Page 126 of Promises to Keep

“A ten.”

“Then gather your things and go.”

Quentin said, “Oh my God, thank you.” He dropped into the empty chair. “Thank you, okay.” He wiped his eyes. “I had this whole thing about how Magnus would not want me and Beaty to be—”

My eyes misted over. “You are correct, Magnus wouldneverwant you to be this nervous, or for Beaty to be in this position. If he had any idea it would be this stressful for you he would never allow it to go on like this — how do we make it safe?”

“I was thinking… she’s bedridden right now, but it’s still early, right, Emma? Is ittooearly?”

She said, “Not really, with the right care...”

Lizbeth walked up just then. “Ye are speaking on Madame Beaty? I was thinking ye needed tae discuss it, she looks tae hae a pallor. I daena want tae overstep but I believe she is having trouble.”

Quentin nodded and clapped his hands on his knees. “Exactly, I’m going to take her to a hospital. I’ll go to the one in North Carolina, I was stationed there back in the day. I know my way around.”

Hayley said, “I’ll go with you. And before you say no, you need a second, and no one else ought to leave, but me… I can leave.”

I said, “Are you sure? It’s dangerous.”

“I’m sure. If he doesn’t have a second, we won’t know what happened. If he and Beaty stay there, I can come back to let you know. It makes perfect sense. We need James and Zach here, you’ll be down to the two of them, guarding all of you.”

“And Sean and Liam and all the Balloch guards.”

“You know what I mean. I’ll go. I need to be useful, I’m going crazy not knowing what’s happening to Fraoch.”

“No benders. No going rogue. No taking up with a street gang and fancy party-dueling in the road.”

“Never, except the street gang, I’ve always wanted to do something like that.”

Quentin said, “We’re decided? ‘Cause I’m leaving now.”

A few minutes later he was carrying Beaty down the steps of the castle and I was shocked. I knew she hadn’t been feeling well, but to see her carried out… she looked very unwell. She muttered that her head hurt terribly, and Emma said, “Hopefully it’s not preeclampsia.”

James and Hayley and Sean would pull them by cart to the clearing.

I asked, “You have your wallet? Your phone?” as Quentin passed through the gates.

He nodded. “And I have her passport.”

I hugged Hayley goodbye. She said, “If Fraoch comes while I’m gone tell him not to move, I’ll be right back, I’m trying to be a good auntie.”

“I’m proud of you.”

I didn’t get a chance to hug Quentin, he was busy, worried, frantic. If ever a man needed a hug it was in times like this, but he didn’t need the weakness of it, he was in commander-mode: his eyes focused, his plan firm. He was going to jump, he would get up fast, he was going to call a car and get Beaty to the hospital.

And then they were gone.

I went up the steps to the open window on the upper floor and watched the hills over the castle. I could see the clearing from here, a pale dip in the deep green of the woods. My hair back, a head covering, a tartan wrap, long skirts, a loose bodice over my rounded stomach, I had become a part of the eighteenth century. I was wistful, as my friends left for the twenty-first century, but I didn’t want to go, not really, not if it put my family at risk. I was safe, secure, grown used to a rare cup of coffee with some raw milk and the horribly bland food, the interminable boredom of the long days and nights.

A storm rose over the woods.

In three hundred years a storm would rise over the woods in North Carolina.

I said a prayer that we were the only ones who would notice.

CHAPTER 61 - HAYLEY

Quentin washed as much medieval grime as he could get off in the bathroom of the hospital and went into the exam room with her, then he met me in the waiting room. I felt entirely toomedievalto sit in one of their chairs. He said, “She needs to have the baby, they say she’s close enough to her due date so they want to induce — you have any idea what I’m talking about?”

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