all our time-travel adventures, all the dangers, and now there aren’t any anymore.” I added, “I mean, this sucks, we are truly lost without hope of anyone coming to get us. I try to imagine living like this, but man, it’s hard to... The smell alone is impossible.”
“Aye, it smells like the bottom side of a cesspit in summer.”
“And we should know, that was awful. What do you think Hayley and Fraoch are doing right now?”
“I canna imagine. I hope they are askin’ Lady Mairead why she forgot tae come for us.”
“Although if it’s true that Fraoch was the son of Donnan by another mother, and Lady Mairead had him beat and you held a gun to his head, they might not be on our side. I wouldn’t really blame them. That sounds like it got pretty intense.”
“It did, twas something I regret.”
It was my turn to hold his hand. “Yeah. I know you do.”
He squeezed my hand. “We will miss the bairn and as time passes we will mourn and we will remember. We will pray tae God for forgiveness and for strength in these trials. And we will build a life here.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
“Tomorrow I will inquire about a house. We need servants. A stable for Hurley and Cynric. I was thinkin’, once settled, we ought tae present ourselves at court. We are royals, tis within our rights tae speak tae her Majesty’s regent, James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault.”
“Where did you learn that?”
“When ye last visited the chamberpot I learned it by joinin’ in conversation with the proprietor. The queen is verra young and lives abroad, the plan is tae marry her tae the dauphin of France.”
”Good, that’s good information.”
We smiled at each other and then he said, “Let’s hae another round of ale.”
Fifty-one - Kaitlyn
The next day Magnus and I bought wool cloaks from a merchant, to make our clothes more dignified and the following day Magnus began talking to people about finding us a house. My job was to sit nearby and be quiet and look regal.
And then he had a lead.
It took two more days but then we were summoned to one of the homes on the high road to meet Lady Helen Fleming. She was a short prim woman, who might have been in her fifties, but looked much older, grayed, stooped. Her house, though, was on the main road on the hill near the castle where the grand, tall houses were. As we walked up the hill to meet her, Magnus explained to me all he knew, that she was rich and recently widowed. Her husband had been a lord and yet, his widow was in a great deal of debt.
We were let into the house and brought through to an interior room. The floors were stone. The walls of the house were stone, with alcoves and arched windows. The front window held an expensive frosted lattice glass. There were tapestries hanging on the walls. The interior walls were wood paneled and everywhere there was uncomfortable looking blocky wood furniture and heavy iron accent pieces. The whole vibe was medieval castle, except smaller, like the back house of the medieval castle, or the mother-in-law suite for a disgraced queen.
Lady Helen Fleming sat primly on a wooden bench and invited Magnus to sit across from her. I was to stand. Magnus had asked me to be quiet on it all. This kind of thing used to piss me off, but I had long ago accepted that what I knew about the customs of most times was basically zilch.
We were a team and Magnus could be trusted to know more about the past and he was usually good at judging a situation, but here he was centuries out of his time, too. And this was a very delicate situation. We had to be more than careful.
He sat, and held himself grandly. She looked nervous. But that was to be expected: we were prospective roommates after all.
While she spoke she clutched the side of her skirt, twisting and pulling at the fabric. “Are ye a godly man, Lord Campbell?”
Magnus said, “Aye, and m’wife is a godly woman, Lady Fleming.” Her eyes shifted to me and looked me up and down. I kept my eyes on the floor, my hands folded in front of me, I hoped piously enough.
"My husband, Laird Fleming, has departed nae three months ago.” She twisted the fabric. “I daena ken what ye hae been told.”