My fingers paused on her skin. “I canna think on it, daena make me.”
She waved a hand. “I need your fingertips here.” I touched her lips and she kissed my fingers. I found a cloth, poured a bit of water to dampen it, and I cleaned her, drawing the cloth up and down her skin from her bare shoulder, across her wounded back and down and around her perfect arse, then down her thighs tae her calves.
She sighed. “Are you thinking about how much you like the sight of my arse, Master Magnus?”
“Aye, I like it, but also, there were a great many other emotions at the sight of ye this day.”
She nodded. “I’m sleepy.”
“I will get a fire goin’ and clean yer shift. I should be on guard for men that might hae followed us.” I pulled the sleepin’ bag over her naked form.
She asked, “Do you have weapons?”
“Aye, verra many weapons.”
“Good.”
I got up with a groan.
“Are you hurt?” she mumbled, close tae sleep.
“Nae, just sore, I am healing.”
Thirty-eight - Kaitlyn
“Magnus?” I called from inside the tent.
“Aye?”
“I’m so fucking hungry and thirsty. It’s dark, what time is it?”
He climbed in the tent, rubbing his hands for warmth and blowing on them. “Ye warm enough?”
“Yes, so much, this heater is so good. It’s cold?”
“Aye, and growin’ colder. Want some coffee?”
“I want coffee so badly I never wanted anything more. Do you have chocolate? I want chocolate more. I know I just said coffee, but chocolate, more water, and something warm for dinner.”
He passed me the water bottle then left the tent and returned with a mug of coffee.
I sat up in the bedding to drink while he dug through the bag near the bed and handed me a Hershey’s kiss.
“Jesus Christ, this is so important to me right now.” I peeled the silver wrapper off and popped it in my mouth, moaning happily.
It would have been perfect except for the engorgement of my breasts. They were full and hot. I groaned, “I’m so full of milk, I need Isla. Where is she?”
“She is with Emma and Beaty. I’ll go get yer shift, tis dry I think.”
He unzipped the tent. When he went out, a cold wind whipped through.
He returned with my clothes.
“Wow,” I sniffed the linen, it wasn’t perfect but close enough. “It smells so much better, what did you do?”
“I warmed some snow tae wash it and then hung it in the wind tae dry. I am glad it dried, twill be a howlin’ wind tae night, and will be cold as a dead man’s nose.”
I groaned. “Nice visual. Are the horses okay?”
“Aye, I hae seen tae them. We rode a long way this day. They will happily stand for the night even in the cold.”
“It’s night already?”
“Tis afternoon, but tis dark. Twill be a verra long night, we might as well get comfortable.”
“I took a nap and now I’ll have some coffee and then I’ll sleep again. I think I can sleep even with caffeine, I don’t think I’ve slept in days.” I sipped from my coffee. It was warm and filling me with warmth from the inside, except — “I have to pee and poop.”
“Ye are goin’ tae hae a cold arse.”
“Great.”
He dug through a bag and pulled out a pair of boots. “I guessed ye were going tae be in this situation.”
I pulled on my shift.
Magnus grinned. “I hope ye will take it off again when ye are finished.”
“Yes, definitely.” I slid my feet into the boots and he passed me a parka. “For me?”
“Aye, I brought two.”
“God, you thought of everything — got any tissue?” He found a small package in the first aid kit.
I crouched at the door, peptalking myslf: this was going to take a lot of energy — I had better be ready to go. As soon as I got out I needed to accomplish the task. Was I sure?
Yep, three days worth.
I joked, “Okay, I’m ready, fastest poop in the world. Which way should I go?”
He pointed to the right of the tent. “Ye can relieve yerself under the tree. We will remove it in the morn. Go fast, daena turn intae a popsicle.”
I laughed, unzipped the tent, and raced outside. There was a tree. The wind was whipping. The temperature was frigid. I pulled up my shift and the bottom of the parka, crouched and pooped. Wiped. Jumped up and rushed back into the tent.
“Cold enough for ye?”
“So cold! So freaking cold! Oh my god, so cold! But I pooped, so that’s a good thing.”
I rubbed my hands and blew on them. I removed the parka. Then, for Magnus, removed my shift. Squealing from the cold I dove into the sleeping bag.
Magnus had laid out some meat and cheese from his provisions. We sat wrapped in the bags and ate a meal while sipping our coffee.
I sighed at the last bit of warm drink. “That was wonderful and so necessary.” I placed our food and mugs tae the side trying to hide that I was blinking a tear away.
So much crying. So much loss and what the hell were we going to do?
I pulled the sleeping bag up around my head so only my eyes peeked out. “I just miss Isla so much. And I miss Archie, his little fingers wrapped in my hair. His little sweet sweaty brow when he’s sleeping on my chest, but Isla.... I ache for her. My heart. My arms. Her sweetness. Even her cry. Even her babyshit. I miss it so much. And look at my poor breasts.”
I pulled away the sleeping bag to show him. They were gigantic, round, like they were going to explode.
“It looks verra painful.”
“It is! It hurts so bad. Do we have a towel?”
He dug in a bag for a towel. I put it under a breast and did the motion that Emma had taught me: ‘expressing’. A second later there was the feeling of my milk letting down and streams sprayed into the towel. I laughed in relief. “Oh my god, that feels so good. It’s just — ugh, I’m wetting the whole towel.” The force of the stream subsided. Slowly. “This is so awkward. There’s milk pouring out of me.“
“I ken, tis quite the miracle.”
I dropped the wet towels beside our sleeping bags and curled up against his side. It took a little fidgeting to get my breasts in a comfortable position and my back in a good place, so many bruises, everything hurt.
“Do you think we’ll be going home tomorrow?”
“I daena ken.”
I twirled my finger around on his chest. “I mean, no matter how long it takes to figure out, no matter what it takes, Lady Mairead will be able to come. She has to, eventually. We can’t be stuck here indefinitely. Then she’d need to find the transmitters, and find us, but that won’t take long, and then we all go home. And we can go home to just the time when we last saw Isla and Archie. She won’t even miss us, right? And Archie will, but he’s old enough to understand that we’ll be back soon.”
“Aye.”
“So that’s what we need to focus on. We’ll be home to see Isla and Archie any day now. Really soon, right?”
He kissed the top of my forehead.