His father was less able to rise and welcome Alicia in such a way, but Jamie warmed as Alicia approached him and shook his hand.
‘Delighted to meet you, Mr Butler. Jamie talks so highly of you. Of you all.’
‘Dad, Alicia is the artist who painted the scenes for the bottles,’ Jamie explained.
At this information, Jimmy’s face brightened in a way Jamie hadn’t seen in some time. ‘Your art is incredible,’ he said to Alicia. ‘It would be an honour to have it on the bottles. And please, call me Jimmy.’
‘And it would be an honour to be part of that,’ Alicia said warmly. ‘Thank you, Jimmy.’
‘Well, we can talk more about it during office hours,’ said Jimmy. ‘Assuming you aren’t dashing off anywhere?’
‘I wasn’t planning to. Was I?’ She turned to Jamie.
‘You’d better not be.’
Cal fetched an extra chair and put it next to Jamie’s, and Jamie and Alicia sat down.
‘So, what did I miss?’ Jamie asked, after introducing each of his siblings in turn.
‘Only most of the food and wine and all the gossip,’ said Eilidh.
‘Ignore that, there’s plenty of food in the kitchen.’ Amanda stood again. ‘Alicia, I’ll get you a plate. Is there anything you don’t eat?’
‘At this stage, I’ll eat anything,’ said Alicia. ‘I’m ravenous.’
All this talk of art on the bottles was well and good, but Jamie wasn’t at ease yet.
‘Does that mean we can press pause on Baron for now, Dad?’
‘How about we enjoy Christmas and talk business later.’ Jimmy took one of his legendary unexplained changes of direction. It would be anyone’s guess whether this meant he planned to forget the Baron deal or wait until his mind was fully focused. Jamie was itching with impatience at the uncertainty.
‘Are you okay?’ Alicia whispered to him.
‘Och, it’s this business deal. It’s doing my nut in. I thought the bottles might be enough to stall things for a bit.’
‘It would only be a stalling though,’ said Alicia. ‘Some limited-edition bottles aren’t the same as millions of dollars of investment.’
‘Aye.’ Jamie sighed. ‘But we don’t desperately need huge investment. Dad’s illness has just expedited things in his head. This urgency to solidify things grips him so he can feel in control.’
‘Hey, Alicia, I don’t suppose you brought your brother Connor with you?’ Cara butted into the conversation and Jamie cringed, although thankfully Cara hadn’t asked about Chad Bradbury. Fortunately, nobody in his family was that tactless.
‘I’m afraid not.’ Alicia was faultlessly polite as ever. ‘He’s at home, but he should be back in Scotland in the spring to filmClan Bràthairs.’
‘Oh, Jimmy and I love that show.’ Amanda had appeared back in the room with a plate for Alicia piled high with roast, potatoes and veggies. ‘Don’t we?’
‘Aye,’ Jimmy agreed. ‘Who did you say your brother is?’
‘Connor Donoghue. He plays Murdo Galbraith aka Sam McSkull.’
‘Oh, that lad. Now you say it I can see the resemblance. He’s a talented actor. So by my calculations, Clark Donoghue must be your father.’
‘That’s right,’ said Alicia. ‘All my family are actors, besides me.’
Jamie wanted to hug Alicia for wading into this territory, despite it being akin to taking a walk over a soaking bog where you could sink at any moment.
‘You know, I did have this idea for Butler’s,’ Alicia spoke directly to Jimmy. ‘I could run it by you?’
‘Aye.’ Jimmy brightened. ‘Please do.’
