LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Two

      ‘WOULD you like more coffee? I just made a fresh pot.’ Izzy’s housemate lifted the coffee percolator, letting it hover over two brightly painted ceramic mugs in the centre of the kitchen table.

      ‘Yes, please…Anything to warm me up. It’s freezing in here.’ Izzy chafed her arms with her hands in an effort to drum up some heat. ‘We really need to get that central heating fixed, or at the least buy a portable heater.’ She frowned, gazing around the room. ‘I suppose I could make some toast—the heat from the grill will probably make us feel better.’

      Lorna nodded. ‘Good idea. I’ll fry some bacon. I’m really in the mood for toasted bacon sandwiches to set me up for a day in A&E.’ She grinned. ‘Just in case we don’t make it down to the cafeteria again.’

      ‘Good idea.’ Izzy took out a loaf of bread from the wooden bin. ‘But I’ve been thinking…We could take our own food in to the hospital—sandwiches, biscuits, cereal bars…anything that we can cover with clingfilm and set out on a trolley. That way we’ll have stuff on hand if things get hectic.’ She smiled. ‘I thought it was great when Greg brought in hot sausage rolls and pastries the other day. They gave me the will to go on.’

      ‘Me, too.’ Lorna replaced the coffeepot on its base and went to get a frying pan from the cupboard. ‘As to the central heating, and all the other repairs that need doing around here, I suppose Ross will need a bit of time to settle in before he gets round to sorting things out. That’s if he means to stay, of course. It could just be that he’s brought the children over to be closer to Alice, and once she’s up and about he’ll be off.’ Lorna hesitated, frying pan in hand, thinking things through.

      She was a slender girl, with a mop of fair hair that had a flyaway look about it, as though it was permanently out of control—pretty much on a par with her bubbly character. Just now, though, her blue eyes were thoughtful. ‘Then again,’ she murmured, ‘he always had a bit of a thing for Alice, didn’t he? In fact, if you recall, the rumour was that she was seeing Ross long before she decided to run off with his brother. Quite the scandal at the time, I hear.’

      ‘Yes, it was.’ Izzy frowned. ‘Especially where my father was concerned. He hated the thought that she had anything at all to do with any of the Buchanans.’

      Lorna placed the frying pan on the hob and turned towards Izzy, throwing her an anxious look. ‘Oh, I’m sorry, Izzy…I was forgetting for a minute that she’s your cousin. I didn’t mean to say anything out of line—it’s just that everyone’s talking about Ross coming back here. People are wondering what’s going to happen about the crofts, and whether they can do anything to improve the general standard of living. And on top of all that they’re buzzing with talk about the way your families have been at each other’s throats for as far back as anyone can remember. There doesn’t seem to be any getting away from it. Of course they’re all siding with you and your parents and Alice.’

      ‘It’s all right, Lorna. I knew as soon as I saw Ross was back in Glenmuir that the tongues would start wagging. I don’t know what he’s going to do about the crofts. Most people hereabouts lease the land and the cottages from him, but I imagine he’ll have to put his own house in order before he can find time to look into any concerns they might have about their livelihoods. I suppose he could always say that what they do with the land is up to them for the term of the lease.’

      ‘Not his problem, you mean?’ Lorna pulled a face. ‘You could be right. But people seem to think Ross should do something so that they can make a decent living from the land. It’s history rearing its head once again—you know how it is…people around here don’t let go of the past easily. They’re convinced their rights were taken from them in the Highland Clearances well over a hundred years ago. At the very least they think he should pay them compensation on behalf of his ancestors.’

      Izzy switched on the grill and set bread out on the rack. ‘That’s fighting talk,’ she said with a husky laugh. ‘But, knowing how the Buchanans operate, I doubt it will get them very far. They’ve always known how to manoeuvre their way through the legal system and come out the winners.’

      ‘I’m told the Buchanans have oodles of charisma when they choose to exert it, and none of it lost on the women who cross their paths…’ Lorna turned the heat on under the pan and added rashers of bacon. ‘That was the start of things with your families, wasn’t it?’ she asked. ‘Your father’s great-aunt being seduced by the former Laird—Ross’s great-grandfather—some eighty odd years ago.’

      ‘That’s very true.’ Izzy slotted the grill pan under the heat. ‘Of course it caused all kinds of anger and heartache and general mayhem when she died in childbirth. That really upset the McKinnons and added fuel to the fire. I think my father, when he was growing up, soaked up all the vitriol that was poured on the Buchanans, and consequently he has no time for them.

      ‘Alice going off with Robert Buchanan was history repeating itself, and that well and truly stirred the melting pot, didn’t it?’

      ‘What happened when Robert and Alice took off?’

      ‘My father exploded, but at least he directed most of his anger towards Robert back then. I suppose it made things worse because Alice had been seeing Ross to begin with, and at least he was the steady one, whereas Robert always had a wild streak.’

      Alice and Ross…Izzy shied away from that thought. How deep had their feelings been for one another before Alice had turned to Robert? Did Ross still care for her in the same way? She pulled herself together, aware that Lorna was waiting for her to go on.

      ‘Alice was young, and had obviously been led astray by both Buchanans,’ she said, ‘but for all that my father wouldn’t forgive her. He’s never had much to do with her children, either. My mother has always kept in touch with the family, by letter and the occasional visit, but she’s very wary of what my father would have to say on the subject. She keeps things low-key and tries not to provoke him.’

      She frowned. ‘The only real difference, for all the scandal that it caused, was that Robert Buchanan was never going to be the new young Laird.’ Izzy pondered the situation as she laid hot toast down on the plates. ‘I can’t help wondering if that was what lay behind all the resentment simmering between him and Ross. As the older brother, Ross was the one to take over the estate. Robert always wanted what Ross had, and unfortunately that included his girlfriends.’

      ‘That must have been some sibling rivalry.’ Lorna added tomatoes to the pan, and it wasn’t long before the appetising aroma of sizzling bacon filled the air.

      The kitchen was much warmer now, and Izzy began to place the plates on the table, ready for the meal. She was setting out cutlery when there was a loud knocking on the door.

      ‘I wonder who that can be,’ she said with a frown. ‘It’s barely seven-thirty in the morning. Who else would be up and about at this time of the day apart from farmers, doctors and the milkman?’

      ‘I did notice the milkman giving you the eye the other day,’ Lorna remarked with a hint of mischief. ‘I thought at the time he was just surprised to see you open the door at that hour, but I may have been wrong about that.’

      Acknowledging that with a smile, Izzy shook her head. ‘You have such a lively imagination.’ She went to find out who was there.

      A moment later she stared down at the two children who were

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