Posh Doc, Society Wedding (5 page)

‘I think it’s a great idea. It saves me wondering what to put down for them.’ He smiled. ‘The chores will wait
for a while, won’t they? I know you’ve been in to work this morning, and now you’ve had a busy afternoon, so I’m sure you could do with a break. Let me show you around.’ He let his hand fall from her, and with that action her head began to clear a little.

‘Shall I take your jacket?’ he asked. ‘I’ll hang it up for you.’

She gave in, curiosity about the house overcoming her reluctance to linger and be lured into his silken trap. ‘All right, I’ll stay for just a little while.’ She shrugged out of her jacket and he went to put it on a hanger in the cloakroom, then fetched the rugs from the table.

‘Maggie left a ham and some cheeses out on the table in the kitchen,’ he said, ‘and we could share some of her fresh-baked bread if you’ve a mind to. I haven’t eaten yet, and I could do with a snack. I expect the children could, too—unless they’ve filled up on cakes and cookies.’

As he spoke he led the way through the wide oakpanelled hall into the drawing room. Light flooded in here through windows that were almost floor-to-ceiling, casting a gentle late-afternoon glow over everything. Across the room there was an oak beam fireplace, where glowing coals in the grate sparked yellow flames, giving out warmth that filled the room. The furniture was luxurious, with deep-cushioned sofas and armchairs upholstered in light-coloured plush fabrics, and Izzy saw that there was a lovely Sheraton writing table to one side, along with a bookcase made of the same beautifully polished rosewood.

‘That sounds tempting,’ she said, ‘but I think you’ll find Molly and Cameron are stuffed to the gills. They tried a little of everything as we went along.’

‘You didn’t?’

She shook her head. ‘Lorna is the one who likes cakes and buns and biscuits. She’s lucky. She can eat anything and not put on an ounce of weight.’

He studied her, his gaze shimmering over the clinging lines of her cotton top and smooth denim jeans. ‘I don’t believe for one minute that
you
have a problem on that score.’

A flush of heat ran along her cheekbones, and to distract him from the subject, she gazed around. ‘This is a beautiful room,’ she murmured. ‘Is it your doing? I don’t remember it from when I was here last.’

He nodded. ‘I organised the renovation when I was here on one of my brief visits. I aim to improve the whole building—even if I have to do it one room at a time. In fact, I could show you the rooms where the children are sleeping. Maybe you could give me some advice on how to change the decor in there. I was thinking about laying down carpets, but in the meantime the rugs you’ve brought will be very useful.’

‘I could do that,’ she said carefully. After all, Alice had asked her to keep an eye on the children, hadn’t she? ‘I expect it’s been difficult for you, figuring out what’s best for Molly and Cameron?’

‘You’re right. It hasn’t been easy. Though of course I did have contact with them before the accident. I used to visit my brother and Alice whenever it was possible. But my work took me around and about, so it wasn’t possible to see them on a regular basis.’

He looked around. ‘The children seem to have disappeared. I expect they’ve gone to play in their rooms.’ Childish voices from a short distance away
seemed to confirm that, and he said, ‘Shall we take the rugs up there?’

She nodded. ‘That might be a good idea.’

‘I know Alice worries about how the children are getting on,’ he said, ‘and I’ve tried to reassure her. But if you see how things really are, you might be able to set her mind at rest.’

‘I’m sure Alice appreciates everything that you’re doing for her and for the children,’ Izzy said. ‘She told me how marvellous you’ve been, helping ever since the accident.’

‘I couldn’t stand by and do nothing, could I? Robert was my brother, after all, and Molly and Cameron are his children. As for Alice—I’ve always looked out for her.’

They went back to the hall and started up the stairs. Izzy said carefully, ‘Is that why you came back here—to bring Alice closer to her family? After all, you could have found a hospital nearer to where you were living, couldn’t you? Up until now you’ve never shown any interest in coming back here to stay for any length of time.’

He sent her an oblique glance. ‘That was part of it. I knew that she would want to be near to you and your mother, and it was difficult for both of you to visit as often as you would have liked while she was in the Lake District.’

‘And the other part?’

He made a brief smile. ‘That’s a little more complicated. I was always conscious of the need to deal with the estate, and I’d been thinking about moving back here for some time. But I was always busy with my work. I enjoyed what I was doing, and I had no real reason to come back to this place while Jake was looking
after things. As far as I was concerned it was being managed well enough with my input from a distance.’

