“Ye would?”
“Aye, I have been on a highway in a verra large ship on wheels, hurtlin’ at great speed tae the Disney World. I would go on an air ship if it were tae somewhere good.”
I said, “I can think of a million good places, but I think I would like to take you to Scotland in my day. To go as tourists. To rent a car and put baby car seats in the back and travel around looking at the highlands.”
Magnus said, “It sounds terrifying and beautiful and heart rendin’.”
“I guess it does now that I think of it — this beautiful place without the people we love in it.”
James walked up a moment later. “Sean said there’s movement in the woods. He’s sent scouts. He’s asking for you to come back. At least I think that’s what he said, I understood about two of the words.”
We picked up the wee’uns and returned to the castle even more attentive and guarded than before. Suddenly we all felt that danger was imminent.
Nine - Magnus
Our priority was sendin’ Chef Zach and his family home. We left Kaitlyn, Madame Hayley, and Madame Beaty with the children in the nursery and loaded Chef Zach and his family ontae an ATV. Fraoch and I were tae accompany them on horseback. Quentin and James were tae ride the other ATV.
Zach was nervous, as was Madame Emma, but Ben was nappin’ in her arms. The plan was for them tae travel while Ben was asleep tae keep him from the pain or worry of it.
The gates were raised and we drove from them, heading for the clearing. Quentin drove ahead, looping through the woods to make sure it was clear. We followed in a tight formation around Zach, and Emma, and Ben.
At the clearing, I gave a vessel tae James, as he would jump first, tae arrive a day earlier. His plan was land on his uncle’s property and find his way tae his truck.
Chef Zach said, “There is one thing I have to tell you, James. First, I used your truck to try and evacuate during the storm and um, there was a fucking mailbox that jumped out at me. I bludgeoned it with your truck. It was one of those kinds that was cemented down or something, stronger than you would think.”
“What the hell did you do that for?”
Chef Zach said, “I don’t know, the hurricane was throwing shit at me, I couldn’t see it.”
“Do you think you scratched the paint?”
Quentin said, “Definitely, paint scratched, big ass dent.”
James said, “Okay, at least tell me you broke the mailbox, at least give me that.”
“Sure, I crushed that fucking mailbox.”
“Okay, after I rescue your ass with your wife and kid, I’ll call your insurance company and we’ll work it out like civilized people.”
Chef Zach said, “Or we could just duel.”
James said, “Oh yeah? While you’ve been in the castle kitchens, I’ve been hanging out with Og Maggy’s big brother, Sean. I learned a thing or two about dueling.”
I asked, “What did ye learn? Because last I fought m’brother Sean, twas easy tae beat him.”
James joked, “Well, I’m not a hundred percent sure what I learned. I seriously can’t understand most of what he’s saying, but I learned how to stand like this.” He stood with his hand on the hilt of his sword in a manner that looked much like Sean Campbell and we all laughed.
Quentin said, “Gaelic is easy to pick up. When we’re all back home we’ll practice. I know enough to get by.”
James said, “It’s a deal.”
Quentin said, “Okay, you’re going to leave with only one storm. James, you’re arriving in Yulee a day early, you’ll be extra cautious. You’ll do some snooping about the security guard, make sure he’s okay, you’ll get your truck, maybe the records or computers, important things If it’s safe. If you can.”
“I can.”
“If you can’t, you’ll get another truck.”
“I might anyway, it would be better than driving around in one that lost a fight with a mailbox.”
“Then you’ll be waiting for Zach and fam and you’ll drive them to a new safe house.”
Chef Zach said, “Easy.’”
“Then, you’ll go dark.”
Emma said, “We have the secret accounts I set up, the financial bug-out-bag.”
Quentin said, “This plan is foolproof.”
James said, “And I’ll return here tomorrow, to give you the details on the new set-up.”
I said, “Nae, one week. Daena forget we hae tae hae one week between, for turnin’ around in time.”
Quentin said, “Yeah boss, okay. James, one week. See ya here on Saturday.”
