We snuck out of our room and crept up the stairs to the upper floor, trying to be quiet, because Zach would —

Zach stuck his head from his door. “Magnus, sir, do you need anything?”

Magnus chuckled, “Chef Zach, you art a good man. I would like a beer brought tae the office. Kaitlyn?”

“I’d like one too Zach, thank you.”

“No problem, Emma and I are just watching TV.”

Once I asked Zach why he jumped up to ask if we needed anything, day or night, and he told me it was the least he could do. “Magnus pays me really well, I mean, you and Magnus pay me really well. And Emma. And we live here — we have no bills. And all I have to do is cook meals. That’s it. I figure if Magnus needs something in the middle of the night that’s easy enough.”

In the office Magnus sat behind the desk, I pulled up a chair beside and put my feet in his lap. A moment later Zach appeared with two beers, a platter of cheese, and a small pile of cookies. Magnus laughed. “You know my tastes.”

I laughed too. “And mine, the chocolate cookies are definitely for me. What are you and Emma watching?”

“She’s making me watch the Crown. We watched the Walking Dead, and now we have to watch what she wants to watch.” Zach said to Magnus, “It’s about Queen Elizabeth. The second.” He chuckled as he left the room.

Magnus watched him go. “Tis an odd thing for Chef Zach tae say. You dinna think he knows do ye?”

“I’ve noticed he makes some odd jokes like that, and he is very high right now.”

“High?”

“Yes, he’s been smoking pot. Or wait, probably eating it. I don’t know, and I’ve never asked to join in. They do it at night, off work, of course.”

“What is it, you haena explained fully.”

“It’s marijuana, a drug that makes you giddy and floaty, a little like alcohol.”

“Ah, but merry-wina dinna explain whether he knows I have journeyed through time.”

“I’ll call him back in. This will be fun.”

I crossed the room and stuck my head into the hall. “Zach, can you come in here?”

Zach entered a moment later. His eyes were bloodshot, and he hid a giggle between his pursed lips.

“Zach, what year is it?”

“2017.”

“What year is it for Magnus?”

He looked at me warily. “I don’t know, um 2017?” He clamped his lips between his teeth.

“You can speak freely. Magnus knows what year he was born in. I know what year he was born in. Maybe you would like to make a guess?”

“Like 1774 or something. I don’t get it, but like from a long, long, long fucking time ago — he’s old as the hills. Oops, sorry sir, Magnus sir, you’re young of course, like twenty-three, but you seem to be from a long time ago, probably. I mean if those things weren’t improbably impossible.”

Magnus met my eyes. “I am older than that. I was born in the year sixteen eighty one.”

Zach said, “Whoa seriously? I’m right? Are you shitting me? Like really?” He grabbed a chair, pulled it to the desk, and leaned in. “How? Are you guys fooling me?” He looked to each of our faces.

I shook my head. Magnus shook his too.

“Emma is going to be so pissed. I told her, and she told me I was crazy. But I knew it.”

I asked, “When did you figure it out?”

“One night Emma and I had just gotten this job, and we were up talking, and it came to me. Since then I’ve just believed it more and more. Whoa, that is so cool.”

“We can’t explain it right now. We have things we’re talking about, and we need you to keep this just between you and Emma and us. Even if other people guess, I need you to deny it, okay? But I think it is helpful that you know because you can help deflect questions.”

“Sure, of course. I would love to know though, is it like a witchcraft kind of Harry Potter magic, or like Star Trek kind of space and time jumping?”

“Let’s go with Star Trek. Right, Magnus?”

Magnus shrugged. “I haena any idea what ye are talking of.”

Zach said, “See? Anybody can figure it out.” He started to leave.

I asked, “Hey Zach, do you have any extra pot, maybe Magnus can try a bit?”

His eyes went wide. “Um, to be honest, I don’t know what the correct answer is.”

“You’re not in trouble, Magnus’s just never tried it, and I thought he might like to.”

Magnus asked, “He could buy some for me at the store?”

“No, it’s illegal.”

Zach shifted his feet. “Promise I’m not in trouble?”

“I promise.”

He disappeared down the hall and brought back a small brownie. “You may want to split this, it’s potent.”

