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Lorna nodded. ‘Good idea. I’ll fry some bacon. I’m really in the mood for toasted bacon sandwiches to set me up for a day in A&E.’ She grinned. ‘Just in case we don’t make it down to the cafeteria again.’
‘Good idea.’ Izzy took out a loaf of bread from the wooden bin. ‘But I’ve been thinking…We could take our own food in to the hospital—sandwiches, biscuits, cereal bars…anything that we can cover with clingfilm and set out on a trolley. That way we’ll have stuff on hand if things get hectic.’ She smiled. ‘I thought it was great when Greg brought in hot sausage rolls and pastries the other day. They gave me the will to go on.’
‘Me, too.’ Lorna replaced the coffeepot on its base and went to get a frying pan from the cupboard. ‘As to the central heating, and all the other repairs that need doing around here, I suppose Ross will need a bit of time to settle in before he gets round to sorting things out. That’s if he means to stay, of course. It could just be that he’s brought the children over to be closer to Alice, and once she’s up and about he’ll be off.’ Lorna hesitated, frying pan in hand, thinking things through.
She was a slender girl, with a mop of fair hair that had a flyaway look about it, as though it was permanently out of control—pretty much on a par with her bubbly character. Just now, though, her blue eyes were thoughtful. ‘Then again,’ she murmured, ‘he always had a bit of a thing for Alice, didn’t he? In fact, if you recall, the rumour was that she was seeing Ross long before she decided to run off with his brother. Quite the scandal at the time, I hear.’
‘Yes, it was.’ Izzy frowned. ‘Especially where my father was concerned. He hated the thought that she had anything at all to do with any of the Buchanans.’
Lorna placed the frying pan on the hob and turned towards Izzy, throwing her an anxious look. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Izzy…I was forgetting for a minute that she’s your cousin. I didn’t mean to say anything out of line—it’s just that everyone’s talking about Ross coming back here. People are wondering what’s going to happen about the crofts, and whether they can do anything to improve the general standard of living. And on top of all that they’re buzzing with talk about the way your families have been at each other’s throats for as far back as anyone can remember. There doesn’t seem to be any getting away from it. Of course they’re all siding with you and your parents and Alice.’
‘It’s all right, Lorna. I knew as soon as I saw Ross was back in Glenmuir that the tongues would start wagging. I don’t know what he’s going to do about the crofts. Most people hereabouts lease the land and the cottages from him, but I imagine he’ll have to put his own house in order before he can find time to look into any concerns they might have about their livelihoods. I suppose he could always say that what they do with the land is up to them for the term of the lease.’
‘Not his problem, you mean?’ Lorna pulled a face. ‘You could be right. But people seem to think Ross should do something so that they can make a decent living from the land. It’s history rearing its head once again—you know how it is…people around here don’t let go of the past easily. They’re convinced their rights were taken from them in the Highland Clearances well over a hundred years ago. At the very least they think he should pay them compensation on behalf of his ancestors.’
Izzy switched on the grill and set bread out on the rack. ‘That’s fighting talk,’ she said with a husky laugh. ‘But, knowing how the Buchanans operate, I doubt it will get them very far. They’ve always known how to manoeuvre their way through the legal system and come out the winners.’
‘I’m told the Buchanans have oodles of charisma when they choose to exert it, and none of it lost on the women who cross their paths…’ Lorna turned the heat on under the pan and added rashers of bacon. ‘That was the start of things with your families, wasn’t it?’ she asked. ‘Your father’s great-aunt being seduced by the former Laird—Ross’s great-grandfather—some eighty odd years ago.’
‘That’s very true.’ Izzy slotted the grill pan under the heat. ‘Of course it caused all kinds of anger and heartache and general mayhem when she died in childbirth. That really upset the McKinnons and added fuel to the fire. I think my father, when he was growing up, soaked up all the vitriol that was poured on the Buchanans, and consequently he has no time for them.
‘Alice going off with Robert Buchanan was history repeating itself, and that well and truly stirred the melting pot, didn’t it?’
‘What happened when Robert and Alice took off?’
‘My father exploded, but at least he directed most of his anger towards Robert back then. I suppose it made things worse because Alice had been seeing Ross to begin with, and at least he was the steady one, whereas Robert always had a wild streak.’
