I Am Jessamine

Nick’s apartment smelled as though it had been closed up for a while and the dust on the surface of everything confirmed this. Jessie walked through to the main room and saw that the bed had been stripped and there were dust sheets over the furniture and bed. Turning and walking through into the other bedrooms she saw the same thing. Dust sheets were covering just about everything.

“There’s nothing in the kitchen cupboards or anywhere else, but the utilities have not been turned off. The refrigerator is still running and there is gas for the stove.” Willy called out.

“It’s a bit of a paradox then isn’t it? Clearly, it looks as though everything has been prepared for a lengthy stay away, but there are signs of him returning too. He obviously left a hefty deposit to pay for the utilities to stay up to date.” Jessie walked past the fire place and noticed a circular patch on the mantle where something had been left for a while, as seen by the thick dust, and then removed and a small amount of dust had settled over the patch. Stepping closer and narrowing her eyes Jessie could see the markings made by the tips of someone’s fingers. But then she decided the person had been wearing gloves as two of the impressions were too sharp to be that of skin on a flat dusty surface but not sharp enough for long nails. This was, after all, Jessie’s specialty. Taking note of the unseen. It was a game for Jess to be able to put together the puzzle that had fallen apart and needed mending. Jessie could see the shadow of the person walking through the apartment, noticing something on the mantel, slowly walking towards the fire place and then gently removing what had been left there. Jess decided the individual was more than likely female as males do not often wear gloves, but women do tend to prefer the comfort and sense of elegance that comes with wearing gloves or, as in her own case, not wanting to leave finger prints, and Nicholas would probably be involved with an elegant woman. As Jess saw it, this was his way of saying to her that it was over and this was the goodbye. A gift either from her to him or for the apartment had been left where she could find it. It would never be a new gift from him to her as this would confuse the woman. No, Nick would return something of value or beauty to make his point.

Opening her eyes slowly Jessie saw Willy and her dad watching her. Sighing she walked over to the entrance table where the telephone message machine sat and saw that there were messages on the machine. Pressing play she sat down to listen to a bunch of strange voices talking to her brother as though he were still there.

“Good day Mister Kellie. This is Iliana from Doctor Bronson’s office to confirm your appointment for Thursday at three thirty pm. Please contact our office should you wish to change this time and date.” And she proceeded to leave their number which Jess scrawled on a scrap piece of paper found in the drawer of the entrance table.

There were messages from banking institutions, Insurance brokers and a health insurance expert. Then there was a message from a woman who had a very thick French accent. “Nicky,” she purred, “you need to get in touch with me for your own sake. You broke the unbreakable rule, Nicky and you know what that means, oui? Oh, and one more thing sweet Nicky, thank you for my gift.” And the line clicked off.

Jessie turned in the chair to look at Ben and Willy with raised eyebrows and an unspoken question on her lips. “I’m going to the supermarket to get a few things. I will take Nick’s room.” She got up stiffly and took the key out of the bowl where she had tossed it and walked out.

She knew there was a grocer a couple of blocks down from the apartment and made her way slowly there. Once there she chose a variety of bread, cheeses, some fresh cocktail tomatoes, olives, several different cold cuts for the men, and different fruits like figs, strawberries, peaches, apricots, and apples. Jessie loved her fruits and cheeses. There was nothing like a strong mature cheese with fresh, cold fig preserve on a toasted piece of sour dough bread. Then wash it down with a crisp white wine. Thinking of the wine Jess made her way to the wine racks and chose three bottles of white wine of the Chenin blanc variety and three bottles of red pinotage and merlot.

She stopped and closed her eyes as soon as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Picking up her basket she turned to go through the checkout and used this opportunity to glance around her. There were other shoppers that late, but none were looking in her direction so she glanced towards the doors and windows of the shop, but still could not see anyone. Whoever it was they were still watching her as her skin began to crawl and the hair on her arms started prickling up as well.

Paying for her items Jess retraced her steps, but instead of going straight to the front of the apartment she slipped down the side alley and stayed in the shadows until she reached the side door of the building used for the various utilities departments. Fortunately, it was not locked and Jess slipped inside. The light bulbs were so dull she could barely see where she was going but she found her way to the connecting passage and doorway that brought her out next to the caretakers’ offices near the reception desk. The young man on duty looked up at her but chose to keep his peace and not say anything. He merely glanced at her packages and went back to whatever it was he had been doing before she interrupted him.

Choosing not to use the elevator, Jess went for the stairs and began the two at a time slog up to the seventh floor where Nick’s apartment was located. Jess knew she was not in bad shape physically, but by the time she reached the seventh floor, she was ready to collapse. Huffing and puffing like a steam train she put the bags down and put the key in the lock but before she could turn it the door was pulled open and standing in front of her was a very tall, slender woman who appeared a bit older than Jess herself and who had one eyebrow arched so high it looked about ready to enter her hair line. She had small narrow eyes that flicked up at the corners in a face that was not round, but also not heart-shaped. She had a full mouth below a narrow pert nose and her eye color was a very light green. Her skin was a light caramel color and her hair a very unusual light brown with sun-bleached bits here and there. Her skin appeared flawless and her perfume pervaded all the space around them and Jessie found she quite liked the smell. The woman was very beautiful and Jess felt that she must be the one who left the message, and clearly Ben and Willy knew her, or else she would not be answering the door.

