make sure it’s safe.”
When they returned they were leading three men and one woman, with their hands bound behind their backs. The prisoners were loaded onto another helicopter and then it rose into the air and flew away.
Hammond waved us out of ours.
I climbed out first and waited while the doctor and the two nurses climbed out and Magnus was pulled from the helicopter. In a group we pushed his gurney up the giant grand steps and in through the doors.
* * *
Men stood guard at the windows and doors while I stood in the gigantic foyer and was introduced to what was left of the staff: a man and one older woman. Hammond said, “Your Highness, I’d like you to meet Mrs Johnstone, the head of your household, she’s been here for thirty years.” Mrs Johnstone was in her late sixties and had an expression on her face like I had interrupted a really good sit-down day. I curtseyed like an idiot, because I didn’t have any idea what I was doing; I was being addressed like a Queen while I was barefoot and wearing brown pajamas.
Plus I was suffering extreme duress, the doctor and the nurses were setting up Magnus’s bed through far doors in the middle of the living room and we were here, standing under a giant painting of Donnan’s mean-ass face.
To the gardener, I didn’t remember his name, I mumbled something about, “Nice to meet you,” as I started to head into the living room.
I asked Hammond, “What happened to the rest of the staff?”
He said, “They no longer wanted to work here.”
* * *
The nurses were organizing Magnus’s IV pump and their other equipment right in the opulent, white and gold accented living room. The room was full of antiques and art and things that looked very precious. The luxury was contrasted with a giant projection of street battles along one wall: explosions, gunfire, more shaky video. It was very loud as if the battle was right here in the living room. Along another wall, doors of glass looked out over the sprawling grass surrounded by woods. The other two walls were covered, floor to ceiling, with small paintings interspersed with large framed photos of Donnan: Donnan in a uniform. Donnan laughing with a sneer. Donnan beside a boat. Donnan the Terrible in one direction, horrific explosions in the other.
Dr Abercrombie had gone and slumped down on the couch in the middle of all that luxury.
I walked over and stood in front of him. “When do you think he’ll wake up? He’s been asleep for a really long time. Is it a coma? Is that what’s happening?”
The doctor ignored me. I crossed my arms across my chest.
“It doesn’t seem right he hasn’t stirred at all — are you sure you’re giving him the right dosage of whatever it is you’re giving him? What are you giving him?”
“I’m administering antibiotics. The weapons they use in these battles are ancient and of course I’m giving him the right dosage, Ms Campbell.” His voice dripped with condescension. “He’ll wake soon enough.” He dropped his head back on the couch as if he planned to take a nap.
Chapter 16
Hammond returned from making his rounds and called me over. “Your Highness, we have men stationed around the perimeter. You don’t have anything on you, anything that can be tracked?”
“No, nothing. I don’t even have shoes.”
“There might be some here, you could go through the—”
“Nope. I can’t go through any of Donnan’s things. At all.” I looked around at all the photos leering at me.
Hammond followed my eyes. “Ah, yes. Sadly, there was no where else safe to bring you. I think Samuel knew about all the other houses. You should be hidden enough for now and I’m trying to get you both moved back to the castle as soon as possible.”
“Sure, that sounds good. And anyway, he should wake any minute now.”
“Yes, he certainly should. In the meantime I’ll be stationed outside. Tell Mrs Johnstone if you need anything.”
“I don’t want to be a bother.... Can we turn down the volume? It’s really really—” I really wanted to turn it all the way off but thought that might sound too complain-y.
“Of course.”
Hammond lowered the volume as he left and I returned to Magnus’s bedside. I watched the nurses fidget with tubing and wires.
I asked the younger nurse, “When do you think he’ll wake up?”
“I can’t really say, um, ma’am. With the medicines…” Her eyes flitted to the other nurse and she continued looking over a chart.
“What medicines? Can you tell me—?”
The older nurse asked abruptly, “How long have you been married to him?”
“Something like two years. I would need to see a calendar to know exactly.”
“Oh, and will his mistress be joining us here too?”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“His mistress, Bella, she was in his room during his surgery.”
I leveled my gaze. “She isn’t his mistress and no, she won’t be.”
With a shrug she said, “Oh, I thought... my apologies. She’s carrying his child. I thought you must know—”
“I do know. You don’t need to tell me.”
I clutched his hand and tried to swallow my fury. The war scenes on the projections looked terrifying: the camera zoomed low over a body laying partially in rubble.
* * *
The nurses joined the doctor on the comfortable couches and chairs in the sitting area.
It was incongruous: the medical staff in their uniforms sitting relaxed in this lavish house while the king slept on a gurney with scary looking liquids dripping into his arm.