Alice and Ross…Izzy shied away from that thought. How deep had their feelings been for one another before Alice had turned to Robert? Did Ross still care for her in the same way? She pulled herself together, aware that Lorna was waiting for her to go on.
‘Alice was young, and had obviously been led astray by both Buchanans,’ she said, ‘but for all that my father wouldn’t forgive her. He’s never had much to do with her children, either. My mother has always kept in touch with the family, by letter and the occasional visit, but she’s very wary of what my father would have to say on the subject. She keeps things low-key and tries not to provoke him.’
She frowned. ‘The only real difference, for all the scandal that it caused, was that Robert Buchanan was never going to be the new young Laird.’ Izzy pondered the situation as she laid hot toast down on the plates. ‘I can’t help wondering if that was what lay behind all the resentment simmering between him and Ross. As the older brother, Ross was the one to take over the estate. Robert always wanted what Ross had, and unfortunately that included his girlfriends.’
‘That must have been some sibling rivalry.’ Lorna added tomatoes to the pan, and it wasn’t long before the appetising aroma of sizzling bacon filled the air.
The kitchen was much warmer now, and Izzy began to place the plates on the table, ready for the meal. She was setting out cutlery when there was a loud knocking on the door.
‘I wonder who that can be,’ she said with a frown. ‘It’s barely seven-thirty in the morning. Who else would be up and about at this time of the day apart from farmers, doctors and the milkman?’
‘I did notice the milkman giving you the eye the other day,’ Lorna remarked with a hint of mischief. ‘I thought at the time he was just surprised to see you open the door at that hour, but I may have been wrong about that.’
Acknowledging that with a smile, Izzy shook her head. ‘You have such a lively imagination.’ She went to find out who was there.
A moment later she stared down at the two children who were standing on the doorstep, her brows lifting in astonishment. ‘Molly, Cameron—I wasn’t expecting to see you.’ She glanced around to see if anyone had come with them, but nothing stirred on the path that led down the hill except for a solitary bird that took flight from the nearby copse. ‘Have you come here all by yourselves?’
‘Yes,’ Molly said. ‘It isn’t far to here from the castle, and we remembered where you lived from last time we came to visit.’ She frowned. ‘Uncle Ross wasn’t staying with us then, though.’
‘No, we came here with Mum,’ Cameron put in. ‘Dad stayed at home.’ A momentary sadness washed over his thin face. ‘He’s not here any more, you know,’ he said earnestly. ‘Mum says he was hurt in the car accident and they couldn’t make him better, but he’s peaceful now.’
‘I know, sweetheart.’ Izzy wanted to put her arms around the children and make everything right again, but it was an impossible task. How could she begin to comfort them for the loss of their father? She contented herself instead with making them welcome, putting an arm around their shoulders and ushering them into the house. ‘Come into the kitchen. It’s warmer in there.’
‘Mummy’s not going to go away, as well, is she?’ Molly asked, her voice hesitant. ‘She was in the car with Daddy, and she was hurt.’
‘No, Molly. Your mother is getting better every day. It will take some time before she’s on her feet properly, but before too long she should be back with you.’
‘In the New Year?’ Cameron suggested. ‘That’s what Uncle Ross says…some time in the New Year.’
‘That sounds about right to me,’ Izzy said. Her cousin would recover well enough from the broken bones she had sustained in the car crash, but she had also suffered head injuries and internal bleeding that added substantially to her problems. The head injuries meant that she had no memory of the accident itself, though thankfully her faculties had been spared. It was hoped that in time she would make a full recovery.
She pushed open the door to the kitchen and showed them inside.
Cameron sniffed the air appreciatively. ‘Are you making breakfast?’ he asked in a hopeful tone, his eyes widening.
‘Yes, we are.’ Izzy nodded. ‘Looks like we have more people to share the sandwiches,’ she told Lorna. ‘Do you think we can run to a couple more?’
‘I think we can manage that. I’ll add a bit more bacon to the pan.’ Lorna smiled at the children, and then, as they stared about the room, taking everything in, she surreptitiously lifted questioning brows towards Izzy at their arrival so early in the morning.
