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Is that understood, Siobhan? Over. The voice of Bethany Watts, Prime Minister of Scotland, came through the handset of the CB radio.
“Yes, Prime Minister. Over.”
Very well. We trust you will have a safe journey home. We will be waiting for you—and the Time Machine. Over and out.
Scooting the chair out from under her, Siobhan let out a long sigh. Her still wet hair had dampened the fresh blouse she wore, which now stuck at the shoulders. Walking along the corridor from the communications room to Rory waiting in his quarters, Siobhan pushed away the mild sense of dread swirling within her.
Rory would not be happy—understatement of the century.
Siobhan opened the door to his quarters and stepped in to find Rory rummaging in a kitchen cupboard. Bottles of preserves lined the bench underneath it.
“Well?” Rory stepped back from the cupboard, empty-handed, as she closed the door behind her.
“Prime Minister Bethany Watts was adamant.” Siobhan pressed her lips together as Rory’s stare became angry. “You can’t take it back by force, Rory.” Siobhan put her arms around him. He was tense, every muscle in his long torso tight and he had an air of desperation about him. Standing in the kitchen of his accommodation, he leaned back against the cupboard doors painted the mission brown of the nineteen-seventies.
“Oh aye, I can,” Rory’s voice was deep and firm.
Siobhan shuddered.
“No, Rory. Don’t. I’d have to arrest you. Don’t make me. The PM has ordered us to return with it.”
The tight muscle in Rory’s jaw relaxed a little.
“Don’t let them use it, Siobhan, I beg you.” He was so intense. She’d never encountered this level of desperation in him.
“I will do all I can to ensure that MacIntosh and his team do not make any time journeys until you and your people here have a full say in it, and all the input you want. Okay?”
“They can never use it, Siobhan. Never.”
“But you have.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t trust the Government. Too many loose cannons.”
Siobhan blinked, taken aback, and frowned.
“Oh, Siobhan. You cannae think me unfair. Look at your pal, Antony. You must’ve seen it coming. You used to be with him, aye?”
How did he know that?
“Who told you?”
“You did.”
She blinked her disbelief.
“You can tell when a man and woman have been, you ken, intimate in their relations, like.”
“It was over, ages ago.”
“Aye.” Rory flicked his eyebrows. “I’m still no’ happy about the Time Machine leaving here. Nor ma’ wee brother, Murray. They, I mean the Government—no, actually that MacIntosh, has threatened us if he does nae go.”
“What?” That was unbelievable. “That can’t be right.”
“Well, it’s what ma wee brother says.” Rory breathed through his nostrils.
“I’ll check it out, Rory.” Siobhan placed her hand on his chest and felt his heart pounding through it. “I’ll ensure he doesn’t carry out any threats against this Community. Or make any in the first place.” She tilted her head back to see his expression. He appeared to be calming; his heart beating under her hand steadied.
“Did you recognise Murray? He was the lad with me when we visited you and your father.” Rory’s smile was tight. “Who can you trust in the Bunker to look out for him?”
Sweat dampened her hand as it rested on him, and his eyes narrowed as she hesitated. She’d struggled with a question all the long walk back and had finally decided in the shower. But what she would tell Rory now, wouldn’t please him.
“Rory, I’ll keep an eye on him.”
He took a deep breath in and gripped her shoulders, his warm, large hands like tight clamps on her upper arms.
“You’re no’ telling me you’re going, Siobhan? We’re together now, are we no’? You’ll no’ leave me?”
“Rory.” Where should she start? “I have things to clear up at the Bunker. I need to sort out Antony and MacPherson’s prosecution. I am a key witness.”
Rory looked at the stained ceiling with a pained expression on his face. She’d struggled with her plan, but her certainty of its logic overrode the cool sweat now forming on her upper lip.
“I have so much to tell the PM about life out here,” she continued. “And people like you, who are wonderful leaders and would be part of it all—the New Scottish Government. I have my personal belongings to sort out. Rory,” she said as he began to speak. Now looking at her once more, Rory’s blue eyes were slits. “I can’t just leave it all, I have a role to hand over. And going in convoy is the safest way to return.”
“Don’t leave me, Siobhan,” he almost moaned.
Siobhan’s throat ached. “Rory, I’m not leaving you for good. I am leaving so I can come back and be with you for good.”
“Marry me now.”
“What?” She inhaled but could not breathe out, her pulse drummed in her head.
“We have a minister. He’ll marry us.”
“But I’m about to go.” The air finally left her lungs. “They’re waiting for me, so the convoy can leave.”
“Don’t go from here not my wife.”
Rory was dead serious. Was he afraid he’d lose her?
“Rory, you know I’m yours.”
“Aye, but I want you to be mine.” His blue-eyed gaze bore into her.
“We won’t have time to...consummate it.”
Rory shook his head. “Dinnae care. Please don’t leave here until you are mine.”
Siobhan blinked. The man before her was earnest. He loved her. She loved him.
Those in the Government Bunker may not approve.
They may misinterpret it. They may regard her as a traitor, not a peacemaker. Not a woman in love with a man—a great man.
Rory waited for her answer. There was love and longing in those intense eyes. How could she deny them each other?
Damn the nay-sayers. She’d show them what Community people were really like.
And MacIntosh could wait.
“Yes.”
“Aye?”
“Yes,” she nodded.
