Page 51 of Draped in Plaid
I opened the door to the cell.
“Ye’re free to go,” I said, dumping Steven on the floor. “We realized ye were only trying to warn us. Trying to protect us all. We are grateful to ye. And with these two behind bars, we should have no one else to worry about should we?”
McAlister looked from one to the next of us and shook his head. “What helped ye to realize?”
I took a deep breath. “I met ye in the past.”
McAlister nodded. “When ye brought the twins to me.”
“Aye.”
“Ye did?” Rory asked. “Seems I’m not the only one to have used the time key for good.”
I laughed. “The queen gave us her newborn bairns when we were at Castle Rising looking for Moira. Our duty was to bring them to McAlister. That’s why we were missing.”
Rory and Ewan nodded, no questions asked.
Mr. McAlister reached around his neck and pulled out a chain, a key attached to it. The key had a head of Celtic swirls and was old and rusted. He pressed it into my hand. “I wish that I’d been able to do more for them, but I see now, that we have come full circle. Their mother gave her bairns to ye for safekeeping. And now I give their guardianship over to ye. This key, ’tis to their treasure. A vast one it is, and in the modern era.”
I swallowed, the weight of the responsibility added to all those I held close already. I was the Guardian of Scotland, the Guardian of Time, the Guardian of the Lost Princesses and their treasure. Father. Husband. Lover. Friend.
McAlister nodded toward the two unconscious bodies. “There is a place in the year 855 for criminals of time to be held prisoner. I will gladly escort Mrs. MacDonald and Steven if ye’d allow me.”
“I will go,” Rory said. “As will my son.”
I nodded, knowing that Rory would take this opportunity to further cement in Ranulf’s mind what could happen if he did not believe his father to be the rightful laird of the MacLeod clan.
McAlister leaned in and whispered, “They will erase their memories. Mrs. MacDonald and Steven will wake to believe they are mother and son. They will have no memory of this place. Of ye.”
I stared down at the unconscious bodies of my enemies, grateful and relieved to have it finally be over. “A fitting sentence for two people who have shown only the desire to destroy. Let them spend eternity destroying each other.”
