“One more! And then bed. Okay?”
“You’re the best.” Priya wraps both arms around her mother’s waist and hugs her fiercely, burying her head in her arm.
I think of my own family. Mum’s barrage of messages, which I can’t bear to reply to. My dad’s singleHope you’re getting ontext. Sophie sent me a voice note earlier, but I’m too scared to listen to it. I should be at the farm with her now, helping her set up the flowers, telling her she’s never looked more beautiful, laying out tablecloths, checking that every detail is the way she wants.
I haven’t even told her the truth.
The song ends, and a new band get on the stage. I’ve been so lost in my own thoughts I’ve hardly heard the music, and when I surface Priya is nodding off again, and Ewan’s left our table to flirt with a couple of girls by the bar.
“Song’s over, baby. Time for bed.”
Priya is sprawled over Lila’s lap, mouth open, fully out of it. Her mother shakes her, but it does nothing to wake her, and Lila laughs under her breath.
“Like mother, like daughter.” She shrugs. “We both sleep like the dead. Would have been a little more convenient if she’d waited to get back to the tent!”
“I’ll carry her, if you like?” Angus offers.
Lila beams. “That’s very kind.”
“It’s no trouble.” I stifle a pang of disappointment as Angus stands, his warmth leaving my side, and scoops Priya up in his big arms. “Come on, little lass.”
“Rowan?” Lila asks.
“I’m coming.”
Watching Ewan flirt doesn’t appeal to me, and I can keenly feel the miles we’ve walked. I am beyond ready for my sleeping bag. I stifle a yawn, and stagger after them into the bracingly cold air.
Back at the campsite, Angus lays Priya on her sleeping bag and helps Lila tuck her in. We leave them curled around each other like kittens, and wander back to our own tents.
“Why did you do it?” I ask as I pause by mine.
“Why did I do what?”
“Sing.”
Angus lifts one shoulder. “Thought it might help the lass if she saw someone else do it. And I like singing. Always have.” He pauses. “My Ma, she loved to sing. I’d almost forgotten.”
“Did she?”
“Aye. From the crack of dawn, all day until bed, she’d have a tune on her lips. Proper belter, she was. My Da, he called her his little lark.”
“What happened?”
“She left when I was ten. Couldn’t hack it on the farm.” Angus frowns and tilts his head to look at the stars. “It’s not an easy life. Long days, hard work. It takes a toll on you, body and soul. My Ma, she never loved it. Not the way Da did. One day, I woke up, and she was gone. Broke my Da’s heart clean in two. He was never the same after. None of us were.”
“You have siblings?”
“Two brothers. Twins. Absolute menaces.” Angus rubs the back of his neck. “They’re five years younger than me, so they were five when Ma bolted. They didn’t understand why she’d gone. Why she wasn’t still there to tuck them into bed. Trying to explain it to them was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
“And you don’t know where she went?”
“No.”
I want to touch him. Want to run a hand through his hair, stroke the soft hairs at the base of his head. Tell him it will all be alright. I wish I could scoop up the little boy he used to be, who’s grown into the kind-hearted, gruff man he is.
But I’m a coward. So I keep my distance. “You don’t seem like the wedding type to me,” I say instead. “Why the change?”
He sighs. “The farm’s been in my family for generations. Da worked it, and his Da before him, and so on and so forth. But things are hard these days, and getting harder. My brothers, they’ve never had much of an interest in it, and with only me… We weren’t making ends meet. So now we’re trying to pivot. Become a fancy events space. Weddings. Anniversaries. Festivals. All sorts. Whatever whoever rents it wants. My best friend, Stuart, he’s invested a lot in it, to help us out.Volunteered to be the wedding planner too. And his husband, Jonathan, he’s making your sister’s cake.”
