As Time Goes By

by Gillian Villiers

Genres: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis

When Lally has to house-sit her grandmother?s croft in the wildest part of Scotland with her scatter-brained sister Bel, she fully expects to soon return to her high-powered Edinburgh job. Bel has other plans, though, and Lally quickly finds the people and the place seeping into her soul. Or is it just one person, in the shape of new neighbour Iain? Torn between two worlds, Lally?s decision will not only impact on herself, but also on everyone around her.

Release date: March 24, 2016

Publisher: Accent Press

Print pages: 150

Sample

Chapter One

‘Lal, I think someone’s coming to Harbour House. It must be Sandy’s nephew at last! Isn’t it great he’s seeing it on a good day?’

Lal adjusted the lamb she was holding and inserted the feeding bottle into its mouth. ‘Are you sure it’s not just another day tripper having a mooch around?’

In the summer months the sisters were all too familiar with the friendly but sometimes intrusive curiosity of those who visited this remote northern corner of Scotland.

‘It’s not,’ said Bel triumphantly. ‘He’s got a key to the gate!’

‘Ah,’ said Lal. They had waited a long time for this mysterious nephew of Sandy’s to put in an appearance. He hadn’t seemed in any hurry to get here.

Lal let the lamb finish the last of the milk and then went over to stand beside her sister at the dry stone wall. From here they had a good view down to the wide bay below.

There was a very smart 4x4 parked at the gate to Harbour House, and the man beside it had driven the car through the gate and was locking it behind him. Goodness, did he really think he needed to do that? If Gran had had her way the whole place would have been left open. No one usually locked things around here, but the solicitor had insisted.

Lally smiled to herself as she thought of what this smart stranger would make of Harbour House. ‘House’ was actually a bit of a grand title. The original place might once have been the biggest building in the hamlet, but it hadn’t really been more than a three-bedroomed cottage with a few outbuildings. Now, apart from the Bothy, the whole place was derelict.

‘He’ll probably take one look and run a mile,’ she said hopefully. She had already taken a dislike to the nephew. He had never shown any interest in Sandy, and then he had left it so long to come and view his inheritance. She was sure he wasn’t her kind of person.

‘Pooph,’ replied Bel, hoping from one skinny leg to the other in her excitement. ‘Think of the hundreds of visitors who’ve been to our door to ask if the place is for sale. Everybody who sees it loves it. He’ll be no different.’

‘I’m not sure it’s your average city-dweller’s idea of a dream home.’ Lally didn’t know much about Sandy’s great-nephew, except that he lived in London. And even from this distance, his clothes, like his car, looked shiny and out of place.

‘I think I’ll go down and say hello,’ said Bel, already turning to leave. With Bel, to think was to act.

‘Maybe he won’t want …’

‘He’ll have loads of questions. Of course he’ll want someone to answer them.’

Lally watched her sister skipping across the field. It was good to see her with some energy again, although Lal wasn’t sure their new neighbour would be too impressed with his visitor. In her ancient shorts and baggy T-shirt, with a scarf tied over her bushy hair, she looked much younger than fourteen. He would think he was being visited by a miniature village tramp. Lal smiled again. Too bad. He might as well get to know Bel now as later; she certainly wasn’t going to leave him in peace.

She turned back to see how many lambs still needed to be fed. It looked like she would be finishing the job on her own.

Iain couldn’t believe he’d wasted a week’s precious holiday to come here. He’d known the place was a dump but the solicitor had spoken of ‘potential’. He should have guessed, when the old fusspot had been unable – unwilling? – to send some photographs, that the visit to Harbour House was going to be a disaster.

He parked the hired vehicle before a rickety gate. Thank goodness he’d opted for a four-wheel drive with a track like this! The only new thing in sight was the padlock, which fortunately opened the minute he inserted the similarly shiny key. Not that he was in any great hurry to get through the gate and look around. The place was a total mess.

Even from here he could see the house was uninhabitable. It didn’t seem to have a roof. How on earth had Great-uncle Alexander lived here for so many years? He hadn’t really been in touch with the rest of the family for decades, so Iain didn’t know the answer to that question.

