“Brazen? It’s not how I remember it, but yes?”
“I cupped m’hands around your breasts. Ye like it when I do, and it helps tae keep your rhythm steady. Else ye grow wild.” My eyes grew wide. Magnus ignored me and carried on, his expression proving he was enjoying the moment immensely. “You were jigglin’ up and down on my palms and it came tae me that your breasts are heavier than afore. Sean said twas how he ken his wife was carryin’ a bairn. Your breasts,” he acted out cupping his hands, “usually the weight and size of a hen’s egg are much more like an apple. Twas noticeable.”
“My breasts are much bigger than an egg and I thought you weren’t to take advice from your brother anymore.” My arms folded across my chest, almost without thinking about it.
“Aye, twas why I dinna ken it right then, I had tae think on it longer. Yesterday I was thinkin’ on it when we were in the shower together and ye were bent over and I was behind ye and—”
His grin was fully mischievous.
“I know what we were doing.” I gestured for him to continue.
“When my palms were on your haunches, directing ye, it came tae me, twas wider than afore. Ye—”
“Magnus, you were measuring and weighing me while we were making love?”
He chuckled. “Your body tis as my own, mo reul-iuil. And your rump daena fit in my palm’s width a’more. Twas extra. I was startled by it. Almost lost m’focus.”
“So again, you’re saying I’m fat. I’m not pregnant, I would know.”
“My uncle Baldie told me twas a sign a horse is foalin’ tae have its haunches widen. Tis a sign.”
I sighed and feigned despair. “Now you are comparing me to a horse, good sir. You will need to be soooo romantic to make this whole conversation up to me.”
He waved my words away. “And I was thinkin’ on it more tryin’ tae decide about it and just now as ye walked up the boards I could hear it in your step, heavy, your gait wide.” He reached out for my foot. I pulled it away and he left his seat, diving for it and holding it firm. I giggled.
“See here?” He tickled my instep and I giggled more. “Has lowered, just a modicum, barely, but enough that your step has gone from a light prance to a bit of a lumber, not much mind ye—” I swatted his shoulder.
“Magnus, I am not pregnant.”
He dropped my foot with a laugh. “Och aye, when ye have grown squat as a brooding hen we will see if I am right.”
I had my hands on my hips looking down at him. “We can know right now. And if you are wrong, which you are, without a doubt, you will need to make this up to me. I think our lovemaking tonight will need to be all you doing whatever I want.”
He grinned and shrugged. Looking up at me from near my feet. “Tis nae matter, whether tis a lost wager or a celebration, I will do what ye want, but if I am right ye will have tae call me Master Magnus through it.” He chuckled.
I pushed him playfully. “Get in the car.”
Chapter 42
Magnus was wearing his kilt, with a modern T-shirt, a pale sky blue, my favorite color, and a pair of Nikes. They were a neutral color, cool looking, expensive. He loved them, having worn wrapped leather around his feet most of his life. He grabbed one of those half-sized shopping carts which looked pretty ridiculous with his hulking mass pushing it and wandered off towards the middle of the store which was set up with seasonal ‘summer’ equipment.
I headed straight for the family planning section and stood in front of the pregnancy tests trying to decide between the best price on a three pack or paying extra for a single test. Why would I need more than one? Would I need more than one to prove to Magnus that I wasn’t? Would I need more than one in case he did this every single month?
He wandered up, his cart full. “Magnus, you do not get out enough,” I teased. On top of the pile was a battery-powered hand-held plastic fan with a water bottle connected to it, for misting. That would be useful actually at Disney world.
He asked, “Did you find what ye needed?”
Then his eyes fell on a box and he lifted it from the shelf and tossed it on top of the pile in his shopping cart basket.
“Do you even know what that is?”
“Nae, I like the picture of the helmet.”
“It’s a Trojan helmet and a box of, let me see—” I picked up the box, “Forty-eight condoms.” I watched his brow draw down in with his confused look. “They’re for wrapping around your cock during sex so there won’t be a pregnancy.”
He took it from my hand and grinned. “But see, we winna be needin' them, the deed is done.” He returned it to their place on the shelf.
I rolled my eyes, for like the hundredth time that morning, and pulled the three-pack of pregnancy tests off the shelf and tossed it in the cart.
Chapter 43
It only took twenty minutes to get home, deposit the shopping bags full of Magnus’s loot in the kitchen, and now we were in our bathroom. I ripped the packaging open and pulled out a pregnancy test stick. Magnus watched quietly, captivated, checking the box and opening the massive instructions. I didn’t need the instructions. This one was as easy as one, two, pee.
I stripped my yoga pants to my ankles and unceremoniously sat on the toilet. We hadn’t been around each other for that long but we weren’t private about our body functions. In the 1700s we had no bathrooms, in 2017 we had a frosted glass door. Plus we had both given instructions to the other. Teaching someone how to use the bathroom put a familiarity to it, I supposed.
Once my butt hit the toilet seat Magnus slid down the wall opposite me and, still holding the instructions, watched.
I couldn’t pee.
“Can you get me some water?”
