A sudden, unaccountable ache filled his chest, and his smile fell. Just because he wantedher, he realized, didn’t mean she wantedhimin return. “I’m not certain I want you to go home.” He moved to sit near her on the bed, and he felt her body tense beside him.
“But I thought you believed me.”
“I do”, he assured her. This wasn’t going quite the way he had hoped, so he changed the subject. Perhaps he would have to woo her more slowly. Perhaps he had let his ego and his usual ease with women make him overconfident. “Tell me about your family; your home. I want to know.”
She hesitated, and he picked up her hand, holding it in both of his. It was soft and smooth and trembled just a little. But it feltrightin his own larger grasp.
“Tell me.”
She looked down at her lap. “There was only my grandmother and my uncle left. My mother lived far away, and I never knew my father.” He nodded his encouragement, and she continued. “My mother was only with him one time, and she didn’t even know his name. She didn’t want tonothave the baby because of her beliefs, but she didn’t want to raise a child either. My grandmother raised me as if I was her own daughter.”
“I don’t understand. How could she havenotborne the child, once it was growing inside of her?”
Nessa looked suddenly uncomfortable. “In my time…a woman who becomes pregnant can choose…she could choose not to have the baby at all. There are ways…medicines to both prevent and end the pregnancy.”
Bridei couldn’t fathom such a thing. “Why? Is a child not a gift from the gods?”
“There are reasons. Things are so different where I come from. The father of the baby might leave the woman with no support, and she might not have enough…wealth…of her own to raise a child. Or maybe the woman was raped, or just wasn’t ready to be a mother. It’s complicated.”
“And your father was a man such as this, who would leave his woman and child to suffer?” He squeezed her hand a little tighter.
She shrugged, as if it meant nothing to her. “I don’t think he even knows I exist. I was fine though. I had my grandmother to take care of me. I never wanted for anything.”
There was a loud, urgent knocking at the door.
Bridei glared at it in annoyance for a moment before answering. “Enter.”
It swung open wide, revealing a rather frantic-looking Namet.
“What is it?” Bridei asked irritably. He had only just gotten Nessa to start opening up to him.
“Angus has been found.”
Nessa jumped up off the bed as if she’d been burned, pulling her hand abruptly from his. “He has? Oh my god, where is he? Is he alright?”
“Ohmy god, Angus, where have youbeen?” Nessa rushed toward her uncle, wrapping her arms around him in a hug that most definitely saidI thought I’d never see you again.He let her squeeze him for a moment, then impatiently pushed her away. Angus never was one for affection. “Wherewereyou? I looked for you!Everyonewas looking for you!”
“I went back home…”
“What?” Nessa froze. She hadn’t even considered, not for a moment, that he’d gonehome. “You went back without me? Youleftme here?”
He shook his head briskly. “No, no, I went forhelp. I didn’t think I could get you away from them by myself. They had you locked in that tower. How did you get out?”
“Help? What do you mean you went for help? You didn’t bring anyone else here, did you?” She looked around furtively, but there didn’t seem to be anyone out of place. Without answering her, Angus switched subjects, as he often did.
“We’re too early, Nessa. We have to go back…try again. This is only the year 685.”
She put her hands on her hips. “We? Who’swe? Ineverthought this was a good idea!Weare going home andstaying there!”
“But we…I…” Suddenly her uncle clutched at his chest with both hands, his face turning sickly pale right in front of her eyes. She gasped in horror as he sunk to his knees, reaching for her as if she could hold him up.
“Uncle Angus! What’s wrong?” She quickly moved behind him, supporting his weight as she carefully lowered him the rest of the way to the ground. “Here, lie down!” She looked around, frantic. “Help! Something’s wrong with my uncle! Oh Angus…”
Someone must have gone to fetch Meara, because she was beside them just moments later, kneeling in the dirt to put her hands-on Angus’s chest.
“It’s his heart”, Meara said. But Nessa already knew that. In reality she’d known from the moment he went down. Damn junk food! She’d warned him! Hadn’t she warned him? Yes, athousandtimes or more!
“It’s okay Angus. It’s all going to be okay.”People survive heart attacks all the time,she told herself.“You just stay with me alright? Just take deep breaths.” She looked around at the small crowd that had gathered. “Doesn’t anyone have any medicine? Anything at all?” What she wouldn’t have given in that moment for a phone, an ambulance, and a state-of-the-art cardiac ward at a hospital. Instead, all she could hope for was a miracle. Maybe if she could get him to the well in time…
