Page 21 of Draped in Plaid
Chapter Six
Emma
Dinner was tame. The couple that was to take the twins into foster care was middle-aged, kind. They dressed in plain clothes. The woman wore very light makeup. No fancy jewelry. Each of them had a plain gold band on their left fingers. They held the babies, cooing over them, and all I could discern from either one was that they were so incredibly happy to have the babies that they kept saying thank you to Logan and I over and over.
Apparently, they had been trying to have a child of their own for quite some time, but had been unsuccessful.
They would be good parents, I thought. Logan eased at my side, seeming to agree.
The man and woman were under the impression that the babies were ours, that current position in life meant it was impossible for us to raise them (let them figure out their own interpretations of that). McAlister explained he was a distant relation of ours and that he’d set up a trust to see that the twins had the best of care, that he would be their guardian, but needed foster parents to raise them due to his demanding profession.
They assured us over and over again that they would make sure the twins grew up happy, that they should never want for anything. They were surprised to hear of the trust, and said that they would not need to draw on it, that the money should be saved for when the twins were adults.
I glanced at McAlister. Why had he not told them about the trust before? Was it possible that his first priority had been to find a good parental fit? A couple who’d care for the twins unconditionally?
That gave me a new outlook on the man. A different sense of respect than before.
From what Shona had told me of her past, I knew these two foster parents wouldn’t last much more than a few years, but at least for some portion of their lives, they would have these good people to raise them. I worked hard to ignore all the alarm bells that rang incessantly inside my head. I could take them back to Gealach with me and raise them with Saor. A whole nursery full of royal babies. I could make certain they truly were happy and safe. But doing so would forever alter their futures.
Beneath the table, Logan gripped my hand.
“We must bid ye goodnight,” he said to those at the table, pushing his chair back. “My wife and I have traveled a long way and we’d rather not delay the inevitable, as painful as it is for us.”
Mr. McAlister stood. “I’ll escort ye out.”
Logan nodded.
I rose from the table and walked around toward the babies, leaning down to give each sweet, tiny head a kiss. Moira, steady eyes on me, was wide-awake, observant. An old soul already. I pulled the necklace her mother had given me from my pocket and clasped it around her neck.
“This is hers,” I said to the woman. “A family heirloom. Please see that it remains with her.”
Tears gathered in the woman’s eyes, and she gripped my hand. “I promise. Thank ye for these precious gifts.”
My throat swelled, as did my chest. I missed my own baby. I wanted to go home.
But first, we had to return to 1351. To our friends. Our other family.
Mr. McAlister walked us out of the dining room and steered us into his vast kitchen. “The cellar door is there. Ye’ll be undisturbed down there.”
Logan and I nodded, a host of thoughts going from one of us to the other. Warnings to the man we’d placed these precious lives in.
“I promise, they will be safe,” he said, sensing our hesitation.
And we knew they would, because they had eventually ended up with us. We had to move forward. Baby Moira and Baby Shona were safe. But their adult selves were not, and we couldn’t leave them to languish any longer.
Logan opened the door revealing a long set of old rickety stairs and a dark space beyond.
“There’s a light at the bottom, attached to a white string,” McAlister said.
I gripped onto Logan’s hand as we walked down the creaking stairs. At the bottom, Logan found the string and tugged, illuminating the cellar with a dim yellow light that dangled from the unfinished ceiling. Stacks of boxes lined the walls. Old toys, furniture, papers. The place was a mess, a fire hazard waiting to happen. How much history was stacked up down here?
I pulled out the black time box and hit the white button emblazoned with an R. Return, reverse, I didn’t know what exactly it stood for, but I knew it would take us back to our friends.
We clung to each other as time pulsed around us, and several breaths later, we were in the dusty chamber, Shona, Ewan and Rory staring at us wide-eyed.
“Thank god ye’ve returned,” Rory said. “We’re in the right place at the wrong time, and the guards are banging on the door.”
The door to the chamber shuddered and men behind it shouted their anger at being barred out. My heart leapt into my throat.