Magnus stood to get one of our cups from the counter, filled it with tap water and handed it to me. Then he dropped back to his place. “It says here ye need tae pee on it.”
“I’m trying.” I held the stick at the ready between my legs and screwed up my face funny.
He chuckled. “If we were a four-hour ride from the next chamberpot ye would need tae go.”
“Yep, it’s always at the most inopportune moments.”
Finally, it came with a rush and the stick was doused in the stream, as per the instructions.
“What do I do next?” I shook the liquid off it.
Magnus read, “We wait three minutes for a sign.”
I looked down at the stick, there was an unmistakable plus sign.
Without a doubt.
I stared at it dumbfounded.
“Kaitlyn?”
“I’m pregnant.” I turned the stick around so he could see the mark.
He smiled sadly. “I told ye.”
“You did, you won.”
Sadder still he said, “Aye. I have won.”
Clutching the pregnancy test stick in my fist I stood and wriggled my yoga pants up, dropped to the ground and climbed into my husband’s arms. “I have this thing around my neck. What if I die? What if something happens to me and it involves a baby?”
“Aye, but I winna let anythin’ happen tae ye, Kaitlyn. I daena believe Lady Mairead will keep ye in the neck shackle once she ken a bairn is comin’. She has wanted me tae be motivated tae fight for her as her warrior. I have motivation now, I want tae keep ye safe. I think she will discuss the matter with me and we can come to an understandin' on it.”
“You think?”
“I am sure of it. Twould be her descendent. She will take it seriously.”
“How would you talk to her about it?”
“I daena ken. I think I would have tae journey to see her.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Twould be, but necessary. And after we discuss it, the danger would be past.”
“I won’t be able to go with you. I’ll be here, and you’ll have to go without me and — what are we going to do?” I buried my face into his sky blue shirt.
“Aye, ye winna be able tae travel for a verra long time.” We both sat very very quiet
ly. Magnus pulled up my fist and turned it gently to see the plus sign. He was thoughtful on it for a few moments and then he allowed my hand to drop to the floor and his head went back against the wall with a sigh.
He started to speak then stopped then began again. “First, we are goin’ tae give me a day tae crow around here like a conquering hero who has gotten his wife with bairn. Do you think Master Peters and Cook would come and listen tae me carry on about it? Would they think me heroic?”
I smiled. “They will probably think you’re a little insane for being as excited as you are. Modern men generally see it as a great deal of responsibility, perhaps too much.”
“Och aye, tis a great deal of responsibility. But if I provide them with ale and a bit of loud storytellin’ they might rally tae the excitement of it.”
“Probably.” I took a deep breath.
“But then Kaitlyn, after that day tae crow, I will — I want ye tae ken I take this matter verra serious. I have been thinkin’ it is a battle I must win, but I understand now tis life and death. Your life and death, and I winna let anythin’ happen tae ye. I winna. You have my word. I will protect ye, I will protect our bairn.” He pressed his lips to my hairline, just above my worried brow. “I winna be mistaken, I promise. You winna have tae live in fear.”
“I know. And you’ll train and when Lady Mairead calls on you to be her warrior—”
“I am nae her warrior. I fight only for you.”
* * *
I closed my eyes. Snuggled on my husband’s chest the world didn’t feel any different. Whatever he said, I didn’t feel changed at all but the world had changed so much. My feeling about it. I was still reeling from the fear about my neck piece, and now somehow I was going to need to rally to become the kind of person who could take care of someone else. I would have to become really really strong and from here, on my bathroom floor, curled up on Magnus’s chest didn’t feel like a good start. I felt weak as hell. I was going to be left alone again. Magnus would be taking care of all of this and I would be alone, here, being strong enough to take care of a baby.
How would that even work?
It was going to take every single ounce of strength I had. I would need to pull up my big girl panties and — my pregnancy panties. I gulped and like most of the time in moments of duress I went for sarcasm. “So I guess if you think about it, undying love and promising to protect me forever — I conquered you.”
“Aye Kaitlyn, ye have.” He kissed my forehead. “But for this day I will crow about the conquering I’ve done.”
I pulled away and watched his face. “You are serious about this, huh? You are such a man.”
He grinned.
I brushed the hair back from my face and settled across his lap, leaned on his knees, facing him. “Explain it to me so I can understand from your perspective.”
His smile widened. “See, mo reul-iuil, tis as if ye are a castle. A beautiful castle and I want tae live there. I have been battering at the walls with my cannon—”
“You sir are incorrigible.”
He continued, “I dinna want tae break the castle mind ye, because I want tae—”
“Live there, I know, I get the metaphor,” I laughed.
“But ye had a guard stationed on the walls. I daena blame ye for it. Twas smart tae do it. I was actually quite glad of it that I could batter away with my—”
“Big cannon.”
“Exactly! Have I told ye today that ye are a good wife?”
“No, if I recall you have called me fat, compared me to a horse, and are now waxing poetic about battering my walls.”
“You are a verra good wife.”
“Okay go on with your big cannon,” I giggled, feeling much better actually.
