The Scots Never Forget Read online

  “I am sure that you will do it with the same irresistible charm which I admired in your father,” Mr. Clarence said. “And the children have inherited the same magnetic quality Lord Alistair had.”

  “I hope you are right,” Pepita answered. “I was thinking that we should leave the day after tomorrow, which is Wednesday. I have no wish to impose further than necessary on the kindness of the gentleman who has bought the furniture.”

  “He is quite willing for you to stay until Friday,” Mr. Clarence pointed out.

  Pepita shook her head.

  “Wednesday, Thursday or Friday – what does it really matter?” she asked. “The unknown future is like the sword of Damocles over my head and the sooner we set out for the North the better!”

  “If that is your decision, Miss Linford,” Mr. Clarence said, “you must allow me to see to the Railway tickets and to arrange a carriage to take you and the children to Falmouth, where you will have to start the first part of your journey.”

  He put the papers he was holding back in his briefcase and added,

  “You don’t need me to tell you that it would be wise for you to take plenty of food with you and, of course, rugs, as it is going to be chilly at night.”

  “I had thought of that,” Pepita replied.

  She tried to speak firmly, but there was a little quiver in her voice as she thought of how far it was to Scotland.

  She was sure that there would be many changes from one train to another and it would undoubtedly take a very long time.

  She had only once travelled by train, when she had gone from London to Cornwall and had thought it a great adventure.

  However, she was aware that travelling with two children would be very different from travelling by herself.

  Rory, the eldest, was nine and Jeanie was six and, although they were on the whole very good, she knew that they would find it irksome and frustrating to be cooped up in a Railway coach or a closed carriage.

  The reason that Lord Alistair had settled in Cornwall was not only that living there was cheap but also that he had been able to rent from a friend a house and several acres of land for a very small sum.

  But also, Pepita suspected, he had been pleased that it was as far as possible from his father and the Clan to whom he was now the ‘black sheep’.

  He certainly had wanted to shake the dust of his native land off his feet and forget everything but the new life he was starting with the wife he loved to distraction.

  And yet sometimes, Pepita thought, there would be a faraway look in his eyes, especially at this time of the year.

  Because she was very perceptive and what the Scots would undoubtedly call ‘fey’, she would know that he was seeing the moors purple with heather, hearing the cluck of the grouse as they flew down into the glens or feeling the pull of the salmon on his line as he waded in the river.

  She was sure too that he was thinking of the great Castle he had often described to her with its towers and turrets silhouetted against the sky and his father’s land covering thousands of acres that the Duke reigned supreme over.

  Lord Alistair had said that from The Castle he was able to look out over the sea from which long ago in the past had come the raiding Vikings.

  When they returned home, they had left behind their fair hair and blue eyes amongst what were then the small dark-haired men of Scotland.

  Pepita often thought that her brother-in-law looked like a Viking and the children resembled their father and their mother both having fair hair and blue eyes. This, with her pink-and-white skin, made Jeanie look like a small angel.

  Pepita often thought that it would be impossible to see two more attractive children and she could not believe that the Duke, however hard-hearted he might be, would be able to resist them.

  Anyway Scotland was where they belonged and to Scotland she was determined to take them.

  When Mr. Clarence left, she went upstairs to their bedrooms to look rather helplessly at the enormous amount of things that still had to be packed.

  She would have been extremely impractical if she left any of her sister’s clothes behind when she had no money to buy any more for herself and she was certain that the children would need everything they owned.

  Admittedly many of their clothes had become too small for them, but she thought that, as she was skilful with her needle, she would be able to let them out and take them down at the hems.

  It was frightening to think that all that stood between them and starvation was fifty pounds!

  It seemed ridiculous when she looked back that her brother-in-law, Lord Alistair, had not faced the unpalatable truth that sooner or later they would have to do something about their financial situation.

  She had not expected that he would owe so much money. In fact, as he had never mentioned that he had any outstanding debts, she really had not thought about it.

  And why should she?

  She had been brought up by her father and by her mother, when she was alive, to believe that women should always rely on a man.

  He should be not only the provider of everything that was required but also the organiser of their lives and planning them out the way he thought best.

  This had obviously proved disastrous where her charming happy-go-lucky brother-in-law was concerned.

  When she thought of how important it was to make the Duke understand that he had to take care of them because they had literally nowhere else to go, she felt her heart beating uncomfortably.

  The apprehension she had known from the moment her brother-in-law had been drowned seemed to grow until it encircled her like a dark cloud.

  Nevertheless, when Wednesday morning came, the children’s trunks were packed and so were her own.

  “I don’t want to go away,” Rory moaned crossly, as the man whom Mr. Clarence had sent to drive them to the Station carried the trunks downstairs.

  “You are going to Scotland, dearest, to see your grandfather,” Pepita said. “As he lives in a big Castle, you will find it very exciting!”

