Highland Sisters

by Anne Douglas

  ‘In two weeks. I’ll look forward to it, Rosa.’

  He put on his hat and stood watching her as she left him until she’d turned a corner and was out of sight, though she, being suddenly too self-conscious to look back, never knew.

  ‘Well, well, you must have had a good time!’ Agnes exclaimed when Rosa let herself into the kitchen. ‘You look as though you’ve lost a sixpence and found a shilling!’

  ‘Caught a bit o’ sun, I’d say,’ Greta remarked. ‘Or are you blushing?’

  ‘Better go and change,’ Mrs Banks called from the stove. ‘I’ve a dinner party to think about even if you folks have forgotten. Hattie, get on with them vegetables, and Greta, you find a clean apron, eh? That one you’re wearing is a disgrace!’

  ‘Oh, Lord,’ Agnes murmured to Rosa as she passed. ‘Now it starts; we’ll have no peace till we’ve got to the washing-up. Hoist the storm cones!’

  What storm cones? Rosa asked herself with a smile. All she hoped to see ahead was calm.

  Fifteen

  Two weeks before they could meet again. That wasn’t so long, was it? Not so long? To Rosa, going about her usual duties with the thought of Daniel colouring all that she did, it seemed an age. Especially as she must keep their meeting to herself.

  Not that she minded keeping such a special secret locked in her own head. How could she possibly discuss it even with Agnes, never mind nosy Greta or excitable Hattie? The very idea of how it would be if anyone were to find out about Daniel was so embarrassing she hastily put it from her. It wouldn’t happen, she insisted to herself. How could it, when she was the only person who knew about him and she would be saying nothing?

  Which was why, when it was time for her half day again, she had no worries that Agnes would make any comment when she saw Rosa getting ready to go out. No more would be said of her looking happy enough to have found a shilling, or anything of that sort, for now all was just back to routine and she was going out for her half day as usual.

  ‘See you later,’ she called cheerfully to Agnes, who was alone with her in the kitchen as Mrs Banks was lying down, Hattie had gone to the local shop and Greta was cleaning the staff bathroom. ‘It’s not so sunny today, I think I’ll just do some shopping.’

  ‘Not seeing the young man this time, then?’ Agnes remarked, her tone casual as she put away clean dusters.

  Standing at the kitchen mirror, settling her hat on her thickly piled hair, Rosa froze. Her eyes went to Agnes in the mirror and she saw that the parlour maid was half smiling, as though pleased to see the reaction to her words.

  ‘Young man?’ Rosa repeated slowly, ‘What do you mean, Agnes? You know I have no young man.’

  ‘Rosa, no one looks the way you did when you came in the other day if there’s no man involved. I’m older than you – I’ve had some experience of these matters.’ Agnes slightly tossed her fair head. ‘Some experiences of my own, I don’t mind admitting.’

  Turning from the mirror, Rosa’s face as she gazed at the real Agnes away from the reflection held so much apprehension that the parlour maid’s look softened and she put her hand on Rosa’s arm.

  ‘Come on now, no need to look so scared. There’s nothing wrong with having a follower – Mrs Fordyce doesn’t mind at all. She told me herself if any of us were to meet the right person, she’d be quite happy.’

  ‘He isn’t my follower!’ Rosa cried. ‘He’s just a friend. Couldn’t be anything more!’

  ‘Look, you can tell me about him, I won’t pass it on, but I know you’ve been nursing a secret ever since you came in last week. Who is he, then, this man who makes you look so happy?’

  After a long pause, during which Rosa took off her hat, she said quietly, ‘He’s Daniel MacNeil, the man my sister was going to marry.’

  ‘What, the poor fellow she left at the church? Oh, my, Rosa, what’s he doing here?’

  ‘He’s a joiner but he’s very talented at making things in wood – has some supplier he sees here. By accident, we met in the park.’

  ‘And you spent the afternoon together?’ Agnes seemed surprised. ‘Is he wanting a bit o’ comfort, then? Can’t have got over your sister already.’

  ‘Oh, no, he’s not! He just – you know – wanted to talk to somebody who knew what had happened.’

  ‘I see. And are you meeting him again?’