“I was quite enjoying myself. And expectin’ your guard tae meet me on the rampart, yet here we are, I have vanquished your guard, battered your walls, and now one of my warriors is living right there in that beautiful castle.” He put a hand on my stomach. “Tis truly mine now.”
I sighed. Happily. But I teased him, “It’s one way of putting it, I suppose. Or you could say I screwed up earlier in the month. When we returned from Scotland, I had just had my period, but with the time jumping we hadn’t missed a day, so I couldn’t figure out when to start my next pack of pills, so I didn’t for a couple of days until I realized that didn’t make sense and started taking them. In the meantime, probably that night a few weeks ago where you were doing that thing and I was—”
“Twas exactly that night. You were spectacular, all moans and writhin’. I knew then I had won.”
“Well, whatever the outcome, I liked it very much, you can do that anytime.”
We sat for a moment and grinned at each other.
“So your sperm met my egg and worked together to create a baby inside my uterus. But for today I will agree that you have conquered my walls and stand victorious. With your warrior inside me drinking mead and eating turkey legs or whatever it is that your little warrior will do.”
“That’s the spirit, mo reul-iuil.”
“I’m sure Micheal and James and Quentin and everyone else will come over and—” My eyes went wide. “Oh no, I have to tell Hayley.”
“She will be sharp on the matter I would expect, I daena think she likes the idea much.”
“She doesn’t. When she has a baby, she needs a nursery like Lizbeth has, upstairs, so she can deposit the baby and other people can take care of it.” I sighed again. “I won’t be able to see Lizbeth.”
“Aye. Twill be a long time I expect.”
“I miss her. And it’s...” I was going to say, poignant, that the missing was so far in the past. I was speaking to Lizbeth just the other day, but she lived a long long time ago. She was part of a long hazy long ago past. And being there was the only thing that kept her living. I was going to say all of that but it would have involved Magnus as well. He was supposed to be living then, yet here he was, living now. And much like not knowing what day to take my pill, which year was the passage of time being counted on? The here and now? Or were days in the past counted too. And at what rate? I folded my head back to Magnus’s chest. “We should get up from the bathroom floor, probably.”
“And make our announcement.”
Chapter 44
Zach and Emma were thrilled. Most of the gang came over and Zach put out appetizers and drinks and we celebrated. Hayley was discombobulated by the news, most of the boys were skeptical that it was good news, but shortly after their arrival Magnus had everyone believing it was the best news ever, because he so believed it to be. We were having a baby. It was going to ground me from adventures, from journeying with him, but really, that might not be a bad thing. We were staying here for the next six months, anyway. And then Magnus would get called upon to do his thing.
His mysterious thing.
Some kind of warrior thing.
And I would stay here.
And somehow the gold band around my neck would end up being nothing, an idle threat.
The night had been good and I was beginning to feel the warm glow coming up, like a beam from my center. I was going to have Magnus’s child. When I caught his eye from across the room his smile and gaze was so smoldering hot and meant for just me that it made me blush.
Yes.
Aye.
Emma answered a million questions for me. And she called in a favor with a friend who was a receptionist and got me an appointment for the next day with a local OB/GYN.
* * *
We were full of long quiet nervous pauses as I drove us to the OB’s office. I was wearing one of my most grownup outfits, a sundress that went to my knees and a pair of sandals with closed toes. Magnus seemed really nervous. He was wearing one of his modern kilts, and kept adjusting his shirt as if it was constricting his lungs. I was taking deep breaths trying to draw air past my constricted throat. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
On the way he asked, “What are they goin’ tae do tae ye, Kaitl
yn?”
“I don’t a hundred percent know? I think I have to pee in a cup. Emma mentioned that. She said maybe I’d have a sonogram? I don’t really know at all. I just nodded and smiled. While she was pregnant, there were a lot of books around the house, but I didn’t read them. I didn’t think it would apply to me.”
His brow was drawn down but he didn’t seem to have anymore questions and I was too nervous to think of things to tell him.
I parked the car.
We walked to the hospital building and as I reached for the front door I felt him slow and stop. He took a step back.
“What’s happening?” I let the door close.
“I daena want tae go in. I haena good memories of these places.”
He looked up at the building facade and around the front step. Another couple approached, the woman had a very rounded pregnant belly, and we stepped out of the way so they could enter.
He continued, “I daena understand what they are sayin’ in hospitals, and tis all verra confusing. I daena ken how tae protect ye here.”
“Yeah...” I gave him a sad smile. “But I think all men have that problem on a day like today. In a place like this. And women, if it’s their first time. We’re going into a big unknown. But we’re doing it together. Me, you, and the warrior you put in my castle.”
He smiled a little. “Twas yesterday. Today I have made my Kaitlyn with bairn and I daena — tis verra dangerous.”
“Well, that being true, it’s not as dangerous anymore. You’ve seen me do a lot of things and women all over the world do this, I can, for sure. This shit is handled. See my belly?” I pulled my dress over my flat stomach. “I can do this.”
“What if he can tell that I am from the past? What if it — what if the baby is—” He shook his head.
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