Chapter Nineteen
Rory grabbed the scruff of one of the sheep’s necks and herded it back to the rest of the flock that his brother, Callum, was currently corralling towards the pen. With the help of two sheepdogs, the brothers gradually chivvied the animals into the pens, ready to be taken off the hill. The rain had eased off a bit but the wind was still tugging at their coats; patches of blue in the sky above suggested that better weather might be on the way, but only a fool would bet on that. And not one of the Gowan brothers was a fool.
As the last of the sheep were rounded up, Callum leant down and pulled a flask out of his bag and poured a cup for Rory and another for himself.
‘What is it this time?’ asked Rory as he sniffed it suspiciously. Callum was a great cook but sometimes his experiments were a little outlandish. Once Rory had been expecting a cup of hot tea; instead, he got some sort of Asian squid gazpacho. It hadn’t been Callum’s crowning glory.
‘Just coffee. But I’ve a pot of stew simmering on the stove back home. Reckon it’ll be perfect when we get in.’
‘There’s no squid this time, is there?’
‘Away with ye! Your problem is you have no spirit of adventure. Live a wee bit!’ chided his brother as he grinned at him. It was a regular refrain from Callum. Both men knew that Rory had no problem with squid or with being adventurous, but as the eldest in a large tribe of brothers, he had developed the mantle of being the sensible one.
‘Guess who I bumped into in town yesterday?’ he continued as he saw that his brother wasn’t going to rise to the teasing.
‘How many guesses do I get, or will you just tell me?’
Rory smiled as he sipped his coffee; his brother was a terrible gossip and had no doubt discovered something that had delighted him.
‘Janet’s mother.’
Rory looked over at Callum but decided not to engage as he finished his coffee.
‘And guess what she said?’
‘Finish your drink, Dad’s here.’
‘What?’ Callum looked at Rory in momentary confusion then looked over his shoulder as a Land Rover pulling a trailer came bumping up the track towards the sheep pen. The truck pulled alongside and their mother leant out the window. Her hair was tied back and covered in a scarf and she was wearing her scruffiest old wax jacket.
‘Dad’s had to go out so you’ve got me.’
Gowan Farm was a family affair, and whilst Lynn didn’t do much work on the farm she knew her way around and was always able to pitch in when required. Having reversed the trailer to the sheep pen, she hopped out and joined her boys.
‘I brought flapjacks. What’s in the flask?’
Having established that there was no squid involved, she poured herself a cup as she nibbled her flapjack and her sons wolfed theirs.
‘Hey Mam. Guess who I met in town yesterday?’
Rory narrowed his eyes. Clearly Callum had to have his say; it would be better to just endure it.
‘Go on?’
‘Mrs Strathclyde and guess what?’ he said as he looked over to make sure Rory was paying attention. ‘Janet’s coming home.’
Rory looked at Callum and his mother as they both regarded him speculatively.
‘Is she now?’ asked Lynn. ‘Is it a visit?’
‘No. Her mother says she didn’t take to Birmingham after all. She got a transfer back and will be working out of the Inverness branch.’
Callum waited for Rory to say something, but as he continued to guide the sheep into the trailer in silence, Callum continued.
‘So she might commute or she might rent somewhere nearer, but she’ll be back here within the week.’
Rory remained silent but now Lynn spoke.
‘Well, I hope she chooses Inverness.’
‘Don’t say it like that, Mam,’ said Rory, breaking his silence. ‘You never really liked her much in the first place.’
Lynn raised her eyebrow at her eldest son. She wasn’t surprised that he was going to defend the snivelling dishcloth, but she had tried to give the lass a chance.
‘Rory Gowan you take that back. I have nothing against Janet Strathclyde; she seems perfectly pleasant. A bit wet, admittedly, but no harm in her. I just couldn’t see what you saw in her.’
‘She’s a nice lass, Mam.’
‘Aye. Nice.’
‘Really, Mam, since when has being nice been a crime? I enjoyed her company; we could have a good chat about things.’
‘Because she always agreed with you,’ joked Callum.
Was that it?thought Rory. He didn’t think so and she wasn’t here to defend herself.
‘Well maybe she agreed with me because we see things the same way?’
‘You didn’t see the future the same way.’
Rory was about to snap at his mother but he knew she was just being protective. He and Janet had dated for a while and had drifted into being a couple. He wasn’t sure how it had happened but he’d had no objections. He liked her company, there were never any dramas, he could always rely on her and quite quickly they were almost like an old married couple. Comfortable, predictable and dull. It was Rory who spotted the problem. Which in itself was a problem, as Janet had no issues with the situation and had been waiting for him to propose. After a very painful date, Rory said that he thought they should call it a day before things became any more serious.
