Page 56 of A Recipe for Love
Adam moved his arm away. ‘Sorry, I didn’t properly introduce you, did I? Fi, this is Bella Smith, my fiancée.’
Fiona’s hand darted back across the table like it had been stung.
‘You’re engaged?’
Adam nodded.
‘I had no idea.’
‘Clearly,’ Bella muttered.
‘Adam Lowbridge off the market. You wait until I tell everyone.’
Adam took a sip of his coffee. ‘So you’re still in touch with people from school.’
‘Some of them.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Lots of people moved away. You know for work or whatever, but Liv’s in Locharron now. She’ll be gutted to hear you’re getting married.’
Adam frowned. ‘I thought she was living with a woman?’
‘They broke up. She’s seeing someone else though.’
‘Right. So do you think she might be over me?’
Fiona shrugged. ‘Maybe.’
Bella grabbed the opportunity to change the subject back to the point of their visit. ‘So do you like working here, Fiona?’
‘Oh it’s great. John’s vision has really revitalised the estate. We turned over more than eight million last year.’
Bella heard Adam inhale sharply.
‘We employ local people and attract high net worth visitors.’
Something about the way she emphasised ‘high net worth’ gave Bella the ick.
Adam was looking thoughtful. ‘You said you do whisky experiences?’
‘Of course.’
‘So you have a distillery here?’
‘We’re more showcasing the range of whiskies available.’
‘Right.’ He nodded. ‘And you still take shooting and fishing parties?’
‘Absolutely. A shooting weekend in the Highlands is a really superior option for team building or even a stag do.’
‘Bag a stag on your stag?’ suggested Bella.
‘Something like that. I mean, within the rules obviously. There’s a lot of licensing for deer. And you’re not supposed to shoot males when they’re still in velvet.’
Bella nodded like she knew what that meant, although there hadn’t been much need for a close knowledge of game shooting growing up in the housing association flat in Leeds. It was the sort of thing a lady of Lowbridge would be expected to understand, wasn’t it? Like the perfectly manicured Fiona MacCellan, daughter of the neighbouring estate, understood.
‘And we get a lot of day visitors for the walking trails and the mountain biking. Or just enjoying the visitor experience. John wants to add four-wheel driving and quad biking, but you know what the locals can be like.’
Bella nodded politely. In her experience so far the locals were as mad as a box of frogs. The Ladies’ Group would probably be well up for a spot of quad biking.
‘Daddy turned the whole of the top hills over to common grazing before John bought the place.’ She pulled a face. ‘John was a bit cross about that to be honest, but Daddy was within his rights and the solicitors did tell John it would be a bugger, excuse my French, to undo.’ She took a sip of her tea. ‘So no quad biking up there. The crofters wrote a long objection saying it freaks the sheep out.’
