26. Edie
EDIE
I don’t know how she does it. Standing in the huge entrance hall, surrounded by ancient paintings and with stuffed animal heads looking down on us, I wonder for a moment what it’d be like to be Anna, and be able to just casually turn up three days early with no notice and expect that everyone will deal with it.
Her concept of a schedule is something other people work around her. She’s wandering around like she owns the place, picking up priceless pieces of china and looking underneath, humming to herself.
“Sorry to disappear on you like that,” Janey says, bustling back from her office down the passageway.
“I’m trying to juggle the contractors for the ball, Gregor wanting to have a meeting about canapés, the band have been on the phone…
it’s all kicking off at the last minute.
You’d never know everyone’s had a year to pull this together. It’s the same every time.”
She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and smiles at Anna warmly. “Right, let’s show you to your room. ”
Anna sets of ahead of us despite not knowing where she’s going. I turn to Janey and turn my palms upwards in a gesture of helplessness.
“ Sorry ,” I mouth at her.
Janey shakes her head. “Not a problem,” she says as we reach the top of the stairs. She’s completely unflustered, taking it in her stride in a way that must have come in handy when she was dealing with the behaviour of the old and extremely temperamental duke.
“We’ll put you in the blue room,” she says, turning left and heading towards the east wing of the castle. I breathe a silent sigh of relief that I don’t have Anna in the room next door. “Lovely view of the loch in the morning.”
“Wonderful,” says Anna breezily. She’s dressed for the Eurostar, not the Highlands.
She’s in a navy tailored coat and a silk scarf, with not a single hair out of place.
I trail along behind them, very conscious that I’m in the jeans and a hoody I pulled on first thing when Rory hauled me out on an unexpected trip before breakfast.
“Here we are.” Janey opens the door and steps aside to allow Anna to walk in first, and I hear her give a little hum – of surprise or disapproval, I’m not quite sure.
I follow her in. The room is identical in design to mine, with long windows that look out over the loch and a tall oak four-poster bed.
The walls are papered in a discreet pale blue stripe and there’s a door off to one side, which I assume must be her bathroom.
Anna drops her sunglasses on the antique chest of drawers as if it was a poolside lounger and turns to me with her brows raised. “Well, this is rather nice,” she says as if she’s pleased with a room she’s booked on Booking.com.
“Thanks so much, Janey,” I say, because I feel like someone ought to .
“It’s never a problem for you,” she says, and I feel a little glow inside. “I’ll love you and leave you though, because goodness knows what’s going on in my absence.”
Anna throws herself backwards onto the bed and looks up at me with slightly narrowed eyes. “Never a problem for you? You’ve got your feet under the table quickly, haven’t you?” Her tone is arch. “It’s a long way from writing copy about cat insurance to dining with dukes.”
“Janey’s lovely,” I protest, trying not to bristle outwardly. “D’you want a hand to unpack, or shall I take you for a wander? How was the journey?”
“Oh, no trouble at all. I can’t believe the airport is so tiny. We really are in the sticks, aren’t we?”
She unzips her cases and hangs her things in the wardrobe.
She places three different kinds of moisturiser and four different bottles of perfume on the dressing table, laying everything out precisely as she catches me up on news from our loose friendship group down in London.
I’ve heard most of it through the group chat, but as time has passed, I’ve found myself checking in less and less.
It’s like the friendships I had down there were mostly based around things we had in common, and once they were out of the equation, I didn’t seem to have much to say.
“—So, what do you think?”
I realise Anna’s waiting for a response, and I’ve been looking out of the window at Rory, who is down on the lawn throwing tennis balls for Bramble and Tilly.
He squats down to fuss them, a huge smile spreading over his face.
It’s funny how much more like himself he seems when he’s in an old sweater and jeans than his normal uniform of crisp shirt and dark trousers.
It’s almost as if putting on the costume helps him step into the role and as soon as he does, he reverts to the buttoned-up aristocrat and not the man I’ve seen glimpses of.
“Think about what?”
“Ruth and Naveen breaking up. I thought they were marriage material.”
“Oh—I—yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Me too.”
Anna walks over to the window to join me, peering out just as Rory and the dogs disappear out of view.
“Very nice,” she says, casting a quick glance over it.
