Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
I nod along as we begin to drive, looking out of the window but glancing back at him regularly. I realize that he’s describing what he told me he does here on the estate.
That must mean he’s the ghillie of the estate.
He doesn’t seem to mind the traditional role being changed, and it sounds like he’s one of the people driving the change forward. So that must be why it all started after he came back to the estate.
“What are we going to look at now?” I ask.
Finlay flashes me a bright grin that leaves me a little dazed. “We have a few thriving deer herds,” he says. “I’m taking you to see the great stag.”
CHAPTER SIX
Finlay
I have plenty of opportunities to look at Alana’s face as we drive across the land by the side of the loch. Or, what I can see of it which is mostly the reflection in the window – because she stares out at everything we pass, awestruck by it all.
Each time we pass a particularly impressive feature of the land, she gasps over it, a sound that goes right to my heart.
I feel the same way about all of this.
The loch is huge, stretching back right to the horizon we see from here, and I know it intimately.
How many times have I driven, jogged, or walked along its shores?
And yet still, every time I catch a glimpse of that view from the hills or spot it out of the car window, it still takes my breath away.
The same is clearly true for Alana right now. She can’t stop staring around in wonder, amazed by everything.
A possessiveness comes over me, a primal instinct that tells me I need to make sure she has that same look on her face all the time, as often as possible.
I’ve been alive for almost two decades longer than she has, there are so many things I can show her.
Things she has never seen or experienced.
Things she has never even dreamed of.
There are things I want to do to that perfect body, if only….
I park the electric car up at one of the lookout points, knowing it’s one of the most impressive on the entire estate – and, as promised, it’s a spot where you can see the herd from.
We get out together.
I watch her as she advances right to the edge of the hill where a guard rail has been installed for visitors.
There is also an old metal telescope set up that you can look through to examine the surrounding hills and the loch below.
You can see the entire estate from one side to the other from here. The huge house looks like a doll’s house from this distance, even with its towers, turrets, and crenellations.
“This place is incredible,” Alana murmurs after a moment. Her voice is quiet but carries well, imbued with the wonder of the place and respect for its majesty. “I can see why you’d want to keep it this way.”
I nod and point to the remains of an old dock down on the loch.
“We used to have tourists go boating on the loch down there. The year we closed up, we got special boats with nets designed to dredge the bottom, filter the water, and let fish back out if they got caught.
“We found several tons of old rubbish under there. Some of it was half-disintegrated. Plastics. Bits of it must have been inside the fishes themselves.” I shake my head at the memory, still angry about what was done here before it was put to a stop. “And that’s just the water.
“The land – we spent years just finding things that had been discarded. As it is, we still have to check regularly. Things get blown across the land from other places – plastic bags, bits of paper, light food packaging.”
“That’s awful,” she says softly. “Well, you’re doing an amazing job. It looks so natural and clean now.”
I look down to catch her looking up at me with admiration. I beam and shadow my arm over her shoulders without actually touching her, encouraging her to look to where I point to our left.
“See that area there with the low bushes? That’s where the biggest herd, with the oldest and biggest stag, tends to spend their time. If we wait a while, they’re likely to appear.”
I frown a little at the thought.
At this time of day, the herd should be here already. It’s unlike them to stray from habit. I don’t think any of the does of the group are pregnant at the moment, so there’s little risk of an unexpected birth somewhere.
Other things could disrupt their movements – a run-in with one of the other herds, for example, or a challenge for leadership of the herd. That would be worrying if it were the case. I feel a lot of admiration for the old stag that heads this herd.