Her husband agreed. ‘Aye, I’d have said the same thing. Wasn’t expecting you to be a redhead. And I cannae hear the Swedish accent at all.’
Beside me, Callum choked into his napkin and I struggled to swallow my first regrettable mouthful.
‘Are you all right?’ Lizzie asked in alarm.
‘He’s fine,’ I replied without even checking. ‘No Swedish accent, right, well, that’s because I’ve been in England so long.’
‘Probably stronger when you’re in Sweden,’ Derek reasoned.
‘Probably,’ I agreed. ‘Like Callum. His accent is much stronger up here than it is in London.’
‘That’s because he forgets where he’s from,’ Lizzie said. ‘Or he tries to.’
Callum’s fork froze halfway to his mouth and I recoiled from the tension between mother and son.
‘A redhead from Sweden, I bet you don’t get many of those to the pound,’ Derek guffawed, either oblivious or ignoring it. ‘The daftie refused to send us a photo, said you hate having your picture taken. It’s like getting blood out of a stone, getting him to tell us anything about you.’
‘Except that I’m a vegan Swedish masseuse who doesn’t drink,’ I said, sucking my teeth when Callum coughed.
‘A blonde, vegan Swedish masseuse who doesn’t drink.’
Everyone looked up at once.
Standing in the doorway was a tall woman, auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail, the exact same sapphire blue eyes as Callum set in her offensively pretty, makeup-less face.
‘Brother,’ she said.
‘Elsie,’ Callum replied. ‘This is Caroline.’
‘Is it.’
Elsie. His sister. She glared at me and it didn’t take the mind of a neurosurgeon to work out she wasn’t especially pleased to see either of us.
‘Didn’t know you were here,’ Callum said. ‘Aren’t you sitting down?’
Her heavy-looking work jacket rustled as she crossed her arms.
‘I’m always here, I live here. I’m also working, farms don’t take days off.’
‘Och, sit down, Else, have something to eat.’ Derek shunted his seat backwards, the wooden legs creaking loudly. ‘You take my plate, I’ve barely touched it. I’ll get another from Fiona.’
Still eyeing me with more suspicion than I was comfortable with, she shook her head. ‘No time, Dad. I need to move the sheep out of the high field, there’s a flood warning.’
‘Is there? Let me help you.’
He started to stand but Lizzie grabbed his wrist.
‘You’ll sit down and eat your lunch,’ she instructed. ‘Elsie knows what she’s doing. If she wanted help, she’d ask for it.’
‘I’m here if you need an extra pair of hands?’ Callum offered, pushing up his sleeves, looking ready to wrangle a dozen lambs there and then.
‘She meant if I needed help on the farm, not someone to bake a souffle,’ his sister returned coolly and beside me I saw Callum swallow hard, sinking down into himself. ‘Couldn’t have you getting your precious handsdirty, Cal. Unless you need to impress the delicate little princess here.’
Oh.Oh. My eyes popped open. She was talking aboutme. I didn’t care what Elsie McClay had heard about Caroline, that was fighting talk.
‘Callum doesn’t need to prove himself to me by chasing livestock around a field,’ I assured her, sweet enough to rot teeth. ‘He doesn’t need to do anything to impress me.’
‘Just as well because he’s fucking useless.’
