“Aye,” Essich nodded. “From someone named James. I found it in a chest pocket, right against his heart.”
With the ring on his finger and the watch in one hand, James looked at the letter, feeling the impact of the reverend’s words. It was just as Johnathan’s letter had told him, how he kept a certain letter close to his heart in battle.
There was one in particular I kept in a pocket next to my heart because it meant a great deal to me.
Swallowing hard, James opened it up to see which letter it was that meant so much to Johnathan. The first thing he saw was a childish scrawl and he knew that it was a letter written by a very young boy. He recognized his own writing.
Lifting it into the light, he began to read.
You are a very mean boy, Johnny.
I want to cut you with my saber and slash you and kill you. If I sound like a Billy goat, then you look like a horse’s arse and I don’t care if you tell Mummy. You say very mean things to me and I don’t care because I am going to kill you. Someday you will be dead and I will be happy. I will draw a picture of me laughing and when you are in the ground, I hope the worms eat your eyeballs. Then I will dig you up and put more worms on you. When you go to heaven, God will see all of the worms in your eyeballs and when I go to heaven, I will see them also. Wait for me when you get to heaven so I can see the worms. If you do not wait for me, I shall be very angry.
Your brother who hates you,
James
Startled by the petulant message in a letter that Johnathan should keep so close to him, James started to laugh. He laughed so hard that tears streamed down his face, but these were tears of delight. That his brother had kept that querulous, silly letter with him, keeping it close to his heart through the years, meant the world to him. It literally meant everything. It was incredibly representative of their childhood, but it was also representative of the bond they shared throughout the insults and bad feelings and torment. It began to occur to James why Johnathan had kept the letter so close.
Wait for me when you get to heaven.
God… so ridiculous, yet so poignant. Johnathan kept a young boy’s plea close to his heart because it spoke of James’ true adoration for the brother he very much loved.
When he faced battle, that little request had fortified him.
“What does it say?” Gaira asked timidly. “Will ye tell me?”
James was still chuckling. “H-Here,” he said, handing it to her. “Y-You can see for yourself.”
Gaira took it and read through it, giggling as she came to the end. “Did ye really send such nasty things tae yer brother?” she gasped. “Ye were a naughty lad.”
James nodded, taking it from her and carefully folding it. “I-I was,” he said. “A-And he loved me for it, so I suppose I wasn’t as naughty as I thought. To see that this silly little letter meant something to him… it is a feeling I cannot begin to describe. All I know is that I love it.”
Gaira smiled at him and he winked at her before returning his attention to the reverend. When he looked at the man, his chuckles started anew.
“I-I am the James of that letter, as you may have guessed,” he said. “I-I wrote that letter to my brother when I was around six or seven years of age, I believe, and he was nearing twelve. We had quarreled because he told me that I sounded like a goat when I spoke. I’d forgotten that I’d even written him that letter. How surprising to find that it meant so much to him.”
Essich was smiling, mostly because he was pleased that something in this horrific circumstance had brought James pleasure.
“The bond between brothers is unique and powerful,” he said. “It would seem that ye and yer brother shared that bond.”
James’ smile faded. “We did,” he said. “T-The strange thing is that I did not even realize that until I came to find him. I-I always thought we did not understand one another, but I was wrong. So very wrong. The important thing is that I have found my brother and I intend to take him home.”
Essich nodded. “I’m glad,” he said. “But the ground is frozen now. ’Twill be difficult to dig him up. Can ye wait until the spring when the ground is softer?”
James looked at Gaira. The idea of spending the next few months in the Highlands, with her, was not a dismal one. In fact, he was rather pleased by it.
“I-I suppose I’ll have to,” he said. “I’m not leaving without him, so I shall make do until the time comes.”
“Do ye have a place tae stay?”
The corner of James’ mouth twitched as he and Gaira smiled at one another. “I-It is possible,” he said, inferring that she was part of those future plans. “I-I’ll find somewhere to stay and something to occupy my time. Meanwhile, I can have a casket built for my brother so we can transport him south. It will give me time to make the necessary preparations.”
The man actually seemed a good deal more at peace than he had when he’d first entered the church. He knew where his brother was, he’d been told of his relatively painless passing, and he had recovered items that were precious to him. That was a great relief to Essich, who stepped out from the alcove and motioned to the group.
“Come with me, then,” he said. “Some warm drink and bread tae celebrate the life of Johnathan de Lohr before we make the necessary preparations.”
Gaira was first, following the reverend, with James and Rafe bringing up the rear. They passed through the cold, candle-lit church and through a door that was near the nave. Exiting into what used to be the cloister centuries ago, James found himself looking up into the clear night sky.
“I-I don’t recall ever seeing the stars so bright,” he said. “S-Somehow, the world seems a little brighter tonight.”
He paused, and Rafe with him, both of them looking up into the sky.
“Feeling better?” Rafe asked.
“A-Aye,” James said. Then, he pointed to the sky. “L-Look, there; that star is bigger than the rest.”
Rafe could see the one he meant. “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly and with great joy,” he said. When James looked at him, he smiled weakly. “That is from the Bible. It is nearing the time of day of Christ’s birth, in fact. It seems to me that you have been given the greatest gift of all this holiday season.”
James nodded, thinking on his journey to Calvine, to Inverness. “O-Of everything I thought it would be, it was none of those things,” he said. “I-I don’t know what I expected, but this journey has been most unexpected in many ways.”
Rafe looked over James’ shoulder, seeing Gaira as she stood down from them on the walkway with the reverend. “I’m glad she told you what she knew.”
James turned to look at Gaira before returning his focus to Rafe. His brow furrowed. “W-What do you mean?” he asked. Then, realization dawned. “Y-You knew about my brother’s haversack? You knew she had it?”
Rafe shrugged. “I suspected,” he said. “I did not know for certain, but on the night you and I sat together, she was in the chamber. I saw her face as you spoke of your brother and I suspected she knew something. I told her to tell you what she knew and I am glad she did.”
That explained it a little better and James turned to look at her again, his gaze lingering on her. “I-I am glad she did, also,” he said. “S-She is a thoughtful, warm woman, one I intend to get to know quite well.”