Janet cried a lot. And then cried to everyone she knew and gradually cried whenever he would walk into any pub where she happened to be. After a while, Rory stopped going out and Janet stopped crying and started bad-mouthing him to anyone who was still around, after all the tears, to listen to her. In a small community it put a nasty strain on social events.
Rory knew his mother had some limited sympathy to the tears, but had zero tolerance to the bad-mouthing and had been relieved when Janet had finally taken herself off to Birmingham.
‘Do you think I should call on her?’ he asked tentatively, and recoiled a little when both Callum and his mum shouted, ‘No!’
‘She’ll be over all that by now though, won’t she?’ He paused as he looked at his brother’s laughing face and his mother’s stony one.
‘She’s a bampot, that one,’ said Callum as he latched the trailer shut with the sheep inside. ‘You go over and she might take it the wrong way and then we’ll all be drowned in tears again.’
Rory winced. It really had been terrible and he’d felt so horribly guilty. He hadn’t meant to inflict such pain, hopefully, by now she would have realised that they were just wrong for each other. He certainly didn’t want her to think he was trying to start anything up again.
‘I guess I’ll be sticking to the Cock and Feathers then for a while,’ he laughed weakly. It was the one pub that Janet tended to avoid. One particularly emotional evening, Mari had told Janet to put a sock in it and get over herself.
‘Speaking of the Cock,’ said Lynn keen to move the conversation away from troublesome ex-girlfriends, ‘I hear the new lassie at Ruacoddy Castle is helping Mari with her wedding dress.’
‘Clem?’ asked Rory.
‘Aye. That’s her name,’ said his mother as the three of them headed towards the front of the Land Rover. As the smallest, Lynn sat between Callum and Rory as Rory slowly started to drive the trailer down off the hillside.
‘Have you met her then?’
Rory laughed, remembering their first meeting and Lynn and Callum shared a small glance as Rory kept his eyes on the bumpy track.
‘She’d fallen in a ditch trying to save a sheep. It was when we had that last big snow fall, about a fortnight back. All I could see were her red boots sticking out of the ditch under a sheep. A soggy sheep version of The Wizard of Oz.’ The Land Rover bounded slowly as Rory gently negotiated some potholes in the track, whilst the animals bleated their displeasure from the trailer behind.
‘You should have seen her face when I carried her into the pub. Ah, she was savage at being carried but also so cold that she couldn’t speak from the chattering.’
‘Why did you carry her? Had she hurt herself?’
‘She was so cold she could barely move. I figured it would just be quicker to carry her inside. I guess she and Mari must have met then.’
Callum and Lynn exchanged a second glance. Rory was never the chattiest of people but suddenly he was waxing lyrical about a total stranger.
‘What’s she like then.’
‘Oh she’s pretty rude. Actually, she has almost no manners. She even told me I looked like an old hermit!’
‘Away with you,’ roared Callum, laughing. ‘Did the wee lassie not fall at your feet, stunned by your good looks?’
Lynn smiled, watching her sons bicker and tease each other. Personally, she wasn’t a fan of the beards: they masked the little boy she always saw when she looked at her sons. Still, it was for a good cause. Her sons had decided to grow beards for the local children’s hospital. Callum was the first to shave his off; the others were still going strong.
‘Leave him be, Callum, he’s not the one that nabs my moisturiser!’ Having quelled her younger son, she turned to Rory again.
‘Have you met her again, then?’
‘Well, the following day I had to take her to Phoulhaig to return the sheep she’d saved.’
‘That was nice of her, to save a sheep and see it home,’ said Lynn. At least she was joining the community with her heart in the right place. Sheep were a bloody nuisance but they still needed taking care of.
‘Yes, except she expected me to take her there and take her home.’
‘Weren’t you going anyway to return the sheep?’ asked Lynn.
‘Yeah, but it’s not like he’s her taxi service, is it? It’s not on to just expect him to drive her around.’
‘Ah now that’s not quite fair,’ said Rory, unaware that his brother was playing devil’s advocate and goading him into defending Bo. ‘Bo had only just arrived from London and it was clear she had no experience of driving in snow. And she looked so tiny in her car, I wasn’t even certain if she could see over the steering wheel. Plus she had had quite a scare the night before in the ditch. She was all in fancy clothes and high heels. Do you know she’d never even touched a sheep until one fell on her?’
