The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,99

taegether with a whisky in our hands, Quentin will tell ye what transpired.”

James said, “Just tell me this, will I laugh?”

“Aye, there is a great deal of humor tae it and a bit of scandal as well as most good stories hae.”

I joked, “Och, I will hae tae be there for it, tis a reason tae keep on living, tae hear that tale.”

We dinna dare start a fire, so we bundled for warmth. We kent the people with the vessels would arrive in the morn, just afore dawn.

We had three jobs tae do.

Fraoch, who dinna ken Kaitlyn, Hayley, or Quentin at the time, was tae ride after them, scarin’ them from the scene. I kent they needed a vessel, I dinna ken if that would change now. I would make sure one remained for them tae find.

James was tae intervene with the Campbell men, tae keep them from investigating the scene, until most of the vessels were gone. I would leave some vessels at the scene for the Campbell men tae begin their ascendency tae the future.

My job was tae disguise m’self and be in the clearing. Once they landed I was tae rob them of most of the vessels I could find.

It was a simple plan, but there were many things that could go wrong.

Fifty-six - Kaitlyn

I held onto my wedding ring twisting it around and around my finger as if it was the only thing keeping him a possibility. I tried to keep my eyes on the children, but also my head was full with what ifs and…

I was so freaking scared. What if I woke up years ago, back at James’s house? It was a possibility, right? Time travel and all.

I just had to get through this day. Tomorrow he would be home. That was the truth of it, like always before.

But also, he might not.

I was in a deck chair, near the pool. Hayley sat on a deck chair beside me, twisting her own ring, a fabulous platinum number with a honking big diamond, the kind she had always dreamed of, and had picked out for herself.

I glanced down at my own, a simple, antique red garnet set in a pale gold band with a Celtic knot pattern. I found myself holding it to my heart, I wouldn’t trade it, not ever. I asked, “So what are you thinking about now?”

“You know, just thinking.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Hayley said, “This is hard. You’ve done it a lot huh?”

“So much. Since I met him I’ve always been waiting for him, worrying about him, missing him.”

She teased, “And you’ve always done it so selflessly, barely mentioning it. Who would have thought you’d be this resilient?”

I chuckled. “Ah yes, you know me, a stoic.”

“All kidding aside, you’re a role model to me, because this sucks. They’re in the past, stealing the vessels from that pile? So much could go wrong.”

“We already had so much go wrong when you and I did it.”

“True.” We watched the kids play. “Do you remember seeing them? Now that I know they’re back there… I mean, would we have seen them? When they were chasing us — did you see James?”

I said, “I don’t know. I didn’t recognize them, and Quentin was watching with binoculars, he would have noticed if James was there, maybe it’s a new version laid over the last, like — Lady Mairead said she was there, I don’t remember seeing her, do you?”

“Not at all.”

“So maybe it’s redoing itself, and yet, it’s not changing anything big. You, Quentin, Beaty, me, we went and Magnus is still here. Lady Mairead went and Magnus is still here—”

Hayley said, “He’s stealing all the vessels though.”

I gulped. “He’s going to leave some.” My eyes focused on the flag at the end of the deck near the beach. “See that?”

She followed my eyes. “Yeah, nor’easter coming, tomorrow I think.”

We both sighed.

“He’s going to steal all the vessels while a bunch of barbarian Campbell men are fighting to the death to get to them first.”

“True,” she said.

“I can think of a million ways it could go wrong.”

“Well, that sucks, because I’m counting on you to put a positive spin on this.”

I said, “Not this time.”

Fifty-seven - Magnus

I was in the clearing, waiting, alone, my horse, Sunny, tied tae a tree out of the way. James and Fraoch were stationed at their positions. We were able tae communicate through somethin’ Quentin had given us called ‘earpieces’.

I had James’s voice in my left ear. “I think you need to get