When the Heather Blooms

by Gwen Kirkwood

  ‘He’s not my good doctor. As a matter of fact he was asking about Mother. He wants me to persuade her to see a health visitor and have a check-up. It’s not my place to tell my own mother what to do. Anyway he’s getting a woman doctor for his assistant.’

  ‘Is he now? That’s interesting. Maybe you’ll agree to see her then?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Libby flushed. Why did they have to keep returning to the one subject she hated discussing.

  Chapter Four

  ‘Peter must be eager to come to visit us,’ Andrew grinned as he and Victoria waited at the little Lockerbie Station, ‘if the school holidays started only yesterday.’

  ‘If his letters are anything to go by he can’t wait to see everything. I hope he’ll not be disappointed.’

  ‘I suppose the farm will be a novelty. Even the village will be different after living in the city.’

  ‘Yes, I think he’ll be surprised how friendly people are, especially those who knew Mark and notice the resemblance. I do wish Doctor Grantly had lived to meet him.’ She sighed. ‘Catriona would never expect things to turn out like this of course.’

  ‘No, she would not.’ Andrew’s mouth tightened. ‘It’s a good thing she had the sense to get in touch. She almost left it too late. Here comes the train now.’

  Peter was one of the first to alight and he almost ran to greet them. Victoria opened her arms and hugged him but he didn’t seem to mind, unlike Fraser; he kept saying he had grown out of hugs, but he knew he was loved. He didn’t need reassurance. As they drove home to Darlonachie Peter gazed from side to side, trying to take in everything at once.

  ‘I hope you’ve brought your old clothes,’ Andrew chuckled. ‘Whatever else you do you’ll get dirty.’

  ‘I’ve got a pair of Fraser’s wellington boots for you,’ Victoria told him, ‘and a couple of pairs of his old bib and brace overalls, although I do believe you’re almost as tall as he is for all you’re only sixteen.’

  ‘I’m seventeen now. I was seventeen in February.’

  ‘Of course,’ Victoria was silent for a moment. ‘I didn’t know when your birthday was, Peter, or I would have sent you a wee present.’

  ‘We never have birthday presents but Cathy made me a card. She loves to draw.’

  ‘I see. Lachie and Mimi have started their school holidays today. They can’t wait to meet you.’

  ‘Mimi is Lachlan’s cousin? But she’s not my cousin, is that right?’

  ‘It is,’ Andrew nodded. ‘Mimi is my brother’s bairn. They live across the glen from Langmune, higher up than we are. It’s a sheep farm. Their ewes lamb later than ours so they’re busy lambing now. You’ll find there’s dozens of different kinds of farming, Peter. Willie, my brother, always preferred sheep to cows.’

  ‘Shall I be able to see them too?’ he asked.

  ‘Aye, you will that. Willie likes company. He and our brother George, were inseparable when they were boys. George was killed during the war, like your father. Willie enjoys having young folk around him and Mary will make you welcome if you feed the pet lambs. They’ll have one or two around.’

  ‘Don’t let Mimi and Lachlan play too many tricks on you, Peter,’ Victoria warned, ‘They’re a pair of rascals. They’ll pester you to join in their games. You’ll have to be firm.’

  ‘Mimi had polio when she was five or six,’ Andrew said. ‘She has a bit of a limp. Sometimes she has difficulty keeping up with Lachlan and he’s not always very considerate.’

  ‘Mimi never seems to worry though,’ Victoria said. ‘She always has a smile and she’s the hardiest bairn I ever knew. She faces up to life with more courage than many a grown up. Libby thinks the world of her.’

  ‘I’m looking forward to meeting them all,’ Peter said, his dark eyes shining in anticipation, ‘and I can’t wait to see the animals and all the things you’ve described, Aunt Victoria. Even Father admits you write good letters. Dinah isn’t a bit interested but Cathy is always impatient to hear what you have to tell us, and she insists on reading them again herself in case I’ve missed any bits out.’ He grinned and Victoria could tell by his tone that he was fond of his younger sister. She already knew there was some constraint between him and Dinah. Even Catriona had said her elder daughter was like Deane Sterling. She wanted to be a doctor like him too. If they all read her letters it was a good job she had not mentioned the baby in any of them. She hadn’t realised Doctor Sterling would censor them. She guessed he would disapprove of her having a baby at her age, and after a ten year gap. He wouldn’t have allowed such things to happen in his well-ordered life but she couldn’t imagine him ever being spontaneous or loving Catriona as Andrew loved her.

