Magnus and a Love Beyond Words Read online

  Her lips brushed along my brow. “I’m so sorry about your Uncle Baldie.”

  Baldie’s face came tae my memory. He was leadin’ us from Balloch tae Kilchurn, followin’ the trail, tellin’ the men in the group about the improvements he had made on the castle, excited tae shew us. I had been eight, and was ridin’ on my own, but I was listenin’ tae him speak about the walls and the furniture and I kent he was the kind of man I would aspire tae be, generous. The men admired him. He liked tae share and wanted tae be surrounded by a big family.

  I said, “As ye ken, it never mattered that we dinna share blood, he was always there for me ever since I was a wee bairn, a better father than the one God gave tae me. I will miss him verra much.”

  “He was a good man. I liked him a lot. If you ever need to talk about him just do.”

  I nodded findin’ it difficult tae speak on him anymore.

  She asked, “The things the man at Balloch said really scared you?”

  “Aye. He kens a great deal about all of us, we arna safe.”

  “But what if we do everything differently? New house. No social media. Different stores. We could jump to different places and then travel over roads like normal people. Like we’re doing here — coming to Savannah instead of Florida. New habits, new routines. Maybe we’ll be safe then?”

  I considered it, but I dinna think twould change the course of it. General Reyes kent too much of us. Tae me the battle had just started, but tae him twas almost won. “Maybe. I daena ken.”

  Her wool bodice was warm under my arm. Her chest rose with a deep breath, an exhale against my skin. I pulled her closer and held her tight. I dinna ken how many more times like this we would have.

  She wrapped a leg around my waist. I shoved aside her skirts tae uncover her.

  She laughed at my struggle. “Are my 18th century skirts in your way?”

  I joked, “Aye, my century is often an impediment tae my happiness.”

  “I’m your happiness?”

  I chuckled. “You ken it, I daena need tae say it again.”

  She sighed. “Speaking of happiness, I wanted to be home in time to show you Christmas.”

  I pulled her thigh higher on my waist and kissed the rise of her breast.

  She asked, “If I had managed it, and we had been home for the holiday, what would you have given me as a gift?”

  I nestled m’ear tae her breasts. I was beginnin’ tae think I would like tae bed her now, but she seemed tae want tae converse instead. I felt along the skin of her thigh and around the curves of her buttocks.

  She pressed her lips to my forehead. She was waitin’ for an answer and I had nothin’ I wanted tae give her more than everything she wanted. I had been thinkin’ on it as we gained Beaty in our group and worried over Archie and Zach’s family. I felt a great deal of regret that I hadna given her a bairn. I was protectin’ everyone else tae have their own families, but nae protectin’ Kaitlyn, not enough, though I had promised.

  I said, “I have somethin’ tae talk tae ye of, but I daena want ye tae feel sad.”

  She breathed in deep and froze. “Oh?”

  I reached for her hand tae hold it still and raised tae look intae her eyes. They were full of fear and worry. “I have verra many people tae protect.”

  She nodded. “It’s true, some might say you have too many.”

  “Och aye, too many, but I will do it gladly, Kaitlyn. I mean tae keep everyone safe and protected, but tis only you I…”

  Her eyes glistened. “So are you saying I’m your focus? That doesn’t make me sad...”

  I clasped her hand tighter. “But all the others... Tis like worryin’ on them... they are distractin’ me from what is important. You and our...”

  I didn’t know how tae say it without upsettin’ her.

  “Our what?”

  I tucked my head tae her chest. “Lizbeth has been speakin’ tae me on it. She told me ye have a sadness inside of ye and ye canna talk of it, ye winna try, but ye want a bairn, Kaitlyn.”

  Her voice caught. “I do, but it’s not the right time. It’s...”

  “I daena ken if we will ever have a better time, mo reul-iuil. How can I continue to protect all these people when they are havin’ their own families?”

  Her chin was tremblin’. “They’re our family. Archie is your family. Ben is like a nephew.”

  “Aye, tis true, and I dinna want tae cause ye distress or sadness... ye are cryin’ and—”

  She sniffled. “It’s okay, I’m a big girl.”