“You can either move out of the way or you could take one of the bags for me.” Jessie pushed past her, keeping her game face on, without waiting for either a reply or her assistance. Stomping through to the kitchen Jess put the bags on the table and then went about pulling plates and bowls out of cupboards and cutlery out of drawers. Setting out the table Jess realized how hungry she was when her stomach growled quite loudly and Willy gave a quiet laugh and shook his head.

“You’ve never been one to remember to eat have you?” he asked smiling at her.

“It is not such a bad thing to forget about the food, oui? But you are too small, la petit, and you walked the stairs instead of taking l’ ascenseur. Why did you do that, mon Cherie?” The French woman looked down at Jess and raised that ever-present eyebrow. Patronizing bitch, thought Jess.

“I felt you watching me and then you followed me and I didn’t want to lead you to exactly where I was so I took the alleyway. I shouldn’t have bothered.” Jessie glanced purposefully at the woman and then motioned for everyone to sit down. Taking her place she helped herself to several wedges of cheeses, bread, and tomatoes and then poured a good amount of wine into her glass.

Pushing the bottle back toward the center of the table and preparing to devour her food Jess glanced up and asked, “Now, am I going to be introduced to the French lady or are we going to continue this charade?” Jess looked up with a mouthful of bread and cheese, ready to swill some wine down as well when she noticed no one else was eating and they were all frowning at her.

“What?” She asked with her own raised eyebrow and an unladylike mouth full of food.

“Jessie, this is Madame Valeria Brossard, otherwise known as La Rue and she knocked on the door only five minutes after you left. If you felt you were being watched or someone was following you then it was not her.” Ben leaned forward and looked at Jess. “Did you not see anyone watching you or following you?”

“Obviously I checked, but no, I never saw a soul. It was strange, but I knew I was being watched. You know how I get and I have yet to be wrong.” Jessie said and stood up to look out of the nearest window down onto the street seven floors below. Nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at her but she did notice a yellow cab parked about three blocks down across the road on a corner. She mentioned this, but everyone else agreed that seeing a cab parked off was not a strange or an unusual occurrence, but then again they were not your regular run-of-the-mill family. Jessie’s eyes caught Valeria’s and Jess felt that all too familiar warning go off in her belly.

Sitting back down Jess glanced at her plate and realized she was no longer hungry. She pushed the plate aside and picked up the glass of wine. Leaning back she spied her father glancing at Madame Brossard and then at Willy while they too were making their selection of the food on the table.

Deciding that now was as good a time as any to ask her questions Jessie cleared her throat, put down her glass, and asked, “Why was the name of the yacht that Nick chartered the same name as on our crest? Je Suis Pret. I understand stranger things in life have happened, but this is too coincidental for our family.” Looking up at everyone she raised her glass, “Any takers?”

Clearing his throat and looking around at everyone else, Ben said, “Let’s take the wine to the living room and we can sit and chat more comfortably there.”

Madame Valeria Brossard brought what was left of the dinner through to the living room and set it out neatly on the coffee table. Jess watched her and decided this woman could not be trusted. There was just that something and Jess held onto that.

Jessie sat on the window sill near the fire place while Willy got the fire going and she was sipping on her wine waiting for the axe to fall. She got that feeling again and just knew something life-changing was about to happen and nothing was going to be the same again. Jess felt afraid but then reminded herself to put her game face on. So, she sat on the window sill with an expressionless face and waited patiently.

“As you know, my name is Valeria Brossard. What you don’t know is I am Nicholas’ amour.” Willy interrupted her with a grunt and an under-his-breath comment which Madame Brossard chose to ignore and continued. “I met your brother when Ben contacted me to assist with a certain, shall we say, urgent business? Yes? Well it was then we started a relationship and Nicholas made certain promises to me which I now see he has broken. This is not acceptable to me or the syndicate I work for.” Here we go, thought Jess as she gazed out of the window and continued to remain silent.

“My dear, do you have any knowledge about the time continuum? Where it is believed that time is continuous and the past and present are accessible at certain points on the globe? Dividing the past and present times are something made up by man so that we are kept in the dark as to the vast possibilities of being able to move through time?” She looked at Jess questioningly. “‘Time is not a reality but a concept or a measure.’ That is not my saying, I am quoting the Greek orator Antifer.”

“Of course you are! Are you asking me if I know anything about time jumping or travel?” Jess asked with a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? Is this what we have to talk about now? Or are you trying to say my brother has gone through this time warp thing? I am not uneducated and my IQ scores were pretty high, so I am not exactly your village idiot, but even my imagination is being stretched here. Would you care to clarify for me?” Jessie kept her game face on and gave away nothing of the hollow feeling in her belly and the buzzing in her ears. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Valeria was being truthful and the big crunch was yet to come.

Willy stood up and went to sit on the other end of the window sill with Jess. Reaching over he patted her knee. “How old do you think I am, lass?”