Callum grinned but said nothing and his mother picked up the thread.
‘Did you say Bo? I thought her name was Clem?’
Rory glanced down at his mother. She looked back at him blankly but he was certain she was somehow teasing him.
‘It’s just a nickname. You know, Little Bo Peep.’
Lynda nodded her head as though her eldest son was always in the habit of passing out nicknames and running around after strangers. Certainly, he was a helpful sort but this was almost giddy by his standards.
‘Did she like them at Phoulhaig?’
The Hamiltons were an odd pair; they kept trying to blend in but seemed to spend most of their time telling people what they could or should do to improve their lives. It was hard to be welcoming to a couple who treated you like an imbecile.
‘Oh, she had no time for them. The woman made us sit on magazines in case we damaged the fabric. I thought Bo was going to have a fit.’
‘What a way to treat a guest,’ she said. ‘I think if I’d been this Clem I wouldn’t have sat down at all. Honestly, she’s going up in my estimations.’
‘Aye. Well she got her own back when they discovered that she’s a lady and her sister owns Ruacoddy. Oh their faces. It was a rare treat to see. But then, when I take her home, she just sprints into the house without even a thank you. That’s when I was late for the vet inspection.’
‘Fair enough. That was rude,’ agreed his mother.
Now Rory was quick to defend her against his mother’s criticisms.
‘Yes. Although according to Mari, she had a migraine and had run off to throw up. And it was me that chose to go back and find her necklace.’
He was happy to criticise Bo, but his mother and brother hadn’t met her, so he felt bad that he had painted a black picture of her. They drove along in silence for a bit as Callum nudged his mother until she frowned back at him. She knew well enough how to leave a silence for her children to fill.
‘So, did you say she was making a dress for Mari?’ asked Rory and missed the small smile on his mother’s face.
‘Oh that, aye. She’s getting various people in the community to embroider wee pictures on Mari’s wedding train. I’m going to book myself in for a slot.’
‘Be fair, Mam,’ said Callum, ‘you’re also going to have a look around the castle to see how much it’s changed.’
‘Well true, it’s been years. I wonder how this new lass and Miss Farano are getting on?’
‘Fireworks would be my best bet. Miss Farano has never tolerated fools and Bo seems to have no filter. Making a wedding dress is a nice thing to do though?’
‘Not a cheap thing to do,’ said Lynn.
‘Well maybe this lot have got some money,’ said Rory. ‘God knows the castle could probably do with some investment.’
‘Maybe she should spend her money on the castle rather than a dress then,’ said Callum. ‘I wonder what the rest of the staff make of her?’
The Land Rover and trailer rattled over the cattle grid, setting off the sheep again. They were blessed with very few brains but they always seemed to know that crossing the cattle grid usually meant jabs or shearings were on the way. Now they were bleating at full pelt as the Land Rover headed towards the barns.
‘She sounds like a straight talker. They’ll either like her or loathe her,’ said Lynn.
‘I think loathe her is too strong a term,’ protested Rory.
‘You just said she’s a nightmare!’
Rory glanced over at Callum as they drove along the last few lanes. He wasn’t sure why his brother was needling him. Beyond that’s just what brothers do. He was feeling bad now though. Bo was a bit of a pain but she had also made him laugh and he had been impressed with the efforts she had gone to, to take care of a sheep. But now his family seemed to think badly of her and he was feeling responsible.
‘Well, not a total nightmare, but I guess that’s just Londoners for you.’
‘No, that’s just the rich for you. They act however they want.’
‘Callum!’ Lynn had not raised fools and she wouldn’t put up with it now. ‘That’s just lazy talk. As is saying she’s rude because she’s a Londoner, Rory. We’ve enough straight talkers around here who don’t have two pennies to rub together. You two know better.’
Both men sat towering over their mother, their frowns identical and then at the same time they let out the same breath.
‘Yes, Mam.’
‘Sorry, Mam.’
Lynn smiled as they pulled into the yard. This lassie certainly sounded interesting and she was aware that Rory was clearly intrigued by her, despite all his protestations.
‘Okay, boys. Let’s get these sheep out.’
As the three of them climbed out of the cab, Callum nudged his mother again and raised an eyebrow. Clearly she wasn’t alone in noticing how Rory had discussed Clem. Lynn didn’t know what the year ahead was going to bring but she was looking forward to it.