Page 23 of A Scot on the Rocks
“Mayhap some ghosts are solid.”
“Not proper ghosts.”
Unable to hold it in any longer, Ewan laughed.
Catrìona pointed at him as if his amusement proved her argument beyond dispute.
Jamie gave Ewan a dark look. “You’re encouraging the wee lassie.”
Catrìona turned and ran back toward the cottage before Jamie could salvage his dignity.
“She’s becoming difficult.”
“The wee girl is five.”
“Exactly. Imagine her at thirteen.”
Ewan laughed again as they continued down the road.
Old Iseabail waved from her doorway, and Jamie lifted a hand in return without slowing. He’d already eaten that morning and didna intend to lose another hour being told he needed porridge, a wife, or both.
Donald, unfortunately, spotted him near the well. “Jamie!”
Jamie kept riding as Donald shouted again. After the third time, he sighed and turned Bess.
“I’ll catch up to ye later,” he said to Ewan.
The cart wheel took longer than it should have because Donald had already tried to fix it himself, which meant Jamie first had to undo the damage before he could repair it. By the time he finished, he’d also heard about two sick sheep, agreed to carry a message to the next glen if he went that way, and been given a piece of bread by Donald’s wife despite saying twice that he wasn’t hungry.
That was how an hour disappeared in Glenbrae. A man left home to check the water and came back having repaired a cart, delivered sweets, heard three pieces of news, and promised something he hadn’t intended to promise.
Though Jamie didn’t mind, not really. The people here had been doing the same for him since he was a boy.
When he finally reached Dunarraidh, Morag was waiting beneath the ruined archway with a basket on one hip as he dismounted.
She frowned at him. “How bad is it?”
“What?”
“The whisky.”
Jamie stared as she lifted one shoulder.
“Alasdair’s daughter told Iseabail and Iseabail told me.”
“Even more shocking.”
Morag ignored that. “Is it ruined?”
He shook his head.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The water tasted different after the rain.”
Morag looked toward the hills. “The upper burn?”
Jamie paused. “Aye.”
