“Och,” he shook his head. “Och.” He ran his hands through his hair. Then put them back around my ass, pulling me forward and close. “Tyler is my son, Archie?”
“Pretty amazing, huh? The whole thing is a lot of crazy-looping around through time. I have a diagram in my backpack that I can show you, but right now I really just want your arms around me. I don’t want to let go.” I put my arms around his head and he held me around my back. “You should have come home.”
“I wanted tae every day, but I was afraid tae...”
“A big strapping man like you, afraid? See, this is why you call me mo reul-iuil, I’m for guiding you. You should have come home and asked me about it. Promise me you won’t forget this lesson.”
“I promise.”
“Tell me about Archie.”
“He is a wee braw lad, ye would like him verra much.”
“How old is he now?”
“Just four years auld. He is verra smart.” He asked a passing servant for a mug of ale. Then his brow furrowed. “I raised my hand tae him when he came with us through time. I canna believe I did it.”
I stroked his hair from his forehead. “He understands. He does. I don’t think he regrets it, not really. He told me to tell you he liked fighting alongside you. And that you should let him do that more. I guess, in the future. When he’s not four-years-old.” I smiled.
He shook his head and returned my smile. “I daena want him tae have tae fight. He is a wee lad, tis verra hard tae imagine it.”
“He’ll grow up some day, and we know he turns out pretty great.”
“Aye, he does.” We kissed and when our ale arrived, we drank thirstily. He gestured for another.
“So what are you doing here?”
“I have been jumpin’ through time lookin’ for General Reyes, he is searchin’ for me. And I needed a place tae rest. I have been comin’ here every few months tae live. Tis familiar, protected, but winna involve Archie or Sean or Lizbeth or — I daena ken, I stopped thinking I could go home tae ye, though I also think about goin’ home tae ye every day.”
I swigged from his new ale. “When you get in your head, my love, you really do a number on yourself. I literally can’t believe you were just going to stay away—”
“I dinna want tae tell ye of it, that ye were goin’ tae do it. I dinna want tae blame ye for it, or make ye feel ashamed of it. I brought such grief tae ye, I thought ye might want tae have a normal life...”
I huffed out some air. “Well, those are not decisions for you to make.”
I shook my head. “I should be furious, but you have been feeling this for years, and it was only three days for me, so I’m going to forgive you for it. It would be like being angry at someone for getting lost at Disney World, unfair and a waste of time. I’m glad I found you and I’m not planning to waste another minute. Plus you’re pretty hot now with this little wrinkle here,” I pressed my lips to the spot just below his eye and above his cheek bone. “It’s even more pronounced now that you’re what — seventy?”
“Probably a score and eight.”
“Twenty eight, and you have this beard all the way to your chest, which is pretty damn hot and I’m just glad to see you. Did you go see Lizbeth? I saved her life.”
“I dinna go, but I looked up the history of it. I was verra proud of ye. Sean and Lizbeth are here ye ken, they are verra young bairn. I like tae watch them though I try tae keep them from seein’ me too much.” He pulled me closer between his legs up against his front.
“What about Lady Mairead?”
“She has left them and is off searching for her next husband. I think she will meet Donnan verra soon and I will come soon after. I won’t come back then, I am mindful nae tae loop on myself.”
I took his mug and slugged back a long drink.
He grinned and gestured for another one. “And where is Quentin? He dinna come with ye?”
“No, I thought it would be too dangerous for him.”
“Och, Kaitlyn, ye have such a big heart ye mean tae keep the security guard safe? Tis nae the way it works.”
I shrugged. “But it’s one of the things you love about me.”
“Aye, tis true.”
We sat looking into each other’s eyes grinning.
“I was so scared when you were ripped away from me by the guards, and now look, you’re unharmed, alive, covered in hair. Like a big bear done hibernating.”
“It has been a verra long time since that battle, I have had many a wound since. I daena scare ye, look too much an animal?” He stroked the end of his long beard.
“No, it’s kinda sexy actually.”
His eyes crinkled and he grinned. “I am randy like a just-woke bear too. I have been arguin’ with the walls. My cousins were close tae sendin’ me alone tae live in the forest.”
He raised his mug at a group of men and they all raised their glasses to him with a laugh.
“They’re probably wondering who this is rubbing up against you.”
“Aye, they have been questioning my commitment tae m’manhood. I have had tae take a fight or two tae prove my steel.
I pressed against him. “Och, aye,” I joked, “I can feel your steel.”
He chuckled with his head on my shoulder, collapsed on me. “Ah, mo reul-iuil, ye have a fine wit and a scandalous tongue.”
I stepped back from him and brushed the hair off my face. I raised my brow and smiled. “My tongue is not so full of scandal, sir, it’s full of sweetness and longing.”
He moaned and reached for my skirts to try to pull me closer again.
I stepped back further, and teased, “And if you would like to reacquaint yourself with it, my tongue, Master Magnus, I think you best be getting onto your back. By my accounts you have suffered some long years without me, and I believe you must be parched.”
He groaned happily. “Ye have used my words.”
“And this has been entirely too much talking.”