Izzy hunched her shoulders in a bemused gesture before turning her attention back to the children. ‘Sit yourselves down by the table,’ she said. ‘So, your Uncle Ross knows you’re here, does he? Hasn’t he given you anything to eat?’
‘He’s asleep,’ Molly said, shaking her head so that her curls quivered. ‘I tried to wake him, but he didn’t even open his eyes…Well, just the corner of one, a tiny bit. Then he closed it again and made a sort of “hmmph” from under the duvet, and buried his head in the pillow.’ She lifted her arms to show the extent of her helplessness.
Izzy’s mind conjured up an image of Ross, his dark hair tousled from sleep, his limbs tangled in the folds of the duvet. It made her hot and bothered, and she quickly tried to banish the errant thought from her head.
‘And I’m starving,’ Cameron confirmed. ‘I couldn’t find the breakfast cereals in any of the cupboards, so I went to look for Maggie, but she wasn’t anywhere around.’
‘I imagine it’s a bit too early for the housekeeper,’ Lorna commented. ‘From what I’ve heard she doesn’t usually go up to the castle until after nine o’clock.’
‘Well, we didn’t know what to do, so we decided to come and see you,’ Molly finished triumphantly. ‘I remembered that you live at the bottom of the hill…and that you always have a cookie jar on the worktop. I remember it’s a yellow bear with a smiley face and a Tam o’ Shanter hat.’
‘That’s right.’ Izzy pointed to the corner of the room, where the ceramic cookie jar sat next to the microwave oven. ‘There he is, just as you said. Perhaps you could have a cookie after you’ve eaten your sandwich?’
Pleased, Molly nodded, while Cameron fidgeted in his seat and asked pertinently, ‘And me, too?’
‘Of course. I wouldn’t dream of leaving you out, Cameron.’
He looked suitably appeased at that, and Izzy concentrated on making them both a sandwich. Pushing the plates towards them, she looked from one to the other. ‘So your uncle doesn’t have any idea that you’ve come here?’
Cameron shook his head, looking uncertain, but Molly, after taking a bite from her sandwich, said, ‘I left a note for him on the kitchen table to let him know we’d come here. Mummy said we should always make sure someone knows where we are.’
‘Mmm, that’s good. That was the sensible thing to do,’ Izzy said with a smile. ‘I think I’d better give him a ring all the same, as soon as we’ve eaten, just to make sure he knows what’s going on, or he might be worried.’ She wasn’t going to let her sandwich go cold on his account, though. That was supposing he was even awake by now, of course. But if he wasn’t she would simply let the phone ring until he answered it. How could the man be so careless as to let the children run loose at such a young age? ‘Lorna and I have to go to work soon, you see, otherwise you would be able to stay here. Perhaps we’ll take you back home when we’ve all eaten.’
‘That’s okay,’ Cameron said. ‘I said you’d probably have to go to the hospital. I remembered from last time we were here.’
Izzy sat down to eat her toasted sandwich with Lorna and the children, chatting to them about life up at the castle. ‘Are you settling in all right?’ she asked.
Molly nodded. ‘It’s kind of exciting. There’s loads of rooms and we can go in any of them.’
‘And there’s a winding staircase that goes up and up,’ Cameron said. ‘And there are lots of doors. I nearly got lost, and Uncle Ross had to come and find me. He said I was in the pantry, but it was big—like a room.’
A few minutes later Izzy left them talking to Lorna while she went into the hall to phone Ross in private. It was a while before he answered.
‘Did I wake you?’ she asked.
‘No. I was some distance from the phone.’ His voice was deep, warm and soothing, and to hear him was a little like sipping at rich, melting chocolate. ‘I was checking the rooms to see where the children might be hiding. They’ve taken to disappearing of a morning, and usually I manage to find them in what used to be the servants’ quarters. They seem to like playing in the smaller rooms. I’ve never known such early birds. Where on earth do they get their energy from?’
‘The fountain of youth, I should imagine.’ She hesitated. ‘So I take it you’re still looking for them? Have you tried the kitchen?’
‘I’m heading there now.’ He made a soft intake of breath. ‘I should have taken time to dress properly—these stone floors are cold. I need to get some carpets in here…or install under-floor heating.’