  I kissed her cleavage just above her bodice. “I daena want tae sound like I daena love our big family. I will always protect them with everythin’ I have. And I ken ye will protect them, and love them, but you deserve tae have the bairn ye have been wantin’. So I will protect ye, Kaitlyn. And I will protect our bairn. I can. I daena want tae keep waiting for a better time, tis time now.”

  I rubbed the tears off her cheek. “Tis what I would give you.” Her eyes were so full of sadness. “Would ye like a bairn, Kaitlyn?”

  “Yes.” Her leg wrapped tighter around my waist. “I really would.”

  “Good.”

  She rolled out from under me, and crawled across the floor tae her backpack. She dug and retrieved her wee pills. “I didn’t take today’s yet.” She climbed back tae the bed and wrapped around me.

  “I am only a few days from my period and I’ve been taking it consistently — let’s see...” She counted on her fingers. “It would probably be ten days before I would be ready.”

  “For what?”

  “To make a baby.”

  “Och, I am Scottish highlander, we make a baby whenever we want tae and many times when we daena want tae.”

  She laughed, a vibration in my arms. “While that may feel true, the science of it is I’ll really be ready in ten days and then we can have sex fifteen times that day to make sure it happens.”

  I chuckled against her cheek. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Me too and that’s basically New Year’s Eve. So it’s a date. We’ll ring in the new year by making a baby.”

  “What year?”

  She was thoughtful for a moment. “2019?”

  “And 1704 and 2383”

  Then she said, “But with a baby we will have to decide where and when and what time. There’s so much to consider.”

  “Nae.” I grabbed her pills and hid them behind my back with a laugh. “We daena have tae consider. I am givin’ it tae ye as a Christmas present, ye canna ruin the romance of it.”

  She laughed with a wee spark of joy in her voice. “I would never want to be accused of ruining the romance.”

  Then her lips met mine for a long lingerin’ kiss. Her tongue explored my mouth, her teeth nibbled my lips. Her breathin’ quickened and her hold around my back tightened.

  I ran my hand up the inside of her thigh. “Your garden has overgrown, mo reul-iuil.”

  “We’ve been in another century, I am not carrying razors to a century where they barely bathe.”

  I chuckled. “I daena mind, as ye ken, I think tis sexy.” I rubbed my hands along the length of her leg from her ankle tae her hip and around the back of her perfect arse and pulled it tight tae my kilted front.

  “Oh really? I thought you liked my smooth legs.”

  “Och, aye, your smooth legs are sexy too, daena make me choose.”

  She chuckled, her breath a warmth beside my ear.

  My hands graspin’ the soft flesh of her arse, I could feel her drawing closer. Her body burrowin’ toward mine.

  Her breaths were quick and gasping as she pulled in air against the tightness of her clothes. I nibbled on the top edge of her breast and she drew closer still, archin’ toward me, twas as if she was sayin’ it under her breath, more more more. She asked with a gasp, “We were just going to rest — isn’t there danger and…?”

  I rolled her to her back, rumpled her skirt up around her waist and explored with my fingers. “Aye, we were goin’ tae
rest, and there is danger, mo ghradh, but ye said ye haena stationed a guard on your walls today. So I was thinkin’ twould be a good time tae capture your castle.”

  She smiled. “I don’t think a day is enough… I don’t know if…” She writhed with my fingers, nudgin’ toward my hand, beginnin’ tae forget herself, becomin’ a moan and a want.

  She grasped at my kilt, bunchin’ the fabric up and held the length of me, tight, drawin’ me close — I want you.

  I ken ye do, mo reul-iuil, from the sùgh am gròiseid.

  God I love it when you speak — what does that…?

  In answer I licked her breast, bringin’ her tae moans.

  Then I spread her legs wide and climbed on. She gasped as I entered her and as I pushed my way inside she was at once acceptin’ but also quiverin’ vulnerable, as she becomes, open and wantin’ and out of her head, trustin’ me, and needing me, all her strength gone away.