“Fine, but don’t do anything cool while I’m gone, like sword-fights or cattle-rustling, just boring stuff like cleaning up the mess the peasants left.”
Quentin, Fraoch and I moved to the tree line tae be a safe distance, while James, Zach, Emma and Ben stood in the middle of the clearing. Quentin called. “Go!”
James and Zach worked their vessels. They twisted and turned them. And then twisted and turned them.
Fraoch raised his weapon and turned his horse tae watch the woods.
Chef Zach said, “It’s not working boss!”
“Yours is nae workin’, Master James?”
“Nope, this ever happened before?”
“Once.” I told Quentin, “Watch our backs.” I dropped from m’horse, went to the middle of the clearing, and traded vessels with James. “Try this one.”
I jogged back tae m’horse but by the time I reached it I kent, my vessel wasna workin’ either.
Quentin said, “Shit, weapons up!”
Fraoch and Quentin aimed their weapons intae the woods.
I said, “Chef Zach get yer family on the ATV.” I drew m’gun tae guard the other direction.
There were some long tense moments.
Quentin asked, “Are you loaded?”
Chef Zach said, “Yep.”
Quentin said, “Magnus, head to the castle, Chef Zach, ride behind him, Fraoch, on guard.”
I turned m’horse to the end of the line and rode watchin’ in every direction. We rode cautiously through the woods, remained cautious at the tree line, then raced across the open fields tae the castle gates, yellin’, “Open the gates!”
We raced intae the courtyard where Campbells surrounded us. Sean asked, “I thought they were—?”
“Brother, there is someone comin’, we must—” My directions were drowned in the clamor for information, Quentin and James and I explaining at once.
Kaitlyn was pushing through the crowd, her eyes wide with worry. “What happened?”
“The vessels arna workin’ we must...”
“You tried them all?”
“The ones we carried with us, there are only two others.”
We pushed the crowd as the sounds of gates closing, men calling from place to place, ascending the walls — we had been cautious, guarded, but Sean was now putting the castle on high alert. Hayley rushed away to find her vessel and Kaitlyn passed me her own. I twisted it right there in the courtyard, because I could tell, twas nae workin’.
This had happened tae Kaitlyn and me years before. We had been stuck in this century until the whims of m’mother allowed us tae go home.
I said, “Come Kaitlyn.” She followed us as Quentin, James and I raced tae the top of the walls. Hayley and Fraoch met us there, with her vessel, also dead.
“What do we do, Mags?”
“Och, I dinna ken.” I added, “The vessels hae been turned off, so we are waitin’.”
Quentin lookin’ through the binoculars, searching the woods, said, “Shit, I wish I had gone for a lot more weapons.”
“I wish I had gone for m’army long afore now.”
Kaitlyn groaned. “But what if they turned off the vessels while you were gone? I can’t bear to think of it. At least we’re together.”
Fraoch said, “Twill be okay, we hae guns, we can protect the—”
Sean’s knuckles were tight on the hilt of his sword. “Ye daena ken, Fraoch — the wea
pons they will bring tae fight us, ye daena ken.”
I said tae Quentin, “Will ye make sure tae give Sean a gun?”
“Yeah boss, James and I got the rest of the weapons from Jimmy’s farm. I’ll make sure Sean and Liam are well-armed.”
“Good.”
Kaitlyn asked, “So what do we do, what’s the plan?”
“We hae tae wait. We hae tae double the guard, they need tae have the sights—”
“The night-vision goggles,” said Quentin.
“Aye, we must train them in the use. Dost we hae more radios?”
“I brought a few, we want some up on the walls. We need all our men to be able to speak to each other. Sean, when is the meeting with Lord Philip?”
“We will meet in four days.”
I said, “The truth of what is happenin’ will be revealed before it. Until we ken who is orchestratin’ this ordeal we winna ken how tae retaliate. We must remain alert.”
