Page 55 of Only a Breath Away

Archie tucked his head back to my side.

Isla asked, “What’s risk?”

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times. “Tis verra hard tae explain.”

Archie said, “Isla, it’s like this, if you want a cookie and you want to go get it, maybe Uncle Zach will be mad if he catches you up on the ladder.”

She said, “Like yesterday.”

He said, “Aye. So when you climb up on the ladder you have a reward that is a cookie. You have a risk that Uncle Zach will catch you.”

I said, “That is a verra good explanation, Archie, thank ye,” to Isla I said, “Ye hae been stealing cookies?”

She hooked a pudgy hand under her arm, and humphed lookin’ verra much like her mother. Then she sounded like me by sayin’, “I was hungwy.”

I said, “I have risked a lot in my days because I was hungry, I understand. Just ask first, Chef Zach will probably give ye a cookie if ye ask.”

We sat quietly for a moment and then I said, “So that is what I mean, I am takin’ a risk, I am going tae go find yer mom.”

Archie asked, “Do I want to know what the risk is?”

“Nae, it would be better if we just hugged and if ye would listen when I tell ye that I love ye. I am verra proud of ye, and that ye will hold my words inside ye.”

He threw his arms around my neck. “I love you, too.”

We hugged verra tightly and then I put out an arm for Isla and she hugged us, too. Then she said, “I love you too, Dada.”

Archie let go so I could center the hug around Isla. I said, “I ken ye do, bairn.” I took her face in my hands. “Did ye ken that I was the first person on earth tae hold ye? I was. We hae a special bond ye and I. Tis how ye ken what I am thinking.”

She nodded. “Now you are thinking you will miss me when you are away.”

“Ye always ken my mind.” She hugged me again. I stood and then we walked up the dock tae the shore.

She pointed down in the muck of the shoreline. “Do ye see the wee fishes, Da?”

I crouched down tae look. She said, “They don’t know they are wee fish in a lake, they think they are in the whole world. If I splash a rock into the water they will swim away and their life goes on. They come right back and they don’t remember what happened. They have tiny brains.”

We laughed. Though my laughter covered a heavy heart. I knew I was about to dislodge our world with a rock thrown right into the middle and prayed that somehow I would find a way tae come back.

CHAPTER 45 - MAGNUS

Lady Mairead and I jumped tae the year 1589. We made sure tae land well away from Dunscaith castle, but also away from the village, and then we walked along a path with a view of the coast. Colonel Quentin had mapped our route and warned us about the frigid weather. It was a verra cold day, a high contrast tae the warmth of the summer day when we had left Maine.

The sky was gray and dreary, the wind brutally cold. As we climbed the hill we were cautious, Quentin having warned us that the men from the castle might come tae fight us if James was here causin’ trouble.

Lady Mairead said, “Ye hae yer rifle? We need tae be able tae take men out afore they get tae the crest of the hill.”

“I hae what I need.”

“Good.”

Lady Mairead kept her head down, walking alongside me. She wore a gun, but she wouldna draw it, tellin’ me it wasna her style.

We were coming tae the crest and found in the distance, against a gloomy sky, under a hilltop tree, a lone person.

It was James Cook staring out over the landscape, Dunscaith castle beyond, dark and foreboding.

Lady Mairead and I strode up. “What ye doin’, Master Cook?”

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