What if I was here for longer? I couldn’t even imagine how to deal with getting my period back here. What would I even do…? There wasn’t underwear, apparently. I had never been offered anything to wear underneath my skirts and hadn’t asked the women of the family how it would work.
It was fine, most days, there was all this fabric. I had grown used to no underwear, frankly it was better than wearing an uncomfortable pair that stuck in my craw or were too tight, but without underwear or my menstrual cup I had no way to deal with my period.
Lochie sat down on the bed as another chorus started downstairs, louder than the first. He asked, “What dost ye mean, ye should start yer what...?”
“My period?”
He looked at me blankly.
I whispered for some reason, “Menstruation, the... you know my monthly flow?”
His eyes went wide. “Och, yer curse?”
“Yes, my curse, I don’t know what... or how...”
He grimaced comically. “We will need tae get ye tae Stirling so ye can ask Kaitlyn tae advise ye. Ye canna ask anyone here, they are medieval, twill be terrible advice.”
A loud ruckus came through the floorboards to our ears. He listened. “The brawlin’ has begun. We need tae remain dressed.” He pulled the blanket up over my legs.
“We might hae gotten more rest sleeping in the woods.”
He nodded. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows on his knees, in thought.
I said, “My main point is how many days have I been gone? I’m trying to calculate how long it’s been since I got my... umlastcurse.”
He shook his head.
I counted on my fingers. “I think it’s been three days in the compound, maybe four, but then two days before I left, three days in Balloch... half day in Florida, our wedding, it all feels like two months — with time travel, does the menstrual cycle last the same amount of time? Do the days still count the same?”
“I canna say.”
I grinned up at him. “I am borrowing way too much trouble. We will be back in Stirling long before I start. I’ll have my supplies, for sure. Kaitlyn will be able to advise me, she’s a Queen, she isnotgoing to go caveman-style.”
I pulled the covers up to my chin and looked up at him sitting there on the side of the bed. “You sure you don’t want to come to bed?” The singing from downstairs grew even louder.
His brow went up. “Aye, I verra much want tae, my randy wife, but I?—”
Loud stomping footsteps passed by our room. “…I winna be able tae enjoy m’self. I must guard yer door.” His hand stroked down the blanket on my hip. “I canna imagine what m’brothers would say if they heard I was accosted with my pants down in an inn full of drunken drovers.”
“You, m’laird, don’t wear pants.”
He smiled.
Another man stomped down the hall. There was a bang on a door near ours.
He clapped his hand down on my hip. “I will sleep on the morrow. I will guard ye, m’lady, and we will leave at first light.”
He leaned down and kissed me, pausing there for a moment, his mouth against mine. Then he climbed onto the bed, on his knees, and kissed me long and deep and lingeringly…
Until there was more banging. His head dropped to my shoulder.
“Och nae.”
I said, “I’m so sorry you have to protect me, promise you won’t get tired of it? It’s our honeymoon and it seems like, I don’t know, such abotherto have to take care of me.”
“Ye are my heart, Ash of the Tree of Life. I am won. Daena worry, I am goin’ tae go guard yer door.”
“I feel terrible that you’ll be awake while I’m sleeping.”