“Thanks Zach, that’s all.”

After Zach left the room, Magnus said, “Why would a cookie be illegal?”

“I’m not sure how to explain that without some kind of history of the world and since it will need to include Harry Potter and Star Trek too, we might better save it for another day. Pot is becoming legal in many places. California for instance.” He leaned forward to break off some brownie. “Wait on that Magnus, until we discuss what you need my help for.”

“Och aye.” Magnus took a swig of beer and turned to the safe. “I need your help with understanding the vessel.”

He twisted the safe’s lock back and forth and opened the door. Inside was a small fabric bundle. He gingerly placed it on the desk, untied the fabric, unwrapped it, and spread it open. In the middle was the small tube he had been carrying when he time-jumped a few days earlier. It was metal. In size it was a lot like a Red Bull energy drink can, no logo, very shiny, perfectly formed. The ends had no lip, no seams. It stayed stationary and didn’t roll.

“This is it? Does it open or anything?”

“Aye. I twist it in the middle and lights shine forth. Then the vessel warms up and tis as if it melts. The shape transforms into a fit for your hand. Much like quicksilver. Then it rips ye from your own time.”

I poked it.

“Pray daena touch, Kaitlyn.”

“But touching it doesn’t make you time jump, right?”

“Nae, ye have tae recite many numbers as well. But I daena touch it to be safe.”

“Okay, but what numbers?”

“I have already taught ye some of them when I taught ye tae use the safe.”

“So they’re the same, it’s like a combination lock.”

“And then I come forward or go back in time. But always tae the same location and there is my problem. I arrive on the grounds of Castle Talsworth, the home of Lord Delapointe. And the journey is terribly painful. When I returned tae my time, in the middle of the castle grounds, I was captured easily. I couldna mount a defense I was so weak. The men that came forward through time the day after our wedding were so weak I fought them easily—"

“That was easy?”

“Aye,” he said solemnly. “I am trying tae figure how tae journey to a different place. I could rest until I am able tae fight. I would much like tae arrive at Balloch. I could convince Uncle Baldie and my cousins tae help me mount an attack. But I daena understand where the controls are, how tae alter the vessel’s course.”

I poked the box again. It rolled, a tiny bit, but righted itself, or pulled short. Despite Magnus’s groan I picked it up and placed it in the palm of my hand.

“Where did it come from?”

“My father gave them tae my mother when I was a wee bairn.”

“Where is he now? He could probably explain it to you—"

“He is deceased.”

I squinted my eyes. “Really?”

“Lady Mairead told me he is.”

“Hmmmmm. The problem with that is she’s not to be trusted. He’s likely a time traveler, what if he returned to the future-future?”

Magnus stared at me.

“It makes sense right? If he traveled back in time to bring you the vessels and died there, the whole thing would be screwy. I think he may have returned to the future.”

“My father may be alive?”

“Well, not yet. But in the time where they make tech like this. Someday.”

“They daena have tech such as this here?”

I smiled. “No, this is way advanced. Way past an iPhone. Time travel is impossible. As a matter of fact it’s so impossible that no one will ever believe you. Except Zach of course.”

“And ye.”

“I married you before I found out. Now it’s the only thing that makes sense, but if someone had told me this when I first met you I would never have believed it. Time travel is completely impossible.”

“Thank ye for believing me.”

“Well, it’s the only explanation for the fact that you have never seen a television before.”

He smiled. “I knew there was much I dinna figure, but…”

The vessel was solid metal, but also had a bit of vibration. Like it was alive, filled with a hum. It felt like it was on the edge of changing to something else. And the interior moved, or spun. I just couldn’t feel it with my senses. Almost like I felt it inside my body instead of on my palm.

He said, “Maybe if I took a horse through with me, as those men did. I might be better able tae fight.”

I nodded. “You could, but still, the whole fighting-as-soon-as-you-get-there thing has me really… You say it’s very painful?”

“As if your soul has been ripped from the body and then stitched back in.” His brow drew down as he said it.

I gulped. “So you could take a horse. But more importantly it would be good to program this vessel to a different landing place. What if the numbers could be changed, perhaps that would—Let’s see there’s a three—”

“Kaitlyn! Daena say them!”

