Entangled With You

by Knightley, Diana

  “Good evenin’, mo reul-iuil. I wanted ye tae ken I was arrived at the river. We will be goin’ through the tunnels tae the castle now.”

  “The baby is coming tonight.”

  “Tell Lizbeth God speed.”

  “She says the same to you. I love you. Be careful.”

  “I love ye too. From now on I will send ye the signals tae ken I am a’right.”

  “Thank you. I’ll see you soon.”

  And that was it. We dropped from our horses and left them tethered tae trees.

  I had a miner’s lamp on my forehead and though twas dark I found the tunnel entrance easily. I had spent much time here with Sean.

  Which meant Sean kent about the tunnels, too.

  * * *

  Tyler asked, “So we’re going to go into this dark as shit hole?”

  Quentin was loading weapons. “Yep, and you’re going first.”

  Tyler joked, “I’m the new guy, why do I have to do anything first?”

  Quentin said, “Because you know how in all the movies the black guy dies? I am not dying. I’ve been stuck here eating crap food for four months. Trying to keep a bunch of medieval white guys from accidentally blowing themselves up with weapons way past their brainpower to comprehend. And I’m not dying now. Not this close. So you, my new friend, are going to do all the bullshit tasks, not me—”

  I said, “I will go first. Tis my hole. My death tae meet.”

  Quentin said, “Well that got dark fast, boss. I didn’t mean it like that.”

  I strapped a gun tae my waist. “I dinna take it like that. I will go first so the black man and the new guy both winna die.” I patted the walkytalk and joked, “Unless of course the death comes from behind.”

  Tyler and Quentin both groaned. I led the way intae the tunnel.

  * * *

  The tunnel was smaller than I remembered and I was bigger than I’d been when I was young. As a boy this had been fun but now bendin’ under the low ceiling was exhaustin’.

  I tried tae keep my light off, but beamed it every few feet tae check our progress. Then I banged my head, hard. I groaned.

  Quentin’s voice was a whisper. “You okay, boss?”

  I held my hand tae my head and tried tae get on top of the pain. “Och. I rattled m’skull.” I switched on the light and checked my hand, twas a trickle of blood on it. I checked again. The blood wasna much. “Tis good.” I switched off the light remembering Kaitlyn stretching the bandage on my forehead at that long ago castle before she jumped by herself tae the future.

  I should have made her promise tae do it this time too.

  I used the button on my walkytalk tae send her a chirp. That was how we agreed tae contact each other. A sound. It meant: I am alive. I canna speak tae ye though, but I am alive.

  We went farther, much farther, creeping along as quiet as we could be until finally I drew us tae a halt. I listened for the noises of the castle above. Twas silent. A place that should be bustlin’ with the noise of hundreds of men was silent as a grave. What of Sean’s wife and children? The servants? Liam said there would be people there, were they all in hiding?

  The openin’ tae the tunnels let out on a small storehouse in the back of one of the smallest larders. There was a rickety stair that led tae the kitchen. Still nae people tae meet us. We climbed stealthily up and twas a first that the kitchen was empty.

  I glanced at Quentin. He kent this was extraordinary. He gestured we needed tae be cautious. I nodded in agreement.

  We checked twas clear, then passed through a small courtyard with a door at the far end that led intae the larger courtyard. I haena seen it since the day it had been blown apart, months before. We clung tae the edges and crept tae the door.

  Chapter 33 - Kaitlyn

  Every so often all day long there had been drones flying past the house. Every so often there would be the soft knock on the door, the voice of a guard. Lizbeth would answer that we were okay and then we’d hear the guard’s footsteps going away.

  The whole village was in lockdown, hiding from the drones and waiting for the fighting to end and the men to come home.

  Lizbeth and I talked. I told her about Zach and Emma’s wedding. I even told her that Lady Mairead had appeared. I didn’t tell her that Magnus was going to be a father. I couldn’t bear to say it out loud.

