When I got up not long later to pay our bill, Flora admonished me with one hand and offered me well wishes with the other. She said as she handed me a receipt, “It’s not what I expected from you, but I do hope it’ll work out for you both.” Flora’s tone suggested she thought Arro and I would not last.
I tried not to let that into my head. My immediate thought to myself: Aye, everyone can see you don’t deserve her. But I choked that thought down and let it dissipate as Arro stood and placed her hand in mine.
“Let’s grab a sandwich from Morag’s to take back to yours,” she said as we stepped out of the café. A summer drizzle wet our hair and skin as we hurried across the street, the sky darkening above. Though we’d been lucky with a very warm summer this year, downpours were still a common occurrence.
I ushered us into Morag’s, but before we could make our way to the back to the deli counter, something caught Arro’s eye at the end of the first aisle. I followed her as she stopped at a row of magazines, and then walked along the stacks until she suddenly plucked one out of the kids’ section.
“Eilidh is obsessed with this.” Arro waved a copy of National Geographic for Kids. “I bought an issue months ago just for something for her to read in the car, and now it’s our thing. I need to get Lewis something, too, though.” She scanned the stacks as I looked tenderly down at her, wondering what life might be like with our own kid one day.
If I’d have the energy for it.
I’d find the energy for it.
If it made her happy.
I was vaguely aware of the store door opening, but I was too busy watching Arro, obsessed as I was, to note anything else. Then I heard, “Did you hear, Morag? The Adair family are at it again. That family and the scandal that follows them is atrocious.” The voice was familiar.
Arro stiffened in front of me, and I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she listened.
That was when I realized the store aisles hid us and the gossiper had no idea we were even there.
“You know I don’t listen to gossip, and especially not about the Adairs. They’re good people.” Morag tried to wave off the male gossiper.
I always liked Morag.
“Och, you won’t be thinking that when you hear what I have to tell you. Janet Mulree was just in Flora’s, and that security guard was all over the Adair girl. He’s twice her age! And there they were, just brazenly kissing. And Janet said it was not an appropriate kiss.”
“Mr. Oliphant, for a start, Mac Galbraith is not twice Arrochar’s age, and second, it’s nobody’s business what they do. Now, what can I get you?”
“I’m astonished at you, Morag,” Oliphant continued. I knew him. He was a landlord and owned a small portfolio of property here in Ardnoch and in villages along the coast. He’d grown up with Morag’s father, who was a Sutherland and had distant connections to the Duke of Sutherland. Oliphant’s family didn’t date back as far as Morag’s or the Adairs, but it was obvious from his attitude that he’d been brought up to believe he was from a superior family. He had always been a judgmental old bastard.
“It’s everybody’s business what they do. They’ve turned this village and their ancestral name into a walking scandal. First the eldest transforms his family estate into a Hollywood circus and the village with it, and then he marries an upstart American—”
“Mr. Oliphant—”
“Then, then”—his voice rose with agitation—“his brother had an affair with a woman half his age who also happened to be his children’s nanny. It’s shameful, I tell you. And we let him get away with it, so now the sister is shacking up with her sister-in-law’s father. Have you ever heard anything like it?”
Arro huffed and marched toward the deli counter.
“Arro—”
She waved me off, so I followed at her back to make sure she was all right as she did whatever she needed to do.
“I tell you, they’ve brought shame on the Adair name.”
The deli came into view as we rounded the aisle. And there he was, hunched over his cane, leaning on Morag’s counter.
Morag blanched at the sight of us.
Arro stopped behind the old man, and I behind her. “The only shameful person in this village is you, Mr. Oliphant,” she said calmly.
He startled, almost dropping his cane as he whirled around to peer at us over the glasses perched on his nose. His mouth pinched into a fine line before he sneered, “I’m only saying what everyone is thinking.”
“Not true,” Morag said and smiled softly at us. “I say it’s about time. I’m thrilled for you both.”
“Och, haud yer wheesht, woman.” Oliphant stomped his cane belligerently. “Do not encourage this distasteful misconduct.”
Morag stiffened. “Do not speak to me like that in my own establishment, Mr. Oliphant, or I’ll have to ban you.”