Magnus and a Love Beyond Words

by Knightley, Diana

  “You still have it?”

  “In my pack, I haven’t gotten very far in it yet but I’ll keep reading.” After a moment I asked, “Did he say anything else?”

  “He said he loves me and thanked me for bein’ a good Da. He daena regret savin’ your life and he told me tae take care of ye and...” His voice cracked. “I wish I would hae spoken on it with him, thanked him for it.”

  I squeezed around his arm. “I know you do, my love. I know.”

  He said, “The whole time I was with him I thought he was goin’ tae win ye, and I wasna verra fair. I raised m’fist tae him and...”

  “I know.” I nuzzled into his shoulder.

  He held the side of my face, against his arm, like a hug. “We ought tae return tae our family.”

  I kissed his jaw. Then I took the letter, unbuckled his sporran, and placed it inside. “Let’s go eat some more dessert that always makes you feel better.”

  Chapter 40

  A while later we drove the small highway to a deserted side road. Magnus and I climbed out of the car. Quentin passed Hayley his truck keys to drive it home. We did a last check of our bags and collected everything into a pile. It wasn’t much this time, but we had lots of presents. It was nice to not be chased for once.

  I hugged Zach and told him to hug Emma for me and Ben.

  He asked, “When will you be home?”

  “Where is home, by the way?”

  “We’re still at the same place, the round house on the beach.”

  “I wish we could be at our last place, or the one before it, but I guess this is life on the run. I want to be there for Christmas, but we would probably land here again. I don’t know why it is, but for some reason we can’t jump into Florida. Maybe don’t bring Hayley or Emma when you come get us, because we don’t know if we’ll have to fight our way across the border.”

  “Okay, I’ll be waiting for your call. Try not to come on Christmas Eve though, we have plans with family.”

  “All right, December 23rd. I’ll see you then."

  Magnus was speaking very solemnly to Hayley, then they hugged.

  When I hugged her goodbye with a kiss she said, “I told him I wanted him to explain himself.”

  “Seriously Hayley, I told you—”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you what he said, but it was enough. I’ve forgiven him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “I’m not telling you.”

  “It must have been good if you’ve forgiven him that easily.”

  She laughed. “Oh it was good, you know how he is, but I’m not telling you what it was.”

  “I’ll get it out of him. Easily. All I have to do is lift his kilt and he’ll tell me anything.”

  “Or you could not be an asshole and let the people who love you have a conversation about you without you being involved.”

  I grinned. “Fine. But it was good?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I love you.”

  “I love you too and I’m sorry I called you an asshole.”

  I shook my head with a sad smile. “I said that exact same thing to Archie just the other day.”

  “Who the baby? He probably deserved to be called one —screaming their heads off, pooping all over the place.”

  I joked, “Someday you’ll make an excellent mother.”

  She joked back, “Hey, I’m not the one calling babies assholes to their faces. I do it behind their backs like a nice ‘Aunt Hayley’.”

  * * *

  Quentin, Magnus, and I stepped away from the vehicles to our pile of stuff. We stood in a tight circle while Magnus pulled the vessel from his sporran. I said, “Thank you for coming on such short notice, Quentin.”

  “Aye I have been missin’ the ol’castle.”

  I laughed. “The broken-down 18th century castle?”

  “Nah, I kinda missed the girl.”

  Magnus said, “You’ll be seein’ her soon enough. Dost ye have your weapons in hand, in case we are met?”

  Quentin nodded and patted the sword on his hip, the knife on his ankle, and the gun holstered under his arm.

  “Good. Are ye ready, Kaitlyn?”

  “Kind of, ” I patted my leg, where a knife was strapped and between my breasts where a small one was nestled, “but not really. Man, I hate jumping.” I jiggled from foot to foot nervously. I shivered, shook out all my limbs, and rolled my head. “I hate to say it but I have to do this.” I moved between Magnus’s arms, pressed against his chest, clutched his shirt in my fists, and closed my eyes.

  Magnus checked to make sure his sword belt was buckled. “Ye ready, Kaitlyn?”