“If I had to hazard a guess I would say in your early forties maybe. You haven’t really changed much over the years. Maybe a little grey here and there and a few more wrinkles. Why what does guessing your age have to do with anything?” Willy reached forward and held her hand in his.

“I am two hundred and forty-three years old Jessie. I was two hundred and eighteen years old when you were born. That is two hundred and eighteen years here, in this time. Back in my own time, I was eighteen years old. I time jumped two hundred years ahead. I was born in the year of our lord seventeen hundred and seventy-eight. I time jumped at eighteen years of age in seventeen hundred and ninety-six and arrived in this time in nineteen hundred and ninety-six. Almost exactly six months before you were born. You are now twenty-five years old and I am now forty three years old. I know you have no trouble doing maths so you can believe me that the dates are correct. Nicholas was already three years old at the time.” Squeezing her hand he stood up and walked over to the window on the opposite side of the fireplace with a pained expression on his face.

Jessie sat staring at the empty glass in her hand. Game face, Jessie, she reminded herself again. Getting up she walked over to where the bottles of wine were standing and poured a full measure into her glass and walked back to her perch on the sill. Taking a big gulp from the glass she looked over to her father who had been sitting in silence next to Valeria. “Okay, I believe you Willy because you have never lied to me, but you have to understand how ludicrous this all sounds. I need to be completely convinced and I also need to know what this has to do with Nick.” She held up her hand as Ben opened his mouth to speak, “Just a second dad. I want to ask a couple of questions first, if I may?” Looking around and seeing them all nod their heads in ascent Jessie continued.

“Dad, are you a, what do we say, time jumper? And you, Valeria? You too?” She pulled a cushion off the nearest chair and propped it behind her while she waited to hear what they had to say.

Ben stood up and walked towards Jessie and sat down in the chair nearest her and leaned his elbows on his knees. Taking a deep breath he began talking.

“I used to work on luxury yachts when I was a sixteen-year-old, wet-behind-the-ears, barely whiskered boy and where I got my start with my chosen career. When I was eighteen a couple of friends and I took a job on some wealthy Arabian gentleman’s yacht for the sole purpose of seeing what we could get out of it. The yacht was sailed into an area of the ocean that the Arab had requested and for some strange reason the electronics in the yacht failed and it stalled out at sea. The ocean was as flat as a pancake and glassy smooth. There was nothing for miles around us and no wind to speak of. Old seamen call it the doldrums. The heat was unbelievable and soon tempers started fraying. The rationing of fresh water and food became a problem too. Stealing to survive became the name of the game.” Ben rubbed his forehead as though trying to erase a memory. “The Arab instructed his staff to lock away all provisions in his private cabin and he would decide when everyone got food or water. You can just imagine how well that went down. Anyway, after two weeks of this insanity and two men jumping overboard and one slitting his own throat my friend and I decided to break into the owners’ cabin so that we could get food to eat and fresh water to drink. We had been sneaking the water out of the engine room and we had started to get sick from this. So we broke into his cabin and were surprised that there was no resistance from the Arabian or his guard. It became very clear why there was no resistance. There was no one in the cabin. No sign of the Arab or his guard. What we did see, however, was an open trap door beside a chest of drawers.” At Jessie’s slight frown Ben explained. “You must understand that this man was so very wealthy and this yacht was like a palace, so we were stupid not to think he would have some sort of escape route built into his yacht. Well, we followed the steps down and entered a narrow passage and followed this passage all the way to the aft of the yacht where all the safety gear was stored. There appeared to be life jackets missing and both life rafts were gone. We could only assume that the owner had taken all the provisions on one raft and tethered it to the other raft and they buggered off during the night at some point when everyone else was just too weak to bother.” Ben stood up and walked across the living area and stood near the mirror that was cloaked in a dust cloth.

“We had to go back and tell the others what we had found, but then we felt the yacht sway from side to side and we hauled ass to get out of there and back on deck. What we saw scared the living hell out of us. The sea was no longer glassy and there were no longer doldrums. The wind had picked up and the swells were starting to grow by the minute, but the water was literally glowing from below and there was a humming sound. The ocean was turning into an angry, heaving mass of grey roiling water. We knew the yacht had been drifting, but we had no idea where or how far off course we had drifted. The sky was a mass of clouds so trying to get bearings from the stars was an impossibility.” Ben went to pick up another bottle of wine and topped up everyone’s glasses. Jessie watched his movements and she saw the tension in his shoulders, his neck, and his face. The lines around his mouth deepened and for Jess, this was a sure sign of someone reliving a moment of deep stress and untold fear. She said nothing, just kept her game face on.

“My friend and I knew that there were not enough life jackets so we handed out what we had and the rest of us tied ourselves to items of furniture we knew would float, like the sofa and chairs. I broke the counter off the wooden bar and my friend and I tied ourselves to each end, but by then water was rushing in through every opening and the yacht had already started to come apart. Some of those waves were the size of mountains. It felt like it went on for hours, but it was more likely only an hour or so. Finally, the sheer force of the water continuously crashing against the yacht tore it apart and everyone and everything was just sucked out and into the black angry waters around us. The ropes cut into my waist and arms as I wrapped myself tighter onto the counter and I thought my fingers would break from holding on so tightly. The wood was buoyant but that did not stop us from being sucked under the waves and then spat back up again where we choked and fought for air only to be sucked back down again into that glowing and humming water. Only to be shot back up and out of the roiling mass one more time.”

