It Happened in the Highlands by May McGoldrick

Author:May McGoldrick
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter 13

By Thursday morning Jo still hadn’t informed her hosts about her difficult decision to leave in two days for Torrishbrae. She’d only intended to stop briefly as she passed through. But as she looked at the patients enjoying the spring sunshine and busying themselves around the pond closest to the Abbey buildings, Jo could almost feel the invisible ties that had already formed.

Sitting on a blanket on the lee side of a large boulder, she looked at Charles Barton. The bruises from last week’s attack were fading, and thankfully, there were no lasting effects. He was drawing furiously beside her. Her task was to put each drawing on the growing stack beneath the rock they were using to secure the sheets of paper against the breeze. Mr. Fyffe danced by, sawing away at his imaginary fiddle, and Mr. Stevenson was sitting calmly by a host of daffodils, an attendant lounging on either side of him. A dozen other men were spread along the edge of the pond, fishing poles in hand.

The peculiarities in the behavior of the patients in the annex had become less and less strange to her. Jo was surprised how quickly one came to accept their quirks and their difference. While she was watching them, a shout drew her gaze across the pond as a patient landed a trout, which flopped and flashed on the grass in the sunlight, to the delight of all.

Hamish, the farm manager, greeted her as he and an assistant went by, inspecting the banks of the pond as he made his way toward the small dam. Normally, Cuffe would have been with him on such an occasion, but he was otherwise engaged this morning with his father.

Her companion interrupted her thoughts, handing her another drawing, which she dutifully secured.

The Squire and his wife were unrelenting in their efforts to press their nephew’s matrimonial case, but Jo sensed that Dr. McKendry was having too good a time playing the role of a rejected suitor when he had an audience. The air of exaggeration in his suffering reminded Jo of comic performances at the theatre in Drury Lane. Still, his family’s warmth and hospitality were exceeded only by their unintentional social blunders and their fondness for local gossip.

Jo had formed attachments here, to be sure, but more than any of the others, it was almost unbearable to think of leaving Wynne and Cuffe. They needed time, however, for themselves.

The father-and-son conversation they’d shared at Knockburn Hall had marked a new chapter for both of them. Last night, Cuffe even decided to join the family for dinner. And now this morning, they had ridden together to the village for the Thursday market.

Jo was glad they had gone alone. They’d both asked her to accompany them, but as much as she wanted to go, she couldn’t. By not going, she was giving the two a chance to build their relationship. These times together were critical for them, and she would not allow herself to intrude.

The ache that gnawed at her when she thought of leaving was back.

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