  I held my mouth on her shoulder and went slow for her, waited for her tae warm tae me. We lingered there, our heat risin’, teasin’ with our lips, runnin’ my hands over her curves and softnesses.

  Then she pulled a pillow down and pushed it under her arse, raisin’ her hips for me, wrappin’ her legs around my back. Twas time tae take her. Her voice a low hoarse whisper, the prayer she repeated as I rode her tae the end. I collapsed on her body, she was soft skin and gentleness but had the strength tae bear me.

  She held me, cool linen and dry wool, her legs wet sticky warmth. She exhaled, her breath a sweetness beside my ear.

  “Do you think we just made a baby?”

  I joked, “I daena ken but I tried.”

  “We might still need to try fifteen times on New Year’s Eve though.”

  I said, “Aye,” though I wasna convinced we would have that many days. While still inside of her though I wanted tae promise it, tae take care of her always, every day.

  I thought tae say, “If somethin’ happens tae me, if we are separated, mo reul-iuil, I want ye tae ken how much—“

  Her body stilled. “What do you mean if we’re separated?”

  “I daena ken, but in case we are—“

  “Well, we aren’t going to be.”

  “But if we are, I need ye tae be strong, tae nae go weak. Tae protect our family and stay alive. Tis the only way I will be able tae fight him.”

  Her hands tightened on my back. “I thought we were going to keep you from having to fight.”

  I looked intae her eyes. “I will have tae fight him Kaitlyn, ye ken tis true. Please stay strong.”

  “Okay, if we’re separated, if you’re fighting, I will be strong.”

  “And ken that I love ye.”

  She nodded. “I know it.”

  “Where do ye ken it?” I asked with a smile, recalling our first night taegether.

  She rubbed her fingers on her lips. “Here because I can taste you.” She tapped her ear. “I know it here because you tell it to me.” She raised her arms above her head, stretching long under me. “And everywhere because I am filled with you, you’re entangled in my fibers.”

  I placed my hand on her chest. “Inside your heart?”

  “I know it there. And here.” She reached between us to pat between her thighs. “I am a verra happy wife.” She asked, “Where do you know I love you?”

  “On the air around me, mo reul-iuil. On every breeze is your sigh, under every sky. Tis always the same stars, ye ken. As long as ye are under them then I can hear ye, I love ye, ye say. I can always hear it.”

  “Good.” She added, “I do know it, Magnus, that you love me. You love me so much. I won’t ever not know it as long as I’m alive.”

  “And ye will stay alive?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Thank ye.” I spread her fingers and kissed her palm. Then held my lips there against the strength of her hand.

  I rolled off and we both lay on our backs staring up at the ceiling.

  I asked, “Now I have given ye a Christmas gift, what are ye goin’ tae give me for Christmas?”

  “Hmmmm. I already established you have a day with fifteen different sex acts in your future, I mean, that’s pretty good, right?”

  I joked, “Och, tis a usual Thursday with ye, mo reul-iuil. I think it has tae be special.”

  “More special than a baby? More special than fifteen sexual encounters in one day? Man, you’re tough, highlander.”

  She was thoughtful then said, “I will learn to ride a horse and then we can ride together, side by side.”

  I looked up at the perfect white ceiling, in this perfect hotel for restin’, in the perfectly safe state of Georgia, in the perfect time of 2018, wantin’ tae believe that I would be ridin’ alongside her soon. “Aye, tis perfect.”

  “Really?”

  I took her hand. “Really, Kaitlyn, I will buy ye a horse named Osna and ye will ride her. Tis a perfect gift for me.”

  “God, I love you. And we can buy you a horse like you had in Scotland when I found you.”

  “What kind of horse?”

  “A war horse. It was black and big and so beautiful.”

  “Och, a lagachadh, I like that kind of horse.”

  “You named him Shark.”

  I laughed. “Tis a good name for a strong stallion.”

  “So we’ll get you one,” she said.

  My stomach growled.

  She said, “But your first Christmas present, I’ll buy you some McDonald’s.”

  Chapter 67

  We knocked quietly on Quentin’s door.

