The Tender Glory by Jean S. Macleod Read Free Book Online Page B

been able to reassure her about Robin.
    “Do you think he’ll ever come back?” she asked impulsively.
    “Robin?” He stood with his back to the light. “I don’t know. I used to think he and Cathie would make a go of it, but it fizzled out once he got to know the Daviots. Maybe he got big ideas.”
    “It was more than that.” Her voice grew husky. “It was something that went very deep.”
    “Maybe.” He stubbed the toe of his shoe idly against a tyre. “We may never know the truth,” he said.
    “I wonder if it would help if we did,” she mused. “If only he’d write more often and not change his address so much! He seems so unsettled, roving about from job to job. Robin wasn’t like that.”
    “No,” he agreed. “He was the settling type. It’s time I was on my way,” he added reluctantly. “You’ll remember what I told you if you should ever need help? The van’s a bit of a liability, by the way, but it might just see you through the winter with a bit of luck. If you like I’ll look out for something more reliable for you in the spring.”
    In the spring, Alison thought as he drove away. So much could happen long before spring came again.
    CHAPTER THREE
    IT was breaking light the following morning when she rose. A storm had lashed the headland all night in a fury of wind and rain and every door and window pane rattled and shook. Over the sea an angry scarlet spread with the dawn along the horizon while grey, lowering clouds pressed down against the inland hills.
    “It’s oilskins and gumboots this morning!” Alison remarked, finding Kirsty on her knees before the kitchen fire. “Where’s Neillie?”
    “Out in the byre.” Kirsty spoke without turning. “He’s loading up the van for you. It’s a terrible morning.” Alison warmed her hands at the peats.
    “I’d forgotten it could be so wet.” She shivered, drinking her early-morning cup of tea. “Thank goodness Jim Orbister had a look at the van last night.”
    “It needs more than looking at,” Kirsty decided. “It’ll fall to pieces one of these days and at a right awkward moment, too. You mark my words.”
    Alison finished her tea in silence. Of course they needed a new van, but she couldn’t worry her mother with details like that just now, even if there was enough money. She supposed Robin had attended to this sort of thing and it was true to say that a man was essential on a farm, a strong, vigorous man, not a tired old retainer like Neil, who did his best. The van was just one of the problems she hadn’t anticipated when she had made up her mind to come home and help, so no doubt she would stumble on others in time.
    Buttoning her oilskins and tying a sou’wester under her chin, she pulled on Wellingtons and a pair of leather gloves before she went across the yard. The van stood ready and Neillie was in the byre, talking to one of the cows.
    “Get over, ye great stupid beast ye! And keep still! How can a body wash ye down when you’re dancin’ a highland fling all over the place?”
    Neil was old and bent and ‘crabbit’, as Kirsty said, but he was amazingly loyal.
    “Thanks, Neillie, for loading up for me,” Alison called in to him. “Are there any extras?”
    “Another pint at the Lodge.” He came to the open door. “They must be keepin’ plenty o’ company down there these days. They want it from now on.”
    Possibly because they would be entertaining Huntley Daviot for coffee or a nightcap, Alison thought, letting in her clutch, and then she laughed outright. I’m getting as curious as everybody else in the glen, she mused, and I haven’t been back five minutes!
    The wind was still boisterous, the rain lashing against the windscreen, but there was something wonderfully exhilarating about a storm. In her present circumstances it held a challenge, and she set her wipers to work and pressed on.
    The road was more like a river, and by the time she reached the glen she was glad of the comparative shelter of