  I nodded my head.

  He joked, “Dost ye need a hug tae go as well, Quentin?”

  Quentin said, “No boss, think I can do it on my own.”

  I said, “Fine, whatever, I can do it on my own too.” I pushed away from Magnus and stood alone for a half beat. “Nope, can’t do it.” I clung to his chest again. “I’m plenty brave enough, I just—”

  Quentin said, “I know it Katie, you’ve done this a lot more than me.”

  “Thank you for noticing.” My voice was muffled in Magnus’s shirt.

  Magnus began to count and twist the vessel. I clenched every muscle in my body and tried to ready myself for the unbelievable pain but it still hit me like a baseball bat to the stomach and the head all at once.

  Chapter 41

  I forced myself up as soon as I was in command of my senses, but Magnus was already crouching above me. He pressed a finger to his lips. I looked around, Quentin wasn’t there.

  A few moments later Quentin returned. “No one.”

  We were in a clearing but surrounded by trees, a pine scent in the air. It was a cool day, but not cold. It looked near noon. I swooped my hair into a ponytail and pulled the tartan around my shoulders. I moved the brooch, so it was perfect.

  Magnus said, “We are goin’ tae a tavern. Twill take a few hours tae walk it.”

  “Ugh,” I groaned. “We have to carry all this stuff? I didn’t think about that when we picked out all the presents.”

  I carried my pack and two bags. Magnus carried four bags. Quentin had a heavy backpack with a lot of gear and also a couple of bags. We walked. Luckily it was a beautiful day. We were within trees for some of it, but a lot of the walk was up and down hills, along a worn path that skirted around a mountain, past a creek and along the banks of the river.

  After an hour we stopped to relieve ourselves and eat some food, drink water, and then we walked some more.

  Magnus watched behind us. At one point he made us stop in the shadow of the trees, totally quiet, while he climbed the bank to check in every direction, but when he returned he said, “We arna bein’ followed.”

  It was a relief, but we were never completely sure.

  * * *

  We walked some more. Quentin asked, “So when do we get to the fun part, Boss?”

  “Tis the fun part.”

  “Nah I mean, when do we get to castle brawls and me tasing highlanders?”

  “You liked doin’ that? I may need ye tae soon enough. We will inquire at the tavern how the castle and the village are farin’. If the castle inhabitants are amenable, I will set a meetin’ with them. If Sean will come and we can talk of the matter, twill be good.” He switched the bags to his shoulder. “If he comes and daena want tae talk then ye can drop him with your taser.”

  “See, that’s what I mean, the fun part,” Quentin joked. “What about Katie?”

  “We’ll have Lizbeth come tae meet with Kaitlyn, they will greet each other warmly and talk as sisters do, and they will make the men around them behave less like barbarians. They will make it so we daena have tae brawl or use your taser. We can share a beer instead and talk of it as if twas merely a distraction.”

  “I don’t know Boss, he wanted to kill you pretty dead.”

  “Och aye, he did.”

  I watched the side of Magnus’s face
. He was stoic and thoughtful, with his bag of candy over his shoulder trudging to the tavern instead of to his home, wondering if he would be welcome at all.

  But it was hard to blame his family if they didn’t forgive him — we had seriously fucked this place up.

  Quentin noticed Magnus’s down-turned mood.

  “Sean will be sensible. He should really say he’s sorry to you. He saw you lay down your sword and get arrested. He saw Kaitlyn get arrested. Commander Davis and his men all left with everything and there’s been no more trouble, right? Maybe you should walk in there and tell him to apologize to you. I’ll back you up.”

  “Nae. Tis my family.”

  “Sure. So yeah, it’s probably going to be easy to forgive everything. Plus you have candy. Plus you have all those sodas I made you buy. Those are going to make them all really happy.”

  Chapter 42

  It had been close to three hours. We rested along the way and traded off bags but I was still exhausted when we made it to the Taybourne Tavern.

