Chapter 20
TWENTY
‘What were her exact words?’ Matty poured himself a coffee from the jug he’d brought up from the drawing room. Heather sat up in bed, watching him.
‘She said we would get married over her dead body.’ Heather rested her head against the cream satin headboard of her bed and looked up at the ceiling, letting out a long breath.
‘She was hardly in her right mind, babe. She’d just almost drowned.’ Matty stirred in some milk and came to sit next to her. ‘I don’t think you should worry about it.’
Uncle James had assigned Matty his own room for the duration of the wedding period, along the corridor from Heather’s. The rest of the Campbells were in the East Wing, which the laird had had cleaned and reopened for the wedding; usually, the whole wing was closed.
Heather was glad that there was at least some distance between her and the Campbells, although it hadn’t stopped Elizabeth seeming to be everywhere in the castle, dominating the space with loud conversations with Clara and Estella or her sons, or on the phone to her press contacts or friends, complaining about everything from the cold to the food at the castle.
However, since she’d got home the day before, Elizabeth had been confined to her bedroom.
She’d seen a doctor – not Dr Kincaid, who the Balhennies had been going to all of their lives, who Catriona had recommended – but a private doctor that she’d had flown in from London.
The helicopter had arrived in the castle grounds, blowing many of the shrubs to smithereens at the edge of the large lawn it had chosen to land on, and all the Balhennies had watched in concern as the doctor had been ushered in by Clara and taken solemnly up to the East Wing.
It had all been very worrying; Elizabeth had seemed present and generally okay by the time they’d got her off the boat and into the car, wrapped up in blankets, and fed her hot chocolate laced with whisky.
But when the doctor had turned up looking so grave, Heather wondered whether Elizabeth had got a lot worse.
Maybe I shouldn’t have organised the boat tour, she thought.
It is almost Christmas, after all. It’s not the time of year for it.
Heather hadn’t seen Matty much after everyone had got home from the boat tour.
He’d gone straight in to see his mother and stayed there for much of the afternoon and into the evening; she’d gone up to see what was happening, worried, and poked her head around the door after the doctor had left.
Elizabeth was sleeping peacefully, and Matty was holding her hand.
He’d looked up at her and smiled reassuringly, nodding, which Heather interpreted as Elizabeth being all right.
She’d left them to it, gone back to her room and texted Matty instead.
Is Elizabeth all right?
We were worried when the doctor came.
Yes. He’s going to check her tomorrow but she looks all right. Just resting now. Sorry that your hen do didn’t turn out quite as expected. Will make it up to you xx
Okay. Look after your mum. Love you xx
Love you too xx
Heather had lain awake in bed the night before, thinking about what could have happened if Sandy and Gloria hadn’t fished Elizabeth out of the Raasay Sound so quickly.
She could have died.
A few days before their wedding, and the groom’s mother dies of hypothermia on the bride’s hen do? It was a terrible thought. She’d lain awake almost until dawn, worrying about it, when Matty had slid into bed next to her and gathered her in his arms.
They hadn’t said much, just cuddled up and gone to sleep. Now, though, Heather was sitting up in bed with a cup of coffee, feeling drained from worry and only a couple of hours of sleep.
‘She sounded pretty sure about it at the time.’ Heather sipped her coffee.
‘Well, even if she was compos mentis, us getting married isn’t up to her,’ Matty said. ‘How did she end up in the water?’
‘She fell. She was standing on a wet plastic seat on a moving boat in high heels.’
‘Oh. She didn’t tell me that when I went in to see her yesterday.
’ Matty frowned. ‘But she did seem pretty out of it. Mind you, the doctor loaded her up with tranquilisers and goodness knows what. I wish she would have seen your family doctor, to be honest,’ he added.
‘Her celebrity doctors and nutritionists and wellness gurus or whatever… some of them are good. But you really feel like some of them are just there to profit from the wealthy. She doesn’t seem to be able to tell the difference between the two. ’
‘Oh. That’s not good.’ Heather frowned. ‘But she’s okay?’
‘I think so. When I left, around five a.m., she’d had a decent sleep, then she woke up and we had a bit of a chat. She seemed pretty with it.’
Matty rubbed a hand over his face. ‘But you know, she wouldn’t want anyone to know, but she can be pretty frail. There’s not much of her, and she’s lucky not to have hypothermia after what happened.’
