Laughing, Peaches struck a few vintage-sidecar-girl poses, or what she imagined they might look like, before she unscrewed the metal cage over the neck of the bottle. ‘Ready?’
Euan readied his phone once more. ‘Three, two, one…’
She eased the cork from the bottle and they cheered as it shot off into the car park hedging, Euan snapping pictures the whole time and capturing the froth spilling onto the nose of the sidecar.
‘Oops, sorry!’
‘No, no, it’s great,’ he said, switching to movie mode. ‘Clyde named this ship, I mean sidecar, Rosie. May Steve McQueen bless her and all who ride in her.’
As they smoothly circled the car park, testing out whether the bumpiness was tolerable for her even with the cushioned seat, Peaches made herself comfortable beneath the warm blanket and gingerly took a sip from the bottle.
‘What do you reckon? Do we take Rosie for a proper spin?’ Euan asked, before knocking the helmet down over his head.
After one more intoxicating mouthful, and then another one for the road, Peaches put her own helmet on.
Euan’s eyes gleamed as his visor snapped shut, and with uncontained glee they pulled out onto the country road, lit only by moonbeams and Rosie’s glittering headlight.
17
When they pulled up outside the McDowell townhouse and Euan cut Rosie’s engine, Peaches told him she didn’t want to go inside.
Every light in the house was on, even though it was getting on for midnight. She was looking up at her mother’s bedroom window.
‘No sign of her pacing about,’ Peaches said, like that was some sort of consolation. Everything was still and silent.
‘You sure I’m OK parking this here?’ Euan whispered, his eyes following Peaches’ up to the third-floor bedroom window.
‘Nobody will mind,’ Peaches said.
‘The Ptarmigan will have just closed for the night,’ said Euan, not that he really felt like taking Peaches to a noisy nightclub, and he’d run out of money anyway. And they’d both decided they couldn’t very well go back to Clyde’s. That would be testing his hospitality, and Euan had no idea how he’d react to him bringing a girl home in the middle of the night, even if it was just to talk.
Euan looked around the silent valley. Over the rooftops, the beacons were burned to embers and smoking on the dark hills.
‘There’s only one place I can think of,’ he said. ‘If you still want to stay up?’
Peaches was typing into her phone and hitting send. He didn’t catch the words but he watched her glancing anxiously up at the imposing old house. A shadow shifted against the bedroom blinds.
‘It’s changed to “read”. Look.’ Peaches showed him her screen, where grey bubbles rippled. Her mum was typing a reply.
He quickly read the message Peaches had just sent.
I’m with Euan. We’re going to stay out a little longer to celebrate, but don’t worry, I trust him and you can trust me. I’ve got my key. x
Then, suddenly… nothing. The incoming message bubbles stopped.
‘Oh Jeez!’
‘Maybe you should just go in?’ Euan suggested, a little half-heartedly.
At every window in Carenza’s house, the lights went out. Every one except the porch lights in front of them.
He couldn’t have known it but, for a brief moment, Peaches’ panic spiked at the sight of her home falling into darkness. Her long training in obedience was telling her she was in big trouble and she had better run right along and get to bed. She was thinkingwhat a thing to do to her poor mother,after everything she’d done for her, and on the night of their showcase as well! She was busy telling herself what a horrible, ungrateful daughter she was and that Carenza would be up there worried sick. Yet, her truer instincts were also telling her to stand firm. It was equally as likely that Carenza’s worry would be mixed up with a whole heap of resentment and wrath, and she’d just about had enough of being ruled by them.
‘It’s probably best to let her cool off,’ she said, before taking a long drink from the bottle and handing it to Euan. ‘I’ll face the storm tomorrow. So, you said you knew somewhere?’
‘This way,’ he said smilingly, pointing their way down a lamplit side street and towards the dark hills.
Big Kenneth, the Ptarmigan’s doorman (as well as Cairn Dhu’s resident milkman), took a wee bit more convincing than Euan might have liked, but after a moment’s grumbling, he relented.
