‘This is beautiful.’ Kate stood, transfixed. She turned to Susan. ‘It’s like a secret world out here.’
‘I don’t get time to paint much any more, so I suppose the garden is my canvas at the moment. I can get it done while Jamie plays and Mhairi is in the pram.’
‘Come on!’ Jamie tugged at Kate’s hand impatiently.
They went through a tall gate and into the second half of the garden. A stone building, traditionally constructed with a pointed roof and chimney, was fronted by a metal pen. This cage-like
structure had a gate, which led to a sturdy, painted wooden door. Jamie opened the door, bursting with importance.
‘You need to be quiet, ’cause they might be asleep.’
Inside the little building was a squirming, bouncing, yipping heap of liver-and-white springer-spaniel puppies, presided over by their very proud mother. Jamie was somehow managing to cuddle all
the dogs at once.
‘This is Tess. I think I’ve got it hard with two children – she has nine. Can you imagine?’ laughed Susan.
She took a treat out of her pocket, and Tess hoovered it up in a second. She was wriggling with delight at the attention she was receiving, and looked as relieved as Susan had done to have a bit
of adult company.
‘Tom has bred from her a couple of times. The puppies go for silly money, but we always give a couple away to friends, because it’s nice to keep them on the island.’
Kate’s face burst into a huge grin.
‘You mean . . . ’
‘Pick a pup – any pup,’ Susan grinned back. ‘All I ask in exchange is the right to escape down the road to yours with a bottle of something boozy of an evening.
Deal?’
‘Deal.’ Kate put out her hand and shook on it, laughing.
‘Right. This calls for a trip up to the metropolis of Kilmannan, I think. We’ll go to the pet shop and get you what you need.’
Kate could hardly bear to drag herself away from Tess and her puppies, but Jamie was shooing her out of the door of the kennel and closing the door, looking very pleased with himself as he
managed to turn the key.
On closer inspection the High Street of Kilmannan was even more tattered than it had appeared last night in the warmth of the evening sun.
‘This place used to be one of the most popular tourist spots in Scotland, y’know,’ Susan had explained, looking down the tired street. ‘Back before everyone headed off to
the Costa del Hot on holiday, my mum says it used to be heaving here every summer. Hard to believe, isn’t it?’
‘I can’t believe how many of the shops are lying empty.’ Kate peered in through the window of ‘Annabel’s Boutique’, noticing the piles of mail mixed in with
abandoned coat-hangers.
‘This place needs a serious kick up the bum. I love it here – I’m sure there’s more we could do to get people visiting the island. Hopefully Roddy’s plans for the
cottages will be a start.’
They’d bribed Jamie with the promise of an ice cream. He kept forgetting that, however, and was skittering around the pet shop knocking over tins of dog food, to the
tutting disapproval of the owner.
Susan and Kate made their escape, giggling, with dog bowls and a collar and lead stuffed under Mhairi’s mud-splattered pushchair.
‘Jim Butcher, who runs that shop, used to be my geography teacher,’ Susan explained, once they were out of earshot. ‘He sent me to the rector for holding hands with Roderick
under the desk in fifth year.’
‘Roderick? As in “Lord of the Manor” Roderick?’
‘The very one.’ Susan winked at her and bumped the pushchair up the step and into the ice-cream parlour. The fittings were so ancient that they were now attractively retro in style.
The tables were arranged in booths, with dark-red leather seats, and an original Wurlitzer jukebox at the far end of the room. They were the only people in there, and Jamie took full advantage of
this, hurtling from one end of the cafe to the other, sliding across the polished floor on his knees.
‘Susan MacKelvie. Where’ve ye been all ma life?’ A beaming Italian man with a strong Glaswegian accent appeared.
‘I was here on Tuesday, but you were probably up at the hotel bar having a sneaky pint,’ said Susan. ‘Bruno, this is Kate, who’s moved into Bruar Cottage on the
estate.’
Taking Kate’s hand, he kissed it and then gave her a wink. ‘
Bellissima
. Guid tae meet ye, darlin’.’
‘Don’t you start,’ snorted Susan. ‘You’ll be scaring her away when she’s only just arrived. Jamie’ll have his usual please, and can we have a couple of
coffees. You’ve never tasted a coffee like Bruno makes – they’re gorgeous.’
