Hey gf. 2 packed 2 get 2 u here. Meet u bk @ Allens or ours afterwards? xox


The text gave Cat a happy glow. Even Bella wouldn’t be so insensitive as to bring Freddie Tilney to her fiancé’s sister’s lodgings. Mr Allen might be a man of few words but Cat imagined he would expend several of them in that circumstance.

Two hours later, the friends were ensconced in the window seat with mugs of hot chocolate. Freddie, it transpired, had gone to meet his father at the casino to play poker. And that was all the mention Bella made of the gallant captain. Instead, she talked of missing James and how she was going to miss Cat. ‘At least your brother should be back in a day or two. But what am I going to do without my bgf? Who am I going to gossip with and confide in? We’ll just have to mainline Facebook. Because, honestly, Cat, until Jamie gets here I might as well shut myself up in a convent for all the fun I’m going to have.’

They said an emotional farewell and Cat finally managed to pack her bag for Northanger Abbey. Just as she was settling down in bed with the latest instalment of the Hebridean Harpies, she had a text that completed the job of allaying her concerns.


Hi sis. I’ll b bk in Ed 2moro teatime. Will u be gone to N Abbey already? Hope not. Don’t tell Bella, want it 2b surprise. James xxx


Smiling, Cat curled up with her book. Everything was going to be all right. And she was going on a vampire hunt.

20

Cat was touched by how sorry the Allens were to lose her company. ‘You’re always so cheerful,’ Susie said. ‘You’ve been a little ray of sunshine for us both. I’m going to miss your positive outlook, young lady. Hopefully it will have rubbed off on me.’

‘And trying to pick events that would appeal to you has definitely broadened the range of what I’ve been to see,’ Mr Allen added. ‘I think you may inadvertently end up earning me quite a bit of money.’

Cat was taken aback at the prospect of having been so useful to her hosts. Much as her parents loved and fortified her, they had never encouraged her to see herself as a positive influence on anyone’s life. ‘It’s lovely of you to say so, but I’m the one who should be saying thanks. If you hadn’t brought me on this amazing trip, I’d never have met the Tilneys and there’s no way I’d be going anywhere like Northanger Abbey. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me.’

There was a great deal of hugging and insistence on keeping in touch before Mr Allen finally managed to pick up Cat’s bag and carry it down to the street. The Tilneys had invited her to breakfast, and Mr Allen was determined to deliver her to the door of Ainslie Place as if she were a package that might get lost in the post. Calman ushered them into the dining room, but in spite of the General’s earnest invitation to stay, Mr Allen waited only long enough to see Cat settled at the table before he made his polite farewells.

Left alone with her new friends, Cat was surprised to be overtaken by shyness. She was acutely aware of how desperately she wanted to avoid doing the wrong thing. For a fleeting moment she was tempted to jump up and run down Ainslie Place after Mr Allen. Not even the welcoming smiles and conversation of Henry and Ellie could put her at ease, especially since the General’s incessant attention to her needs and wishes was so insistent she began to feel like the fly invited into the spider’s parlour. It was a tricky thought to contend with while confronted with a dizzying array of breakfast possibilities. Cereals, juices, fruits – some of which she didn’t even recognise – breads, pastries, cheese, smoked fish, cold meats, kedgeree, miso, sashimi and all the components of a traditional Scottish breakfast – including haggis and tattie scones – occupied a sideboard which ran along one side of the room. ‘I pride myself that there isn’t a hotel in Edinburgh that can outdo a Tilney breakfast,’ the General said. ‘But if there’s something – anything, some particular cereal or bread – that you would like that we don’t have, just say the word and Calman will send out for it.’ He could not have been more solicitous if she had been a member of the house of Windsor, and Cat, who hated fuss, couldn’t help hoping it wasn’t going to be like this at every meal in Northanger Abbey.

The experience was all the more disconcerting because the General’s unctuousness alternated violently with his expressions of rage about the non-appearance at the table of his elder son. It started with, ‘Where in the name of God is Frederick?’ then escalated into a rant about how much Captain Tilney had lost at cards the night before, how much drink he’d consumed at the tables, finishing with an outburst on how bloody lazy he was in general. When Freddie finally appeared, bleary-eyed and unshaven, he must have wished he’d stayed in bed until they’d left for the Borders, so sharp was his father’s dressing-down. ‘It’s disgraceful,’ he concluded. ‘I’m ashamed of you, showing such disrespect when we have a guest. In my day, the army taught a man how to behave. These days, all you seem to learn is how to misbehave. Now sit down and eat your breakfast.’