  I knew that it was not very helpful to lay on your back for the last weeks of your pregnancy, so I talked Lizbeth into getting up and we walked around the room. I turned it into a game of ‘follow the leader’ and we climbed over a chair, crawled across the bed, twirled in the middle of the room, did a couple of kickboxing moves, and then did it all again. It was silly looking and hilarious until Madame Greer’s voice bellowed from downstairs, “What is all the noise up there?” And we collapsed onto the bed laughing.

  “Fine,” Lizbeth said, “I will just lay here and...” She turned to me, her eyes wide. “Ugh. Either that drink ye made me swallow has turned or I am beginnin’ the pains.”

  “Really? Oh my god, really?” I took to the chair facing the bed. “Now what do we do?”

  “I think we best send Madame Greer for the midwife.” She clutched her stomach, her brow drawn as she climbed under the covers of the bed.

  Chapter 34 - Kaitlyn

  My radio squawked.

  Lizbeth asked, “What is that sound?”

  “It’s Magnus.” I answered him and we spoke for a moment while Lizbeth watched. She was between contractions. After we said goodbye, I held the radio in my hands and stared down at it wishing he could keep speaking to me for longer.

  “Twas Young Magnus’s voice? How dost ye do that?”

  “It was, it’s called a two-way radio. I can hear him, and he can hear me though we are very far apart. It’s kind of like how when you cup your hands around your mouth to yell louder? Like that.”

  “And twas tae say ye love each other?”

  I nodded. Then I added, “So he would know.”

  “I think he kens, ye are his wife.”

  I smiled. “In the New World, where I’m from, we like to remind each other.”

  Lizbeth shook her head. “Sounds like a terrible idea tae me, just when ye have some peace and quiet the thing reminds ye tae think on your husband again.”

  I laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I suppose we’re used to it so we don’t mind.”

  “How would ye be used tae it, a voice with nae body ringing around the room? Tellin’ ye he loves ye, of course he loves ye, he is your husband!” She huffed and put her hands in her lap, on her rounded tummy. Then the corner of her mouth turned up a bit. “Twas verra sweet though, Young Magnus often speaks tae ye like this?”

  I said, “Yes. Always. Whenever he can.”

  “He is a good boy. I am verra pleased with how he turned out. Sean though...” She sighed and another contraction came on right then.

  It had been three hours. The night was fully black. We hadn’t heard from the men except for the occasional chirp that meant Magnus was okay but not able to talk right now. I didn’t answer it because I didn’t want to blow his cover, but I really wished I could just push the button and say hi.

  And tell him that I might be in over my head.

  To tell him that the midwife hadn’t come because the drones scared her away.

  That Lizbeth was groaning and the drones were buzzing outside, hovering over our house, and now they had lights shining outside, and scaring the ‘ever loving shit,’ as my grandma liked to say, out of me.

  Madame Greer buzzed in and out of the room. She hadn’t had children of her own, choosing instead to overly mother the entire village, and seemed at a loss what to do, possibly for the first time in her life.

  My hands shook with fear.

  I used a flashlight and reread the passages on first stages of labor. I set up a camping lantern by the bed. Madame Greer wasn’t surprised by anything I might have in my possession, there were drones outside after all, so she took it all in st
ride. Especially when she saw me pray again.

  I literally couldn’t think of what else to do.

  I asked Lizbeth, “Is this how it usually goes?”

  She moaned through a contraction. “Aye, Kaitlyn, tis the way of it.”

  “Okay, I’ll keep asking this. I just — I don’t know, so I’ll keep checking in on it. But don’t worry. I know what to do. If it comes to it.”

  My hands shook. I begged God, the universe, and anyone else who might be listening for help. I really really thought there should be someone else here.

  I spread out the first aid kit on a clean towel.

  I put my wedding ring in a box for safe keeping and washed my hands in boiled water for the fifteenth time.

  Chapter 35 - Magnus

  We rushed out into the open courtyard of the dark castle and my eyes adjusted tae see Sean, crouched on top of a pile of rubble, sword in hand, near the broken-down front wall of the castle. He glowed in the headlight of one of the vehicles sitting in the middle of the rubble. I made a quick count, five. Lined up against the wall.

