Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers by Smith Alexander McCall

Author:Smith, Alexander McCall [Smith, Alexander McCall]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780804170017
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-17T08:00:00+00:00

38. Birgitte Becomes Irritating

Matthew had his misgivings about moving from India Street, but he was carried along on the wave of enthusiasm that seemed to embrace not only Elspeth but the two Danish au pairs as well. Birgitte, it transpired, was a country girl at heart, and she raised the question of whether she could possibly keep a pony in one of the fields attached to the house. She could teach the boys to ride, she said, and she would do all the work of feeding and grooming.

“All of it,” she said. “You will not have to lift a thumb.”

“A finger,” muttered Matthew.

“Nor that,” said Birgitte.

He looked at her in astonishment; the boys were still very small, not even a year old, which made him wonder how long she was thinking of staying with them. You could put a three-year-old on a docile pony, he imagined, but surely it would be dangerous to try it with a child any younger than that. Did she intend to be here for the next two years—or even longer?

“But you’ll be going back to Denmark,” he said mildly. “So I don’t know if …”

Birgitte waved a hand airily in what she took to be the general direction of Denmark. “Oh, there’s no hurry to do that,” she said. “Denmark will still be there.”

Anna nodded her agreement. “Denmark is not as exciting as Scotland,” she said. “I don’t think I shall ever return. I am sure that many more Danish people will be coming over here, once they find out how nice it is.”

This conversation took place after Elspeth had organised a viewing time with the selling agents. Matthew tried to catch her eye, to signal his concern over the assumptions being made by both au pairs, but Elspeth was too enthused to notice.

“We’ll all go,” she said. “Everybody can have a look round.”

“Perfect,” said Birgitte. “But Anna must stay to look after the boys. I shall have to go so that I can advise on the horse angle.”

“We haven’t actually decided about …” began Matthew.

“It may be necessary to build new stables,” Birgitte continued. “But we can decide about that later.”

“I’m not sure …” Matthew said.

“Never have just one pony,” advised Birgitte. “Horses get terribly lonely. They pine for a friend.”

They made the trip in the late morning, Birgitte sitting in the back of the car offering advice on a range of topics as they drove out of Edinburgh. “I do hope that the house faces west,” she said. “Then you get the morning light at the back and the evening light on the front. When I was in Jutland I stayed in a place that was completely the wrong way round. It was very uncomfortable. You knew you were the wrong way round the moment you went in. Mind you, there are some countries that are the wrong way round altogether. France is like that, you know. It faces north and south; it would be far better if it faced east and west, as America does.

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