Page 104 of Promises to Keep

She took another sip of her tea. “Ye remember when I first spoke tae ye about how ye ought tae get married and rule yer family?”

“Yes, you told me I ought to pick a man who suits me and who furthered my aims, and I must marry him. Then I could rule a household.”

“Twas before I kent ye were going tae be married tae Magnus. I advised ye tae be a strong woman who ruled her husband, without considering it might be my son and I never dreamed ye were going tae be as good at it as ye are. I hae always found it unsettling that ye hae taken my spot at the head of the family, ye should hae been incompetent. I can never forgive ye for having been so triumphant.” She tilted her head. “Even when your triumph has led tae good outcomes for my son and grandchildren, I still feel spiteful for it.But... I hae grown tae respect ye.” She shrugged. “I wish I could be more selfless, but tis hard tae find comfort in that my son’s success has come more from you than from myself. And now... now I am auld, I am beaten, ye ought nae hate me as much as ye do — ye hae won. Tae hate me…” She shook her head. “Some might find it near gloating. Tis unbecoming of a queen.”

I exhaled. “I will try not to gloat.” Then I added, “I might not be a queen anymore....”

“Yer husband will ride intae battle, he will win the kingdom for ye and yer coming son—”

I interrupted to say, “Archie. Archie is in line for the throne. I adopted him, he is my son.”

She exhaled. “Of course, Archie is next in line. But it daena hurt tae give Magnus a son, tae carry on the bloodline for him. I warned ye tae do it, long ago, but ye had tae take yer time.” She dropped her head back on the pillows. “I am verra tired, will ye excuse me tae rest?”

“Gladly.”

* * *

I walked out into the living room full of everyone. “Store run tomorrow?”

Emma said, “A few days, I think, what do you need?” She turned the pad of paper and pen toward me on the table.

I wrote: pregnancy test.

Archie ran up. “Mammy add sour gummies to the list.” He pointed, then read aloud, “Pregnancy test, what’s a pregnancy test?”

The color rose on my cheeks. “It’s a test to see if someone is pregnant with a ba—”

Magnus across the room began to, loudly, roar with laughter. “Ha ha ha!”

Beaty from her position, lying flat on the far couch, called, “We daena need one, Madame Kaitlyn, I already ken!”

I gulped.

Emma said, her eyes going very wide, “Wait, areyoupregnant?”

“I don’t know, but other people seem to think—”

Magnus laughed so loud he doubled over holding his stomach. “Who else kens? Ye spoke tae m’mother! Did she tell ye? Ha ha ha!”

“Magnus! I will have you know, I am getting the pregnancy test as aprecaution, so I can prove to youandyour mother that I amnotpregnant.”

Hayley said, “Oh no you don’t, this is the final straw, you, Mister Fraoch, are getting a vasectomy pronto, this pregnancy is infectious.”

Fraoch looked all around the room. “Aye, seems tae be some fae magic inflictin’ the women of the family.”

James said, “What the hell is going on? What’s so funny Magnus?”

He wiped his eyes. “Och, I will let Kaitlyn tell ye. I want tae hear her say it.”

“Magnus told me that he got me pregnant the other night, and he was wrong, you can’t know it, Magnus, that’s not how it works—”

“Tis how it works with me, I kent it the moment I bedded ye.”

I rolled my eyes. “He told me he could tell, and I told him that was impossible and now he has conspired with his mother toalsotell me that she thinks I am pregnant.”

Magnus put his hand on his heart. “I dinna speak tae m’mother on it, she said ye are pregnant because we can all see it.”

I put my hands on my hips. “This is outrageous!”

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