  ‘Next week.’ After hesitating for a moment, Rosa replaced her hat and moved towards the door. ‘Think I’d better go for my bits of shopping.’

  ‘Yes, but Rosa … take care, eh?’

  ‘With my shopping?’ Rosa laughed.

  ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I don’t see why you think I need to take care, Agnes.’

  ‘Just don’t get too involved. Might not be wise, if he’s still feeling as he does over your sister.’

  ‘Agnes, you don’t need to worry about me. I can take care of myself.’

  ‘Now where have I heard that before?’ cried Agnes as the back door quietly closed behind Rosa.

  Sixteen

  When the afternoon came at last for Rosa to meet Daniel, she hurried to their rendezvous, dreading being late, dreading that he might not even be there. Thank God he was, though, standing next to a motor vehicle at the park gates.

  ‘Rosa!’ He came swiftly to her and briefly took her hands. ‘You’re here! I kept wondering if you’d remember … what we’d arranged.’

  Remember? She couldn’t tell him she’d thought of nothing else in the last fortnight, only smiled as she kept her eyes on his, though then her heart gave a little leap, for it seemed to her that there had been a change in his and the coldness she’d seen before had slightly melted. Was she right? She couldn’t be sure, for he had turned away, affectionately putting his hand on the side of the vehicle close to him, just as she was asking where they would be going.

  ‘Have a look at the van first.’

  ‘The van?’

  For the first time, Rosa paid attention to the vehicle Daniel was standing beside, which was not a motor car but an open-sided, thin-tyre van with a covered top, two seats at the front, one with a steering wheel, and space at the back which held a quantity of wood.

  ‘This is yours, Daniel?’ Rosa asked, surprised, but he shook his head.

  ‘No, only rented. I can’t afford to buy a van for myself, or a horse and cart, either, but I do need something to get to customers.’

  ‘This must be just the thing.’

  Rosa, moving nearer, was impressed to be at such close range to a motor vehicle, for though there were now plenty of motors about the city and Mr Fordyce in fact owned one, she had no real experience of them. But the more she looked at this one, the more she thought it must be very difficult to handle. Much worse than anything pulled by a horse!

  ‘I’m impressed, I really am,’ she told Daniel. ‘Is it easy to move along? I mean, to drive?’

  ‘Easy to move along?’ Daniel smiled. ‘I wouldn’t say it was, but I taught myself to drive it, anyway, and soon got the hang of it. The good thing is the roads are so empty – not many people can afford motors yet. Doubt if they ever will. But come on, let’s be on our way. I think I’m blocking the pavement here, judging by the frowns all round!’

  ‘No, I think folk are just interested,’ Rosa told him, accepting his hand to assist her climb into the passenger seat of the van, rather wishing there weren’t quite so many people watching and relieved when Daniel said they would soon be away.

  ‘Just got to get the engine started,’ he told her from the front of the van.

  ‘You can’t start it from inside?’

  ‘No, have to use the outside starting handle. Won’t be a second.’

  In fact, it was several minutes before the engine roared into life and Daniel could hurry back to his seat, during which the watchers could laugh and offer their advice. ‘Get some horses, laddie!’ ‘Want a hand to push, then?’ ‘Aye, we always said them contraptions’d never work!’

  Eventually, though, they we
re away, moving noisily from the park gates and following a route through busy streets that would take them to Loch Ness, if Rosa would like to go there.

  ‘Say if you’d prefer to go somewhere else,’ Daniel said, briefly turning to glance at Rosa.

  ‘No, I’d like to see Loch Ness if we’ve time.’

  ‘Oh, I think we have. It’s about twenty miles from here. Some years since I saw it – came with my dad. He kept teasing me about the monster – as though there is one!’

  ‘It’s all just wishful thinking, Daniel. Brings money to Inverness, that’s all. No one’s ever seen anything, except a floating log.’

  ‘Wasn’t there some saint who said he saw it centuries ago?’

  ‘Like I said, he’d have seen a floating log,’ Rosa declared, at which Daniel laughed.

  ‘You’re the practical, no-nonsense one, Rosa, aren’t you? Anyone’d have thought that would have been me, but I’m the dreamer. I like to think there is a monster in the loch, straight out of a fairy tale!’

