Adam collapsed into a chair and buried his face in his hands as a wave of relief swept over him.
“Did you get what you needed?” Cuthbert asked.
“Yes I did,” Adam replied. “Thank God and thank you, Bert.”
“What else is family for?” Cuthbert asked. “Other than doing each other favors and driving each other mad?”
Adam was glad to see his home town again, but he missed Scotland far more than he had expected to. He had been at Cuthbert’s house for a week when a group of his former friends descended on them in the freezing winter dusk. They were all slightly the worse for whisky and brandy, and ready for frivolity.
As soon as Peter Thorpe saw Adam, he rushed up to him and dived on him, almost knocking him down. The others, William Baker and Jeremy Cooper, staggered up and joined them in a group hug. They were all laughing and punching each other playfully in the way of young men with nothing to do and all the time in the world to do it in. Adam joined in, thrilled to see his old boyhood friends. Eventually the group broke up and everyone sat, or collapsed, into chairs.
They sat chatting for a while, catching up on everyone’s news, then William broached the subject that Adam had been dreading.
“So Adam,” William said with a foolish smile. “We heard you went to the land of the kilt-wearing savages!” He howled at his own wit.
“Where you cannot tell the men and women apart because they all wear skirts!” Jeremy chortled. He was a tall man, but he had put on weight since Jeremy had last seen him and now his fat jowls were wobbling.
Before Adam could answer, Peter decided to put in his tuppenceworth. “Yes, they say that the women are so ugly even the pigs are prettier!” He threw back his head and his howls of laughter set the others off again, and in a few moments they were all roaring with mirth. However, Adam, whose face was expressionless, sat as still as a marble statue.
He watched his erstwhile friends rolling around with laughter, and suddenly he despised them. He waited till they had all calmed down then said, “Has any one of you ever been to Scotland?”
They all looked at each other. “There is peace now,” William pointed out. “Why would we want to go to that benighted place?” His blue eyes looked puzzled. “The most attractive things there are the orange cattle. I hear they are far more attractive than the women!”
“And how do you know this?” Adam asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
“We heard from one of the soldiers,” Jeremy replied. “Can’t recall his name now.” He was frowning as he tried to remember. His mind was so befuddled with whisky, however, that he could barely remember his own name.
“So you are all experts on Scotland despite the fact that none of you have ever been there?” Adam put down his wine glass. “Let me tell you that it is the most beautiful country I have ever seen in all my life. The people are friendly, even to me, an Englishman, and I hold them in higher esteem than I do any of you.” He stood up. “Leave.”
The three men stared at him in astonishment.
“You mean you are choosing a crowd of Scottish savages over your friends?” Peter asked in disbelief.
“They are not savages, and they are better people than you will ever be!” Adam shouted. “Now leave.”
“Gladly!” Jeremy spat as he waddled past Adam, who shut the door behind them without even a goodbye.
Adam sat and thought for a while, looking into the deep winter night. Suddenly he wanted to be anywhere else but there. He had enjoyed his visit to Cuthbert’s, but it was time to go home to the Highlands, because he knew now that wherever Emilia was had to be where he was too. He might have grown up in England, but Scotland was the home of his heart.
He told Cuthbert the next day.
His cousin looked at him as though he had lost his wits. “But Adam—” he began.
Adam held up a warning hand and shook his head. “But Adam nothing, Bert,” he said firmly. “I am goinghome. Home to where I belong, in Scotland. I will write a letter to Christophe telling him where I am and he can meet us in Inverinch.”
“You are mad,” Cuthbert sighed.
“I will do what I want,” Adam replied. “And right now I want to go back.”
16
After almost four days...
“I thought you were going into the village?” Agnes asked her daughter, looking at her forbidding expression with concern.
“I changed my mind,” Emilia snapped. “It is going to rain.”
Agnes looked out the window and saw that the clouds were gathering, but that was not what was upsetting Emilia. “I see.” Agnes knew Emilia’s every facial expression, and when she was wearing this one she was not to be trifled with. It took a long time to set Emilia’s temper alight, but when it happened it was like a volcano erupting. Agnes knew from experience that the best thing to do was let her calm down on her own, but she became more troubled when she heard Emilia’s door being locked from the inside. Emilia rarely locked her door.
