Series timeline (Spoilers!)

So, how long is this supposed to have taken? After Michael arrives to the the end of the series plays to me like it occurs over days or a couple weeks. That initially annoyed me because it appeared that the relationship between Declan and Michael went from threatening murder to best buds who would die for each other in an instant. Then, when Clenna arrived, it became clear that more time had actually passed for them to get word back to England and Clenna delivered to the frontier. Did they do a poor job of illustrating the passage of time or am I crazy? Or did Michael and Declan just have bro love at first sight and in this alternate universe, England is much closer to North America? I really did like the series, but the timeline seemed weird to me.