Page 54 of Scotlander

Finn had actually seen him try to speak to Willa a couple of times today. Once over lunch and again when they’d got back from the barns, but Willa had come up with excuses both times. The fact she was sitting near them was a good sign, though.

‘Will we be doing any scything?’ Jeff asked.

Orla’s near permanently cheerful smile faltered.

Before she could answer, Fenella laughed. ‘That’s Poldark, you dill!’ She turned to Trevor, her fake spouse, and said, ‘No offence, mo luaidh, but if Poldark walked right now? I’d dump you like a hot potato.’

‘Eh, well, lassie.’ Trevor thrust his chest out and gave it a thump with his fist. ‘You havenae seen me throw a caber aboot, have ya?’

He jumped up and on to the stump he’d been sitting on, wobbled, then fell off, knocking Fenella off her stump in the process.

‘Right, then, matey.’ Fenella huffed her irritation as she reluctantly let Trevor pull her up. She swatted him away, batted some of the dust out of her skirt and scanned the group. ‘Who’s up for a husband swap?’

There was an unexpectedly weighty silence until ChiChi volunteered Alastair. Amidst his cries of protest she shouted, ‘But I’d like him back for Wednesday. Wednesday night, anyway.’

Fenella and Jules crowed a pair of raunchy ‘Ooooooo!’s.

Jennifer set her wicker basket on her lap, pulled out her ever-present knitting and innocently asked, ‘Why? What’s Wednesday?’

ChiChi threw Alastair a look.

‘New moon,’ Alastair said, a note of pride in his voice, as if he wasn’t often in a position to impart facts to the group. ‘There’s a meteor shower too.’

‘Orionids,’ said ChiChi with an uncharacteristic giggle. ‘I’ve not seen them before. There’s so much light pollution down south.’

Alastair gave her cheek a tender little thumb and knuckle pinch. ‘ChiChi says we’ll be able to see things extra clearly up here in the Highlands. She brought her telescope and everything.’

The two shared a look that suggested their day together, despite the oil spill, had been a good one.

‘Eh, Fenella! How ’bout I show you my telescope.’ Trevor began to swagger around the firepit, hips thrust forward, completely unfazed by the chorus of groans and Fenella’s screams of ‘Oh god, no! We kill venomous snakes where I come from, matey!’

After the laughter had died down, Fenella turned to ChiChi. ‘I’ll take you up on that husband swap, thanks, doll. Maybe you can knock some sense into this hunk o’ spunk’s brain. You’re alright with building stone walls, are you?’

‘What about you, Willa?’ Rosa asked with a knowing wink. ‘We saw that you went down to the barns with your Jamie. Was it like in the books?’

Finn bit back a smile. This should be interesting.

Her eyes shot to him with a panicked, what do I say?

He shrugged. How would he know?

Willa lifted her shoulders and gave a nonchalant, ‘Absolutely. Identical.’

Trevor grunted out a protest. ‘Shaggin’ in the barns on the first day, eh?’

Fenella glared at him. ‘If I’d had Finn as my husband? I would.’

‘I thought it was look don’t touch!’ Trevor scowled. He let his tin plate fall with a clatter on the washing up table. ‘Trust Finn Jamieson to make his own set of rules yet again.’

He felt the group’s eyes turn to him. Finn shook his head, irritated. Trevor McNulty had worn a chip on his shoulder ever since they’d met. Always picking and pushing and testing to see just how far he could push Finn until, one day – and it would happen – Finn threw the first of a long series of overdue punches.

‘I obey the word of law according to Orla,’ Finn said.

Orla, to his relief, didn’t contest the declaration.

Gabe jumped in. ‘Willa’s very much in the don’t-ask-don’t-tell camp of keeping confidences, aren’t you, bonita? A lot like Claire, you learnt many lessons about loyalty at the nunnery. Right?’

‘Yes,’ she said solemnly. ‘When you came to pick me up from the nunnery I said as much, didn’t I? What happens at the immersive Jacobean experience, stays at the immersive Jacobean experience. And that holds true for barns as well.’