Ben moved around again and Jess could see how agitated he was by retelling his tale of near drowning and fear. Looking up at his face she caught his eye and gave an encouraging nod and small smile. Smiling back at her Ben continued. “Finally the winds died down and the ocean started to settle and there was an almost electrified sensation rippling all along the now freezing water. As though fine shock waves were being sent through my body. Closing my eyes I just wanted to catch my breath, but I must have passed out from exhaustion because when I woke up my feet were brushing the sand. Our piece of bar counter had floated all the way to some shore. We were saved. I was saved and I couldn’t help letting out a shout. My throat was too sore for more than a mere whisper and my eyes and lips were swollen so I really don’t know how long we had been floating out there. I started to kick my legs as best I could and we ended up crashing with the waves towards the shore. When I could finally stand I untied and pulled the ropes off and dragged the counter with my friend still attached onto the beach. He was dead. It took me a while to realize this, but the glazed-over eyes, blue lips, and stiff limbs finally sank into my numbed brain so I just untied him and pushed him back into the ocean because I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t dig a hole or just cover him with sand and stones. It shook me to the core to have to do that to someone I had shared a life-altering experience with, but I had no idea of what else to do with him.” Ben lay back on the sofa and closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“I lay back on the beach for a while and must have dozed off because when I woke up again there were voices nearby and I tried opening my swollen eyes, but I could only manage little slits and I saw shapes around me. I was lying there with no shirt on and badly ripped up shorts and these people around me were deciding whether I was an escaped convict, a pirate from a doomed ship, or I had been spat out of the ocean like ‘the other one’. I tried to talk and tell them the ocean spat me out but I just mumbled and gasped in pain. Some kindly fellow lifted my head and gave me a drink of water that tasted as sweet as honey. I was grateful to that man. I eventually got picked up and carried to someone’s home where I was laid on a hard bed of straw covered in foul-smelling animal skins, but I was just grateful for the warm dry bed and water.”

Sitting forward and pouring more wine for himself Ben continued, “I won’t bore you with the details of my convalescence as it was slow and I slept a lot, but when I did get up I soon realized I was not in the year nineteen hundred and ninety. It was seventeen hundred and ninety and there was a young twelve-year-old pain in the arse kid named Willy who had taken it upon himself to make me his new pet. Although I was eighteen years old at the time.” Ben looked up and he and Willy grinned at each other.

Willy took up the retelling of their story. “Your dad had no idea where he was and he thought he had come upon a village of Quakers.” The two of them actually laughed out loud about this. “He finally got the courage to ask where he was and what year it was. When I told him the look on his face was priceless!” Slapping his leg Willy laughed harder. Jess questioned their sense of comedic relief but remained silent.

“I had washed up on the shores of a place called Black Head during a storm that the locals reckoned they had never seen the likes of before. According to them, it was usually a very boggy bay, but the waters had risen and flooded the nearby lands. Ballyraghan Bay is what some of the locals called the place. How I had made it up and through the North Sound, past the Aran Islands, I will never know. Somehow the yacht had moved up into the North Atlantic Ocean. To get so far from the Bahamas and be spat out and still live to tell the tale was a mystery to me. But I would soon learn that I had not been the only one and I had time jumped.” Ben sighed deeply and looked up at Jessie. “You’ve got your game face on, my girl, so I don’t have a clue as to what you may be thinking right now. Want to ask anything or say something now, before I continue?”

Jessie stayed sitting on the sill and looked at her dad wondering if there was any way to wrap her head around what she was hearing. She had never thought overly much about Willy’s accent and mannerisms because that was how she had always known him. Now, however, she started to see things a little differently. His respectful little bow whenever he spoke to her, the manner in which he taught her things like to ride a horse, sword fight, how to use a dagger or a dirk as he called it, and even how to make and shoot with a bow and arrow. Jess had found it a little tedious, but Willy had always made it so much fun and she would eventually enjoy herself when she spent time with him no matter what they were doing. Ben had been the one to take them on the lake in their little yacht and he taught her and Nick how to sail. He would be the one to take them on camping trips and show them how to trap, hunt, kill, skin, and cure the meat from their kill. He had taught them the skills of survival with little more than a knife and their wits. Ben had taught them about various plants and fungi and their uses for eating, sleeping, healing, and poisoning. He had shown them how to dig up various roots which could be eaten with no consequence and which were used for other means. Both Nick and Jess knew how to crush and make into plants into a poultice that could be used to staunch bleeding, take the pain from toothache and headaches, or even sinus headaches.

