Page 123 of Promises to Keep

“Nae, how… nae, not Magnus, tis something else, but I am nae going tae tell ye, twill come at the market the day after tomorrow.”

Life was so routine that I forgot about the surprise until we were at the market and Lizbeth left my side while I was looking at some very fine cloth, wondering if we needed it for a nice dress for... She returned a few moments later with a sack. “A gift for ye, Kaitlyn.”

I sniffed it, dark, rich, aromatic. “Is it coffee?!” My eyes wide, I buried my face in the sack. “It’s coffee!” I pinched a bit and put it in my mouth. “Awful, bitter, oh my gosh, it’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given.”

“I kent ye would love it, I heard there was some around and tis expensive but we need the pleasure of it, daena ye think?”

“I do, I think we need it so so so much. Thank you!” I threw my arms around her and hugged her tight. I dried my tears of joy and asked, “What else do we have to do here today?”

She said, “Naething, we need tae return tae Balloch and tell Eamag that she needs tae put the water tae boil. She will be thrilled, she developed quite the taste for coffee.”

We hooked arms and went up the path.

CHAPTER 59 - KAITLYN

It was a freezing cold morning in mid February when I felt the baby move for the first time.Oh.

Hey little one.

I was sitting in a chair beside Hayley while she was spinning and I had been staring out into space, thinking about nothing but how cold it was… and how long it had been.

I said, “I just felt the…”

She was concentrating. She said, “If you’re going to complain about the cold one more time you are kicked from the tower room, this is a no-complaining tower room.”

“It’s not really a tower room.”

She pointed at the door.

“I’m the only one who will hang out with you and you’re going to send me away?”

“I want to be alone, I want to feel sorry for myself, I want no complaining.”

“Fine, I’ll go talk to Emma about it, you can spin by yourself.”

I felt the flutter again, low, under my belly button, like a little parasitic-something tiny had taken up a spot on my host body, or to be less horrible, like a baby was there, a baby Magnus had known was coming and he wasn’t here to meet the first quickening.

The hallway was cold, my wrap tight around my shoulders, my shoes echoing in the stone passageway, a dim light coming in through an open window. I stopped there to look out at a gray heavy sky. It would be raining again, soon, but for now a gray mist hung over the green grass.

As I passed along the upper hallways, I loved running my fingertips along the stone. There was a groove, almost smooth, a tiny bit of a vibration as my fingers traced between two stones and then across the face, to another groove — I imagined the fingers that probably did this for years before me, and how it did seem to be a worn path, and how cool would it be to see this castle years from now — would that groove be there? Would it be even deeper? My groove, from walking to and from my room, dragging my fingers along.

I was headed to the stairwell, where I would meet someone to walk down with me, allies in twos.

It had been so long since I had been up on the walls, a place meant for men. We women were to stay in the inner halls, up and down and around on the stairs… I found Emma with Lizbeth and Beaty with Mookie beside her, talking in the hall.

Beaty had a hand on her hip and a rounded stomach. When I caught up I smiled widely. “Guess what?”

“What? Was there a storm?”

I sighed, “No, and we all really need to stop asking ‘guess what’ excitedly. My heart keeps breaking, sorry about that. I felt the baby move!”

They all pressed a palm against my stomach and after a moment shook their heads, but then Beaty let us place a hand on her middle and we waited until her baby started kicking. She grinned. “I think it might be twins, it canna be only one bairn. There is so much kicking she keeps Quennie awake!”

Lizbeth laughed. “How does Colonel Quentin ken the bairn is kickin’?”

Beaty said, “He curls up against m’stomach with his face pressed right here. He can feel it all and he must talk tae me about it all night: ‘Beaty did ye feel it?’ ‘Beaty what dost ye think she is doin’?’” She huffed. “Och I am worn out from it. Dost ye see, Lizbeth, my brow is wrinkled from the — where is Quennie? He is supposed tae kiss me when I am in a mood…” She turned and began wandering down the hall with Mookie at her heels.

Lizbeth said, “Wait for us, Madame Beaty, ye arna tae walk alone.”

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