He hung his head. “I canna take ye home tae Florida, tis unsafe, and here I daena have a room with a bed. I haena the status of married Young Magnus, nephew of the Earl of Breadalbane. Now I am only Magnus, I have nae connection and nae comfort. Plus on the eve of Lammas there are many guests sleeping here. There winna be privacy.”
I put my hands on my hips. “So where do you sleep?” I grabbed the mug, drained at least half, and wiped my mouth with my arm. I was beginning to have a nice buzz.
“In a room with hay spread upon the floor, some bundles pretendin’ tae be mattresses. About ten men. Quentin wasna jokin’ when he said twas a frightful stench.”
“And we can’t go home?”
“I canna. I have tae deal with this first.”
I sighed. Then I smiled and raised my brow mischievously. “Remember on our wedding night, you told me that when you were with women before it was always—”
“Och, ye would?”
I nodded.
He looked left and right up and down the hall and stood and took my hand. “I ken just the place.”
Chapter 67
He led me out of the Great Hall and through the corridors, our footsteps rushing, echoing through the rooms to a circular stair. It was dark, but not pitch black because of the ambient light from a small rectangular window that was not more than a sliver. It had a protruding brick below it, a bit like a windowsill. Magnus stood with one foot on a lower step the other on the higher step and lifted me to the window sill, his arms around, my back to the stone. The smell of baking bread wafted through the tiny window on the wisps of a summer breeze.
My husband’s hands on my bodice, his mouth on my neck, his beard against my face — he smelled like himself, yet everything about him was older, even more a man —
You’re scratchy. I whispered it into the shared air between us.
Aye. I daena ken ye were comin’.
I chuckled into his ear and his wet lips found mine and we kissed, breaths and heat and words only for each other… I love you.
I missed ye. I want you. He grabbed my ass through my skirts and hiked the whole bundle of me to his front. He breathed into my ear and kissed along my neck, nibbling and licking while his hands pulled up handfuls of skirts until my legs were exposed. My bare thighs against the wool of his kilt, scratching and soft and pressing and hard and rough and — his fingers explored between my legs, the sensations overwhelming. Cold brick pressed against the back of my neck, hot breath on the edge of my throat. My middle bound and constricted, hand rubbing up and down, friction and heat, yet bare and open from my hips down, cool in the stairwell drafts, scandalously bare.
He wanted me so much I could feel it in the tremble of his lips.
The sweat on the back of his neck.
With a moan of helplessness he pulled the front of his kilt to his waist and entered me, a sigh on his breath like relief. His forehead against the wall, cheek to cheek I arched toward him, weightless, he pulled and pushed with me. My hands up under his shirt, pressed to the ridges of the scars criss-crossing the landscape of his shoulders. Just underneath his skin, his muscles taut and rippling as he held me up and pressed me close. I rocked against him finding a rhythm and — ohgodogodogod — I drew in. My breath, my strength, I gathered him in. close. more. held. Waves rolled down through me—
I flung my hands out to the stone walls and used them for counterforce — I canna wait — I know — it’s okay — escaped on my breath as he rode me hard and fast and deep and finally he ended with a near total collapse. My body reacted with a shiver. I wrapped around him, holding tight, in case his knees buckled and gravity took him down the stairs.
His voice emerged with the familiar rumble from deep in his chest. “Ye are a’quiver.”
“Yes.”
It was all I could think of to say.
He held me longer, breathing into my shoulder. Kissing the edge of my ear. Then he slid from between my legs and helped me slide down from the sill. And we put our skirts to rights as voices came from above, two or three men descending the stair. I looked at him with my eyes wide.
“Tuck in, mo reul-iuil,” he whispered. I tucked my head to his chest. His arms around me protectively we clung to the wall, his shoulders guarding me from view, as the group passed us, loud exclaiming, pushing, some jovial and not so jovial words, a couple of grabs around Magnus to try to touch me.
Magnus said something sharp and loud and the men laughed and continued down the steps.
He held me a moment more and then led me by the hand down the steps, back through the stately rooms to the Great Hall. Fewer people were there now, the blasted bagpipes weren’t playing, no one was dancing, a fire roared at the end of the room and there were a few people curled up near it.
As we headed down the room toward the blaze a fight broke out between some drunken men in the corner, Magnus pulled me close to his side and led me to a free spot near the flames.
I pulled my tartan from my shoulders and untucked it from my waist.
Magnus untucked his long kilt from his belt and pulled the loose ends to his shoulders and sat down, leaned against the wall with his legs spread, his arms out. I sat between them leaned on his chest, curled between his legs, his arms and the woolen tartan around me and us. Cocooned beside the fire.
It had grown dark and there were whispered voices nearby, people close, there for sleep, warmth, all of us guests without the favor of the Earl, taking our sleep where we could find it.
I snuggled into Magnus’s chest.
“You are a king now?”
“Aye, though our current quarters belie it, I am the king. Tis a dangerous status. I have left four men tae administer the kingdom while I wage war.” His arm tightened its hold on me.
“And we can’t go back to Florida?”
“General Reyes would follow me there, tis too dangerous. I canna go back until I have finished him. But ye could go home, I will come tae ye when tis done.”
