The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,58

on it, tis there in the past and tis there in the future, so it must be here now as well.” He glanced at the farmhouse up the driveway. “I daena want them tae ken about it though, so I winna dig for it. Ye canna tell anyone, Archie. Tis always our vessel, there for our family, if we need it we will always ken where tis.”

Archie nodded solemnly.

I said, “That is so freaking cool, thank you, I feel really safe knowing it’s there.”

“Aye, me as well.”

Thirty-five - Kaitlyn

We walked back to the hotel. The first part of the walk was fun and then the last part became a whine fest and it wasn’t just the kids. I had frankly had enough: hungry, cold, tired. Isla needed to nap, she was fussing to get down and walk and crying to be held. Finally, right as we came upon the hotel, she fell asleep on Magnus’s shoulder.

Hayley and Fraoch met us outside the hotel where they had finished a nice leisurely lunch topped off with a little bit of ‘Auntie Hayley, Uncle Fraoch funtime’ which had Hayley’s cheeks in a high flush. She asked, “Did you have fun?”

I started to grumble no, but glanced at Isla, draped over Magnus’s shoulder completely crashed out, and thought about what a trooper she had been, all that fussing and the temper tantrum forgotten, and Archie, what a day for him, learning secrets from his da. I met Magnus’s eyes and a slow smile between us. “Yeah, we had a lot of fun.”

We grabbed some sandwiches from the cafe for a late lunch and deposited Isla, still sleeping, into her carseat, and Hayley drove us up the road to see Fortingall, or as Magnus called it, Fartairchill, with Hayley giggling every time he said it.

We parked near the church, and walked a few feet away to the secondary location we used to jump from. There, enclosed within a stone wall, stood a tree that we remembered from hundreds of years before. The stone wall looked ancient but it had been built since Magnus’s time. A little sign on the side read: Fortingall Yew. A marker told us the tree was thousands of years old and possibly the oldest tree in Europe.

We took photos in the village, most of it built since we had last been there, old but not old enough. Then we returned to the Kenmore hotel, spent some time walking around the edge of the loch, and then Hayley and I bought postcards at the gift shop and during dinner we filled them out for Quentin, Beaty, Emma, Zach, Ben, and Zoe.

Quentin’s had a photo of a big pale Scottish man in a kilt. We wrote, ‘We’re watching the Campbell men so you don’t have to!’ We thought that was hilarious.

Archie picked out a photo of the Loch Ness monster for Ben. He wrote, I have not seen him. I miss you. Love, Archie. And just about made me cry.

Isla yawned. Archie’s eyes were droopy. Magnus said, “I ken tis still light out, but I am verra verra tired.”

Fraoch said, “I’ll take first watch.”

“Thank ye. Bairn, ye ready tae go tae our room?”

We had two double beds. Magnus dropped Isla into the middle of one all bouncy-like and she giggled. Her eyes were glazed. Her nap today had not been long enough. Magnus kicked off his shoes and dove onto the bed beside Isla, on his stomach, an arm draped across her and pretended to snore. She giggled again.

Archie kicked off his shoes and lay down beside Isla and pretended to snore too.

“So that’s it, y’all gonna sleep on one bed and I’m over here by myself?”

They laughed, but I could hear it in their voices that they were truly all falling asleep. “Well, I’m brushing my teeth like a properly civilized human.”

I brushed and then returned to the room and my other humans were, all three, fast asleep. I fell asleep in the other bed watching their sweet faces, in the not quite so dark room.

Thirty-six - Kaitlyn

Midnight-ish Magnus shook me awake with a whisper. “Dost ye want tae go outside and see the stars?”

“Huh, what?”

He was awake, with Isla also awake in his arms.

I said, “Little one, you aren’t sleeping?”

“Da wake up.”

He said, “I need tae go tae watch and Isla is awake. I thought we could all go down tae see the stars for a bit. Tis nae every night we get tae see the Scottish stars in the twenty-first