Archie patting me on my leg. “Kay-be, Da! Mackychee ready.”
I blearily woke up to see Magnus yawning and stretching. “We just took a nap, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take a nap before.”
“Tis necessary tae go quiet when ye hae a bairn in the house.” He grinned. “But ye hae tae wake for the meals.”
“Let’s eat a massive amount of mac and cheese and then go for a walk on the beach.”
Emma taught me how to wrap the baby in a sling and fasten it around my shoulders. It was complicated, and she promised me that she would do it every time. We took Mookie with us, plus Archie and Ben, and strolled down the long walkway to the sand. We had to wear shoes because of the debris on the beach and we had to tell Ben and Archie not to run too far. But the air was so fresh, and there was a cool breeze, and I totally understood that they wanted to run.
Our baby was just a day old.
Emma told me not to walk too far.
I didn’t intend to, but I wanted to get in the fresh air, a little warm sun on my skin. “Beautiful!” I declared, “You’d never know it was the day after a hurricane.” My feet crunched across the shells to the edge of the water line. Magnus followed me while the boys ran to and fro. He stood still, looking out at the distance, watching the horizon.
“What are you looking at?”
“I am watchin’ over Scotland, wishin’ I could be there tae help.”
“Ah.” I tightened my arm around the baby, secure in her wrap.
I looked down, and immediately noticed a shark tooth, a big one, a couple of inches long and wide, a big fierce looking triangle, I crouched and scooped it up, heavy in the palm of my hand. “Check this out!” I tossed it to Magnus end over end through the air.
He caught it and stared down at it. “Och, tis a harbinger.” He turned it in his hand.
I said, “It’s protection, right? To keep us safe?”
“Nae, tis a harbinger of what is comin’, we hae had the storm, the sky opening up and pourin’ down, the winds have taken our shelter, our bairn was born in the middle of it. We hae barely escaped, and there is an army at our family’s walls. Findin’ this is a warnin’ of what is comin’.”
“Oh, now I wish I hadn’t seen it.”
“We can close our eyes but it daena change what is happenin’, mo reul-iuil. Ye ken tis true.”
“I do. But I also know you are a king. You have an army. You’ll figure this out. You’ll make sure that your family is safe.” I ducked under his arm and pressed against his chest. “You just have to do this first.”
“I daena hae tae, I want tae. Ye are first in everythin’.”
“Thank you.” I kissed his neck, just between his jawline and the spot where his heartbeat steadily thrummed. I breathed in a long sigh and then pulled away to hunt for shells. Today I hunted for spiraling conch shells, broken, with their inner twists exposed, shiny and glimmering, the protection taken away, leaving their inside forms exposed and vulnerable — bright shining pinks and blues and purples and shimmering silvers. I rubbed my thumb over their shine and felt their smoothness and enjoyed the color and shimmer in the sunlight and if it was beautiful I dropped it into my pocket and looked for another. Eventually I had a dozen gorgeous broken shells and it was time for us all to walk back up the planks to our home.
But I stopped just before we got to the house and placed the twelve shells in a long row down the rail of our deck. From smallest to biggest, an order that made sense. A trail of broken pieces that I had declared beautiful and meant to keep forever, here, on the outer rim of our protective railing of our sort of broken home.
The metaphor seemed apt.
And the act of placing them around the railing seemed protective of the humans inside: the beautiful inners that might need protection from what might come. Because I had never felt safer and danger seemed farther away than ever. And I knew that as a mother with a newborn I would deserve and receive all the protection the hero in my life would be able to manage, so I didn’t need to worry.
But still I did.
And when I looked at Magnus’s eyes — he was worried too.
Forty - Hayley
Another storm.
This time, collapsed under it, were James and Beaty. Fraoch and I shoved our shoulders under their sleeping forms, hefted them up, and dragged them from the open space near the yew tree where they landed.
They were moving and more animated by the time we got to the trees. I whispered, “Stand up, we have to run!”
Beaty was more awake, “Madame Hayley?”
