Again My Love (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 9)

by Diana Knightley

  And hovered over him. “You really really like me don’t you?” So tantalizingly close.

  “Och aye, ye are a verra good wife.”

  I licked and nibbled his lips and wiggled my hips directly over him. “I am pretty great. Maybe the best.”

  His hands held my hips trying to center me but I held off and away.

  “Aye, ye are the best wife of all time, I haena ever heard of a wife as good as ye, so randy and wantin’ me even when ye are exasperatin’.” He chuckled.

  I laughed. “Oh, I’m exasperating?”

  “Aye with yer arse too verra far away.” His fingers pressed into my skin as they tried to pull me down toward him. Our foreheads were damp as we pressed them together.

  I put my mouth on his, a deep kiss, a wanting kiss, our lips wet, my tongue searching inside his mouth and allowed myself to be lowered down onto him with a shared exhale into each other’s skin. At the low point of my breath, the deepest point of our touching — I groaned oh god and oh god that was — oh god.

  We had the heater running, the blinds closed. The darkness of the room enveloped us. The small candles flickered light on our skin.

  I held his hands needing that deep connection, his fingers wrapped in mine while our bodies worked together. The smell of amber and ginger and a little patchouli and spice drifting around the room. I rocked on him a little, our cheeks pressed, ear to ear, but then turned my head and he turned his to meet my lips again... we slowed... and kissed and slowed more... and it was very much intensely romantic and devoted and deeply deeply desirous and... oh — god.

  He rolled me over, climbed on, and finished — in control, fast, deep, and desperate, then collapsed on me, gathering me up under him, holding me.

  “You were saying I’m exasperating?” I whispered into his ear.

  He chuckled. “I was sayin’ ye are perfect.”

  “That’s what I thought you said.”

  He rolled off and I rolled onto his side and we lay cuddling in the candle light. “You’ll leave the day after tomorrow for Hayley?”

  “Aye.” He entwined his fingers through a lock of my hair. “I will bring her home but then I was thinkin’ we need tae move again. I canna understand what Roderick kens about us. There is a man here, somewhere, we need tae prepare.” He paused for a moment, then added. “I am only leavin’ for a day, but Quentin will need tae be verra guarded.”

  “Trouble is we need Hayley for buying a new home, or mom, I could ask my mom to find us another house.”

  “Tell her I want it tae have stables for Sunny and a horse for ye and a horse for Archie.”

  “Beachfront, check, horse stable, check.” I circled my finger around his chest. Thinking about moving again, the drama and how much we would have to do now and how important it was to keep Archie safe. “Speaking of Archie — we should have clothes on.” I climbed from bed, got a pair of pajama pants for Magnus from his drawer, and tossed them to his chest.

  But I went down the hall to our bathroom naked for Magnus’s pleasure, he did love to watch me walk around our room with no clothes on. Afterwards, I dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, putting an end to all his fun.

  I climbed back into bed, pulled up beside him, and we held hands as I fell asleep.

  I woke up a while later, in the dark.

  Magnus was climbing from bed. “I hear him wakin’.” He lumbered from the room.

  I heard his thudding footsteps through the living room and heard, through the monitor, the door swish open. I saw Magnus crossing on the monitor’s screen, and heard his whisper, “Och, wee’un ye awake?”

  Archie held up his arms and Magnus lifted him from the mattress.

  Ben shifted and woke too. “Mama?” Magnus put out a second arm and Ben climbed to Magnus’s other side and then Magnus hefted both boys up and left the room.

  I heard him as he crept up the stairs and gently knocked on Zach and Emma’s door. Magnus’s low rumbling voice sounded and then Zach’s as Magnus dropped Ben off with his parents. Magnus’s footsteps were soft as he returned to our room.

  He dropped Archie onto our bed where he sweetly cuddled against my front and Magnus climbed in beside me, and a moment later, both Magnus and Archie were asleep.

  I lay awake for a while longer though, thinking about how full my heart was and how much I needed to do to keep my men safe.