Kate was dying to hear more about the famous Roderick, her new employer. It was a relief when Susan picked up the thread of her story, having paused to arrange baby Mhairi under her jumper for a
feed.
‘Right.’ She took a slurp of coffee. ‘Roderick. Well, I’ve known him since we moved to the island when I was five. His parents used to bring him up here to the estate
every summer. But he didn’t go to school here until his mum died, when he was about fifteen.’
She paused to help Jamie poke a straw into his carton of apple juice.
‘When she died at their house in England – Oxfordshire somewhere – his dad couldn’t face living there, so they came up here.’
‘Was she ill?’
‘No, she fell down the stairs. I don’t know what happened exactly. Sounded horrible, like something out of a fairy tale.’
Remembering the sudden emptiness that had fallen upon their family home, Kate felt a sudden pang of sympathy for her mysterious new boss. When her dad died, it was as if someone had put out a
light. Nothing changed, and yet everything was different. She would get up for school, do her homework, have her friends round to play music and sleep over. It didn’t occur to her for a long
time that her mother’s keenness to have Kate’s friends round was out of over-protectiveness, and a desire to know where she was at all times.
Living in a small town, it was hard to break out of her mother’s smothering embrace, but escaping to Edinburgh University had seemed the perfect opportunity. Her mum hadn’t seen it
as an escape, because Kate had been with Emma, her childhood best friend, the whole time.
In fact, Kate realized with a jolt, she’d headed up there and straight back home under her mother’s watchful eye. This was the first time she’d flown solo, and while it was
pretty terrifying being thrown in at the deep end of island life, she felt a sudden sense of pride. She was doing this without moral support, and there was nobody to hold her hand.
‘So Roderick came up here and got a fair bit of stick, as you can imagine, having been the posh public-school boy up till then.’ Susan absent-mindedly swirled her wooden stirrer
through the coffee froth. ‘But we were friends, and a wee bit more than that for a while, and eventually people just got used to him being around.’
‘So where is his dad now?’
‘He died of cancer a few years ago; it was very sudden. Only took a matter of weeks.’
‘And now Roderick’s in charge of the estate?’
‘He is, and it’s not in a good state, despite his best efforts. His father’s heart was never in it, after his wife died, and Roderick has spent the last couple of years trying
to get it back under control. There’s a fishery and a wood-yard, and they’re the main employers on the island. Without them, there are no jobs, and everyone will leave the island and
the place will end up empty.’
‘Oh,’ Kate’s face fell. ‘So I’ve taken a job away from someone on the island?’
‘Not at all. There’s not many people would want to live in your cottage,’ Susan said, raising her eyebrows. ‘It’s a bit – well, rustic. Most of the younger
folk prefer to be here in the town, and not five miles away on a road with a bus that only comes past once a week.’
‘Oh!’ Kate put her hand over her mouth.
‘What’s the matter? Is it Jamie?’ Susan spun round in her chair, expecting to see her toddler creating some kind of mess.
So much for going it alone. She hadn’t thought this through at all. ‘I don’t have a car. There are no buses. And I’m living in the middle of nowhere!’
‘Have you not got a car?’ Susan asked.
‘Nope. I left it with Ian.’ Kate remembered her battered old Vauxhall. ‘I told him he was welcome to it, because it kept breaking down at traffic lights.’
‘Ah. Right.’ Susan returned the sleeping baby to the pushchair, and wrapped Jamie up in his scarf and gloves. ‘Next stop Jock’s Cars then?’
Buying a car with Ian had been a long drawn-out process, involving the inevitable spreadsheet of cost-analysis pros and cons, miles to the gallon and other things, which Kate
had found unbearably dull. She’d nodded and smiled, handed over half of the money and had driven whatever they’d ended up with. She couldn’t help finding it amusing that, after
all that analysis, they still ended up with a car that constantly broke down.
In comparison, buying a car on the island of Auchenmor was blissfully simple. With the money she’d received from Ian in lieu of the furniture, she was able to choose a car based on colour
and shape, and the fact that it already had a dog guard fitted in the boot. Susan assured Kate that Jock wouldn’t dream of selling her anything that wasn’t reliable, and the grey-haired
old man in a boiler suit had given her his word that the car was sound. He also had no problem with handing over a vehicle on the strength of a cheque.
