Page 64 of Love Thief

“Oh,” I say faintly. “What an introduction.”

“Well, just to let you know, I have hidden all the dynamite, so no fun for you.” He laughs loudly with gusto and I find myself smiling back at him.

We walk under the entrance portico, it’s stone heaven. “You have a beautiful home,” I gesture to the house. It’s already chatting on, the building that is, so too the outbuildings, they are so loud. I put my hands to my ears, as if the sound is outside and not just in my head.

“Do you feel okay my dear? You look very pale all of a sudden. Come, sit in here, I’ll get tea. Xander called and told me what you liked.”

He moves us to a smaller room, a kind of study, a working room, facing the front of the house. I think they used to be called a ‘speak a word room.’ There are papers strewn on the old, large, wooden desk. Books fill the shelves, some look legal in nature, and we sit on a very well-worn comfy sofa.

“I did have a more formal tea set up, but this room is nearer. Is it okay for you both? Sorry for the mess, but I work in here. The light is perfect all day.”

I know Xan’s dad was a lawyer of some standing, and still consults for both the English and Scottish governments on issues of law. The room, however, has a lived-in feel, and I find myself relaxing, smiling, chatting, filling Tarron in on events of the past few weeks, as we drink our tea and eat sandwiches.

I look out of the window, and I can’t see it but I can feel it. A building behind the trees, it’s literally shouting for me.

“What’s that building over there?” I ask Tarron as I stand and move to the window. The sun has risen and the sky is clearing to the brightest blue with no clouds. A rare day for Scotland. As the breeze moves the leaves, I catch a pink hue of stone flashing between the trees.

“How did you know one was there?” He looks at me with a challenge in his eye.

I shrug. “I thought I saw it when we came in,” I lie.

He comes to stand next to me. “Xander has told me all about you, Evie. Everything.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “I’ve known all about you since you met him aged nine. He was supposed to come to me in the summers, but I could not get him away from Eastwood. Russell, of course, but you and your brothers kept them going back.” He looks down at me.

“Evie, do you mind if I head to bed for an hour?” Tommy interjects. He’s been up for hours, and driven us up here.

I smile. “Of course, take your time. I may go up myself, in a bit.”

Tarron points in the direction we’re both now looking. “Let’s go meet it,” he says. The man is quirkier than Xander, but I definitely think Xan inherited his traits.

We move out of the ante room into the great hall, back through to the entrance portico, and veer to the right, moving down the path. Tarron points out landmarks as we go and we eventually move into the trees. I can see the pinkish stone peeking out through the leaves. It’s a carved archway into what looks like an old lodge and collection of buildings.

The pink stone archway opens into an old courtyard. Other buildings surround us, and an archway at the other end heads down to the loch. The buildings curve around to make a circle. The courtyard has sunlight at its centre, as it has risen sufficiently to shine over the lower walls at the back.

I turn my face up towards it, close my eyes, listening and smiling at the stories in my mind of what the building is telling me.

“They say this place was kissed by the Fairy Prince, a very powerful being. It’s that that turned the stone pink, and why we call it the Fairy House.” Tarron is stood, watching me, and he moves to stand next to me. “I think the seer lived here when the house was first built, maybe it’s that.”

He looks at me, grinning. “Oh, Xan has told me how you laugh when you tell them buildings talk to you, but I believe they do. We have connections with different things. For some people it’s people, for others animals, some trees, flowers, mountains, hills and lochs.” He sweeps his arms towards the hills in the background. “But some connections are strong and should never be laughed at or broken. They endure, they build, they love, they offer comfort, peace.”

He continues to watch and assess me. “Has my son and his idiot friend cocked it all up again? Are you leaving them after six months?” I gasp at his forthrightness. “As I said, I’ve known about you for a long time. Xander was so happy at Christmas, he didn’t come home. Your son was going to LA, they nearly bungled that one.” He shakes his head. “Young men, so foolish. I always say that youth is wasted on the young.”

I walk away from him, his scrutiny making me slightly uncomfortable, and seek the comfort of the building, touching the stone arch that goes down towards the loch. I feel the warmth of the stone, and the love from the building.

“They are both good men. Different in many ways,” he goes on, “but the same in others. They complement each other. Xander needed Russell when he was younger.

“His mother was not a nice woman, she didn’t want or love Xan. She married me as a convenience and debt to her family. Xander was an inconvenience she had to suffer. I tried my best to be there for him, but it was hard growing up when all around you see mothers with their children, and Xan had one that did not care.

“I know you helped him when she died, even though you were suffering yourself from your own grief. He told me about the graveyard, what you said to him. That was partly why I was at Eastwood that summer—to get a look at the girl who I feel saved my son. Then you blew up the countryside and I smiled the whole way home to Scotland, knowing he was in safe hands.”

His boyish grin brings a lump to my throat, and tears to my eyes.

I’m holding onto the stonework. “This building loves him,” I say sincerely. “They all do.” I gesture around.

“Of course they do. And he loves them. He was happiest here. She never came here—only to give birth to him, then never stepped foot back in the place—but Xander loved it. You see, if you are born here, or even conceived here, you will always belong here. No matter where else in the world you go, it will always call you back.”

He gives me a cheeky grin, then says in a low whisper, “It’s the fairies, the prince is so strong,” and looks furtively around. “Come back up to the house when you’re ready, we can have more tea, or you can sleep. If you stay up, I can take you around the loch. I know Xan will want to show you some of his favourite places, but I would love to show you some of mine.”

I kiss him on the cheek, and as he turns and heads back to the house, I set off for the loch at the bottom of the path. There’s a small beach, boulders sticking to the sand and into the water. The lapping of the small waves are soothing. I sit watching birds soar in the sky and feel the heat of the day notch up. It's so peaceful here, other than the buildings that are not shutting up.

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