Old wounds #2
“He’s gone off again. No idea where in the world he is right now,” grumbled Rupert. “But as soon as he returns, we should have a chat. Hailey, I like the idea of bringing in Lila. It cannae hurt to have the media on board. Maybe she could come up tomorrow? And I’ll talk to a few of my contacts.”
“Sounds good. I can make some phone calls too,” Kendrick agreed. With a bucket of ointment and fresh bandages, he entered the box of his favourite patient. Hopefully, Azzedine would soon be his!
“Girls, I have fantastic news!” Shona exclaimed when she got home in the evening.
“Colleen has managed to book Phyllis Montgomery and some of her dancers for the harvest festival this autumn. She’s also going to give a one-day workshop the day before, and I’ve secured us all a spot!
” She beamed at her cousins, who were staring at her wide-eyed from the kitchen table.
“What harvest festival?” Hailey asked confused.
“Phyllis Montgomery? Seriously?” Kristy chimed up at the same time.
“Don’t be daft! The big mystery party Collum and Colleen have been planning for weeks,” Shona explained. “Isla, Kristy, Jon and I were briefed last week because we’re in charge of catering and ...”
“Hold on! You’ve both known about this for a week and didn’t tell me?” an upset Hailey interrupted her.
“We basically had to swear a blood oath, and you were distracted anyway,” Kristy replied. “That Phyllis Montgomery is coming to Kirkby is news to me, too.”
“That’s brand-new intel, and if you just let me finish, I can tell you all about it.
So, there’s going to be this big harvest festival in Kirkby in two weeks.
The whole shebang was Colleen’s idea: a party to mark the end of the tourist season and say thank you to all the locals for their hard work.
It’s going to be a big cèilidh, with two great local bands and traditional Scottish catering.
And there’s a mandatory dress code: tartan for everybody and kilts for the men.
To be honest, I think Colleen is going all American on this one.
She is so keen on a night of Scottish folklore.
But who cares! Anyway, she asked me last week what I thought would make such an event absolutely perfect, and I said, ‘a real Highland dance performance’. I actually recommended Phyllis to her.”
“So Colleen just rang her up and talked her into performing at a village fête in Kirkby? And teaching a workshop?” Kristy sounded downright stunned, and understandably so.
Phyllis Montgomery was widely regarded as the best Highland dancer of the last thirty years.
She had won tonnes of competitions, including international ones.
For around fifteen years now, she had run one of the country’s most renowned dance schools on the Isle of Skye.
The most talented dancers trained with her.
Last autumn, Shona, Kristy and Hailey had attended a three-day workshop together and rekindled their passion for Highland dancing.
But there weren’t that many opportunities to practise, even in rural Scotland.
The fact that Phyllis was now coming to Kirkby to teach and perform was nothing short of a sensation, and Shona, like her cousins, was in awe of the feat her future sister-in-law had accomplished.
“Colleen can work miracles. So, what do you think?”
“This is by far the best news of the day. Of the last two weeks, really,” Hailey replied enthusiastically.
“You mean since the earl arrived? What’s the status there?”
“You don’t want to know. It’s all so sad, and I feel really guilty for leaning into Da to take the job.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it! If you hadn’t, the poor animals would be even worse off.” Kristy put a comforting arm around her sister’s shoulders, and Shona realised that she must have interrupted a serious conversation.
“What’s going on?”
“The long and short of it is that none of the three should ever be allowed on a racetrack again,” Hailey summarised.
“We might be able to get Faruk there, if we find a way to overcome his fear of the starting stalls. But Nihal may never let anybody ride her again, and Azzedine will be lucky to heal at all. Kendrick said he would like to buy him to save him.”
“Really? That’s a little unusual, isn’t it?
” Shona was surprised to find her heart beating faster.
The last time she had seen Kendrick herself had been ten days ago.
That afternoon at the stables when he had first looked at her with contempt and later with relief.
She would have liked to have cleared the air with him, but there hadn’t been an opportunity.
Three weeks had passed since their encounter in Inverness, and the whole thing was beginning to seem downright unreal.
