Page 13 of Draped in Plaid
Chapter Four
Logan
Ballocks…
For years I’d been Guardian of Scotland, holding the king, my brother’s secrets. My own secrets. The keys the country. The battles I’d endured, the enemies I’d fought… Never, not in all this time, had I felt the huge weight of responsibility like I did now.
I was rightfully King of Scotland. This bairn, rightfully a Queen.
So much history between the two of us, racing through our veins.
So much treachery in our blood.
So much pain in our hearts.
And yet, we’d both been given a chance at a different life. A gift, truly. Life itself. Every breath was a blessing.
Both of us had benefited from the ability to leap across time and choose a different course. See the path that Fate had created for us.
I glanced up at my wife. My beautiful, amazing wife.
“McAlister?” I asked. “Are we truly to bring them to him? After what we’ve learned? How can the queen, how canwe, trust him?”
Emma nodded slowly, her eyes filled with the determination I’d seen her wear so well. She was strong. Stronger than anyone would guess at first glance.
Emma looked behind her, clearly worried that someone might be coming soon from the chamber to see where they were, or perhaps that the queen might change her mind.
“Queen Joan trusts him,” she said. “Arrangements have already been made for the infants.”
I frowned, staring down at the sweetly innocent face of one of the babies. I wasna certain which I held. Her skin was pink and soft. Her cheeks chubby, and her lashes fanned out over delicate cheeks. “But… ’Tis McAlister. We had reason to believe he was in league with Mrs. MacDonald.”
“I know.” Emma chewed her lip. “But he will raise them well. We know this. They will be safe as children. They will grow into happy adults. They will be well-cared for.”
“Not always,” Logan said, pointing out some of the stories they’d heard from Shona and Moira about their last foster parent who tried to scam McAlister into giving her more money and constantly threatened the girls with going to jail.
“We cannot change the course of history, Logan, as much as we might want to. We have to take them to McAlister. If we change anything, Moira and Shona might never meet their soul mates, they might never have come into our own lives. Ewan and Rory will suffer if we don’t, their future children, too. We have to release them to McAlister.”
“Aye. Ye’re right, as always. But ’haps we threaten him a bit when we see him?”
Emma grinned. “I like your style.”
I winked. “We must go now, afore one or both of the adult twins sees us. We canna allow them to see themselves as bairns, seems wrong somehow.”
“We can’t leave our friends here,” Emma said, shaking her head. “What are we supposed to do?”
“’Tis the only way.” Footsteps echoed down the corridor, coming from the direction of the stairwell. “We will go and then we will come right back. They’ll not even know we left. But we must do so now afore whoever is walking up the stairs sees us.”
“All right.” Emma hugged the bairn in one arm and pulled the black box from a hidden pocket in her skirts. “This is the right thing to do.”
I had the feeling she was more convincing herself than me, though I could certainly use all the encouragement she was willing to give.
“Aye, love.”
Emma tapped in the information we needed. “Hug me.”
“Gladly.” I wrapped one arm around her shoulders, snuggled the two infants between us. I closed my eyes against the way the walls moved in and out, my whole world pulsing as the time portals opened. I wondered if it would ever get easier, watching the world tumble apart. A breath later, we pushed into the modern era, both of us wavering on our feet, clutching tightly to the two bairns.
I blew out the breath I’d been holding, blinking against lights brighter than the dim corridor of the English castle.
