Begin Where We Are

by Knightley, Diana

“I am verra serious.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  “I am nae, ye arna scared of me. Ye should trust me in this.”

  The look on his face was primal, dark, and wanting, and god I wanted him so bad that all of everything else disappeared.

  I lay back on the bed with my thighs clamped together. “But what if I’ve been in battle too?”

  “Aye, mo reul-iuil, ye have, and ye are still fightin’. Ye have lost your way because of it.” He put a hand on each of my thighs. “Ye need tae guide us, but ye arna capable of it. I see it in your eyes. Your battle has been too brutal, but ye love me, and ye forgive me, deana ye?”

  “Yes.” I allowed my thighs to relax.

  “So ye should spread your legs for me.” He pushed my knees apart, slowly.

  “And from this day forward when ye come home ye should say, ‘Master Magnus, I am fresh from battle, get ye ontae your back and rise with vigor tae welcome me home.” He lowered between my legs.

  “Oh, that’s what I should say?”

  “Aye. I would rise for ye if ye would only ask, but ye haena asked,” he kissed up my thigh and licked and nibbled between my legs. “I canna wait anymore.”

  “God, Magnus.”

  He licked while his fingers were inside me and then he began to trail his lips up my stomach.

  “Wait — don’t…”

  He paused, his chin pressing on my hipbone. “Daena pull away.”

  “That’s not—” I panted, while trying to speak. “That felt good. I want more.”

  “Och,” his brow raised. “She wants more — what does Madame Campbell need tae say?”

  “Master Magnus…” I arched up. “Something about rise — spread my legs—” His fingers shifted inside me.

  Ogodogodogod...

  “—welcome home... yes.”

  Through my foggy, out-of-my-mind-ed-ness, I saw him grin up at me. “Och, tis good enough.”

  He returned to me, arms wrapped around my thighs, hands on my ass, his mouth nestled between my legs. He licked and played there, my moans rising and rising and rising and after long minutes — ogodogodogodogod — I burst apart into a million tiny far-flung pieces —

  I pulled on his shoulders — up — and managed to somehow say — come — and he climbed me. He scooped me up and spread me wide and entered me slowly.

  And held me and filled me and settled me.

  And with his mouth up against my neck, the vibration of his breath against my pulse — I love ye, mo reul-iuil — a deep breath and another breath — I know it, I do. I love you too — he pulled against me and pushed with me, the beat of us cautious, steady, and slow. Our skin pressed, our bodies clasped. Magnus glistened and I rubbed my forehead on his shoulder and then I kissed the skin there and tasted the salt of him. Magnus. Our movements were small and concentrated. My legs around his back pulling him closer holding him deep within.

  The beat of us quickened. I arched back and moaned it to his ear — ogodogod — desperate, intense, driven and I was bursting still, again, and more, until with a groan he finished too and his body grew soft and relaxed within me.

  Filling me, wrapping around me. His weight collapsed down. His gravity held me securely to the lumpy mattress on the hard planks of the bed.

  He groaned.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “I’m—” He adjusted his body to the length of me and rested his head on my breast. He swallowed a deep breath and a moment later said, “I needed a better position is all.” One of his arms was across me, holding behind my back, arching me toward him.

  My arms wrapped around his head, cradling him, his forehead close to my lips. I kissed his hairline. I cradled his jaw in my palm and raised his chin and kissed the bridge of his nose. And then I kissed his eyelid and shimmied down a bit to reach his lips and I kissed him. Our kiss — tender and gentle, welcoming — and as the light was fading from the room, my hands — light, loose, and relaxed floated down to settle softly on him.

  “That was…” I didn’t know how to finish it — awesome, perfect, necessary all came to mind. I trailed my fingertips down his neck across his shoulder along his bicep to entwine with his waiting hand.

  Chapter 52

  At dawn he whispered. “Good morn, mo reul-iuil.”

  He had shifted in the night onto his back in a more comfortable position. I was beside him, my hand resting on the front of his shoulder. My lips touched the curve of his tricep. My fingertips brushed his neck. It was all in focus now. His skin. His smell. His taste.