I pulled a barstool beside Magnus’s bed, clutched his hand, and whispered in his ear, but my fear was rising. He was too still. This sleep had been going on for too long. There was no movement or anything and I was starting to really freak out. This was not at all what I thought the medical staff should be doing.
“Magnus? Can you hear me?” I massaged his fingers and up his wrist. “Magnus? Can you wiggle a finger if you hear me?”
This is what was freaking me out so much: Magnus had been alive. I had been with him and he was alive and I left him to come here.
I knew there were rules — interplanetary, inter-dimensional rules about folding back on your own life, but I thought this would be safe, coming here to Magnus.
But what if it wasn’t?
When I left him, he was so sad but alive and here, he was technically alive but lying there completely still, and...
I was beg
inning to tingle, like the ‘before you pass out’ kind, the skin-crawling kind, the full-blown panic kind. “Magnus, can you wake up?”
The nurses left for the kitchen to see about some food.
I was famished but couldn’t imagine being able to eat.
They returned later with plates of eggs and toast and beans and ate theirs on the couch. Mrs Johnstone delivered a plate of food and a mug of coffee to me on a tray and asked if I wanted to sit at a table; I refused deciding to stay perched on the barstool instead.
She said vaguely, “I didn’t think you’d be so young.”
“Oh, yes, I’m twenty-four,” I said awkwardly.
She watched Magnus’s sleeping face. “He looks just like his father. Now that was a gentleman. He always treated his staff very well.”
She said, offhandedly, “You need some proper clothes.”
“Yes, but I don’t know where I would…”
She huffed. “I’ll see if I can find you some. If you need anything ring me through this.” She handed me what looked like a very small remote control. “This button.” When she gestured at it she whispered, “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but the doctor is on Samuel’s side.”
My eyes went wide and my stomach dropped to the floor, but I couldn’t ask a single question because she abruptly left the room.
My hands shook from fear.
Samuel’s side? Shit. I looked at the remote control wishing I knew how to push a button to conjure Hammond.
The doctor stood, stretched, approached Magnus’s gurney, and sifted through a box.
I crowded him looking over his shoulder. There were a couple of basic medical kits, a few bags of fluids. I asked, “What are you looking for?” because he had the look on his face of someone who wouldn’t want to say.
He ignored me. He pulled a bag out and put it on Magnus’s mattress and began unscrewing the tubing from the bag hanging beside the gurney. I wedged myself between him and Magnus.
“What is that? More of the same? Is that... What is it?” I grabbed his arm so I could read the writing on the label but couldn’t make out the names. “Tell me what it’s for or I’m not letting you put it in him.”
He leaned over me so I was arched back above Magnus’s chest. “I don’t have to answer to you. I’m the royal physician—”
“Yeah, well, I’m Magnus’s wife and I’m not to be pushed around.” It was an empty threat though because I was basically pushed.
He glared into my eyes.
The nurses rushed over. The older one said, “Your behavior is shocking, Ms Campbell, please move.”
“No,” I spread my arms out over Magnus. “Not until I understand what’s being done, no one touches him.”
Doctor Abercrombie’s grin grew even more malevolent.
Our ruckus alerted the two guards who rushed in with their guns drawn.
The doctor said, “She attacked me. She killed King Donnan. The fact she’s even allowed access to Magnus is unbelievable.”
“That’s not true. I’m just—”
“I’m trying to administer fluids to the king.”
One of the guards tried to pull me off Magnus.
“I just need to know what—” I started kicking.
I kicked the tray of food and coffee off the end table and it splashed to the ground all over one of the nurses.
I kicked Dr Abercrombie really hard in the knee and he yelled and clutched it like I had done serious damage. Stupid fucking asshole.
They yanked me off Magnus’s bed. “I just — I’m trying to protect him, I think he’s on Samuel’s side—”
He looked outraged.
I twisted out of the guard’s grip and threw my body across Magnus’s legs and held onto the edges of the bed. The gurney rocked dangerously. I knew I looked insane in my bare feet and pajamas but—
Both guards tried prying me from the bed. “Call Hammond, I’ll go if you’ll call him first.” My left fingers lost their grip but I struggled hard to get it back. “Call Hammond!”
Dr Abercrombie was replacing Magnus’s fluid bags.
I leapt from the bed and grabbed hold of the doctor’s arm. “Stop!”
“Get her off me.”
The guards pulled me off the Doctor. “I’ll go quietly, only nobody do anything, stop the doctor until Colonel Donahoe comes back, please.”
They bound my hands behind my back but finally, thankfully, one said, “Doctor Abercrombie, please stop what you’re doing until Colonel Donahoe can make a decision.”
He said, “You’re going to take the words of a murderer over mine?”
