Page 76 of Coming Home to Winter Island
The producer looks at his watch. ‘We don’t have long,’ he says. ‘By the way, that gin...how much more did you need to sell to make your crowdfunding target?’
‘Just another case and we’re there.’
‘In that case, I’ll take a case!’
I turn and head out into the hall, where Lachlan is waiting.
‘We’ve just sold the last case! We did it!’ I whisper with excitement.
‘We did it!’ he beams. ‘What’s that?’ He looks down at the brown envelope in my hand.
‘Just something I need to think about,’ I say. ‘I’ll only be a minute.’
I turn to the big front door, remembering how I pushed it open that first night in the storm. And now the fire is lit in the hall and the fairy lights and lanterns are shining one last time before we take them down tomorrow. Everything will look very different then. I slip outside and take some deep, deep breaths, breathing from my butt once more, trying for some semblance of control. And look what happened last time I tried to control what was happening: I ended up here and just let life take me where it thought I should go. I think of the mountain burn and my early-morning runs. I’d give anything to be out on one of those runs right now.
I breathe in deeply again.
‘Hello!’
I jump about a mile in the air. It’s Jack Drummond, from the drinks company.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,’ he says. ‘Just thought I’d take a moment to look around.’
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ As I speak, my breath comes out like smoke from a fiery dragon. The snow is falling more heavily now, and my teeth are chattering.
‘It is. And you sang beautifully too, if I may say so.’ He smiles.
‘Thank you.’
‘You have your orders in?’
‘We do! We’ve just met our crowdfunding target, so the gin run can happen.’
‘Excellent! Now that you have, I take it you’d like to sell this place with the distillery?’
‘That’s the plan!’ I try and sound happy.
‘Well, then we at Drummond’s would very much like to buy it. Let’s talk figures over the next few days. I’m sure we can come to an agreement. Like I say, we’re very keen to buy, before anyone else gets the chance.’
I bite my lip. This is everything we could have hoped for, I think, and wish I could feel over the moon. Maybe I’m just in shock. Or it’s the cold.
I look at the brown envelope in my hand.
‘So, will you be offering Lachlan a job too, as head distiller?’ I say, unable to resist.
He nods.
‘Lachlan will be carrying on making Teach Mhor gin? That is excellent!’ And this time I do feel a surge of excitement. ‘I want to know everything that’s going on and when it will be launched! I could sing at the launch...if you want me to,’ I add hastily.
‘That would be wonderful. Though I don’t know if he’s taking the job yet. He said he had to think about it.’
‘Think about it? What’s there to think about? He’s brilliant at it!’
‘Exactly. And he said he had to move to the mainland anyway, so it makes sense.’
‘Perfect,’ I say, then pull myself up short. ‘Sorry, did you say the mainland?’
‘Uh huh, we’re based just outside Edinburgh. You must come and visit our set-up there. Bit bigger than this.’ He smiles.
