Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
‘It looks very cold.’ Elizabeth held her long fur coat around herself protectively. ‘I’m not sure about this, Heather. I might just sit by the heaters back there.’ She looked over her shoulder at the summer house, which glowed like an oasis behind them.
The six Balhennie sisters, along with Catriona, Elizabeth Campbell, Estella and Clara, Annie Campbell and Aunt Joan and Aunt Chrissie, stood on the beach at the edge of Loch Balhennie. It was dark now, with a bright moon rising in the clear black sky above.
It felt magical to Heather, and reminded her of the fairy stories that Sorrel and Bluebell used to make up about the Salmon King and his eels and mermaids, kelpies and nixies that lived under the loch.
But it was all the more magical because she was here with her mother, all of her sisters, and with the four Campbells.
‘It is very cold, Liz,’ Primrose agreed, gaily. She had persisted in calling Lady Elizabeth Campbell ‘Liz’ for a few days now, and it seemed that Elizabeth had either given up correcting Primrose, or that she didn’t mind the more casual name too much after all.
They’d all come down an hour or so after Heather had arrived with Matty, and he’d gone back to the castle, waving goodbye.
Everyone had been so excited at the discovery of the hot tub – Matty had told everyone to bring swimming costumes, apparently, and they’d brought one down for Heather too.
They’d all spent an hour or so in the bubbles, watching the sun set over the loch.
Wrapped up in blankets, they’d toasted marshmallows in the fires, eaten sandwiches and drunk hot tea and champagne.
Aunt Joan and Aunt Chrissie wore fleece-lined boots, overcoats and several layers of jumpers and thermals.
They’d refused to get into the tub, apart from Aunt Chrissie, who had deigned to take off her boots and socks and dip her feet in.
Finally, the two families had come together. Looking at the community of women around her, Heather felt her chest hitch with emotion. She was so lucky – so very fortunate – to call these amazing women family.
It had started at the rehearsal dinner. Something had shifted, finally, between them all, and they’d met in the middle.
The Balhennies had all been impressed by Elizabeth’s passion about her foundation, and Elizabeth had relaxed enough to stop being so icy and imperious and have a little joke with the girls.
That one comeback about the escargot and the oysters had lightened the whole mood of the evening, and the rest of the night had passed completely pleasantly.
‘You know,’ Blossom said, eyeing up the loch, ‘we could go for a cold water swim. Like, a quick dip. It’s good for you, so they say.’ Her eyes met Heather’s, and Heather detected mischief there. ‘Though Lady Campbell already had one the other day.’
‘Blossom Balhennie!’ Aunt Joan tutted. ‘Poor Lady Campbell. It must have been very startling to fall into the freezing cold water.’
Heather raised an eyebrow; Aunt Joan hadn’t been a fan of Elizabeth’s since she’d arrived. In fact, this was the first time her great aunt had had anything nice to say about Matty’s mother: Heather couldn’t detect sarcasm at all.
‘Mother isn’t generally that chill.’ Annie added, a grin tugging at her lips.
‘I see that we’ve moved on to finding my fall amusing.’ Elizabeth said, straight-faced. ‘I must say that the hot chocolate with whisky was rather nice.’
‘That’s the spirit, Mum.’ Annie grinned at her mother.
‘A Macallan, if I’m not mistaken,’ Elizabeth joked. Everyone chuckled; Heather was amazed at the change in her mother-in-law. It was a little like the fall into the cold water had improved Elizabeth’s personality.
‘Well, I’m going in,’ Blossom said.
‘You’ll catch your death out there!’ Aunt Chrissie added.
‘No, I won’t.’ Blossom put down her glass of champagne.
‘It’s forty degrees in this water. We can go in the loch and then dive back into the tub here and warm up.
Not you, Auntie, but the rest of us. Come on, girls.
It’ll be fun!’ There was a glint in her eye that Heather was glad to see.
It had been a long time since Blossom had cut loose.
Heather wondered if her sister had come to some kind of conclusion about Tom. Whatever it was, Blossom seemed in better spirits than she had been.
‘Okay. I’ll do it with you.’ Bluebell took Blossom’s hand. ‘It’s going to be so cold, though!’
Primrose whipped off the thick bathrobe she was wearing and flung it onto the wooden floor of the summer house.
Then, with no preamble, she ran into the loch, making a noise like a war cry as she went.
As she reached the edge of the water, she screamed, and then, when up to her knees, turned to the rest of them on the beach and shouted, ‘FOR THE GLORY OF THE BALHENNIES!’
‘That girl is mad as a box of frogs,’ Sorrel said, laughing at her sister.
