Page 22 of The Moon Sister
When Margaret woke up, we had a cup of tea and a slice of her fantastic Christmas cake, the remainder of which she insisted I take with me to share with Cal. I indicated the already darkening sky and the few flakes of snow beginning to fall beyond the window.
‘I think I should get going.’
‘O’ course, Tiggy, yae be careful driving home now, and drop by any time you’re in town.’
‘I will, Margaret,’ I promised as I kissed her goodbye. ‘Thank you for today. It was lovely.’
‘Have yae met Chilly yet by the way?’ she called to me as I climbed into Beryl.
I realised that in the build-up to Christmas, I’d forgotten all about him.
‘No, but I promise I will soon.’
‘Yae make sure you do that, dear. Goodbye now.’
*
I woke at my usual early hour on Boxing Day and went to feed the cats. The snow was thick this morning, and as I threw in their meat rations, I couldn’t blame them for staying snug in their beds. I was surprised but gratified to find Charlie waiting for me when I emerged from the enclosure.
‘Good morning, Tiggy, I hope you don’t mind me coming down again. I woke up early and couldn’t seem to get back to sleep.’
‘It’s no problem, Charlie,’ I assured him.
‘Shall we walk again for a while? Unless you’ve somewhere else you have to be,’ he added.
‘I’ve nothing waiting for me at the cottage except a smelly old deerhound and a lame hedgehog. Even Cal has abandoned me. He’s with his family in Dornoch.’
Charlie laughed. ‘I see.’
As we set off, he seemed much more positive about the estate, pointing out favourite spots, and telling me more of its history.
‘There used to be an amazing house that looked like a medieval castle and stood just to the right of the Lodge,’ he explained. ‘That’s where all the lairds and their families lived until the 1850s, when my great-great-grandfather managed to burn it down by falling asleep with a big fat cigar. He went up with the place – he was well into his eighties by then – and the whole lot was razed to the ground. You can still see the foundations in the copse next to the Lodge.’
‘Wow, you have so much family history, whereas I have none.’
‘Is that a blessing or a curse, I wonder? It’s certainly weighed me down recently, that’s for sure. Although it really helped me talking to you yesterday, Tiggy. I think I’d almost become immune to the beauty of Kinnaird in recent months, viewing it more as a liability than an asset.’
‘Well, that’s understandable, Charlie. It’s a huge responsibility.’
‘It’s not just that,’ he admitted. ‘It’s also the fact that it somewhat threw my vision of my own future off course.’
‘What was your vision?’
There was a long pause, as if he was debating whether or not to confide in me.
‘Well, I’d been thinking about going abroad to work as a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières once Zara has finished school. The NHS is a wonderful institution, but its staff are weighed down by paperwork and government budgets. I just want to be free to use my skills where they’re really needed, somewhere I could really make a difference.’
‘I know exactly what you mean. I’ve always dreamt of working with endangered species in Africa. Not that I don’t adore the wildcats, of course, but—’
‘I understand,’ Charlie cut me short, but smiled sympathetically. ‘This is hardly the African savannah. It sounds as though we share a similar dream.’
‘Well, dreams take time to come true and even then, they’re not always in the places we expect to find them. I suppose we have to be patient and concentrate on what we have today.’
‘Yes, you’re right, and talking of that, have you had a chance to think of any other breeds we could introduce here?’
‘I reckon red squirrels are definitely one for the future, when the reforestation is more advanced. I’ve been researching the wild salmon you mentioned, but restocking sounds quite complicated, and as I told you, I’m not a fish expert, so I’ll need to pick an expert’s brain. In the meantime, I think European elks could be the next step – I might know someone at Servion Zoo who could advise us. Although obviously we’d need a budget; I was thinking you might be able to apply for some grants.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Charlie sighed. ‘I’ve been trying to fill in a grant application to the Rural Development Programme here in Scotland, as well as a couple to the EU, but they’re a nightmare. I simply don’t have enough time to gather the information in the detail they want.’
