The Journey Home

Chapter 9 - An Old Friend

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Christian Brandt stood at the dock beside his old friend, Captain De Sholto Lennox. Unlike his friend, Brandt still wore the uniform of a British army officer. He stood tall and trim in his uniform, with broad shoulders that emphasized a trim waist. Captain Lennox and Brandt stood approximately the same height and were searching for the familiar form of Margaret Hale. She and her young charge had arrived that afternoon on the steamer Sea Mist, and were somewhere in the human tangle of long shoremen, sailors, peddlers and travelers.

At first glance, Brandt was judged as an an ordinary looking man, but upon closer examination the faults of his features made him appear more masculine and appealing. His narrow gray eyes were close set, framing a promenant nose, his ears were large and slightly protruded from his head, his sandy hair had bits of red which matched the color of his long sideburns wide mustache. Brandt's family came to England from Germany at the close of the 18th century. His grandparents were close to the House of Hanover and granted a peerage in England during the reign of the old Mad King George. Brandt was the second son of the Baron von Wurtzel, with a small estate near the Scottish boarder, and larger properties on the Continent. He and his older brother attended a boarding school near their home starting at the ages of 6 and 8 years old, respectively, and it was there that the brothers met the Lennox boys, Sholto and Henry. The older Lennox had come to school proudly bearing the unusual family name of De Sholto, and chose to go by his first name and allow his younger more intelligent brother, Henry, the honor of being simply "Lennox" among the boys. Friends at school had immediately dubbed the younger Brandt as Teddy, due to a preponderance of young boys named Tom,. Teddy was the name that stuck, even into adulthood. The boys performed well at school and chose to enter military service together; Brandt because it was what second sons of nobility did. Lennox because his family could only afford to send the scholarly Henry to University.

As he searched the crowd for the spinster with a young girl in tow, Brandt recalled knowing Margaret during his days in London, when he was a frequent visitor to the Harley Street home at the time of Lennox's courtship of Edith. Although pretty enough to catch most men's attention, Margaret tended to keep to the side and spent much of her time with Henry Lennox discussing classics and italian translations. Brandt was attracted to the dark beauty, noting how her features and crimson lips played off against the beautiful Edith, all pink and blond. He was surprised when he heard that Henry and Margaret had never married; he himself had married one of Edith's smart London friends, Elizabeth Darby.

His family did not approve the attachment as she had a very small inheritance, only a portion of what Sholto had won with Edith. Brandt was quite in love with Miss Darby, proposed to her shortly after Sholto married Edith and proudly brought her to Corfu as his wife when he was stationed there with his regiment. He had been Captain Brandt at the time and they lived quite happily in the mederterrainian paradise along with the Lennox family.

Unlike the Lennoxs, the Brandts suffered several miscarriages before their son, George Thomas Christian Brandt was born in 1855. By then, Lennox had given up his army commission and moved back to London; but Brandt had become a career soldier and earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during his time in the Crimea Peninsula. He survived mismanaged battles and disease and returned to Corfu to raise his young family. Their happiness was brief; two years after the war, Elizabeth was nearing the end of her second pregnancy, when she went into labor 2 months too soon and died in childbirth along with her infant son. Brandt was devastated, but understood there was little he could have done to prevent the loss of his wife, and that he needed to carry on and provide for his son's upbringing, and placed the boy with his parents at there northern estate.

Brandt returned to England to be closer to his son and joined the recently formed Division of Aldercot stationed at the training garrison in the south of England. After a the horrors of the Crimean War and the death of his wife, Brandt needed to feel productive and enjoyed the distraction of the training responsibilities he took on at Aldercot. The garrison was intended as a line of defense of a coastal attack on London, so it was no trouble for Brandt to join his friend at South Hampton when requested.

As Brandt continued to scan the crowd, a figure appeared suddenly in his periphery. She held her head high, her figure was tall, stately and shrouded in black. She moved smoothly through the press of people with the dignity of a queen. Brandt was momentarily stunned by the grace and beauty of her form. He could not see her face clearly through her veil, but he knew it must be Margaret. He bluntly called out "Miss Hale, Miss Hale!" He knew it was rude to call out to a woman as if she were a street peddler, but a fear that he would lose sight of her, that her spirit like figure would evaporate into thin air if they did not catch her quickly enough caused him to forget his manners.

"I say, Teddy, you've spotted her at last!" exclaimed Captain Lennox, as he began to push through the crowd in the direction that Margaret was heading. She paused at the ticket office, pulled back her veil, scanning the crowd looking for a familiar face, her round chin decidedly pointed in the air.

Margaret heard her name and turned to the approaching gentleman and soldier. She immediately recognized Captain Lennox with his boyish good looks, but the soldier was not familiar for a moment, until, "Ah yes," she recalled. Captain Brandt, whom she met in London many years ago during Edith's engagement. She had not seen him since the wedding. She felt some relief, as the letter had reached her family in time so that someone was there to meet her and Maria Louise. "Captain Lennox!" she called and waved as he drew closer. She reached out her hand to Brandt. Her dark eyes sparkled. She was no longer alone.