  ‘A dreamer?’ Rosa repeated softly. ‘Is that true, Daniel?’

  ‘It is.’ Daniel shook his head as he carefully negotiated a bend in the road. ‘And that has its drawbacks, as you might guess.’

  ‘What sort of drawbacks?’

  ‘Don’t ask.’ Daniel laughed. ‘Now, it’s next stop for the loch, all twenty-three miles of it. All we’ll have time for is a wee walk and a cup of tea.’

  Seventeen

  Although they’d both seen it before, their fresh sighting of Loch Ness as they left the van filled them with a kind of awe. It was so very long, almost like a sea, seeming to stretch into infinity, and though there were a number of boats on it and people walking along its shores, it was still so silent, so mysterious, it wasn’t like any of the other lochs they knew. Certainly, it was no wonder that the legend of the monster had grown up here, for if a monster were to be found in any Scottish loch, Ness, with its length and depth, would surely be the one. How deep was it, though?

  As they began to walk by the side of the loch, Rosa asked Daniel if he knew.

  ‘Depth? I don’t know for sure. About 700 feet, I should think. Better be careful not to fall into it, eh?’

  Daniel, glancing at Rosa’s face, suddenly took her arm and held it close.

  ‘But Rosa, isn’t this pleasant? The two of us, the best of friends, walking by this great loch?’

  The best of friends? Rosa was smiling back but his words were echoing in her mind. The best of friends? Was that all? For him, perhaps. For her … oh, better not go into her feelings for him. Just take what came, enjoy the day. It was more than she’d ever hoped for, anyway.

  ‘See, there’s the ruin on the opposite bank!’ she cried, freeing herself from Daniel’s arm and pointing across the shore to distract herself from her own thoughts. ‘Castle Urquhart, isn’t it?’

  ‘That’s it. Ever been round it? What’s left, that is? Was mixed up with most of Scottish history, as far as I remember. Why anybody wanted it, I don’t know, but pretty well everybody fought over it.’ Daniel laughed. ‘From Robert the Bruce onwards. So my dad told me.’

  ‘Your father sounds interesting,’ Rosa said quietly. ‘You must miss him.’

  ‘I do.’ Daniel’s face was suddenly bleak. ‘More than I can say.’

  ‘I’m the same with my mother. Things might have been different for us all, if she’d still been with us.’

  Daniel was silent, staring ahead at the loch, lost in his own thoughts, it seemed. Until suddenly he touched Rosa’s hand and shook his head.

  ‘Hey, this won’t do. We’re not supposed to be sad on our afternoon together. Let’s go and find some tea, shall we? I believe there’s a place not too far away.’

  Why doesn’t he ask me about Lorne? Rosa thought when they were settled in the café they’d found, and wondered, as she again poured him tea and passed the drop scones, whether she should risk mentioning Lorne herself. After all, she had some news, and interesting news at that.

  ‘Penny for them?’ Daniel asked, smiling.

  ‘My thoughts?’ She hesitated. ‘Just of my sister … No, don’t look like that!’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘As though you’ve put the shutters down.’

  He shook his head. ‘Rosa, I don’t want to talk about her. I don’t want to think about her. I have other things in my mind apart from her.’

  ‘I think you should hear my news anyway.’ Rosa set down her teacup and leaned forward. ‘Because if you want her out of your life, Daniel, I can tell you, she will be. She’s going to America.’

  ‘America!’

  Daniel might not have wanted to show any interest, but as he made a great play of slicing his scone, he couldn’t conceal showing his surprise at Rosa’s news.

  ‘Suppose that is unexpected,’ he admitted. ‘Not that I care where she goes, but at least it’s a long way off.’

  ‘We’ve had another letter,’ Rosa told him. ‘Seemingly, Lorne now has a passport and everything for America, and Mr Thain will never find her there. Didn’t even find her in Ireland, in spite of all his detectives. So …’ Rosa sat back, her dark eyes glinting. ‘You’re right; she’s going to be far enough away, isn’t she? Da’s in a state, I can tell you.’

  ‘I daresay. How about you?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think. I’m sort of stunned. Plenty of people emigrate to America but I never dreamed Lorne would leave Scotland. Seems so final.’

