Son and Throne (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 11)

by Diana Knightley

  “That means he’s dangerous, he’s—”

  “Nae, he stopped himself, it means he is stronger than most. If our places had been changed I would hae killed him.”

  “Really?”

  “Och aye, tae hae killed that many men and tae stop afore killin’ the last? Tae stop afore killin’ the one who was hired tae murder ye, a brother who has conspired for the throne? If ye canna forgive him, at least understand him.”

  “Yeah, okay. He did go after Katie.”

  “Aye, he would do anythin’ for her, ye hae tae respect that.”

  “I do, but I’m surprised, I totally thought you would want to beat his ass.”

  “Och, I am goin’ tae give him a thrashin’, ye better believe it. He will need tae beg me for mercy, but he kens it. He will submit.”

  I sighed, “Men are weird.” Then I asked, “Did you conspire against him?”

  “Aye, I was hired tae kill him. I soon changed m’mind. I kent that the man who hired me was nae the side I wanted tae be on. I hae been a friend tae Og Maggy since.”

  “Good, don’t keep stuff like that from me. That is a sin. Don’t do it.” I sighed again. “But what now?”

  “Now we hae tae make sure Lady Mairead rescues them so I daena hae tae become king. I canna imagine a worse thing.”

  “Yeah, me neither. I’ve seen what being a king is like, that shit sucks. He’s always got someone trying to kill him.”

  “Exactly, m’bhean ghlan, when a man is goin’ through it ye hae tae hope ye daena get in the way.”

  I nodded. “Okay, this one time, I will forgive him. He did seem really freaked out. But also, I’ll add this, I will forgive him more if he brings her home.”

  “Twill depend on Lady Mairead then, ye need tae speak tae her on her plans.”

  “Then that’s what I’ll do.” I found a clean spot on the side of his cheek and kissed him there. “And you know what is cool? We are Auntie Hayley and Uncle Fraoch now. Me and you.”

  “Aye, I hae come upon a family I dinna ken I had.”

  Sixty - Hayley

  I passed Quentin and James on my way to the castle.

  Quentin asked, “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to talk to Lady Mairead. I’m going to offer her help if she needs it, find out her plan.”

  He said, “I don’t know, that sounds like trouble... Maybe I should do it. I think she likes me.”

  “How can that be trouble? I’m just going to talk to her. It’s fine, woman to woman. I got this. Think of all the step-mother wannabes I’ve dealt with. I know how.”

  They followed me to the castle and offered to lurk nearby, as he put it, in case it got dangerous. “Whatever,” I said, but then agreed.

  I found Lady Mairead in the hallway. She looked her usual formidable self, giving me second thoughts about approaching her. I started to cross my arms, but then put them at my sides awkwardly. “May I speak to you, Lady Mairead?”

  She said, “I am about tae leave but I can spare a few moments.”

  “Oh good, I’m glad to talk before you go... wait, where are you going?”

  “Tis none of your business.”

  “Oh.” I followed her into a room and watched with trepidation as she closed the door behind us. I did not like having the exit blocked by a large wooden door with an iron lock. Note to self, leave first.

  “I guess ‘what is my business’ is how are you planning to get Magnus and Katie back?”

  “I daena ken exactly, I will need tae find the answer tae it...” Her eyes went far away.

  “But you do think the answer can be found?”

  “Well, if I canna find the answer, Fraoch MacDonald will be king, dost that sound like something I will accept?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “Then ye ken I will be trying tae stop it from happening. Until yesterday, I couldna think of a worse queen than Kaitlyn, but now I have ye before me and...” She shook her head and looked down her nose imperiously. “Why are ye inserting yourself in my presence?”

  “Because I want to make sure you’re going to rescue them. As you know I run a thriving business, I have connections and skills. I want to offer my assistance.”

  “If I need the assistance of a modern woman who is living out a fantasy with a man of little means in the eighteenth century, I ken where tae find ye.”