‘Your mother is about as frail as a rhino.’ Heather raised an eyebrow. ‘Sorry. That was mean. I hear what you’re saying. You know her better than me.’ She caught Matty’s eye; hegrinned ruefully.
‘I’m glad she’ll be okay. But she did say some very hurtful things.’
‘Like what? I think the “over my dead body” thing was just the heat of the moment, or the freezing cold, like I said.’ Matty passed Heather a croissant from a plate he’d brought up with the coffee.
‘Hm. Well, she said that I’d have to stop working after we get married. I made it clear that I will stay at my job. She also wants me to go fox hunting, and thinks I should learn to ski.’
‘Oh. Well, I think you can ignore the fox hunting thing. I’d never do that either.
And skiing isn’t essential, but it is quite fun.
Plus, the ski lodges have hot tubs, and private caterers: I was thinking that we could take all your family, maybe?
And if we had kids, little ones learn to ski really fast. They’re devils on the slopes. ’
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t mind that. I’m sure Mum and Dad would love a holiday.
’ Heather kissed Matty’s cheek. ‘But I’m more concerned that Elizabeth really thinks I’d give up my job the minute we got married.
Oh yeah – and then she implied I was a gold-digger.
I don’t know how she made that make sense, actually. But she still said it.’
‘Oh, that’s rubbish. You have to ignore some things she says, Heather. I know you don’t care about money. That’s one of the reasons I love you: I knew you wouldn’t care about the family fortune.’ Matty took a bite of croissant.
‘I don’t care about it. In fact, I’d rather there was no money, quite honestly. The Campbell money and fame are proving more of a nuisance than anything else right now.’
‘I know. My advice with Mum is just sort of let things go over your head. It’s better that way.
She can still be quite lovely when you get to know her.
’ Matty frowned. ‘However, I would say, about the having kids thing… we have talked about having a family, right? I mean… you would probably have to give up work.’
‘Um. Why? Plenty of women work when they have kids.’ Heather blinked in surprise. ‘I’d go back to work after maternity leave.’
‘You wouldn’t have to, baby. You could just stay at home. I’d look after everything.’ Matty stroked her fringe away from her eyes, but she caught his hand.
‘I don’t want to just stay at home. I’ll stay at home until the baby’s old enough and then it can go to nursery, and you can work flexibly as well. Men can take parental leave nowadays, you know. And you don’t even have to work full time anyway.’
Heather was realising that, although they’d spoken in general terms about having a family, they both seemed to have made certain assumptions – and they didn’t match.
She thought back to the Christmas party at the Inn, where Angus had been Santa, and he and Elizabeth had ended up handing out presents to the local kids together.
That had been such a lovely moment; Heather had stood in the lounge of the house she’d grown up in and felt so thankful for the community around her and for the love that Matty and she shared.
She’d thought about her future, with a family of her own: she’d assumed that she and Matty were on the same page.
That she would continue working with the charity, or doing something else to help animals, and that they’d co-parent blissfully, like a modern family.
She thought about Aunt Chrissie and how she had given up modelling. That had been a long time ago. The world was different now. Wasn’t it?
Wasn’t it possible for women to work and have children now?
Heather thought that it was. She thought about Blossom, working on the farm with her two children.
She thought about her mother, Catriona, at the Inn with six children.
In both cases, it was difficult to do without support, but they’d done it.
I can work and have children. I know I can, Heather thought. It might be tough sometimes, but it’s doable.
Aunt Chrissie’s situation had been different to hers, but both were questions of other people’s expectations.
Aunt Chrissie had stopped modelling because her father disapproved.
In Heather’s case, her new mother-in-law – and, it seemed, her fiancé – disapproved of the idea of her being a working mother.
I suppose the question is, how much do their opinions matter?
Heather thought. I know what I want to do.
I also understand the feeling of wanting to keep the peace, and keeping a good relationship with my husband and my mother-in-law.
But, ultimately, if I have to give up something that’s important to me to do that, is it worth the cost?
‘What about when you have the second baby? And the third?’ Matty asked.
‘And, no, I don’t work a nine-to-five, but my work is unpredictable.
I might get called away at any time or have to go to a board meeting, deliver a report, that kind of thing.
I can’t commit to being around for childcare every day. ’