Page 4 of A Scottish Love Story
‘I’m sorry,’ Jenny said quickly. ‘I didn’t mean to pry. I-I was...’
‘It’s all right. My f-father died five weeks ago.’ She gulped. ‘It was an accident. He slipped coming down the steps from the hotel after my brother’s wedding. He hadn’t even had a drink,except the champagne toast. There were some wet leaves lying around. My father slipped. He banged the back of his head on the edge of a step above. It was all so simple. He — he never regained consciousness. He died ten days later.
‘Oh, how terrible! I am so, so sorry, Roxie. Does Aunt Amy know?’
‘Yes. My application was very last minute. I decided on the spur of the moment when I saw her advert. It was just after the funeral and I knew Tommy’s new wife, Gilda, resented my presence in the house. There was no point in not being honest about my reason for suddenly wanting to get away and take a job when I had never been away from home before. Gilda has finished college and was supposed to start her teacher training year but — but it seems she is pregnant. I have wondered if my father guessed, especially when they were in such a rush to get married. Tommy had not known her long. He only returned from Australia at the end of July.’
‘Oh, my word!’
‘I felt they needed to have their home to themselves, especially when Gilda has so much to learn about running a farm. She knows nothing about farming. Tommy, my brother, wanted me to stay and carry on milking the cows as Father and I had done, but I knew Gilda didn’t want me there. Tommy didn’t understand.’
‘Sounds as if it would have been an awkward situation.’
‘Gilda looked relieved when I told her I was taking a job until I decide whether or not I still want to go to university, as I had intended when mother was alive. If I did go, I would be a mature student now, though.’
‘What would you study?’ Jenny asked curiously.
‘I previously had acceptances for a couple of university places to study pharmacy,’ Roxie said slowly. ‘I’m not sure I would do that now. To tell the truth, this spell away fromeverything familiar will give me a chance to find myself, to decide what I do want in the future. Your aunt knows this. I think she understands. Our solicitor at home suggested I study law, but I don’t fancy that.’
‘What about boyfriends? Any broken hearts left behind?’ Jenny asked with a smile.
‘I don’t think so. I felt one of them had his eye more on the farm than on me,’ she said wryly. ‘That was when my brother was in Australia and we’d begun to wonder whether Tommy would ever return home and settle down at Willowbrook. Some of our neighbours thought the same. He had been to agricultural college, but felt my father was old-fashioned and set in his ways by the time he finished. We have a milking parlour and pedigree Holsteins. My brother wanted to change to robots for the milking and have a commercial herd. He had only been home from Australia for about ten days when he met Gilda. Then, in what seemed a very short time, he was getting married. Everything seems to have happened so quickly I hardly know what I want.’
‘Are you two going to stand and blether all day?’ Ciaran called out to them. For the first time, Roxie saw him give an attractive grin. He looked genuinely pleased as he viewed her little car now sitting on all four wheels.
‘Oh, you have managed it!’ she cried in relief. She could have hugged him at that moment and Roxanne Carr was not in the habit of hugging men, especially cantankerous strangers.
‘We think you’ve been lucky. No damage to the petrol tank and I think the exhaust is still in one piece. I’ll have a listen when you turn the engine over.’
‘I don’t know how to thank you.’
‘Look, I have an inspection pit,’ Ciaran said. ‘If you bring it down tomorrow morning, we’ll take a proper look underneath to make sure everything is all right.’ Roxie opened her mouthto protest, but he held up a hand. ‘I don’t want you driving my mother out and breaking down,’ he said.
‘I will bring it then — if Mrs Baxter agrees it is convenient. I must get away. I hope the police managed to contact her or she’ll think I am never coming.’
‘The police?’ Ciaran’s brows rose up to his curly hair.
‘I told you, I couldn’t get a signal after the traffic accident. A policewoman offered to contact the local police station up here so they could telephone Mrs Baxter and explain the delay. I had no way of knowing that she had family living close by, or how badly she may be incapacitated. I was anxious about being so late in case she was in need of help.’
‘I forgot, you’ve never met my aunt,’ Jenny said. ‘She’s not actually incapacitated. I’m sure the two of you will get on splendidly. Donald and I are staying at Ciaran’s for the weekend so we may see you tomorrow.’
Roxie climbed into her car and started the engine. She gave them all a big grin of relief when everything sounded normal. She drove carefully back onto the farm track and went on her way, hoping Mrs Baxter would be more understanding than her son and a lot less critical.
Chapter 3
Roxie arrived at Oaklands View without any problem now she knew exactly where to go. The short, neatly kept drive brought her to a modern bungalow, which looked to be fairly new and of a similar design to the one her father had intended building at Willowbrook, including the dormer windows using the loft space for extra bedrooms. Tommy and his bride had expected to live there initially, until her father moved in himself when he retired, or when he considered Tommy and Gilda were mature enough to take over Willowbrook completely. The wedding had been too rushed to get further than obtaining planning permission.
There was no need for a new house now. All their lives had changed overnight...
‘It is almost as though Jim had some sort of premonition,’ their elderly solicitor had remarked solemnly as he’d prepared to read the will that he had drawn up so very recently. He had known their father since he was a very young man. As they’d listened to the terms of the will, Tommy had interrupted furiously.
‘Father must have made that after I insisted Gilda and I were getting married. He said we both needed to grow up before we considered marriage. I knew he was disappointed and upset when I told him we had to get married immediately.’
‘It is true, he was disappointed,’ Mr Robson said. ‘But he said your sister had sacrificed a career of her own to care for him, and for you after your mother died.’ He looked at Roxie. ‘He also told me how hard you have worked, and what a great help you have been dealing with the business affairs and farm records, as well as taking an interest in the pedigrees and helping him daily with the milking. He had intended leaving the new house to you one day, to ensure you would always have a home of your own, or the money if you wanted to sell.’ He looked at Tommy. `It wasonly as an addendum that he stipulated Roxie should have two hundred thousand pounds, plus the plot of land, if the house had not been completed. It was the money he set aside to build it. As I said, it is almost as though he had some sort of presentiment’.
‘Roxie has a home with us. I could have used the money to install robots and modernise things!’ Tommy said in protest.
Roxie was dismayed. She and Tommy always got on well. There was only a year between them. All she could take in was that nothing could ever be the same. Their father was dead. He was never coming back...
