Posh Doc, Society Wedding (6 page)

He was right about the locals. The talk in the village was all about the new Laird—an incomer who didn’t belong. ‘Maybe that’s because you’ve been away for so long,’ she murmured. ‘After all, you weren’t even educated here. Your father sent you away to school.’

‘That’s true. I dare say that’s helped to provoke the feeling among the community that I’m an outsider.’ He shrugged. ‘Whatever the reason, I’m back now, and I have to do what I can to win them round.’

He smiled. ‘Try this one,’ he said, uncorking a bottle. ‘See what you think. If you aren’t completely bowled over, I’m an impostor from the Lakes.’

She sent him a fleeting glance. Had he read her mind? She shook the thought away. It was common knowledge that he would have to prove himself around here. Why was she worrying about the outcome?

He poured the rich ruby liquid into a glass and handed it to her. She sipped slowly, savouring the wine on her tongue before swallowing. A sweet, warm sensation enveloped her and she took another sip. She blinked, and then looked up at him.

‘I think you must be the genuine article,’ she murmured. ‘This is delicious.’

‘I’m glad you like it.’ He poured more wine into the glass. ‘Have some cheese with it, and crackers.’ He laid out a selection of food and pushed a plate towards her, coming to join her at the table, taking a seat opposite.

‘I don’t know how you manage to pull it all in,’ she said. ‘You seem to have a lot of ideas and various projects on the go, and yet you’re without an estate manager. How are you going to keep everything going?’

‘Now, there you have me,’ he said. ‘Let’s just say my plans are fairly fluid at the moment. A lot will depend on Alice and the children and how much support they need.’

She drank her wine, and tasted the cheese and crackers, and found after a while that she was oddly replete. A warm and comfortable feeling was enveloping her, with a general light-headed sensation that made her believe all was well with the world.

Ross excused himself to go and check on the children, but he was back just a short time later. ‘Molly’s still playing with her dolls’ house, and Cameron’s just launched a major offensive with his toy soldiers, so I think they’ll be occupied for a while. Would you like to come and look at the grounds out back? I’ve been tidying up the kitchen garden whenever I’ve had the chance, and I’ve been thinking about a tree-planting scheme to break up the winds that blow across the north pasture in wintertime.’

She stood up and went with him to the kitchen door. ‘Do the children know where we’ll be?’ she asked.

He nodded. ‘I told them we might be looking out over the loch. They know to ring the bell that clangs outside if they have a problem of any kind.’

‘That’s a good idea.’ She went with him to fetch her soft cord jacket from the cloakroom, shrugging into it as she walked out with him.

The cool air outside came as something of a surprise as she left the warmth of the kitchen behind. Her head swam a little with the after-effects of the wine, and Ross must have noticed because he put an arm around her, steadying her as he led her along the footpath towards the kitchen garden.

‘I knew you’d appreciate the wine,’ he said with a smile. ‘It has quite a kick if you’re not used to it.’

‘You must have known that when you kept filling up my glass,’ she accused. ‘It’s just as well that my on-call time finished an hour or so back, isn’t it? At least I don’t have to think about it again until morning.’ She glanced at him, wondering how it was that the Buchanans were blessed with such strong features—the square jaw, the beautiful grey-blue eyes that looked at you and made you feel you were the only person that mattered in the whole world.

She tried to shake off that heady sensation. It was all in her mind, wasn’t it? ‘It looks as though you grow most of your own fruit and vegetables, here,’ she murmured, gazing at long rows of planting.

‘Well, we have a team of gardeners,’ he said. ‘It helps that they’re all very good at what they do.’

They walked away from the kitchen gardens and around the side of the castle to a raised terrace, bordered by stone pediments and wrought iron balustrades, where they stood and looked out over the loch. The view was stunning. ‘This is my favourite place,’ Ross said softly.

‘I can see why.’ She gazed out at the gently rippling water, letting her glance move over green-clad hills and distant mountains shrouded in mist. ‘It’s so peaceful here. You can look out there and forget your troubles. It’s so serene. I don’t know how you can have stayed away.’

‘You’re right,’ he said, wrapping his arm around her and drawing her close against the faint breeze. ‘I often stand here and think perhaps things could have been different. It appears to be timeless here. I could have
simply whiled away my days, looking out over the water and letting my thoughts drift.’

His hand stroked her arm and she laid her head on his shoulder, snuggling into the warmth of his body. Every part of her was content, loving this moment of deep quiet and calm. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be standing here with him.