Tae Kaitlyn I said, “Will ye go tae the nursery and attend tae Isla and Archie? We hae tae attend tae weapons and war for a while, I winna be able tae leave the walls until later in the night.”
Ten - Kaitlyn
I spent the evening with the children, whispering worries with Emma. She and Zach had been ready to leave with Ben, and now she was the closest to tears I had ever seen her. She did find a wee bit of solace that we were all together, like two-percent solace.
The other ninety-eight-percent was pure panic. Someone had chased us all to the past and trapped us and we were probably surrounded. Whoever was doing it was fucking good at it. I doubted Emma and Zach could have hidden from them in the present day. She said more than once there was no way Zach could have protected his family alone.
We ate our meal in the protected confines of these rooms — consoled the babies, played with the toddlers, wished for social media to give us something to do.
Instagram would have been nice.
But mostly we worried. There were long moments when we were quiet and didn’t talk, waiting for the men to come relieve us with information.
Hayley was worried, but also pissed. Being in the nursery irritated her. I reminded her she could hang out in her room, or go to the kitchens, but she chose to stay with us, grumbling a great deal. She played a bit with the kids, then grumbled more. “Seriously, because I have two x-chromosomes I have to sit in the baby ward?”
“Yep,” this was the third time I had answered a variant of this question. “Because you have ovaries it’s assumed you are a keeper of the children, in literally every century.”
“You know that is some supreme bullshit. I don’t like kids. They’re fucking monsters.” She yelled across at Ben and Archie, “Except for you two, you guys are the bestest.” They glanced up from their game: pushing chairs apart, clamoring up one, flinging across to the other, then pushing them farther apart. They continued flinging and laughing.
I said, “What about Isla?”
She waved a hand exasperatedly. “She can’t understand a word I’m saying, and if she could she wouldn’t be at all offended. She would agree with me. You mark my words, she is going to be something cool, like a fireman or a president.”
“She’s in line for a throne. She might be a queen.”
“Yeah, but she has that kid in front of her. He’s a king for sure.”
Archie flung himself, very far, as far as he could, off-balance he landed with a crash, face first. He sat up dazedly, patted his nose, then got up to push the chairs farther apart.
Hayley continued, “Of course he might not survive.”
“Ugh, Hayley, he’s one of the loves of my life, don’t say that. But seriously, what’s up with two-year-olds crying like assholes when they’re tired, but brushing off a fall like that?”
“Not all kids, that’s Mags’s kid.”
“Yeah, he sure is.” I looked down at Isla in my arms. “He’s going to be a hero someday, or maybe not, times change. He saves my life by being my son, but then again, I saved his life too.”
“You’re a million times better mom than the one God gave him. You totally should be here in this room, but let’s bring this back to me and my sorry arse: I should be up on the walls with Fraoch.”
“Really? Up on the walls? Let’s think this through Hayley — up on the walls with the Campbell men? What would you be doing up there?”
“I don’t know, helping him hold his gun. I do like to hold his gun.”
I laughed, “Is that a euphemism for a hand job, Hayley? Are you thinking you’ll be up on the walls giving your husband a hand job?”
“I might, you don’t know. I think I would be mostly looking out through my gun’s night vision scope, like a bad ass, possibly sniper-shooting bad guys — don’t laugh, I’ve played Fortnite.”
I did laugh, and she laughed too. Then I said, “I know this is really hard on you. You’re still newlyweds and you’re not getting any downtime. I’ve been around you and Fraoch, I see him, I see you with him — this is just an emergency. He doesn’t want you down here in the nursery either, he wants you with him. He’ll liberate you as soon as he can.”
“You think so? I mean, he does really like me, I do know that.”
“He does, he really does. And not just your top layers, he likes your deep down stuff too. The stuff you keep hidden, except from me.”
“The only reason you know it’s there is because you were around when all that stuff was going down.”
“True, we’ve been together a long long time.” Then to turn the conversation lighter I grinned. “He likes you even more than I do though, he likes the deep deep inside place that he can only get with the ol’pokey-whatnot.”
“He does like that place, a lot.”
