The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,96

me, especially not through my grandfather.”

I tossed my napkin beside my plate. “You can’t take this risk, there’s too much to lose now — you know it, too much. And it’s a risk beyond what you can make me take, it’s not fair. What if I wake up in James’s house the day after that party and you’re not there sleeping under the carport next door, Magnus, what if?”

“Mo reul-iuil, ye ken it canna be like that, ye ken it. How can our long life taegether end so meagerly?”

“Life ends all the time, Magnus. All. The. Time. And it’s often meager. We are not special.”

“We are, mo reul-iuil, we are special, we are time travelers. We hae lived our lives through the centuries.” He looked at Archie. “We are kings of the future, are we nae, Archibald Campbell?”

Archie said, “Aye, you said I am timeless.”

I shoved my plate away and dropped my forehead to the table.

Emma stood and said, “All kids come with me, we need more whipped cream, for sure.”

Lady Mairead said, “I agree with Kaitlyn, there is too much risk in this, Magnus.”

I groaned.

Magnus spoke to Lady Mairead. “The risk, was when ye signed m’daughter’s hand in marriage tae this evil man and lost our kingdom in the doing of it.”

A gasp escaped me. “Lady Mairead signed Isla away with a contract?”

He nodded.

Lady Mairead said, “Twas a point of leverage, Kaitlyn, and will be undone once we hae killed him.”

Magnus continued, “Ye hae undone m’daughter. Ye hae left her with a future of unimaginable violence. The kingdom is gone, on yer signature, when ye invited him tae imagine he was a king.”

Magnus clattered his fork to his plate. “I am nae always tae fight. I am nae tae be at yer beck and call. Ye winna use me for yer power games and yer secret dealings, I am ending this.”

“What am I tae do?”

“Ye will hae a vessel and yer art collection, ye may do what ye hae always done, but ye winna be the scheming mother of a king. Ye are now retired from the work of conniving.”

She glared. “I daena think ye should interfere in the history of—”

“Hae ye been tae the original moment of the vessels?”

She looked haughty, but didn’t speak.

“Tell me.”

“Ye mean 1557? Aye, I hae been there. That was how I acquired the golden bands and the threads.” The busboy came to the table and leaned in to take Magnus’s plate.

Magnus waited until he had left, then said, “So Lady Mairead has been there, ye talked tae people, ye interfered. Did ye ken that ye might hae made our futures disappear? That ye might hae altered time beyond repair?”

“Nae, I wanted the string, I was told tae go take it.”

“By whom?”

Lady Mairead said, “Tis my business.”

“I rest m’case. That moment has too verra many people interferin’ in it. There are vessels there, the Trailblazer, the gold bands and the… wee thread thingies. I need tae clean it up.”

I raised my head. “I still say no. You won’t come back. The more I think about it, the more I…”

Magnus said, “Ye were there, ye ken, ye came back.”

“But I… I was… it’s different.”

“How tis different?”

I said, “You are the one who is out of time. Who doesn’t belong—”

“Kaitlyn Campbell, daena say it.”

He took a deep breath. “Ye canna say I daena belong, ye are m’wife, Archibald and Isla are my bairn.”

“I’m sorry. It’s not what I meant. I meant you are the one time traveling. The one who started this whole odyssey.”

“I am only a man.”

“Ugh. This is infuriating me — I say no. You told me you would always take my opinion into account, I say no, no, no.”

“I take yer opinion in account. I daena mean ye are the only one tae make decisions. Dost ye think I winna be able tae come back? Ye think I will just disappear like a dream? That the vessels will disappear like magic? They winna. And even if they did, we ken why. We ken how tae fix it with the Trailblazer.”

The kids returned from the buffet bar and Emma mouthed, “Sorry,” as they sat back down with a clamor of interruption like only kids can do.

Archie said, “Don’t worry, Mammy, we will keep a vessel under the guardian tree.”

Magnus nodded. “Exactly.”

I was outnumbered and irritated. “So who’s going with you? No one can, right? Who will be there when you have a heart-malfunction in the middle of the sixteenth century Scottish forest? I can’t