She imagined him padding barefoot over the floor, but her mind skittered away from delving any further into what he might be wearing—or not wearing, as the case may be. ‘You should try living in my cottage,’ she said, her tone dry. ‘We don’t have the luxury of central heating at the moment, since your estate manager hasn’t attended to our requests for repairs, whereas you at least have the comfort of a range cooker in your kitchen, if I remember correctly.’ She had ventured up to the castle in search of her errant cousin one day years ago, and the memory had stayed with her ever since.
‘You’re welcome to come and share it with me any time, Izzy. I think I told you that once before, but you were reluctant to take me up on the offer, as I recall. I guess you were worried about what your father might think if he found you there.’ She heard a door hinge creak. ‘Nope, they’re not in here.’
‘I expect you’ll find a note on the table,’ she murmured.
He was silent for a moment, taking that in, before he said on a disbelieving note, ‘Are you telling me you know where they are?’
‘That’s about the size of it. Molly wanted to keep you informed.’ There was a rustling of paper from the other end of the line. ‘Have you found it? What does it say?’
He laughed throatily. ‘Well, you’re perfectly right—there are some weird hieroglyphics scrawled on a scrap of paper, if that counts. I’ll see if I can decipher it.’ There was a pause, and she could imagine his frown. ‘Here we go, it says, “U wudnt wayk up, so we is gon down the ill to get sum fink to eet. Luv, Molly nd Camron.” Brilliant.’ There was a smile in his voice. ‘I suppose that’s not bad for a five-year-old.’
‘There you are, you see. What could be clearer? The children were starving, and you were off in the land of nod, so they had to fend for themselves. Fortunately for them we were able to give them breakfast and make sure that they’re warm and looked after, but I daren’t think what might have happened if we hadn’t been here.’ She used a stern tone, but Ross was still chuckling over the note, and that served to make her crosser than ever.
‘I know what you’re saying,’ he said, amusement threading his voice, ‘and you’re right, it’s definitely not a good state of affairs…But you have to give them full marks for initiative, don’t you? I’ll come over and fetch them.’
‘That would be a very good idea,’ she said on a pithy note. ‘Lorna and I have to be at work in around half an hour, so if you’re not here in the next few minutes we’ll come and find you.’
She cut the call and went back to the kitchen, satisfied that at least now he would have to scoot around and get dressed, and begin to take on his responsibilities. What was he thinking of, lying in bed while the children were wandering about?
Molly and Cameron had finished eating by now, and were busy drawing pictures while Lorna collected up the breakfast dishes.
‘I’ll take over here if you want to go and get ready for work,’ Izzy told her. ‘Ross should be along to pick up the children in a few minutes.’
‘He’s going to take us to see Mummy today,’ Molly said brightly. ‘He promised.’
‘And he said we’d buy some flowers for her from the shop,’ Cameron added. ‘He said we could choose the best flowers in the shop when we get to Inverness. She likes roses, so that’s what I’m going to look for.’
‘I’m sure she’ll love them,’ Izzy said, ‘whatever you decide to buy. I’m going to see her myself tomorrow, all being well.’
She washed the breakfast dishes, leaving them to drain on the wire rack. Then she rubbed cream into her hands and checked her long hair in the mirror, clipping the chestnut waves back from her face.
Ross turned up at the house much sooner than she had expected, looking immaculate in dark chinos and a crisp shirt, and oozing vibrant energy—as though he was ready to grasp the day with both hands.
She fixed him with a smoky grey gaze. How could he possibly look like that when he’d been dead to the world not half an hour earlier? It simply wasn’t fair.
‘They’ve been waiting for you,’ she said, waving him into the hallway. ‘But I have to say I think you should find a way of barring the doors, so they can’t simply wander off as they please. There’s no knowing what they could have been up to while you were out for the count.’
He sent her an oblique glance. ‘You’re not going to let this go, are you? Would it help if I said the door was locked and bolted? I think Cameron climbed on a chair to retrieve the keys and unlatch the bolt.’
‘Then maybe you should keep the keys closer to hand,’ she said calmly. ‘You should count yourself lucky that no major road passes by here.’
