Page 44 of Long Live the King

I had somehow won the bonny lass and then with m’talk of fightin’ had lost her in the same night.

CHAPTER 15 - MAGNUS

TAKIN’ LOCHIE HOME

Ipulled up beside Lochinvar, the truck wheels splashin’ puddle water on his legs. Fraoch and I laughed. He yanked open the door and climbed in, his expression was dark and stormy.

Fraoch tossed a towel tae him, “What happened with the lass?”

He said, “I daena want tae talk about it.”

Fraoch said, “Och nae.”

I drove us home with none of us speaking.

Near the house Lochinvar said, “The new bairn is well?’

“Aye, he is sleeping, they are all well.”

“Good.”

I pulled the truck up tae the house, we all climbed out, but then Fraoch and I headed tae the front door while Lochinvar hung back at the truck in the rain. “Ye comin’ in?”

“Nae, I need a moment.”

We went inside.

In the foyer, putting up our wet coats, Fraoch asked, “What dost ye think happened?”

“I daena ken, but it dinna go well.”

“Och, the poor lad, I canna believe he messed it up this badly. She looked on him as if he were the answer tae her dreams, how could she hae changed her mind?”

I peeked out the window. In the dim glow of the garden lights, Lochinvar was sitting on a chair on the porch.

“I daena ken, but he is achin’.”

The house was quiet, the kids were all fast asleep, Fraoch and I went tae our rooms.

I climbed intae an empty bed because Kaitlyn was still at the hospital.

CHAPTER 16 - KAITLYN

THE PORCH AT HOME

It was late, I was almost asleep when we pulled up to the house. Lochie was slumped in a chair on the porch.

Quentin got out of the car. Beaty and I pulled our babies from their car seats and rushed up the steps through the rain to the house. Emma went up to the door. “Lochie, are you good?”

He nodded. “Just thinking.”

I went into the house and put Jack into his crib. He shifted for half a minute, but then fell fast asleep.

I turned on the baby monitor and crept out and down the hall to the foyer, and peeked out the window. Lochie was still out there, alone in a rocking chair. The rain had slowed, a shower instead of a downpour, but it was the middle of the night and he was on the porch looking out at it, the embodiment of melancholy.

I went out to join him.

“How’s it going, Lochie?”

---