  Before I could think about the wisdom of the situation, I said, “You forget he is in line for the throne.”

  A slithery smile spread across her face. “Och, I remember. The poor man, who could be a king. He has a chance at a throne, at power... explain to me why I should allow him to keep on living?”

  I gulped. “Because he doesn’t want the throne and you know if something happens to him Magnus will kill you. Or I will. Or Quentin.”

  She shook her head sadly. “Ye are in verra far too deep, Madame Hayley. While my family is in crisis, ye come tae me with threats and asking my favor. Meddling in a family matter. I daena care a whit about your husband or his lineage. Magnus decided tae include him in the discussion and I am going tae allow him tae live as I daena want to lose the good favor of my son, my king. In so doing, I will expect that ye will walk from this room and daena address me again.”

  “But...”

  She cocked her head. “Aye?”

  “Um, I just want an assurance that you will rescue Katie, and that if you can’t maybe I can...”

  “You can what?”

  “Help.”

  “I assure ye, I hae this under control.” Her smile widened. “But what if I dinna? What if I decided nae tae rescue them? What then, Madame Hayley?”

  “I don’t know, ultimatum or something? We need to find them, we need to figure out how to get them, and we need to go fast so nothing terrible happens.”

  “Ye want me tae go fast, so for instance, if I left them for a few days ye would find fault with me?”

  “Yes, I mean, no, I mean, please don’t. If you can get them go get them and—”

  “So leavin’ them tae consider their fate for a month would be too long? Ye would want me tae spare them the danger of it?”

  “Yes, please don’t... I...”

  “I suppose three months would be too long for them, tis winter, I canna be sure they will survive.”

  “What do you want me to do, please don’t leave them for three months...”

  “I want ye tae get down on your knees Madame Hayley and do some proper begging for my good favor, because every minute ye remain on your feet in my presence makes me less inclined.”

  I looked at her shocked.

  “Six months seems verra long tae live in the past, but I imagine...”

  I climbed down to my knees clasped my hands and said, “Please Lady Mairead, please don’t leave them there–“

  “All right, Madame Hayley, ye seem properly deferential, a year tis. I much prefer tae go in the fall, before winter sets in, the cold weather is hard on my skin.”

  “But you can’t be serious — you can’t do that to them! You can’t be that...”

  “I canna? My son has given me an ultimatum, one year or your husband is king. You would like tae add tae it? Dost ye think I am tae be threatened?”

  “No, actually not.”

  “You see that coming tae me with all of this, might have been a mistake?”

  “I do, I see that now. I apologize, Lady Mairead.”

  “Your apology is accepted.” She swept from the room.

  I stood up and brushed my skirts as Quentin and James entered.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all. That went awesome.” I furiously huffed. “I’m pretty sure I just sentenced Mags and Katie to a year of hard time in the dark ages.”

  Quentin said, “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know what just happened! I was talking to her and she kept adding months to how long it would take her to get them and by the time I realized the only way to get her to stop was to get on
my knees and beg her she said she would get them in a year.”

  “Fuck, Hayley.”

  “I know! I don’t know what just happened.”

  James said, “I mean, she’s probably just screwing with you, that’s not plausible, that she’d let her son stay there for months on end, she’s just trying to freak you out. Want me to talk to her?”

  I said, “God no. Just... we need to just leave her alone, she’s going to go get them, Yeah, she just needs to decide to do it.”

  Sixty-one - Hayley

  This is what I was going to do: Return to Florida with Quentin. Make sure Katie was there, back, home, settled. Then return here to Fraoch. Hammond and his physician were here to make sure he was recuperating well and James wanted to stay because Sean had a hunting party to go on, a big one. James had been invited and he was really excited.

  So, on the third night we gathered at dinner to discuss our plans.

  Fraoch was up sitting in a chair while I made sure dinner was brought to him. “I want tae go huntin’.”

  I deposited the plate in front of him. “You don’t get to. You have to mend your broken bones, and guess what? They don’t mend that well because why...?”

