The Posy Ring Episode 80

She heads back to Auchenblae, taking Hector with her. He seems to have accepted the sudden imposition of dual ownership, and hops into the car happily enough. “What an obliging dog you are,” she says to him. He wags his tail.

On the way, she drops in at the hotel, relieved to see that the Jaguar has already gone. So William must have got the first ferry, as planned. She explains things, as far as she can without breaking too many confidences, to Elspeth Cameron.

“He’s selling Carraig?” says the older woman, horrified. “But that will break Cal’s heart. He loves the place and he loves the island too. What will he do?”

“I honestly don’t know. He’s going to phone his sister for a chat. Maybe she’ll have some ideas.”

Joint ownership

Too late, she realises that Mrs Cameron will almost certainly make assumptions about where she has spent the night. Should she fib, say she has just driven in for milk and bread? But then she might be caught out in the lie. And it isn’t really any of Mrs Cameron’s business. They’re both grown-up people. As it is, Elspeth is too shocked about Carraig to enquire.

“Can he just do that? Up and sell it, just like that? I thought it was Fiona’s cottage, originally.”

“Cal says it’s William’s property as well now. I suppose once they were married he had joint ownership. He can presumably do what he likes with it if Fiona doesn’t object. It isn’t Cal’s main home, or William’s for that matter. It’s a holiday cottage, although I don’t think that’s how Cal sees it.”

“But that’s appalling. And I don’t suppose Catty will be able to do anything about it either.”

“He says not.”

“Well, hill farming, three kids, there’s no spare cash in that branch of the family, that’s for sure.”

She has coffee with Elspeth Cameron while they chew over the sins of William Galbraith, in a corner of the hotel lounge. Then she heads back to Auchenblae.

Hector seems just as enthusiastic about being back here as he does about Carraig, rushing to find his water bowl and his bed.

“We might need to get you another bed,” she tells him, aware that she is planning for the relationship with Cal to continue, wondering if that’s wise. If Carraig is sold, he might never come back here again.

You can see him in Glasgow, whispers the voice inside her head. And besides, there are other possibilities, aren’t there?

“Don’t go there!” she says aloud. Hector looks up at her and wags his tail obligingly. Don’t go where, he wonders, more or less understanding the phrase, not aware that he had been doing anything amiss.

The thought has occurred to her that she could ask Cal to come here, to Auchenblae. It isn’t as if she doesn’t have plenty of room. Plenty of rooms, as well, although she can’t see that being an issue.

And outbuildings where it would be perfectly possible to conduct a furniture renovation and upcycling business. But it seems much too early in their relationship to suggest such a thing. It’s one of those convenient fantasies, and if it all goes pearshaped, as these things seem to have a habit of doing, what then?

How could she, not to put too fine a point on it, get rid of him, once he was settled in? She needs more time. Perhaps by the end of June things will be clearer, if William carries out his threat to put Carraig on the market. Perhaps he will think better of it. Perhaps something will happen to stop him.

Antique centre

She goes upstairs and starts to sort out the things from Viola’s room that she has considered selling, dividing them all over again into items that might go online and others that might be better sold at an antique fair in the city.

She remembers passing a signpost to an antique centre on the way to the island and it strikes her that she might be better to rent space closer to the island, or find more local antique markets or fairs.

It’s all very well for Cal to try to work between the countryside and the city, but in view of the magnitude of the task in front of her – reducing the contents of the house to more manageable proportions and attempting to make some money out of them at the same time – it might be better to focus on that and whatever income she can make from it over the summer.

Later, she opens the box containing the posy ring, just to be sure it’s still there. She takes it out, puts it on the oak table, examines it, slips it on her finger.

Shower of emotions

When she lifts her eyes it’s to find the portrait of Lilias watching her – but of course in this kind of portrait the gaze often does follow the viewer. Nevertheless, it’s almost as though there is a certain reproachful quality to it. The ring is warm and comfortable on her finger.

A time will come. You and no other, she thinks. Quite suddenly, she is assailed by a sense of... what? It’s like being dowsed in a shower of emotions, so powerful that they make her catch her breath. She wonders if it is sadness, but there’s more energy about it than that. It’s positive.

She realises that what she is feeling is desire: overwhelming, uncomfortable, physical desire. She tries to pull the ring off but her finger must have swollen because it catches on her knuckle and she can’t get it off. She panics, tugging at it, but the more she pulls, the more firmly it seems to be lodged.

Barbed wire

She hears a car in the lane, followed by the gate opening. Hector barks and then wags his tail furiously. It’s Cal. She’s still sitting at the table, frowning at her finger that is now red and swollen. She calls to him to come in, the door’s open. She waves her hand at him.

“Look. I can’t seem to get it off.”

“Let me see.”

It’s becoming increasingly painful: like a band of barbed wire around her finger.

“It’s ridiculous. It was quite loose yesterday!” she says.

“I know it was. I put finger.”

He takes her other hand and pulls her to her feet. “Come into the scullery, quickly, before it gets any more swollen.” it on the same

The ring is warm and comfortable on her finger. A time will come. You and no other, she thinks

The Posy Ring, first in the series The Annals of Flowerfield, is written by Catherine Czerkawska and published by Saraband. It is priced at £8.99.