Page 83 of Promises to Keep

“Aye, Black Duncan planted many of them and they are now a great deal of wealth for m’uncle. See the new wall, there?” He gestured with his head. “It has just been built.” Our path took us down, nearing the loch shore. “That tree…?”

I said, “A hazel, and there, a birch. It’s been a while, but I still remember.”

He shifted in his saddle to look up and around. “We hae a fine day for a ride.” He clicked for his horse and set us in motion, my horse following his down the path toward the castle. We had been in silence on the way up, talking on the way down — it was how I knew he felt better after losing Hammond.

* * *

After dinner, and a tearful goodbye with our family, Magnus said, as he and Lochie and I walked to the fields to jump. “I wonder if m’mother is going tae ever go back there?”

“To Paris? You mean, if she was free, not kidnapped?”

“Aye, it looks like she haena been there in a long time, and ye ken, it dinna look fun, there was only one bottle in her bar, nae signs of socializin’, it looked dismal and dusty as if it had aged. I wondered if she had been lonely the last few times she went.”

“Perhaps she and Picasso broke up? Ugh, the thought of it almost makes me sad for her.”

“It makes me gleeful, but aye, tis a sorry thing tae see her safe house so dull.”

“Well, here we go to our compound, I doubt it’s dull at all, not with... how many people?”

Magnus said, “It feels like we had thirty-eight packed in that van.”

CHAPTER 40 - KAITLYN

We landed in a field without a structure in sight, just far woods surrounding us.

Above us, Quentin looked down from the driver’s seat of a big pickup truck. “Hey boss, you back? Why’d you bring Lochie, thought he was living in the past?”

Haggis bounded out of the truck and frolicked in front of Magnus as he groaned and sat up. Haggis’s tail was wagging brutally hard.

Magnus said, his hands up to protect himself from Haggis’s licks, “I brought Lochie back, the eighteenth century did nae agree with him.”

Lochie, from the ground said, “It sucked a dirty pigswill.”

Quentin said, “Shhhh, no bad mouthing pigs.”

I said, “How’s the compound so far?”

Quentin put out a hand and hefted me to my feet. “It’s fucking paradise, that’s why no one else came, they’re all living the Attitude Adjustment life.”

Magnus and I climbed into the cab of the truck, Lochie sat on the tail, and Quentin drove us up a bumpy dirt road to the main house, a big two story lodge built out of giant timbers. It was a little like pulling up to Paul Bunyan’s house.

“Wow!” I said, as Isla and Archie came barreling around the corner.

“Mammy!” They raced into my arms.

I dropped down onto the wood planks of the front porch and held them close. “I am so freaking proud of you, I know it was scary that I was gone, but I came back and now—”

Isla took my face in her hands. “Mammy, you do no have to keep talking, I want to show you the dock.”

I hugged her. “Well, that is awesome.” I stood up and joked, “I do not take that personally at all,” and took her hand to go out to see the dock, even though I was still dressed like it was a totally different century.

Magnus and Archie followed us, Archie chattering. “There’s two trucks, three ATVs, a couple of drones, all in the garage, oh! And there is a treehouse, it’s so cool, and a bridge that goes across the lake to the island — you see the island? There’s a couple of boats and Uncle James and Uncle Fraoch both race in the boats. It’s really cool.”

I said, “Are you in the boat while they race, or are you safely on shore?”

Archie started to answer and Magnus shook his head, teasing, “That is one of those questions ye daena want tae lie about, and ye daena want tae tell the truth — yer mum has a verra good imagination. Ye ought tae shew her how ye do it instead of telling her of it.”

I laughed. “This is true, the image in my head of a boat race is a little like the Jackass movies. I doubt Aunt Emma would allow those kinds of shenanigans.”

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