32
Down in the town that morning, the only person known to be missing so far was Cary Anderson, though Senga Gifford had it on good authority he’d left town in a hurry. She’d heard via Tony from the hop-on, hop-off tourist buses, who’d told his cousin, Jean, who’d told her that Cary had loaded up his truck with suitcases this morning, and that he’d mentioned to the lassie at the petrol station in the Garten valley that he was filling up for a long drive,andhe’d had his little cat with him on the passenger seat.
Alice, who’d left the surgery, instructed by Dr Millen, and decided to take herself out for lunch at the repair shop, received this gossip with dismay as she waited for her coffee at the café counter.
‘Bannock?’ Rhona asked.
‘Lost my appetite,’ Alice said, even though a moment ago they’d looked delicious.
‘He’ll be visiting his mother,’ Sachin put in, also at the counter and buttering a toasted bannock for his second breakfast. Mrs Roy, he’d told the little group, had served up his favourite salmon scramble only an hour ago, so no one was to go grassing him up for snacking now.
The repair shop was empty but for some of the volunteers. On Mondays the shed hosted McIntyre’s vehicle maintenance and repair sessions out on the gravel drive, and although they were still sparsely attended, being new, the shed still opened to serve food and catch any general repair clients who might happen to call by.
Mortified, Alice had to ask, ‘Did Cary say when he was coming back?’
Riled she didn’t have this knowledge to impart, Senga made a big deal of pronouncing, ‘That’s none of our business!’ The absolute gall of the woman.
‘You’d think he’d have mentioned travel plans to someone at the Burns supper,’ put in Rhona innocently.
All eyes turned upon her, and she flinched as though suddenly found guilty of withholding intriguing information.
‘What?’ Rhona protested. ‘I only saw him through the window. He was coming runnin’ up the drive of the hotel in his kilt. Didn’t anybody else see him?’
‘Andwhenwas this?’ Senga seemed not to believe her sister, having not witnessed the sight herself.
Rhona shrugged like she wanted everyone’s eyes off her, but even Livvie, Roz and McIntyre were crowding round now, to hear more about their loyal repairer.
‘Whenexactly?’ Alice couldn’t help herself, a feeling of sickly dread sliding down her insides. ‘Do you remember?’
‘I’d say it was just before they served the dinner,’ Rhona told her, but glancing between the others. ‘He was all dressed in his tartan, and he had a braw posy of purple heathers with him, but, come to think of it…’ She paused. ‘I never saw him inside.’ She looked to her sister. ‘Did you?’
‘No,’ said Alice, answering for everyone, heaviness settling deep in her core. ‘I didn’t see him.’
Something told her, however, that Cary had seen her, and Bastian too, most likely, and that might have had something to do with the abandoned heather she’d found on the hotel steps.
Alice slipped off the café stool and carried her mug to the quiet spot by the fire where no one could see her absorbing this news. The fire’s glow failed to warm her today.
Was it conceited of her to think he’d been coming to the supper for her? Because she’d asked him if he was coming, hinting that she wanted him there? And he’d made the effort because he was the rare sort of man who’d turn up just to support her? A man who couldn’t be more unlike Bastian who’d gatecrashed her big moment expecting to see her failing, and to reclaim her like lost luggage.
Had Cary really come for her and left disappointed? Or was that just another of her wild fantasies? A daydream?
God knows she’d thought about him often enough since the last time she saw him. She’d wished they could have the conversation about the therapist all over again, and this time she’d be kinder, and she certainly wouldn’t fly off the handle when he told her in that gentle way of his, that he might have an idea to help her feel better.
She still carried the leaflet for that counsellor in her coat pocket. It called to her almost as loudly as her heart was right now asking her where Cary had gone.
She sat with her head in her hands. Why had she snapped at him and scared him off? And why,whyhadn’t she been on her guard when Bastian blindsided her? She should have pushed him straight out of the hotel’s revolving doors on sight, putting him into his precious Merc and slamming the door.
Instead she’d been weak, like her mother allowing her dad to call the shots about their separation, making sure to keep one foot in his familiar, comfortable old life while he had the other in his new life with his young girlfriend.
Just like her mum must have found, Alice had been momentarily overwhelmed by the comfort of Bastian’s familiarity, as well as his confidence and brazen charm.
As soon as Alice had left work after her confession to Dr Millen and she’d found that the skyhadn’tfallen in and the world hadn’t stopped turning now that her secret was out, she’d gone looking for Cary’s house, not hard when everyone in town knew the man and were only too willing to give her directions, but when she’d banged on his door there’d been no answer. When she’d walked down the vennel to his yard and peered through a gap in the fence, the place was shut up and in darkness. She wasn’t sure why she’d done it other than knowing she needed to apologise as soon as possible for the leaflet thing. That, and her growing sense of unease, as though her happiness here in this town was somehow tethered to him.
Sachin’s radio, set to the local station, interrupted the non-stop music hour to warn of sudden freezing fog descending over the valley, meaning low visibility for driving, advising residents to ‘stay home and enjoy the tunes’, before a Proclaimers song resumed, blaring about walking a thousand miles to be with a loved one.
Alice sat very still, wishing Cary safe and warm somewhere, hopefully with his mother, enjoying a short visit home, andnotputting into motion his idea of going back to Glasgow for good, like he’d mentioned.
The repair shop felt oddly deadened without hope of seeing Cary at his workbench, and so she gathered her things to leave.
