“I have no idea, I don’t even know if Ed has even asked any,” I said honestly.
“It would help if we knew dear. I have invited about sixty people, so we really do need to know.”
“I’ll find out, I am sorry, I am not very switched on at weddings,” I admitted.
“We will cope, I’m sure. I am just so glad that you are finally getting married.”
“So am I.”
‘Ed, how many are coming over from the States?’
‘Huh?’
‘Duh, come on Ed, get with me. How many of your friends and relatives have you asked?’
‘Just Rick and Macey. My sister and brother-in-law can’t make it.’
‘Thanks.’
“Two, mum.”
My mother jumped and stared at me. “What?”
“Ed has asked two. I remember now. He had asked his sister and her husband, but he’s a cop in Ohio or somewhere like that and can’t get time off.”
We went over the arrangements, and when I told her that a Lieutenant Colonel was going to be the best man she was delighted.
“Are you sure that Ed won’t accept a commission, dear?” she asked, making me laugh.
We went for a walk with the dogs, meeting up with Dad and Ed on the lower part of the grouse moor, by the loch. Dad was pointing out various landmarks and telling him a wee bit of the local history. Several pairs of grouse called, with one pair flying over our heads.
“Those are grouse,” I told Ed.
“Ah. Thanks, now I know,” he said with a smile.
“They come into season for shooting on the twelfth,” Dad said.
“So I understand. Poor little critters,” said Ed.
“Have you never shot the grouse?”
“Not to my knowledge, but I have shot some very strange things in my time.”
“Ah, then we will ha’e to alter that,” Dad said, with a chuckle.
We all walked back to the house together, past Alex and Helen’s house, which was slightly smaller than the main one.
“How many homes are on the property?” Ed asked.
“There’s the big house, Alex’s house, the three cottages and the bothy,” Dad told him.
“Bothy?”
“Aye, the bothy is a wee house, wi’ bunks, basic cooking and washing facilities. The beaters use it in the season to live in.”
“Those would be the grouse beaters?”
“Aye, folk come and live in the bothy for several weeks at a time, to spend all day beating. They spend holidays doin’ that.”
“That’s a holiday? Spending all day walking through heather, on a mountainside, being shot at by drunken Scotsmen?” Ed said, with a smile.
“Well, not all the guns are Scots, sometimes they are foreign, or worse, English,” Dad said, with a wicked smile.
Ed laughed. “Do you guys really hate the English as much as they say?”
“They’re fine in England, and no’ so bad spending their money up here, but on the rugby pitch, that’s a separate story,” Dad said.
“I think the Canadians are like that with us,” Ed remarked.
We took a slow walk back to the house. I had missed the view of the hills, as it really was very beautiful. The heather was in full bloom, so in the August sun the hills did look lovely.
“You have a fine home, in perfect surroundings,” Ed said.
“We like it. Have you thought about where you two are going to settle down?” Mum said.
“I have a few more years in the Marines before I retire. I have a training post to fill, so that’s a five-year tour. After that we shall have to see.”
“Will you not consider Scotland?”
“As long as we are together, I am willing to consider anywhere,” Ed replied, as I hugged him.
“I had offered to leave the Marines and move here for Gillian’s work, but she was ahead of me.”
“I have had enough of Edinburgh, and besides, if I am going to start having babies, then his work is more vital than mine,” I said. Mother looked at me, her eyes glistening damply.
“To be honest, I have no special desire to stay in the States, but we’ll just let our lives determine where we end up,” Ed said.
“Can you not get a posting to Scotland?” Dad asked.
“I have no idea. I know the Navy have bases over here, and there are some U.S. Marines here, but it is not something I know much about. I’ve never had reason to before.”
“Well, I am sure you will get yourselves sorted out eventually. I would like to go to America, as it’s one place I’ve never been,” Ma said, and we all smiled. I knew that apart from a couple of trips to the Costa Brava in Spain, mum had hardly left Scotland.
It was approaching three o’ clock, and Dad muttered something about sorting out the VAT. Mum disappeared towards the kitchen and I was left with Ed in the hall.
“I like your family,” he said, as he put one of his huge arms around my shoulders.
“That’s a bloody good job.”
He laughed. “I had no idea that Scotland was so beautiful.”
“Aye, this is the cultivated bit; you wait to see the unspoiled parts.”
“This is unspoiled.”
“No, not like the real highlands. We’ll go up to Inverness, then travel the Great Glen down to Fort William on the West Coast, and then travel up and over the top. Then you will see unspoiled; except for the occasional bloody tourist.”
“You mean like us?”
I laughed. “Aye, just like us.”
“You know, now you are home, your accent has become more pronounced.”
“Has it?”
“Yeah, you have become a real Scottish Lassie.”
“You will find that your accent will really stand out.”
“Hell lady, I’m American, I don’t have an accent.”
I punched him in the ribs and he laughed, resorting to tickling me.
Chapter Eight
ED
I fell in love with Gilly’s part of Scotland, as it was the most tranquil and beautiful place I had ever been. I’d been in spectacular places, serene places and marvellous places, but never had I been anywhere like this. The gentle rolling hills, the call of the wild birds, with the deer roaming the moors and forests, combined to give me a real feeling of peace.
The mountains weren’t high, the rivers weren’t wide, but there was an air of ancient tranquillity, despite man’s best efforts to spoil it through wars and strife down the centuries.
The days passed in a blur, but I was made to feel so welcome, it choked me up. It wasn’t as if I was joining a family, it was if I had always been part of it. Gilly’s mom kept hugging me for no real reason, while her dad got into calling me ‘son’.
On that first tour of the farm, he had been very curious as to my career.
“I understand you’re a Marine?”
“That’s right.”
“I was a Marine,” he told me.
“Is that a fact?”
“Aye, I was in the Royal Marines for five years.”
“I have the utmost respect for the Royal Marines. I have worked with them on joint exercises in the past. Is it book-necks, they call them?”
He chuckled.
“Aye, boot-neck is right. I joined during the war and stayed on for a while. I made Captain, and would have gone regular but my father died, so I left and took over the farm.”
He shared some of his experiences, making some of my own seem rather tame by comparison. This man had seen action and then some. I saw the man in a whole new light.
“I’d be obliged if you didn’t tell either Jeanette or Gillian what I have told you, I don’t want them to know about that part of my life. In fact, you’re the first person outside the4 service that I’ve told.”