  For a long moment, Daniel was silent, finally asking for more tea, which he drank off quickly, before setting the cup down heavily and fixing Rosa with eyes that told her nothing. Yet he was managing a smile.

  ‘Thanks for giving me that news,’ he said quietly. ‘I feel the better for it. Ready to give you my own news, in fact.’

  ‘You have news, Daniel?’

  She couldn’t tell why, but Rosa knew at once that she didn’t want to hear his news, whatever it was. Staring at the tea things, she wished with all her heart that he need not tell her what it was. But he was still smiling.

  ‘Good news, in fact. Good for me. I’ve been offered a job I want away down in Edinburgh. I’ll be moving next month.’

  Eighteen

  Moving next month? To Edinburgh? And he was smiling?

  Sitting very still, her cold hands clasped together, Rosa lowered her eyes. Stared at the crumbs on her plate, at the teacups, the teapot, anything except Daniel’s radiant face, for what would that tell her? Everything about her own foolishness in expecting something she should never even have considered. Hadn’t he earlier that very day described the two of them as ‘the best of friends’? How then could she have expected anything else but friendship from him? Especially when she knew that whatever he said about Lorne, he was still under her spell?

  How stupid she’d been, then, not to nip in the bud any ideas she might have cherished that there was hope for her to be more than a friend to Daniel. She supposed she’d been hoping that if they’d continued to see each other and taken pleasure in each other’s company, as they did, it might have been possible for Daniel’s love for Lorne to fade. How different everything might have been then!

  But of course it wasn’t going to happen. He and Rosa weren’t even going to continue seeing each other. How could they when she was in Inverness and he was in Edinburgh, which he appeared to be pleased about? In the words of the old song it seemed that ‘the best of friends must part, must part’ – but only one of them minded.

  Clearing her throat, she finally raised her eyes to Daniel’s, and with immense effort managed to say, ‘Congratulations. I’m glad you’re pleased.’

  ‘Thank you. You’ll guess it’s what I want – not only for the work, but to get away from Carron where everybody knows me.’

  ‘I know you, Daniel.’

  ‘You’re different.’

  ‘Am I?’

  ‘Of course. But I haven’t told you about the job.’ Daniel sat back in his chair, his face more animated than she’d
ever seen it, his eyes, so often showing his sorrow, now so bright in expression, his whole manner appeared changed. ‘It’s funny the way it all came about,’ he told her. ‘Quite by accident, really. I always knew there was this first-rate cabinet-maker in Edinburgh, a chap called Frank Lang, but I never thought I’d meet him. Then, one day, a few weeks ago, I happened to be delivering a small table to Doctor MacKenzie – he’s one of the few people who know about my real work – and of all people, Mr Lang was there.’

  ‘All the way from Edinburgh?’ asked Rosa. ‘Why?’

  ‘Seems he’s a relative of Mrs MacKenzie’s and they have furniture made by him in the house. Things I’d seen – wardrobes and a sideboard – but didn’t know where they’d come from. Anyway, that day when Mr Lang was there, the doctor introduced me, said I was a joiner but made furniture when I could and had just delivered an occasional table, as a matter of fact. Well, you can maybe guess the rest!’ Daniel’s smile was broad, his eyes sparkling.

  ‘Mr Lang liked your table?’

  ‘He did. Had a good look at it. Said I was wasted doing ordinary joinery, and if I wanted a job—’

  ‘And you said you did.’

  ‘And I said I did.’ Daniel suddenly took Rosa’s hand. ‘You don’t blame me, do you? I know it means leaving the Highlands, my home, but after what happened, living where I live has been spoiled for me now. This move will give me work I’ve always wanted to do and at the same time a fresh start. I couldn’t turn it down, Rosa, could I?’

  When she shook her head, he went on, ‘Of course, my mother’s in a state, as you’ll guess. She can sort of understand why I want to move, she just doesn’t want me to do it. But it’s my chance to make a better life. You see I have to take it?’

  ‘Yes, I see.’ Rosa looked down at her hand still clasped in his. ‘It’s just – well, I’ll miss you, I suppose.’