Chapter 40
This time could only be described as expansive. Last time Magnus was gone I waited, worried and unsure. In a holding pattern, looping around inside his house, with his staff, in his life. But this time I was truly running a household. I had gathered Magnus’s chosen clan around me, and I was caring for all of them. Organizing, managing, making a ton of lists with little check marks down the sides: done, done, done. On enthusiastic days I scratched lines through the entries — finished.
I was Kaitlyn Campbell, and I ran this shit. I was Queen of the Highlander’s castle.
I was super proud.
And I never thought about Lady Mairead’s threat that I would never see him again.
Mostly.
* * *
Days passed, weeks, and then months. So much time that the waiting went from active to passive and then to waiting, but not thinking about it nearly as much. It freaked me out but was probably totally necessary to keep me sane.
Turning off the worrying, thinking, hoping, crying. It was a relief.
I went out. I met Hayley, Michael, and James for drinks. I drank shots and laughed and danced and sparred with James as per usual.
“Alone again Katie?” His face when he teased me like this was incredulous. “You’ve got to be getting pretty lonely by now.”
“Yes and yes and none of your business.”
He drank a bit more. “You sure you don’t need someone to keep you company?”
“God no, I’m married.”
“I’ve just never known someone to see their husband so little. It almost makes the whole marriage thing seem like a sham. Ya sure you ain’t bullshitting us?”
“Nope. Magnus just has work. Scotland work. . . ”
“I know what you told me he does. I know what you said, but here’s what it looks like: You’re a newlywed. You’ve been married for almost a year. You went and spent four months alone in a ‘hippy camp’ and you’ve seen your husband for all of a — how long?”
“Like a week. . . ”
“See, I don’t want to be the one that tells you this, but seriously Katie, he’s gone.” He dropped his voice, “and whatever bullshit story he told you about where he is, well that’s on you for believing him.”
“Bullshit.”
“Not from where I’m sitting.” He leaned back, hands out. “Hey, I’m the kind of guy who would do that if I could. You know me, I’m not faulting a man for trying to get a bit on the side. It’s what men do, but I just thought you were smarter.”
Hayley came back from the bathroom and looked at our faces. “Miss anything?”
“James is insinuating that Magnus left me, that all men play around, and that I’m a dumbass for waiting for him.”
“Michael are you going to sit there and let him say shit like that to Katie? You need to step up.”
“What am I going to say? He’s making some good points.”
“He said all men play around, you playing around? You agree with him? Because I’m walking if you don’t distance yourself from this right now.”
Michael said, “Big J is full of shit.”
“Exactly. Magnus just has business. That’s all it is. He’ll be back soon. And James you shut up. You sound like a dick. And a loser. ”
James held up his hand in his I’m-a-dick-but-mostly charming kind of way. “I was just calling it like I see it, no hard feelings, right Katie?”
“No hard feelings. But seriously James, you keep arguing that all men are lying cheaters and you’re going to believe it. And then you’ll become one of those guys who can’t perform because you’re so shallow and empty and small and lonely. I think you should try to be better than that.”
“Ouch.”
“Yep, ouch.”
“Let me buy you a drink, and we’ll talk about something more fun.”
“No hitting on me anymore though, I’m married. My husband carries a sword. Plus, I was going to offer you a job.”
“A job?”
“I need a contractor for some apartments I’m buying.”
Because life had to go on. There was a future to think of. People to care for and worry about, in the here and now.
Also the future.
There was a baby about to be born. A bestie about to be married. Work to be done.
And so that’s what I would do, be Kaitlyn, forward-thinking, future-planner.
And so that’s what I did.
For months.
Chapter 41
The side of the bed shifted slightly. “Huh?” I woke from deep sleep to a full start. “What?” The room was dark, there was someone sitting on the side of the bed their back to me —
Magnus’s voice whispered, “Tis me Kaitlyn.”
His voice rumbled through my heart, vibrating in my nerves.
“Magnus?” I was fuzzy-headed, confused.
His sword slid along the ground under the bed, a familiar sound.
One of his shoes hit the ground.
“You’re home?” My confused, sleep-addled brain couldn’t believe it was true. It was too dark to see him fully.
“Aye. Tis quite painful — Quentin helped me up the boardwalk." He pulled off his other shoe with a groan. He climbed into bed and pulled up tight against me, on my arm, nestling his face into me, his arm across my stomach, a heavy leg on my legs.
I said, “It’s really you?”
“Aye.” His breath was warm on my chest.
“Okay.” I kissed his forehead.
He sat quietly. His breath growing long and deep, and his body growing heavy. Then he asked, “What is that sound?”
“It’s Zach and Emma’s baby,”
His scratchy face rubbed heavy on my shoulder when he said, “Good. I’m home, thank ye, but I have to sleep…”
“Of course.” I pressed my lips to his forehead again and hugged his shoulders. “Good night, Magnus.” His face nestled in deeper to my side and a moment later he was fast asleep.
