Flora was washing up the breakfast things when her father came back from his morning briefing with Sir Charles up at the house. Outwardly, his expression was as calm as ever, but she could tell he was out of sorts by the way he dragged the deerstalker from his head and threw it on to the table.
‘Are you in for a busy day with the guests?’ she asked him, drying her hands on the pinny tied around her waist. His duties as keeper had been unofficially expanded to those of ghillie as well, but she knew he’d rather be out on the hills than standing on a riverbank or rowing a boat while instructing inept guests on how to cast for salmon.
‘Aye,’ he grunted, his tone gruff, ‘but I’m not the only one. Sir Charles has asked for you to go up and help out with the dinner this evening. He wishes Lady Helen to accompany the fishing party, too, and so he wants you to finish off the cooking. I’m not happy about it. It’s not your duty. But you know how short-handed they are now.’
Flora nodded. The housekeeper had left at the end of the previous month, returning to care for her mother back home in Clydebank where there were well-paid jobs to be had in the munitions factories and the prospect of a far livelier social life than was to be found in the kitchen of Ardtuath House. And so, apart from Mrs McTaggart from the village who came in to clean in the mornings and do a little light cooking, Lady Helen was having to manage things on her own.
‘Don’t fret, Dad. I’m not bothered. I’ll be happy to help out. It’ll be good for Lady Helen to be included in the party for once – she never usually goes out with the rods.’
Flora’s words belied her conflicting emotions. It would be a chance to see Alec and she wanted to be of help, but she was all too aware that this was an opportunity for Sir Charles to put her firmly in her place.
‘It’s ridiculous, Himself carrying on inviting those people. The world’s changed for everyone except His Lordship, apparently. It’s not right that they expect you to skivvy for them.’
‘But Dad, we have our home because of him. And Lady Helen’s always been so good to us. I don’t begrudge them a helping hand every now and then. I wasn’t intending on doing anything else tonight, in any case.’
Ordinarily on a Saturday evening, she and Alec would go to a dance or a film in the hall at Aultbea, or for a picnic with Mairi, Bridie and Ruaridh on the rare occasions that they were all off duty at the same time and the weather was fine. But that evening Mairi was helping her mother at home, and Ruaridh had a date with Wendy. And she’d known for weeks that Alec would be expected to attend the dinner with the house party staying at Ardtuath.
‘Well, I still don’t like it,’ Iain grumbled, reluctantly going to gather up the rods and reels needed for the day’s fishing. From the boot room he called, ‘You’re to go up to the house after lunch. Lady Helen will leave you instructions in the kitchen.’
As if sensing his master’s fractious mood, Braan pressed his wet nose against Flora’s hand and she scratched behind the black velvet of his ears to reassure him. ‘Honestly, Dad, don’t worry,’ she called back. ‘I’m glad to be helping out.’
Settling his tweed deerstalker back on to his head, her father shot her a fond look as he called Braan to his side. ‘You’re a good lass, Flora,’ he said softly. ‘I just hope they all appreciate that, too.’
Ardtuath House was silent when Flora walked up the drive. The building had a handsome, pleasingly symmetrical fa?ade, the original two-storey hunting lodge flanked by twin towers in the Scottish Baronial style that had been added a century ago by Sir Charles’s forebears. Automatically, she walked round to the back and retrieved the iron key from its hiding place behind the stone trough by the door, letting herself in. The cavernous kitchen was stuffy with the heat from the range, which muttered away quietly to itself, and she pushed open a window to let in the fresh air. On the broad table in the centre of the room sat a bowl covered with a clean dishcloth, and a note in Lady Helen’s flowing hand written on a sheet of cream notepaper.
Flora, dear, thank you for helping.
There’s a salmon in the larder, which I’ve already poached. It just needs the skin taking off and some decoration on the platter （cucumber in larder, too, for this purpose）。
You’ll find a haunch of venison there, for roasting. Please put it in the oven about five o’clock with some juniper berries and a little of the claret that you’ll find in the dining room. There are potatoes and carrots in the store room to accompany it.