James said, “What — who’s this?” Bleary eyed, his face a few inches from Fraoch’s.
Fraoch said, “We daena hae time tae introduce, we need tae run.”
James got balanced on his feet. I was already moving, racing, with Beaty right behind me, James behind her, and Fraoch bringing up the rear. He carried James’s bags slung over his shoulder, his thick legs pounding the ground, his breath in bursts. I could hear him behind me so I knew he was safe.
We made it down the path, through the woods to a small, abandoned croft where we had been living while we waited for Quentin to return. It was a tiny stone hut with a thatched roof, just like Fraoch’s man hut, but this one was in an overgrown garden.
Beaty tried to catch her breath after our run. “Och, tis Auld Lady Jennet’s croft.”
“Oh?” I asked, hands on my hips, trying to get on top of my breaths too. “What happened to her?”
“I imagine she is long passed, she was verra auld when I kent of her, at least three score.”
“Ugh, I hate it when you eighteenth century peeps tell me how you define old age. James, why the hell are you here?”
“To tell Quentin not to return to Florida, there’s a hurricane.”
“Great, he’s already gone.”
We all sat very quietly.
Beaty asked, “Tis a verra bad thing?”
James and I nodded.
James asked, “Who’s this guy?”
“This is Fraoch, my husband.”
James did his classic move: straightened his back, looked down his nose, and held out a hand. “Ah! You married our Hayley, huh? Gotta hand it to you, men have failed to tame her before.”
Fraoch’s eyes glinted. “Och, there is too much of a fire in her soul tae be tamed.” He smiled broadly. “I appreciate the wild side of her.”
James’s brow raised. He gave me a look that meant your new husband is missing a tooth.
Fraoch saw the look and his smile faded, his brow drew down. I put my hand on his back and gave him a quick half-hug. I asked him, “You know Beaty? This is Quentin’s wife.”
Fraoch asked, “Ye sound Scottish, are ye a Campbell?”
“M’father is Auld Jimmy Campbell, we hae a farm nearby but I haena been home in a verra long time.”
“Where hae ye been?”
“The future, tis a wondrous place.”
Fraoch’s brow drew down even more.
I said, “We were expecting Quentin to return, but it’s been a few days. We were worried.”
“He was supposed to wait for a week before leaving.”
Fraoch said, “We dinna have that long tae wait. Quentin left for guns, we hae an army at the walls of the castle, women and children inside. We had tae send him.”
Beaty said, “How is the castle farin’?”
I said, “Not well, we can’t get back there now, we have been waiting for Quentin, trying to stay close enough to the churchyard, watching for the storms, but also hiding from the men who are surrounding the castle.”
“They are everywhere now,” added Fraoch. “I canna ken their meanin’ but it seems tae be tae capture the castle and tae conquer the Campbells.”
Beaty said, “We should return tae Amelia Island then?”
James said, “I do not want to do that again, not for a long long time.”
I said, “You shouldn’t anyway, you guys are jumping back and forth, you’re liable to cr
oss over each other and screw up the whole timeline. Quentin will probably arrive later today or tomorrow morning.” I slumped down on the floor. “We are safe here for a time, did you bring any food? Specifically, good food?”
Fraoch kept watch at the edge of the land.
James and I sat together in the doorway. He joked, “So far I’ve only seen a dirt floor, where’s the castle?”
I said, “A few miles that way but you don’t want to go there, it’s surrounded by men, it’s actually really scary.”
James opened a bag of beef jerky and ate a hunk. “I don’t know what Magnus is talking about, the food back here isn’t that bad.”
I groaned, “Just wait for blood sausage. Though the salmon is awesome, I brought spices to make it even better.”
Then I remembered to give him a break, this was all new. “It was really brave of you to come, thanks James.”
“No worries, I like being a hero. So you really like this guy? What am I going to tell Michael?”
“You don’t have to tell him anything, he knows, I talked to him about it.”
“He never mentioned it to me.”