  The building was half-timbered with a high pitched roof and was three stories high. When we entered the large downstairs room, it was very dark inside. There were three big tables and about ten men seated in groups of three and four. We dropped our belongings against a wall and Quentin and I sat at one end of a long table beside the pile to guard it.

  Magnus spoke with the man who ran the place and was gone for about twenty minutes. He returned with a round of ales and placed them on the table in front of us. “Dougie says all the Campbells are back at the castle. Rebuildin’ has begun. He told me Liam has been here in recent days and says they have renewed fightin’ against the MacDonalds and arna worried much on Commander Davis.”

  “That’s great, right?”

  Magnus took my hand and smiled. “Aye, tis verra good. I daena ken if I will be forgiven but I am glad of the family bein’ in harmony with each other.”

  I took a slug of ale. “So when do we meet with them?”

  “He will send a messenger tae the castle tae notify them I am here, but it daena look like they will come until the morn.”

  “Good, then we get to drink. I’ve been needing to just relax.”

  Magnus’s eyes flitted to a man at the far end of the table. Quentin glanced that way too. I guessed relaxing wasn’t really possible with all these 18th century men around.

  I took another swig of ale and wiped my arm on my mouth. Quentin hunched forward on his elbows. A half-second later a man approached us and loomed over our table. “Your man here is dark as night. He the one causin’ the trouble at Balloch?”

  Magnus grunted and stared straight ahead. “Nae.”

  “What business have ye got with the Campbells?”

  Magnus tensed. “We are Campbells. Tis nae business, tis family. We are simply restin’ for the night afore we go home.” Magnus took a long sip of his ale and lowered it to the table. “Dost ye have a problem with a man and his family havin’ a rest or will ye walk tae the other side of the room and leave us be? Because I am willin’ tae discuss either. I would like tae enjoy my drink with m’wife and m’brother, but I haena held my blade in a few days — I wouldna mind the interruption so verra much. I could return tae m’drink after.”

  The man glared. “I am charged with watchin’ for MacDonalds.”

  “You can tell from our aroma we arna descended from mucs.”

  The man grunted.

  “But I tell ye I have reconsidered and daena want tae fight ye. I would much rather enjoy a drink with m’wife and converse with m’brother than fight ye over some reason I daena ken. I will get ye a drink and one for your men and we can enjoy our evenin’ without havin’ tae bother each other again.”

  The man said, “Aye,” and Magnus went and arranged to have him served some more ale, clapped him heartily on the back, and returned to our table.

  “We must be cautious, he haena the good sense tae ken he was spared. He may try tae start somethin’ again.”

  Quentin said, “I’ve got my eye on him.”

  In all of that I kept my eyes down and forgot to drink from the stress of it. Now I swigged long from my ale. “Oh man, that tastes good. There’s a lot about the 18th century that’s hard, but there’s ale and, of course, Magnus Campbell and his family.”

  Magnus grinned.

  I asked Quentin, “Did you ever think, growing up, that someday an 18th century, Scottish highlander would be calling you a brother?”

  “I did not, but then again, he’s not really an 18th century Scottish highlander anyway.”

  Magnus said, “What dost ye mean, Black MacMagnus? I was born in a castle. I have the brogue of a highlander. I have on a kilt and a sporran. I swing a two-handed sword and most of my family resides here in the land of Scots. How can ye say I am nae a highlander? I have the scars tae prove it, from the battles a highlander will fight.”

  Quentin raised his mug. “True that boss, but I have the brogue of a highlander as well if I be wantin’ tae. Arna I wearin’ a kilt? Daena I sleep in a castle of a time? Have the scars of a fight?” He pushed up the sleeve of his shirt and pointed at a scar on his upper arm. Then he pointed at a large scar on his knee, “Wait, that’s from skateboarding. But this one, this is from here. He pointed at a small scar on his shin.

  Magnus laughed. “Tis verra wee, ye might want tae keep that one tae yourself.” He drew up the front of his shirt and showed his surgical scar, purple, raised, still marked and dotted from the stitches that once held it together.