  “How’s Beaty?”

  “She’s doing okay, but we’re famished.”

  “Us too, if we can use your card we’ll go get McDonald’s.”

  He loaned us his card and gave us his order and then Magnus and I walked across the parking lot. We ordered so much freaking food it was shocking and everyone in the store stared at us. We were still in our Scottish clothes and looking a little homeless because of the dirt and smell and filth and lack of complete cleanliness.

  * * *

  We were laden with drink holders and bags of food crossing the parking lot when I said, “What if I never bought you McDonald’s that first day?”

  “Aye, I mayna have fallen in love with ye without the full stomach.”

  I laughed. “You could have gotten a ride to that hotel with someone else, like James, and he would have dropped you off at the hotel. Our whole lives would be different.”

  “I think ye may have been better off, there has been a lot of heartbreak since ye met me.”

  “I wouldn’t trade one second of it, Magnus. Not one. I can’t separate out the heartbreak from the happiness, and I wouldn’t want to. Like Barb would say, we’re tangled up you and I. And it’s so true. From the first moment to this moment, everything is so beautiful, the highs and the lows.”

  “Och. I love ye, Kaitlyn.”

  “Like we said in the room, I ken ye do, I am a wonderful woman.” I grinned, then lifted the drink holder and took a sip from the closest straw in a Coke that was as big as my head. “But seriously, what if we had never met? If you think about it, the strange series of events that brought us together — I mean everyone who meets the love of their life is a marvel, but us — we met each other across centuries and I’m grateful every day the stars and time and vessels brought us to…” I stopped dead in my tracks.

  Magnus asked, “What happened, mo reul-iuil?”

  My eyes wide, I said, “The vessels brought us together and so… do you see? The book, the book I’m reading…”

  “You arna makin’ sense.”

  “Magnus, I haven’t been able to figure out the point of the book — it’s about the origin of the vessels, but it’s really about the battle and there isn’t much information in it that seems important. Why was Lady Mairead frantic about it? One of the main reasons it seems unimportant is because it doesn’t even have the same date as the historical record, like how important is it if it’s wrong? But it just dawned
on me, it’s right. The date in the book is the right date. And the reason why the historical record is different is that it’s the most dangerous date in history.” The whole time I spoke I stared at the horizon, figuring it out a second before I said it.

  Now I turned to Magnus and said, “All it would take is one person with one of those vessels to go back to that battlefield and take it all. Then that person would have all this power. They wouldn’t even need evil intent, someone could just want to rule the future world better than Donnan did and boom, they could — but if they were evil...”

  Magnus said, “One man with a gun could take all those vessels and there would be nae stoppin’ him.”

  I nodded solemnly. “And Magnus, if someone, whether they had evil intent or not, went back to that date on the battlefield and took all the vessels?”

  Magnus nodded, “I ken it, Kaitlyn.”

  “We would never meet. This whole everything would just…”

  “Och,” he said. “Nae. We canna let it happen. What is the date in the book?”

  I blinked and considered it for a moment. “You don’t remember it?”

  “Nae, I daena ken if ye ever told me.”

  “Yeah, maybe not. Um… Maybe I shouldn’t.”

  Magnus’s eyes squinted, “Why nae?”

  “Maybe the less people that know, the better.”

  He looked at me, his brow drawn down, “I am nae just people, I am Magnus, and my life may depend on the information.”

  “But maybe knowing it makes you unsafe — I know it and I feel kind of freaked out about knowing it.”

  “Aye, ye ken it and ye have tae tell me everythin’.” He put on his falsetto voice, “‘If we daena tell each other everythin’, Magnus, our whole marriage is terrible.’ Tell me, I am a big boy, I can take it.”

  I huffed. “Man, you’re using all my words against me. Fine, the date is November 1, 1557, and now we should destroy the book.” We started walking toward our hotel room. Then I stopped in my tracks again. “We can’t destroy the book. If we destroy it today, it doesn’t help. Someone just needs to go back and get to it before I found it. Shit, my heart is racing. Who knows the date, anyone beyond Donnan?”