“Do you guys talk about big deep things?”
“Nah.”
I nodded. “He might need someone to talk about it with. He might not. I think he knows we were a mistake towards the end.” I sighed. “Now that I love someone and really wanted to marry him, I kinda see that what I had with Michael was just comfortable and easy and I don’t think we liked each other that much, not really. We were just together because we always had been.” I shrugged. “Fraoch and I — he loves me. He loves me so much. I can feel the weight of how much he loves me. He carries it, and it’s heavy, and it’s real, and that’s why I came this far to marry him, because someone who loves me that much — that’s worth blood sausage.”
James laughed. “Jesus Christ, Hayley, you sound all poetic and shit. You don’t sound like yourself.”
I grinned. “You know what? I found someone that I wanted to spend my life with. I get it now. The whole point of it. Waking up everyday with your life tied to someone—”
Through the window of the hovel, across the small overgrown and dying fields, the tree line and above it a storm, second one of the day.
Fraoch said, “Hayley!”
“Coming!” To James I said, “Stay here, keep Beaty safe. I’m going to go get Quentin.”
“Shouldn’t I go?”
“I know the land, the woods, the paths — nope, stay here, stand guard, back within the hour.”
I followed my husband down the path at a quick run, returning to the churchyard. Along the way Fraoch asked, “Tis the man, James, that bedded Og Maggy’s wife? I am tae protect him as well?”
“Yep, like an arrogant, irritating brother-in-law, he’s part of Og Maggy’s family just like all the rest of us.”
Forty-one - Hayley
“Quentin!”
He was laying beside two military-style, quad-bike ATVs. I had seen them in Katie’s storage unit, and knew they were from the future. They were loaded with armor and guns. Quentin had outfitted them with trailers, and the trailers were piled high with gear. He groaned and got up, much quicker than after other jumps. He rubbed his head, “The go-go potion is working at least, not half as painful as it—”
“Good, because we have to go.” I jumped on the seat of an ATV. “Fraoch, ride with me.”
“On what, this contraption?”
“Yes,” I turned on the ignition. “Get on.”
“Nae, I winna.”
Quentin jumped on the other ATV and started it. “Get on, Fraoch. We’ll be there in no time. It’s not scary.”
“Nae, I am nae scared, I am nae scared of anythin’.”
I said, “Then get on.”
“Nae, because there is a devil inside of it. I can run faster than the magical horse!”
He sprinted away.
I sped up and pulled beside him. “Fraoch, this is not a time to be set in your ways. Listen to me, it’s me, Hayley, you need to get on this ATV.” The storm was dissipating, men wouldn’t be far behind the wall of clouds. There had been so many jumps in and out of the area, they were circling it, trying to understand what was happening.
“I winna.”
“Fine! Fine fine fine, fucking fine. I’ll see you at the croft.” I sped my ATV away and Quentin pulled in behind me and I rode for a moment and then slowed. I looked back over my shoulder at Fraoch running. Was there ever anything more infuriating than him running instead of doing the easier, safer, more civilized thing, the thing that I told him to do? And I couldn’t tell Quentin to go ahead — he didn’t know where our hideout was.
I circled and pulled up beside Fraoch, riding slowly beside him.
He was panting as he ran. I didn’t look at him, I just rode looking straight ahead refusing to look at him. He had his jaw set, refusing to look at me.
I could hear the sound of horses galloping through the woods. I didn’t know how far behind they were. I looked back over my shoulder — oh no.
They were so close. Quentin was driving with one hand, the other hand holding a gun, looking back over his shoulder. Horses cleared the trees behind us.
Quentin said, “Fraoch, I’m going to have to start shooting and then Hayley will be in a firefight if you don’t get on one of these ATVs right now!” He fired back toward the chasing men.
Fraoch growled and slowed. I stopped the ATV. “Put your leg over the seat. Hold onto me.” He got on the seat and wrapped an arm around me. “Just hold on, okay my love, hold on.” I started the ATV and raced through the woods, fast.
