A Chance Meeting in Glasgow

Book One - Chapter 1

 (Updates Mondays and Thursdays - love you all!  Lilly)

Monday, March 15th, 1875

Maryhill, Scotland  

“Lady Margaret, I have sent down word to have my carriage brought around. I don’t like to make my driver wait in the rain, so I will bid you a good afternoon.”

As Katherine passed out of the entry hall her hostess said to no one in particular, “Miss Cameron is such a sweet, smart, hard working girl. The late Dowager Baroness would have been so proud of her.”

Her companion, the only other person in the room, looked up from her needlework.  “And yet there’s sadness in your voice, Lady Margaret.”

“Her situation does make me sad.  It’s not right that a wonderful girl like her has to carry on through life without a man to love her.  But who’s to say what the future might hold for her life?”

The elderly widow’s companion shook her head at both her employer’s foolishly romantic thoughts and the use of the term ‘girl’. “Lady Margaret, Katherine Cameron turns 37 later this year.  She lives alone without so much as a companion, and wears those odd clothes.  Honestly, for however wonderful we feel she is, could she be defended against a charge of eccentricity to any man you know?  No, she could not.  She has hardly money enough to keep up that folly of a house her aunt left her.  If the gossip is true, then it’s not like her brother Lord Torrington will be of any assistance to her.  Her life is as it will be, and these are her happy times.  We may hope for a long life of good health for your dear friend Miss Cameron - beyond that is fantasy.”

Katherine noted from the top of the landing that Forrester already had brought the carriage around and was waiting.  He was such a talented and efficient fellow, acting as coachman when she went out and butler and groom at home, and Katherine regretted she was unable to provide him better employment.

“Forrester, I hope you haven’t had to wait out here long.  Will you be warm?”

He followed her gaze into the sky.  “Weather’s nothing to a Scotsman, Miss Cameron.  I only just left the kitchen and had barely enough time from the call to bring the carriage around before you came out,” he said with a little bow, and then helped her in.  “Thank you for your consideration all the same, ma’am.”

She allowed the young man a brief smile as he closed the door.  It was snug inside the old landau and it smelled richly of leather that had been well cared for.  Forrester had closed the clamshell top and fastened down the side curtains to keep most of the rain out, which darkened the interior.  Usually not one to be cooped up, the rain and chill inspired Katherine to leave them down.  The Glasgow area was hardly at its most scenic at the end of winter anyway, she thought, and she was never at a lost for things to occupy her mind when she got uninterrupted time. 

There was her writing project, nearing completion. She needed to arrange its publication, and then there was the new sewing cooperative she was planning. She had so many things to accomplish; she was always so very busy.  She closed her eyes and listened to the irregular clatter of the horses’ hooves on the cobblestones and the drumming of the rain on the landau’s top. 

In fine weather Forrester might have taken the longer route across the Forth and Clyde Canal and back across the Kelvin River to the Tower, as Katherine called her home.  Today, though, with the weather closing in, he went more directly east through Maryhill.