  ‘Here we are,’ Andrew said, drawing the car to a halt. Peter scrambled out and looked around; his brown eyes alight with interest.

  ‘The house is exactly as you described it Aunt Victoria; how strange.’ He turned to look up at Andrew. ‘You must have been very brave to go in there to rescue someone when it was on fire,’ he said. ‘I would have been scared of it falling on top of me.’ Andrew looked at Victoria with raised brows.

  ‘Have you been telling tales of my youth?’

  ‘You were brave, and we’re proud of you.’

  ‘I expect you’d do just the same, laddie, if someone you knew was in danger,’ Andrew said to Peter. ‘Speaking of danger, don’t let Lachie or Mimi persuade you to go near the old quarry. It’s on the neighbouring farm but it’s near the Langmune boundary. The edges are crumbling. If you fell in you’d be killed before you reached the bottom; even if you weren’t you’d drown. Mr and Mrs Adamson bought Quarrybrae Farm last year and Lachie has become good friends with their son, Tom. We have warned him he must never go near the quarry.’

  ‘Right. I shall remember that, sir.’

  ‘Oh, don’t call me sir, lad. It makes me feel like a schoolmaster.’ Andrew grinned. ‘Is that how I sounded?’

  ‘Not when you grin like that it isn’t,’ Victoria smiled. ‘Call him Uncle Andrew, Peter. He is your uncle after all. He’s not telling you what a naughty lad he was himself when he was young. The first time he ever came to Langmune he had climbed onto a ledge in the quarry to rescue a collie dog. It belonged to the farmer who lived here then, Mr Rennie.’

  ‘Fate took a hand in my life that day,’ Andrew reminisced. ‘I was given my first job. I worked at Langmune for Fraser Rennie and I’ve been here ever since.’

  ‘I hope fate gives me a helping hand then,’ Peter said. ‘My stepfather never gives up. He’s convinced I shall be glad to get back to Edinburgh and he’s expecting me to stay on at school another year and study to be a doctor.’

  ‘He may be right, laddie,’ Andrew said. ‘A doctor is a worthwhile profession, but whatever the future holds I hope you’ll enjoy staying with us during your Easter holidays. Always remember we’re your family too and you’ll be more than welcome to come whatever you decide to do.

  ‘Thank you, Uncle Andrew.’ Peter beamed.

  ‘You look just like your father,’ Andrew remarked, ‘when he first came to Darlonachie. He had a lively interest in everything.’

  ‘I shall take you round our childhood haunts, Peter,’ Victoria promised, ‘although many of them have changed since the war. The Castle is too big and dilapidated to maintain. It’s to be pulled down any day now, and the gardens are wild and neglected. They used to be beautiful.’

  ‘You will be careful if you go roaming over there, won’t you, Victoria?’ Andrew’s eyes moved to the gentle swell of her stomach.

  ‘Of course I shall.’ Victoria’s cheeks flushed. She wondered what a seventeen-year-old boy would think to her having a baby. He probably regarded her as an old woman. She remembered how often she had cycled that distance without a thought, and Andrew had done it every morning and evening. ‘Maybe we’ll drive down to the village and out the Castle road. We can walk from there. I’ll show you where Mark stayed with the Grantlys too but there’s new people living there now.’

&nbs
p; Lachlan came running round the corner of the house and almost bumped into them. Mimi was a few yards behind him.

  ‘Hello, Mimi.’ Victoria returned her young niece’s beaming smile. ‘I didn’t know you were coming over today. Had your Mum forgotten we were meeting Peter off the train? Come and say hello to him.’ Mimi stepped forward, smiling shyly, holding out her hand. Peter took it and grinned down at her.

  ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Mimi. I have a sister a wee bit bigger than you.’

  ‘You won’t be pleased you’ve met her when you find out what a pest she is,’ Lachlan teased, giving his closest ally a poke in the ribs.

  ‘And this cheeky wretch is Lachlan,’ Andrew said, ‘and he’s the real pest around here. Don’t stand any nonsense from him, Peter.’