Jessie remembered when Nick had fallen off the roof of the shed, and broke his arm, how Ben and Willy had shown her how to set it and then splint it and bandage it up properly. Nick never went to the hospital or got plaster-of-paris put on his arm and it healed perfectly. They had used the plants and roots to make a poultice for the swelling and pain and Nick had come through it amazingly. That was just before Jess ran from the shed to the barn with a very sharp knife in her hand and sliced her leg badly because she had not put the knife in its sheath. While muttering and giving her hell for being a ‘stupid bloody fool’, Willy cleaned her leg and showed her how to stitch a wound. Jess remembered watching him with sweat dripping from her face and arms. The pain had been unbelievable, but soon the tea made from St John’s Wort had started to make things a little more bearable. Willy had explained the intricacies of suturing and how to not tie the knots too tight to prevent the stitches from pulling through the skin as it mended. Both Ben and Willy had instilled a sense of ‘fight through the pain and let it make you stronger’ attitude in Nick and herself.

Bringing herself back to the present Jessie asked, “So what does this all have to do with Nick?”

The silence told her she had hit on the bit that was going to cause either a crushing pain or relief. Jess did not expect both at the same time.

It was Valeria who spoke first, “Nicholas knows about the time jumping as he was born during the winter solstice on the twenty-seventh day of the month of Yule in the year of our lord seventeen hundred and ninety-two. He was brought back to this time by your father, mother, and Willy.” The reproach in her voice was not lost on Jess and she glanced at her father and then Willy and saw two very different emotions playing on their faces. Willy looked angered while Ben looked pained and contrite.

“You see, ma Cherie, because of your brother I know your family’s story, and also but very importantly, there are rules regarding time jumping. Believe it or not, it is something that has been happening for a very long time and there are those of us who do not appreciate when jumpers believe that they can alter the course of history by going back and creating a tear in the ether. It is prohibited. Yes, small little changes cannot hurt, but the bigger ones,” she glanced over to Ben and then Willy, “are not permitted and a price, heavy or no, will be extracted and paid. The syndicate is very strict on this and there will be no exceptions. None.”

“You work for the syndicate then? The same syndicate Nick was working for when he vanished?” Jess asked in a flat emotionless voice, but her eyes never left Valeria’s face.

Valeria looked down at her hands on her lap and then up at Jess, raised her chin and that damned arched eyebrow, and said, “Nicholas had ulterior motives for joining the syndicate. He had said he wanted to enforce the laws laid down by the syndicate and prevent chaos. As I am sure you have guessed, the syndicate are like watchers, or gendarme, if you will. They control the few jumpers and jump sites around the world. But Nicholas lied to me, to the syndicate. He had been planning all along to locate the secret locations of the various jump sites and leave to go and do whatever it is he is doing. That is something I do not know. Although he did speak many times of wanting to find his mother and I warned him against this as it has been a long time and people change and end up having to do things to survive. Things people in this century may not like or approve of and find hard to understand.” Standing up she walked over to the mantel and picked up her gloves which were now nice and warm and slipped them on her slender hands with their long tapered fingers and neatly manicured nails.

Looking pointedly at Jess she said softly, “You are nothing like Nicholas at all. I cannot read your face so I do not know your emotions. I could read Nicholas easily so I knew when he was planning something. You, I do not know, so it is hard for me to trust you. I want to trust you, you understand? But this is a serious matter and Nicholas knows he has crossed lines and there will be watchers out there looking for him. I do not wish him harm, but he broke the rules.” Valeria turned and walked towards the door to leave when Jess stopped her with a question.

“If the syndicate, or watchers, are controlling the sites and jumpers then who is watching and controlling the syndicate?” Jess asked as Valeria reached the door.

“You could easily ask the same questions about our governments then can’t you?” she said and Jess responded, “But we are not talking about governments now, or are we?”

Without comment or backward glance, Madame Brossard opened the door and left.

“Now that Miss Madame has left the building we can talk freely and openly. Willy, you never said much, and dad you only told me what you wanted Valeria to hear. Fill in the gaps for me and if I have questions I will ask. Who is going first?” Jess moved to the table and helped herself to some food and poured more wine then went and sat more comfortably in one of the chairs.

Willy stood up and went to the chair opposite Jess and sat down with a loud sigh. “Alright Jessie, it is time you knew everything. I have wanted you to know the truth for a long time because I always felt you could handle it. You may be a wee little thing, but you’re a lot tougher than you look.” He smiled kindly at her and Jessie’s stomach flipped. Here we go, Jess, she thought to herself. Game face on.

