The Empire and the Wolf King (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #21)

7. Chapter 7 - Kaitlyn

CHAPTER 7 - KAITLYN

NIGHT ON SIDDALL’S FARM - 1775

U p in the loft it took a few minutes of shifting to get the straw settled comfortably underneath our blanket. I took off my bonnet, my shawl, and my apron, but said, “I’m not taking anything else off, it’s too much work and I can’t even imagine what time they get up in the morning, probably the butt-crack of dawn.”

He chuckled, shifting back and forth, trying to make a divot. “I ken... ye ought tae believe I will hae m’way with ye... now that we are finally alone and—” He yawned. “I am so verra tired, mo reul-iuil.”

I put my head on his chest, curled up alongside his body. “I know, me too, how about this: if we wake up in the middle of the night, I promise I will sex you up. Promise. ”

He muttered, “I will hold ye tae it…”

And we both fell asleep.

I woke up hours later, peering into the darkness, trying to see our surroundings, anxious about what was out there. The world felt oppressive and also empty, we were surrounded by woods and completely lost and there was no direction we could hike to get home. We might never be found again. Where were my children?

I clasped my hands together, pressed to my forehead, and said a prayer, under my breath in Farmer Siddall’s loft.

Then Magnus’s voice, “Mo reul-iuil, are ye prayin’?”

“Yes. For the kids, so they’re okay. It just…” I burst into tears. “We’re so alone, Magnus, how will we ever get back?”

He put his arm out. “We will get back.”

I lay on his chest again. “How do you know?”

“Because we always get back, it has never gone wrong before, it canna start now.”

I nodded. “I guess you’re right, we usually win… why wouldn’t we win this?”

“And I am furious, so if fury leads me I winna stop until I hae beaten him. He must ken I am coming and I will take him down.”

“Good, I want you to smite our enemy, that sounds good.”

“Tis my job, and once I smite him we will celebrate our win taegether.”

I nodded. “It’s a deal.” I wiped my eyes.

“But I need ye tae be strong, ye ken, Kaitlyn? I feel… I feel as if I hae lost. I hae been knocked from m’throne, and m’brother was murdered in front of me. Och nae, I caused his death and I canna get it from m’mind. I feel weighed down by it, and I am second guessin’ m’decisions. I was wrong, on every count, and we are payin’ for m’wrongness.”

I said, “That’s a lot to bear.”

“Aye, though I will, I can, if ye will be strong. I ken tis a lot tae ask — I canna get the screams and wails of our bairns from my head. I ken ye are verra sad, but tae hear ye cry is breakin’ my heart. I daena ken how tae think through it with this much anguish.”

I kissed his chest. “I understand.”

“I daena want ye tae think I daena care, that ye canna be sad, but… tis dire and I am havin’ trouble stayin’ on top of m’self. I feel as if I might drown in despair.”

I said, “That’s not good, my love, I will be strong for you.”

“Ye will be a terrible arse?”

“Yes, and the motherfucking matriarch. I can, I will. I’m deeply sad, but I know you are too, and I know that sometimes when I cry you have to become the strong one. It’s not really fair that you haven’t gotten to cry and that you have to be strong. I know you’re very broken about your brother and I am so sorry. I will do anything I can to make it up to you.”

“Ye already do, just by listening, comfortin’ me in the darkness of our luxurious bedroom.”

I chuckled. “Luxurious isn’t quite the word. I think I have a…” I shifted and burrowed my hand under the blanket and plucked up a long piece of straw. “Poky thing in my back. What is our plan?”

“We must get from here tae a place where we can sign a contract and get ourselves found.”

I said, “Easy.”

It was his turn to chuckle. “Then I will give ye a poky thing that ye will actually enjoy.”

“I bet, Master Magnus, that you won’t need to wait to give me a poky thing. I do like the poky and want it much sooner than later…”

I tossed the straw away and tucked back against his chest. “I am really sorry about Sean, do you… do you think we could go back, loop around to rescue him?”

He was quiet for a long time.

“I keep thinkin’ about how tae keep him from dying, there were so many of us comin’ and goin’ tis hard tae find the one time that we could change. I could hae told Edward that I wouldna meet him at Kippen Field, but Arse-gall shut down our vessels. He and Edward would hae attacked us either way.”

His finger stroked up and down on my shoulder as he thought. “If we go further back tae the day before, what stops him from going back even further?”

“Yeah, true, that would suck.”

“Aye, and he can leave us stranded, which makes him formidable.”

“If he had stranded us earlier, I might have been stuck at Balloch along with Sean and the kids. Sean wouldn’t have time traveled. The kids would be safe. Sean would be alive.”

He said, “Perhaps, we canna assume, but we know Arse-gall was looking for us at Balloch. He might hae attacked Balloch while Fraoch and I were at Stirling…”

His voice faltered. “It canna get much worse than what really happened, but I daena ken if we can change any of it for the better.”

“And no matter what, you would still be fighting Asgall and the English king by yourself with no weapons.”

