I woke to a bone-chilling cold. Far worse than in the middle of the night. Dawn was the coldest I had ever been. I could see my breath while we were under the blankets. Magnus built a fire, yet still I had to leave the bed to get near it. And yes, my lip balm lid was chewed and the stick of it gone. That rat was a total jerk.

While I dressed and then Magnus tightened the laces on my back, he went over what we needed to accomplish. He said, “You need tae ask Lady Mairead where Lord Delapointe Is keeping his vessel. It must be there in the castle. Also ask her where the third vessel is. She must have hidden it somewhere. Then you need tae—“

“I need to make a list. I suppose paper and pencil would be too much trouble? Wait, I have my phone. But I don’t want to run down the battery.”

“In case ye need tae make a call?” We both laughed.

“I hate phone lists anyways, I can’t cross through the entries.”

He continued. “If he winna let ye see her, I need tae know if Lady Mairead is imprisoned. If so, try to determine where in the castle she is being kept. Perhaps we can plan an escape…”

I turned and he pushed up my breasts as he tightened the cord on the front. “You’re getting good at this.”

“I greatly prefer the undressing, but your cleavage is a hint of what is under there. Tis verra nice.”

“You’re a scoundrel.”

“You’re my wife. I consider myself lucky I find ye so attractive. Could be far worse. You could have the face of a pig.” He leaned down and kissed me on the top of my jiggling cleavage.

“That is not my face, sir Magnus.”

He grinned and then returned to the list. “If you have the chance tae get Delapointe’s vessel, get your hands on it and journey home. I will be right behind ye. If you canna get tae the vessel, run out of the castle, I will be waitin’. And we both go back together with the one I have in my sporran.”

I nodded. It all made sense, complicated, but reasonable. Except the part where I left without him, but what were the odds I’d have Lord Delapointe’s vessel, anyway?

He added, “Come out by nine at night.”

“Okay, easy.”

He held my waist and looked in my eyes. “Not easy. Hard. Lady Mairead is nae tae be trusted, but her brother, the Earl? He is trustworthy, yet verra slippery. He is always playin’ a game, always strategizin’. He loves a battlefield. He will play us all like soldiers without worryin’ a bit about our lives. And for sport he likes to pit people against each other. If he is helpin’ us, tis because he wants somethin’ in return.”

“It couldn’t just be that he wants to not look weak? Lord Delapointe Is holding his sister and held his nephew. It serves him to look strong to demand knowledge of their whereabouts.”

“True, but watch him. There will be ulterior motives. If anything happens in the walls of the castle I will climb them tae get tae ye.” He handed me a knife.

“Is this yours?”

He nodded and gestured for me to raise my skirts. He strapped the knife just below my knee. Then he used soot from the hearth to scuff all over the tops of my too rubber, too new, too-foreign sneakers.

We stood still and looked at each other. “I know ye have agreed Kaitlyn, but I have tae ask again — please, go. If you have a vessel in your hands, go.”

“What if you need me? I have those mad fighting skills.”

He half-smiled. “I know ye are being funny. I am good at fighting though, remember I can handle myself. I can.” He pulled my chin up and looked me in the eyes. “You daena need tae save me. Save yourself. Please.”

I nodded.

“Do ye promise?”

“I promise.”

He kissed me sweetly.

We descended to the great hall to get some thick and crusty, rock-hard bread for breakfast. I wished desperately for some coffee, but wishes don’t work with the impossible.

We went to the stables. It was very, very ice cold outside. I was wrapped in two wool shawls, but my feet were ice cubes. We each got a horse. Problem was, I was afraid to ride by myself. And my horse reared unhappily, menacingly, whenever I tried to get near it.

Magnus would ride with me on his horse. We would lead mine.

We waited on the path, seated on Magnus’s horse, for his Uncle and his six men to join us. But after a short while only two men appeared over the hill. Magnus grunted. “Tis only Sean and Ewan.”

He turned our horse to meet them.

Ewan’s face was blackened blue, swollen, and scabbed. He wore an angry scowl. Thankfully, he kept his eyes averted from my face. Sean, big and burly and gregarious, spoke in Gaelic at great speed about something while Magnus’s face drew serious.

He explained to me, “The Earl canna attend ye tae the castle. He has been called away because of an uprising and canna afford tae spare the extra men. I am again with two. You have only two men tae go tae the castle with ye. And one of them is Ewan. I told the Earl I winna stand for him being in your company, but he has either forgotten or daena care.”

Sean spoke in English for my benefit. “It will be good Mags. Look at me, the Earl has made sure ye have the best men. We will take care of Kaitlyn for ye.”

Magnus scowled. “Sean — if anythin’ happens.”

“What could happen, Mags? Ewan is the favored nephew of the Earl of Breadalbane. You are my brother. We will protect your wife as our own.”

Magnus agreed, apprehensively. Ewan and Sean mounted horses and we all headed east toward Talsworth castle.