  “I want to stay here,” Rory answered obstinately. “This is my home and where I want to be.”

  As if the yearning in his voice communicated itself to Jeanie, she began to cry.

  “I want my Mama!” she wailed. “Why has she gone away and left me all alone?”

  Pepita knelt down and put her arms round the little girl.

  “You are not alone, darling,” she said, “you are with me. You have to be brave and we are going on a big adventure just like in a Fairy story.”

  Jeanie, however, was tearful, which made Pepita want to cry too.

  Four hours later, when they had reached the Station at Falmouth, both children were intrigued by the engines puffing black smoke and by the hustle and bustle of all the passengers like themselves.

  Mr. Clarence was there to see them off and it was only when they were shown into a carriage that was comfortably upholstered that Pepita was aware that he had taken them First Class tickets.

  “We cannot afford this,” she said to him and he answered,

  “The cost of your journey is a present from me and my Partners, Miss Linford. We talked together and we felt that we could not allow you and Lord Alistair’s children to arrive in Scotland completely penniless. We have therefore paid your fare from here to Edinburgh. It is a tribute to the man we admired so much.”

  “Thank you very kindly,” Pepita smiled gratefully. “You have been so very generous and perhaps one day I will be able to repay you in some way.”

  Because she felt overcome, she found it hard to express her thanks.

  Then to his surprise she kissed him on the cheek.

  “I shall never forget your kindness,” she said.

  “Take care of yourself as well as the children,” he replied.

  Pepita felt the tears come into her eyes and it was impossible to reply.

  They climbed into the carriage, the Guard blew his whistle and waved his red flag and Mr. Clarence took off his hat
as the train moved away.

  “Goodbye, Mr. Clarence!” they all cried.

  Because of what he had done for them, Pepita felt a warm feeling in her heart.

  Some of the apprehension that had seemed like a heavy stone growing and enlarging within her ever since her sister and brother-in-law had been drowned lightened a little.

  After all, as she had said to the children, this was an adventure and they had started out on it with an unexpected act of kindness that perhaps was a lucky augury for the future.

  Because they had the carriage to themselves the children bounced on the seats and ran from side to side as the train moved faster and faster, until Pepita thought that in a way it was quite frightening.

  At the same time it was undoubtedly very much quicker than travelling in the old-fashioned manner to Scotland by road or even by sea.

  Although the Cornish folk anticipated that there could be terrible accidents on the Railways, she had not heard of one so far and she only hoped that their train would not be the first.

  *

  By the time they reached London, the children, after a night and much of a day in the train, were very tired.

  Although Pepita had persuaded them to lie down and try to sleep, the carriage began to fill up as they moved towards London.

  The first passengers to join them were an elderly couple who obviously had no liking for children. They first eyed Rory and Jeanie with suspicion and then whispered remarks about them behind their hands.

  Pepita kept the children quiet for quite a while by telling them stories, but they were not used to being constricted for hours at a time and played games with each other, Rory pretending to be a horse with Jeanie riding on his back.

  At another Station an elderly gentleman joined them and his valet wrapped a rug over his knees and placed a shawl round his shoulders.

  Because Rory was leaning out the window on his side of the carriage and relating excitedly what he could see on the platform, the valet said to Pepita,

  “I hopes, ma’am, your children’ll not make too much noise. My Master’s been very ill and has to be kept as quiet as possible.”

  “I will do my best,” Pepita answered, “but children are children and we have already been travelling for a long time.”

  The valet sniffed as if that was her business.

  The lady who had already shown her disapproval now said in a loud voice,

  “If these trains were properly organised as they should be, there would be carriages marked for ‘Children Only’ where they could be a nuisance only to themselves!”

  They did not arrive in London until very late that day, the train having been delayed for over two hours.

  Pepita, who was aware that they had to change Stations, was terrified that the train for Scotland would leave without them.

  They actually caught it with only a quarter-of-an-hour to spare.

  Although it saved her from having to sit for a long time as she had expected in a gloomy waiting room, she was too agitated at first to think of anything but what a rush it had been.

  Once again they were lucky to start off with an empty carriage and now, as the children were tired and were unable to keep their eyes open, they fell asleep immediately.

  Pepita too tried to stretch out on the opposite side of the carriage, but although she was tired, she found it hard to sleep.

  When at last she had dozed off for a short time, she was awakened when they came noisily into a Station.

  The engine driver applied the brakes with an amount of jerking and crashing that made her fear that they were actually having a collision.

  After that Pepita felt as if she was moving on and on into the indefinable future and leaving behind forever the past and being at the moment in a ‘No-Man’s Land’ where it was impossible to think.

  She bought food for the children when they stopped at a Station since they had by now finished what they had brought in their picnic baskets. She told them stories and tried to keep them quiet when they were joined by other passengers.

  She looked out the window whenever she had the chance and made an effort to appreciate the fact that she was travelling more or less from one end of the British Isles to the other.