Willy glanced at Ben for a moment and then spoke softly as the three of them were sitting close to one another and they all felt comfortable with the effects of a few glasses of wine. “Benjamin Kellie is not your biological father and no before you get it in your head, neither am I. Your mother is, however, Genevieve de Clisson and she jumped into the future with Ben and Nicholas when she was pregnant with you. Nick is your half-brother and Ben’s biological son with Genevieve. We had no way of knowing what would happen to you or your mother, but she was insistent on taking the chance to protect you, considering what had happened. I was able to jump as well, which amazed everyone. I had lost my family by then and Ben and his family were all I had. Ben had saved my life and I owed him a debt so offering my life for yours seemed the right thing to do, but we all got through unscathed. Well, not entirely unscathed, but we did survive.” Looking over at Ben and receiving a nod to continue Willy took a breath and spoke, “Your mother was from French aristocracy and the man who sired you was a very prominent and wealthy Irish land owner. He had connections all over the land and had been fighting quietly for Irish independence and had been a Scottish sympathizer as his mother had been Scottish and they had land and a home in the highlands. The Scottish Highlanders had fought bravely against the British, but they had suffered innumerable losses and the highlands ran with the blood of many brave men. Having seen this the Irish took note and bided their time and made their raids and attacks from clear and concise planning. The British were cruel and very unforgiving of anyone who was branded a traitor to the crown.” He sighed and leaned back and closed his eyes for a short while before continuing. “Your mother’s father was some sort of duke or marquis.” Willy flicked his hand to show that he felt the unimportance of this. “Something like that, but anyway he had married an Irish lady and they had taken the offer of returning to Ireland from France and he would be a governor of sorts and also run their very large estate. Ben and I had managed to get work on their estate and that is how he and Genevieve had met. Ben was good with horses and I was good at fighting.” He grinned at Ben.

Ben picked up the story from Willy. “Your mother and I began an affair that I am only sorry for because it ended up causing so much pain. We tried to be very discreet, but she conceived Nicholas and her family was furious and Genevieve threatened all sorts of self-mutilation and even murder if they tried to send her away so they quickly allowed her to marry me and I was elevated to the lord of the land. This meant I was the official overseer and would collect rents and solve disputes. I hated it, but it allowed me to be with Genevieve and our unborn son.” He smiled and shook his head. “Your mother was a woman to be reckoned with, I tell you. She took no shit from anyone. She was kind and loving and so very gentle, but when she was crossed she turned into a wild cat and you could see the fury in her ready to erupt. She was smart and shrewd and she had a way with words. You are a lot like her in that way. Your kindness must never be mistaken for weakness.” He sighed and stood up to walk around the room and Jessie could see the hurt, pain, and frustration on his face.

Sitting quietly Jess simply waited until he was ready to continue. This time allowed her to take in all that she was being told. If this story was coming from anyone else she would have laughed it all off, but because it was Willy and her dad she believed them. Her dad. That wasn’t the case anymore now, was it? Jess loved the man she thought to be her dad. She loved Nicholas and Willy just as much. That would not change. Glancing up she saw Ben watching her and she cocked her head to one side and smiled up at him. “Go on, dad, I am listening.”

Ben walked past her and squeezed her shoulder and Jess reached up and gently placed her hand over his. How many times had these hands cradled her, caressed her tear-stained face, carried her to bed, clumsily combed grass from her hair, and held her hand on her first day at school? These were memories never to forget. Ben may have been away a lot, but when he was around Jess never forgot it.

“Well to cut a long story short, the English got word that Genevieve’s father was a sympathizer and had assisted many Scots with asylum and they were out to get blood. These accusations were not entirely false. A very enthusiastic captain had made it his mission to harass and cause utter chaos. He even issued a request that all land names be changed to reflect British loyalty and the name Broch de Clisson, which roughly translated means Borough of de Clisson, was a blight on the British-ruled land. Fortunately, that law never passed and the name never changed, but that just seemed to infuriate the young captain even more and he looked for more inventive ways to bring misfortune and ill repute to your mother’s family.” Ben rubbed his bald head and rolled his neck. “He was a jumper, you see, who had it in his head to reverse or alter history. He was a totally unscrupulous bastard! But the truth of the matter is, we needed that bastard because we hadn’t yet figured out how to return. Jesus, it was a bloody mess back then and we were stupid because we didn’t know how it all worked. I don’t think we ever will.” He sighed and looked pained.

“It was about this time that an Earl, Rourke Deaglan O’Cleirigh, entered our lives. He knew Genevieve’s father and they shared sympathies towards the Scots and an arrangement had been met where so-called Scottish traitors would be escorted to and held in the cellars of Broch de Clisson until they could be quietly entered into the villages around the area where many other Scots had made their new home and some ended up heading to the Americas. I had been tasked with escorting them the last few miles to castle Broch de Clisson and as I was getting the last of them through the hidden gates to the cellars the erstwhile captain and one of his cronies set upon me. I managed to keep them busy while the poor rabble was rushed to safety, but that did nothing for me. I was arrested for obstruction and as a suspected traitor and thrown into a nasty prison.” Sighing and looking very tired Ben lay back on the sofa while Willy picked up the story.

“Your father made me promise to get those poor souls to safety while he fought off that bloody captain Rancliff and his little lap dog Daniels. I swear those two were more than just men at arms. I get the feeling they played a lot of officers and no gentleman in private.” He huffed and shook his head and Ben simply grinned and laughed quietly.

