Highland Sisters

by Anne Douglas

  ‘Of course we won’t be travelling with Joan!’ Rosa told him, smiling. ‘I want just to be with you, Jack, as Joan will know. After all, we are on our honeymoon.’

  ‘Thank God,’ he said quietly. ‘I still feel I’m living in a dream. You know, none of this is happening.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Rosa, thinking all the same that the situation was easier for Jack than for her. He didn’t have to think of someone else at this time, someone who couldn’t be asked to give his opinion, who was lying in a soldier’s grave too far away even to be visited. Would Daniel have minded if he could have known that his widow was marrying again? Over and over again, Rosa had asked herself that and the truth was that secretly, never put into words, she knew that she would have liked Daniel to have minded. It would have been a sign, wouldn’t it, that he had loved her as much as she had loved him? But he hadn’t; she had long ago learned to face that and now – now that she had Jack – she need never face it again.

  ‘Jack,’ she asked quietly. ‘Do you love me?’

  ‘Now, why do you ask that? You know I do.’

  ‘Just checking,’ she said smoothly, though looking into Jack’s eyes she knew there was no need for any checking. Daniel’s eyes had been beautiful but their gaze had rarely been solely for Rosa. How different it was with Jack.

  Everything was different with Jack. Especially back in Carron, where they stayed with Joan and Rosa took a strange pride in introducing him to all the people she knew. Some might have minded that she had a new husband while Daniel was in his grave, but nothing was said, and Jack was so pleasant and so worthy of sympathy over the loss of his arm in the war that Rosa could only sigh with relief that things seemed to be working out so well.

  Mrs Thain, in fact, was immensely impressed with Jack, not only with his friendly nature but also that he was a well-known artist, a man of achievement.

  ‘I’m so pleased for you,’ she whispered to Rosa when Jack was studying what pictures the Thains had, most of which were traditional but still of great interest, as he politely claimed. ‘I think you’ll both be wonderfully happy, and to meet happiness these days …’ She sighed. ‘Well, it’s rare.’

  When Rosa asked after Mr Thain, who had said very little to the visitors before excusing himself to be alone, locked in his own world of grief, the shadows returned to his wife’s face as she explained that there had been no change in him and probably would be none. Although they still had Hugo, he was now based in Edinburgh where he was studying at the university as a mature student, and though of course he came over as often as he could and did cheer his father a little, he wasn’t his brother, who would never cheer his father again.

  ‘Poor chap,’ Jack said softly of Mr Thain. ‘Wish there was something we could do.’

  ‘I think you may in fact have done a lot of good,’ Mrs Thain told him. ‘At least my husband was talking to you a little. I’m very grateful for your visit – you will come again, won’t you, before you leave?’

  ‘We will,’ Rosa promised as they took their leave but, outside the house, her smile was a little wry.

  ‘You know, Jack, at one time I’d never have been entertained by the Thains as I have been today. Mrs Thain was always pleasant and treated staff well, but Mr Thain thought they were scarcely human.’

  ‘Has other things to think of now, it seems.’ Jack sighed. ‘Can’t help feeling sorry for him, and his wife, of course. But where to now for us? Another walk by the sea wall?’

  ‘I think, if you don’t mind, Jack, I’d like to go back to the graves. It’s my chance to see them again before we leave.’

  ‘Sure it is. I want you to do just what you want while you can.’

  There they were, the graves of Rosa’s family, in the churchyard in the High Street, her parents’ and Lorne’s. Flowers had been placed by Joan in memory of Greg, but the beautiful lilies on Lorne’s grave had been put there only yesterday by Rosa. And though she had shed tears then, she shed them again now as she bent to straighten the flowers a little, feeling that every time she contemplated her sister’s death the tears would fall.

  ‘She died too young, you see, Jack – she should have had years still to come. We were sisters together, after all, Highland sisters making our way in the world – it doesn’t seem fair that she should have already been taken.’

  ‘There’s nothing fair in this world, Rosa,’ Jack said sadly. ‘All I know is that we’re lucky; we’re facing a wonderful life together. Isn’t that what matters?’

  She raised her dark eyes to his as they stood together by Lorne’s grave, Jack’s one arm encircling her, her right arm round his waist, until at last they turned away, both so sad yet at the same time filled with hope for a future shared together. There would be problems, of course. Things might happen that didn’t seem fair, as they both knew. But there would also be memories – some sad, others beautiful – and the future that had been denied their loved ones would be theirs. For that they must be grateful.

  As they traced their steps away from the resting place of others, Rosa, so conscious of being the remaining Highland sister, made a silent vow to make the very best of the future she had been granted with Jack, as well as keeping alive her memories of those who had left her.

  ‘I’m so glad,’ she murmured to Jack, ‘that I’ve had this chance to see where my family lie before we have to go away. And to know that Joan will be looking after them.’

  ‘Of course she will, but we’re not going away for ever, Rosa.’ Jack pressed Rosa’s arm in his. ‘We’ll be back, you know. I want you to be happy, you see, and I know it will make you happy to remember that.’

  ‘That we’re coming back? Yes, it’s good to know. But what really makes me happy, Jack, is to be with you.’

  ‘You mean that, Rosa?’

  ‘You know I do, Jack.’

  ‘I’m a lucky man, then.’

  ‘Let’s say we’re both lucky,’ she said quietly.

  And together they left the family graves to step into their future, the solitary Highland sister and the man who loved her. It would be a good future, they would make it so, but the past with its memories would not be forgotten. Even when they were far away, for Rosa especially, this place she called home, and the sister and others who had shared it with her, would be with her always.