I yawned, “Speaking of ol’pokeys, what time is it? Why aren’t they back?”
“I don’t know.”
We waited and waited some more, then truly exhausted, we lay down on the rug. I curled on my side, Isla in my arms, Archie slept sprawled across my legs.
Deep in the night, Magnus came for us.
He picked up the sleeping Archie, helped me to my feet, and led me shuffling sleepily through the hallway to the stairs then down the incredibly long hallway to our rooms. I leaned against the door while he unlocked it. “What time is it?” I mumbled.
“Tis verra late,” he whispered as we pressed into the room.
At some point during the day a small bed and a cradle had been moved into the room. Awesome. I pushed the cradle beside the bed. Magnus placed Archie in the middle of the small bed without waking him. Then Magnus sat on the edge of our bed, and groaned while taking his shoes off yet again.
“It’s been exhausting.”
“Aye. And we canna go home.” His shoes dropped to the ground and he sat, hands on his knees, shaking his head.
“Yeah, well at least we are together.” I pulled Isla from my wrap and placed her down in the wooden cradle. “I’m very happy about this, we did not have a big enough bed.”
Magnus climbed under the covers and pulled them to his chin. “Aye.”
I unwrapped my plaid and dropped my skirt, so I was only wearing my shift and by the time I got under the covers Magnus was already asleep.
Eleven - Kaitlyn
I needed to pee like crazy. I turned the lantern to dim, crept off the bed and felt my way across the dark room to the chamber pot. It was now behind a screen, but the urine stream echoed around the room threatening to wake up everyone. I wiggled dry and allowed my shift to drop and crept back, with a yawn, twisting my hair into a messy bun.
My husband’s voice came through the darkness, a whispered question, “Can ye slow there?”
I stopped still and whispered, “What, like this?” I twisted my hair and wrapped the elastic around it.
“Aye,” he didn’t seem to want to say anything else. I could barely make him out — a glimmer of light at his eyes, the shadow of his arm behind his head.
I dropped my arms. “You can see me?”
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“Aye, there is enough light.” He stopped speaking but then added, “Your comin’ tae m’bed is a form of grace.”
“Is it?” I drew closer.
“Aye, I hae been prayin’ tae God and m’heart has been full of worry and now I hae awoken tae see ye moving through the night comin’ tae me, carryin’ the grace I needed.”
“Oh,” I said simply. I pulled up the covers and climbed in, crawling across to lie on him. I nestled into his neck and said, “Oh,” again.
It was overwhelming, the closeness after so long, his want for me, his skin against my lips, my whole body pressed on his. The darkness, the scent of him — the night was cool, the fire no more than embers on the hearth, a bit of smoke. I lay there with my full weight on him, the luxury of it. My favorite bed, his chest, the heat of him, the steady beat of him under my skin. He bunched up my shift and moaned low and deep.
“Shhhh....” I said, don’t wake the bairn.
His hands moved my arse into position and pulled me down on him, holding me, pressing into me, anchoring me to him. I pressed my lips to his to stop my sounds. That feeling, to have him inside me after so long, after giving birth, after feeling like that whole area was compromised and weird and put-upon by a baby barreling through it, was so intense. I had chosen not to worry or think about it at all because my thoughts had been on baby and mothering a baby, but now Magnus was pushing inside, joining me.
I held his head, my fingers in his hair, and held on as we pulled and pressed against each other, quiet and barely moving, a breadth away in every place. Sometimes we were light and bouncing and athletic, but this time was heavy, compressing. It had been so long — I had meant this first time again to be an epic lovemaking full of long plans and lingering, but instead there was this — he had told me I was grace and had sounded reverent on it all and now I was on him, a breath and a moan escaping my lips.
Pulling and pressing and pushing, we were prostrate, bound, pressing our lips together, a promise to keep quiet... don’t wake the bairn... enveloped in darkness. All fear left us, just this, us, in the wee moments of darkness before dawn.
Son and Throne (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 11) Page 5