“Ben got taken away and he was heartily beaten by the English. Once he was thrown in prison there was no way of knowing if he was injured, ill, or at worst dead. All attempts and requests to see him were denied. All thanks to that devil Rancliff. Then all of a sudden the disgusting lecher kept calling around asking after Genevieve and then dared to propose to her father that she was soiled baggage with a child and he would gladly take her off his hands. Genevieve, in no uncertain terms, told him what to do with his offer and threatened to kick his arse until he got on his horse, and then she would still take a switch to his backside and that of his horse.” Willy laughed while he allowed the memory to course through him. “I had never heard a lady use language like that, ever. But she was a vision, she was. Wild-eyed and rosy-cheeked and with tendrils of her hair that had come loose flying about her face. As a young boy, you can only imagine how intimidated, but in awe, I had been.” He shook his head and laughed.

“Rancliff called her a foul-mouthed trollop who deserved to be thrown into a pig sty and have the pigs mount her and Genevieve announced that she would rather live with the pigs than have to spend a single moment in his company. Her father had run around the hall waving his hands all flustered and in a tizzy, because he had no way of controlling his daughter and her mother had nearly fainted. Thank heavens for the old woman’s handmaidens.” Willy howled at the memory. “My god, she was wonderful! You certainly have her spirit, Jessie.” Willy laughed.

Ben smiled quietly, “She was something else wasn’t she?”

Willy grew solemn and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Then came the news that Ben had died in prison and we knew then that captain Rancliff meant business so Rourke O’Cleirigh stepped in and offered to marry Genevieve to keep her safe from the captain because he had at his disposal a multitude of ways to make all of our lives horribly miserable. It was not a marriage of love but certainly one of convenience. Genevieve, thinking Ben was dead, chose to marry O’Cleirigh for the sake of her son and parents as well as their land and home, and staff. As the months went on she must have obviously grown fond of her new husband and she conceived you. She knew that she would have to perform marital duties regardless.” Jessie raised her hand and looked questioningly at Willy and asked “Marital duties? If he offered to help her why would my mother feel obligated to perform these marital duties? It sounds bizarre.”

“Fair enough, but you have to remember this was a different time, and women were not exactly looked upon or treated as equals. It was difficult for Ben here to get his head around a lot of the policies and customs of that age. Not to mention me when I came back here with them. Women wearing short dresses and shorts and those scanty little strips of cloth called bikinis.” Willy rolled his eyes and actually blushed and Jessie had a quiet chuckle. “Aye, but the lassies are so beautiful to look at aren’t they William?” she giggled and asked in a brogue mimicking his own.

“Oh, off wi’ ye now lassie.” Willy blushed deeply.

“I do believe she had feelings for Rourke, though. Otherwise, she would never have gone back to him.” Ben said quietly and Jessie saw that shadow pass over his eyes again. This must be so painful for him, Jess thought.

“Well, think about it, Ben. The man had risked his neck to help her and then she asked him to help those poor folk who were trying so hard to make a new life for themselves. How was she to know that bloody captain mule arse had set a trap?” Willy looked horribly offended and angry when Ben started to laugh.

“Captain mule arse? That’s a good one, Will. Careful now, you may just start being crass.” Jessie found herself smiling and laughing softly at this name-calling.

“Well, Rourke was in serious danger and Genevieve was pregnant and if her husband was taken she was no longer protected. Women never owned land and homes back then. So, she would be like a lamb to the slaughter once again. That bastard Rancliff had started a nasty rumor that Rourke was harboring Scottish traitors, which he wasn’t really, he was simply relocating them, but Daniels had signed a false affidavit making a statement saying he had seen Rourke in the company of known Scottish Highland traitors, otherwise known as Jacobites, and mentioned names we did not recognize, but we later found out that they were not fake names that we honestly did not know of. This was a serious claim and would not end well for Rourke if they could prove only one of those men had passed through the halls of his home, O’Cleirigh Manor, in Dranmore.”

Ben picked up the story again. “Little did they know that I had managed to escape prison and I was making my way back to Broch de Clisson. Word had somehow got to Willy about the breakout and he just guessed the route I might take. Willy never believed that I had died and he tried to tell Genevieve as much but she was afraid for Nicholas and her parents and she needed protection so she did what she felt she had to do.” Ben shook his head slightly.

Changing his position on the sofa he smiled as he remembered, “We ended up sleeping across the river from one another without knowing it. In the morning we both went to wash and saw each other. Even we couldn’t believe our luck. He filled me in and I told Willy that taking Genevieve back with us was about as good an option as any. Willy had known for a long time that I was not of their time. The little shit questioned everything when we were younger. I would swear and he would ask what I was saying and where the word came from. Eventually, he cottoned on and straight up asked me where I was really from. When I told him the whole truth he was not surprised. He just said that he knew I was different and he understood. I had saved Willy’s life years before when we had got into a tavern brawl so he felt he owed me a life and made it clear he would come with me if he was able. I didn’t know how it all worked, but I just knew I had to get back to Ballyraghan Bay and take it from there.” Ben got up and walked into the kitchen to get more food and wine.