  “I love you.”

  “Say it once more.”

  “Are you going to be bossy with me again today? I thought you were going to let me go slow.”

  “Twas slow. Three days is plenty slow enough.” He chuckled. “And I am nae commandin’, I am askin’. Say it again.”

  “I love you, Magnus.”

  “And ye are my wife?”

  “I am. I am your wife. And I’m really glad you’re back in my arms.”

  “Aye, tis good.”

  “And I’m really, really happy you’re back between my legs. You rocked my world.”

  He raised his brow and a cocky smile spread on his face. “Ah, a compliment to my manliness. Ye are a verra good wife.” His fingers trailed up and down my arm.

  “How long do we have before they come for you again? Before you’ll have to go again?”

  He raised his head to look me in the eyes. “I am nae goin’ anywhere, mo reul-iuil. It has been enough.”

  “But you have vows, and duties, Lady Mairead, a kingdom…”

  “Nae. I have done enough.“

  I raised up on my forearms to look down at him. “Sean may be right about it though. You can’t just turn your back on it.”

  “Aye…” he sat thoughtful. “I — you are right, I canna. I ken I have a duty tae fulfill. But I vowed tae ye before God that I would tie my life tae yours. How do I reconcile the two?”

  I pressed my lips to his shoulder. “I don’t know. I only know that I can’t let you go again.”

  “Nor I, mo reul-iuil. You are all that matters tae me — wakin’ up beside ye. Tae have ye smile up at me. There is nothing else, but—”

  “Magnus, love, don’t put a ‘but’ on that. There is nothing else.”

  I wrapped around his arm. “I don’t know how you reconcile a duty to a violent future-kingdom with your vow to love me in Florida. I don’t have an answer. But maybe we don’t need an answer today. Maybe all we need is this — waking up beside each other, talking through our day, planning together. This is what we want. So every morning we’ll do this.”

  I clasped his hand in mine. “And if you wake up and look over and I’m not here beside you then we’ve screwed up somehow and we need to fix that. Together.”

  I pulled my head up to look down at him with a smile. “Get it? I’m not there, but we still need to fix it ‘together’? What I’m saying is ‘together.’ That’s the point.”

  He chuckled. “From this day forward I will look down for your mornin’ smile and if ye are nae sprawled across m’chest I will say, ‘Kaitlyn where are ye?’ And then we will find ye, together.”

  “It’s a perfect plan.”

  “I had many dreams of ye, Kaitlyn. They felt so real. I was callin’ tae ye and ye couldna hear me.”

  I rested my chin on his shoulder. “I had dreams like that too. You were with me but I couldn’t reach you. Grandma said it’s because we are entangled. That when we made the baby I took bits of your DNA and bits of the baby’s DNA and I have them inside of me now.” A tear slid down my nose. “And so even when you’re gone…”

  “I winna be gone anymore.”

  “And even though the baby is gone…”

  “He is still a part of ye, mo reul-iuil. He is still with us.”

  I nodded and sobbed into his chest and he held me while I cried.

  Then I said, “I need a Kleenex in the eighteenth century.” I laughed through my tears.
r />   “Aye, ye have a bit of it comin’ from your nose.” I scrambled off the bed for a napkin that Zach packed in the cooler and blew my nose.

  I sat on the edge of the bed, naked, fiddling with the now soggy napkin. “I feel a lot better. Not perfect, but having a plan that we’ll stay together helps.”

  “Twill take a long time, mo reul-iuil, tae feel perfect again.”

  “So tell me about Lunessa Llama’s day today.” I giggled. “What is it?”

  “Lughnasadh is a harvest festival. We will go tae church. There will be much prayin’ and blessin’ over loaves of bread.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Oooh, fun.”

  He grinned. “Then we will eat bread and we will declare it delicious.”

  I jokingly grimaced. “There is not enough yoga mat in it.”

  “Explain what ye just said.” His strong hand stroked up and down on my thigh.

  “A few years ago it was in the news that there was an ingredient in store-bought bread that was the same ingredient in yoga mats. You know, like that one I keep rolled in the corner of the bedroom?”