“Okay, yeah, sorry.” I rolled the vessel gently to the fabric on the desk. “Ummm, and Lady Mairead never told you that there were more numbers, a different order, anything else?”

“She only gave me these. Though she is nae tae be—"

“Trusted. Yeah, exactly.”

We sat for a few moments. “Maybe you have to jump from a different place here to get back there. We could drive west, plot it on a map; you could jump from Tallahassee or something. The only way to know for sure is to test it, scientifically.”

“I would prefer nae tae land in the ocean. I am nae a strong swimmer.”

“Oh God, I didn’t even think of that. Yes, no landing in the ocean. Can you show me where in Scotland the castle is where you appear?” I pulled the laptop to my knees and opened a map of Scotland. Magnus described where the castle would be. I found the general area, then looked on Wikipedia and found the closest town. The town’s main page listed the ruined castle as an ‘interesting historic walk.’ I hit the plus sign four or five times until I came to a satellite image of overgrown fields around a low ruined stone wall. I took a deep breath and turned the laptop toward Magnus.

“Tis a ruin.”

“Yep.”

“The castle that has caused so much of my misery. Where I have been beaten and imprisoned that houses my enemy — tis a ruin. I should feel good, but all my life is a ruin. Maybe I am even buried there under the years of earth.”

“Magnus, don’t talk like that. I can’t bear it.”

“I think, when I am gone this time, ye should look for my name in the histories. Find out how I have died. It might answer your questions, mo reul-iuil.”

“I won’t. You’re alive. If you’re in Scotland in 1702, or here, you’re alive in both places, at the same time. I won’t talk about your death. I won’t.”

I jotted down the latitude and longitude of the castle and the latitude and longitude of Amelia Island, hoping to make some sort of sense of the numbers, but only one number was similar. I couldn’t trust a pattern. “Where would you like to go, if my terribly uneducated plan works?”

“To Balloch Castle, my uncle will help me gather men.”

I googled the name and found a new building, Taymouth Castle, had been built on top of the old. It was gorgeous. The wealth was astonishing, all these years later. It made me feel a little better that some of Magnus’s past didn’t end in defeat. “How many castles like this are there?”

“Too many tae count. My family, our family, is verra powerful. It has angered my cousins greatly that they canna keep my mother safe. But she haena told them of the secrets she is keeping.”

I plotted the points of Balloch castle and Amelia Island and using my calculator came up with numbers that I jotted down on scrap paper. I checked my numbers three times. “I feel like someone with some knowledge of cartography should double check this before we rely on it, but I think I know where we could try. This little town outside of the Osceola National Forest, here.” I pointed at the screen.

“I could ride there by horse and then—"

I shook my head. “We’ll take the horse by trailer. It will take an hour or so. I’ll drive. We’ll kiss goodbye like civilized people, and then you’ll go. I’ll load your pockets with all the guns you can carry.” On my list, below the numbers, the name of the town, “rent a horse trailer,” and “kiss goodbye,” I wrote “guns” and circled it twice.

“Nae, I canna carry guns. Tis too dangerous. I am trying tae keep your weapons away from the past.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” I drew an angry deep line through the word. “But we still kiss goodbye.”

“Aye, because our marriage is nae horseshit.”

“True.” I leaned back in the chair. He bundled up the vessel, carefully replaced it in the middle of our safe, and closed the door with a slam. He leaned back in his chair. I put my feet on his pajama clad thighs. Plaid, because I thought it was funny when I asked Emma to order them. “When will you go?”

“Soon mo reul-iuil, verra soon.”

“On that note.” I reached for the brownie, split it down the middle, and passed him half. We ate and then swigged from our beers.

He said, “Shall I order more beer?”

“Let’s head down to our room, we can grab our own when we pass the fridge.”

“Chef Zach will be outraged if I do things for myself.”

We clamored down the stairs with Zach calling behind us, “Need anything, Magnus, sir?”

Magnus chuckled. “Nae, Kaitlyn and I are just taking beers for our room, thank ye.” We grabbed two more beers and tucked into our bed.