Page 25 of A Scottish Love Story
Whatever their diet they both kept fit, healthy and active, and Iris had made no secret that she was relieved to know Roxie had taken over the cooking, and brought such cheer to the mistress, as she always referred to Amy.
* * *
It was dark and very cold when the main telephone rang early one Sunday morning at the beginning of February. Roxie always slept with her door ajar in case Amy should need her during the night, so the phone in the hall wakened her immediately. She looked at her little alarm clock. It was not five o’clock yet. She knew Amy had an extension beside her bed, but why would anyone be phoning so early unless there was something wrong? Could it be Jenny? The baby? She pulled on her dressing gown and shoved her feet into her slippers to hurry down the stairs. Amy always left her bedroom door slightly open. She was speaking, but she sounded sleepy and a bit irritable. Roxie tapped on the door and pushed it wider.
‘Is anything wrong?’ she asked softly.
‘Ciaran, Roxie is right here in my bedroom. The phone must have woken her too,’ she said crossly. Ciaran must have spoken again so Roxie waited.
Amy protested. ‘But Ciaran, you can’t ask her to do all that! Especially on her own, and on a cold winter’s morning. But — but Roxie is in my care. What about the relief man you got when Billy broke his leg?’ Amy listened again, then heaved a huge sigh of exasperation. She looked at Roxie.
‘Ciaran wants you to do him a big favour. A huge favour, I call it. Refuse if you want, lassie. I would not blame you. He was at a pedigree-cattle sale yesterday. He bought chicken on a roll from the refreshment van. He was late and he got the last onethey had. He thinks it must have been off. He is ill with food poisoning, spent the whole night at the toilet, he says. It is Billy’s weekend off so he is away with his pals on their motorbikes. Their football team was playing up north somewhere. He will not be back until later today. The man who helped before is doing relief milking for a week over at Glenluce...’
‘Does he want me to do the milking?’ Roxie asked and moved closer to the bed. Amy handed her the phone with a resigned sigh. She listened to Ciaran.
‘All right, I’ll get dressed and be there as soon as I can. At least it’s winter so the cows are all indoors. I don’t need to gather them in from the field. That will save time. I’ll phone you on my mobile once I get there and have made a start. You shouldn’t have used the main phone. You have given your mother a shock,’ she said severely.
Ciaran began to speak, but she interrupted sharply.
‘No, stay where you are! Don’t dare come outside. I don’t want to bring any stomach bugs back here to your mother. Oh, and my grandma swore by boiled milk with a good swig of brandy in it, no sugar. Try that, but the milk must come to the boil to dry you up.’ She put the phone down, knowing she had been a bit abrupt, especially when Ciaran was probably feeling rotten after being up all night. He must feel awful or he would never have asked for her help, even as a last resort. She looked at Amy with some concern.
‘You will promise to stay in bed until I can get back, won’t you?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Shall I make you a hot drink before I leave?’
‘A drink of the fresh orange juice and some plain biscuits would be very nice, dear. You must eat something yourself before you go.’
‘I will bring yours now and get the same for myself. I can eat while I get dressed, or on my way down to the farm.’ Roxiehurried away. She knew it was imperative to get the cows milked and the milk cooled to a sufficiently low temperature in the bulk milk tank before the lorry arrived to collect it at seven forty-five. Everything had to be clean and cold, otherwise the creamery could refuse to accept it and that would be a week’s profits gone. She understood such things well enough and hoped Tommy had not had to find out the hard way. She felt a little pang of longing for her father. Tommy had never been good at getting up early and he had never found any fulfilment in milking, as she and her father had done.
