6.
The young girl was soon coughing in her arms after retching up the poison. It was a shock to see her daughter again, now older. It was Elizabeth and yet not Elizabeth; the same genes but from another time. That would be something else that would be difficult to explain to Alex.
She left the girl sleeping soundly in the bed before quietly joining him. The physician had given him a strong draught; a mixture of bitter herbs that tasted vile, but before long he too was sleeping a deep and dreamless sleep.
"I'm afraid he has lost a lot of blood and is quite delirious. His words did not make any sense and he kept asking me to 'phone' for his own doctor?"
The change would take a lot of getting used to.
Alex awoke later that night after a sleep full of weird dreams and images. He thought he was still dreaming as he looked round the strange and antiquated room and it was only when Andrea appeared, dressed like an extra from the local medieval banquet, that the odd reality started to dawn upon him.
As he struggled to sit up, a sharp pain from the wound in his side caused him to cry out and soon Andrea was by his side.
"What on earth is happening to me Andrea? I don't believe it... I…"
Sinking back into the cushions he closed his eyes.
"Hush, you need to rest and get better. All will be well."
She stroked his forehead tenderly.
His eyes opened wide and he stared up at her, a dubious look on his face.
"All will be well? Andrea where on Earth are we? And what has happened? And more importantly what has happened to me?"
She fetched him a draught of the local spirit before she proceeded. It was the local mead made by the monks with Iona honey. It was quite a potent brew and she hoped it would help to settle his nerves.
Sitting on the edge of the couch she started to tell him about his great ancestor, Alexhander MacDonald, her own Grandmother, and his. How she had fallen in love with him, both in the past and in the future, and how their child Elizabeth was conceived in a period of history when Charles 1st was on the throne, and the English Civil War was raging.
"You can't be serious. You're saying that I'm my own daughter’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild? That's a little hard to take in?"
"I know and I can't explain everything. Geraldine told me that there had been a shift in the balance of power in the Universe and that Time itself is under threat. A channel has been opened in the Thin Place – Iona - where the physical and the spiritual are almost co-existent. It is that event that has allowed us to travel back in time, to put things right."
“But how are we supposed to put things right, and what are WE meant to do?"
"I'm not sure really. Geraldine told me that I would know when the time was right."
"Dear Grandmother. She would never be content sitting with her knitting and a tartan blanket over her knee. And will she be joining us at some point?"
He saw the shadow cross her eyes before she had chance to hide her feelings.
"What's wrong?"
The body of the young nun had been removed for burial by the physician and she stared at the space where the body had been.
"Geraldine's dead."
Her words shocked him and she could feel the tears spring to her eyes once again.
"Dead? But how? When?"
"It was Helena - or Helen if you prefer. She's back here with us now, but she killed your dear grandmother back at the hotel. She had a stroke just after Helen had visited her."
“So you were there?"
"No, but I was with her when she died. She told me to bring you and Elizabeth back here for safety and that we would know what to do. She seemed to have been expecting it and kept saying that it is the beginning and the end".
"I can't take all of this in Andrea; I think I'm slowly going mad?"
Andrea hesitated, there was just one more thing to tell him, but she wondered whether it would send him over the edge. Elizabeth had been a one year old baby back in 2016, now she was a young girl of 9 years old.
A life to breathe life into another life, the continuous circle.
The physician had left a draught of the sedative and she poured it into a beaker.
"Drink this Alex, I think you had better rest for a while."