Chapter 42
I couldn’t help it, when he woke up I was sitting over him breathless with excitement. “Hi.”
“Good mornin’, mo reul-iuil.”
“You’re home. I can’t believe it. You’re really home. I mean, I knew you were trying, but you actually did it.”
“I canna believe it either, though it took enough pain of me. I am verra glad tae be.”
I bounced on the bed. Looking him in the eyes, not wanting the moment, him, waking up, home, finally — to ever end.
“I’m literally so excited I don’t think I slept for the last four hours.”
“What time is it? What day?”
“It’s June 10th.” I glanced over at the clock on the side table. “Six-forty-five.”
“I have the grime of centuries on me, want tae take a shower?”
“God, yes.”
I energetically jumped from the bed and bounded across the room. I looked back and Magnus was smiling. “What are you waiting for?”
“I am nae waiting, I am watching. Your ass in your panties leaping across the room. Tis quite spectacular.”
I grinned. “In one half second it will be — wait, right now.” I dropped my panties to the ground, wiggled my butt cheeks at him, and ran into the bathroom giggling. Magnus, my Magnus, jumped from bed and followed a step behind.
I started the shower while he stripped his clothes to the floor. Steamy hot. I pulled my shirt off over my head, tossed it to the side, and then led him by the hand into our shower. He held his breath, ducked into the water, said, “phwesha!” and shook like a dog, sprinkling water around the stall.
I filled my hand with shampoo, and he dutifully leaned forward. I scrubbed his hair massaging in circles as he groaned.
“When did ye know I was coming home?”
“I had been back for a day. I was sleeping on the couch. Hayley was here, because long story, and I woke up and had a new memory, you, in Los Angeles.”
“It worked then? Did ye keep it that long?”
“Yes it worked. I did. I can’t explain why, but I kept it.”
I took the handle off the shower wall and sprayed his head. Soap bubbles poured down his skin. He asked, “What did ye think of me in Los Angeles?”
“I thought you were hot and mysterious. What did you think of Los Angeles me?”
“I thought ye were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I also thought I might shove a knife point into the man ye were with and save ye the trouble, but I believed ye might nae fall in love with me after.”
“I’m super glad you had second thoughts.”
“Me too, mo reul-iuil.” He tipped up my chin and looked down into my eyes. “You ran because I told ye tae.”
“I did, I ran.”
“Twas the first time I thought we might survive these travails. I have been thinking on this for many a day. If ye trusted me tae do it against your own strong will, I had tae be smart and keep journeying’ tae get home. It made me think afore I shoved knives intae scoundrels.”
I lathered soap all over his shoulders. “So I was like your North Star?”
“Och aye.”
”Turn around.” I lathered his back. The whip marks were healed mostly, becoming stripes of scars. Most of them ugly, a few of them very, very ugly. I kissed one and lathered under his arms and down his waist and around his buttocks.
“I dinna think I could love ye more but when ye hit Lord Delapointe and ran, I was verra proud of ye. It made me know, truly know, that ye were everything tae me. As if I found ye on purpose because we were meant tae be.”
I pushed his shoulder, so he turned to face me. “If you keep talking like that you’ll make me cry, and there has been too much of that. We are having a happy shower. No tears, either happy or sad.”
“Still, I was verra proud, needed tae be said,” He grinned and lathered soap on my breasts.
I moaned. “Good, I’m glad that moment was an epiphany for you, because I don’t know if I could ever do it again. Leaving you took all the strength I have. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
His strong hands pulled me close to his front and then without much ceremony at all he set his stance firm and lifted me from the ground. But I climbed him too, wrapping my legs around his waist. I held onto his steaming wet shoulders. And because it had been too long, too, too long — he was inside me fast, and around me, desperate and fast and with oh so much desperate longing and quick because it needed to happen quickly, at once. Now. Because oh my god, it had been so long. . .
I held on around his shoulders. Slippery shoulders — “don’t drop me” — His breath beside my ear. “I winna let go” — wide and strong and hard and — I pressed my nose to his shoulder and inhaled the scent of him mingled with the water — my back pushed to the glass. His hips slamming against mine. Steam surrounding us. Shampoo scents lingering in the air. My moans against his wet skin.
In the end he slid from inside me as I slid from his hands down his front to my feet. I landed, and wrapped my arms around his chest and tucked my head there. His arms around. He kissed the edge of my hair, inhaled and his arms went tighter. I held on. I pressed against him like my life depended on it. And felt him solid, alive, real.
Steam rose all around us and many long moments passed. I wouldn’t let go. He wouldn’t. It was a promise, and the longer we held the more it meant. Finally another kiss to my forehead and we broke our embrace.
He scrubbed his hands up and down on his face and grinned. “You told me once it was uncomfortable tae do in a shower. I think the end result may be worth the difficulties.”
I lathered up my hair. “True. We could also install a seat that would make it less acrobatic?”
“But then ye winna have tae climb me.”
I raised the shower handle to rinse my hair and grinned. “You liked that, huh?”
