The Guardian by Diana Knightley

Eight - Kaitlyn

Iloved dawn here. My room had a nice window and light fell upon my bed just when I needed to get up so it wasn’t obtrusive, it was a gentle wake up. I had proper sheets and a mattress, everyone in the castle did. It was one of the perks of living with a king from a distant land.

Magnus was already up on the walls. He loved the morning watch, as the sun peeked over the land. Fraoch loved the night watch. James and Quentin liked the day. Zach made sure all the troops were fed, and guarded when he was needed. So they had organized an efficient rotation that suited most everyone, and there were extra men from the castle and the surrounding environs to fill in when necessary. We had men in the stables, women in the kitchen, young boys and women doing the work of the castle. A great many mouths to feed. A great many people who we had to hide our modern lives from, but sheets, and comfortable mattresses were something we decided to share along with the proper shoes.

We kept any lights or other ‘magical’ things well hidden.

But also, Magnus and Fraoch and Sean and Lizbeth were well liked and admired by the parish minister. He was a kindly man, respected by all. He was happy and healthy and greatly liked his new mattress as well, and the occasional largesse from Magnus — fine food and drink. And of course we were all regularly at church. Magnus managed to keep the villagers comfortable enough that no one complained about him.

He was easily the wealthiest person in the entire world in that year.

If he needed more, one of us could go and get it, but we weren’t doing that right now. We were not traveling. We were staying close to home, over three months already.

The pool of sunlight on my face was warming. Then, like every morning since arriving, my lady’s maid knocked. “Queen Kaitlyn, Mistress Isla is comin’ through the—”

Isla burst into my room. She rushed to the bed and climbed up.

“Mama, come food?”

I was surrounded by sheets with her fresh face grinning down on me. I said, “Mama must first wash her face and get lovely for the day. Do you want to go eat or wait...?”

Like most mornings she said, “Wait.”

Then she watched as I washed up and my maid helped me dress. Then she lost interest, climbed off the bed, and said, “Go eat!”

And I said, “I’ll be down in a moment.”

I knew she would be followed by the maid out to the hall and somehow her father would sense she was about. Most mornings he would find her in the hallway, and by the time I was presentable enough, my children and husband would be down at breakfast.

The only thing that would make any of this better would be to have a coffee maker in the room. The prospect of putting on layers of skirts and tightly laced dresses every single day really required caffeine.

When I got down to breakfast Magnus was helping Isla get butter on her oatmeal. I said, teasingly, “How’d you two meet up?”

Magnus said, “I thought, I am hungry, I should go tae breakfast and I found her in the hallway thinkin’ the same thing. We hae the same stomach, daena we, wee’un?”

Isla nodded, pointing at the butter. “More.”

We all carried our oatmeal to a table where Archie and Ben were already eating. Hayley and Fraoch walked in, fully dressed, as if ready to ride.

“Where are you going?” My eyes were wide because there had been no plans.

Hayley said, “Glencoe, of course. There’s a storm!”

Magnus, Fraoch, and Quentin stood at the edge of the room, holding bowls of oatmeal, spooning it into their mouths, discussing Fraoch’s trip.

Hayley was buzzing around packing, organizing, and discussing with Emma what needed to be done in her absence.

As Hayley hurried by carrying a bedroll, I asked, “So how long will you be gone?”

“At most a week, Fraoch and Magnus are deciding on a date we need to return by.”

I looked around to make sure I wasn’t overheard. “And you can’t take a vessel?”

Hayley stopped, hands on hips, “As you know, and this is your rule — vessels are off limits without damn good reason.”

“Sure, but I’m kind of used to everyone going to bed under the same roof, not sure I’m ready for you to go gallivanting around.”

“Well, I am ready, man, am I ready. I can’t wait to gallivant upon hill and dale. It’s going to be grand. You’re just going to miss me. That’s what’s got you all weird this morning. I will miss you too.”

“You’re an adventure junkie.”

“That’s what sober does to a gal, I suppose. Any-who, we can’t use the vessel anyway, because whoever is activating a vessel in Glencoe is doing one of two things, probably doing it remotely, like Donnan did, right? So it’s someone looking for the vessel. We need to get there first, but if we jump in with our own vessel they will see us arrive, through their monitoring. Or some layperson has found the vessel and is messing with it, turning it on and off trying to figure it out. Either way, a vessel being played with — Fraoch and I are going to go find it.”

“You’re not taking anyone else with you?”

“Nope, everyone else needs to be here, and don’t worry about us, we are heavily armed. We will have a monitor, and we will have the two-way radios. At that distance, we won’t be able to reach you here, but coming and going we’ll be able to connect. We’re ready for all emergencies.”

I teased, “You’re just excited you get to use lights at night.”

“Hell yeah, for the chance to listen to my downloaded Spotify playlist and use a flashlight in a tent and pretend to be a twenty-first century girl on a camping trip for a few days? Heck yeah, I’ll go on an overnight to Glencoe.”

“It sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”

“Yeah, probably not, but that’s okay. I’ve grown used to chaos management by now.”

“Time travel sucks.”

“I was talking about being an owner of a temp agency.”

I laughed. “That was so long ago. You gave up that job for a cushy life as a wife of a Highlander.”

“I wouldn’t change a thing.”

I hugged her, and kissed her cheek goodbye.