the walls. We need all our men to be able to speak to each other. Sean, when is the meeting with Lord Philip?”
“We will meet in four days.”
I said, “The truth of what is happenin’ will be revealed before it. Until we ken who is orchestratin’ this ordeal we winna ken how tae retaliate. We must remain alert.”
Tae Kaitlyn I said, “Will ye go tae the nursery and attend tae Isla and Archie? We hae tae attend tae weapons and war for a while, I winna be able tae leave the walls until later in the night.”
Ten - Kaitlyn
I spent the evening with the children, whispering worries with Emma. She and Zach had been ready to leave with Ben, and now she was the closest to tears I had ever seen her. She did find a wee bit of solace that we were all together, like two-percent solace.
The other ninety-eight-percent was pure panic. Someone had chased us all to the past and trapped us and we were probably surrounded. Whoever was doing it was fucking good at it. I doubted Emma and Zach could have hidden from them in the present day. She said more than once there was no way Zach could have protected his family alone.
We ate our meal in the protected confines of these rooms — consoled the babies, played with the toddlers, wished for social media to give us something to do.
Instagram would have been nice.
But mostly we worried. There were long moments when we were quiet and didn’t talk, waiting for the men to come relieve us with information.
Hayley was worried, but also pissed. Being in the nursery irritated her. I reminded her she could hang out in her room, or go to the kitchens, but she chose to stay with us, grumbling a great deal. She played a bit with the kids, then grumbled more. “Seriously, because I have two x-chromosomes I have to sit in the baby ward?”
“Yep,” this was the third time I had answered a variant of this question. “Because you have ovaries it’s assumed you are a keeper of the children, in literally every century.”
“You know that is some supreme bullshit. I don’t like kids. They’re fucking monsters.” She yelled across at Ben and Archie, “Except for you two, you guys are the bestest.” They glanced up from their game: pushing chairs apart, clamoring up one, flinging across to the other, then pushing them farther apart. They continued flinging and laughing.
I said, “What about Isla?”
She waved a hand exasperatedly. “She can’t understand a word I’m saying, and if she could she wouldn’t be at all offended. She would agree with me. You mark my words, she is going to be something cool, like a fireman or a president.”
“She’s in line for a throne. She might be a queen.”
“Yeah, but she has that kid in front of her. He’s a king for sure.”
Archie flung himself, very far, as far as he could, off-balance he landed with a crash, face first. He sat up dazedly, patted his nose, then got up to push the chairs farther apart.
Hayley continued, “Of course he might not survive.”
“Ugh, Hayley, he’s one of the loves of my life, don’t say that. But seriously, what’s up with two-year-olds crying like assholes when they’re tired, but brushing off a fall like that?”
“Not all kids, that’s Mags’s kid.”
“Yeah, he sure is.” I looked down at Isla in my arms. “He’s going to be a hero someday, or maybe not, times change. He saves my life by being my son, but then again, I saved his life too.”
“You’re a million times better mom than the one God gave him. You totally should be here in this room, but let’s bring this back to me and my sorry arse: I should be up on the walls with Fraoch.”
“Really? Up on the walls? Let’s think this through Hayley — up on the walls with the Campbell men? What would you be doing up there?”
“I don’t know, helping him hold his gun. I do like to hold his gun.”
I laughed, “Is that a euphemism for a hand job, Hayley? Are you thinking you’ll be up on the walls giving your husband a hand job?”
“I might, you don’t know. I think I would be mostly looking out through my gun’s night vision scope, like a bad ass, possibly sniper-shooting bad guys — don’t laugh, I’ve played Fortnite.”
I did laugh, and she laughed too. Then I said, “I know this is really hard on you. You’re