The Guardian by Diana Knightley
Fifty-two - Kaitlyn
Iwoke up on the tarmac as voices above me said, “One two three — lift.” It was night, stars above, partially obliterated by the spotlights on the rooftop.
My body was lifted up, weightless-like, and then I was deposited on a stretcher. I made eye contact with one of the soldiers. “Friends?”
Another voice said, “Queen Kaitlyn, I am here.”
I looked up to see General Hammond smiling down at me as my stretcher was pushed through the wide doors leading into the palace hallway, once a place full of art plunder and now bare.
I said, “I’m so glad you’re alive, I don’t know if Magnus told you, but he needed you desperately.”
“I am glad tae be alive as well and the king did not mention his desperation for me, but I assure you the feeling was mutual.”
I laughed and then moaned, because everywhere was pained. “I can get up, I think. I can walk. I need to go see Magnus.”
“We know, we’re taking you to the infirmary. I don’t think you can see him until you’ve been checked, there’s dried blood all over—”
“It’s not my blood, it’s the brains of my enemy.”
The soldier to my right chuckled.
I joked, “You liked that?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Hammond said, “I can see the pain of the jump has worn off, if you can joke —who is the enemy you’re speaking of?”
“Not ‘is’, was, it was Sir Padraig Stuart, now nothing but a horrible memory.”
“You did this?”
“Hell yeah. Lady Mairead planned it. Is she here by the way?”
“No, not yet.”
“Well, she’ll probably want to make an entrance.”
Walls were busted and doors were broken down. The business of the kingdom was being run while the inhabitants were clearing out the rubble of the last siege.
God I hoped this was definitely the last siege.
I was wheeled into the infirmary through the long hallway with rooms on either side and there were family and friends waiting in the waiting room with my children. Isla pushed out of Beaty’s arms and ran toward me, “Mama! Mama!”
I swung my legs off the stretcher and about leapt off it in mid-motion and caught Isla as she ran into my arms and then Archie held onto me and I fell back onto my butt but it was better down there on the ground being hugged. “Were you scared?”
Archie said, “I was so worried something happened to you!”
“I didn’t mean to scare you, I had to handle something. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when the big—”
Isla looked at me with her big doe-eyes. “Big fire.”
“I heard, did it scare you?”
She shook her head.
Archie said, “She was really scared.”
“I’m so grateful you are both here.”
Hayley said, “Yeah, well, what the hell, Katie, seriously? You just disappeared.”
“I had to handle something, I knew it was something I had to do and I didn’t have time to talk first—”
“You always have time, you just have to make it — you’re a time traveler.”
I sighed. “You know that’s not true, I have had emergencies. I have had accidents, and though I know, I one hundred percent know I need to always let someone know where I’m going, there are exceptions. I had to break the rules this time.”
She huffed. “I’m irritated with you, but glad you’re home. But still irritated with you.”
“I get it, I truly do, but I would do it again.”
“Well, you’re wrong about—” Our maid came in just then and interrupted Hayley and me, asking if I needed food.
I said, “I am so hungry, it’s like I haven’t eaten since the twentieth century. Though there was a wee bit of bannock in the eighteenth century with Fraoch.” I said to Hayley, “That’s why you should be nicer to me, I bring you word from your loving husband.”
She humphed. “Thank god, you’re finally doing something helpful. Did he send sweet messages? We’re going to go get him as soon as the supplies are gathered.”
“I hate to say it, he’s injured and it doesn’t look great, but he would not come with me to go to a doctor.”
Hayley said, “Fine, I forgive you. It was really bad?”
“I don’t know. But you need to go get him. And we need a plan for the vessels so he will actually leave that cave.”
Quentin said, “Did you happen to see Madame Sophie?”
“Wait... what?” I glanced over at James by himself leaning against the wall. “James, where’s Sophie?”
“She disappeared into the storm, someone grabbed her, right as it stopped — she was gone.”
“I didn’t see her when I was there. I’m so sorry.”
Quentin said, “Hammond and I will come up with a plan for picking up Fraoch and moving the vessels, once Magnus is out of surgery he can give us orders.”
James said, “Maybe Sophie is there again. I’ll go with you, maybe we’ll find her.”
Quentin met my eyes, he was worried of course, a missing person in time was a real worry. It was heartbreaking to wait for them to return, impossible to follow if you didn’t know exactly where they were, because where was she? When? And she had never time traveled before. I said, “Yeah, maybe she’s there, probably she is.”
I looked up at Beaty and around at all my friends. “Thank you for getting Magnus, Archie, and Isla here safely.”
I lumbered achingly to my feet while groaning a lot. Zoe was asleep in Emma’s lap but the rest of the kids were all there, wide awake, listening, “Hey, all you guys, cover your ears and close your eyes. You too Ben.”
Archie, Isla, and Ben all covered their eyes.
I whispered for all the adults, “So I killed Sir Padraig.”
They all looked astonished.
Quentin asked, “Where? When?”
“In a restaurant in Hollywood, in the year 1926. It’s going to be one of those gruesome stories that will give the restaurant a reason to have historical murder-tours for the next century.”
Quentin said, “That’s why the battle stopped in its tracks?”
“I guess so?”
Zach said, “It was crazy, the storm disappeared and the people were just gone, no more warriors, no more anything—”
James said, “No more Sophie.”
“Yeah, she got caught in the withdrawal of the troops. But if it wasn’t for that, or the fire, we might have been able to go about our business.”
“Weird.”
“Yeah, weird.”
We told the kids they could uncover their ears and eyes.