  But by this time she felt that she was nothing but a puppet being pulled on strings and had lost her individuality with the insistent noise of the turning wheels.

  Life became just one long rumble and, when they finally reached Edinburgh, she could hardly believe that the worst part of their journey was at an end.

  However, she had learnt from Mr. Clarence that there was still a long way to go before they reached Strathnairn Castle.

  In fact that part of the journey could only be undertaken by a carriage and horses.

  This, Pepita was aware, was where they would need the money that Mr. Clarence had given them.

  When they left the train, she went, as he had suggested, to the Station Hotel, where the children were able to wash and have a substantial breakfast seated at a table.

  She asked a porter where she would be able to hire a carriage and horses to take her to Strathnairn Castle.

  “It be a long way, ma’am,” the porter replied. “It’ll mean you’ll have to stay two nights on the way and change horses several times.”

  He looked at her before he finished,

  “And it’ll cost you an awful lot of money.”

  “I realise that,” Pepita said quietly.

  It took the porter a long time to arrange not only the carriage and two horses to take them to The Castle, but also to haggle over what he considered would be a reasonable price with the driver.

  Pepita could not help being amused and rather touched by the way he argued with the carriage owner.

  When finally he told her what he had arranged, she could only be extremely grateful that he had been on her side, for it seemed, even so, to be a very large sum.

  After she had given him a generous gratuity for his trouble, they set off in what she was told was a Scot’s mist, which obliterated a great many of the sights that she had hoped to see in the City.

  As soon as they were out in the open country and the houses were left behind, Pepita had her first glimpse of Scotland and found it very different from what she had expected.

  She had thought that she would see mountains, great fir woods and cascading burns. It was quite a surprise to find that these came later and the country round Edinburgh was very like England.

  They spent the first night at a small austere roadside inn where the beds were hard, but the food was plentiful and appetising and to her relief everything was spotlessly clean.

  *

  When they set off again the next day, the children were tired, petulant and bored with travelling.

  The moment they saw their first glimpse of the moors they wanted to run and play amongst the heather and look for fish in the small twisting burns.

  “There will be plenty of time to do that when we arrive,” Pepita told them.

  “I want to do it now!” Rory insisted, “I am tired of sitting in a carriage. It makes my legs ache.”

  Pepita thought that she could very well say the same.

  Then, after she had suggested that they should sit sideways on the seat with their legs stretched out, she found it easy to keep them amused by letting down one of the windows and getting Rory to lean out on one side and Jeanie on the other and shout to each other what they could see.

  Their patience was rewarded when Rory saw a stag, and Jeanie, not to be outdone, saw what she was sure was a very large eagle.

  This kept them amused for a time and it was a relief when they stopped for meals so that they really could run about to find a small burn or search for white heather.

  At the second inn again the food was plain but appetising and certainly, Pepita thought, a night’s rest made them all feel better-tempered.

  Then they were off again. She noticed that each time the horses were changed they seemed inferior in quality and went
slower than the ones before.

  Finally, when she was wondering whether she should ask the coach driver where they could stop for tea, she had her first glimpse of the sea.

  Later, looking down from the top of a sharp incline that the horses had moved up very slowly, the coach driver gave a shout and pointed below them.

  It was then that Pepita saw The Castle for the first time.

  Facing the sea, the evening sun glittering on its spires and towers, which her brother-in-law had described so vividly, it had a Fairytale-like quality and looked, Pepita thought, much more ethereal and less formidable than she had expected.

  In fact, with the purple moors behind it and the blue sea at its feet, it seemed like something out of her dreams that had no substance in reality.

  “There is The Castle!” she said to the children. “That is where we are going!”

  There was a note of excitement in her voice that made their eyes follow the direction that she was pointing her finger.

  “Is that Grandpapa’s Castle?” Jeanie asked.

  “That was where your Papa lived when he was a boy like Rory,” Pepita replied.

  The children looked at it solemnly as the horses began the descent down the other side of the hill that they had climbed up so laboriously.

  “How long are we going to stay at The Castle, Aunt Pepita?” Rory asked.

  As it was a question she had asked herself, Pepita had no idea of the answer and she knew that the only person who could reply to that would be the Duke himself.

  Then, because she was more frightened than she would even dare to admit to herself, she began to pray,

  ‘Please, God, let us stay. Please, God, please – ’

  Chapter Two

  As the horses trotted on towards The Castle, Pepita became more and more apprehensive.

  She had realised at their last stop that she had very little money left for except the generous sum that she had already put aside in an envelope to give to the coach driver for the whole journey.

  What she had not expected was that she would have to pay for the new horses at each Posting inn.

  Also by the time she had paid the bills for the night and the food they ate wherever there was an available inn, the fifty pounds that Mr. Clarence had given her had dwindled to a mere pittance.