Fiona of Glenmorie

by Ruth Hay

  “I won’t take up your time, Rena. Clearly, there’s something special in the air today. I just want to thank you for alerting us to the Arts School. Gordon and I went for the tour and the place is incredible. We think it will be perfect for Fergus after he leaves here.

  There is another matter related to both my older children. There may soon be some publicity about a discovery the two of them made recently on the estate. I’ll fill you in later, but Fergus and Shona will likely need some time off school to deal with the matter.”

  “This sounds intriguing, Fiona! I can’t wait to hear all about it. Call me tonight. I am very pleased to know about the Arts School. It’s just the place for a creative child like your Fergus, and I know Steve is happy to help with the driving part whenever he can.”

  “Good! I’ll get out of your hair now, Rena. It looks like a busy day for you.”

  There was a line forming in the office to speak to Rena as Fiona left.

  She headed to the Tesco store to do some shopping. Neil was with Marie again and she wanted to get home to see how the new relationship was going. If all was well with the pair, she planned to do some work on the major project to further the estate’s ability to attract visitors and boost their coffers. Her research had revealed an article in the Oban Times about the October Wolf Awareness Week.

  The article stated that wolves had been extinct in Scotland since the 17th century but the Royal Zoological Society had established a European grey wolf pack in the Highland Wildlife Park.

  Fiona thought if the keepers could be persuaded to provide Glenmorie with its own breeding pair of wolves, it would be a huge attraction for visitors.

  Strangely, this idea had a connection to Fergus and Shona’s discovery.

  The article continued with wolf information.

  The Ardross Wolf, an ornate carving on a Pictish stone, showed that wolves were once revered rather than feared in Scotland.

  The name given to the Scottish island of Ulva, was believed to be a Gaelic corruption of the Viking name ‘Ullfur,’ which means Wolf Island in Old Norse.

  Fiona considered it was a sign of sorts that she was on the right track. It was just another in the links between the ancient peoples and their traditions that lingered on in the stones of this land.

  She wondered if Fergus and Shona’s Viking stone gaming pieces might one day, be added to that roster of connections.

  This is not helping me to focus on the contents of my larder!

  She shook her head to dispel dreams of wolves roaming free on the Glenmorie estate and returned to the daily tasks that she must accomplish.

  Her final thought was to wonder when Anna would return to her Oban house. There was a gap in her life until she could relate all these exciting recent events to Anna. That wonderful woman would have advice and support, second to none.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ashley Stanton returned to her Toronto hotel room and kicked off her shoes in frustration.

  The art book displaying Lawren Drake’s sketches to the world for the very first time, was delayed once again. It was not the first delay by any means, but she was becoming more and more angry about it.

  Despite the fact that the spring launch had already been widely publicised, the publisher was fiddling around with the final production in a way that made Ashley’s blood boil.

  Not only had she furnished the material for the book, she had also written the foreword describing how she had found the previously-unknown sketches in the cedar closet in Anna Mason Drake’s McCaig Estate House outside Oban. The rest was a matter of placing the works in order, relating them to Lawren’s iconic paintings and providing an appropriate cover for the book.

  If she had the skill to operate the digital printing press machinery, the book would be in bookstores across Canada and the world right now, the money would be flooding into Anna’s bank account and she could take her portion and finally, finally, fly back to Scotland and the arms of Edmund Jansen.

  She sighed deeply. It seemed an age since she had slept in his arms in the tiny cottage that was like a secret hideaway. The single bedroom was about one quarter the size of this massive hotel room but she would give anything to be free to crowd into the bed with Edmund and leave the rest of the world outside.

  She already said her farewells to her mother and her latest ‘boyfriend’ in Toronto. She had spent some time with her grandfather and grandmother in Prince Edward Island. The next face she wanted to see was that of her overworked, conscientious doctor whose face on Skype was beginning to blur.

  The problem was that if she left now, there would be no one to chivvy the publisher and the book launch would not happen on time, disappointing many in the art world who had made pre-orders.

  The whole thing was so frustrating. She dared not interrupt Anna to explain and receive sympathy as that lovely great-aunt of hers was stuck in London running interference with the medical profession on behalf of her dear friend and companion, Alina.

  She was raiding the room fridge in hopes of finding a small compensatory bottle of whisky or gin, when the hotel phone on the bedside table rang.

  “What now?”

  If it was some stupid interruption, she was determined to let the caller have it with both barrels.

  “Miss Stanton, we have a long-distance call here for you from Scotland. Do you want to accept it?”

  “Scotland? Yes, of course! Please put it through.”

  Her heart began to beat faster. Perhaps it was Edmund? Perhaps it was good news? She could use some of that about now.

  She plopped down on the bed and pushed the pillows up behind her back. The bottle of gin was still in her hand. She would drink it if the news was good………. or if it was bad!

  “Hello! Is this Ashley?”

  “Yes, it’s Ashley.

  Is that you, Jeanette?”

