Page 120 of Only a Breath Away

The rain and wind and lightning and thunder slowly subsided and then a few minutes later the side door opened and a dog raced into the house, bounded right straight for Archie, and jumped onto him licking his face, his tail wagging wildly. Archie said, “Are you Haggis? Oh my gosh, are you Haggis?”

The kids were all up, jumping up and down, while Haggis jumped up and down in the middle of them. My husband entered the house, his smile wide.

“You did it!”

He said, “Och aye, I canna believe it, but it worked.”

There was a general disorder and merriment as the kids frolicked with the dog and it was too much for one room so we spilled out onto the grass once Zach said, “If you people don’t get this dog out of here I’m gonna…”

We didn’t wait to hear what he said.

I held on tight to Magnus. He held Isla up but she squirmed to look down on Haggis who was playing hard, wrestling with the boys. We found a ball and he chased that ball like it was the first ball he had ever seen and all of us were blown away by the dog chasing a ball like it was the greatest thing in the world.

Beaty said, her hands clutched together, “I think my heart might explode with love. He is the most beautiful dog in the world.”

Emma said, “He for sure needs a bath, first thing.”

Magnus said, “I think that ye love him makes all the terrible things we went through worth it, right Fraoch?”

Fraoch laughed. “Aye, we had such a time of darkness. My head is still pained from it.”

Magnus asked, “Where’s Lochinvar?”

“He’s working on the cemetery still, right?” I looked at Quentin.

He looked at his watch. “He ought to be finished by now, he definitely saw the storm.”

I said, “Wait until you see him, Magnus, he’s sunburnt and he was covered in Stinging Nettle welts, they were gone by this morning, but—

Quentin said, “I saw him at lunch, but… now I think of it, it’s been three and a half hours. Why isn’t he here? James, want to go with?”

He and James raced up the hill and were gone for about fifteen minutes while we watched the dog play with the kids. Then we saw them return without Lochinvar but with the box of his tools.

I called out, “He’s not there?”

They shook their heads.

My heart sank.Could he have been taken? Could something have happened?

Magnus said, “Are all the vessels accounted for?” He called into the house, “Chef Zach! Can ye check the tracker, are all the vessels accounted for?”

Zach came from the house. “Yeah, what’s going on? We have all the same vessels as before Magnus left.”

Tracy stuck her head out of the door. “Are you asking about Lochinvar?”

We all said, “Yes.”

“I took him a drink a little while ago—”

“He was there?”

“Yeah, he probably walked to the pub.”

Zach said, “What exactly did he say?”

“He heard some music. We walked up the hill a bit and figured out that there was a bar down the road, the Crazy Loon. He said, ‘Like a tavern?’ And I told him it was. I figured if he went he would have called to tell you.”

Quentin laughed. “Lochinvar might have walked to a bar?”

---