Roxie knew Ciaran would be listening for the milking-machine engine to start so that he knew she had arrived. The noise also alerted the cows in their cubicle shed and let them know it was time for milking. They were more intelligent than many people believed and the leaders would start coming into the milking parlour of their own accord. They had their own order of precedence at coming in for milking, often the high yielders coming first to have their swollen udders relieved of the weight of milk they had produced overnight, as well as to get their ration of tasty cattle cake that automatically poured into each trough according to the cow’s number on the computer. That way they munched contentedly while the vacuum machine relieved them of their milk. Roxie had always found the milking routine satisfying, but she hated when things had to be rushed. She waited until she had fixed the teat clusters onto each animal down both sides of the milking parlour, then she took out her phone and dialled Ciaran as she had promised.
‘I didn’t have your mobile number, Roxie. Is Mum all right after I disturbed her?’
‘Yes, she says she will read if she can’t get back to sleep.’
‘I shall have your number now, but I’m truly sorry to ask you to do this. I will repay you somehow.’
‘Oh, Ciaran, people don’t think about repayment when it’s an emergency. I must keep going, though. I don’t want to be late for the milk tanker.’
‘I phoned the company. The driver is going to make a detour and pick up two neighbouring farms first. That should give you about three quarters of an hour extra time.’
‘Oh, thanks. That’s a relief. While you’re on the phone, there are two cows with red tapes around their tails. Is that significant?’
‘Oh, gosh! I’ll say it is. The ones marked red have been treated with antibiotics for mastitis. On no account let the milk go in with the rest. The creamery makes cheese and antibiotics prevent the starter from working properly. I would get a big penalty if that happened.’
‘Fine. I have seen one with a blue tape so...’
‘There will be two. They are newly calved so I keep the colostrum separate for feeding their young calves. I’ll wait until about six thirty, then phone young Vic. He will come and do the cleaning and hosing down, and feed the older calves. Do you think you could manage to feed the young ones? I’m dreadfully sorry to ask so much of you, Roxie, but...’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’m glad I had seen the parlour at Christmas so it’s not so strange. I must get on. Try to get some sleep, but don’t come near the milk today. It’s not safe if you have picked up a bug. I will come back for the afternoon milking unless Billy has returned from his football match.’
‘Thanks. I will let you know as soon as I get hold of him. I think he will be home before afternoon milking. Oh, I meant to say, I bought an in-calf pedigree heifer and a younger one at the sale. They’re in the small loose box if you wouldn’t mind checking on them?’
All went well, and both Roxie and Vic beamed with pleasure when the tanker driver arrived and complimented them bothon getting everything done and cleaned up. In typical country fashion, he also spread the news at the remaining farms he visited, telling everyone Ciaran had got himself a capable young woman to do the milking for him, and a pretty one at that. Fortunately, Roxie knew nothing of the gossip, but it was not long before his neighbours were pestering Ciaran with questions and giving him advice about choosing a good wife. Worse still were the ones who teased Billy, the Oaklands’ stockman, telling him Ciaran had got a young woman who could do his job as well as he could. They didn’t intend to cause the festering resentment that began to eat at Billy, but he had already heard from Vic that a young woman had helped Ciaran with the milking on Christmas Day.
Chapter 10
Ciaran was not sure whether Roxie’s grandma’s recipe had helped or whether the stomach upset had run its course, but after a good night’s sleep he felt more like himself again. Even so, he did not go near Oaklands View for five days to make sure he didn’t spread any infection to his mother or Roxie. They both thought he seemed subdued when he did arrive for his lunch again.
Roxanne knew there were several cows due to calve and it was Ciaran who always attended to them, partly because Billy’s house was a distance away from the farm and he needed to be up early in the mornings to get the milking done so could not be expected to be up during the night as well if a cow needed help, as so often seemed to happen. It was true, Ciaran had had several disturbed nights, but he was pleased he’d not lost any calves and the cows were all producing well. What really troubled him was Billy’s moodiness, almost as though he resented someone else doing his job, even though he had not been available himself. He didn’t realise that Billy detested the thought that a mere woman could do what he did, and he did not take kindly to the leg-pulling from the tanker driver and several other locals.
