eat after the men. Because of our stature though, we got served first of the women. As Emma and Hayley and I walked to the Great Hall, Hayley said, “Don’t worry, I have food stored away. It’s supposed to last me, but then again, we’re under siege, siege rules.”
“Are we still?”
“Well, we were, you missed that part, thankfully. Now I guess we’re waiting to make sure there’s nothing more, but yeah, Fraoch said we were safe now. He said they will probably send the villagers home.”
“Magnus said that too. I still have my doubts, but perhaps that’s because I’ve never gotten through dangerous times quite this easily.”
“Easy?” Hayley scoffed, “I fought my arse off.”
Five - Kaitlyn
The Great Hall was crowded, men at every table, talking at the top of their voices. The noise was deafening. I scanned for Magnus finding him seated with Fraoch, Quentin, James, and Zach at a side table near the hearth, one with plenty of extra seats for us.
Magnus kissed my temple. Mugs of ale were passed around. The food was awful, cold and unsatisfying. After the meal, Hayley broke out a tube of salami and sliced hunks from it, placing them in the middle of the table. The salami was like a beacon — Sean beelined over for some, but no one blamed him. They called Liam over too, because that meal had sucked. Sean and Liam carried the salami away to eat it in the corner, discussing whatever it was that those men discussed.
I called across the table to James, “How’s the eighteenth century treating you so far?”
He leaned back in his chair, eating a hunk of salami, a cocky gleam to his eye, “I fucking love it.”
“Really?”
“Like camping, but with swords, honestly I can’t believe you don’t live here full time.”
I laughed. “How long have you been here?”
“Like four days. Already been in a battle, a kidnapping, and come close to starvation.”
Everyone laughed.
“How about you Zach? What do you think?”
“On the one hand I think how the fuck is anyone supposed to cook anything good with one spoon and one pot? But then I realized, they’re not aiming for good, they just want enough.”
He leaned forward, “But you know what they need?”
Magnus asked, “What?”
“Seeds. Fertilizer. If we went back and got bags of seeds, some good tools, hosing and pumps for water systems, we’d transform their diet.”
Quentin said, “We could bring back a couple of big ass dairy cows, could you imagine if they saw the amount of milk one of those could produce?”
James said, “I could bring a herd of ten and be the richest man in Scotland.”
Fraoch said, “Ye would be rich, Master James, but ye wouldna be able tae sleep, ye would be watchin’ all night for the reivers as they would be comin’ for yer coos.”
James waved it away and joked, “I could hire Rob Roy for protection.”
Magnus said, “Then he would be reivin’ as well as protectin’ ye from the reivin’, tis a game he loves tae play.”
James said, “Yep, he’s the OM — original mobster.” He and Quentin and Zach held up their ales in salute.
Hayley rolled her eyes.
Emma said, “What you really need to bring here is waste management. It smells like sewage and with all these people in one place someone is going to get sick. Composting toilets, or sewer pipes, something.”
Six- Kaitlyn
Sean called Magnus, Fraoch, and Quentin to the front of the room and along with a few other men they gathered in a circle and conferred for a long time. We weren’t required to be quiet, but we quieted anyway, as if we could hear them or understand what they were saying — we couldn’t on either count.
So we finished eating and got more to drink.
Isla woke so I pulled her up from the wrap to hold her because I could tell she was gearing up for a cry. I stood and rocked her, then she got really fussy so I jiggled her back and forth. Don’t cry, don’t cry. I really, really, really wanted to hear what the men were going to say.
But their meeting continued. And continued. Isla began to cry. I carried her down to the far end where Lizbeth met me. “Och, the bairn has a righteous wail.”
“I don’t want to miss the meeting.” I kind of felt like crying along with her.
“Go tae the nursery, Kaitlyn, I will accompany ye. Magnus will come tae ye as soon as he kens the plans.”