Together

New Places

Hi everyone! I had a super fun day today, and I hope you all did too. Anyone else watch the Olivier Awards? A huge congrats goes to Come From Away for winning big! In other news, in case nobody guessed by now, I absolutely love castles, so there are some more castles in this chapter hehe. I want to take this trip someday!! Ahhhh what a dream. Anyway, enjoy/comment/vote xxx
-ab

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February 6, 2026

Harper

"A few more castles, and one more that we are using as a hotel," Patrick laughs as he smiles across the table at me, while we are finishing up our breakfast before leaving Lumley Castle. "What do you say? You up for the challenge?"

"Am I up for the challenge?" I scoff. "I was born ready, Alwyn."

"Good," he tells me. "Today's trip has to be planned pretty meticulously, as we are scheduled to stop at a castle that is on a tidal island like that lighthouse from yesterday."

"God, how many tidal islands are there in this country?" I laugh.

"I think we are just happening to hit up all of them. Regardless, I've calculated that we are going to need to be leaving within the next half hour so that we can have an ideal amount of time before having to scoot off of that island for the tide to change."

"Sounds good."

It doesn't take very long to get packed up and on the road, and Patrick informs me that I'll only need to expect about an hour and a half of driving, on a gorgeous scenic route, before our first stop.

"So, if you look," Patrick tells me, pulling into a car park, "straight ahead of you is Lindisfarne Castle."

"Whoa," I smile. "That's really cool."

"It's really old is what it is."

"That's probably true."

"So, make sure that you bundle up, because it's looking pretty windy out there."

"Why, again, did you decide to do this trip in February?" I tease my husband.

"Because you needed a little bit of an escape, and even though the weather has been far from warm, it's still been really nice, and a relaxing holiday for the both of us."

"I didn't realize how much I needed to get away from everything until you pulled me out here. Thank you so much, love."

"Hey, listen up. When I married you, I promised to make sure that you were happy, and if you weren't, then I knew that I would do whatever it took to put that gorgeous smile back on your face. I know that you would do the same for me. Nessa told me... wow, forever ago, that this is a trip which would make you so, so happy. I couldn't resist carrying it out. Anyway, we can always come back and do it again when the weather is better."

I giggle. "That sounds absolutely perfect. But, we should... maybe, not splurge all of our money on visiting castles."

"Are you sick, Harper Alwyn?" he laughs. "God, I never thought that I would hear you say that.

Walking around Lindisfarne Castle is really cool, but it's also a bit eerie. It's mostly just how it is built, and knowing that the stones date back to the sixteenth century. It's not the oldest castle that I've been in, by far. That title would probably go to the Hohensalzburg castle in Austria. For some reason, though, this one really gives off a feeling that, in its prime time, it had a really nice torture chamber. I can't say whether or not that is really true.

As we leave the castle, I can tell that the tide is starting to roll in. Pretty soon, it'll be an island. All of the guests are leaving about now, so there's a bit of a traffic jam as we are leaving the car park, but soon, we are back on the road, heading towards Patrick's next mystery castle.

"Welcome to Scotland, my love," he tells me, after only a few minutes of driving.

"Wait, really? This is exciting. I've not been to Scotland before."

"Well, there's a first time for everything. Should we pull over to the side of the road and take a picture to commemorate?"

"I think that we are alright," I reply. "Thanks for the offer, though." Both of us chuckle.

Our drive is just under two hours, then we arrive at a big, white, cozy-looking castle.

I gasp. "What is this place?" I ask. "It's so cool."

"This is Traquair House," he explains to me. "It's where we will be staying for the next two nights."

"God, Patrick, at every turn, you have another surprise up your sleeve."

"Wait until tomorrow afternoon. I think that'll be the highlight of this trip for you."

He gives me a little smirk.

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"Of course not," he laughs. "That's information that is for me to know, and for you to find out tomorrow, when the time has come for the specific event to take place."

We park our car, then get out. The temperature is significantly more pleasant here, as we are no longer on the coast. "So far, Scotland is pretty cool."

"I'm glad that you feel that way," he laughs. "We will be here until early Sunday morning."

"God, what time are we going to have to leave?"

"You aren't going to like this, but it's a seven hour drive from here to London. You are being called to the theatre at 14:00 for Katherine's put-in, so you can do that math yourself."

"Okay," I groan. "That's actually not as bad as I thought that it would be."

"Yeah, we will probably get out of here at, six or so. But let's not think about that. We still have plenty of time on our holiday so that we can focus on ourselves, and not anything that's going on back home."

"I wish that it was that easy to push it all out of my brain," I tell Patrick, the corners of my mouth turning down into a frown.

"I know that it's hard, honey, but remember what your mom told you. He's still going to be around when you get back. You'll get to say a proper goodbye."

"Please, don't say that. There's still a chance that a treatment could work. Maybe they'll put him on a magical experimental drug or something."

"I know that you want to hope that a miracle will occur, and I'm going to let you think that. Trust me, I'm hoping that too. I also know, though, that usually, when doctors don't think that there's very much that can be done, there really isn't much that can be done. They go to years and years of medical school so that they can be experts on things like that, love."

"I know," I sigh. "But let's not talk about that, right now."

"Good idea." He smiles at me, snaking his arm around my shoulder as he leads me into the castle.