And why was she so touched by the fact that he wanted to rescue a racehorse?
“Unusual and borderline unprofessional if you want to take it there,” Hailey replied. “It’s important for veterinarians to maintain a certain distance. But I still think it’s lovely. It means he does have a heart after all! Not for me, but certainly for that poor horse.”
“How do you know he doesn’t have a heart for you?” Shona was glad she didn’t sound as winded as she felt. She still hadn’t told Hailey about the night in Inverness, and even Kristy only knew half of the story. The half without having sex in a public place.
“Because he only has eyes for you,” Hailey said simply.
“What?!”
“Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed. And no worries, I don’t mind at all.
I’m totally over our smart veterinarian.
” Hailey’s smile seemed so genuine that it took a weight off Shona’s shoulders.
Whatever the future might hold, it wouldn’t be a catfight with her cousin.
Not that she expected anything specific to happen in the future ... Why would she?
“I’d say it’s fairly unlikely, but I’m glad Kenny isn’t standing between us,” she replied lightly. Kenny? What the heck?! She seriously doubted he’d be pleased by this particular nickname, or any nickname really. His verbal repertoire didn’t seem to include forms of endearment.
“Whatever you say …” Hailey exchanged a look with her sister.
“But about our current horse drama, we are planning to convince Jonah to only make Faruk race again and use Nihal for breeding. And retire Azzedine, preferably with us. If he doesn’t see reason, we’ll bring in the big guns: the veterinary authorities, customs maybe and the press.
I rang Lila earlier and told her all about it.
She says it sounds like a story for Horse & Hound, but she has to ask her editor-in-chief tomorrow before she can commit. ”
“Not bad. It seems you’ve got all your bases covered, and I really hope you have Lord Wanker cornered.”
Busy as she was with putting the final touches to her distillery, Shona didn’t hear much about the goings-on at the stables over the next few days.
Meanwhile, the pre-owned bottling line from Stirling had been delivered and installed, and Shona was eager to do a test run soon.
The new gin bottles had arrived yesterday, and she could hardly believe how beautiful they were.
Now they just had to adjust the calibration of the bottling line, and her professional gin business was ready to go.
She had distilled two more batches last week, both currently stored in large stainless-steel containers waiting to be bottled.
Her tasting and sales room was also ready for business.
She had found some very pretty sets of tables and chairs at the local swap shop and bought a few others off online marketplaces.
Most pieces were in mint condition, and she had spruced up the rest. She was more than happy with the result, and the furniture contrasted beautifully with the modern, customised shelves and the sales counter the local carpenter had made for her.
The foundation was laid for a bright future for the Golden Alpaca Distillery!
As soon as the first bottles of gin were available, she would open the shop.
It was high time, with visitors stopping by almost every day to enquire how things were going.
She made the locals wait, but when day-trippers or holidaymakers visited, she gave them a brief, impromptu tour of her facility and let them taste – and buy – whisky from Gordon Gibbs.
Which made her more and more giddy to have her own products on sale.
Only a few more days of waiting until she could start bottling!
Shona had promised Isla that they would kick production off together.
Which was only fair as it was as much Isla’s gin as her own.
But first, her sister was scheduled to take part in the final of a British-Irish cooking show where her restaurant would compete against the winners from England and Ireland.
They would all cook and present at their own restaurants, and the winner would be announced in a last episode to be recorded in October.
Shona had no doubt that Isla could win. That would be great for the restaurant and Kirkby, and it could also be great PR for her business.
Isla promised to base her menu around the new gin, and the show’s producer had agreed to send a camera crew to film the official start of production at the distillery.
It was all pretty exciting, but still a while off, as were the Highland dance workshop and the cèilidh at the community centre.
Until then, Shona found herself with nothing to do for the first time in months, and this state of affairs made her increasingly anxious.
Suddenly, she found herself with plenty of time to let her thoughts wander, which was exactly what they had been doing ever since the last chairs had been set up in the sales room this morning.
And they certainly took an interesting direction ...