At first the dirt road was wide and flat and accommodating. Magnus and I rode beside Sean, and the two brothers talked and laughed a lot. Ewan rode behind, quiet and sullen. Then as time passed, the road became smaller, increasingly rutted, and more difficult to traverse. We rode in single file: Sean, then Ewan, then me and Magnus riding behind. We lost them occasionally and caught up. Or rode faster, passed them, and waited for them to catch up. The conversations between Sean and Magnus were hilarious. They told long stories unbelievable stories about adventures that would surely have killed them if the stories had been true.

Ewan was surly, but no one seemed concerned about it, as if it was simply his personality, and not the behavior of a rapist monster who should be in jail. I was very bitter and hated him a lot.

Occasionally we passed farms. The road broadened. The fields looked much like fields from my time. For a while the road turned around a loch. The air was colder. The wind blustered, but when we entered woods the air warmed a bit. Magnus said, “We are only an hour away now.” I wondered how he knew his way.

We had a moment alone and Magnus said, “I have been wantin’ tae ask ye somethin’.”

“That sounds serious.”

“Tis. I canna get it off my mind.”

I steeled myself for a big important something. “Okay, ask.”

“The other night, Chef Zach made Buffalo Wings. I have been thinking on them since. I saw a buffalo hide while I was in London once and canna figure about the wings.”

Luckily my head was turned so he couldn’t see my stifled laughter. “They’re actually chicken wings. The recipe came from a city, Buffalo, New York.”

“Ah. So the buffalo dinna have wings, makes more sense.”

“When we get home, I’ll take you to the Jacksonville Zoo, show you all the animals. But you saw a hide?”

“Och aye, a hide and some other treasures from the new world. They were on display at court.”

“Last night you told the Earl that you hadn’t been at court.”

“I haena discovered what side he will end up on. At times he has been on the side of the monarchy, but now that King William has passed I dinna ken he will be a Jacobite. If he thinks I have been a friend of the monarchy, he may well think my side has been decided. Tis dangerous tae have my side decided by someone else.”

“It sounds really complicated. I kind of wished I had paid attention in my history classes. Though this is British history, American history is different.”

“Och aye, perchance when we get home we ought tae do some learnin’ on it, see what side I ended on.”

“The past tense in that sentence kind of freaks me out.”

“I am the past. Tis nae sensible tae deny the truth.”

“I guess since I’m here, I’m the past too. Oh man, what if I looked myself up, and I’m in the history books? That’s super freaky.”

“I canna bear the thought of ye ending here, mo reul-iuil. Let us please talk of other things.”

“Okay, buffalo wings then, that’s really what you’ve been thinking about?”

“And ice cream and pasta and—“

“Chocolate and coffee.”

“Aye, coffee.”

Finally we reached the end of the forest. At a low stone wall, beside a large oak tree, we all came to a halt.

Magnus said, “You will need tae ride alone now.”

“Yeah, sure, okay.”

Magnus dropped from his horse and I slid into his arms. Who was going to do this for me?

Magnus said, “I will wait here, until nine. If you arna returned I will come get ye. In the odd chance I find myself scaling walls, while ye find ye’self escapin’, return tae this spot. I will leave ye a message here, just under this rock, see?” He pushed aside a bush that stood at the inside corner of the wall.

“Also, see this tree?” He pointed up at the branches.

“And then look back at the castle, see the line of the wall there, note the size?”

I said, “Worst case scenario. I’ll get back here.”

“And ye journey. Just go, I will follow.”

I started to say no, but stopped. “Okay, worst case, I come here by myself and I journey home, by myself.”

“Worst case,” he agreed. He held my horse, talked calmly to it in Gaelic, and heaved me from behind up into the seat. Harder than before because I was wearing thirty pounds of wool clothing.

Sean joked, “Not much use for horse riding in the West Indies?”

Magnus adjusted a buckle. “Their horses are smaller and faster. They are called Mustangs. Kaitlyn is quite adept at driving them. But these speak Gaelic and are higher than she is used tae.”

“Ah, perhaps our new relations could ship one tae me. I should like tae add it tae my stables.”

Magnus helped me shove my foot into the stirrups, impossible to see under my skirt. I was definitely incompetent. Anyone could see. “I’ll have my father send a Mustang along with the sugar for the Earl.”

Next Magnus spoke to Ewan, his words loud, guttural, and angry. Ewan answered his words short and snarling. Sean aimed his horse between them, parting them, and pulled alongside me. He said something in Gaelic, short and clipped like a bark that caused Ewan to quiet with a scowl.

Magnus handed my reigns to Sean and patted me on the thigh. “I will be here when ye return. Be safe, mo reul-iuil.”

I nodded and Sean, Ewan, and I turned and trotted out of the forest toward looming Talsworth leaving Magnus. He stood forlorn watching me go. He had my vessel, the only way to return to my century. And I was headed the opposite direction. I was terrified, no matter what I said yesterday. The last thing I wanted to do was live here eating rabbits.