  Quentin said, “Before I left I dismantled the ignitions. I guess they haven’t figured out how to fix them yet.”

  I had tae project my voice across the way. “Brother, how have ye been?”

  Sean glared. “I have been better, Young Magnus. Before ye came and destroyed our home, our family.”

  “I haena meant tae.”

  “Why dinna ye go tae your kingdom, take your throne?”

  I took some steps toward his pile of rubble. “I was injured. You ken this. I couldna fight in my condition. I had tae heal, but I am back now tae clean up the mess. Tae see ye. Tae meet Lizbeth’s bairn, bein’ born tonight in the village.”

  Sean scowled. “I told her tae stay here under my protection. She is as impetuous as always.” He stepped down the pile of rubble, coming closer.

  “She said the same of ye. I think she believed the man, what is his name, Commander Davis? She believed him tae be dangerous.” I drew my sword. “And she is right, Sean, he is too dangerous tae ally yourself with him. He works for my Uncle Samuel—”

  “They are here, looking for ye. You should have fought them there, now ye have brought their fury on us all. I have tae decide tae side with them and our family will live, or side with you and what...?” He swung his arms out. “We all die at the mercy of their flyin’ weapons?”

  He continued, “All I have tae do is kill ye or turn ye over, and they will leave.”

  I shook my head. “You daena want tae go down that road, Sean, tis a dark place.”

  Quentin and Tyler were circling the courtyard, slowly, moving toward the vehicles.

  “What is, killin’ brothers? You seem tae think nothin’ on it.”

  “I think on it much. Let us go intae the keep, and sit, and talk tae each other over a mug of ale. We can rid the lands of these men, and then I will go fight for my kingdom. I will, I have spoken of it with Kaitlyn, we have decided. I will have a son, as you have a child, as does Lizbeth. I’ll go fight and then we’ll all live safe.”

  He scoffed. “You have done nothin’ but bring darkness on us all.” He looked down at the ground and shook his head. Then he raised his sword, bellowed, and charged me preparin’ tae swing.

  Chapter 36 - Kaitlyn

  Lizbeth’s hand gripped mine. She was moaning and writhing with the contractions, then coming out of them to talk in a floaty, spacey way, a little out of her head. Madame Greer entered and asked, “How is Lizbeth, dear?”

  I had just gone through my protocol: First I would ask, “Does this feel like your usual births?” Lizbeth said yes, but she also seemed a little like she didn’t hear me. Second, while trying not to panic, I would flip through the pages of the Emergency Childbirth book again, hands trembling, to see what I needed to be watching for.

  I answered Madame Greer that it seemed like it was all going well.

  Another contraction began. They were very close now.

  Madame Greer said, “Well, that sounded like it was a’nearin’.”

  My stomach dropped for the tenth time that hour. “Can you boil me some more water?”

  Madame Greer squeezed my shoulder and left the room.

  I listened to the moans of Lizbeth. The sound of the drones as they hovered over our house. A drone fired shots along the street, so terrifyingly loud I slammed my hands over my ears. Lizbeth whimpered.

  I tried to console her. “The men are looking for the navigators, as soon as they find them the drones will stop. Soon.”

  I put my hand on the radio, wishing I could talk to him, to tell him how scary this was.

  * * *

  Lizbeth was drifting in and out of consciousness between the contractions, then reviving to raise up and moan. The contractions were coming faster. She sounded weak and exhausted.

  I pulled her up during a contraction to see if that would help. I held her around her shoulders while she stood and moaned and her sounds changed to an active groaning growling sound that surprised me.

  She dropped to her knees by the bed.

  “Oh, oh, oh!” I scrambled for a stack of towels and shoved them around her knees and all around her legs. I wished I had spent the afternoon washing this floor instead of whiling away the time talking. I could have been useful. It was bacteria that was the biggest issue after all. The thought made the blood rush to my head like I was going to pass out from fear of germs.

