Interrupted Journey

Chapter 10 - Next morning

I realised that dawn was beginning to light up the curtains as Andrew finished his story. "So, you see," he concluded, "we would never have made it without those two emergency bags you gave us a couple of Christmases ago..."

"That was Mary's idea!" I conceded.

"Not surprised..." he said, "and I have to admit that I only kept them around because it was a present from her."

"Even after her death she's still looking after everyone!" I said with a sad smile.

We were quiet for a moment then I said, "Andrew, when your father and brother were killed and she thought you weren't coming, Mam had a bit of a breakdown: not eating; up in the hills in all weathers; that sort of thing. So I, sort of, took control of running the place and... well, I suppose what I'm saying is, you're the oldest brother. The job's yours if you want it."

He thought about this for a while and I could hear the clock ticking from the kitchen. "Thanks for the offer," he said at last, "but certainly, for now, I've got my hands full getting myself back into any sort of shape." He thought for a while longer. "I'll let you know... and, in the meantime, I'll try not to undermine your position. We don't want confused lines of authority."

"Thank you," I said but I had to smile. You can take the man out of the office but you can't take the manager out of the man.

Suddenly the door opened and Emily appeared, still in her pyjamas and looking half asleep. She walked over, snuggled into my lap and put her arms around my neck. "I didn't know where you were," she said.

"Your uncle and aunt and their family arrived late last night and I'm afraid I stayed up all night talking about their journey," I explained. She looked around. Elizabeth was asleep on the sofa with her head on Andrew's lap and the children were on mats on the floor. David was still asleep but little Annie was awake and Martin was keeping her quiet with stories and silly games.

"Who's that?" Emily asked pointing at Annie.

"She's called Annie," I told her. "She's your new cousin."

"She can't be my cousin," Emily told me severely. "She's the wrong colour."

We were all slightly taken aback by this but then Martin chuckled. "She's not the wrong colour," he said, "but you're right, she's a different colour. We adopted her. What's your name and where do you fit in?"

"I'm Emily and they're looking after me," she answered, snuggling into my shoulder.

I enjoyed the snuggle for a moment then gave her a kiss. "I know," I said. "Why don't you go and get yourself dressed then you can show Annie where your toys are? She might want to play with you."

She buzzed off to do as I suggested.

I tried to stretch out, realising that soon, very soon, I was going to regret missing that night's sleep. Today I had one of Laura's level 2 training courses, taking us beyond how to simply move under fire and shoot. This one was on how we would respond to various types of attacks including ones which breached our first line of defence. I was going to need my brain in action for that.

Hauling myself to my feet, I went to light the fire in the kitchen stove.