Page 18 of The Empire and the Wolf King

“I suspect we will spend the day in chores, I believe Siddall wants me tae work his fields on the morrow in thanks for the clothes and the meal and the hayloft tae sleep in, ignorin’ that I hae enriched him with the jewel. Remind me if I pay with another jewel, tae not give it up front. I am poorer and at his mercy.”

I set my skirts back to rights as well as I could before lying back down with a haughty huff. “I suppose that means I will have to help his wife? Ugh, that is outrageous, I am a queen.”

He said, “But I suppose I daena hae tae, I am a king, after all. I paid him plenty for the room and board. Enough for the clothes, too, I would think. Our clothes are good enough for the time... we could straighten ourselves, and go tae an inn in the village and procure a room.”

“If you think about it, if you stay and work, your clothes wouldn’t be as good anymore. We would need to get new clothes or wait for laundry day, and next thing you know we live here.” I raised my head and looked down on him. “Magnus, we can’t live here.”

He sat up. “Aye, mo reul-iuil, we will steal away in the night.”

CHAPTER 8 - KAITLYN

LEAVING SIDDALL’S FARM - 1775

Magnus pulled his pants up and buttoned the buttons.

“We really are leaving, just like that?” I began wrapping the shawl around my shoulders.

“Aye, he has offered us a ride intae town. I daena see why we need it, we can walk. If we leave afore dawn, we can go without any trouble.”

I turned around so Magnus could tie my apron strings in the back. “There could be trouble?”

“I daena ken, but now I hae it in m’head I daena want tae find out. I daena usually sneak away, but this is not a usual time, or a common situation.”

“Besides, this isn’t sneaking away, we just want to get going, we have a journey and we need to embark on it.” I pulled the bonnet on my head and tied it under my chin. “If you think about it, we’re giving them more payment by leaving before they have to feed us again, and saving them the trouble of us. It’s not sneaking, it’s leaving with dignity.”

I crawled to the ladder and began my descent. I went slowly because I had to feel behind me with my foot and make sure I had the step before I went to the next.

As soon as my foot touched the ground, Magnus followed me down, the ladder creaking under his weight and speed. It took him a quarter of the time, one, two, three, and he all but jumped the last part.

“You made that look easy.”

“Ye made it look verra hard, ye daena climb ladders verra often, Kaitlyn?”

“Rarely, I can’t even remember the last time.”

“Och, I learn something new about ye every day.”

We crept across the barn to the door, shoved it open, and peered out. There was moonlight and it seemed very late. I sensed it was about three in the morning, but there was a candle glow in the window of the house.

Then a woman’s long wail.

Magnus said, “Och nae, what…?”

I froze. “She’s giving birth.”

He asked, “Och nae, will ye be needed?”

I listened for a few minutes, then shook my head. “No, it’s tempting to go offer, and that’s very sweet you think I will be needed, but no, though I am good at it, there are a lot of women here and quite a few kids, I think they’ve got it. Besides, most of my magic requires a first-aid kit. My best advice would be to have someone be a mountain and yell ‘Cruachan!’ during it, but I really appreciate your vote of confidence.”

He hugged me. “There is likely tae be activity.Nowwe are sneaking. We will hae tae relieve ourselves in the woods, we canna risk the outhouse.” But then he pointed, there were our clothes, strung up over a line near the back door.

I said, “We want those.”

He said, “Let’s grab a sack from the barn, then I will steal our clothes.”

We crept back into the barn.

Magnus found a sack with a drawstring top from a stack in the barn. He sniffed it, screwed up his face, then said, “Twill do.” We snuck out to the line and he yanked our clothes down and I stuffed them into the sack. Magnus tied it closed and slung the whole thing over his shoulder.

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