  Thirteen - Kaitlyn

  The next day was for enjoying time together, but also readying Magnus to leave. Zach packed a cooler bag with food and drinks with a smaller bag full of more scurvy remedies: a big bottle of vitamin c pills, orange packets for drinks, plus some orange juice and a bag of oranges, too.

  Magnus needed a sword and a dirk and Quentin was grumbling about how often he had to replace those on short notice, and Beaty was feeling so much better. She joked, “Tis the cloudy weather makin’ me feel better, I canna abide all the sunshine, twill be the death of me.”

  Quentin said, “The sunshine is the only point of living here, Beaty, we damn sure don’t do it for the culture.”

  She continued the joke, “Tis the summer though, right Quenny? Once it is winter, twill be dreich every day like home?”

  Quentin said, “This is the winter.”

  “Och, tis a dreadful place. So much sun! Today is verra nice and cloudy though, I will have tae make do.”

  Over a breakfast of pancakes, omelets and bacon, Quentin and I discussed a new house. Archie and Ben were playing with a ‘busy toy’ with blinking lights and spinning parts, and so many beeping, squeaking, shrill sounds that it made our skin crawl and our ears ring. They had a game going where Archie would push a button, make it squeak, then make a squeaking noise in reply, and Ben would laugh hysterically.

  Quentin and I, discussing over the cacophony, decided we wanted to find a house on the south end again. We weren’t certain whether it should be on the beach side or the marsh side, either might work, though I would miss easy access to shark teeth hunting. It would have to be a really great house for me to give that up.

  Mid-morning Archie and Ben were looking overwrought, so Ben was carried up to his room for a nap before he pissed everyone off. Archie found me sitting at the table making lists and climbed into my lap, curled up, and quietly watched us as we made plans.

  “Will you need water treatment?”

  Magnus said, “Aye, for Hayley, and some extra food for both of us.”

  I said, “I was thinking about the date, if you jumped to a few days before she gets there. You would be waiting for her when she arrives. You could save her any drama or excitement. Plus, if she’s injured you could get her home really fast.”

  Quentin said, “But I kind of really like the idea of her spending a few days with this Fraoch guy, he sounds like a lot of fun.” He stifled a laugh.

  Magnus said, “Och, he is fun, he is also a great deal of trouble for a young woman, even someone as bold and uncompromisin’ as Mistress Hayley. I agree with Kaitlyn, I will arrive a couple of days ahead. If she daena come I will return and we will take men tae the future tae find her.”

  Archie said very quietly. “Where Da go?”

  My eyes met Magnus’s. It was the first time Archie had called him Da since he arrived. “He’s going on a small trip, he’ll be back the very next day. You and I will be so busy we won’t even notice.” I looked at Magnus sadly. “Not really.”

  “You no go?”

  “No, I’m staying here with you.”

  His little hand sweetly twisted in my hair. I kissed his knuckles.

  A few minutes later and he had fallen asleep against my chest. And I knew my butt was going to be in that chair for awhile, because I wouldn’t dislodge him. Ever. Ever-ever.

  Zach and Emma went to the store. Quentin was guarding. Beaty was watching television.

  Magnus brought me a Coke.

  Surrounded by lists, things circled and underlined, he held my hand at the table. Our view was of the cool day beyond the sliding door, the windswe
pt dunes and white-capped waves farther on.

  “He called you Da, my love.”

  “Aye, tis a good sound. I am happy he is here and that we have the monitor above us tae watch for trouble.”

  “Me too. Speaking of trouble, we need to talk to Lady Mairead. I was thinking, we know there was a tracker, there is also the way that you set the vessels to ‘homing’. But also there is a way, if I remember correctly, to dismantle the vessels so they only go where we want them to go. We need more information about the pile of vessels. If we can, we should dismantle the ones we aren’t using, and hide them.”

  “I agree with ye, where dost ye think Lady Mairead is?”

  “I have an idea. But we can wait until after you rescue Hayley.”