  “Whatever for?”

  “I think it was to make it softer and lighter.”

  He shrugged, “Well, tis delicious.”

  “I agree. We should begin to dress though, probably.” I stood up, his eyes following me. “This isn’t me pulling away.”

  “I ken.”

  “Good. Because though that was really hot last night, you probably shouldn’t get in the habit of bossing me around like that.”

  “Only if ye arna listenin’ tae me.” I rolled my eyes and smacked him playfully on the shoulder.

  I pulled the shift over my head covering me completely.

  He sighed dramatically. “And the fun is over.”

  Chapter 53

  Everyone convened in the courtyard. There were people in all states of dress. The Earl and his immediate circle wore wigs and makeup. The servants of the castle wore simple clothes. My green and brown tartan dress was the same one I borrowed three days before. Lizbeth was wearing a lovely tartan dress in deep blue. Everyone looked fresh and scrubbed. Many of the women carried baskets with round loaves of bread nestled in linen.

  En masse we walked the main path toward the high white steeple of the parish church. Inside, the church was laid out like a square, the pews were dark wood, but the walls were white with a sweeping ceiling above. There was a beautiful stained glass at one end. Magnus led me to a pew near the front and we sat and sat and sat. I used Lizbeth as my model and kept my hands in my lap and my head bowed. The service was very long and very very boring and oh so long. Until finally the baskets were carried by a procession to the front and were blessed one by one.

  I whispered to Magnus, “Is that it, we’re done?”

  “Nae, there will be a wedding too.”

  “Oh.”

  A young couple walked toward the front of the chapel and a service began that was familiar from my own wedding, but also foreign, older, ancient-sounding. All our heads were bowed, we were quiet all around. The monotone voice of the minister sounded through the air.

  My mind began to wander but then Magnus’s hand shifted against my skirts. I looked up to see the couple’s hands were bound together. Magnus smiled and gave me a little nod. Then he put his wrist just beside mine. Pressed. After that I listened to the prayer and let the words flow through me, handfasting us again. Magnus and I, bound.

  Soon enough we were ushered back outdoors. The sun was heading high, warm on my skin. Families were milling around, talking, and children were playing.

  Lizbeth came to me with a basket of flowers. “Flowers tae adorn ye, Kaitlyn.” She put two in the front of my bodice and one in the back of my pinned up hair. “Beautiful!” She declared it but I noticed she glanced sadly at the cut on my cheek.

  I asked Magnus, “So this is it? Now we feast?”

  “Aye. Now we—”

  His eyes drew up to the sky.

  I followed them.

  Across the path and fields, beyond the castle, past the stables and then above the woods — a giant storm, perhaps the biggest storm I’d ever seen: spreading for miles, building, roiling, rolling, climbing. The storm was black as night against the blue sky overhead. Under the cloud bank, in five separate places, funneling, sweeping, tornados touched down. A line of twisting winds across the trees under the clouds like an impenetrable wall. Lightening arced down from point after point after point. Trees were snapping and falling, fire and smoke rose from the woods.

  “Holy shit, Magnus.”

  “Aye, Kaitlyn. Lizbeth? Get the children, go tae the castle.” Magnus turned to the assembled crowds, “Take your families, get to the castle!”

  I picked up Lizbeth’s son, Jamie, while she grabbed her daughter, and we began to run. Magnus was just behind us yelling directions to Sean and Lizbeth’s husband, Liam, as they raced toward the castle. No one really understood why Magnus was commanding them inside but the threat of the storm was enough. They were driven into the castle in fear.

  Magnus said, “Take the children to the nursery, I will get Quentin from the walls—”

  “No, I don’t want to lose you, please.” I passed Jamie to the next available arms running by. “Please Magnus.”

  “Lizbeth, ye get all the women and children tae the nursery.” Sean and Liam ran up the steps to the top of the walls. “Follow me close, Kaitlyn.”

  We raced up the spiraling stone stairs through the east tower to the top of the highest walls. Quentin was already there with Sean, Liam, and more men.

