long. What had I been thinking? An old lady grabbed my sleeve, wanting my attention — “I can’t, my baby.” I pushed past as a random baby in the distance began wailing, causing milk to leak from my breasts. Ugh.
I wore a tartan wrapped around my shirt, no bodice, the fabric thick and loose. The wrap hid the milk running down my front, but I was a freaking mess by the time I made it to the nursery where Emma was with all the kids.
Isla had just awoken. I pulled her into my arms, sat down, managed to get a breast into her mouth and a feeling of relief washed over me. I leaned my head back against the tapestry. Phew.
I had gotten distracted — arguing with my husband about war tactics, too far away from the baby. This was what I needed to do, this, nurse this baby, trying to be comfortable in the wooden chair. Archie came over to perch on my lap and cuddle beside Isla. “Good morning, sweet Archie, what are you doing?”
“I bang Ben.”
“Uh oh, did you make sure Ben was okay?”
He looked up at me with sweet wide eyes, “Aye.”
“Good, you have to make sure your friends are okay if you hurt them, do your best. Tell them you love them.”
“Go tell Ben I love him.” He climbed off my lap to run across the room.
Emma and I smiled at each other. I asked, keeping my voice low so we wouldn’t be overheard, “How are you? What are you thinking about all of this?”
“This, my friend, is insane. It’s just like I imagined, like being on the film set of Outlander, but there’s also no backstage. Why aren’t the actors and actresses sitting in chairs drinking out of Starbucks cups, scrolling through their feeds?” Our gaze traveled to the other side of the room, where two women were dragging a lumpy bag with a big dark stain in the middle, off a small wooden bed, banging it with a broom, then flopping it over, and draping a wool blanket across it. She added, “Yeah, this is hard to get used to.”
“There is so much to see and without being able to Google it, sometimes I don’t know what the hell I’m seeing. Like what was that, did they just make that bed?” I chuckled. “And wait until you see the kitchen. The kitchen is going to blow Zach’s mind. Speaking of, is he off with James and Quentin?”
“Yes, apparently they’re doing manly things with horses and swords and maybe some sweet little cows.”
We laughed.
Hayley rushed in. “So this is where you are, the nursery? Blech, I expect so much better for you. No offense, Ben.” She picked him up on her hip. “How you doing, you doing good?”
He wiggled down, racing away, arms out like an airplane, swooping around following Archie. Weaving in and out and around the many women here to wrangle the children, the many many many children.
Hayley watched the chaos of the room, then grabbed the back of a heavy chair and dragged it across the stone to our circle. “This is a shit ton of kids, is this really necessary? Children in a castle?”
“What do you think would be in a castle then?”
She shook her head sadly. “I don’t know, orgies?”
We all laughed.
“I came to tell you that Magnus went with Fraoch and the boys to check the woods for bad guys. It’s really a chance to go off with the men and I don’t get to go, I have to stay here with the women.” She scowled.
“We are the better group in the long run, who else is going to listen to long nitty-gritty stories about your honeymoon?”
“I will get to that, but first, why are you here, holding a baby in a drafty castle instead of in your cushy mansion in Florida?” She peeled back the blanket to peek at Isla’s face.
“Isn’t she cute?”
“Yeah... except for that whole big head thing, but I guess Magnus has a big head. You have to expect it of his children.”
“She has a perfectly sized head and you know it.”
“Of course she does, plus there are hats.”
“So do you want to hear about what the fuck happened to me?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“So first, Lady Mairead came to the house, she wanted to see Isla and she seemed overcome when she did.”
“What the what — overcome?” Hayley made a retching face. “Over come?”
“I don’t think you know what the word means. It means to be