Page 33 of From Scotland with Love

“It’s a loom, you know, for weaving?” He put his hands on his hips and turned his head this way and that looking for something, then tossed a bag of fabric scraps to Lori. She peered inside to see wool fabrics in all sorts of colours and patterns.

“Are you saying you weave these?” She gazed at Callum, opened mouthed. “This... machine-loom-thing can do these? You’re a weaver?” Her excitement shone through and Callum laughed.

“Well I’ve helped from time to time, but haven’t done anything in a year or two. This is my aunt’s loom.” He sat on the chair by it and put his feet on pedals, like he was about to play some strange piano. “You see, you arrange the yarns along the front there then you pedal away, which sort of criss-crosses and weaves the yarns together - making those.” He gestured to the bag that was still in Lori’s hands.

“I had no idea! This is incredible!” She looked in the bag and touched the soft cloth. “I can’t believe you can weave these; these tartans and checks look so complicated.”

“Well those I don’t, I only help my aunt with the plain weaves.” He got up off the seat and continued looking for tools. Lori walked around the loom and touched its strong fixtures, ideas were spinning around in her head, but she didn’t know which one to listen to first. The tweed fabric was so unique, nothing like she had seen before, and woven by one person with one machine. She examined the solid structure until a cough came from behind her.

“You want to hold this bike while I fix it then?” He waved her over and momentarily Lori put the weaving apparatus out of her mind.

Lori took her newly repaired bike and the girls to the nearest beach. Since their plans to go to Gran’s had been somewhat derailed after the bike fell apart, she wanted to make the most of the little time they had left. To her relief, her nieces raved about Karen and had spent the time drawing their favourite outdoor activities, with Karen promising to display their art on the shop wall.

“She said to go over tomorrow to see them!” Anne announced proudly as she peddled in front of the group and led them down the path to the beach.

“Well that sounds lovely, perhaps you can go with your mum after school?”

They left their bikes by a clump of bushes and ran out onto the sand. The tide was out, exposing the pearly expanse that stretched on and on before them.

“Are you not going to come?” Maggie sat down and started scooping up sand.

Lori lay down beside them both, happy for the rest. “No, I can’t, I’m going back to the US tomorrow.” She ran her fingers over the sand, making zigzag shapes just as Callum had done the night they kayaked together. The girls started to construct a sandcastle mound with their hands, but Lori noticed their usual chatter had stopped, and they both pushed and patted the sand quietly. “Hey now, I’ll be back again soon. Or perhaps your mum could take you out to me?”

Anne’s face lit up. “We can go to the zoo? And Disneyland?”

“Well I’m not sure about Disneyland, but I’m sure we can do the zoo...” Lori wondered if she should’ve spoken to Jean about this first before promising anything to the kids. She took a breath of sea air and lay back as the girls ran back and forth dripping sea water over the sand. She thought of the dusty loom sitting in Callum’s shed. Was she onto something - woven fabric from Scotland, it sounded romantic, and may give them an advantage over their competitors? Lori considered the pros and cons, but couldn’t stop the excitement that bubbled within her.

“A tweed fabric?” Frankie asked in a distracted manner over a babble of voices whispering in the background.

“Yes,” Lori enthused, “they weave it here, by hand, and the quality is out of this world!” Lori had tried to make a fast-pitched sell to Frankie, but couldn’t tell how it was going over the telephone. “I’ve done a quick search, and all our competitors seem to use either mass produced wool from China, or they use well-known commercial wool from other areas.”

“But... I mean, Scottish tweed is a thing...? People have heard of it, but...” Frankie began in a flat voice that Lori breezily ignored.

“Not everyone has heard of tweed; and if they have, they just see it as a type of fabric. What we have is a family brand, made with the finest natural wools and local resources. They even have a special breed of sheep, it’s such quality Frankie, honestly it would be incredible in the men’s range, and just think of all the various colours and patterns we could use in our autumn and winter collections. These people have been weaving for centuries - we could take all that heritage and make a limited-edition collection, using tweed especially designed for us!” Lori ended her delivery in triumph, but was greeted with silence. Some moments passed, and Lori began to think the worst; that her efforts were wasted, and Frankie hated the idea and wanted to fire her that very minute.

“I can’t commit to anything just now,” Frankie said slowly.

“But Frankie - ” Lori started.

“Lori will you let me speak!” Frankie cut in and Lori bit her tongue, feeling she had overstepped the mark. “What I mean is, I want more information. I want samples. I want to see the story - their story, their branding. I want photos. Do you think you can get all this for me and present it at our designers meeting?”

Lori panicked. “But... I’m due to come back tomorrow!” There was no way she could compile everything within a day; she was passionate about her pitch, but a day was realistically unachievable.

“Can you change your flight? I think this is an intriguing idea, I want to get as much knowledge of this concept as I can, I want to feel immersed in it, like I’m there with you.”

Lori resisted jumping in the air out of pure excitement and tried to stay calm. “Well, I can take a trip to visit them, but they live in the Outer Hebrides!”

“What does that mean?” Frankie shushed someone in the background, and Lori wondered if she was on loud speaker.

“It means it’s... a bit further away...”

“Further away from you? But you’re the furthest from everything!” Frankie said hotly, and Lori decided that she could definitely hear a difference in her boss. She sounded stressed, hesitant, and unlike her usual calm self.

“I know I am, but this will take time.” Lori bit her lip waiting for the reaction.

“OK... two weeks then?” Frankie sighed, and now spoke to the person in the background, Lori wasn’t on loud speaker, thankfully.

“Yes two weeks, I’ll see you then!” Lori rang off call and whooped. She had reached the foot of the pier, using her gran’s cell-phone and as people passed by they began to avoid eye-contact. She didn’t care if she looked a bit mad, she was over the moon. With another two weeks at home, and the chance of a wee adventure, she tingled all over with hope. She looked out to the familiar horizon as a fishing boat sailed across, her stomach knotting with nerves and excitement at the prospect before her. Then she smiled suddenly – she would need to ask Callum for even more help.