  ‘’lo, Peter,’ Lachlan grinned but he didn’t offer to shake hands. ‘Uncle Willie’s here.’ He announced. ‘Mimi came over with him.’

  ‘He gave me a piggyback over the burn on the big stepping stones,’ Mimi said. ‘I told Daddy about your new lamp, Uncle Andrew. The one you used for the wee lambs when they were shivering. He wondered if we could borrow it,’ she added as Willie came round the corner, deep in conversation with Fraser. More introductions were made. Fraser and Peter stared at each other in surprise, each seeing familiar dark brown eyes and even darker brows and hair, the same stubborn jaw and high cheek bones. They were both tall and slim. It was Mimi who remarked, ‘they look like brothers.’

  ‘They do, indeed,’ Willie said, holding out his work-roughened hand and clasping Peter’s in a firm grip. ‘Welcome to Darlonachie, laddie. I hear you want to know all about farming and the countryside. You’re welcome to come over to High Bowie if you feel like it. Lachlan and Mimi will show you where we live.’

  ‘Thank you. Uncle Andrew says you have lambs. I’d like to see them,’ Peter said, overwhelmed by the warmth which radiated from the little group. It was all so different to his family. Even when his mother was alive there hadn’t been much laughter or teasing, and things were even more constrained now.

  ‘I don’t know about you lot but I’m ready for my tea, and I’m sure Peter must be too,’ Victoria declared. ‘Come inside, all of you. Mimi be an angel and help me set the table, will you?’

  ‘Oh goody. Have you got any strawberry jam left, Aunt Victoria?’ she turned to Peter, her blue eyes sparkling. ‘It’s the best strawberry jam in the whole world.’ Then her small face became serious. ‘Our Grandpa has died though. There won’t be anybody to grow the strawberries this year.’ Over her head Willie, Andrew, and Victoria looked at each other. None of them had considered how much Joe Pringle’s gardening skills were going to be missed, but Mimi was right.

  ‘We shall have to look after Grandfather’s garden ourselves,’ Fraser said. ‘Do you like gardening, Peter? You can come down to Gran’s cottage and help me if you like. Grandpa often showed me what to do. He said Dad and Uncle Willie could only grow potatoes.’ He grinned at them. ‘He said I’d have to tend his garden or there’d be no vegetables. He was always passing on his secrets.’

  ‘Mmm, it’s strange that, Fraser,’ Andrew nodded at his elder son. ‘I’d forgotten what a lot of time you spent following my father around when you were younger. You’ve always liked growing things more than looking after the cows. You must take after him. Libby was the one who knew all the animals by name. I thought she’d find it too tough but she enjoyed working with the cattle. I don’t know why she doesn’t give up that job of hers and help Billy.’

  ‘Now Dad,’ Fraser warned. ‘You said Doctor Sterling wanted to run Peter’s life, but you’re as bad.’

  ‘I am not.’ Andrew frowned. He looked at Victoria. ‘Am I?’

  ‘I suppose it is the same sort of thing, dear,’ Victoria said. ‘I wonder why we always think we know what’s best for the next generation.’

  ‘Well I can give you two reasons why Libby is sticking in at her job at the creamery,’ Willie said bluntly, ‘and if she was my lassie I’d be proud of her.’

  ‘And what are they, Willie, these reasons?’ Andrew asked with a faint note of irritation. All the young folk seemed to confide in Willie, or maybe he paid more attention.

  ‘Well for one thing Victoria wanted her to have a career. She thought being a teacher was the best thing she could do for herself.’

  ‘I’m afraid I did,’ Victoria admitted, glancing at Peter.

  ‘Aye, well she’s proving she’s got herself a responsible job, and she could have made a career if she needed one. The other thing is she promised that crotchety manager she would stay until the new laboratory was up and running efficiently, and until she’s trained someone to take her place. You’d know that if you listened instead of lecturing, big brother.’ Willie’s grin took the sting out of his words. ‘Libby’s not the kind to let anybody down if she can help it. Maybe she and Billy should have waited a while before they got married but they’re in love. Anyway I reckon Billy needed Libby to be his wife. His needs are different to ours on account o’ the past. We needed Victoria and Mary to work beside us because we were short o’ money and labour was scarce during the war.’

  ‘Unpaid slaves, that’s what we are,’ Victoria chuckled.