  Fourteen - Hayley

  “Madame Hayley, dost ye want another?” Fraoch held out a crusty bread, smeared with butter and a bit of berry preserves, slathers of goat cheese. Delicious. This was my favorite meal here. Most food in this time tasted like deep dark winter in a hovel beside a ditch with no salt. Except this. Crusty bread with enough butter and goat cheese was almost like something from home.

  Fraoch had seen me delight in it, ravenous for anything that tasted sweet and savory, that tasted. After that he brought it to me every afternoon.

  Because he did come visit me every day. And he asked me to ride with him if the weather was good enough. I asked once, “What’s your job? Don’t you have something you have to do?”

  “What dost ye mean, Hayley, my job?”

  “How do you work, make money, to buy the food you bring me?”

  His brow drew down. “I have the work of Madame Greer’s land. She has me up early tae do the work of ten hen-pecked men. In exchange she feeds me and kens ye like this bread so she has me deliver it for ye.”

  “That’s nice. Thank her for me. This is delicious and it’s the only thing keeping me happy right now.”

  “The only thing?”

  The horses were eating grass nearby, a slow chew, gentle tugs at the blades. A beam of sunlight warmed my face and my guess was it was almost seventy-two degrees, practically sweltering, though I still needed a tartan around my shoulders.

  He had his shirt open, his thick legs stretched in front of him bared to the knees, his kilt draped across his thighs. He was lounging in the grass, basking in the sun like it was a full blown summer. Imagine if he saw Florida — he’d be sweltering, heat-stroking, whining like a baby.

  A rose-scented baby-man.

  I chuckled to myself.

  “What is funny?”

  “I was imagining you in Florida. After you recovered from the shock of the tiny dresses on the women, you’d succumb to the heat, so hot, hot hot hot. Sweat rolling down, panting hot.” I mimed panting and collapsing in the heat.

  He grimaced. “I wouldna like it much, but I could eat oranges, ye say?”

  “You can pull them right off the trees. Peel it, pull a slice, and eat it with sticky juice running down your chin.” I acted-out that one, too, and he laughed at my theatrics.

  This was what we did now, one-upping each other with stories of our past, or in my case, our futures. We compared and contrasted and laughed a great deal about it all.

  He said, “Och, but, Madame Hayley, I can pluck a squirrel from a tree, slice it through the middle, cook it over the fire, and—” He licked his fingers. “Tis delicious.”

  “Ugh. Is it?” I added. “Is it really? I’m kind of considering vegetarianism after this whole debacle.”

  “What is this?”

  “You just eat vegetables, no meat. If you go completely vegan, you don’t eat meat or eggs or cheese.”

  “What dost ye eat, the porridge all day?”

  “I don’t know honestly. I don’t think you could do it here, whatever you put in front of me I know to eat. But in the future, there are so many food choices. Man, I miss choices. Have you had chocolate ever in your life? Or candy?”

  “What is it?”

  “Like these berries are sweet, have you had honey?”

  “I do like honey.”

  “It’s sweeter than that, and chocolate is rich and thick and melts in your mouth.”

  “Like a honey stew?”

  “That’s the closest thing I can think of.” I kicked my shoes off and wiggled my toes. “Where have you traveled?”

  He listed, “My whole life I stayed near m’home, until I crossed the sea and it all went terrible. I tried tae live in the colonies, twas a bleak life there, so I returned with Magnus and was in the hospital in London. Now I am here, in the lands of Campbell.”

  “That was brave of you to go to the colonies.”

  “Twas more foolish than brave, but thank ye for thinkin’ it of me.”

  Before I considered what I was saying I said, “I wish you could come to Florida in my time, I’d love to show it to you.”

  He looked up at me from his position leaned on an arm. “I daena think your husband would take m’intrusion verra kindly.”

  I said, “True. Yes, that’s true. But it would be fun to show it to you.”

  “I wish ye could shew me, but I tell ye, Madame Hayley, I wouldna go. The travelin’ by vessel was nae tae my...” He shook his head and scowled. “Ye will think me less a man if I tell ye this.”

  “Tell me what? I won’t, I promise.”

  “Tis frightenin’, as if tis the work of the devil, Madame Haley.”