‘I’m duly chastened,’ he said, making an effort to turn down his mouth but not looking a jot sincere.
She led him into the kitchen, where the children glanced up from their drawing to acknowledge him with bright smiles.
‘I’ve done a picture of Mummy,’ Molly told him, waving her paper in the air. ‘She has beautiful long hair and a pretty dress. See?’
‘That’s…spectacular,’ he murmured, gazing down at the potato-shaped squiggle, daubed generously with a splash of bright pink crayon. ‘I see you’ve drawn her lovely fingers, too.’
It was the right thing to say. Molly beamed with pride at her creation. The hands formed a great part of the drawing, with sausage fingers on either side, and they were her latest achievement.
Cameron, on the other hand, was tired of sitting and wanted adventure. ‘When are we going to Inverness? Can we go now?’
‘Soon,’ Ross told him. ‘I have to put a few things in a holdall first of all. We’re going to meet up with your Aunt Jess at the hospital. She’s come up especially from the Lake District to stay in Inverness for the next day or two, and she says she’ll take you shopping as soon as you’ve been to see your mother. We can’t have you going around looking like scruffs any longer, can we?’
Cameron shrugged, obviously not much bothered either way, while Molly looked thoughtful. Izzy guessed she was already thinking about what she would like to buy.
‘Would you like a cup of tea or coffee?’ Lorna asked.
Ross shook his head. ‘Thanks, but I have to get a move on. Things are not going quite the way I planned this morning.’ He glanced around the kitchen. ‘You’re having trouble with the central heating, I gather? I’ll make arrangements for someone to come and deal with it.’
‘That would be good,’ Lorna told him. ‘It’s freezing in here in the mornings. And as to taking a tepid shower—I really can’t recommend it.’
‘No, I can imagine.’ He ran his gaze over Izzy, taking in the snug fit of her jeans and the stretch material of her jersey wrap top that clung where it touched.
She had no idea what he was thinking, but Izzy’s glance was frosty. ‘That’s not all that’s wrong,’ she said. ‘There are roof tiles that have been missing since the high winds two or three weeks back…and part of the fence has blown down.’
He frowned. ‘I didn’t notice that when I drove here. Whereabouts?’
‘At the side of the house.’ Izzy’s mouth made a crooked shape. ‘I tried to fix it temporarily, with nails and a few battens, but I doubt it will hold for very long. Carpentry’s not one of my skills, I’m afraid.’
Ross’s gaze was thoughtful. ‘I’m sure you’re a woman of many talents, but obviously you shouldn’t have been put in that situation. I can only say that Jake has had a lot to contend with of late, with various things happening in his family—illness and so on—or he would have seen to it.’
‘I didn’t realise that.’ Izzy was immediately concerned. ‘He didn’t say.’
‘No, he wouldn’t. Jake’s a proud man. He’s probably borne the brunt of the villagers’ animosity over the last few years.’ He straightened, becoming brisk in his manner. ‘Anyway, thanks for taking care of Molly and Cameron for me. You, too, Lorna.’ His brief smile encompassed both of them. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been troubled.’
‘They’ve been good as gold,’ Lorna told him. ‘They’re welcome to come and visit any time…preferably with your knowledge, of course.’
He nodded. ‘I’m sure they’ll want to come back fairly soon, but next time I’ll make certain they call you first.’
After that Ross didn’t hang around to make conversation, and Izzy wasn’t sure quite how she felt about that. It wasn’t really surprising that he would leave quickly. After all, she hadn’t been exactly welcoming in her manner. But perhaps he also recognised that she and Lorna had to go off to work.
Anyway, after she had given each of the children a hug, he led them away and settled them in his car. He drove away without looking back.
Izzy was filled with a strange sense of unease once he had gone. She felt somehow let down, with a hollow feeling inside despite the meal, and yet, in truth, how could she have expected anything more? As things stood, she was going against the grain by even associating with him.
If her father discovered that Ross had come visiting, he’d be have been agitated in the extreme, no matter that she was perfectly entitled to run her own life the way she saw fit. That ideology hadn’t stood Alice in any good stead, had it? She had been cut off from her family for several years, and was only back now because she needed specialist care and attention.
