The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,34

she felt me in her in-between places, deep down in her cells, because I hadn’t been in the past, not truly. I had been in an alternate timeline — living the past at the same time that she lived the present. I don’t believe I ever left her, not truly, and maybe she had been able to hear me or feel me, too.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the same way I felt about Magnus, that he was alive and coming home, an entwining, that Isla felt it too? I had been gone for so long, but maybe she hadn’t been fully abandoned, maybe she felt like I was always there, just out of reach.

It was the way I had felt, but then again, I was a grownup and had listened to Grandma Barb wax on about metaphysical states of being and the poetry of existence while I was growing up — entwine, alternate realities, timelines and flow… I was trained in this stuff, but my baby seemed adaptable to my absence and now to my presence in a way that made me feel like neither had been all that long, while both had been too very long — and both those things were true.

I kissed her sweaty forehead. Every time she slept on me it was an unspoken, welcome home.

And then the storm rose above us.

The monitor went bonkers lighting up with two vessels. We all looked toward the kitchen as Hammond slid open the door. “Queen Kaitlyn, wait here, Fraoch and I will go meet them.”

I nodded.

And then Archie sat beside me on the couch and we watched Fraoch and Hammond stride down the boardwalk to the beach.

Twenty-three - Kaitlyn

Day Four

It seemed to take forever.

Finally I couldn’t wait anymore, I carried Isla to the door, holding Archie’s hand, leading him there, knowing — any minute now. Then, the sight of Magnus’s head as he walked over the dunes…

“He’s home!”

I pulled open the door and yelled over my shoulder, “Beaty! Quennie is home!”

And I raced down the boardwalk, carrying Isla, Archie just behind, thud thud thud down the planks. We spilled into Magnus’s arms. “You came home!”

He lifted me, Isla, and Archie with a giant hug. My feet dangled having left the earth, airborne with happiness. “You made it!”

“Och aye, I meant tae come home when I said I would, and every time I accomplish it we should write it down, so we remember that Magnus always means tae be a man of his word.” He lowered me to the boards and turned his attention to Archie high in his arms. “How are ye, little man, are ye good?”

“Aye,” said Archie full of importance.

Isla reached into Magnus’s arms and let him hold her on his other side. Archie grinned at her. “Da is home!”

“Da!”

I burst into tears.

The kids and I were back in the house while Magnus, Hammond, and Quentin had a discussion about happenings in Riaghalbane.

Then, Quentin entered the house and hugged Beaty again. “So good to be home!”

“How long were ye there?” she asked.

“Almost a month, do I look older? I think I’ve been gone so long I need reading glasses.”

Magnus entered the room behind him. “Och, nae readin’ glasses, I daena want tae read anythin’ anymore. It has been naethin’ but contracts and documents, rules and speeches since I left.”

He glanced around. “I only want…” Archie stood in front of him holding a wooden sword. Isla was standing, holding his knee, bouncing, with her pushy stick-toy in hand, as usual. “Och, I only want tae do this…” He collapsed down to the ground in the middle of the living room. “I hae been vanquished by the prince of the realm!”

Archie pretended to stab Magnus through his armpit to the floor. Isla swung the stick toy, a wooden hippo that flapped its feet when it was rolled on the ground, down on his groin. He blocked it and curled in a ball on his side, laughing, “The bairn are battlin’ me!”

I laughed, “This is really what you wanted to do?” The bairn fell on him laughing and wrestling which really looked a lot more like a big hug.

“I wanted naethin’ more.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the photos and looked up at me from the pile. “Thank ye for this, twas a verra nice surprise tae find them.”

“I’m so glad you found them. What a miracle that I sent you photos through the centuries.”

“Ye might hae helped me with a mystery as well, I will tell