Keepsakes from the Cottage by the Loch (Loch Cameron #6)

Chapter 2

TWO

‘Mum’s not feeling too good, I’m afraid.’ Eric sounded cagey. Tara could hear her mother’s voice in the background. ‘What? Hang on, she’s talking to me… Dotty, I’m talking to Tara,’ he said. Tara could tell that he was holding his phone away from his ear. She heard her mother’s voice saying something in her no-nonsense tone.

‘Eric. For goodness’ sake, just put the speakerphone on,’ Dotty, Tara’s mum, said, her voice muffled. ‘The button that looks like a speaker. Dear me, must I do everythin’?’

‘Mum?’ Tara was relieved to hear her mother’s voice: she wasn’t dead, then. For a moment, she had thought the worst.

‘Hello, darlin’.’ Dotty’s voice sounded strained, but Tara was relieved by its familiarity. ‘It’s all right. But I’ve broken my leg. I fell over on the kitchen floor. My own fault: I spilled a glass o’ water and forgot to mop it. You know what those tiles are like when they’re wet.’ She tutted, presumably at herself.

‘Oh, no. I’m sorry, Mum! When did you do it?’ Tara wondered, but didn’t say, at what age falling over turned into “having a fall”. Her parents were in their mid-sixties and were very active, running the Inn and involved in various community activities, but Tara had noticed that they were starting to slow down just a little, here and there.

‘Yesterday. I was up tae the hospital an’ had an x-ray, then they put me in a plaster cast an’ gave me some pills, so I’m all right. It’s a bit o’ a tricky break, though, the doc says. I’ve got to be laid up fer weeks.’ Dotty sighed. ‘It’s no’ very convenient at all. We’re booked solid fer weeks because it’s the summer holidays.’

‘Oh, no. Can you get someone in to help?’ Tara had a sneaking suspicion of what her mother was about to say, and she didn’t want to hear it.

Please don’t ask me to come home.

Tara willed her mum to say that someone from the village had volunteered to do everything Dotty normally would: take the bookings at the Inn, work behind the bar, cook the breakfasts and do the lunches and dinners, order in food and drink as well as the cleaning. Dotty was and always had been someone who loved to live at a frantic pace, and still found time to keep the Loch Cameron gossip mill running.

‘I need you tae come home and help oot until I’m back on my feet, sweetheart.’ Her mother said the words she’d been dreading. ‘I know yer aboot to go on your summer break, so ye won’t have tae take any time off school. It should only be a few weeks, but your dad just cannae cope on his own.’

‘Oh.’ What kind of daughter did it make her, not to want to go back to her home town and help her parents, who needed her? But she’d been so looking forward to her holiday. Last year, she hadn’t gone anywhere, and at the end of the six weeks she’d vowed that she wouldn’t ever squander that lovely stretch of time again.

But, it wasn’t just that. Tara had avoided going to Loch Cameron ever since Ramsay had disappeared without a trace; ever since she had done the thing that she had regretted ever since. It was something that she tried not to think about, but it often kept her awake at night, even now.

I’m supposed to be going to Berlin for a week with Carla. And, I don’t feel comfortable coming home. Not with reminders of what happened everywhere I look.

She wanted to say it, but she knew she couldn’t. It wasn’t her mum’s fault that she’d broken her leg, and Tara knew her mother well enough to know that she wouldn’t have asked for Tara’s help unless there was no other option.

‘Tara? Are ye there?’ Dotty asked. ‘You’d really be helpin’ us oot, hen. I know it’s no’ what you planned for the holidays, but we need ye. Can ye come?’

Tara had hardly ever heard her mother sound this way: she was normally so strong, brisk and friendly. It shook Tara to hear Dotty sound so vulnerable.

‘Of course, Mum.’ Tara made her voice bright, although she felt anything but positive. ‘I’ll be there on the weekend. Okay?’ She met Carla’s eyes and mouthed I’m sorry . Carla gave her a quizzical look.

‘Thank you, darlin’.’ Dotty sounded relieved.

‘Are you all right, Mum?’ Tara’s heart clenched at the thought of Dotty being in pain.

‘It’s a wee bit sore, aye,’ her mum chuckled, but Tara could hear the stress in her voice. ‘I cannae lie, I almost passed out on the kitchen floor before your dad came an’ found me lyin’ there like a lame sheep. But I’m takin’ the pills, an’ they help. Doc says I can have occupational therapy in a while, when it’s healed enough.’

‘Oh, Mum.’ Tara felt a wave of anxiety wash over her. It sounded awful. She hated to think of Dotty lying on the cold kitchen floor of the Inn, calling out for Eric, with her leg bent under her at an awful angle.

‘Ach, don’t worry, hen. I’ll be okay, I just need your help for a bit. I just dinnae trust anyone else with the Inn. And it’ll be good practice for ye. You’ll inherit this place one day.’

Tara berated herself again for even thinking about the Berlin holiday, when her mum was in so much pain. It was hardly important.

‘I’m a teacher, Mum,’ Tara reminded Dotty. ‘I don’t plan to run the Loch Cameron Inn.’

‘Aye, well,’ Dotty replied, airily. ‘Ye never know. Things change.’

‘All right, well, I’ll see you on Saturday, then.’ Tara repressed the urge to sigh. But, what choice did she have? Dotty needed her, and she had to go.

Well, I guess I’m going to Loch Cameron this summer , Tara thought.