“Thank you.”
We were all settled in the Great Hall for our evening dinner. I was exhausted, leaned back in my chair, saying to Magnus, “I put in thousands of steps today. Yesterday we went on that long ride. I’m not used to this much. I guess what I’m saying is I’ve grown soft.”
Magnus nodded, his eyes sweeping the room. Then he checked his watch.
I said, “You worried about them arriving while you’re not there?”
“Aye, Lochie is tae come today — yet the day has grown long.”
“They’ll all be here soon enough.”
“And then I can concentrate m’worry on the kingdom.”
I glanced down the table at Archie, laughing with Ben, Isla, and Zoe.
Magnus asked, “How are they?”
“It’s been easy to distract them from any worries. Archie’s not feeling the existential dread anymore. He’s a lot better than he was.”
Isla got up on her chair and was pointing around at the other kids, “You and you and you and you!”
We had no idea why, but they laughed heartily.
Magnus chuckled. “Och nae, ye told me that the kids needed tae see me.”
“Yeah, sorry about that, they’re just goofing around like normal kids.”
“Tis a sight tae behold. I needed tae see them as well, and goofin’ is good.” Haggis had jumped up into Archie’s chair and was looking around at the kids like he was a part of the game.
Magnus laughed, then checked his watch again. “Chef Zach and I need tae return tae the field. Sean is on the walls. If ye need anythin’ pressin’ tell him.”
I nodded. “You’ll have plenty of guards with you?”
“Aye, definitely.”
I said, “I wish I could go with you, I’m new around here, it feels desolate when you’re outside the gate.”
Magnus squeezed my hand and stood. “There are only four hours left in the day, they will be here soon — and call me on the walk-n-talk if ye need tae tell me anythin’.”
I grinned “Like the olden days. Remember the night we were in the village, there were drones and Lizbeth was giving birth — it seems like a million years ago.”
“Twas, we hae lived at least ten lives since then, but as long as we hae the walk-n-talk and ye can hear m’voice ye will be at ease.” He grinned. “Ye can be overwrought and I will say through the radio, ‘How are ye, mo reul-iuil?’ and ye will be calmed.”
“That is, basically, how I work.”
Thirty minutes later I had the radio in my hand, sitting on a chair in front of the fire in my room. Isla was sleeping in Emma’s room with Zoe. Chef Zach had gone to the clearing with Magnus. Ben and Archie were going back and forth between our rooms, but it had been a moment, they had probably fallen asleep in Emma’s room.
Jack had fallen asleep in the bed we had set up near the hearth.
I said into the radio. “Are you all still awake?”
Magnus’s voice came back, “Aye, tis quiet, and has been a long day, but we are up. Fraoch and Chef Zach say ‘hello’.”
“Hi.” Then I asked, because I felt like I ought to. “He didn’t come?”
“Not yet, but there is still time.”
There was a soft knock on the door. Hayley, and Emma were there with the kids. They all came in, piled up on the little beds, and the women joined me in seats around the fire. Emma said, “I thought I wanted to sleep and not care that our friends were coming, to just see them in the morning, but then I realized I couldn’t sleep and wanted to be near the radio.”
