“Och, why daena ye ride ahead so I might watch yer arse as ye ride?”
“Why Master Magnus, I hae tae wonder if ye are talkin’ on watchin’ my arse or the horse’s.”
I chuckled.
She teased, “No answer? Having trouble deciding? Well, at the inn you can apologize to my arse properly.”
“Tis a deal.”
One of the men among us, one we called, privately, Gilbert the Insufferable, rode along the line calling, “Keep pace!” He paused near us, “Lord Campbell, keep the pace, please.” At my scowl he continued on.
Kaitlyn asked, “Does he know who he’s talking to?”
I laughed. “I am wonderin’ how he would look with a blade at the neck — dost he want tae keep telling me how tae keep a pace?”
She laughed. “This is so much fun! It reminds me of the Key West trip, junior year,” our horses had a comfortable pace side by side, the road was flat and wide and the others were a distance behind. “Have I told you about it?”
“Nae, who was with ye?”
“Everyone. All the usual players: Hayley, Michael, James, Quentin, a bunch of extras. We decided, with no real plan, to drive to Key West. It is such a long drive.”
She glanced around us. “We have fallen away from the group. I guess we aren’t that good at keeping pace.”
“Tis because I daena like someone tellin’ me what tae do.”
Gilbert the Insufferable rode back by, he started to say something about our ‘pace’, but then clamped his mouth closed and kept riding.
I smiled.
She said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so bothered by a man of so little importance to you.”
“I daeana think most men of so little importance and in such a frilly neck ruffle would dare tae bother me.”
“Very good point. Back to my story: We piled in cars and promised to follow each other all the way down the state, but then Dylan’s girlfriend needed to pee and we all had to stop. Hayley was hungry. James’s truck got shit gas mileage and we were pretty broke. Michael and Hayley got in an argument at the gas station. Good times.”
She grinned. “This is just like that. See the guy there, Master Allie? He’s wobbling on his horse? He’s been drinking since we left. If we don’t make it to the inn soon someone might have to carry him.”
“I am thankful for the horse. He was on the hunt with us, ye would be surprised how he can continue on while bein’ fully in his cups.”
She laughed. “And see behind us, Duncan, and then four people back, his wife? They aren’t speaking to each other. She said he has greatly offended her with attentions he paid to young Mary Seward.”
“Och, I hae seen the attentions, he is nae hiding it well enough.”
“Och,” she said, “men are scoundrels! Not hiding it well enough? You’re reminding me of the strip club a million years ago. James made my blood boil.”
I said, “Ye left him. They are nae as lucky here, they canna divorce without a great deal of effort,”
Quietly she said, “Châtellerault has been trying to divorce his wife for years, I heard.”
“Aye, and tis nae allowed.”
“And then the fellow there, about six back.”
“Young Master Cornet.”
“He is wanting Mistress Seonnie for his own but is too silly to make any of the right moves for her. We need a plan to get them with each other. There is so much drama, almost as much as that trip to Key West. We never made it, by the way. We still call it the Key West trip, but we only made it to Cape Canaveral. It’s not even halfway. We camped in our cars. It sucked. And was also fun as hell. Sometimes those are the same things.”
“I ken, such as now. We are out of our time, missin’ our family, alone, but also in good company: a royal, a lively court, a strong guard, a warm bed awaitin’ us at the end of the long day of ‘keepin’ pace.’”
She laughed. “You’re right, it is fun, and I’m going to drink so much whisky tonight, you’ll wonder if—”
I pulled a bottle from my bag, uncorked it, and passed it tae her. “Whisky for ye, Lady Campbell. Perhaps Master Allie is right, twill be more fun if we are wobbly on our horses.”
“Why thank ye sir, that’s an appropriate condition for a vacation, onward to Key West!”
Fifty-six - Kaitlyn
The plan was that our party would be accommodated on noble estates along the way, and