Freddie gave Cat a rueful smile but he said nothing in response to his father’s outburst other than a muttered apology. She wondered if the real reason for his late rising was that he’d been tossing and turning over Bella. She hoped she might glean a better idea of his personality, since this was the first time she’d had the chance to talk to him without Bella’s presence. But like his brother and sister, Freddie didn’t have much to say for himself while his father held forth at the breakfast table. He sat with his head bowed, stirring a raw egg into what Cat devoutly hoped was tomato juice.

The General swiftly despatched a plate of kidneys and black pudding, then stood up. ‘Forgive me for leaving you so soon, Catherine, but I must check everything is in order before we leave. But please, eat your fill. There’s no hurry.’

Once the door had closed behind him, Freddie gave a hollow laugh. ‘No hurry, but God help you if you’re not on the doorstep on the stroke of whatever hour he’s decreed for your departure.’

‘Shut up, Freddie, you’ll make Cat wish she’d never agreed to come to Northanger,’ Ellie said.

He sighed. ‘Whatever. To be honest, Ellie, I’ll be glad when you’ve all gone and I can enjoy what’s left of my leave without him on my case all the time. I’ll miss you and Henry, but not Genghis Khan. It’s about time you two got out from under his thumb.’

‘We’re not under his thumb,’ Henry said. ‘We choose to stay close to him because we understand him.’

‘It’s his way of dealing with his pain,’ Ellie said. ‘The terrible things he saw in the Falklands, and then Mother’s death. You should cut him more slack, Freddie.’

Cat couldn’t help thinking she liked the younger Tilneys better for the compassion they showed their difficult parent. But Freddie was determined to put his side. ‘He’s not in pain, he’s just a bully. You think I haven’t seen my share of horror out there in Helmand? You think I don’t hurt from losing our mother? But I don’t come home throwing my weight around and making everybody else’s life a bloody misery like he did with Mother. You two are too young to remember what it was like, but to a little kid, it was terrifying.’

‘You seem to have got over it. The two of you are thick as thieves when you come home,’ Ellie said tartly. ‘It’s not me or Henry he takes to the casino or to the races.’

Freddie spread his hands in resignation. ‘What can I say? I know. And he’s great company when he forgets he’s my father. But as soon as we cross the threshold, it’s like the monster inside is unleashed.’

‘Enough,’ Henry said, standing up and swallowing down his final cup of coffee. ‘Cat, I promise nobody is going to shout at you at Northanger. Well, not unless you cheat at Monopoly or Scrabble. Father’s just eager to make sure you enjoy your time with us. He gets over-anxious.’

As he spoke, the General’s anxiety entered a new dimension. He threw open the dining-room door. ‘Come along, come along. We need to be on the road by ten. I promised Lachie we’d be with him by ten forty-five.’ The door closed behind him and Ellie shovelled the last forkful of corned-beef hash into her mouth.

‘Who’s Lachie?’ Cat asked, trailing alongside Henry into the hall, where there seemed to be a great flurry of luggage and boxes of provisions.

‘He was a gamekeeper at Northanger. Then he went to the Falklands with my father and lost a leg.’ Henry threw open the front door and picked up Cat’s case. ‘Obviously, he couldn’t go back to his old job. So Father lent him the money to buy a pub just outside Lauder. We always stop for a coffee and some of his wife’s home baking when we’re passing. It’s a tradition.’ He trotted down the steps and put the case in the boot of the smaller of the two Mercedes parked outside.

Henry leaned against the car and folded his arms. ‘I suspect we’re not at our charming best this morning. You must be wishing you were safe in the bosom of Susie Allen.’

Cat snorted with laughter. ‘You always know the right thing to say to stop me winding myself up. I’m sure everything will be perfectly calm once we get under way.’

And so it proved to be. The chaos somehow metamorphosed into order and Cat soon found herself in the back seat of the larger Mercedes alongside Ellie. Henry was driving the General in the smaller car, while Calman drove the girls.

Coffee at Lachie’s turned out to be a major production number. The pub itself was a cosy cottage, all dark wood and gleaming brasswork, but the coffee shop and bistro occupied a sprawling conservatory built on to the original building. The only other customers were a trio of elderly ladies twittering in the corner over coffee and scones.