Adulting 101
Kendrick had never been in such high spirits while preparing to treat an entire flock with diarrhoea.
Farmer Henderson’s sheep in Dundreggan had either eaten something they couldn’t tolerate or caught some kind of bug.
Outbreaks like this occurred from time to time.
They were usually easy enough to control but involved a lot of – quite literally – dirty work and some truly offensive smells.
But Kendrick’s mood was unfailingly great.
Since last night, he felt light-hearted and upbeat and able to enjoy his life again for the first time in a good while.
On the face of it, nothing much had happened, or had it?
At the pub, Jack, Betty and Rupert had pushed him to reconsider his attitude to Glenna and Davina’s request and, more importantly, his view of himself.
He had finally realised that he was not a victim or confined by their expectations, but free to do as he pleased.
Then he had run into Shona, right when she had experienced a similar shock to her system.
Her inner struggles seemed to reflect his own, and he was able understand her so well because he was feeling something similar.
He had showed her his true self, authentic and with all his shortcomings, and Shona had done the same.
They had both been vulnerable, and their courage had been rewarded with mutual understanding and friendship.
Eventually, he had accepted that she would rather stay by herself in her uncomfortable little bedroom at work than take him up on his offer.
And yes, she was right. He had no desire to friendzone whatever they had by being roommates, and neither of them were ready for a committed relationship.
Yet, he added hopefully. And until that time came, he could dream of lying in bed with her every night, sharing meals with her every day – even if he would have to be the one to do the cooking – of the two of them talking, dancing and enjoying life.
He was pretty sure his feelings for Shona went much deeper, but he would give himself and her the time they needed.
With this optimistic outlook, he got out of the car and rose to the challenge of treating the sheep.
About half the flock was affected, including almost all the young animals, but fortunately Henderson had alerted Kendrick in time.
He took stool and blood samples and looked at the meadow where the sheep were grazing.
There was nothing unusual to see, so he suspected intestinal parasites or some kind of supplementary food the farmer wouldn’t admit.
The tests would show it anyway. Henderson had been a little sloppy with the deworming too, or if he had done it, he had not bought the medication from Kendrick, so parasites were his best bet.
After his work on the farm was done, he took the samples straight to the lab in Inverness, hoping to hear back by the afternoon.
As he didn’t have any other appointments until then, he made good on yesterday’s promise and went to check on Azzedine.
When he drove up to Rupert’s, he met Hailey outside the stable door.
“Hi, Kendrick,” she greeted him cheerfully. “You here to see Azzedine? Da mentioned you might come by around lunchtime and lunge him. He left for a meeting, but I’m happy to help if you want me to.”
“I’d love that.” He smiled back at her and wondered for a moment if he should bring up yesterday’s drama but decided to let it go. Maybe Hailey would start talking about it without prompting. Anyway, he was here for his horse, and that’s what he would focus on. “How are the new alpacas doing?”
“Good, very good, I’d say. They’ve eaten properly and are out in the paddock.” It seemed to Kendrick that Hailey wanted to say something else but didn’t.
“Hello, handsome,” he greeted his horse a moment later.
Azzedine was excited to see Kendrick enter the box.
As he scratched the horse’s neck, Nessie sniffed him cheekily in search of a treat.
“Don’t worry, I would never dare come empty-handed,” he told her mock-seriously and gave both of them some carrot.
“But now I’ll need to have a look at your leg, laddie, and then we’ll see how well you can walk.
” He gave Azzedine’s right front leg a closer look.
There was some more improvement over yesterday, which was a very good sign indeed.
“What do you think?” asked Hailey, who joined him in the box with a grooming kit, bridle and lunge line.
“I’m pretty excited,” he replied and picked up a brush and curry comb.
Together they groomed Azzedine, who loved the attention, and a few minutes later the shiny black gelding was ready for his first proper outing from the stable for the first time in weeks.