He paused at the top of the stairs, looking around. ‘I knew this was what my brother had always wanted. I offered him the chance to take over, to run the estate, but Robert wouldn’t consider it. He saw it as second best. If he couldn’t be the true Laird, he didn’t want any part of it.’

‘I’m sorry. That must have been difficult for you.’

‘Maybe a little. It stuck in his throat that I had the inheritance but didn’t have any inclination to take it up wholeheartedly. It caused more than a few problems between us, though in the end he and Alice decided that they
would
come back home to Glenmuir. I think they were hoping that they might eventually put things right with your father, and Robert was planning to develop his business interests back here. I’d have been happy for him to live at the castle, but he wouldn’t take me up on it.’

She studied him, taking in his tall, proud stance. He wouldn’t bend under pressure, nor would he simply do what he felt other people expected of him, but he’d cared deeply for his brother, and surely his actions showed that he felt the same about Alice? He still hadn’t properly answered her question, though, had he? Why was he
really
here now, setting up a home for his brother’s children? Was it purely for love of Alice? Just how strong were his feelings for her?

Her mind skittered. Maybe deep down she didn’t want to know the answer to that. Already she had a leaden feeling in her stomach, as though she was weighed down by the possibility that Alice meant everything to him.

He walked across the wide landing and pushed open a heavy wooden door. ‘This is Cameron’s room,’ he said. ‘Perhaps he’d like to have the dark blue rug in here. It would certainly blend in with the decor.’

Cameron was sitting on the wooden floor, playing with his toy soldiers, lining them up on the battlements of a wooden fort, but he looked up as Izzy and Ross entered the room. ‘Is that for me?’ he said, breaking off to give a sudden sneeze, and looking pleased as Ross laid the rug down beside him.

Ross nodded, ‘Izzy thought you might like it.’ He looked closely at the boy. ‘Are you warm enough? You sound as though you’re coming down with a cold.’

Cameron nodded and sneezed again. ‘It’s better now that you’ve put the heater in here.’

‘Good.’ Ross glanced around. ‘I thought Izzy might know how to brighten the room up a bit for you. I’m not exactly sure what you’d want in here.’

‘An outer-space duvet,’ Cameron said. ‘Or a pirate one. And a table where I can do my drawing. That would be good.’

Izzy smiled. ‘There’s a boy who knows what he wants. Perhaps matching curtains, and a cushion or two with some of the colours picked out from the duvet and the rug would make it cosy?’ She looked around the large square room. ‘I expect a treasure chest would be just the thing for toys, and an upholstered wooden bench-type seat would fit in with the furnishing throughout the house.’

‘I think we have both of those in one of the old servants’ rooms,’ Ross commented, a thoughtful look coming into his eyes. ‘I’m not sure at the moment
whether we have a suitable table, but I could find something in the antique shops, I dare say.’

‘It doesn’t have to be a table,’ Izzy murmured. ‘What about a small writing desk and a set of bookshelves? I imagine you must have those somewhere in the house?’

His mouth curved. ‘You’re right—we do. There’s a child-size desk in the study, and we have lots of bookcases around the place.’ He sent Cameron a questioning look. ‘How does all that sound to you?’

‘Pretty good,’ Cameron acknowledged, losing interest and turning back to his toy soldiers. As Izzy and Ross left the room he was imitating the sound of gunfire, and several of the ‘enemy’ were being knocked to the ground.

‘That’s Cameron sorted. One more to go,’ Ross murmured as they headed towards Molly’s room next door. ‘I wonder if she’ll be as easy to please?’

‘Pink,’ Molly said a moment later, when Ross asked how she’d like her room to be decorated. ‘Lots of pink.’ She had been playing with the dolls in her dolls’ house, but for now she seemed content to put them to one side.

‘Ahh.’ Ross tried to disguise a wince, and Izzy smiled.

‘We can do pink, can’t we?’ she said, giving his ankle a nudge with her foot.

‘Um…yes. I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something along those lines.’ He looked to Izzy for support, his dark brows lifting a fraction, as though to say,
You’re not serious?

‘Pink is good,’ Izzy said, looking around. ‘I can imagine dusky pink seating, pale rosewood furniture, and a pretty screen in the corner decorated with delicate
flowers and leaves. And what about a touch of dove-grey in the curtains and bedspread? That would go really well with the rug, wouldn’t it?’