  Magnus directed everyone to watch the woods. The storm was dissipating. Smoke billowed from the farthest area, burning trees.

  I had my back pressed to the wall, facing the opposite direction, Magnus between me and the view of the woods. I didn’t need to see, I just needed to be near Magnus.

  Magnus and Quentin were in a quiet discussion. They were checking Quentin’s pistols and the gun Magnus brought with him from the future.

  “Are we escaping?” I asked.

  Quentin and Magnus continued to confer.

  I asked, “Are they coming, what’s our plan?”

  More discussion and then Magnus finally included me. “We believe we will be safe here, Kaitlyn, tis a castle, fortified, and we have arms. When I was there, I saw on the news a great many terrible weapons, but we daena ken what they have brought.”

  “Okay. Okay, so we’ll just hunker down. That makes sense.” I said, like saying it actually made it so.

  And then there was a buzzing noise, loud, like engines, motorized, coming through the silence of the ancient forest. A forest in the eighteenth century, a forest that wasn’t supposed to have engines inside of it. And from the edge of the woods, flying up from the trees, five drones.

  Their noise was loud. Sean and Liam clapped their hands to their ears. The drones sped toward us, low across the fields. Magnus asked, “What are they Master Quentin?”

  “Drones, a kind of weapon, we need to get off the—”

  The drones swept up the castle walls in unison and then leveled at the top.

  And that’s when they began shooting.

  Magnus grabbed my hand and pulled me fast to the stairwell of the castle tower. Men were diving and scrambling into the stairwells for cover. Quentin was yelling, “Off the walls, off the walls!”

  The gunfire was all around us. The stone of the castle was cracking and chunks of rock crumbled to the ground.

  Quentin ducked behind the parapet wall and shot at the drones with his pistols.

  The tower stairs were packed with men: yelling, panicked, confused.

  The buzzing sound traveled away down the castle walls and then more shooting sounded below — glass shattering. The nice windows, the ones the Earl was incredibly proud of, were being destroyed by the drones. Quentin met us in the stairwell. “I shot one down, but at least one entered the castle. And they aren’t flying on their own.”

  “What dost ye mean?�
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  “There are men in the woods.”

  Magnus asked Sean, “How many guns do we have?”

  Sean asked, “Are they birds?”

  “I haena time tae explain. They are weapons. We need men tae go down and protect the women and children.”

  Sean gave a command and men above us and below us on the stairs descended with their flintlock pistols drawn.

  I asked, “You have the vessels?”

  “Aye, both are in my sporran. But we have tae protect—”

  From outside the stairwell the buzzing of the drones amplified. So loud it confused my senses. Quentin, Sean, Liam, Magnus and I raced to the edge of the wall.

  Coming from the trees raced five vehicles. Much like all-terrain vehicles, they were each driven by one man. The two drones circled them overhead. The vehicles split into two groups. Three raced around the castle one direction. Two raced around the castle in the other and they roared and sped around for long minutes.

  The circling terrified me.

  The drones swerved and dipped overhead. One drone split from the vehicles and climbed the wall towards us shooting at the stone of the castle. Magnus stood and shot multiple times until the drone fell crashing to the field below.

  Quentin yelled over the insane level of noise outside. “Anyone without a gun can throw rocks at the drones, anything heavy. Knock it from the sky.”

  Sean began passing those instructions to the men around them.

  Quentin said, “There’s only one drone left out there, the other two are inside the castle. I’ll go in!”

  Magnus said, “When ye finish it, meet me at the doors tae the Great Hall.”

  Quentin ran down the steps.

  Sean, Liam, Magnus and I watched the action below. The vehicles were circling, revving engines, roaring and terrifying. Magnus shot at the drone and it dove closer. He ducked behind the wall.

  Sean stuck his head up and looked over. “Young Magnus, what are they doin’ now?”

  One of the vehicles was stopped. “I daena ken.”

  Magnus crouched and raced to a position with a better view. I crouched and followed. Magnus looked over the wall. “What are they doin’, Kaitlyn?”