I nodded. “True, but I won’t. My place is with you in your kingdom, here in the past, or wherever you are. Even here on the hard ground of a 17th century castle.”
Then he took his warm, strong, rough hand and lifted my chin and sweetly kissed my lips. He tucked my hair behind my ear. “Then it looks like I am home, mo reul-iuil.”
I nestled into his chest, pulled the tartan closer around and said, “Me too, my love.”
* * *
Thank You
This is still not the true end of Magnus and Kaitlyn. There are more chapters in their story. If you need help getting through the pause before the next book, there is a FB group here: Kaitlyn and the Highlander Group
Thank you for sticking with this tale. I wanted to write about a grand love, a marriage, that lasts for a long long time. I also wanted to write an adventure. And I wanted to make it fun. The world is full of entertainment and I appreciate that you chose to spend even more time with Magnus and Kaitlyn. I just love them and wish them the best life, I will do my best to write it well.
As you know, reviews are the best social proof a book can have, and I would greatly appreciate your review on these books.
Kaitlyn and the Highlander (Book 1)
Time and Space Between Us (Book 2)
Warrior of My Own (Book 3)
Begin Where We Are (Book 4)
A Missing Entanglement (short story 4.5)
Entangled with You (Book 5)
to be named soon… (Book 6)
(book 7?)
Series Order
Kaitlyn and the Highlander (book 1)
Time and Space Between Us (book 2)
A Warrior of My Own (book 3)
Begin Where We Are (book 4)
A Missing Entanglement (short, optional, between 4&5)
Entangled With You (book 5)
(book 6) to be named soon...
(book 7?) to be determined…
Also by Diana Knightley
Can he see to the depths of her mystery before it’s too late?
The oceans cover everything, the apocalypse is behind them. Before them is just water, leveling. And in the middle — they find each other.
On a desolate, military-run Outpost, Beckett is waiting.
Then Luna bumps her paddleboard up to the glass windows and disrupts his everything.
And soon Beckett has something and someone to live for. Finally. But their survival depends on discovering what she’s hiding, what she won't tell him.
Because some things are too painful to speak out loud.
With the clock ticking, the water rising, and the storms growing, hang on while Beckett and Luna desperately try to rescue each other in Leveling, the epic, steamy, and suspenseful first book of the trilogy, Luna's Story:
Leveling: Book One of Luna’s Story
Under: Book Two of Luna’s Story
Deep: Book Three of Luna’s Story
Some thoughts and research…
Some Scottish and Gaelic words that appear within the books:
Chan eil an t-sìde cho math an-diugh 's a bha e an-dé - The weather's not as good today as it was yesterday.
Tha droch shìde ann - The weather is bad.
Dreich - dull and miserable weather
Turadh - a break in the clouds between showers
Solasta - luminous shining (possible nickname)
Splang - flash, spark, sparkle
Mo reul-iuil - my North Star (nickname)
Bidh thu a ‘faileadh mar ghaisgeach - you have the scent of a breeze.
Osna - a sigh
Rionnag - star
Sollier - bright
Ghrian - the sun
Mo ghradh - my own love
Tha thu breagha - you are beautiful
Mo chroi - my heart
Corrachag-cagail - dancing and flickering ember flames
Mo reul-iuil, is ann leatsa abhios mo chridhe gubrath - My North Star, my heart belongs to you forever
Dinna ken - didn’t know
A h-uile là sona dhuibh 's gun là idir dona dhuib - May all your
days be happy ones
May the best ye’ve ever seen
Be the warst ye’ll ever see.
May the moose ne’er lea’ yer aumrie
Wi’ a tear-drap in his e’e.
May ye aye keep hail an’ hertie
Till ye’re auld eneuch tae dee.
May ye aye be jist as happy
As we wiss ye noo tae be.
* * *
Characters:
Kaitlyn Maude Sheffield - born 1994
Magnus Archibald Caelhin Campbell - born 1681
Lady Mairead (Campbell) Delapointe
Hayley Sherman
Quentin Peters
Zach Greene
Emma Garcia
Baby Ben Greene
Sean Campbell -Magnus’s half-brother
Lizbether Campbell - Magnus’s half-sister
The Earl of Breadalbane
Uncle Archibald (Baldie) Campbell
Tyler Garrison Wilson
Archie
John Sheffield (Kaitlyn’s father)
Paige Sheffield (Kaitlyn’s Mother)
James Cook
Michael Greene
* * *
Locations:
Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida, 2017
The Dock by a spring on a piece of unoccupied land near Gainesville, Florida. Owned by Zach and Michael’s uncle. Used by Magnus and Kaitlyn to hide the vessels.
Magnus’s home in Scotland - Balloch. Built in 1552. In early 1800s it was rebuilt as Taymouth Castle. (Maybe because of the breach in the walls caused by our siege from the future?) Situated on the south bank of the River Tay, in the heart of the Grampian Mountains
The kingdom of King Donnan the Second. We don’t know anything more… yet. But I suspect Magnus knows now that he rules the place.
Entangled With You Page 22