“I’ll go get the minister then. Dinnae move!” He kissed her firmly on the lips and ran out the door.
***
THE CEREMONY WAS BRIEF and fulfilled the legal requirements. The whole Invercharing Community and the Government contingent were present. Rory’s family were happy for them, if somewhat surprised. There was genuine acceptance in the hugs she received from each of his siblings.
Siobhan placed her duffle bag in the back of the armour-plated vehicle. Murray jumped in the back seat with her while Angela would ride in the front with MacIntosh. Rory leaned on the vehicle and fiddled with something in the pocket of his buckskins.
“Siobhan, we did nae have rings. I’ll see to it for when you are back here. But in the meantime...” He held out the object he’d been handling, took her right hand, palm up and placed a navy-blue velvet jewel box in it.
Siobhan looked at the small jewellery box and blinked.
“What’s this?”
“Open it. They’re for you.”
She opened the box, inside it was a set of diamond-stud earrings. Twin miniature multi-prisms refracted light a million-fold. Tiny rainbows emitted the seven colours of the spectrum. Her mother’s words came to her—a rainbow signifies a promise—sunshine after rain; good times after hardship.
He didn’t have wedding bands, but he had these rocks!
“Rory, they are incredibly beautiful.”
“They were my mother’s. The only thing of hers that survived the looting after The Stock Market Crash. And now they are my wife’s.” His large hands engulfed hers holding the box in her palm.
Siobhan lifted her face and pressed her lips against his. Then he wrapped his arms around her and brought her close to him.
“Dinnae be gone long, heart of my heart,” he whispered into her hair.
“Don’t be in a hurry to be a hero at your own expense, Ruairidh Campbell.”
“Aye. I’ll think twice now I have so much more to lose.”
A member of the Government’s Defence Force marched Antony and MacPherson past them.
“So, did you tell your husband about the nuclear fallout cloud?” Antony spoke as he came level with them.
It was as if the world stood still as the people present absorbed his question. The conversation by the doorway to the main building ceased. Those involved in the last-minute loading of the vehicles stopped their activity. Rory stood tall and glared at Antony. Then he turned his glare to her.
“It’s slow moving, Rory,” she said. “And it’s possible it won’t reach the British Isles.”
Thanks Antony, for making it sound as if she was keeping something from everyone.
“When were you goin’ to mention the nuclear fallout cloud, Siobhan?” Rory asked.
“Rory. It’s not as bad as he made it sound.”
“What’s not so bad about a nuclear fallout cloud on its way to the British Isles? What caused it?”
Everyone in the immediate vicinity waited for her reply, unashamedly eaves dropping.
“Tell him, Siobhan.” Antony’s mocking voice came from a far vehicle, which his guard ushered him into.
“Shut the door to his vehicle, please,” she shouted to the man who accompanied Antony.
And gag him.
“When we left the Government Bunker five days ago, there were reports of a nuclear cloud coming from one of the southern states of the USA.” Siobhan spoke loud enough for those around to hear. “A nuclear attack or a power station incident, they weren’t sure. Due to known weather patterns, it was making its way east, and the projection was it would cross southern Europe in three to five days’ time.”
“So, now.”
“Yes. But our meteorologist ran a program which, with the weather data available from this morning, predicted it would not, should not, spread this way.”
A frown replaced Rory’s glare.
“I spoke to my assistant while I was radioing the PM. Louise has been keeping tabs on the cloud’s progress and the weather. So, we should be okay.”
“Well, you, Murray and Angela will be okay in the Bunker, but if your wee projection is nae correct, we will nae be.”
“But it’s dissipating all the time. It should be minimal radiation.”
“I’ve seen the effects radiation can have on the human body, Siobhan—”
“No Rory, it will be minimal. Those poor North Korean submariners were right in it. We will have nothing to worry about.”
“And if it’s not?”
“Then, we will let you know, and you can come to the Bunker where it’s safe.”
Rory shook his head.
“Your people are welcome to come to the Bunker if we find the trajectory is over Scotland. I’ll radio you when the next lot of data is in and I know the program’s results.”
Rory continued to shake his head while she spoke.
“No. The Government Bunker does nae have room for us all. You ken we are not the only Community in Scotland? We have family in Glencoe. Hell, all Communities are our family. Besides, we have animals and crops. And who will defend our compound from being looted by bandits while we are underground? And don’t the bandits and that weird group who live in the wilds, and people like them, have just as much right to the Government’s protection in an egalitarian society? Isn’t that the kind of world your Government will want? It’s what those of us who live in Community want.”
The Compound was silent, devoid of activity as Rory finished his speech. Her husband finished his speech. That was why his people loved him.
It was why she loved him.
“Rory, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, we can give you information on how to protect yourselves from any possible nuclear fallout. And yes, we all want the same thing. And when you are ready, Rory Campbell, please be part of the dialogue with the Government? Be part of the changes to Government which will build Scotland once more?”
Rory blinked, then swallowed. “I’ll think about it.”
He pulled her close and pressed his lips to hers. They stayed there for what seemed an age. He pulled away but kept his face close.
“Dinnae take too long to sort your things ‘oot, aye? A wife should be with her husband, even if she has an important job with the Government.”
“Yes. We’ll be in contact by CB and I’ll keep an eye on you.”
“How?” Rory rested his forehead on hers.
“By drone. Only, please don’t shoot this one down.”
“That was you?”