Except that it wasn’t, of course. A cool wind blew across the loch, stirring the soft tendrils of her hair, and she looked up at him, blinking to bring her gaze back into sharp focus.

This was Ross Buchanan who was holding her close, shielding her from the cold. The same Ross Buchanan who had encouraged Alice to spend time in the castle and forget that her family was his sworn enemy. What was she thinking of, letting him ply her with wine and lead her out here to this beautiful place, a spot just begging for sweethearts to pledge eternal love? This was madness, being here with him.

She eased herself away from him, her head clearing rapidly in the cool breeze. ‘I should go,’ she said.

His glance moved over her. ‘Are you sure?’

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

‘All right. I’ll gather up the children and drive you back to the cottage.’

He didn’t seem at all put out by her need to leave. Had she imagined the intimacy of his warm embrace, the way he had held her so tenderly? He’d just been keeping her warm, steadying her because the drink had gone to her head, hadn’t he? Anything else was pure supposition on her part.

‘B
YE
.
Thanks for the lift home.’ Izzy raised a hand, waving as Ross turned the car on the drive and headed back along the road.

She walked inside the cottage, her mind busy turning over the events of the last couple of hours. At least she was able to think more clearly now that the mist in her head had begun to dissolve. That fruit wine was sheer sin masquerading under a veil of innocence.

‘Did I just see Ross Buchanan drop you off outside?’ Her father confronted her as she stepped into the kitchen.

She sent him a startled look. ‘Oh, hello. I didn’t realise that you were here. Is your car at the front of the house?’ Perhaps her faculties weren’t as fully restored as she had hoped. ‘I didn’t see it out there.’

‘That’s because your mother dropped me off. She’s gone over to the village shop, but she should be back soon. We just came by to bring you and Lorna a hotpot that she made. You know how she worries that you might not be feeding yourself properly.’

Across the other side of the kitchen, Lorna signalled that she had put the hotpot in the fridge. ‘I’m going up
stairs to get ready for nightshift at the hospital,’ she said. ‘I’ll leave you two to chat for a while.’

Izzy nodded acknowledgement, then smiled at her father. ‘I love Mum’s hotpots. I’m sorry that I wasn’t here when you arrived. Have you been here long?’

‘Only about five minutes. Lorna said you’d nipped out for a while, but we weren’t planning on stopping. We’re on our way to go and visit your gran—but I just wanted to make sure that your roof wasn’t leaking. I thought I’d take a look to see if my temporary patch was holding up.’

‘Thanks for checking. It seems to be working all right…At least, we haven’t had any damp patches on the ceiling so far. I think the roofer will be coming along to fix it in a day or so. Ross said he’d asked him to make it a priority.’

Her father’s expression tightened. ‘I notice that you didn’t answer my question about him dropping you off. That was Ross I saw leaving, wasn’t it? I went to look out of the window to see if it was you or your mother returning, and there was his fuel-guzzling monster outside.’

‘He says it’s the best vehicle to have on these roads in the winter. He has to drive over to Inverness quite regularly, so it’s best for him to have a car that will be reliable and safe in snow and ice.’

Her father made a non-committal mumble at that, and she sent him a brief, considering look. ‘Yes, I’ve been over to the castle and he brought me back.’

‘So you’ve gone the way of Alice, have you? Spending your time up there? I thought you would have had more sense.’

‘I took the children back to him,’ she said, a wave of exasperation taking hold of her. ‘They spent the afternoon with us, and I promised I would return them safely.’ She gave a soft sigh. ‘It’s pointless to imagine that our paths will never cross. He’s a doctor, and I have to work with him from time to time. We’re not living in the Dark Ages, after all. It’s something that you just have to get used to.’

‘I’ll never get used to it.’ His voice was sharp. ‘I don’t see why he had to bring the children here at all. They could have stayed with Alice’s sister.’ He sent her a peevish glance. ‘What does he know about bringing up youngsters, anyway?’

‘Not very much, probably, which is why Alice is troubled.’ She studied him. ‘Look, I don’t want to argue with you. I know how you feel. But I promised Alice I would look out for the children, and I aim to keep my promise—even if it means that I might rub shoulders with Ross from time to time. I don’t see that it can do any harm, and he might not be as bad as you think.’

His eyes narrowed on her. ‘I can see he’s been working on you already. You’d do well to remember that the Buchanans never do anything by chance. There’s always an ulterior motive lurking somewhere in the background. Like this business of the log cabin and the lodges he’s building. It was all supposed to have been laid out crisp and clear, what he was doing and how far the building would extend, but now he’s changing the format. I drove along the coastal road, where one of the lodges is under construction. It seemed to me that the building was wider than shown in the original drawings.’