  Quentin said, “Dammit man, why do you always have to win everything? Wait let me show you the skateboarding one again.” They both laughed. Quentin added, “What I’m trying to say boss, is though you might share the same clothing as these medieval motherfuckers you don’t have the same mindset. I think you’re a modern man, trapped in the dark ages of history.”

  Magnus smiled, “Ye daena consider me a barbarian, Black Mac?”

  Quentin said, “Nae, ye are too civilized.”

  “Och, tis a welcome compliment. I thank ye.”

  I grinned, a little misty-eyed looking from one to the other. Then I hiccuped. “Uh oh, I think I have a buzz.” I hiccuped again. “What time is it?”

  “Tis time tae retire tae our room.”

  “Our room, all of us?” I was really hoping not because I missed my husband, really really missed him and didn’t want to sleep in a bunk room or in a pile of smelly highlanders.

  “We have our own room. Quentin will sleep and guard in the hallway outside the door.”

  Quentin joked, “I suppose my compliments didn’t work to win me a warm bed? I’ll remember this.”

  Magnus chuckled. “Aye your bed will be warm. You can sleep along the crack under the door and the heat from our fire will warm ye.”

  Chapter 43

  Magnus and I carried all the bags up the creaky steps to the second floor. Remembering the rats that had eaten my lip balm, I spent time moving all the food into one bag, zipping it closed inside another, then wrapping it with a third and tying it closed, while he built a small fire in the hearth. The room was simple, but the bed was bigger than the one we were given at Madame Greer’s house. It looked lumpy, but there were blankets so that was good.

  Magnus threw back the covers and investigated the mattress. He did a little brushing move which kind of freaked me out. “What was that?”

  He sat on the bed to take off his shoes. “Nothing but the local fauna here tae welcome your arse, mo ghradh.” He rummaged up my skirts and pinched my butt. I squealed.

  Quentin’s voice clear as a bell asked, “Everything all right boss?”

  I said, “Oh my god, Quentin, can you hear everything we’re saying and doing in here?”

  “Yup.”

  “Shit.” It was all I could think of to say.

  Quentin said, “Of course I’ve been y’all’s night watchman for years, you don’t always close your doors.”

  I said, “Oh my god.”

  Quentin sa
id, “Don’t worry I’m putting in my earbuds. I came prepared.”

  I called, “Okay, good night, we’re going to sleep now, nothing going on.”

  Quentin added, “What? I can’t hear you, but keep in mind everyone else in the tavern can.”

  “Crap.”

  Magnus shook his head sadly. “My wife has forgotten she is in the 18th century. Tis a place where tis common tae hear your neighbor in the night. Tis nae somethin’ tae worry on.”

  I whispered, “None of the women here have sex, Magnus. They’re all too pious. Too busy with farm work and survival at the hands of the Campbell men.”

  “Aye, ” he pulled off his second boot. “Tis true. Tis why I traveled tae find ye, for the sex of it.”

  “Ah, finally, you admit it.” I dropped my skirt to the ground and whispered. “I’ll welcome you to my shores if you’ll help me get out of this bodice of bondage.”

  Magnus untied my lacings while I watched the fire in the hearth leap and dance. “I do love a fire in the bedroom. Can we have one of these installed in your castle?”

  The scent of burning wood filtered through the air. “I would imagine it winna be easy, but I will ask for it.”

  He yanked my bodice, sliding it up and over my arms.

  He sat and I stood between his legs and wrapped my arm around his head, my other hand steadying his jaw. I brought his chin up and kissed him. And kissed him. And kissed him until my knees were weak. “Hello Master Magnus. Are you ready for this?”

  His hands slid slowly up my calves around the back of my thighs. Up up up. His lips pressed to mine he whispered. “Och aye, Madame Campbell, I am ready.” His fingers glanced between my legs, up… in… around…

  I moaned and held around his head while he massaged around and around my thighs, my ass, my hips. I whispered against his hair. “I don’t know whether to go slow or fast, I missed you so much.”

  His head nestled against my chest. “I have missed ye too.”