  It was not who she hoped to hear from, but a voice from Scotland was welcomed none the less. Jeanette was the perfect person to bring news from Oban. She had fingers in many pies, as it were.

  “Oh, good! I hope I’m not disturbing you. I don’t know what your plans are for returning here but I feel I have to give you a warning about someone.”

  Oh, Lord! What’s happened now? Is someone sick? Not the children! Not Anna, please God!

  “Oh, Ashley! So sorry! That came out all wrong. There’s nothing serious to tell you. It’s just about Edmund’s mother. She’s about to arrive in Oban to do some housecleaning and cooking for him.

  It’s my fault. I saw Edmund recently and thought how tired and worn he looked so I decided to invite Christine to come to Oban for two weeks or so and provide a bit of comfort for the doctor.”

  She stopped suddenly when she realized she was ranting on in the hopes of covering her outright nerve in stepping into Ashley’s role without asking her permission.

  Ashley was catching up quickly, despite the rant.

  She knew Jeanette was a bit of a busybody but her heart was good. She also knew this act was not meant as a criticism of her absence. It was more than likely that Edmund was, indeed, overworked and overtired. She had been focussed on the book thing for so long now that she had lost sight of the importance of their relationship to her future. There must be a life after the art book was safely published and Edmund must be a part of that life.

  It was very much her baby, but if a real baby was ever to be born, she needed to be much more considerate of the man she had chosen as her husband-to-be.

  This was a wake-up call.

  On the other end of the phone line, Jeanette was counting the silent seconds and biting her lip. Had she gone too far and alienated Anna’s great-niece?

  Why is she not speaking?

  Is she too furious with me to say anything at all?

  The silence continued.

  “Look, Jeanette! I am stuck here in the middle of a battle with a publisher. You have just now reminded me what my priorities should be. I thank you for taking action to help Edmund but I bel
ieve you will have trouble winkling his mother out of the cottage again in two weeks.

  Please do whatever you can to keep the peace until I can fly back to Scotland.

  I can assure you I am about to move heaven and earth to get this blasted book into production ASAP.

  You have given me precisely the motivation I needed.

  Don’t worry! I trust you as a good friend and a Canadian into the bargain!

  I will call Edmund and tell him to expect me home, book or no book. It’s been quite long enough.

  Give my love to all in Oban. I can’t wait to see everyone again.”

  There were a few last comments of apology from Jeanette but Ashley disregarded them. She meant what she had said. It was high time to get home to her fiancé.

  She poured the gin into a glass and added tonic from the mini-fridge. When she had downed it, she sat at the desk and began to list her strategies for the next day. She would put a rocket under everyone from the receptionist to the owner of the publishing company.

  Enough was enough.

  Jeanette was immensely relieved when Ashley did not blame her for interfering. She felt all the more determined to ensure Christine Jansen was kept occupied during her stay in Oban. Of course, there was the chance she would love the place so much that she might plan to move closer to her son, but that was a risk she had to take. Ashley had indicated the woman might be a bit of a problem but the main thing was to keep Edmund happy and comfortable.

  If that task involved a campaign of distraction, so be it. She would shadow the woman like a hawk from above, and make sure she gave her son the space he needed to rest and recover from his stressful job.

  Christine Jansen took great delight in telling her bridge group that she was about to visit Oban.

  Sarcastic comments had been made in her hearing, from time to time as cards were placed on the tables, about her lack of contact with her only son. Christine had managed to smile and make excuses about the vital work he was doing for humanity, but she was deeply embarrassed about what she perceived as Edmund’s neglect. It was so reassuring to be able to banish the embarrassment in a flurry of details about her imminent trip.

  “Yes, you see I have been summoned to create order out of chaos. The poor man has no one to provide the daily comforts of home. I hear the situation is desperate. His dear fiancée, Ashley, is negotiating a huge publishing deal in Canada at the moment. I am the only one he can call on.”

  She deliberately left the impression that Ashley had called her to rescue Edmund. The truth was closer to no contact at all with the girl. Her one and only time of meeting her son’s future wife had been short and rushed. Since then, nothing. There was no doubt in Christine’s mind that Ashley’s Canadian family and her book concerns, claimed her attention to the exclusion of her fiancé’s lonely mother.

  But now, the tables were truly turned.

  “Of course I have arranged my train ticket and a room is ready for me at an exclusive hotel nearby. I do not want to crowd the dear boy. I will do anything I can to help but I will possibly miss several of our Bridge Club matches. There’s no knowing how long I will be needed in Oban.”

  “Well, it’s good that Oban is not too far away.”

  This remark was received by Christine as another sly hint that she could have been on a train to Oban at any time in the last year. She chose to ignore it.

  “So, ladies, I bid you farewell for now!”

  She departed on the bridge joke and went out with her head high.

  Her packing was completed in the hour following Jeanette McLennan’s phone call. Now that she had spread the good word to her so-called friends, she was determined to depart on the next day’s afternoon train without waiting for further invitations. She would contact this Jeanette person when she arrived in Oban.