“There’s a path through the woods over there that takes you down to the boathouse that was built by Rory’s grandfather, and you can row across to the other side of the loch and climb up to a little cottage on the top of the hill where you can see the sea,” I say, but Anna’s already turned away and is opening the drawers and looking inside.
“Just checking in case anyone’s left some priceless jewels behind on their last visit.”
“And have they?”
“Nothing.” She shrugs. “So, what is there to do around here? I bet there are lots of secrets hiding in a place like this…”
I frown for a moment. There’s something disconcerting about seeing her here in this place.
I’ve built a routine – up in the morning, coffee in the kitchen and a chat with Janey while she flits back and forth between the kitchen and her office.
Gregor arriving with his arms full vegetables from the walled garden, always ready for a catch up and to share some gossip from the estate workers.
Taking a drive up to the stables to see Kate and cuddle the new baby foals.
It all felt like a lovely – albeit temporary – dream. Now it feels like something I could lose.
Anna looks me up and down. “You look very… rural. ”
“I’m blending in.”
“With the sheep?”
I put a hand to my hair. I brushed it this morning but visiting the cottages with Rory meant I’m probably a bit windswept.
“It’s a look.” She grins, and for a second it feels normal. “Can’t wait to meet the duke properly. He looks pretty hot.”
“I—” I pause, choosing my words carefully.
“Are you worried I might steal him from under your nose?” She gives a little laugh.
I take a breath and try and figure out what to say, while she leans over and checks her lipstick in the mirror.
“Let’s go and find out, shall we?” she says, taking control. “I’ll just grab my scarf.”
Outside in the passageway I hear the familiar deep rumble of Rory’s voice before I see him – something about a problem with the Defender. His tone is clipped, low, annoyed. Then he steps into view at the bottom of the stairs, looking as if someone’s tried and succeeded in messing up his plans.
His shirt sleeves are rolled up, and there’s a smear of oil on his forearm. He’s frowning, and then he looks up and his expression softens as our eyes meet for a brief moment.
“Edie,” he says, “I wanted to have a word if you?—”
His voice cools instantly as Anna comes into sight behind me.
She steps forward with her best charming smile, the kind that’s opened boardroom doors and talked her way into private members’ clubs. “We didn’t meet properly earlier. You must be the famous Rory. Anna. I’ve heard… so much about you. ”
He flicks me a glance so brief you’d miss it if you blinked and hesitates for half a second before shaking her hand, his aristocratic mantle firmly in place. “Welcome.”
Polite. Distant. One eyebrow raised so slightly that if you didn’t know him any better you’d think his face was completely neutral.
Something unreadable crosses his expression.
I wonder if he thinks I invited her here, that I planned this.
I don’t know how to tell him it was the last thing on my mind but now is hardly the time.
“Excuse me,” he says, turning away, “I have a call to make.”
Anna watches him disappear down the hall, then turns to me with a catlike smile. “Jesus,” she says, under her breath. “He’s not exactly warm, is he?”
I stare at the spot where he was standing. “It’s not the first word that springs to mind,” I say, after a moment of thought.
“Fucking hot though. All that buttoned up repression. I bet he’s dynamite in bed.”
I bite down on my tongue and let a very slow breath out through my nostrils before I twist my mouth into an approximation of a smile.
Later, Anna says she wants to have a nap, so I grab the car keys and escape to the stables.
There’s something grounding about them – the familiar smell of sweet hay and damp stone and the comforting scent of the horses.
I breathe it all in as I walk alongside Kate on the way to check on the mares in the paddock.
Kate glances at me sideways as we walk along in silence. “So, she’s your flatmate?”
“Landlord, flatmate… all in one package.”
“So, you go back a long way. ”
I nod. “It’s…”
“Complicated?” Kate lifts the latch of the gate, and I step through ahead of her, watching as the Highland pony mares raise their heads from the grass, checking to make sure everything is safe before returning to the important business of eating.
Their wariness makes sense to me. I feel weirdly at sea with Anna here, like two parts of my life that were never meant to connect have somehow got tangled up together.
“Complicated is a good word.”
I can feel her watching me carefully as we stand with the mares, checking them the way she does every afternoon, calmly observing the way they move and interact. To an outsider it might look like Kate was doing nothing, but she doesn’t miss a trick.