‘Will that matter?’

‘Not necessarily, in itself, but what else might he decide to change? I don’t trust him. Next thing he’ll be adding garage blocks and new access roads, bringing more traffic along our way.’

‘I’m sorry you feel like that about it.’ Izzy’s gaze was troubled. ‘I hate to see you angry and upset. I understand how you feel, but surely you’re reading too much into it. Perhaps we should all try to move on and put the past behind us?’

‘You wouldn’t feel that way if your livelihood depended on the goodwill of your neighbours. I had trouble with the old Laird, his father, and his constant attempts to stake a claim on my land with his tree planting and his new stone walls. Every now and again he would set up dams on the river to ruin the salmon fishing. He said it wasn’t deliberate, but I never believed him.’

He scowled. ‘His son hasn’t done anything to remedy the problems along the course of the river in so much as they affect my being able to scratch a living, and now he’s hatching a scheme to plant woodland that will block access to my cabins. We’ve always had a right of way to the old mill race, and now he thinks he can abandon it because he wants to set up a timber business. Without that footpath people will have to go the long way round to get to the holiday homes. He has a lot to answer for.’ He glowered at her. ‘It grieves me that my own daughter’s getting involved with him.’

Izzy’s mother arrived back from the shop in time to witness the tension between father and daughter. ‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘As soon as I saw Ross’s car heading
up the hill away from here I knew I shouldn’t have left you two together, even for five minutes.’

She gave Izzy a hug. ‘Lorna put my hotpot in the fridge. Make sure you heat it through thoroughly…and I bought you a jar of coffee from Mary’s shop. I noticed you were running short.’

‘Thanks, Mum, you’re an angel.’

‘We’d best be going,’ her father said, his tone abrupt. ‘Your gran will be expecting us.’

Her mother went to the door. ‘Perhaps we’ll see you at the Christmas lights ceremony tomorrow evening?’ she said. ‘I’m running one of the stalls at a community centre…homemade crafts and pots of jam.’

Izzy embraced her parents and watched them drive away. It was upsetting to argue with her father. Would he ever come to see Ross Buchanan simply as a neighbour? Somehow she doubted it.

She tried not to think about the troublesome situation, and instead spent time getting on with various chores. Putting away freshly ironed laundry helped to lighten her mood.

The next day in the afternoon she was clearing away brambles from the garden when the phone rang. She hurried to answer it.

‘The Mountain Rescue team has been called out.’ Finn, a man in his late thirties who worked six days a week as the village postman, was also a member of the Mountain Rescue group, and now he said, ‘We’ve had reports of a woman who has been injured on a crag by Beinn Dearg. Her companion used her mobile phone to call for help. She said she fell, and can’t move without a lot of pain, so
we have to get to her as soon as possible. I’ve already checked, and there’s no way we’ll be able to get a helicopter out to her, so it means we’re in for a bit of a climb.’

‘I’ll get ready,’ Izzy said.

‘Good. I’ll come and pick you up in five minutes.’

Finn was as good as his word, and within a very short time the whole team had assembled. ‘We’ll drive as close as we can to the hills before we need to start the climb,’ Finn told them.

They started their trek from a forested area, heading for higher ground, keeping a tumbling stream to the left and below them. Izzy was startled to see that Ross had joined them somewhere along the route. ‘You decided to give it a try, then?’ she said.

‘I did. I wanted to come out and see if it was something I’d like to do on a regular basis.’ He looked out over the distant mountains. ‘It’s been quite a while since I did any climbing or hill walking. It’s good to be able to help people, of course, and then there’s always the aspect of keeping fit and enjoying the mountain trek.’

‘What have you done with Molly and Cameron?’

‘I left them with the local GP. They made friends with his children last week when I went over there to discuss a patient with him. In fact, he’s going to be taking over the aftercare of the man who was injured by the waterfall.’

He walked beside her, and soon she was struggling to keep up with his long, rangy stride. Izzy studied him. ‘You mean, the man with the pulmonary embolism? You know how he’s doing, then?’

Ross nodded. ‘His shoulder’s still a bit sore, but they fixed the dislocation at the hospital and his ankle’s in plaster. His breathing is much better, and he seems to
be making a reasonably good recovery from his surgery, but of course his GP will have to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t suffer any more blood clots.’

‘Yes, he will, but I’m glad that he’s doing well over all.’

