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He smiled and looked up at the castle. She could see the fondness in his eyes, see the memories flit across his face. ‘I wasn’t doing too well at school before I met Angus. My father didn’t believe in homework. And as a child I had other skills that were my priority.’
Something about the way he said the words sent a chill down her spine. He hadn’t emphasised them, or been too explicit, but it was almost as if the skills he was hinting at were survival skills.
‘Once I started spending time with Angus he used to sit me down at the kitchen table at night and go over my homework with me. He was methodical—and strict. He discovered I had a natural aptitude for maths and he bought me textbooks and journals that challenged me.’
‘So you did your homework here?’ It seemed the safest question to ask, without prying too much.
‘Pretty much. Angus helped me with my exams. He even helped me fill in my application for university.’
‘Where did you go?’
‘I got into Cambridge—and Oxford, but in the end I went to Edinburgh. I didn’t want to leave Scotland.’
‘You didn’t?’ She didn’t mean to sound so surprised; it just came out that way. It hadn’t even occurred to her for a second to turn down her university place at Cambridge. Did people actually do that? And how distracted would she have been if she’d met Callan at university?
He stood up and arched his back, obviously trying to relieve some tension. ‘Look around you, Laurie. What’s not to love?’
It was the way he said the words. So simple. Without a second thought.
And she did look around her.
At the magnificent sand-coloured castle looking out over the Scottish coastline.
At the immaculate maze.
At the colourful, impeccably kept gardens.
At the forest and vegetation around them, set against the start of a mountain range.
It was almost as if something sucked the air out of her lungs.
She lived her life in London. She spent her day jumping on and off the tube, breathing in other people’s air. She was surrounded by high-rise buildings and streets that often never saw any sunlight. Continual fights over parking spaces, and eternally rising rents.
She didn’t have a single friend in London that had a garden. Her own flat had a window box that she rarely filled with flowering shrubs—on the few occasions that she had she often forgot to water them.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d walked on grass. How long had it been since she’d gone to Hyde Park?
‘You want me to tell you a little of the history of the place?’
She nodded. She knew absolutely nothing about Annick Castle.
Callan sat back on the bench, resting his arm along the back as she settled next to him. His arm was brushing the top of her shoulders. It was as if a whole host of butterflies were flapping their wings against her skin. ‘The castle was built originally in the fifteen-hundreds.’ There was a gleam in his eyes. ‘There’s even a rumour that Mary Queen of Scots once stayed here. It was enlarged, rebuilt and the gardens planted in the seventeen-hundreds. The Earl of Annick’s family owned the estate for years. They were connected to the Kennedy family in Scotland who can trace their ancestry back to Robert the Bruce. In later years they had connections with some of the most powerful families in America.’
‘I had no idea. So how did the castle end up in the hands of Angus McLean?’
‘There were a number of properties like this all over Scotland. Some of them were poorly maintained because of the costs involved, others just weren’t lived in all year round. In 1945 a lot of them were handed over to the National Trust in Scotland. But this one had caught the eye of Angus’s father—he owned a pharmaceutical company and was about the only person who hadn’t gone bankrupt after the Second World War. He bought the place for a song.’
Laurie let a hiss of air out through her lips. Maybe not this castle, but something had been here for five hundred years. It was amazing. All that history in one place.
She could be sitting in the same place that Mary Queen of Scots had once stood.
Callan had reached out his hand towards her and she took it without question, letting him pull her up from the bench. Warmth encapsulated her hand. There was a chilly breeze coming off the sea and part of her wished he would wrap her in his arms.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You wanted to see the grounds. Let’s go down to the swan pond.’
She followed him along the gravel path, winding past the fountain and flower beds. Small things started to prick her mind. Some of the plants here were a little wilder, a little less trimmed. The bushes weren’t quite as shaped as the ones underneath the castle windows.
‘Who looks after the grounds, Callan?’
He turned, his hand gesturing towards another set of steps. ‘Bert mostly. He has a few of the local boys who come and help him, but he generally scares them all off within a few months.’ He pointed back at the perfect green lawn. ‘Last year Angus persuaded him to let another company come in and cut the lawns and do the edging.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve no idea the fight that caused.’ There was a real affection in his voice.
She walked down the steps that were sheltered by some thick foliage. When she reached the bottom she let out a little gasp. She turned to face Callan. ‘When you said swan pond I was thinking of something much smaller.’
He gave a nod and a smile. ‘Some people don’t even know it exists. The castle grounds are sheltered and on an incline. It means that you have to walk down steps at each level.’ They walked closer to the edge of the pond. It was the size of around four football pitches and Laurie could see a few white swans bobbing in the middle.
‘What’s that over there?’ There was an elegant glass and white metal gazebo on the other side of the pond. ‘It looks as if you lifted it straight out of The Sound of Music and put it there.’
Callan nodded. ‘What if I told you it had a bench that ran all the way around the inside?’
‘Really?’ Her stomach gave a little flutter. Her mind instantly had her inside the gazebo with Callan twirling her around in his arms. The chemistry between them seemed to increase the more time she spent with him; it was getting hard not to acknowledge it. Did Callan think so too?
She wasn’t sure. He nodded and gave her a half-smile. ‘Really. It’s just coincidence. It’s more than a hundred years old. Angus’s parents had it built. The swan pond was his mother’s favourite spot, but she didn’t like sitting in the sun.’
‘It’s gorgeous. Can we go around?’
He glanced at his watch. ‘Maybe later. We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover.’
Laurie glanced down at her footwear. If she was going to visit the castle’s own Sound of Music gazebo she didn’t rea
lly want to do it in red wellies. It kind of spoiled the mood. ‘Okay, then, where to next?’
Callan led her up another set of steps that took them around the other side of the castle. They passed outbuildings that looked a little worse for wear. A set of unused stables and a round stone building that was almost falling down.
The stonework on this side of the castle wasn’t as clean as the front and there were a number of slates on the ground. Were they from the roof?
The round building was fascinating and she couldn’t help but go and peer through the doorway. ‘What was this?’
‘It was one of the old icehouses on the estate. They used to cut ice from the swan pond and store it here for use in the house. The old icehouses were the forerunners of refrigeration. And watch out—you probably need a hard hat to go in there.’
‘Wow. What other buildings are there?’
‘As well as the gazebo at the swan pond, there is an orangery. It was built in 1818. It was used later as a camellia house and had one-inch-thick glass, a dome top and a furnace at the back of the building to supply under-floor heating. They used to think that delicate flowers needed to be grown in hothouses. There also used to be a pagoda overlooking the swan pond, but it fell into ruins—only the foundations are left now.’
This place was truly amazing—she didn’t even know the half of it. No wonder Callan loved it so much. ‘What was that for?’
‘The lower level was the swan house and aviary with the gazebo or teahouse above. During its time the aviary housed specimens of gold and silver pheasants, pigeons of fancy varieties, kites and hunting hawk. It’s also thought that one time a monkey was housed here, giving the pagoda its local nickname of the “monkey house”.’
She shook her head. ‘I had no idea the estate was so big.’ She was also astounded at Callan’s knowledge and the way everything just tripped off his tongue. ‘Did you ever see it?’
He wrinkled his brow. ‘It was partially standing when I was a boy. There was still some glass and stone remaining. And there’s more. There are old gatehouses, a water house and a gas house all around the grounds of the estate. There’s an old dairy, a stonemason’s and another set of stables.’
