Chapter Fourteen
Two weeks later the atmosphere at the castle was barely recognisable from the cold empty building Bella had walked into when she first arrived. Buoyed by the first cookery school trial, Bella had pushed ahead with encouraging the village groups that had gone into hiatus, or had to relocate to Locharron while the hall was closed, to meet at the castle itself, and the first sessions were up and running.
As Bella made her way across the courtyard, Nina was putting out play mats and folding chairs for the parents and tots group. ‘Maggie said we’d be OK outside today? The forecast looks lovely.’
Bella nodded. ‘I’ll bring some squash out for the little ones. How many are you expecting?’
‘Usually about five or six parents and maybe eight or nine kids. We’d get more if the footbridge was useable.’
Bella thought a version of that thought every time she had to brave Flinty’s driving to make it into the village. ‘I know.’
‘I’m sure my Pavel would help if you need manpower.’
Noted. ‘Tea and biscuits for the grown-ups?’ Bella asked.
Nina nodded. ‘You’re a star.’
Inside Flinty was already in the kitchen. ‘Nina all right out there?’
‘Seems to be. There’s someone else in today isn’t there?’
‘Book club in the Yellow Room straight after mums and tots. Nina runs that too.’ Flinty peered at the calendar that was rapidly filling and had become their guide for everything. ‘You’ve put that they’re having lunch?’
‘Yeah. Just sandwiches and cake. And tea and coffee. They’re paying for it.’
‘Fair enough. How many people?’
Bella glanced over Flinty’s shoulder to decipher her scribbles. ‘Eight.’
‘That’s never an eight. It might be a three.’
‘You can’t have a book club with three people.’
‘Well you can’t have an eight without joining your loops up at the top.’
‘It’s an eight.’
Bella gestured at the tray with a teapot and proper cup and saucer already laid out. ‘Is that for…?’
Flinty nodded.
‘I’ll take it through.’
Veronica was installed in the estate office, three different folders open in front of her, computer screen on, spectacles perched on the bridge of her nose. ‘I brought you some tea.’
Veronica nodded towards the only clear square of desk.
‘How are things going here?’ Bella asked her.
‘Ticking over. Our costs are up quite markedly. Printing all your flyers, refreshments for all and sundry.’
The kernel of anxiety Bella had been carrying since the cookery school day prickled at her gut. The detente between herself and Veronica could crack at any moment. ‘Sorry.’
Veronica held a hand up. ‘But our income is up more thanks to the cookery school pre-bookings, donations from groups, and the charges for refreshments.’
‘Right. So that’s good?’
‘It is.’ She pursed her lips. ‘At least for now.’
‘Where’s Adam?’
Veronica frowned. ‘I assumed you would know the answer to that.’
That was odd. Bella checked that Flinty was on top of things in the kitchen and headed over to the coach house. Adam was standing by the bed packing a water bottle into a rucksack. He had what looked like work boots on the floor alongside him.
‘Where are you off to?’
He grinned. ‘Sorry. Was going to come over and let you know. Pavel asked me to help with a landscaping thing he’s doing in Portree.’
Bella’s local geography was starting to come together. ‘That’s on Skye?’
Adam grinned. ‘You’re learning.’
‘How are you getting there?’
Adam checked the time. ‘On Pav’s boat. In about twenty minutes, so I need to get moving.’
‘Right.’ There was an unease in Bella’s gut that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ It wasn’t nothing though, was it? ‘There’s so much to do here.’ That was the unease. The castle was suddenly full and busy and they were working all hands to the pumps.
‘I thought you had it all in hand.’
Did she?
‘And Pav’s an old mate. You know he asked if I wanted to do some labouring.’
That had been a joke though, hadn’t it?
He frowned. ‘You’re the one who keeps going on about getting involved with the community.’
She was. ‘Yeah. Of course. It’s fine. Sorry. I just didn’t know you were going out.’
He closed the gap between them. ‘Sorry. I meant to say but you were up so early, and I forgot.’
‘It’s fine.’ Because of course it was fine. With Flinty and Darcy and Veronica they pretty much did have things in hand, and it was good that Adam was reconnecting with his friends. Apart from his trip to Edinburgh, he’d been holed up in the castle since they arrived. ‘I was thinking about the footbridge. What would it take to rebuild it?’
Adam shook his head. ‘I’m not sure. I’ll have a think about it later.’
Bella accepted the kiss he planted on her lips as he headed out, and made her way back to the kitchen.
A day of proper hardcore manual labour was better than therapy. Not that Adam had ever tried therapy, but he couldn’t imagine it would do anywhere near as much good as having dirt under his fingernails, sweat running a trail down his spine and muscles that were minutes away from giving up the ghost entirely.
Pavel’s crew had accepted him from the outset, with the rapidly bestowed nickname of Posh Lad. That uncomplicated normality, paired with the simple rhythms of working until you were too parched to carry on and then making a cuppa and starting all over again had made for a good day. He pulled his car onto the cobbles outside the coach house, looking forward to a hot bath and then bed as soon as he could manage it.
He stopped in the doorway to the coach house at the sound of voices on the stairs.
‘We don’t need to move the furniture, for goodness’ sake.’ That was his grandmother. Adam dreaded to think who she was barking instructions at now.
‘But I’m taking the bedside table with me.’ Darcy. Of course it was Darcy.
‘Well why on earth are you doing that? There’s a perfectly good side table in the Gardenia Room already.’
‘Which is not big enough. So I need the one from Alexander’s…’ Her voice broke slightly. ‘From Adam’s room, and he can have the one from in here.’
‘We can discuss that with Adam once we’ve moved the things he actually needs.’
Adam’s bone-tired body did not have the energy to go and find out what on earth this was all about, but he knew that, if he didn’t, they would still be bickering at the top of the stairs at midnight. He hauled himself up the steps. ‘What are you two doing?’
‘Adam!’ Darcy looked delighted to see him. ‘Tell her you need your own bedside table.’
‘I’ve got a bedside table.’ In his flat in Edinburgh.
‘No. In your new room.’
‘Your proper room,’ his grandmother added.
Adam leaned on the wall and closed his eyes for a second. ‘Seriously, what are you actually doing?’
He looked past them into the doorway of the coach house bedroom. His clothes were neatly folded on the bed and the suitcase he had brought back from Spain was lying open alongside them. The things he’d brought from Edinburgh more recently were conspicuously absent.
‘Didn’t Bella tell you?’ Darcy asked.
‘Tell me what?’
‘We sorted out the bedroom thing, so you can move into the laird’s room,’ Darcy beamed.
‘And Miss Smith hasn’t had a moment to pack your things up so we thought we’d get on.’
Adam’s chest tightened. He was supposed to be pleased. Bella had told him about the peace deal, but he’d managed to stay in denial about what it actually meant for him.
‘And you’re moving my things without asking me?’
‘We were simply being helpful.’ There was an edge in his grandmother’s voice that would normally make him back off.
‘Well it’s not helpful.’ The rational part of his brain was already telling him that it was just a bedroom, and there was no reason not to move over, and the main rooms in the castle were more comfortable and warmer and, while packing for him was a little intrusive, it was also well-intentioned. The rational part of Adam’s brain was losing a lot of arguments at the moment though. ‘Leave it. Just leave everything exactly where it is.’
His grandmother opened her mouth, no doubt to tell him that he might be a baron but he had no business speaking to her like that. Adam squeezed past her into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.