We looped around until I asked, “Have we lost them?”
Fraoch watched behind us. “Aye, we can go tae the croft now.”
I drove through the woods in that direction, really proud of myself for knowing my way around. I pulled up onto the small gardens of the croft, pulled the ATV around to the back of the building so they would be hidden and climbed off the ATV. Fraoch stood there quietly watching it.
I said, “I’m sorry I yelled at you, I just needed you to—”
“I ken Hayley, will ye explain tae Quentin what we are guardin’ against? I need tae pray.”
“I could pray with you?”
“Nae, I need a moment alone.”
I walked into the hovel. Quentin was embracing Beaty while James kept watch at the window. Quentin said, “What were you thinking, Beaty? I was so scared about you.”
She smiled up at him, sweet dimples in her cheeks, “I was scared you would die in the hurricane, Quenny. I came to tell you — was it terrible?”
“It was awful.” He brushed the hair from her forehead, “But I lived through it. Your hair isn’t blue.”
“Do you like it?”
“I like it any color — Mookie misses you.”
“Is he well? I miss him so much.”
“Aye, he is well. Did you miss me too?”
“So much, so verra much Quenny.”
I grew embarrassed to be overhearing them so I went out to speak to James. “So now we’re all here.”
He said, “Yep, apparently we’re going to make a last stand at a castle in the eighteenth century.”
“Ugh, we be crazy.”
He grinned, “Nah, I meant that like it was a good thing.”
“Quentin brought more weapons, we’ll make a plan next.”
“Where’s Fraoch?”
“Praying, he did not like the vehicles.”
“Wow, that’s a lot to deal with in a relationship, huh? Most I’ve had to deal with was manicure bills—”
“What are you talking about, James? That last girl was totally racist.”
“Who, Lee Anne?”
“Yeah, of course Lee Anne, she was racist as hell and I can’t believe you put up with it. Quentin is your best friend.”
“That’s why she’s the last girl. I’m not a total idiot. Just kind of lonely. It’s not easy to find someone when you had the perfect s
omeone already.”
I scoffed, “Who, Katie? Trouble was she wasn’t perfect for you and you weren’t perfect for her. Get over yourself, she’s about to have a baby.” Then I said, “But maybe we’ll introduce you to a nice girl here.”
Fraoch returned. “May I speak tae ye, Hayley?”
“Of course.” I followed him to the side yard.
He stood looking as if he wanted to speak but unable to speak, looking down in my eyes. “Hayley...” He shook his head. “Will ye forgive me for nae bein’ the man ye need me tae be?”
I said, “Fraoch, whatever do you mean?”
“I hae asked God for help in this. I daena understand what...” His face screwed up in a scowl, not of anger but of pain.
“You are my man, I love you so much.”
“I am afraid of the machines, I daena ken what—”
“I don’t fault you for not knowing about the machines and being nervous about them. I don’t fault you at all —well a little bit. I mean for not listening to me. When I told you to get on to the ATV you needed to listen to me. We could have been killed.”
“I daena ken tae protect ye.”
“Yes, you do. You know how to protect me, here in the eighteenth century. And when you tell me to step behind you, what do I do?”
“Sometimes ye argue with me, but most of the times ye tell me ye will do it though I am bossin’ ye and tis nae good tae be bossin’ ye.”
I chuckled. “That does sound like me, very good point.” I sighed. “My point is sometimes you have to boss me to keep me safe, I get that. Sometimes, I need to boss you to get on the damn machine and you just have to trust me.”
“I daena like ye tae see me afraid.”
“I know, but everyone gets scared. War is hell, you know? Wait, let’s go talk to Quentin about it...”
His brow drew down.
“Look, I know it’s uncomfortable, but Quentin fought in Afghanistan, a big war. I’ve heard him talk about it before and I think you should listen to him.”
He allowed me to lead him to the hovel where Quentin, with his arm around Beaty, was sitting beside James in the doorway.
Our Shared Horizon (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 10) Page 19