Time Lord and His Lady

Chapter Twelve: I Lost Everything, Darling, Then and There

Raising Johanna was not something I ever thought would happen for me, but I was happier than I could ever imagine being. In my spare time, I wrote history essays under the pseudonym, Alexander Conrad, and no one was any the wiser, although I did hear several good things about my writings, which was truly amazing. Roger and I would constantly compare notes on what we recalled from the future, and I was very careful not to write anything that hadn't happened yet, or what was deemed to be too controversial.

"We bought Mama a book about Scotland and its history," Brianna said, practically bouncing up and down with excitement as she watched me work, whilst Jemmy toddled around the room babbling merrily, and Johanna lay upon the floor upon a blanket. "She said it would have been better had she had the book the first time around. What are you writing?"

I looked over my shoulder at Brianna and smirked; I'd come to the cabin she and Roger lived in with the intention of working, but found I wasn't getting much of it done. Autumn had come to the Ridge and things were steadily growing colder, but the fireplace was lit, and that made the entirety of the cabin warm and welcoming, although Brianna and I made sure that neither Jemmy nor Johanna got too terribly close to it.

"Well, if you must know," I joked with Brianna.

Brianna grinned, getting to her feet from where she was sat beside Johanna on the floor, and spread her impressive green skirts. "Oh, I must know, Lady Grey, I must!"

I laughed aloud, getting to my feet and curtsying back to her, my own skirts a beautiful shade of blue that cold afternoon. "Well, of course I shall tell you, then, Mistress MacKenzie," I said with a dramatic, low voice. "I am writing a letter to Eliza Robertson."

Brianna's attention was immediately caught. "Really?" she asked, coming close to the desk I was currently borrowing and looking over my shoulder. "I thought Da was going to send it?"

"Da was making inquiries about Eliza to figure out if we were related, which would mean that she would have had to have gone through the stones," I replied, returning to my seat at the desk and looking down at what I'd written so far.

Brianna considered that for a moment. "Roger and I always figured it was something you were born with," she mused. "But, wouldn't it be a bit odd if it was just your aunt?"

"Erica could have been a traveler as well, but she never utilized her gifts, even if she had them, and thank goodness she didn't," I said quietly, and Brianna nodded in agreement. "As far as I know, Erica moved from Scotland as a teenager to find work in London, where she met Raymond, and the pair of them heard about Hitler from the news."

Brianna sighed, coming up completely behind me and wrapping her arms around my shoulders, knowing how I felt about discussing that faction of my family. "It wouldn't have been too terribly hard to hear about it," she observed. "Mama herself served as a combat nurse during the war as well..."

I scoffed, reaching up and clutching at Brianna's hands. "I wonder if they ever crossed paths and, if they did, what was said."

Brianna buried her face into my shoulder. "Most of me doesn't even want to consider it, and Mama barely talks about what she faced in the war," she said quietly.

I nodded. "I don't blame her," I said. "Isaac and Sebastian barely talked about it, until it all just came spilling out one day. All we knew about it was that they were in the same unit, and then we just got a phone call one day that they were coming home. Once they were back, President Eisenhower awarded them both Purple Hearts, meaning that they were wounded in battle, but they refused to talk about it."

"Shell-shocked?" Brianna asked.

"Probably, yes," I responded. "They were normal with all of us, though, for such a long time, and then they told us what really happened to them... Well, me. I don't know if the rest of the family knows yet."