Molly nodded vigorously. ‘And that lovely pink-covered box seat from the big bedroom would be perfect in here.’ She frowned. ‘But Maggie said it was being used for blankets.’

‘You mean the ottoman?’ Ross queried. When Molly looked confused, he said, ‘The big box at the end of the bed? In the room across the hall?’

‘Yes, that’s the one. It has little wooden arms either side and I love it.’ Molly’s eyes widened in expectation. ‘Could I have it for my toys, and for a seat? The blankets could go somewhere else, couldn’t they?
Please?
’

‘I don’t see any reason why not.’ He gazed down at her. ‘Anything else?’

She shook her head so that her curls quivered. ‘No, thank you. I’m going to play now, if that’s all right?’

Ross reached down and tousled her silky hair. ‘That’s fine, poppet. I’ll be downstairs with Izzy if you need me.’

He led the way along the landing and down the stairs. ‘Shall we go through to the kitchen?’ he suggested.

‘Okay.’ She followed as he led the way. ‘Just for a few minutes, though. As I said, I shouldn’t stay too long.’ It would be all too easy to get carried away, wandering through the rooms of this fascinating building. It was far different from what she remembered, and that must be on account of Ross’s renovations over the years. For all that he had asked for her help, he seemed already to have a sure touch when it came to creating a luxurious, yet comfortable home.

‘Of course—just as you like. I imagine you’ve had
quite enough for one day and could do with some relaxation.’ Sending her a fleeting glance, he asked, ‘How is it that you came to be working this morning, anyway? I thought you had the weekends off?’

‘I do, mostly. This is my weekend on call with the Mountain Rescue team, though. We had to go and help a woman who slipped and fell while she was out walking. She took a tumble down a slope and landed on rocky ground. I think she’ll be all right, but she broke her leg and had to be stretchered back to the ambulance. It was lucky for her that we found her reasonably quickly. I gave her pain medication and managed to stem the bleeding before we took her back to our A&E unit.’ Her mouth made a downward curve. ‘I don’t think she’s having a very good end to this year, but maybe she’ll be on the mend by the time the new one comes in.’

‘Let’s hope so. It’s interesting that you go out with the team,’ he said. ‘I had a call from the Mountain Rescue chief the other day, asking if I’d like to join them. He remembered that I had some experience of rescue work. I said I’d think about it, depending on how much time I would have to put in and whether I could make arrangements for Molly and Cameron.’

By now they had reached the kitchen, and the room came as another surprise to Izzy. This, too, had been completely refurbished, with magnificent oak-fronted cabinets and deep shelving units bordered with decorative carving. As a centrepiece there was the huge range cooker that she remembered from long ago. To one side of the room were wine racks, filled with an assortment of bottles in colours ranging through green, red and brown to clear glass.

‘I don’t think I’ve seen
that
label before,’ she murmured, looking more closely at the bottles. The designs were exotic, with beautiful Old English script overlaid on a watermark background of a castle in the glen, hinting at the richness of the wine within.

‘They’re our own label,’ he told her. ‘From what I’m fancifully calling the Glenmuir Winery. You should sit down at the table and try a glass or two.’ He waved a hand towards the chair by an oak table to the side of the room. ‘What do you fancy? We’ve a full-bodied elder-berry, sweet and bursting with flavour, guaranteed to make you long for more, or there’s oak leaf wine—dry, with a champagne flavour. We add raisins to that, and lemon juice to help bring it along. Maggie’s favourite is the raspberry and bramble wine…light and fruity.’

She sent him a startled look. ‘You’re serious? Is this a new venture?’

He nodded. ‘When I came over the other year I saw how many wild fruits we had growing on the estate and suggested that we might have a go at fermenting a batch. They turned out pretty well, so I’m looking into starting up a wine-making business. After all, we have acres of land here, just asking to be planted.’

He drew a bottle from the rack, placed it on the table, and then reached for a couple of wineglasses from an overhead cupboard. ‘Of course I’m not sure how people around here will respond to it. I doubt I’ll be able to rely on them as customers. I’m facing a bit of resistance in trying to win them over to my side, one way or another. Even Maggie has a fairly sceptical view of my motives, but I think she feels she needs to look out for the children.”