“When Genevieve saw Ben I thought she was going to faint clear away and then when we told Rourke and Genevieve, together, the whole truth Rourke agreed with Ben who mentioned the idea of Genevieve coming with us to save the children and herself. He would act like the grieving widower and throw suspicion on the captain, who I told them must also be a jumper wanting to change things for his own selfish reasons. The disappearance of an influential man’s wife would most definitely raise suspicions because everyone knew what the captains’ schemes were. He really was a bastard, that man. Whether Rourke actually believed Ben was unknown, but he trusted us to save the woman he had fallen madly in love with and his unborn child as well as Nicholas. It was a tough, heartbreaking time for all of us.” Willy put his glass down and went to sit on the other end of the sofa and rubbed his hands over his face. The memory of making it back to the bay, finding where they had to actually be and stand, all linked together, feeling that gale force wind and holding on for dear life as it felt as if their insides were being pulled out of their mouths, worrying for the unborn wee baby. Then the weightlessness and stifling blackness. It was hard to describe how, in mere seconds, they could have moved from one century to another and into a new reality. It had not been easy for any of them and Willy simply took a deep breath and continued.

“Genevieve struggled to fit in and stayed mostly in the house when we got back. Making our way from Ireland back to the States and the ranch had been tough enough, but the changes were something she and I had to deal with. It was downright frightening seeing vehicles for the first time and seeing how things had changed so drastically. It had all become so noisy. Women could vote, own a business, own a house, raise kids on their own, drive cars, fly airplanes, join the army and shoot guns standing side by side with men. It wasn’t easy to digest. I remember when Ben suggested that she would be more comfortable wearing loose trousers or flimsy little maternity dresses Genevieve had balked at the idea and said they had looked like undergarments. She was a tough woman and she tried her best to fit in, but a blind man could see she was struggling. She did love the washing machine and dryer though and the dishwasher.” They laughed at this.

“After she had you she told Ben that she wanted to go back and asked if he would help her. She said she would leave you behind because she had no idea what she would be going back to and she didn’t want to endanger you unnecessarily. Ben agreed after a couple of days of being fall down drunk and the two of them took the trip back to the place we knew was used as the jump area. When Ben returned he focused most of his attention on his chosen profession and I was his right-hand man. We were good partners and helping to raise you and your brother, work the ranch and keep the men in line filled my time.” Willy looked at Jess and winked.

“How old was Nick when he started asking about his other life?” Ben asked Willy.

“Oh, I’d say he was about seven or eight years old. He seemed to remember a lot more than we had expected he would. He never left us alone about it and would get himself into trouble at school talking about his other life. So, to keep a lid on it all we sat him down and explained it all to him and made it very clear that this was a supermassive secret and he was never to mention it to anyone. Ever.” Willy scratched his head and pushed his long hair out of his face and continued. “You had all just completed a job when Nick just happened to be in a bar and a bloke was talking about time travel and how he thought it could be done. He said he just sat and listened to the man going on and on about there being places where the tear in the ether was accessible and how he had gone through and started talking about places he had been and seen. The other patrons had laughed at the guy, apparently, but Nick stayed quiet and just listened. He knew this man had jumped and wanted to know more, but before he took it any further he went back to the hotel and spoke to Ben about it. When he and Ben returned to the bar hoping he would be there it was too late. He had gone and when Nick questioned the barman casually about him he was told that the man was not a regular and no one believed the insanity he was spouting anyway. That same night Nick and Ben were followed back to their hotel and both of them had noticed the tail. They went to their room and waited until their tail knocked on their hotel room door.”

“And the rest, as they say, is history.” Said Ben.

“That’s when we learned about the syndicate and that they now had their eyes on us. Nick didn’t care and he told the guy as much. Three nights later I got arrested and sent to jail. I still believe the new guy was part of the syndicate and so did Nick. So, Jess, your gut intuition was spot on and if you had not backed out when you did you would probably also landed in jail and would have had to endure a tail these last few years.” Ben clicked his tongue and drank down the last of the wine in his glass. Looking up at Jessie he said, “When I got out of jail they paid me a visit once, but Nick was already working for them and they simply left me with a warning. I told them you knew nothing, which was the truth, and I would keep it that way but I would make no promises.”

Jess was feeling slightly overwhelmed and tired but she asked, “This is obviously a lot to take in and clearly there are more questions, but the important one is why did Nicky go back? Was it to find his mother or is he planning something else entirely?”

Jess looked from Ben to Willy and they looked at each other and then back at her and shrugged. “I certainly have no clue as to what Nick was up to. We are thieves of rare antiquities and sometimes, just sometimes, we steal back items and return them to their rightful owners for a fee.” Ben shook his head and shrugged.

“That’s it then. Nick has gone back to get something. Either to return an item or just plain old steal the thing.” Jessie stood with her hands on her hips looking at her two most favorite men in the world thinking what an adventure their lives had been so far and what may still lie ahead for them. “I know Nick and I am very aware of what a shallow, egotistical bastard he can be, but one thing is for sure,” Jessie turned and looked out of the window with her arms folded across her chest, “he has honor and if he finds out he has been fooled or tricked into doing something that will put into question his integrity it would be too much even for him,” she turned and faced her dad and Willy, “he will go to hell and back to put it right and to take down whoever made a fool of him.”

Willy looked at Jess and felt sad. She had always idolized her brother and had never seen the greedy, manipulative narcissist he could be. No matter, he would protect Jess, even from her own brother, if he had to.