As pet friendly as they come
When shona woke up the next morning, the quiet took her by surprise.
Not a sound could be heard – neither in the house nor on the street.
Had the world ended while she had been fast asleep?
It took her a moment to snap back to reality: she no longer lived in noisy London, but in quaint little Kirkby, where even the Monday morning rush hour wasn’t loud enough to drown out the birdsong.
Wow, she hadn’t experienced a lapse like that in quite some months!
She must have had a few too many yesterday if she had forgotten that her London days were far behind her.
She stretched and yawned, and slowly the memories of yesterday began to flood in.
The Golden Alpaca Distillery was now officially open!
Her life’s work, as Minister Jack McTavish had so aptly called it in his little speech.
And so shockingly, too, because talking about your life’s work when you weren’t even thirty felt bloody scary!
Just remembering his words gave her a chill.
Entering into such a long-term commitment was no small matter.
Especially when only a year ago, her life had mostly consisted of fun Tinder dates when she wasn’t working her trendy job as a whisky sommelier.
Back then, her biggest commitment had been making it to work on time. That hadn’t been so bad, had it?
Really now, what on earth had possessed her to swap her easy, fun-filled life in one of the world’s most exciting cities for this new, stressful existence in the Scottish Highlands?
Now she was responsible for employees and had expectations to meet.
That, and basically no private life. Not a lifestyle to foster her wellbeing, that much was certain!
But if she was honest, she knew exactly why she had turned her life on its head.
It had mostly been for emotional reasons: a mix of longing, homesickness and the tempting urge to build a legacy.
She would never admit that to anyone else, of course!
She was quite determined to maintain her cool-as-a-cucumber persona without any of this serious business.
Her London friends had shaken their heads in disbelief when she had packed up her belongings before the winter break last year and quit her job to move back home to Kirkby.
At the time, she wasn’t even certain that she would be able to start her own distillery.
But there was no denying the feeling she’d experienced when she walked by the old boarded-up whisky distillery.
It was almost as if the premises were waiting to be kissed back to life like an enchanted fairy-tale princess waiting for her prince.
Only in this case, Shona was the prince.
She had mentioned the idea to her cousins who had promptly told Collum, and as the mayor loved it, he had promised her all the help he could provide.
Which turned out to be a lot, given how resourceful Collum was!
To her surprise, her da had also come on board without much prompting and offered his youngest all his support.
And that was how she had stumbled into the whole thing, she felt.
No, stumbling didn’t do her intentions justice.
Some part of her had always been this determined.
Namely the part that had interned with a local distillery while she was still at school.
The part that had scored an apprenticeship at Gordon Gibbs on the Isle of Skye after graduating.
The part that had become Scotland’s youngest-ever female master distiller.
The part that was a total whisky nerd. In other words, the part she usually kept hidden behind the glittering persona of the cheerful party girl.
No wonder she felt so overwhelmed and out of her depth right now!
Her life’s work … Why had Jack had to use this terrifying phrase again and again?
She was far too young for a life’s work; if you really had to go there, you could say that she had laid the foundation for it, no more than that.
But even a foundation was a big commitment.
As things stood, she would never again live anywhere but Kirkby.
Shona swallowed and checked the time. Just after seven.
Time for a quick shower and then she would head straight over to her da’s to pick up Nessie.
Thank goodness her alpaca seemed to be okay.
Only a bruise – and probably a hangover …
That wasn’t too bad. The whole thing could have turned out very differently.
She felt a little embarrassed that she hadn’t kept a closer eye on Nessie during the event, but there had been so much going on – and who would have guessed that alpacas took to the booze?
! Then that self-righteous vet had chided her after he had run over her poor darling.
She would give the eejit a good talking to when she got the chance!
The nerve of the man to call her an irresponsible pet owner!
But as the hot water splashed over her body, Shona relaxed and her anger subsided.
Let that Ken bloke think what he wanted. Not her problem.
“Well, Princess, how’s your head doing?” her older brother Alex asked as she entered Harriswood House a little before eight.
