A Chance Meeting in Glasgow

Chapter 36

Andrew and Katherine exited the Hall in the late morning with a picnic basket and the joy of the other’s company between them.  Andrew looked at the sky.

“You’re such a sailor,” Katherine laughed.

“I can’t promise the weather will hold."

“Andrew…” She realized she’d called him by his first name.

He smiled back.  “Yes, Katherine?”

She giggled.  “We’re in Scotland.  Of course the weather won’t hold.  Just enjoy what we have.  You look grand in the kilt, by the way.  If I were baroness, I’d order you to dress like that all the time.”

“Don’t give your sister-in-law any ideas.”

“Oh, no, she has plenty enough of her own.”

“So this is your home territory.  Where are you leading me, Katherine?”

“Are you up for a bit of a walk?”

“Absolutely.”

“Well, there’s a special spot I used to enjoy when I was a girl.  I haven’t been there in years, though, so I don’t know how it might have changed.”

“Let’s go find out.”

They walked along the northern shore of the Loch Girre, and at its head, scrambled up the track to the outlet of Lock Dhamh.  Just along the shore there, they came to a small shed.

“Is this it?” asked Andrew.

“This just completes the first part of the journey.”  She rounded into the open end of the shed with Andrew following.  Under a tarpaulin was a slender boat slung from davits.

“Pretty little craft,” commented Andrew, his trained eye sighting her lines.

“Nothing but the best for my father.”

“This was his boat?”

“He bought it and had the shed built, but I’m not sure he ever even went out in it.  He just wanted to be able to tell his fellow peers he owned it."

She pointed across the water.  “Andrew, there’s a little island out in the middle of the loch, and that’s where we’re headed.  It’s a happy place for me and I want to share it with you.”

“How did you ever get out to the island?  Surely you didn’t row yourself as a child?”

“No.  If you must know, when I was still a girl, the old factor would send me on day long picnic outings with a couple of the hall’s servants.  It wasn’t until I got older that I realized he had done this when my father got so drunk he might become violent."

Andrew was silently staring at her.

“It’s funny how people aren’t all good or all bad, Andrew.  The man helped my father cheat and defraud people, and when Taylor and I combed the books we found he’d stolen a significant amount from my family as well – but he was always kind to me and he did what he could to protect me from my father.

“Now enough of that; lets’ get on with our picnic, darling.”

Andrew was a practiced hand with boats, and they shipped out in just a few moments.  Andrew took the oars and Katherine manned the tiller, and the little boat went gliding smoothly out towards the wooded island. 

“The boat goes even better than it looks, Katherine.  How could a man possess such a wonderful vessel and not ever use it?”

“Gossip says my father drank and gambled his money away, Andrew, but that’s said by people who don’t really understand the peerage.  Oh, Thomas Cameron was an alcoholic, all right, and he seldom got up from the tables with more than he sat down with, but that wasn’t truly the issue.  He lived above his means, from his first day as baron to his last.  He inherited a modest little estate, and he pretended to live like a duke.