  I nodded. “It is frightening, I agree. I’ve done it five times now and it never gets better. And this last time, what with ending up in the dark ages and without my house, my job, my friends, keeps going on and on being kind of frightening.”

  “Five times? Och, ye are goin’ tae think me weak. Why have ye done it so many times?”

  “For Katie. Because she needed me. I wasn’t lying when I said she was all I had for a long time. I would do anything for her.”

  His eyes went far off. He had a look of deep concentration on his face.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Naething, tis naething at all.”

  We sat for longer, quietly. Birds flying in a V-formation across the blue sky, rustling grasses, warm and fragrant, like bread baking.

  I pulled a stalk of grass and chewed the end and watched the birds. After a long time though, with Fraoch uncharacteristically quiet, I teased, “No, tell me what you’re thinking about.”

  “For a time now I have remembered something. I had forgotten it afore, I think, but now I have been thinkin’ on my family, Madame Hayley, most all of them gone. My brother, then m’wife with the bairn and then m’father verra soon after, just afore I left Scotland for the colonies. I left nae thing behind, nae reason to think about it at all, but now...”

  “What is it?”

  “I was a young man, och, ye should have seen me, a braw lad.” His eyes twinkled jokingly. “I was always in a scruff, covered in dirt and bellowin’ sound, and always up tae a mischief. I had been out rushin’ up and down the fields yellin’ and chasin’ my friend Inny, when I rushed tae m’house, but I quieted when I raced inside and so found m’father with a chest in his lap, opened. He held somethin’ in his hand. It glowed, Madame Hayley, twas the color of the sky, and had a hum. I was fearful of it, I froze. M’father hid it away as soon as he kent I was standin’ there.”

  My eyes went wide. “Was it one of the vessels?”

  “I daena ken. I asked m’father what it was and he told me, ‘Twas nae m’concern.’ He closed it back intae the box and said it belonged tae m’mother. She died when I was a bairn and he never liked tae speak of her.” Fraoch drew his dirk and ran a cloth down the edges to polish it. “I was so shocked I forgot tae think on what was inside the box. Except tae wonder that he had kept a box at all.” Fraoch inspected his blade and when it wasn’t shiny enough, rubbed it around on his wool kilt stretched on his thigh. “He told me I had better nae touch it or I wouldna be alive tae see another day. I never saw the chest again, so I stopped wondering on it.”<
br />
  “That’s so weird. It sounds just like a vessel.”

  “I daena ken, twas a long time ago, but I have had a naggin’ feeling since I saw the one glowin’ in Kaitlyn’s hand that I had seen it afore.”

  “There’s nothing else that would explain it? It was glowing blue? Like an iPhone— wait, stupid question. It wasn’t a candle or something?”

  “Nae, twas verra alike the vessels.”

  “Why would your mother have one?”

  “I daena ken.”

  “How old were you when she died?”

  “Twas when I was five years auld, I went tae bed and she died in the night.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.” I sat for a moment. “You mean it, she really died, or was she just gone?”

  His brow drew down. He shook his head. I daena ken the...”

  “Did you have a funeral?”

  “I daena remember, but I wouldna have gone anyway, I was too young tae be included.”

  “Oh. You don’t remember why she died?”

  “Nae, she was healthy afore she was gone.”

  He looked down at the dirt shaking his head then looked up at me with squinted eyes. “I daena want tae talk of this with Magnus or Kaitlyn. He has verra many things tae worry on and I daena ken if it was a vessel and it winna be there for another twenty years.”

  “I think though, that the vessels exist throughout time, like if they’re turned on someone can see it in every time and—”

  “What dost ye mean?”

  “Like if the vessels I brought, the ones hidden in the castle — if someone was able to remotely turn one on, it would start buzzing and glowing. It could be the year 1600 and there it would be in that castle, or if the castle isn’t there, it might be in the dirt or under a tree or...”

  I looked off into space. “Kaitlyn called it a homing beacon. I don’t really know how it works, but I know Magnus is trying to locate all the vessels, if you have one somewhere...”

  “So if I went now, tae my home, in this year, I might be able tae find the vessel?”