At one point they had to cross a stream, using flat rocks as stepping-stones, and Izzy hesitated for a moment, attempting to keep her balance. As she wavered, Ross placed a hand under her arm to steady her.

‘Thanks,’ she said, glancing up at him, her mouth making a rueful shape. ‘I was just taking my time, that’s all. The last thing I want is to spend the next few hours soaked to the skin.’ She didn’t want to notice his strength, or how capable he was, and how sure of foot he appeared to be, but it was true all the same. And as the heat from his hand at her elbow penetrated through the material of her jacket, it was more than enough to warm her through and through.

His eyes crinkled with amusement. ‘No wine to blur your senses today,’ he said. ‘That’s a shame. I quite liked it when you were soft and dreamy and wrapped up in my arms.’

They reached the other side of the stream and she threw him a quick glance. ‘You were out of line yesterday,’ she told him. He still was, if he thought he could sweet-talk her into getting close to him. She was more than wary on that score. ‘You didn’t tell me that your home brew packed such a punch. I thought—Fruit wine, lovely, no worries. If you do get a licence to sell your produce, at least you’ll have to state the alcoholic content and people will know exactly what they’re in for.’

He grinned. ‘To be fair, I didn’t realise it would hit you quite so hard. You probably hadn’t eaten enough to soak it up.’

‘Yes, well, I won’t make that mistake again in a hurry.’

‘That’s a shame,’ he said, affecting a downturned mouth. ‘I couldn’t help thinking how great it was to see you looking so relaxed, and you were definitely happy to snuggle up and keep warm.’

She shot him a warning glance, and he laughed.

It took more than an hour of climbing over boulder slopes before they reached the point where the woman, who looked to be in her forties, was lying injured. She was resting on a narrow plateau at the foot of a ridge, and was in a bad way.

‘Thank heaven you’re here.’ The woman’s companion looked wretched. ‘Sarah fell onto her side and hit the rock. I’ve been trying to keep her warm, but she’s in an awful lot of pain.’ She frowned. ‘She’s very shaky, and she seems to be not quite with me some of the time.’

‘We’ll take care of her,’ Finn said. ‘Come over and sit with the rest of our team and we’ll give you a hot drink. You look as though you’ve had a pretty bad experience yourself. The doctors will look after your friend.’

Izzy knelt down beside the woman. ‘Hello, there. Sarah, is it?’

Sarah struggled to focus, but then she slowly, almost imperceptibly nodded.

Izzy said quietly, ‘I’m Dr McKinnon, and here with me is Dr Buchanan. We’ll have a look at you and try to make you more comfortable, and then the Mountain Rescue team will take you back down the slopes and on to hospital as quickly as possible. Can you tell me whereabouts you’re hurting?’

Sarah vaguely indicated the region of her hip. Her face
was pale, and etched with pain, and when Izzy carefully examined her she could see that on her injured side the leg was shorter than the other one, with the toes pointing out.

She glanced at Ross. ‘I think she has a pelvic fracture,’ she said softly.

He nodded. ‘I agree with you.’ He checked the woman’s pulse and respiration as Izzy began to open up her medical bag. ‘Her heart-rate is very fast, and so is her breathing,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I suspect she’s going into shock because of internal bleeding.’

That was bad news. Untreated shock meant that the patient’s condition could deteriorate very rapidly. ‘Okay. We’ll give her oxygen and put in an intravenous line so that we can give her fluids to replace the blood loss.’ She spoke gently to her patient. ‘Sarah, I believe you have a broken bone in your pelvis. I’m going to give you an injection for the pain. It should make you feel much more comfortable.’

As soon as they had completed those procedures, and Sarah’s pain had retreated, Izzy worked with Ross to immobilise the injury by means of a splint. He was calm and efficient, capable in everything he did, and above all he was caring and considerate towards the woman.

Izzy turned to the other members of the rescue team. ‘We need to lift her onto the stretcher,’ she said, ‘keeping her as still as possible.’

‘No problem,’ Finn said. ‘Between us we can do that.’

They all worked together to transfer Sarah to the stretcher, covering her with a blanket and fastening the straps securely to prevent her from slipping and coming to any more harm. After that it was a question of carrying her back down the slope.

‘I’ve called the emergency services and asked them to have an ambulance waiting for us,’ Izzy said.

Two members of the team came forward to take hold of the stretcher, while Finn stayed with the woman’s friend, keeping her company as they started back down the slope. Izzy took a moment to gaze around, looking down across the valley to the distant loch. Mist was rolling in over the mountains and the smooth silver surface of the water, signifying the close of the afternoon and a cooling temperature.