What I really needed to do was to take Isla out in the fresh air. It was pretty stifling gross in here, bodies and odor and excrement, toil and dismay. But instead we climbed the confined stairwell with the baby screaming her head off, passing the place on the wall where I once had sex with old Magnus, to the nursery.
Within moments of entering two other babies began crying. “Yikes, we’ve got a howl going.” I danced her around and around the room. Archie, who had been in this nursery without fresh air for far too long, wanted up-up. When I didn’t respond fast enough he burst into tears so I had Archie crying on one hip and Isla in the crook of my arm wailing her eyes out.
Beaty was holding Ben, she said, “Och, they are goin’!”
I joked, “I can’t hear you!”
There was literally nothing to do but rock back and forth, dancing around in circles. Distract! Distract! Freaking calm down already! Nothing, literally nothing was working. Time stood still, but it felt like fucking hours.
A couple of women at the end of the room kept shooting me irritated looks. And they were right, I was incapable of calming my children.
The door opened and Magnus entered the nursery. He came to me, a spectacular oddity lumbering across the room, big and manly, and out-of-place in the nursery, a room reserved for babies and mothers and nurses and children. But also he was so freaking desperately necessary. “Och, the wee’uns are wailin’, who should I hold?”
I passed him Isla because Archie was tucked against my shoulder, grasping, tight, not wanting to let go. Magnus tucked her into the crook of his arm, belly down, and patted her back with his other hand.
I moved Archie from my hip to my front, sat in a chair, and let him spider monkey on my chest. “So sorry sweet boy, it’s okay — the baby scared you, she was crying so hard, poor baby.”
He was doing that hiccup-choking thing of a ‘toddler who had cried past remembering what the heck he was crying about’. So I tucked my forehead to the top of his head and held on until he was done. Watching Magnus as he softly rocked Isla, patting her back. One moment she was screaming and then she was like, ‘daddy is holding me’ and grew calm.
Magnus sank into the chair beside me and shifted Isla to his chest. She chilled out. We all chilled out. And breathed. “Thank God you showed up.”
“Aye, the wee’uns were wagin’ a battle and ye were on the losin’ side.”
“This is so true.” I leaned my head against the tapestry covered wall. I shifted to look down on Archie’s face. He looked up at me. “Kay-be cry.”
“Kay-be totally cried, everyone cried.”
Archie asked, all seriousness, “Da cry?”
Magnus said, “I dinna cry, wee’un, nae this time.”
Archie slid down from my lap and ran off to the other side of the room completely over the drama.
I slid my chair closer to Magnus and dropped my head to his shoulder. "So tell me what happened today?”
“The scouts hae returned. They traveled all the distance tae Talsworth and found nae sign of an army. A message has been delivered tae Lord Philip Delapointe, he is expected tae meet with Sean so we can uncover the reason for the siege.” He rested his cheek on the top of my head. “Their meetin’ will take place in a week.”
“That’s a long time to wait.”
“These things go verra slowly here. In the meantime we will send the villagers home, the army is gone, Sean is orderin’ it now.”
“That will be good — the crowds, the noise, it will be nice to go outside the walls with the kids.”
“We will take them tae the river and shew them the banks, the trees. Twill be good tae shew Archie where I hae lived m’life.”
“What about the people who chased me from Florida?”
“We should send Chef Zach, Madame Emma, and Ben somewhere safe. Even with the army dispersed there is a risk tae bein’ here. I daena think they should take the risk.”
“There’s a risk for us too.”
“Aye, but we are taegether. Apart we canna ken whether we are a’right. I can protect ye if we remain together.”
“You sound like me.”
“Ye are wise.” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Sometimes.”
“I’m sorry we argued this morning.”
“We dinna see eye tae eye,” he shrugged. “It happens. Even ye can be wrong sometimes.”