It had grown light in our room. Magnus’s hand was over mine. When I looked up he was looking down at me. “Good morn.”

“Good morning. Are you feeling better?” I pulled my hand from his.

“Much. I daena feel I need the machine anymore.” I sat up and pulled his mask off, powered down the machine, rolled the tubes up, and put it all away. Magnus watched me the whole time. I went around the bed and sorted through the cooler for his medicine and poured some ibuprofen in my hand. “Take these.” I passed him the water bottle. “Hungry?”

“Starved.” He quickly added, “Am I mistaken, is Master Quentin here?”

“I think so. I brought him or rather our staff forced me to bring him, but I haven’t seen him since yesterday when Sean came to take him to dinner.”

Magnus chuckled. “I would have verra much liked tae see him in the Great Hall his first time.“

“You’re smiling, you do feel better.”

“The physician told me I needed tae rest. I daena believe runnin’ and fightin’ and time-journeyin’ was the idea of it.”

“Yeah…”

There was a knock on the door. I jumped to answer it. Lizbeth, Sean, and Quentin were in the hall. “Just a minute.” I jogged to the bed and hid the water bottles and the machine under a blanket.

“Okay!” They all came in and Lizbeth came directly to the bedside. “Young Magnus, are ye well, or shall I send the physician in tae take the life from ye?”

Magnus chuckled. “Nae, I am well enough, daena send the physician his remedies smell like a pig’s wind.”

Sean said, “Tis good tae see ye better brother.” He sat down on the bed. “Your man has had a time in the Great Hall. Twas much drinkin’ and carryin’ on. I have been told a story of ye, that ye have been often wearin’ a pair of trews that are so tight on your caber ye must walk on your tiptoes.”

Magnus groaned.

Sean laughed. “Ye canna deny it! And this kilt ye are wearin’ brother, tis a woman’s?”

Magnus looked down and moaned. “I haena a chance tae properly clothe.”

“Your man who is black as night and haena ever seen the Highlands afore is better kilted than ye.” He clapped him on a knee. “We have a festival in a few days, ye best be up for it.” He and Lizbeth left the room.

I watched this exchange and then everything caught up with me — the fear. The racing through time. The trying-to-save Magnus’s life. Murdering a king. I sat on the settee near the hearth with tears welling up. I probably needed a lot more sleep. Like six months worth.

“Are ye all right, Kaitlyn?”

“I think I was running on sheer terror, now I just need to collapse over here.”

“Och aye,” said Magnus, “ye journeyed three times verra close. Twas heroic.”

I nodded, my face hidden in my arms on the back of the settee.

Magnus said to Quentin, “I am rather glad tae see ye, Master Quentin and I hear ye brought food, though by my count ye have been here many hours and I am still hungry as a spring bear.”

Quentin laughed. “I brought some food.” He dug through the cooler.

Magnus asked, “Ye made it tae the eighteenth century then, what dost ye think of the place?”

“First off, I kinda forgot about the whole slavery thing. I’m not used to being asked if I’m the property of someone. And come to find out I’m the only black man many of them have seen.”

“You told them ye were a friend of mine?”

“Katie told them we were like family, so my nickname now is Black MacMagnus. Not sure how I feel about that.”

Magnus held his ribs and groaned as he laughed. “Ah, ye are my son now.”

After his laughter subsided. Magnus’s voice turned serious. “What made ye decide tae come?”

Quentin’s voice lowered. “Katie was covered in blood. She was freaking out. It was—”

They both looked over at me. I kept my head down so they couldn’t see I was crying.

Magnus said, “Thank ye for your attention on the matter. I am indebted tae ye.”

Quentin said, “Don’t mention it. I’ve been working for you for over two years and finally feel like I’m doing something worth the paycheck. Speaking of it, is there something I should be guarding for?”

“Everything, Master Quentin: storms, men with murderous intent, an uncle with a grudge. Twill be verra dangerous in time, but it will take them a bit tae figure out how tae work the vessels and Lady Mairead will be a force for them tae contend with. We have a few days for me tae recover. For now I will need ye tae watch the walls.”

Magnus opened a protein bar wrapper and chewed for a moment. “How long has it been since I left?”

“A year, you’ve been gone a whole year.”

“Och, has been long…” his voice trailed off. “Would you give me and Kaitlyn a moment tae speak alone?”

“Yeah, I’ll leave this here.” There was a small pile of food packages on top of the cooler. He zipped the top closed and left the room to go stand in the hall.

Magnus said, “Kaitlyn, would ye come tae the bed?”

“I don’t really want to. I kind of need to be alone over here.”

He said, “Och,” and sat quietly for a moment then he softly asked, “I was gone for a whole year?”

“Yes.”

He slowly stood with a groan and walked to join me by the hearth. He sat in the armchair beside my settee. “I ken ye want tae be alone, but I think there has been too much of that already.”

I was sniveling with my tear-stained face and puffy red eyes. “You don’t have to take pity on me. I mean, I know I’m really desperately tragic looking, but also, as soon as you’re well enough, we’ll go, we’ll go back to Florida.”

He lowered his brow as if trying to understand my words — that familiar look that slammed into me how much I missed him. “Who will go, by ‘we,’ ye mean all of us?”

