Chapter 38
R ight before Brigid’s amazed eyes, five figures faded into sight beside the cross. Not Edmondson, thankfully, but she recognised them all the same. It was her parents and brothers!
With a shout of delight, she pushed Sandy out of the way and jumped forwards. Her father swept her up into a tight hug, and then everyone else squeezed in. Arms wrapped around every inch of Brigid’s body as she cried and laughed at the same time. She could barely believe this. Her family, here in the eighteenth century, come to rescue her. It seemed too good to be true.
Then, suddenly, her father threw them all off and rushed past her.
Brigid turned just in time to see her father wrestle Sandy to the ground, only a few feet away. Sandy must have made a move towards her. Had he thought she needed rescuing from these rough strangers? Her father did look very threatening to anyone who didn’t know him, with all his tattoos.
Down on the ground, sitting over Sandy, Brigid’s father growled something that she couldn’t hear. Brigid rushed forward and tapped Drest on the shoulder. He looked up at her, and his expression immediately softened.
“Is this the man who kidnapped you?” he asked.
“No, no!” Brigid said, shaking her head emphatically. “This is Sandy. He’s… a friend. He helped me. But I do have a lot to tell you.”
Drest reluctantly let Sandy stand back up. He even offered a gruff apology.
“No harm done,” Sandy said affably as he dusted himself down.
“Then what happened?” Kara asked, as the whole family focused on Brigid. “We’ve had a nightmare of a time trying to track you down. The cross seemed blocked, somehow.”
“If your mother wasn’t so good at this time travel business, we might never have found you,” Drest added.
“I was actually about to come home,” Brigid said. “It’s all a rather long story.”
“Alright, time for all of you to clear off,” Sandy shouted behind her. Brigid turned to see the final stragglers disappearing from the camp. She wondered where they would all go.
“Mary and I need to get moving,” Sandy said, meeting Brigid’s eyes. “We have a friend to bury, after all. Will you be safe with these people?”
“Of course,” Brigid murmured. And then, a little louder, she said, “Yes, I will. They are my family.”
Sandy nodded at them politely. “You are lucky to have a daughter like Brigid,” he said.
He looked at Brigid again for a moment, his lips parting as if he might say something. Instead, he bowed silently. Then he strode off, rounding up his little ragtag band. Brigid stood and watched as the cart rattled into motion and set off down the road. She would probably never see Mary or Sandy ever again. Another feeling that did not quite seem real.
“Now, let’s settle in here for a while,” Drest said, lowering himself to the ground in a squat. He rested one hand on the cross. “It sounds like you have a lot to tell us.
Brigid’s brothers grabbed a few tent canvases for them all to sit on, until they were all assembled in a ragged circle beside the cross.
“It was Professor Edmondson who kidnapped me,” Brigid said, deciding to launch in at the beginning.
Kara gasped. “Edmondson?” she said, sounding horrified. “I never much liked the man, but I had no idea he was capable of this! Why on earth did he do something like that?”
“He wanted to use my skills to go as far back into the past as possible,” Brigid explained. “I have no idea why, but he seemed determined. Why me, though? What makes me so special?”
Kara and Drest exchanged glances.
“You know that I also have special abilities when it comes to travelling in time,” Kara said carefully. “I could help the Professor build stronger time machines. But even I am not as strong as you, Brigid.”
“Why, though?” Brigid repeated. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Kara took a deep breath, then reached out to grasp Brigid’s hands. “You were born in the past, Brigid. In Pictish Scotland, in fact, where your father is warlord of a hill fort. I met Drest in the past, and chose to stay with him there, where my own father lived.”
Brigid’s brain seemed to have stopped. None of this was quite making sense to her. She looked around the circle and saw that her brothers all looked as shocked as her.
“Our father is a Pict?” Connor asked.
“I am indeed,” Drest admits. “Originally, we planned to live in my time for good, with only occasional visits to the twenty-first century. But once we had children - you, Brigid - my time period did not seem safe enough. So we decided to send you all to school in modern Britain. The two of us have travelled backwards and forwards, trying to maintain a life in both time periods.”
Brigid stared at him, stunned. She had been born in the ancient past and she hadn’t known a thing about it?
“So, you see, that is your native time,” Kara explained. “That probably means that you could go much, much earlier than I could. Earlier than anyone else who works with the Professor. Or, at least, that’s my best guess. It’s all very confusing, and only Edmondson really knows how it all works.”
Brigid was finally starting to understand why the Professor had wanted her. She still could not figure out why he was so desperate to travel centuries into the past - but perhaps she would never know.
“Edmondson was wounded, perhaps fatally,” she told her parents. “And then I pushed him through time. With any luck, we will never hear from him again.”
“That’s a relief,” Kara said, smiling a little sadly. “But Brigid, what about that man earlier, the one you said helped you? How does he fit into everything?”
“Sandy. He rescued me from Edmondson,” Brigid explained. “And he’s been helping me try to get home.”
She took a deep breath. Thankfully, no one had asked about Finn yet. But she would have to tell them eventually - and, first, she should tell them the truth about Sandy.
“Sandy and I actually got married, to help keep me safe,” she admitted, awkwardly looking down at her own fingers as she twisted them together.
Everyone gasped.
“Brigid, do you love this man?” Kara asked, quietly and carefully.
Brigid’s first instinct was to say no, of course not. But she held her tongue, and took a second to think about it.
“Yes,” she said softly.
And then the full force of the feeling hit her. She did love Sandy, with all her heart.
“Then you must go to him,” Kara said. “Once upon a time, I nearly abandoned the man I loved in the past. But I came to my senses and went back to him, and I have never once regretted that decision.”
Brigid jumped to her feet. “I have to catch up with Sandy,” she said breathlessly. “I need to tell him that I love him.”