It was where she had grown up and where her da now lived with Alex and his fiancée Colleen as well as Shona’s nephew Aidan.
The manor also housed the hotel’s reception, breakfast room and guest library, while the guests themselves stayed in the resort’s cosy cottages around the property.
Alex was currently standing at the reception desk, typing something into the computer.
“My head’s just fine, thank you very much,” she replied, winking mischievously at him. “How about yourself? Hungover much?” Alex looked a little worse for wear. He had certainly had more than one too many last night as he celebrated the cask he had won at auction.
“Urgh,” he mumbled. “If you want breakfast, you’ll have to head to the kitchen yourself.”
“No time for that. I’m just here to pick up Nessie. How is she?”
“She’s out back with Da. I reckon she’s more or less recovered from yesterday’s adventure.”
“More than you, aye?” She couldn’t help teasing him. “I really don’t understand why you always let Collum dare you into drinking with him. You’d think you’d know by now that nobody holds their booze better than our mayor.”
“Are you in cahoots with Colleen?”
“No, ha! But if she said the same thing, it just goes to show how observant she is. Not that you’d would have to pay that close attention.
It’s pretty obvious. But don’t worry, I’m very grateful that you bought the community barrel at auction.
That was very noble of you.” She got up on her tiptoes and gave her brother a peck on the cheek.
Then she went into the kitchen, where her Aunt Alice and cousin Hailey were milling about.
The hotel guests’ breakfast was still in full swing.
“Breakfast, hen?” asked Alice.
“No thanks. I’m just stopping by to pick up Nessie.
” Shona’s resolve wavered as she took in the tempting smells of freshly baked muffins and crisply fried bacon but reminded herself that she really didn’t have the time.
She would grab a bite to eat on her way to work from the Old Bakery, which her cousin Kristy had opened just a few weeks ago.
She slipped out through the back door onto the small, sheltered family patio that was off-limits to the hotel guests and down into the overgrown garden.
She knew all the stories of how beautiful and well-tended it used to be, once upon a time, when her mother’s green thumb had created a true paradise here.
Shona had no memories of her ma, as she had been just two months old when Bonnie had died of cancer.
The garden was still called ‘Bonnie’s Garden’, even as Isla occasionally remarked that Bonnie would be horrified to see that they had let her favourite place turn into a jungle.
But it was precisely its wild abundance that Shona loved.
There was nothing neat and tidy about it: this was nature untamed, and it was flourishing.
In a weathered garden chair at the centre of it all sat her father, lost in the newspaper with Aidan’s Jack Russell terrier Tito by his feet.
Nessie was happily nibbling on some clover nearby.
“Morning, Daddy,” Shona greeted Marlin, who immediately folded up his paper to beam at his youngest. “How are you doing?”
“Spectacular,” her father replied. “Which is more than can be said for our Alex.”
“I know, I just ran into him,” Shona agreed, grinning.
“I saw Collum dare him to some drinking contest last night to show his gratitude that Alex had won the community barrel at auction. Apparently, it’s a testosterone thing.
I mean, a ‘thank you’ would have sufficed, wouldn’t it? ” She shook her head.
“Aye, but a ‘thank you’ would do nothing for your business. Your livelihood depends on your customers enjoying a drink.”
“Whisky is to be savoured,” she emphasised. “If you just want to get hammered, you might as well drink vodka.”
“If you say so ...” Marlin grinned behind his beard. “Anyway, I’m glad your Nessie gave me the perfect excuse to leave when I did yesterday. Tha’s why I’m doing so well today. Your wean too, by the way. She spent the night with my sheep.”
“You had her sleep outside?!” Shona cried out. “You were supposed to keep an eye on her!”
“And I did. Before I went to bed, I checked again that she was okay and this morning she was right as rain when I came to the pasture.”
“But she’s not used to sleeping outside!” Shona couldn’t believe her father would be so inconsiderate.
“Should I have pitched a tent among the sheep?”
“Of course not! You should have brought her inside with you!”
“And have her play bedside rug in my room?” Marlin raised an eyebrow and snorted.