“No, I mean me and Quentin. You don’t have to come. I meant what I said last night. I’m truly sorry I followed you to the future.” I sat up and brushed the hair from my face, trying to not look as weak as I sounded. “I mean, beyond the whole ‘I had to murder someone’ sorry. I’m also sorry that I interrupted your new life…”

“Kaitlyn, I want tae be verra clear on this conversation, are ye apologizin’ for comin’ tae the future, for bein’ here now?”

“I really believed you were sending me a message. I believed you wanted me. I went to Scotland and dug up the vessel, I thought you would be waiting for me. But instead I—” I gave up trying to be strong and curled up and sobbed into my knees.

“Can ye tell me the story of it?”

“No. I can’t tell you. You don’t want to know it about me. You don’t. It was too awful and if I tell you about it, you’ll never be able to get it out of your head. I know I won’t be able to stop seeing it — being in that room, knowing there was no one coming. No one wanted to help me. I had to kill him all by myself, because no one wanted to help.”

Magnus was quiet.

“And the worst part? He looked just like you.”

Magnus scowled and looked down at his hands.

I stared at the hearth.

He had been gone a whole year.

“Tell me something — how long were you gone? What did it feel like to you?”

“I daena ken, weeks. Long enough tae feel the pain of not havin’ ye.”

“Bullshit, that’s not long enough. Not long enough to have another woman, Magnus. Not. Long. Enough.”

“Och, finally, tis the story behind your words.”

I mocked him in his own voice. “‘Aye, Kaitlyn, ye found me out.’” I looked him directly in the eye. “You deserted me and then you had a mistress. I know because he told me about it while he had his filthy hands on me. He told me that you weren’t going to rescue me because you had a new woman now.”

“Dost ye want tae ken the story of it?”

“What are you going to say? That you left me but you were trying to get home? That the woman didn’t mean anything? It does. It means so much that you did that. You left and waited mere weeks and then got another woman to replace me.”

Magnus sat quietly.

He started to speak then stopped and started and stopped again. “I winna say she meant nothing. She meant a great many things tae me. She meant I might survive. She meant I had a chance tae kill the king. She meant that if I followed her word I would get tae have a vessel so I could see ye again. I meant it when I said I was coming home tae ye. Always.”

“So you were with another woman for me? I wish I didn’t know this about you. I wish you would lie and tell me it didn’t happen. I wish I never went there and now I wish I never saw you again.”

Magnus winced. “Ye daena mean that.”

I sniffled. “I don’t know what I mean. Beyond that I don’t know anything anymore. I’m so fucking angry that this happened to me.”

“I wouldna want tae lie tae ye, Kaitlyn. And I daena want tae excuse the wrong that I have done tae ye, but I haena taken another woman in the manner ye speak of — I was a prisoner just as ye were. I wanted tae stay alive.” Then he said, “And ye ken why I left, Kaitlyn.”

“I did. I used to, but now… It was a whole year and none of it makes sense anymore. You abandoned me.” I took a deep breath. “What do you mean, you were really a prisoner?”

“Aye, Donnan kept me locked in my rooms. I was only allowed to leave tae train or tae fight. When I left my rooms I was bound by the wrists. Then she came tae me and offered tae help me. She had a plan tae kill Donnan, but when I agreed tae help she turned it against me and threatened tae tell him…”

He looked at me across the space. “Ye ken the feeling, Kaitlyn, tae have tae do something tae stay alive?”

“Yes, I wanted to stay alive too.”

“I am glad of it. Whether ye hate me or love me, I am glad ye kept livin’.”

“I am so furious with you.”

“You have a right tae be. I winna argue with ye on it.”

I huffed at him. “I’m glad you’re still alive too.”

His voice got really soft. “And even if ye wish ye never saw me again, I am grateful for the chance tae tell ye of it. That I love ye, mo reul-iuil. I haena thought of anything but you.”

I looked across the space at him. His face etched with sadness.

I looked away. “I will likely have a scar down my cheek. I haven’t looked at it yet. I probably look terrible.” A tear slid down my nose.

“I daena see a scar, I see Kaitlyn Campbell. She has battled and won. Tis a story tae your face and a courage I am verra proud of.”

“It was really scary.”

“Aye. When we were leavin’ the castle, I saw the room, Kaitlyn. I can believe that ye were terrified. Twas brutal. And I ken ye say I have much the same face as him but I would beg ye tae look on me without seein’ him. I canna alter who he was, but I can be a different sort of man. And I will, I will strive tae be, but twould be terrible if ye canna get past the fact that I am his son. Tae lose ye tae that would be unbearable.”

His words were calming me, soothing me. I pulled in a deep breath.

He continued, “I am sorry I dinna send ye the message. That I wasna waitin’ for ye when you arrived. That I dinna save ye from the horror of killin’ a man. And I ken the despair, I have been inside of it — he made me fight tae the death against men I had nae quarrel with. Tis hard tae forgive myself for. But even when the man has deserved it, twill still take a long time tae forgive yourself.”

I rested my cheek on my knees. “I really, really missed you.”

“A year is a verra long time. I missed ye too. I ken the length of time I passed was shorter, but daena mean I felt it less.”

I nodded.

“I am feelin’ a lack of wind again. I may need tae lie down. Quentin also promised some ice cream…”

“I’ll dig through the cooler and see if I can find it.”