sitting at the kitchen table having tea with Mrs. Lennox.
âI hope youâll forgive the intrusion,â he said after Judith had waved them all back to their seats. âI have so many memories, and I felt myself rather in the way at home. I hope Iâll not be any such thing here. I told Mrs. Frasier to box my ears and pack me off if I was,â he added with a smile toward the cook.
Mrs. Frasier, kneading bread dough, looked over her shoulder and chuckled obligingly. âYouâre a bit big for it now, lad.â
âIf they donât mind having you here, I canât imagine I would,â said Judith. âNothing unusual today, Mrs. Frasier,â she added, leaving the menu near the cook, though out of the way of stray flour. âI hope everythingâs well at your house.â
âOh yes, quite,â said Ross. âMother and Gillian send their regards, of course. An extra body does get underfoot in a place like that when it rains. I never noticed it growing up.â
âAye, everythingâs smaller when you come back home,â said Judith.
âI wouldnât have thought that in your case,â Ross said.
She shrugged. âThe castleâs larger than most buildings, but Loch Arachâs smaller than most towns. It rather balances out. Although,â she said, changing the subject before anyone could ask questions about where sheâd been, âit did seem a bit oversized just after my brothers left.â
âAye, and quiet,â said Mrs. Lennox, shaking her head. âIt was grand to hear a childâs voice about the place. Though, if you dinnaâ mind me saying, mâlady, Iâll not entirely miss Master Colin doing chemical experiments in the middle of the night.â
âColinâs always been too enthusiastic about his hobbies for anyoneâs tastes,â said Judith as Rossâs eyes widened. âExcept Reginaâs, I gather. But if you have the patience for motorcars, Colin might be tame and predictable by comparison.â
âWhat kind of chemical experiments?â Ross asked.
âOch, who can tell? Goinâs-on that went bang and had the whole downstairs hallway smelling of smoke. Weâre lucky the castle didnaâ fall in around our heads.â
âOh, I think this place has been through worse in its day,â said Judith. The experiments in question hadnât dealt with chemistry as most people understood it, but neither Ross nor Mrs. Frasier had any reason to suspect otherwise. Every family these days had an amateur scientist or two in it, sheâd heard. âAnd you have to be fair. To Colin, ten oâclock is hardly the middle of the night.â
âHmm!â said Mrs. Lennox, unimpressed. âCity hours. Meaning no disrespect, of course.â
âOf course,â said Judith. âI promise, the castle still stands as it always did.â
âIâd be grateful for a look,â Ross said and coughed. âThat is to say, Iâm sure itâs changed since I was growing up, and I know I didnât see everything, but while Iâm here⦠You wouldnât have to give me a walking tour or anythingââ
The words âwalking tourâ kept Judith from staring in shock. Down in England, she remembered, it was common enough for people to go and walk about great houses, particularly if they were large and old. It had happened in Jane Austenâs books, hadnât it? If that was the standard Ross was used to, no wonder heâd asked.
âNot in much shape for visitors today, I think,â she said. âIâve still got to get the roof fixed, and there are a couple bad spots in some of the floorsâI wouldnât want you breaking your leg. We have everyone into the great hall for the harvest fair though, remember? If youâd like to look about then, Iâll even see if I can find you a guide who knows some of the more interesting
Hilary Green
Don Gutteridge
Beverly Lewis
Chris Tetreault-Blay
Joyce Lavene
Lawrence Durrell
Janet Dailey
Janie Chodosh
Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais
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