Magnus said, “We hae arrived.” He slid down from Cynric and tied our horses to a post. I slid down from Hurley and took stock. The Inn’s sign was a crude carving of a deer. Someone shoved past me and Magnus growled at him. He unstrapped our main bag, the one full of weapons and gold, and slung it over his shoulder. He paid a stableboy to watch our things. “We will go procure a room.”
We entered the downstairs of the main tavern. Much like an eighteenth century inn or a twenty-first century seedy hotel: dark, gloomy. I quickly counted four men, and one woman, sitting on benches at a long trestle table running down the room. At the far end of the room stood a hearth with a large fire burning. Warm with the promise of food, I mentally declared it perfect.
The proprietor hustled over with a cup of ale for us to share. Magnus took it and drank and drank and drank until it was empty. I laughed. “Magnus!”
“I am sorry, mo reul-iuil , twas too good tae share. I will order a whole lot more.”
To the man he spoke at length and then they seemed to come to an agreement. The proprietor left and Magnus said, “I told Ian we need a private room and a great deal more ale. And food, I asked him was there plenty of food. He has assured me there is enough.”
Ian returned with another ale and a wooden board with a loaf of bread on it, warm, with some cuts of cheese. He passed that ale to Magnus first, but Magnus dutifully gave it to me and I slammed that whole damn thing. There had been a pregnancy, a childbirth, a newborn and breastfeeding, and now I was lost in medieval times. I hadn’t been drinking for a long time and guess what? I had time to make up for. They laughed when I wiped my mouth with my arm. Magnus ordered us another ale.
It was clear by how Ian spoke to Magnus that he considered him rich and important, which was a great feeling after being homeless for days on end. Magnus and I sat down at the end of the table. He spoke loudly to the other patrons, and then ordered them all a round of drinks and another loaf of bread on our tab.
I downed my second ale and got super buzzy and introduced myself as Lady Ulrich of Lichtenstein and Gelderland. I leaned to Magnus, “It’s from a movie, Knight’s Tale, before I met you it was basically the closest I ever got to a sword.” This was the most fun we had had in weeks. Magnus and I plowed through the loaf of bread and ordered more. He asked, “Dost ye want anythin’ else?”
“Is there an egg or three? I need some protein.”
“Aye,” he ordered cooked eggs and more cheese. To me he said, “I hae tae slow down. I will get sick if I eat too verra much. I daena want tae get sick.”
“Me too, God, I love you.”
“I love ye as well, mo reul-iuil.”
And as it grew dark outside, in the early afternoon of deep December, we held hands at our table as patrons came and went, and we drank and talked. It dawned on me, “What about my parents?”
“Aye, tis likely we winna make it tae family dinner this week.”
“I know, they will be so disappointed. Who will they give their unsolicited parenting advice to? ‘Thanks mom, for the sad-vice on weaning my newborn.”
“Sad-vice is a word?”
“I just drunk-vented it.”
He chuckled. “And yer father was explainin’ the stock market tae me, he has been tryin’ for months, but I tell him I canna understand buying stock in the fruit market.”
I laughed. “By fruit market you mean Apple?”
“Aye, I ken the truth, tis yer phone, but I like tae make him fluster.”
I was slurry. “It’s so surprising they don’t know you’re a time traveler. She loves Outlander, you’d think she’d put two and two together.”
“People believe what they want tae believe, sometimes with the truth right in front of them.”
“That is so modern of you.”
“I am verra drunk.”
“Me too, want to go to our room?”
“Och aye.” He swung his legs around on the bench seat, just about falling off the side, and laughed. “Och, the ground is movin’.”
I giggled and we met at the end of the table and threw our arms around each other. He slung our bags to his shoulder. We stumbled out of the door, to the courtyard.
“Frigid!”
“Aye, and we hae tae get all the way up there.” He pointed to a door up a long wooden outdoor staircase. “I picked it because tis over the tavern, we will hae the heat from the large fireplace warmin’ our room.” The temperature had dropped and snow was falling, making the ground slippery.
I got to the bottom step weaving and holding the rail with a death grip. The staircase swayed. “Uh oh.” I hiccuped. There was a real possibility of not making it up there. The next step was loose, the next too close together, and the railing wiggled when I used it to pull myself four steps up. I said, “Magnus, go back down, we have to do this one at a time, it’s swaying.”
“Och, I thought twas me.”
He backed up to the bottom and I climbed, carefully holding on, and testing each step. I made it to the top and creaked open the door. “Okay you can come up now.”
“Ye are half m’weight in stone.”
I called down with a giggle. “Did you just say you were stoned?”
He lurched up the stairs, with bags slung on his shoulders, the whole staircase shuddering under him. He made it to the top and dropped the bags. “I will hae a man come tae shore that up in the morn.”
Our other bags were already in our room. And what a room — not much bigger than the tent, but there in the middle stood a bed, with not one but two feather beds on top of it. The linens were suspiciously dirty looking, but that was okay, we had the sleeping bags. They weren’t much cleaner, but they were our own sweat and grime. I unrolled them on the bed. “Magnus, feel this!” Their fluffiness on top of the feather beds was amazing compared to the hard frozen ground under our tent.
“I daena want tae, I want tae lay on it first.”
He was taking off his boots and dropping them in the middle of the floor and then his sporran went into one of the pack bags we had brought in.
We put our parkas on the end of the bed because we might need the extra layer for our feet. I dropped my skirt to the floor and he and I both climbed onto the bed. I moaned happily as I dropped on my stomach.
He groaned as his back touched down. “Tis nae perfect but will do for a time.”
“Oh yes,” I mumbled, “yes, oh yes, it’s fucking awesome.” I reached for his hand. He pulled our covers over us and within seconds we were both asleep.
Fifty - Kaitlyn
The night was long. Halfway through I woke up to a new unrecognizable pitch dark, the pitch dark of the inside of a room in a hotel with the wind howling outside really pummeling the walls. Creaking and groaning and moaning. I opened my eyes and saw a tiny sparkle about where Magnus’s eyes would be. “Are you awake?”
“Aye, the storm is ravagin’ the house.”
“Speaking of ravaging...” I squiggled my hand over and grasped his cock. “The hotel might lift off the foundation, I need to hold onto a pole.”
He chuckled.
I mumbled. “I thought you might need some help, but here you are, already at attention.”