The thought of her caught me off guard, the way it always, always does and I felt the threatening sting of tears in my eyes. Dammit, Jenny. Get yourself together. Why are you even here if you're going to spend all your time wallowing, which you could have done just as easily back home?
The sound of footsteps yanked me out of the threatened spiral of self-recrimination and I looked up to see a young woman walking towards me. Unlike me, though, she seemed to fit into the landscape around her - she was dressed in a long, thick skirt that billowed out in the wind that was also blowing her blonde hair around her face. She smiled as she got closer to me and I almost did a double-take at the similarity between her and Darach - it was immediately obvious that she was a relation of some sort.
"You must be...Jennifer? I'm Anne McLanald."
I took her outstretched hand and shook it, nodding that yes, I was Jennifer.
"Have you met my brother yet? The Laird? He was supposed to be in London until tomorrow but Mrs. Clyde said he came back early?"
I replied that I had met her brother. Anne was eerily like him - she even held her body the same way he did, with the same nonchalant ease that I'd seen earlier in the kitchen. It occurred to me that the two of them had probably looked like twins as children, before puberty had hardened his jawline and broadened his shoulders at the same time that it softened her into the tall, slender and quite beautiful creature I saw in front of me. She was giving me a look I couldn't quite decipher.
"Did you - did my brother hire you?"
"Er," I paused, not sure what Anne was asking me, "well, yes, I'm going to be here until the end of the summer."
"No, no," Anna waved her hand at me slightly impatiently, "I mean, did Darach hire you himself? Did he do the interview? Or did Mrs. Clyde do it?"
"Mrs. Clyde interviewed me on Skype. I only met Darach this morning."
"Really?!" Anne seemed surprised by my response - I caught it when she held back what was going to be an amused eye-roll. "Hmm. Alright. Are you coming out here to see the loch?"
Anne changed the subject quickly and kept going before I had time to respond:
"I've just been to see it - it's such a beautiful day isn't it? Do you want me to show you where it is?"
At the time I didn't know what a 'loch' was but Anne seemed so enthusiastic and so eager for me to get a look at it that I just nodded and followed behind her as she turned and started leading me back down in the same direction she'd come from.
"So you met my brother?" Anne called back to me without bothering to turn around as we walked.
"Yes." I tried to keep my voice as neutral as possible - already getting the feeling that Anne was fishing for information.
"He's quite a sight, isn't he?"
Well, there was no obvious response to that question, so I didn't give one. Anne stopped in the middle of the path and turned to me with a knowing smile on her face:
"What? You didn't notice? My brother has been breaking girl's hearts since he was twelve years old - and he's been known to have...certain tastes."
That was twice now. Both women I'd met at Castle McLanald had made a point of noting Darach McLanald's good looks. Why? I was starting to get the distinct impression of the Laird as a golden boy of sorts, a favored son doted on by women young and old, related or not. I've never really gone for that kind of thing, especially in a grown man, and the look on Anne's face felt slightly presumptuous. What of it if the Laird was smoking hot? Was I being made fun of? That seemed like bad manners - and it put me a little on the defensive.
Anne saw the look on my face before I replied and immediately changed her expression to one of contrition.
"Och, Jennifer, I'm sorry! I'm not implying anything about you! If anything I'm implying something about my brother."
WHAT about your brother? I wanted to ask, in much the same way I'd wanted to ask Mrs. Clyde when she brought up the Laird's dashing features - and his apparent lack of availability. Yes, he was handsome. Yes, I had definitely noticed. No I was not planning on begging him for a proposal - fantasist or not, I have my pride.
Anne continued: "Never mind me. I'm just - well, let's say I know my brother's predilections, is all."
I didn't know the Laird's 'predilections' but at that point I was damned if I was going to ask about them. We kept walking in - at least on my part - a kind of perplexed silence, until the path suddenly turned to the left and a small lake with dark blue water that looked unfathomably deep came into view. It was beautiful enough to take my breath away and sweep all thoughts of the Laird from my mind.
"Wow."
"It's lovely isn't it?"
I could hear the pride in Anne's voice.