“I did.”
“Good, me too.”
He kissed me on the nose. “I am hungry enough tae eat a bear. What magic has Chef Zach whipped up, ye think?”
“Probably pancakes or something. I heard him up early. It must be something special.”
“Tis all special when I am half-starved. He has a bairn?”
“Yes, a boy. He and Emma named him Ben. He’s three weeks old.”
“Tis a full house when a bairn is in residence.”
“Also, my grandma, Barbara—“
“Madame Barb is here?”
“She is, I brought her—“
“Och aye, tis good news. . . ”
I smiled broadly. “There aren’t many men who would be thrilled by the idea of a grandmother moving into their house.”
“Are ye telling me one of your jokes? Madame Barb is wonderful. When I lived there, I understood where ye got your wit. She would banter with a spark in her eye much like your own. Twas hard tae believe I would ever get tae see ye again — you hadna been born yet, but being around Madame Barbara was comfortable, like being home with ye. She is so wise about — you are joking?”
I watched him for a beat, my heart soaring from the sight of him, the sound of his words, the feel of his hands. “You know — yes, she’s here. I applied to get her in an assisted-living home, and she’s moving there on Monday. You can help us move her.”
“It’s close?”
“Just down the street.”
“Good.”
“Her memory is terrible, but she remembers you really well.”
“Like twas yesterday.” He grinned, finished toweling off, and left for the bedroom to put on clothes while I finished my shower. A moment later he stuck his head back into the bathroom. “Tis waffles, mo reul-iuil. Chef Zach has declared them ready.”
* * *
The End of Book Two. . .
Also by Diana Knightley
Leveling: Book One of Luna’s Story
Under: Book Two of Luna’s Story
Deep: Book Three of Luna’s Story
This is a work of fiction. Although its form is first person, and the author grew up on Amelia Island, it is not a True Thing That Happened. Space and time have been rearranged. And though the places might seem familiar, as far as the author knows a time traveler has never stepped foot on the Island. We can all dream though.
With the exception of public figures, Queen Elizabeth I, for instance, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. There are a lot of characters living in Fernandina Beach, none of them have been portrayed in this book. If similarities occur it is in no way intended. The opinions expressed are those of the characters and should not be confused with the author’s.
Some thoughts and research…
Some Scottish and Gaelic words that appear within the books:
Turadh - a break in the clouds between showers
Solasta - luminous shining (possible nickname)
Splang - flash, spark, sparkle
Dreich - dull and miserable weather
Mo reul-iuil - my North Star (nickname)
Bidh thu a ‘faileadh mar ghaisgeach - you have the scent of a breeze.
Osna - a sigh
Rionnag - star
Sollier - bright
Ghrian - the sun
Mo ghradh - my own love
Tha thu breagha - you are beautiful
Mo chroi - my heart
Corrachag-cagail - dancing and flickering ember flames
Mo reul-iuil, is ann leatsa abhios mo chridhe gubrath - My North Star, my heart belongs to you forever
Dinna ken - didn’t know
* * *
Characters:
Kaitlyn Maude Sheffield
Magnus Archibald Caelhin Campbell
Lady Mairead (Campbell) Delapointe
John Sheffield (Kaitlyn’s father)
Paige Sheffield (Kaitlyn’s Mother)
James Cook
Quentin Peters
Zach Greene
Emma Garcia
Michael Greene
Hayley Sherman
The Earl of Breadalbane
/> Uncle Archibald (Baldie) Campbell
* * *
Locations:
Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida, 2017
Magnus’s castle - Balloch. Built in 1552. In early 1800s it was rebuilt as Taymouth Castle. Situated on the south bank of the River Tay, in the heart of the Grampian Mountains
* * *
*At one point Magnus spoke with thous and thees and thy and thine and it was lovely but a lot confusing. In the 1700s those began to go out of fashion, so Magnus is forward thinking that he uses you and your.
Acknowledgments
My Facebook page was kicking it for a while there. My friends and family weighed in on many questions I had about how Magnus would find the new New World. The conversation continued over in the FB group, Kaitlyn and the Highlander. My readers there answered even more questions for me, like “Were kilts too cold for a Scottish winter?”
Thank you to Anne Leyden for mentioning that Magnus would be impressed by bandaids (These play a big role in book 2, helping Kaitlyn escape Delapointe.)
Thank you to Jessica Fox for reading and advising. You also asked what Zach was cooking for breakfast when Magnus returned and so I added the line: A moment later he stuck his head back into the bathroom. “Tis waffles, mo reul-iuil. Chef Zach has declared them ready.”
To Heather Hawkes for reading and texting and yelling and feeling and expressing about all that Kaitlyn goes through in the 18th century. You felt it deeply and I knew then you loved the characters and I appreciate that just so so so much.
Thank you to Kevin Dowdee for being my support, my guidance, and my inspiration for these stories. I appreciate you so much. And thank you for revisiting Scotland with me on our honeymoon. That was awesome.
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