“Torin, I know it’s hard to believe, but I can have moods, what if Ididn’tmarry you?”
I chuckled. “Ye might not marry me because of a mood!”
“I have had some really bad moods with unfortunate timing.”
“Och, ye are such a princess sometimes.”
“I won’t allow you to go back to before you married me, I won’t stand for it. And I’m thinking I’m not going to let you doanyof it over again. I can’t believe you want to try. You said yourself it would be dangerous.”
“Aye, tis, but I think I can beat him by doin’ it my way.”
She looked up at me. “So, like, not Ryan’s way?”
I nodded.
“Uncle Ryan isn’t going to like that, how will you get the vessel away from him? He has his own ideas.”
“I already took it from him. He canna go anywhere. Now we hae two.” I pulled the vessel from under the hospital bedding.
“So you’re going to be in charge of the do-over?”
“Aye, I watched verra carefully this time, I ken how tae beat Rannald.”
“So you’ll do everything differently?”
“Aye.”
“Like the opposite?”
“Tae change it, aye, I think tis what I need tae do.”
She blinked looking down on the vessel, then she sighed.
I swung my feet off the bed and swayed for a moment.
“What are you doing?”
“I am goin’ tae wash m’hands in the sink, I hae Max’s blood on me, tis foul.”
I took three faltering steps tae the sink and began washing, rubbing soap up and down my arms.
She said, “You want a clean t-shirt? I see a stack on the shelf by the door.”
“Aye.”
She rifled through the shirts and placed one on the bed for me, saying, “So if you’re not allowed to loop around to before when I married you, and you can’t loop onto yourself… what will you do? You can’t desert me and just do what you want, you know that right?”
“I ken it, Alexandria, I winna desert ye, ye are m’wife, ye can trust me.”
“Good.”
I heard a small thud behind me and looked over my shoulder, she had dropped her dress on the floor.
I said, “Och, ye are nude.”
She grinned, “Am not, I’m in pants. I’m going to put on one of these clean shirts too, we’ll match.” She pulled a shirt on over her head, and asked, “What if we both went back to North Carolina to the day after we left?”
Torin said, “Ye think twill work?”