  “The vile scurvy.”

  “Exactly, so you don’t get to horseback ride gallivanting around the countryside chasing meat. You have lie here and heal yourself.”

  He scowled. “I like gallivantin’. I daena like the vitamins and medicines and the physician bossin’ me.”

  “But you have to anyway, for me.”

  Quentin and James sat down with their own plates. James said, “Going on a hunt tomorrow morning, bright and early. Can you imagine how cool it’s going to be?”

  I said, “Careful, James, Fraoch is depressed he can’t go with.”

  “Sorry, man, that does suck, you’ll be missed. Got any advice?”

  “Daena stand in front of Dubghall, he canna shoot straight.”

  James laughed.

  Quentin said, “James, here’s the truth, I’ve done it many times, have fun, but don’t let your guard down. Don’t trust anyone else, ever. Hide your valuables. Don’t be the drunkest guy at the party. And last but not least, keep Sean on your good side. He’ll take care of you if he likes you. If you do piss off Sean try to remember how to get back here.”

  Quentin took a big bite of food. “The vessel will be here in Lizbeth’s secret room. Just ask her. But Hayley and I are only going to be gone for a few days.”

  James said, “Tell Katie and Mags I said Hi. I’ll transport some deer home when I’m back.”

  Quentin said, “Shit man, they don’t need the deer, keep the deer here, this food fucking sucks.”

  I looked at Fraoch. “Sorry I’m leaving, I just need to see that they’re home.”

  “I ken. I’ll be here when ye get back.”

  Quentin and I landed on the south end of the island a few days after he and James had left, breaking all of Magnus’s rules of the ‘one week turn-around’.

  Zach met us and seemed disappointed, crouched beside us in the sand, shaking his head. “So where’s Magnus and Katie?”

  I opened my bleary eyes and said, “They aren’t here?”

  “No, it’s been days.”

  “Shit,” Quentin and I said in unison.

  Sixty-two - Hayley

  Everyone was home, Emma was in the driveway holding Isla when we drove up. “What’s happening, where’s Katie?”

  Archie ran down the steps to the driveway, “Da! Kay-be!”

  My heart broke for him.

  Zach said, “They aren’t here yet, little guy. They’re coming as soon as they can.”

  Archie held onto Emma’s leg burying his face in her shorts. She said, “Shit.”

  I said, “Exactly.”

  We walked dejectedly into the house.

  Quentin and I slumped onto the chairs around the dining room table. Emma got a bottle from the kitchen for Isla and stood feeding her.

  Zach said, “I don’t understand, where the fuck are they?”

  I said, “I don’t know. If they could get to a vessel, if they were able to live until 1557, they would be here by now.”

  Quentin shook his head sadly. “They don’t have a vessel, they can’t get back.”

  Zach said, “So that’s it? Fucking—” He whispered, “Orphaned? Is that what we’re talking about?”

  Quentin and I shook our heads. Quentin said, “I don’t know man, Lady Mairead is going to go get them. If she can figure out how...”

  I said, “Oh she knows how, she fucking knows how, that bitch is just not doing it.”

  Beaty was holding Mookie in her lap sitting beside Quentin holding his hand. “What dost ye mean?”

  “I talked to her about it, she made it sound like she could get them whenever she wanted to and the more I talked about it the longer she would wait.”

  Zach said, “How do we get in touch with Lady Mairead?”

  Emma said, “We have the painting.”

  “I said, “Just be careful, you don’t want to piss her off, she was really scary.”

  Quentin said, “Plus she is going to do it. Magnus gave her an incentive — if she doesn’t then Fraoch will be king. She absolutely does not want that to happen, so she’ll do it. Let her get it done.”

  Zach said, “Wait, Fraoch will be king?”

  I said, “Apparently Fraoch is Magnus’s brother. Before you ask anymore questions, that’s most of what I know. The way they met was that Roderick paid Fraoch to murder Magnus, but Fraoch didn’t do it. He’s not a monster. He just needed money and food. He changed his mind. But now my husband is a competitor for Magnus’s throne in a kingdom that I can’t even place on a map.”