He seemed to sense that there was more to come than just a short walk for some fresh air in the smallest paddock and snorted excitedly as he pranced alongside Kendrick with his ears pricked up.
Nessie was very animated too, but her interest was piqued by the three other alpacas she could now see for the first time, after having smelled them since yesterday.
“I was going to take Nessie lunging, but I reckon she’d rather meet her new family,” Kendrick said amused as the grey alpaca headed towards the small herd that looked curiously in her direction as well.
“I think you’re right,” Hailey agreed and gave him a smile. “Do you think we can just let her go in there? There’s not that much room in the paddock.”
“Hold him a sec, will you?” Kendrick asked and handed Hailey his horse’s lead rope to take Nessie to the paddock.
The animals on either side of the fence immediately started some friendly sniffing, and Kendrick couldn’t shake the feeling that they knew each other.
But that was unlikely, wasn’t it? After a few minutes without incident, he opened the gate to let Nessie join the others.
“Wow, that looks good,” Hailey said enthusiastically. The animals radiated pure joy with not even the faintest sign of hostility.
“I agree.” Kendrick happily took his phone from a pocket to take a picture, which he sent to Shona with the caption Happy families.
Earlier this morning, she had sent him a photo of her two wolfhounds, who had spent the entire night curled up in front of the fireplace in the tasting room.
There had been no accidents of any kind, a fact she had been rather happy about.
She had been even happier to discover two large plastic boxes full of cooked rice in the basket of food from the pub he had brought yesterday, so she didn’t have to experiment with cooking for the time being.
Made my day, she had texted him. In fact, they had already exchanged about a dozen texts and photos, which delighted him more than such a minor thing should.
“They look like a family! The way they’re behaving you’d think Nessie is their long-lost pal,” said Hailey.
“Maybe that’s the case,” Kendrick surmised.
“Who knows? Nessie might have been with that travelling circus too and ran away, or maybe she was abandoned. That would explain why you couldn’t find her owner.
The farmers around here who keep alpacas would have looked for her, but the circus might have been glad to have one mouth less to feed. ”
“We may never know,” Hailey replied and stroked Azzedine’s neck reassuringly.
“But now we need to focus on this handsome gentleman or he’ll go ballistic.
” She led the agitated racehorse to a riding arena and attached the lunge line to the bit ring.
“I’m curious to see if this is at all familiar.
In certain circles, they’re not exactly squeamish about training racehorses.
” She gave a frustrated sigh, and Kendrick understood her only too well.
Hailey was still beating herself up about taking on the Earl of Penningcard and his horses.
“We’ll see,” he simply replied and positioned himself by the fence. “Even if it’s all new, I’m sure he’ll pick up quickly what this exercise is about. He’s clever enough.”
Indeed he was. Hailey gently but resolutely made Azzedine walk, and after a few minutes he got the hang of it.
Kendrick was satisfied to see from his gait that Azzedine was indeed no longer lame.
He took a photo of the horse, mane flowing, and sent it to Shona.
Her reply came almost instantly: So much good news today!
I’m over the moon, followed by a smiley emoji with heart eyes.
Kendrick assumed the hearts referred to the animal pics, but perhaps they were also meant for him?
“You’re in a good mood today,” Hailey observed some twenty minutes later when she had finished the lunging session.
“I have every reason to be,” he replied.
“Azzedine is nearly restored to full health and ready to go out into the paddock, and Nessie has her own herd again. Now I’m just holding out for the alpacas to show us some tricks.
They must have taught them something at the circus.
Well, Shona will probably find out eventually. ”
“I suppose,” Hailey mumbled. “Have you ... um ... heard from her today?” she added, and Kendrick picked up on the discomfort in her voice.
“We were texting earlier, and it sounds like she’s doing well. How come?” That was a sly move because Hailey had no idea that he was aware of what had gone down yesterday, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Oh ... we had a bit of an argument yesterday. Kristy lost it when Shona brought those dogs home.”
“Did she now?”