Cally kissed Birdie then Eloise. ‘So pleased to see you.’
Nina gushed. 'I can't believe how beautiful it is.’ She turned a slow circle to take in the full view. 'Look at those trees, all covered in snow! I’m sold already. Sign me up for a timeshare.’
Birdie kept shaking her head. ‘Nice, nice, nice.’
Nina nodded enthusiastically. 'The lanes as we were driving here were spectacular! All those snow-covered hills and lochs…’
Robby chimed in. 'I think I’ve taken about a hundred photos already!'
As they stood on the driveway getting the luggage, a light flurry of snow continued to fall. Tiny feather-like flakes danced in the air around them, and Birdie held out her hand, catching a couple on her hand. 'It's magical. Thankssomuch for inviting me. I can’t believe I’m finally here.’
Cally laughed. ‘All Logan’s idea.’ She smiled at Birdie as she saw on Birdie’s face what she’d first felt when she herself had arrived at the estate, albeit around the corner at the cottage and not at the main house. She saw Birdie feeling the same thing: a combination of overwhelm at the startling beauty and a bit shell-shocked at the vastness at the same time.
As they all filed around the side to the boot room and then through to the kitchen, where a fire roared, Logan squeezed Cally’s arm. ‘All good?’
‘Yep, thank you for this. Couldn’t be better.’
45
Cally walked into the sitting room in the cottage and let out a long whoosh of a sigh. Just as her previous time in Scotland, she loved the little house, and with its roof and gardens covered in a blanket of white, it was even better. There was something about it that felt as if it insulated her from the world. As if it cocooned her from real life. It always made her chuckle that the cottage was referred to almost as a side thought by those at the estate. To her, it was a sizable house – and not a small one at that. She plumped up a cushion on the sofa, put her mug on the coffee table, and sat down.
Nothing had changed since she’d visited earlier in the year apart from the fact that it now wore pretty Christmas decorations. It still had the same timeless wallpaper, the same beautiful old sofa, and the same picture over the fireplace. The cosy, comforting smell remained, just like before and it was all still immaculate, a testament to how well everything was looked after on the estate. There was not a speck of dust to be seen, the beautiful curtains fell into folds just so, the rug appeared to be freshly vacuumed, and there was a faint smell of furniture polish in the air. Now, it also sparkled with festivity: a Christmastree twinkled next to the window and a beautiful real fir garland doused in white lights glittered from the mantelpiece.
Cally sipped her tea, looked out the window and just stared at the view, and hugged herself about having a weekend in the countryside with people she loved. Logan came and stood by the fire with a mug of tea and smiled.
‘All good?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows.
‘Yep.’
Logan gestured towards the window. ‘Would you rather have stayed at the house with everyone else?’
Cally shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. Cottage every time for me.’
Logan shook his head and laughed. ‘I don’t think Birdie is with you on that.’
‘Nope. She loves it at the main house. I reckon she’d have been put out if she was in one of the cottages.’
‘Ha, yeah. I thought the same, too. She’d make a good lady of the manor.’
‘Wouldn’t we all?’
‘It's been a nice break so far, hasn’t it?’
‘It really has.’ Cally was grateful that Logan had planned the weekend. Despite her concern more than a few times that Logan might have planned something to do with Alastair’s passing, that hadn’t happened. Since they’d arrived in Scotland, there hadn’t been a whiff of anything really at all.
‘We’ll have to make a tradition of coming up here at this time of year.’
‘I can work with that.’ Cally smiled.
Logan finished his tea. ‘Right. Okay, I’ll love you and leave you then.
‘You’re going to meet Reg and Robby at the pub?’
‘Yep. Enjoy your afternoon tea. Don’t make yourself sick on Mrs MacPherson’s shortbread.’
Cally smiled and widened her eyes. She was going to the main house for afternoon tea with Birdie, Eloise, and Nina. She intended to consume as much shortbread as humanly possible.
If anyone had ever looked in their element and been as pleased as Punch, it was Birdie sitting in a wingback chair in the drawing room by the fire just shy of a tall, twinkling real fir Christmas tree. Cally laughed as she looked across; Birdie had smug written all over her face.