  ‘Now I suppose I’ve put my foot in it,’ Willie sighed, ‘but that’s my spiel over.’ It was true that Willie usually spent his time observing and considering, rather than talking.

  ‘Aye, you’d better shut up and eat up,’ Andrew grinned. ‘Here, have a scone.’

  ‘Bet you didn’t know you were coming to such a crazy house?’ Fraser said in an aside to Peter.

  ‘It’s wonderful. It makes me realise how serious we are in our house since Mother died, and even before that. My stepfather doesn’t have much humour, I suppose.’

  That first day at Langmune set the tone of Peter’s Easter holiday and he offered a silent prayer to his mother for introducing him to the family he had not known he possessed. She had almost left it too late. He thanked God she had acted in time, even though it had meant friction and going against his stepfather.

  ***

  Libby was home early and she hummed as she prepared Billy’s favourite steak-and-kidney pie for dinner. She felt like dancing and skipping. Everything had been so much simpler than she had expected; Doctor Burns had been so gentle and understanding. She did a pirouette around the table as she laid out the cutlery and glasses and added two candles in their heavy silver candlesticks. When everything was ready she skipped upstairs to have a bath. She added some of the scented bath essence which one of her college friends had sent for Christmas. It was wonderful to lay back and relax.

  She must have languished longer than she had realised. She heard Billy calling up stairs and sat up with a great swoosh, reaching for her bathrobe.

  ‘You’re home early, Libby. Something smells delicious.’ She hurried to the top of the stairs, her cheeks flushed and eyes shining. She had pinned her glossy hair on top of her head but tendrils had escaped and curled around her face. ‘What are you doing having a bath at this time of day?’

  ‘Come up and I’ll tell you.’

  ‘That’s a bit risky …’ Billy chuckled, taking the stairs two at a time and imprisoning her in his arms as soon as he reached the top step. His eyes darkened with desire as he caught the scent of her skin and felt the softness of body beneath her robe. ‘You’re still damp,’ he said, moving his mouth down the graceful curve of her neck.

  ‘You come and get in the bath too.’ Libby was already unfastening the buttons of his shirt and pushing aside the braces he always wore for working.

  ‘Eh, what’s this then?’ His eyes sparked with passion.

  ‘I want to bath you like a baby,’ Libby laughed, drawing him into the bathroom, already easing down his corduroy trousers, allowing her hands to linger as she felt him harden. ‘In you go,’ she pushed him towards the scented water.

  ‘In there? Do you know what you’re doing to me, Libby?’ He sank into the water and looked up at h
er. Her robe had fallen open as she bent over him. Libby was shy about her body, about him seeing her, always insisting he turn out the light, yet here she was half naked and driving him to distraction. ‘Have you been drinking?’ he asked, pulling himself up a little. She pushed him back, laughing with delight.

  ‘Of course I haven’t been drinking but I do feel intoxicated.’ She laughed and rubbed the sponge over his face, making him gasp, then over his chest, moving down and further down until he groaned at her detailed washing. ‘Shall I do your back now?’ she asked, her eyes holding his gaze as her hands roused him still more.

  ‘No!’ He leapt out of the bath, splashing water everywhere, but Libby didn’t care as he hugged her against him, pushing aside her gown so that they were skin to skin, pressed together. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you, wife o’ mine, but whatever it is I like it.’ His mouth nuzzled the softness of her breasts.

  ‘Would you like your dinner now?’ Libby asked innocently.

  ‘Dinner!’ he growled. ‘I thought I was hungry but it’s you I want to devour.’ He lifted her in his arms and carried her to their bedroom, falling onto the bed together, unwilling to part from her, even for a moment. Libby felt liberated for the first time in her life and her response was everything Billy could desire but he sighed as he drew away to reach for the drawer where he kept the hated condoms. ‘Passion killers’ he called them. Libby held his arm. ‘There’s no need for them anymore.’

  ‘What?’ His eyes widened as he stared down into her flushed face and shining eyes. ‘You’ve been to the doctor? You – you …? I don’t …’

  ‘Love me Billy, just love me. Now …’

  He did.

  Much later they ate by the light of the candles. Outside the birds sang their last songs of the day as the calm of the April evening descended. Through the window the sun set in a glory of vermilion and gold, aquamarine and orange as the purple shadows of evening enveloped the world at the close of the day.