Chapter Twenty
Angela had gone on Monday, and Victor's friends left on Tuesday. Victor sat alone in his large house and realised Christmas was less than two weeks away. He did not look forward to it with any confidence. Every year previously, both when he was on leave from the army, and after he retired, he spent the time with his sister, but this year he would be alone.
He idly wondered why this was such a daunting prospect. After all the twenty fifth of December was a date like any other, and a good proportion of the world's population did not celebrate it at all. He came to a theory that it was because most people got together with family or friends, and as a result those without family could feel as if they were outcasts from humanity on that day.
He sighed and decided to find a restaurant or better, a hotel, and stay there over the festive period. At least he would be among other folk. He had hardly made up his mind to do that, when his phone rang.
It was Bridget McLeod.
"Victor," she sang in her Scottish lilt, "James and I were talking about your last visit, and your news about your sister. Would you consider coming to us for Christmas and Hogmanay? There are going to be a few guests who come every year. Better than being on your own, and you've been through a wee bit of trouble from what we've read in the papers."
Victor was delighted. "Thank you Bridget," he said. "You must be psychic! I was just wondering what to do about Christmas, and I had decided to try to find a hotel. But aren't you closed over Christmas normally?"
"Yes, we are in fact closed," she rejoined, "but these are our Christmas and New Year regulars. Anyway you know we keep an open door for our friends -- like yourself."
He remembered times he had been up there in Winter, when it was just him and his hosts. So that was agreed. He asked to arrive a week before Christmas to unwind, and immediately decided to leave the next day, spend a few days in Edinburgh and then cross to the hotel. He wanted to get away from the area where he was; there was nothing now to keep him.
He packed two large cases, his walking boots and skis, phoned George as he usually did, and the next day left for Edinburgh.
If he had expected a white Christmas he would have been disappointed. While it was frosty morning and evening and cold all day, the weather was generally dry. When it was wet the precipitation fell as rain; it was an unusually warm December for Scotland.
The result was that he got a good deal of walking in before the other guests arrived, and had some time with James and Bridget, eating with them and helping them with the kitchen chores. He also had time to read.
The regular visitors were an agreeable lot. Mainly his age and older, and with one exception married or cohabiting couples. Each evening there was interesting conversation as they swapped life-stories, and discussed the issues of the day.
The exception was a single woman of Victor's age. Victor wondered why there was always a single woman when he visited the McLeods? However, this one was markedly different from Angela. She was shy and a little mousy, but Victor turned on the charm and soon she was telling him her life-story, though she had said nothing to the group.
She was divorced. She admitted freely that she was a disappointment to her husband, never having had much of an inclination to the carnal side of married life. She had been a good wife, she told him, but it was always clear that she went along with her husband's lovemaking rather than taking an active part, which, it was obvious to her, was not fulfilling for him. He was a good man, she told Victor, and he 'stuck it out' with her, as she put it, for fifteen years.
Mercifully they had no children as she had no maternal instincts at all. The thing which really turned her on was her university research and her lecturing, and she spent longer and longer on that. Eventually she was offered a much enhanced post, a professorship, in another university and moved. Her husband stayed where he was.
That was really the end of their marriage, she said. She rarely went 'home', and eventually he talked with her and she agreed to a divorce. Now she was happily single and self-sufficient and her husband was now married to a younger woman who returned his affections with interest, and had given him two children, so she was happy for him as well. They remained good friends and she visited him and his wife from time to time.
She asked Victor why he was single and he told her his story -- the army and his avoidance of relationships because he thought it unfair on a woman to be married to an army man, especially when in a conflict situation like Iraq or Afghanistan. Then his unfortunate marriage and divorce, then recently his bereavement.
It was at this point that she asked him if he thought he needed a woman in his life, and was there anyone he thought might fill the bill. He thought for a moment and replied there was no one, though it reminded him of his feelings at being faced with Christmas alone.
"You should join a dating agency," she advised him. "That's what my ex. did and he struck gold!"
More food for thought.
New Year was celebrated as only the Scots can celebrate it. They had a ceilidh, and every one was expected to perform. Victor picked up a guitar and sang some folk songs. Others recited poetry or monologues; it was a good evening which lasted well into New Year's Day.
Victor, along with the other guests, left on Tuesday 2nd January after recovering from the excesses of the celebrations. As he always did, he broke his journey about half way and stayed overnight, this time at a Premier Inn. He arrived back at the house on Wednesday, but had only been back a few hours, when he decided it was time to go back to his flat and get into the swing of a normal life.
Yes
, he thought,
Madeleine was right. I'll join a dating agency. Even if I find no one permanently, at least I'll meet some female company.
So thinking, he packed his things and drove back into town.
----
Chapter Twenty One
For Susan the second week before Christmas was dreadful. There was a serious leak in the roof of one block, a fight between two tenants resulting in broken glass in the hallway of another and of course there was resulting police interest. Then there was a power failure in yet another. It was Friday morning when she was able to relax in exhaustion.
She had every intention all week of going to see Victor, so on Friday afternoon she took Carl and drove to Victor's house, only to find the house locked up and deserted. She phoned George and he told her Victor had gone to Scotland for the Christmas period. Susan concluded Victor had gone to stay with Angela; she felt a pang of jealousy. She was missing him.
Christmas Day that year fell on a Monday, so on the Friday before, she packed Gail and Carl into the car along with their bags, and drove south to visit her family.
The welcome was as warm as ever, and everyone doted on the children as they did before.
Over the meal the conversation turned to Seth.
"What happened?" asked her aunt. "We saw he'd been arrested. Something to do with you?"
"I told her Seth was bad news," said Katy, "but she doesn't need telling that now. He framed some guy he thought was hitting on Susan."
"Katy, it was Victor Freeman," said Susan,
sotto voce.
"I know," whispered Katy, "Aunt Lucy doesn't know about you and him."
"What d'you mean, 'you and him'?" Susan muttered. "There is no 'me and him'."
"You two stop whispering," Aunt Lucy intervened, as if they were young children. Susan's Uncle Harry laughed at their guilty expressions.
They both apologised and the subject was changed. Harry laughed even louder, gaining a 'look' from his wife.
Later that evening, as they were putting the children to bed, Katy brought up the subject again.
"I thought you fancied this Freeman bloke," she said. "What happened?"
"A lot," Susan replied. "I told you all about it -- or don't you read my emails?"
"Oh, yes," Katy said, remembering. "Seth's a real bastard. What's going to happen?"
"I hope he gets life!" Susan growled angrily. "I hope they throw away the key!"
"Me too," agreed Katy. "You know Barbara Birket? He was seeing her just before you came back last time, and when she told him he'd knocked her up, he left. I found out about that later. He went straight back to you, but you'd already kicked him out when Barbara told me. Too late then."
"Katy," Susan said quietly, "I believed what Seth told me and cut Victor off. I didn't even give him a chance to explain or defend himself. I'm pretty sure he wants nothing more to do with me."
"Shame," Katy sympathised. "He seems to be one the good guys." She brightened up. "Hey, there's a party tomorrow night. Lots of folk will be back for Christmas. You going to come?"
"I can't help getting a feeling of deja vu about this," laughed Susan. "At least Seth won't be there to complicate matters this time. Sounds good!"
It was. The whole group began at the same club as before, for dancing and a few drinks, before moving on to the large house of one of the men. Susan was in demand and danced with a steady stream of old friends.
At the house, Susan was getting a drink for Katy and herself when a pair of hands covered her eyes, and a voice she knew so well said "Guess who?"