“Aye, but if I kept my brother alive twould be worth it. I keep runnin’ it through my head, all the things I might hae done differently. My mind is restless with thinkin’ about it.”

“I wish I had an answer that could quiet your mind.”

He nodded quietly. “I ken.”

Even up in the loft the pungent smell of animals hung around us; the sounds of cattle lowing, pigs rustling and grunting, another creature snoring in its sleep.

I raised my head and looked down on his face. “What if you didn’t go to Stirling?”

“But then Archie’s mind wouldna be settled. He was verra distressed, I daena ken how I would hae solved that without goin’ tae Stirling and takin’ m’rightful place on the list of kings.”

“True.”

“And tis my rightful place, much more than Arse-gall’s. How could I stand for nae being on the list of kings… with Arse-gall’s name on it instead?”

“I don’t know, that definitely doesn’t sound like something you can stand for.”

“But I would trade the throne for m’brother’s life. In a second. Even when the Scottish throne was the first thing he truly admired me for.”

“You have another throne in the future.”

“Aye, and without the one in the past I would nae hae an empire. I dinna want one in the first place, empires are hard tae hold. When ye are spread out ye become weak.”

“Asgall’s got kinda an empire, he’s spread out, he’s weak.”

“Aye, he is also dead. He just daena ken it yet.”

“God you’re hot when you’re murderous.”

“Women are verra odd with their lust.”

“I’m not necessarily like other women, you mean to say.” I said, with a Scottish accent, “‘Kaitlyn is verra odd with her lust.’”

His arms tightened around me. “And Magnus is lustful when his wife has the brogue on her tongue — what were we talkin’ about?”

I said, “Trying to figure out if we could do something to get Sean back.”

He exhaled, long, against my ear. “I daena ken, mo reul-iuil, I haena ever saved someone from death through time travel. I daena think I hae the power, but I made so many poor decisions and created the circumstances that got him killed, if I could fix it so that it dinna weigh on m’shoulders that twas my fault, I would. If only I knew what tae try.”

I nuzzled against his chest. “You must still be exhausted, you’ve barely slept in days, how come you’re awake?”

“Too much on m’mind, but also we went tae bed while it was barely dark. We hae been lyin’ here in a stranger’s hayloft for hours. Even as a king in m’own bed, in m’fine chamber, with a full staff, I rarely get tae sleep for hours on end, and here I am expected tae do it with straw stickin’ in m’arse.”

He rolled over to his side, pushing and pulling the blanket and me and the straw of our bed, making the effort seem overly exhausting. Then, facing me he pulled my hips close and my thigh up on his hip. “Och, tis better. Now I can sleep.”

His eyes were closed, but then almost impossible to see in the darkness, his brow raised, and he said, “I think, Madame Campbell, I might want tae give ye a toss in the hay.”

“That sounds lovely.”

I kissed his lips, long and luxuriously, and then said, “Ow,” and pulled a piece of hay from my hair, and another from under my side.

He patted his chest. “Ye will hae tae climb on, we need tae protect ye from the pokies.”

I giggled and climbed on him and after a great deal of laughter, fumbling with the many buttons on his breeches, we finally got them down to his knees and we made love in the hay of a stranger’s loft in the darkness long before morning.

A long time later, astride his hips, my hands pressed against his chest, breathing heavily, after a climax that rocked my world, I whispered, “Oh wow, that was perfectly done, Master Magnus.”

He said, “Why thank ye kindly, Madame Campbell, we seemed tae be in a losin’ war with the pokin’ straw, but the tossin’ of ye has beaten it back.” He bumped his hips up and down making me jiggle funnily.

I collapsed on his chest, my cheek against his skin. “I like colonial sex, that was good.”

“I imagine tis not always done in haylofts: Master Jefferson probably has a fine bed.”

“He’s near here I think.”

His head came up, “Ye think — now?”

“I mean, I don’t know his calendar, but he has an estate in Virginia, and that’s where we are. It would follow.”

“I imagine he would hae a fine library, a great deal of papers, and that historians would spend a lot of time on the details of it.”

“Yep. We need to make a plan for leaving here. We’ll need some directions, some provisions...”

“I suspect we will spend the day in chores, I believe Siddall wants me tae work his fields on the morrow in thanks for the clothes and the meal and the hayloft tae sleep in, ignorin’ that I hae enriched him with the jewel. Remind me if I pay with another jewel, tae not give it up front. I am poorer and at his mercy.”

I set my skirts back to rights as well as I could before lying back down with a haughty huff. “I suppose that means I will have to help his wife? Ugh, that is outrageous, I am a queen.”

He said, “But I suppose I daena hae tae, I am a king, after all. I paid him plenty for the room and board. Enough for the clothes, too, I would think. Our clothes are good enough for the time... we could straighten ourselves, and go tae an inn in the village and procure a room.”

“If you think about it, if you stay and work, your clothes wouldn’t be as good anymore. We would need to get new clothes or wait for laundry day, and next thing you know we live here.” I raised my head and looked down on him. “Magnus, we can’t live here.”

He sat up. “Aye, mo reul-iuil, we will steal away in the night.”