The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,11
American history.”
“Wouldn’t that be funny if he had studied Scottish history?”
I laughed. “I’ll talk to her, find out her deal. Like a spy for you.”
We went out to join the crew.
Emma carried Isla out to the porch after a long nap and she sleepily leaned toward me with her arms out.
“Oh, hey Isla, did you wake up?” I pulled her to my hip and breathed in that sweet sleepy baby head smell as she curled her head against my shoulder.
Emma said, “This is going so much better than I thought it would.”
“I know.” I kissed Isla’s head. “I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it, but I know.”
“Yeah, let’s talk of something else.” Our eyes went over to Fraoch and Magnus, playing Tiki Toss, tossing the little ring onto the post.
I joked, “The highlanders and their feats of strength.” I added, “Magnus, can we get me a bow and arrow? We could set up an archery field over there in the sand.”
“Och aye, ye daena want tae lose yer competitive edge in case ye are called tae another tournament”.
Hayley said, “You were in a tournament?”
“I was, I came in second, Mary of Gui—” I glanced at Michael’s girlfriend. “Mary, our hostess, came in first. It made sense, it was her house.”
Michael’s girlfriend asked, “Was that in Scotland?”
“Yes, we were just there, with Magnus’s family.” I took a sip of my sangria.
Zach stuck his head out of the sliding glass door. “Hey all, food in twenty.”
A cheer went up.
Soon enough we were all milling around the buffet set out on the dining room table. It was covered in a decadent amount of food. In an act of kindness they let me and Magnus go first since we had been out of town. I put Isla in a highchair and Magnus and I went down the line, piling food on our plates. Archie took one tentative piece of turkey and Magnus got mildly exasperated when the only other thing he wanted was a dollop of potatoes and a white roll.
I pointed out that Ben’s plate looked the same and Chef Zach was exasperated about it too.
There was a long table set through the middle of the living room with candles and flowers and placemats and a whole gorgeous Thanksgiving scene, inviting, yet almost as soon as I put my plate on the table the whole sky went dark and ominous and very uninviting.
My heart dropped. Magnus met my eyes and in that moment, I knew, he would need to go see to our safety, try to determine what was coming.
I would need to stay here with the children, giving everyone a sense of normalcy. Though my life hadn’t been normal in a very long time. I glanced around the room. We were divided: Those that were oblivious to anything but that bad weather was upon us. Zach’s dad said, “Thank God we’re inside.”
The rest of us were divided into two camps: the ones that went to the monitor and the weather satellite channel to look for ominous signs of time travel, and the others who were, with shaking hands, trying to act calm and festive. I wandered to the monitor and checked it, noting the markings of the vessel — it didn’t match any of the known vessels. I got a pen and made a note of it, trying to look casual and not frantic — what the hell? An unknown vessel? I returned to the table smiling.
I watched my husband and Quentin mount the stairs for the upper deck, Fraoch taking the stairs two at a time behind them. James walked around the house locking doors, trying to act casual as hell, as if it was a normal thing to do against a thunderstorm.
While we waited, we attempted to eat. I kept staring at Magnus’s uneaten food, he had been excitedly waiting for it all day. The feast of feasts, and he was missing it to ‘what ifs…’
We made small talk with the Greenes. Until finally Mr Greene said, “This is delicious, son, wish everyone wouldn’t have left right when it was time to eat.”
Zach nodded, “They’ll be back, there was just a security issue they had to deal with.”
The sky lightened and a hesitant relief settled in the room. The men returned downstairs, finished with the high alert though their expressions were grim.
They conferred, trying to be casual, by the monitor on the shelf in the kitchen, and then finally they rejoined us at the long table.