Triallaire

Son of a Saint

24 December, 2164

Tom's Flat, Edinburgh, Scotland

MAEVIS POV

Maevis knocked quietly on the door, then a little bit louder when there was no answer. The door was then answered by the bubbly Gemma, who seemed all too happy to see Maevis again. "Hello, darling! Oh, I'm so glad you could join us!" Gemma exclaimed, embracing Maevis, but Maevis didn't return it.

"It's... nice to be here," Maevis replied awkwardly.

"Hello, sweetheart," came Tom's voice from inside the apartment, and Maevis glanced up to see him stand up from the living room. "Thank you for coming. Gemma's still finishing up dinner, so that gives us a few minutes to discuss what I've found."

"Oh, yes! I should check on the roast. Should I take the mince pies out of the freezer?" Gemma asked, and Tom let out a sigh.

"You should have taken them out hours ago, but sure, take them out now. Given the heat of this flat, I'm sure they'll defrost quickly," Tom told her, and then Gemma rushed off.

"You seemed to move on quickly from Mama," Maevis said to him, trying not to sound bitter.

"Your mother and I haven't lived together for over a decade as husband and wife," said Tom. "And now, with her gone, and legally dead, I believe that means our marriage has ended." He led her into a separate office, closing the door behind him.

"Till death do us part, no?" Maevis asked him.

"Tell that to your mother. She could never love me as her husband, and she told me so. I was the one that chose not to listen," Tom replied, sitting down at a desk and opening a laptop.

"No, you gave her child away instead," Maevis replied, and Tom let out a sigh.

"It's the holidays, Maevis. Can we not let up on the judgement just for one day?" Tom asked her.

"I've never spent one holiday with my brother because you put him up for adoption, so no," Maevis told him. "Did you find anything on him?"

"Yes, I did, as a matter of fact," Tom replied as he opened a folder on the computer and opened a document. "Elton Thomas McGinty was adopted by Mark and Lauren McGinty. At the time, they lived in Aberdalgie, but it was in the Hot Zone after the Glasgow bombing and they were relocated to Inverness. They've since moved back and have rebuilt their home, according to some of these documents. The address is 313 Evergreen Lane in Aberdalgie."

"That's it?" Maevis asked him.

"I know he didn't go to university and he joined his father's business when he left school. It's a farmers' market called McGinty's Market," Tom told her. "What else do you want to know?"

"I don't know, more about him! He's my brother," Maevis said with a soft huff.

"Those are the kinds of things you need to talk to him about," Tom told her. "Do you want to see a picture of him?" Quietly, Maevis nodded, and Tom pulled up a picture from Elton McGinty's I.D., and Maevis leaned in closer to the screen to see his face better. He was red-haired, just like her, and he had bright blue eyes. He looked a little bit like her, but more than anything, he looked like his own individual - or rather, like their father, most likely. Maevis had no idea what Jamie Fraser looked like, but looking at Elton, she had to guess that he looked something like that. Like Maevis, his blue eyes were a little slanted, and he had a broad, sharp nose, cheekbones and chin, and broad features in general. His hair had a slight wave to it and wasn't nearly as curly as Mama's, but it wasn't straight like Maevis's either. Did their father have curly hair or straight? "I think you'd like to see this, as well. I did a bit of research and came across paintings done at Kisimul Castle in the eighteenth century around the time your mother claimed to live there. Or maybe after, I don't know. It's the 1750s and 1760s. Here, I put them on a PowerPoint for you."