  Madame Greer came into the room again. I was so relieved to see her that I started to cry. “Can you um, oh God, um, hold her shoulder, help her stay here like this, um, I have to — again.” I poured alcohol on my hands and wiggled it into all the cracks and crevices, tears streaming down my cheeks. I was not cut out for this. What was I doing, trying to save someone’s life? My new sister that I loved. I was way way way over my head. I should have time-jumped a midwife here instead of stupid Tyler.

  I turned back to Lizbeth and held her up under her arm while Madame Greer held her up by the other arm and Lizbeth’s noises turned to a groaning and shrieking sound. “She’s pushing,” I said to no one but myself. This was where it would get serious. I had to get on top of my fear.

  I wanted to read my book again, but we were already here in needing-to-know.

  Lizbeth collapsed her head down on the bed with a whimper. I leaned beside her almost nose to nose. “You’re doing great. You’re going to meet your new baby soon. Does that sound good?”

  “Aye I want the bloody bairn out of me now, Kaitlyn.”

  “That sounds good, let’s do that. I’m going to look and see what’s happening, okay?” A drone hovered lower outside, buzzing and worrying us with its insistent noisiness.

  I reached for my flashlight, pulled up the hem of her shift, and shined the light between her legs. I didn’t really know what I was seeing. It was dark and freaking weird looking, but it looked like a solid curve was pressing against her skin, bulging out.

  She tensed and raised up again. Madame Greer held her shoulder and made soothing sounds as Lizbeth groaned and whimpered and it was happening — a baby’s head was pushing down and out. I dropped the flashlight to the towels, quickly pulled on a pair of latex gloves, and got my hands there in time for the whole head to emerge.

  “The head is out, oh my god, it’s—” I cradled the head and pushed the towels up to create a pillow for the landing, Lizbeth rested for a moment and pushed again and the baby slid, slippery as fuck, right through my hands to the towels. “Oh my god, it’s a baby Lizbeth. A baby!”

  She said, “I should hope so, Kaitlyn, I have been birthin’ for too many hours for it tae nae be a bairn.”

  I laughed one of those laughs that was really on the verge of hysteria. I pulled a clean towel from my pile and with my hands still shaking I wrapped it around the baby who started to move a bit. I passed the baby up through Lizbeth’s legs to her front and helped her turn around so she was sitting on the towels leaning against the bed. Her baby on her stomach.
<
br />   I beamed at them. “So that was easy.”

  Madame Greer batted me with a handkerchief she kept in her apron. Lizbeth laughed. We sat for a moment watching the baby as it pinked up and made some mewling sounds.

  Chapter 37 - Magnus

  I dodged his blade. “Sean, ye daena want tae kill me. I daena want tae kill ye. Please, let us talk it through.”

  “If ye are dead and delivered they have said they would leave our family alone. They would let us keep the weapons and I would be favored by the king.”

  His sword swept down and I met it blade tae blade. I argued, “We can defeat them. You daena need tae take their side. How can ye brother, you have never raised a blade tae me, how can ye take the side of a stranger tae us?”

  His eyes looked a deep betrayal.

  I said, “You canna trust them. Ye can trust me, Sean. Ye can trust Lizbeth. We are your family. We will—”

  “You are only my brother by half.” His sword swung from the right, aimed toward my side. I dodged it but twas too close for someone who wasna tryin’ tae kill me.

  Quentin’s voice came from behind me as I stumbled. “You got this, boss?”

  “Aye.” I dinna take my eyes from Sean.

  Sean said, “You daena have this, Young Magnus, I will kill ye tae protect my family.”

  “Why? Tis nae body left tae protect. They have all left ye. The weapons, these men, they are destroyin’ our family, nae me.”

  “Tis nae your family. Your father is nae a Campbell. He werena even Scottish. Ye haena been raised among us. We will be better off without your side of the family.”

  My fury was rising. I prowled to his right. “I ken tis hard tae use your brain when ye have been used tae Lizbeth thinkin’ for ye, but if ye winna listen tae her on this you will have tae try tae think for yourself — ye are speakin’ as Mairead spoke tae me just yesterday. Are ye proud tae be takin’ after our dear mother, Sean?”