Closing the gate carefully behind him, he followed the track to the left and up the slight rise away from the coast. Now he could see the house at close quarters and it definitely had no roof. It wasn’t just that the slates were missing; there weren’t even any rafters! The place was a disaster. After wandering around for a moment or two, he realised there were all manner of buildings scattered about in no particular order. And some of these looked in better shape than the house. Actually, there was one that looked almost promising.

This was a stone building standing at right angles to the ruined house. It had a roof that looked fairly new. And windows with glass in them. Now, this was a bit better.

He was peering through one of these glazed windows when he heard footsteps behind him. He jerked upright and looked around. You didn’t expect trouble in the back of beyond, but you couldn’t be too careful.

‘I see you’ve arrived,’ said a diminutive figure dressed in what Iain first thought were rags. Then he realised they were a crumpled T-shirt and rather dirty shorts. He thought the figure was a girl, although he couldn’t be quite sure, the hair being covered by a kind of gypsy scarf.

‘Er, hello,’ he said.

‘And hello to you too. You’re very welcome. I presume you’re Sandy’s great-nephew, the one he left his house to?’

The girl, for it was definitely a girl, stood before him with her hands on slim hips, her freckled face beaming at him expectantly. He didn’t reply immediately. He wasn’t used to being accosted by youngsters of this age, and certainly not with friendly intent.

She obviously thought he needed a little prompting and thrust out a small, freckled hand. ‘I’m Bel Dunmore. We’re your nearest neighbours, Tigh na Mara, the croft over there. How do you do?’

At that Iain had to smile, despite himself. He didn’t like people who were too forward, but the child was doing her best to make him welcome.

He bent to shake her hand gravely and said, ‘Iain Cunningham, pleased to meet you.’

The girl retrieved her hand and put it back on her hip, surveying him with the keen interest of someone much older. ‘And you are Sandy’s nephew, yes? We’ve been waiting ages for you to appear. Gran said we should give you time and Lally said you probably weren’t interested and were going to sell the place. Is she right?’

Iain reverted to his first opinion. This child was far too inquisitive.

‘I’ve been busy,’ he said repressively. ‘And now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to have a look around …’

He took the keys from his pocket, meaning this as a sign of dismissal, but the waif couldn’t take a hint.

She leant forward to examine the collection of keys in his hand. ‘Do you want me to help you? I’ll be able to recognise the key for the Bothy if you let me look properly, and then you probably shouldn’t go into the hay barn on your own, Billy and his men aye meant well but they never got round to finishing the upper level and …’

Iain jangled the keys quickly when she paused for breath. At least if she could identify the one for this little place, it would be a start.

‘This is the Bothy, is it?’

‘That’s right. See, this big brass key is for the door here. The name was Sandy’s joke. I mean, this was the bothy, you know, for the itinerant workers in the summer, but he could have called it anything, it being so smart once he’d done it up, but he said once a bothy always a bothy and …’

Iain turned the key in the lock and reached over the girl’s head to push the door open. It swung heavy but true on its hinges and for the first time he felt a stirring of interest. He didn’t believe a place like this could be smart but it seemed dry and clean and as the door swung wider he saw how the light flooded in.

The girl’s expression was rapt as she looked at him, then inside, then at him again.

‘It’s so cool, isn’t it?’ she said, sounding for the first time like the teenager she presumably was. ‘Come and have a look.’

He should have been irritated – this was his property not hers – but he found himself carried along by her enthusiasm.

They entered the long room and he looked about. When he’d peered in through the window all he had been able to make out was a settee and a wood-burning stove. Now he saw that the downstairs was basically one large room, with a kitchen at one end and the living area at the other. The floor was a pale wood and in the gable facing the sea was a massive window that gave the most amazing view over the rocks and water to the mountains beyond.

‘Sandy lived in a caravan for years whilst he did this up. Said he knew how he wanted it and it was going to be just right. There’s a small bathroom at the back here, see, and then the bedroom is on the platform up there. The stairs look steep but they’re designed so they’re really easy to get up and down; I’ll show you.’

True to her word, the child ran up what looked like a broad wooden ladder with a rail on one side.

‘Come and have a look.’