The guard answered, “Colonel Donahoe told me to make sure she was comfortable. I don’t think he’s going to be too happy I’ve handcuffed her. Don’t do anything else until he returns.” He turned his back on us to use his radio.
The other guard held me ten feet away from Magnus while the doctor stood at Magnus’s bedside, glaring at me furiously. The tubing connected to my husband was laying at the doctor’s feet and blood flowed from Magnus onto the floor.
“Please pick up the tubing, please, I beg of you.”
The guard said, “Pick up the tubing, Dr Abercrombie.”
He picked the hose up grudgingly.
I had my answer, this doctor wasn’t putting anything inside of Magnus, not anymore.
Chapter 17
A few moments later Hammond bustled into the room, his face flushed and stern. He nodded brusquely toward me and asked, “Dr Abercrombie, what’s happening?”
Dr Abercrombie said, “This person—”
He corrected, “Queen Kaitlyn, the king’s wife.”
“—has attempted to block me from administering treatments to Magnus. I am the royal physician and to perform my duties I had her restrained. Your guards ordered me to discontinue treatment until you give me the all-clear.”
I interrupted, “Please don’t. He’s on Samuel’s side, I’m sure of it.”
Hammond turned to me, his brow raised. “He’s been the royal physician for twenty years. What would make you think—?”
The doctor interrupted, “This is outrageous!”
“I just, I have my suspicions. When I asked him what he was giving Magnus, he wouldn’t tell me. I think Magnus should be awake by now and I’m worried.”
“Worried enough to be arrested over it?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
Hammond looked around the room. He seemed to be judging the area more than the people inside it.
After a moment he asked, “Queen Kaitlyn, have you any idea what is going on in the kingdom right now?”
Crap. I was the queen apparently and I knew nothing about the people, the kingdom, the reason for the fighting. I was Marie Antoinette-ing this whole thing and not doing a good job of it.
I searched my brain for anything but didn’t have enough to even bullshit with. “All I know is Magnus was next in line for the throne after Donnan. About this war I have no idea. My guess is Magnus’s uncle Samuel has followers who are angry Magnus killed him in the arena. Maybe he has a son...” My eyes grew wide. “Does he have a son? Wait, Hammond, is Bella in a safe house?”
He nodded. “Yes, Bella has been moved to a safe house.”
I said, “Good.”
Hammond turned to Doctor Abercrombie. “Would you like to fill in the gaps in Queen Kaitlyn’s knowledge?”
Doctor Abercrombie said, “Samuel’s son, Roderick is fighting for the throne.”
Hammond said, “See, Queen Kaitlyn, it’s a simple matter. And Doctor Abercrombie has been treating kings since... Can you remind me the kings you’ve treated, Doctor Abercrombie?”
He straightened his back. “There was Donnan the first, Donnan the second, Samuel, and now Magnus.”
Hammond explained, looking directly at me. “And here we are in the interregnum period between the reign of Donnan the second and Magnus the first. And while the kingdom has been between the two kings, Samuel attempted to usurp the crown. He failed, of cours
e, and died in an arena battle against Magnus and yet... the rebels are still trying to overthrow the rightful king.” He shook his head. “They are trying to take the palace by force and many people have lost their lives.” He added, “Finding where one’s loyalties lies is sometimes very difficult.”
He added, “So that’s why, Doctor Abercrombie, I’m going to have to ask you to step away from Magnus. You’re under arrest—”
“You have no right! I’m the royal physician, what am I being accused of?”
Hammond raised his brow. “You listed Samuel as a king.”
The guards closed in around him.
The older nurse said, “You can’t arrest him for saying Roderick fights for the throne, it’s true!”
“Oh I can. I have no proof. I’m no judge or juror but I can let the courts decide. I only know that if the doctor was on Magnus’s side he would have described this all much differently and he wouldn’t be speaking to Magnus’s wife, the queen, with all this disrespect. You’re relieved of duty as well.”
He turned to the younger nurse. “Do you think I’m being unfair?”
She shook her head. “I think this is a good decision.”
“Queen Kaitlyn, are you comfortable with only one nurse while I try to replace the doctor?”
“I am.”
“Okay, then we’ll make do with one nurse.”
Doctor Abercrombie said, “When Roderick is king and I’m reinstated as Royal Physician you’ll regret this move.”
“I won’t regret it because I won’t be alive to see it.”
The soldiers arrested them and shoved them out the front door and I could see through a window their helicopter rise into the air.
Hammond scrubbed his hands on his face making his beard stick out in crazy directions. He looked unkempt and very tired.
“Queen Kaitlyn, it’s been twelve hours since I met you and I’ve placed a great deal of trust at your feet. I truly hope you haven’t lied to me.”
Magnus and a Love Beyond Words Page 6