‘Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.’ She took off her towelling robe, put on some swim shoes she’d brought down and held her hand out to Clara, who was watching the proceedings nervously. ‘Come on, lovely. I’ll hold your hand.’
‘I’m not sure…’ Clara mumbled, shivering. ‘What if I faint?’
‘You won’t faint. It’ll be cold, but you sort of get used to it, and then when we get out, we’ve got the fire, and blankets, the hot tub and hot chocolate. Hot food. You’ll be okay. You’ll feel fantastic, after.’ Sorrel held out her hand. ‘I promise.’
‘All right. I’ll give it a try.’ Clara lifted her chin, and took a deep breath. Together, Sorrel and Clara ran into the black loch. Heather chuckled as she heard Clara screech as the cold water enveloped her ankles.
‘You young things. Scared of a bit of cold water.’ Aunt Joan shucked off her boots, pulled on some swim shoes made of wetsuit material with rubber soles, rolled up her thermal leggings and tucked her skirt into her waistband.
‘Come on, Chrissie. Let’s go for a paddle.
’ She held her hand out to her sister, who did the same; Heather helped her with her swim shoes, as she was a little more infirm than Aunt Joan.
‘I won’t be left out and neither will you! ’
‘Let’s all go,’ Heather said, bravely unwrapping herself from the two fleecy blankets she’d been snuggled under.
She walked onto the beach in her swimming costume.
The cold evening breeze made her body tense up immediately and goosebumps erupted on her skin, but there was a wonderful freedom in being out in nature, too.
Heather could feel the energy of the night wrap around her like a velvet cloak.
Where, for weeks, everything had felt stuck and rigid, or pulling in the wrong direction, now, everything finally felt aligned and beautiful.
‘Elizabeth? Are you coming?’ Heather held out her other hand for her soon-to-be mother-in-law, who stood frigidly by the fire.
‘I’m not sure, dear. Why don’t you go, and I’ll stay here in the warm,’ Elizabeth said primly.
‘Well… I could do with some help with Auntie, actually,’ Heather said in a low voice so that only Elizabeth could hear. ‘She’s not very steady on her feet.’
‘Oh. I see. All right, then.’ Elizabeth’s face softened.
‘Also, Elizabeth, I wanted to say – thank you. Matty just told me about giving me the land that you bought for the golf course. I’m blown away by it, quite honestly. Still processing,’ Heather added.
‘Oh… you’re welcome, dear.’ Elizabeth sounded surprised; perhaps people didn’t often thank her for things, or perhaps she’d thought Heather wouldn’t have been grateful.
‘Matty made a good case for it. He was right; Arthur shouldn’t have thought that Skye would work for one of his golf courses.
And Matty says that one thought was, you could build a house for the both of you, and any little ones that came along.
That sounds like a much more sensible and lovely use for it. ’
‘Well… yes. That’s my dream,’ Heather replied, still taken aback by the change in Elizabeth. ‘Anyway, I just wanted to say… thank you. It’s an amazing gesture.’
‘We get to help you both, and we keep the land in the family, dear,’ Elizabeth chuckled.
‘Consider it a wedding present and a legacy.’ She took Aunt Chrissie’s hand, and together they walked slowly down to the edge of the loch.
The rest of Heather’s sisters, with Annie, Estella and Catriona in tow, dashed past them, yelling excitedly; Aunt Joan followed them, seeing that Heather was looking after Chrissie.
Heather grinned as they splashed into the loch’s calm waters.
Above them, two drones buzzed over the beach.
‘Paparazzi,’ Elizabeth swore, glancing up at them. ‘Wait just a minute, Heather.’
Bending down, Elizabeth picked up a large rounded pebble from the beach and launched it at the drone.
‘Lady Campbell!’ Aunt Chrissie cried, her tone admiring. ‘I didn’t think you had it in you!’
‘I missed.’ Elizabeth tutted as the drone buzzed away a little, and then returned.
‘How dare they spy on us when we’re having private family time?
I really am at the end of my patience with the press.
Getting in the way of everything. Making judgements about me and how I choose to live my life.
Well, I’ve had enough. Hear me?’ she screamed at the drone.
‘I, Lady Elizabeth Campbell, have had enough of the press interfering in my life! Take that!’ She hurled another stone at the drone.
‘You almost got it that time, dear.’ Aunt Chrissie let go of Heather’s hand to clap. ‘Heather, my love. Get me some stones. I can’t bend down too well.’
‘Um. Okay.’ Heather bent down and picked up a few good-sized black-grey rounded pebbles from the ground under her and handed one to her great-aunt. ‘Auntie, I…’
She was about to say, Auntie, I don’t know if this is a good idea, but before she could say it, Aunt Chrissie had also hurled a stone at the closest drone.