  Zach said, “Okay, that shit is crazy, and where is James?”

  “Hunting with the Campbells. He loves it so much he might never come home.”

  “That’s crazy too.” Zach added, “So what if, let’s just say, Lady Mairead doesn’t do anything helpful. What if she decides to be a mean bitch and not get them?”

  Quentin said, “They would have to wait for the vessels to arrive. November 1, 1557.”

  “How long, like days, months, years? That’s fucking insane.”

  Emma asked, “How would they survive it?”

  I said, “I don’t know, plus they would have to be in that crazy mosh pit of the vessel origin. November 1, 1557 in the clearing outside of Balloch — a massacre, a battle, and we were there: me, Quentin, Beaty, Katie. It would make everything screwy if Magnus and Katie showed up. What if they took the vessel that me and Katie needed to get? Like there are so many players there’s a big chance of somebody screwing something up. Like, if it comes to that, this might all be over.”

  Quentin said, “The only good thing is Lady Mairead is smart, she knows that moment is too important. She won’t let it come to that.”

  Zach said, “Plus she really likes Magnus, I just can’t believe she would leave him to die. I think they were on the same side, working together in the end. I can’t believe it.”

  Quentin said, “I agree, I think she’s just not sure how to do it. We just need to let her figure it out and Katie and Magnus will be home any day now.”

  Isla burst into tears. Beaty carried her to the other room.

  Emma dropped her head to the table. “The baby is crying, Archie is so upset. I’m exhausted.”

  Zach put his hand on her shoulder.

  I said, “Thank you though, it means a lot that Katie has you to take care of Isla and Archie. Wherever she is I know she’s at least got that comfort. It’s probably helping to keep her sane.”

  Emma nodded, a tear in her eye. “Thank you, Hayley.”

  Isla’s cries grew louder and more desperate.

  Zach said, “And then there’s Emma’s positive pregnancy test.”

  Quentin said, “Really? That’s awesome! Congratulations guys!”

  I said, “Sorry about that, that sucks.”

  Emma said, �
�It’s good news, Hayley, we want another baby.”

  “Jesus Christ, why? I mean, what the hell...?”

  Quentin said, “What I think Hayley means to say is congratulations, you guys, that’s awesome. Right Hayley?”

  I sighed, dramatically. “Fine, I think it’s terrible timing but also you didn’t ask me, apparently. So fine, I guess if my best friend is going to be lost in time, I might as well get more nieces and nephews, that fucking seems fair.”

  I got up from the table and stormed to my room.

  I turned around and came to the top of the stairs and called down, having to be louder than Isla to be heard. “Beaty! Has that pig been sleeping in my room?”

  Sixty-three - Hayley

  The tantrums over, Isla’s and mine, I returned downstairs. Zach was cooking, Beaty and Quentin were sitting at the kitchen island, Emma was helping Zach. I stood with my hands on the back of a bar chair and said, “I’m sorry. I want to apologize to you all for that outburst. It was rude and unkind and I can’t promise it will be the last but I will do my best. I just really miss her. I’m worried about Fraoch, he’s badly injured, and I’m freaking out.”

  Zach said, “Apology accepted.”

  Emma said, “I totally understand, but please remember, as much as you miss her, there is a baby and a little boy here who have been all but orphaned, we need to focus on them.”

  “You’re saying there’s no time for my drama?”

  “Nicer, I’m saying when you feel drama coming on, maybe go cuddle a baby or a toddler. Maybe if you’re comforting them you wouldn’t be such a bitch.”

  “Damn, girlfriend. That is rough.”

  “Yeah, well I’ve got morning sickness, a baby to deal with, a household to run, as well as a business. We all had to deal with a security guard who got his car stolen and woke up with a concussion in the woods, and my friends are lost too. So we all have stuff going on.”