Page 15 of The Moon Sister
‘Twelve years or so,’ he said as he shovelled more casserole into his mouth. ‘I popped the question a couple o’ years ago.’
‘Goodness! Then why isn’t she living up here in the cottage with you?’
‘Tae begin with, she’s a building society branch manager in Tain, which as you know, is an hour’s drive away. What with the weather being as it is, she can’t risk getting snowed up here on the estate. And she doesnae want to be living in a damp dump like this. Mind you, if she saw it since you arrived, she might change her mind.’ He gave his growling chuckle. ‘Now we’re about it, what about you? D’you have someone special in your life, Tig?’
‘There was a guy I met in the lab at Servion Zoo and we had a thing for a while, but it wasn’t serious. I’ve not met “the one” yet,’ I said, taking a slurp of my wine. ‘You’re lucky you have. I’d love to meet Caitlin, Cal. Why don’t you invite her here one evening over Christmas?’
‘The thing is, Tig,’ Cal said with a frown, ‘I may ha’ mentioned that I’m sharing my digs with a prize-fighting bearded woman, not a pretty lassie like you. Yae know what women are like, I’d never hear the last of it.’
‘That’s all the more reason to have her here: I can reassure her that I’m no threat. Anyway, I would like to meet her at some point because she’s your “person”. Oh, and I suggest you buy her jewellery.’
‘She’s a practical sort of a girl, Tig,’ Cal said doubtfully. ‘Last year I bought her a pair o’ thermal bedsocks and some waterproof gloves. She seemed pleased enough.’
‘I promise you, Cal,’ I replied, stifling a giggle, ‘women, no matter how practical they may be – or pretend to be – are suckers for jewellery.’
An hour later, we said goodnight and went to our beds. I felt happy about Cal’s revelation – in my experience, however modern society was these days, the relationship between any male and female who lived together always had an edge to it until the ground rules had been established. Which they just had been by our conversation. Not that there was any part of me that was sexually attracted to Cal, but I definitely felt close to him. The good news was that having grown up with five sisters, Cal could now become what I’d always longed for – a big brother.
*
I looked up at Polson, who was sitting out on one of the wooden platforms above me. He was preening himself in the sun, his rear end pointed in my direction, blatantly ignoring me. I didn’t care. At least he was out of his box and in the open, which gave me hope he was finally recovering from his trauma.
I took a quick photo on my camera, just in case the Laird – as I’d come to call Charlie Kinnaird along with everyone else here – wanted proof that the cats were alive.
‘Happy Christmas Eve,’ I said to Polson, ‘and maybe tomorrow morning you’ll actually deign to look at me so I can wish you a Merry Christmas eye to eye.’
I scrambled back up the slope, thinking that if cats had a reputation for being as haughty and capricious as royalty, then Polson was king. As I looked up, I saw a very slim woman standing at the top of the slope staring down at me. She had long legs like a giraffe, and was dressed in what Cal would call a ‘townie’ ski jacket with a glamorous fur collar. Her thick hair shone white-blonde like a halo in the sunlight, framing a pair of big blue eyes, and lips that looked like they could double as pillows. Whoever she was, she was very beautiful. She began to crunch noisily towards me. At the sight of her, Polson retreated immediately.
‘Er, hi,’ I said as I doubled my pace upwards. Having reached her, we were face to face, or, rather, my eye-line was on a level with her stomach as she towered above me on the slope. ‘I’m so sorry, madam, but this area is out of bounds.’
‘Really?’ she drawled, looking down at me disdainfully. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘It actually is for the moment, because we have wildcats just arrived, you see. I’m trying to settle them in, and they’re very temperamental and don’t like strangers and I’ve just encouraged them to start coming out into the open and—’
‘Who might you be?’
‘My name’s Tiggy, I work here.’
‘Do you now?’
‘Yes. It’s fine if you stay up there. I mean, I know you can’t see much, but the Laird is trying to breed the cats, because there are only three hundred of them left in Scotland.’
‘I know all that,’ she said, and I heard the timbre of a foreign accent, plus the barely concealed antipathy in her words. ‘Well, far be it from me to disturb your little project.’ She gave a tight smile. ‘I’ll do as I’m told and beat a retreat. Goodbye.’
‘Goodbye,’ I called to the Claudia Schiffer lookalike as I watched her stalk back up the hill. Instinctively, I knew that I’d just made a mistake.
*
‘I met a woman down by the cats today,’ I said to Cal when he came in at lunchtime. ‘She was blonde with Disney princess lips and really tall.’
‘That’ll be the mistress, then,’ Cal replied as he slurped his soup. ‘The Laird’s wife, Ulrika.’
‘Shit,’ I whispered.
‘Not like you to swear, Tig. What’s up?’
‘I may have been really rude to her, Cal. I’d just managed to get Polson out of his lair when she arrived and made him scarper back inside. So I basically told her to go away.’ I bit my lip and waited for Cal’s reaction.
‘That’ll have gone down like a cup o’ cold sick,’ he said as he wiped a chunk of bread around his bowl then stuffed it in his mouth. ‘That’s probably the first time she’s ever been told tae bugger off by anyone.’