Laughing to herself, Kate followed Susan, who drove like a maniac on the narrow island lanes, back to the estate, parking her car outside the cottage. Despite the reassurances that nobody here
locked their vehicles, she double-checked the door before she walked away. Island life really was something else. The idea of walking into a garage, choosing a car and driving it home, without
handing over hard cash, would be unthinkable back in Cambridge. It was like stepping back in time.
‘I can’t decide. They’re all so beautiful.’
Kate was sitting on the floor of the kennel in a sea of fur, when a puppy chose her. Unlike the others, this one’s face was almost all brown, but it looked as though someone had spilled a
splash of white paint down one side of her muzzle. She was quieter than the others, and curled up on Kate’s lap.
‘This one. Now, quickly, get me out of here before I change my mind.’
Susan laughed and pulled her up from the floor with one hand. Kate’s other hand curled around the soft, fat tummy of her little dog.
‘The others are being homed over the weekend, so she’ll be okay to go with you tonight.’ Susan rummaged in a cupboard, pulling out a hot-water bottle. ‘Tuck her up with
this in her bed and she’ll be fine.’
Kate had every intention of sneaking the puppy into bed with her, but took the hot-water bottle without argument.
‘What’s her name?’ Jamie lay on the rug, letting the puppy chew his hair.
‘Willow.’ The name came out of nowhere, but suited her perfectly. Kate scooped her spaniel puppy into her arms, stroking her soft ears.
‘Can we come and see her tomorrow?’
‘You can come whenever you want, Jamie. Bring your mummy and daddy, too.’
‘And Mhairi? She can’t play with puppies because she’s too little. Mummy said she’s not allowed.’
‘Mhairi, too. But you’ll be in charge, because you’re a grown-up boy. Mummy said you’re going to be four on your birthday next week.’
‘I think I’ll be five. Five is bigger.’ Jamie stood up on tiptoe. ‘I’m quite big just now, look.’
‘Enormous.’ Kate laughed.
Susan reappeared from the baby’s bedroom, creeping in with an expression of relief.
‘Right, Jamie, I think a bit of
Thomas the Tank Engine
for you,’ she switched on the television, ‘and a wee sit-down for Mummy.’ Susan looked suddenly exhausted,
worn out by the needs of a sleepless baby, a little boy who was more than ready for school, and a whole kennel full of dogs. ‘Do you want some more tea before you go?’
‘Truly, no. But thanks.’ Kate headed for the door, manoeuvring her way through the toy cars and assorted plastic. ‘I’m awash with coffee as it is.’
Susan kissed her goodbye. The sun was setting on what had been another very long day, and Kate was dying to collapse in front of a fire and watch something mindless on television.
Her mobile beeped. Shuffling Willow under her arm, she managed to yank it out of her pocket:
Have you run off with a haggis? What’s the news? I was promised regular gossip updates.
Emma’s texts always made her smile.
24 hours in: two new friends (no, you are NOT dumped), a dog, a gorgeous gamekeeper (don’t worry, married, so out of bounds) and enough
caffeine to send me into orbit.
‘Ow!’
Not looking where she was going, Kate’s ankle gave way as she stepped into a pothole. With a gasp and a yelp of surprise, she and Willow fell sprawling forward into the mud and gravel of
the drive. Somehow she’d managed to avoid squashing Willow, or dropping her, which was fortunate as a car was approaching at speed.
The Land Rover from last night, with the distinctive DE 1 number plate, pulled up in front of her. Kate heard the door hinges creak, and feet crunching towards her.
‘Multitasking isn’t going to be your strong point then, I take it?’
Kate peered up from her landing place. Looking down at her, dark brows in a line of disapproval, was the owner of the voice. Tall, with dark hair flopping forward over his eyes. Green
wellingtons, of course. A pair of rather muddy jeans, a navy-blue jumper, a checked shirt. He held out a hand and hauled a filthy Kate and Willow up from the ground.
Her phone, which had narrowly missed a puddle, beeped indignantly. Her rescuer knelt down and picked it up, glancing at the screen before handing it to Kate with an expression she couldn’t
read.
Don’t go falling madly in love with Sir Roderick of Posh, or whatever he’s called. You’re not Cinderella.
‘Sir Roderick of Posh: your new landlord, employer, and definitely not Prince Charming.’
Fine pieces of gravel were falling gently, like rain, from her hair. Willow was whimpering slightly. Kate was tempted to join in.