Iain shrugged and obeyed. He’d thought there wouldn’t be much space up here but the roof must be higher than he realised. He could stand up easily. From the two skylights, one facing each way, he had views of the road down which he had come and of the cliffs to the west. Stunning.

‘It’s a shame you didn’t tell us you were coming, we could have aired the place and had the bed made up for you,’ continued his guide. ‘Didn’t the solicitor give you our number? I’m sure Gran asked him to.’

‘He may have done …’ Iain hadn’t for a moment considered phoning strangers and telling them of his plans. What was it to them? He hadn’t even told his London neighbours he was moving to Edinburgh and he had no intention of introducing himself to his Edinburgh neighbours when he moved in. That’s what he liked about cities, you could keep yourself to yourself. Whereas here …

‘Never mind. I’ll show you where the bedding is and I can help you do it now if you want? Good job the weather’s so nice, it shouldn’t be damp. Actually, Sandy had this place so well insulated it hardly does get damp, not like Gran’s place. Lally says she needs to do something about the heating there but Gran says people have lived with nothing but peat fires for centuries and she’s lucky to have the odd storage heater. Old people can be so awkward, can’t they?’

‘Ah …’ Iain didn’t think he actually knew any old people. None of his grandparents was still alive and the IT industry where he worked was a very young profession still.

‘Won’t someone be wondering where you are?’ he said, trying to be restrained. The child was already opening a wide cupboard and sorting out sheets. Really, it was a bit intrusive.

‘No, Lally knows I’m here. We saw your car arrive. She would probably have come down too but she had the lambs to feed.’

‘And Lally is …?’

‘My sister. She’s really Alicia but everyone calls her Lally. Mum says it’s a shame, with the lovely names she gave her children, that we insist on abbreviations. Lally, Ant, and Bel which actually I think are much nicer than Alicia, Anthony, and Annabel, don’t you?’

Iain shrugged. He found himself on one side of the bed, catching the sheet as she shook it out towards him. If she insisted on helping he supposed he might as well make use of her. He might glean some local information from her, too.

‘And all of you live here, in the, er, croft, do you?’

‘No. I wish. The croft is Gran’s, she’s been running it on her own since Grampie died five years ago. I usually live in Glasgow. But Gran’s sister had an operation last month and Gran’s gone to look after her and Lal and I have come to croft-sit. Actually, I’ve been here a while, I had glandular fever and they said I needed to recuperate. It’s been brilliant, I love it here!’

The child seemed to be irredeemably positive. Iain thought he’d heard glandular fever wasn’t at all pleasant, but the girl, Bel, just beamed at the thought of the extra holiday it had gained for her.

‘So that’s why you’re not at school?’

‘Well, I wouldn’t be today, would I, it being Saturday? But you’re right, on weekdays I should be. I’m pretty much better now but they’d said ages ago I should stay off until the end of the summer term, which is brilliant. Right, that’s the bed done. Do you want to come up and see Lally now? I’m sure she’d like to meet you.’

‘Actually, I was hoping to have a look around here,’ said Iain.

‘Of course. Do you want me to show you …?

‘On my own.’ Iain decided if he didn’t assert himself now he’d never get rid of the child. ‘Off you go. You know you’re far too friendly, you shouldn’t just talk to strangers like this.’

‘But you’re not a stranger, you’re Sandy’s nephew.’ The girl looked at him as if he was stupid. ‘I’ve had an idea. Why don’t you come and eat with us later on? You won’t want to cook the first night, even if you have brought food, and Lal always makes enough for ten. She won’t mind.’

Eventually, just to get rid of the child, Iain found himself agreeing.

Chapter Two

‘So?’ said Lal when Bel reappeared. She was washing all the paraphernalia used in feeding the lambs. You didn’t need to sterilise these things as you did for human babies, but it still took forever. She wished Gran wasn’t so keen to take in the motherless lambs the other crofters couldn’t be bothered with. ‘I presume you got talking to him since you’ve been away so long. What’s he like?’

‘Tall, dark hair, southern English accent, lovely eyes. Didn’t seem to like the other buildings much but he was impressed by the Bothy.’

‘Of course,’ s. . .