  As soon as her case was unpacked in her hotel room, she was intending to see Edmund in his surgery office and get his house key. By the time he arrived home, she would have straightened up the entire place and prepared a nourishing meal for him. They would eat together and catch up on recent events. It would be like old times when his father was alive and Edmund was still at school.

  She could hardly wait to hear his words of thanks and appreciation for her efforts.

  She took one last look at her case, packed and locked, on the chair by her bed. Her travelling clothes were already set out. She closed her eyes and drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

  The sleep of the just.

  Isla Duncan had filed the last of the patient records and checked the waiting room as well as the parking lot outside. With any luck at all, they were done for the day.

  And what a day it had been! The doctor was dealing with the last of the delayed appointments in his office. The schedule had been abandoned earlier when the collision in the Tesco parking lot brought two unexpected patients to their door. The driver of the car suffered a possible heart attack after seeing the sudden appearance of two children behind him as he reversed. He was off in an ambulance but the two young schoolgirls cried for their mothers and would not be comforted until their parents could be found.

  The store manager called the surgery and explained his predicament.

  “I have the pair of them here and they are screaming the place down. I dinna think there’s anything serious. No blood to be seen, ye ken, but I canna keep them here any longer. There’s a crowd of shoppers outside my door demanding to know what I’m doing to the puir wee souls.

  I’m thinking they’re mair scared than hurt. Can ye help at all?”

  Isla was despatched immediately to fetch the two girls and bring them to the doctor for a check up to see that there was nothing more serious going on. She left instructions with the manager to inform the parents where their children would be, and drove back to the surgery at top speed with the continuing cries of the girls in her ears.

  Dr. Jansen took them in at once and he calmed them down by asking questions about why they were not safely in school in the middle of the afternoon.

  As the story came out, he quickly examined them for bruises and fractures and found nothing of concern.

  The girls had skipped out of school without permission. Most of their tears were for the trouble they had caused already and the future trouble they would get into when parents and teachers realized what they had done.

  “My daddy will murder me!” said Agnes, through tears and sobs, which were now beginning to die down. Mummy’s in Inverness the day, and he will have to stop work and come for me.”

  “It was all your idea, Agnes! It’s me will get the blame. I’m the biggest. My Dad will take my phone away for weeks after this.”

  “Now then, Heather, your father will be very glad to hear you are all right. Agnes, I will talk to your father for you, and Isla will take you home. Don’t worry! There’s no harm done.”

  “But doctor….. what about the wee mannie in the car? An ambulance took him away!”

  The crying was about to start up again so Edmund intervened.

  “I will call the hospital and check up on him. There’s a chance he was just in shock at seeing the pair of you on the ground behind his car. If you had not been making so much noise he would probably have been fine. You two probably gave him the fright of his life.

  Now don’t start up again! Calm down now! Here’s a lollipop to suck on and a glass of water to drink. Sit here for a minute while I telephone, and don’t touch anything!”

  The doctor’s was not the only phone in use. Every patient in the waiting room was reporting the news to all and sundry. A reporter from the Oban Times made an appearance saying it was a slow news day and a bit of drama was welcome.

  By the time Isla had repeated to all and sundry the true facts to counteract the rumours that were circulating, she had run out of breath and the doctor had once again missed a break for his late lunch. Fern cleared the unnecessary appointments by re-scheduling them for later in the week and the two girls were disposed of to the tender mercies of their
respective parents. The doctor asked Fern to call Rena Collins at the school and give her the update along with the all-clear report.

  The surgery at long last quietened down.

  A weary Isla was donning her coat and gloves when the door opened again and a stranger walked in.

  “I’m sorry! Surgery is closed for today. Call tomorrow and we’ll make an appointment for you, dear.”

  “Excuse me! I am not one of your patients, miss.

  I am Mrs. Jansen, mother of your doctor, and I am here to see my son.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “But, she was supposed to call me when she booked the train. I heard nothing from her. It was Isla who told me she had arrived and I drove down immediately.

  Edmund was in a terrible state. He had just spent an hour with two crying lassies and his appointments were all re-scheduled as a result. I doubt he had time for any food since the morning and he was clearly tired and annoyed.”

  “Well, Jeanette, I suppose it was obvious to his mother that she was, indeed, needed.”

  “True enough, Bev, but the doctor was not pleased. I assured him his mother was staying at the hotel, and whisked her out of there before she could antagonize any more of the staff. Fern was bristling like a dog scenting a rival dog on its property, and Isla took off as soon as I arrived with one of those expressions that say, ‘better out of here before the fur flies’.

  “Not a good start then?”

  “You could say that!”

  “What did you do next?”

  “I took her to the hotel, booked her in for dinner, and suggested rather strongly that she should rest after the journey. Since she does not know where the cottage is, I thought it was safe to leave her to settle in while I tried to undo some of the damage.

  I phoned my Mom and told her to prepare for a guest for dinner then I headed back to the surgery and begged Edmund to come home with me for a meal and an explanation. I figured he couldn’t attack me openly with my children at the table.”