Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Kate woke early the next morning excitement for her grandparent's imminent arrival and eagerness to get to school and hear what had happened on Kenzie’s date, practically throwing her out of bed. She rushed out of the flat and was surprised to find Gavin waiting for her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I was hoping to catch you before you left so we could walk to school together...If that's all right with you?” he said.

She smiled and skipped down the stairs to meet him. His half grin and brown eyes twinkled with a hint of mischief and she was taken aback at how incredibly handsome he was. The sun was bringing out hidden highlights in his thick, dark hair and she was surprised she hadn’t realized just how tall he was.

“What are you grinning at?” she asked.

“Same thing you are,” he answered.

“I doubt that,” she said, thinking of Kenzie and her date with Boyd. They began to walk.

“I saw you yesterday,” he said.

She thought of all the things she did yesterday from cleaning the bathroom, to visiting Kenzie's house, to the castle and knew he had been mistaken. “I don't think so. I know I didn't see you,” she said.

“No, you wouldn't have. If you had, then Kenzie would have known I was there,” he grinned.

“You were at the castle?” Kate guffawed, punching his arm.

“Who do you think coerced Boyd to make that call?”  He smiled down at her. “I guess you are starting to rub off on me.”

“You?” Kate said with a laugh.

“Yes, me. He has been talking about her a lot lately, and the way they got on with their self-defense moves on Friday, thanks to you,” Kate nodded, “I thought it was time. I think it worked out rather nice,” he said seeming pleased with himself.

Kate shook her head as she held Gavin's gaze. He was a good person willing to go out of his way help out his friends. “We are pretty awesome friends,” she said.

“What would they do without us?” he said.

With the holiday the previous day, the teachers seemed desperate to make up for lost time and Kate had no time to talk to Kenzie about her date. Finally, at the end of the day, she managed to catch up with her friend in the defense class room. Kenzie had a huge smile on her face as she skipped up to Kate.

“Go on then. Ask me how me date was!  And it was a date.” She poked Kate's shirt button. “Ask me!” Kenzie gushed.

“I don’t think I have to ask, it’s written all over your face,” she said as she set down her pack, and began to slip off her shoes. “So I guess that was the first of many dates to come?” Kate asked.

“I hope so. He was so wonderful.” She was actually swinging from side to side and Kate had to fight the urge to laugh. “He knows one of the guards at a side gate so we slipped in an unmarked entrance. He showed me all the secret passages around the castle. Then he took me for a bite and walked me home. I think he almost kissed me.”

“You think, he almost kissed you?”

“When we got to me door, there was this awkward moment and he was leaning in like he was going kiss me and then he was gone.”

“A near miss.” Kenzie gave her an egad face, like she couldn't believe this was happening to her.

Mr. Corkin’s entrance ended their chat.

“I want to start off today with a review of what we learned the end of last week,” Mr. Corkin said.

Tavey and Frazier’s hands shot into the air at once.

“We can show them again,” Tavey said.

“I get to be the boy this time!” Frazier said

“I don’nae think that will be necessary, but thank you. I want you to get with your partner and refresh yourselves on the two moves from last week.” His voice took on a more serious note and his face turned grim. “I cannot stress enough the importance of being familiar with these moves. When an attack comes, it is never preceded with an announcement. It comes oot of nowhere.”  The kids paired up with their partners and began to practice the moves as Mr. Corkin continued to talk. “No one will come up to you and say, ‘Hello my name is Sean and I will be yer attacker this evening, please assume the position.’ It doesn’t happen like that. Very good Mairi. Duncan trade places with Lanie.”

“Many of you may not know Mr. Dougall has a sister. For those of you that do know, you might not have heard that last year she was attacked while she was visiting a friend in Glasgow. I have asked her if she wouldn't mind coming and talking to us about it.” The image of Mr. Corkin standing over a woman, blood dripping from his hands, appeared in Kate's mind. Mr. Corkin shot a look at Kate as if reading her mind. “If she comes, I would like you to take the time to listen, really listen and learn something. I know I don't have to tell you the importance of being exceedingly respectful of her and her experience.”

The class continued on with Mr. Corkin introducing more and more exercises and counter-moves. The new moves Kate had given him had breathed new life into his teaching and the older students who had been a bit uninterested with the first few classes were more animated and talkative. All of the students had long since worked up a sweat and were beginning to tire.

Kate and Gavin had gone through most of the moves and traded places several times. Just as she was going to throw him on the floor again, he whispered in her ear.

“Someone is at the door.”

“What?” she asked, as she finished the exercise.

Mr. Corkin followed Gavin’s gaze towards the door. Recognizing Bruce he smiled and said, “It looks like we have some visitors. Would you like to come in and have a seat?”

Kate looked around to see her dad and her grandparents standing in the doorway. Defense class and friends forgotten, she ran to the door and threw herself into her grandparents' arms. Emotions she had bottled up for months, flowed quickly to the surface and tears sprang to her eyes.

“I am so happy to see you!” Kate said hugging her grandmother. “You have no idea how glad I am. I mean, really, really happy.”

“Oh Katie! Come here so I can hug you,” her grandpa said using his special nickname for her.

She embraced him, breathing deeply that familiar cologne. When she looked around, she was surprised that the whole room was watching them.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Corkin. These are my grandparents,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “They have come for a visit but I wasn’t expecting them to be here this soon.”  She looked questioningly at them.

“We got lucky and were able to get an earlier connection in Boston,” her grandmother answered. “So sorry to have interrupted your class.”

“No, not a problem,” Mr. Corkin said, “we were just about finished here.” He addressed the rest of the room. “Shall we dismiss until tomorrow?” he asked.

Exhausted agreement filled the room and the students fell into groups of twos and threes as they gathered their uniforms and shoes. Gavin was walking toward them and Kate prepared to introduce him to her grandparents.

“So you are the reason that our Katie hasn’t written in a couple of weeks,” her Grandmother said.

“Grandmother!” Kate gasped, then continued, “Grandmother, Grandpa, this is my friend, Gavin.”

Gavin shook her grandpa’s hand, wordlessly nodding his greeting, but when he took a hold of her grandmother’s hand, the brief handshake she was hoping for did not arrive. She saw the trapped look on Gavin's face when her grandmother refused to release his hand.

“It is a pleasure to meet you both. Kate has been so excited about your visit,” Gavin said.

“That’s not all she has been excited about,” her grandmother said finally releasing his hand.

Kate closed her eyes and tried to melt into the floor.

Her grandmother glanced at her, then added, “She's very excited about school and this class and somebody named Kenzie.”

Mr. Corkin and Kenzie joined the group and Kate made the introductions. When Kate came to Kenzie, her grandmother paused and looked into Kenzie's eyes, smiled and turning to Kate said, “I see you have made some good friends here Kate, I approve. I also see one more person wanting an introduction.” She nodded toward Boyd standing off to the side. Kate motioned to him.

“I’m sorry. Grandmother, Grandpa and Dad, this is Boyd,” she said.

Boyd shyly stepped into the group and shook hands with Kate’s grandparents.

“It’s really nice to meet you,” he said, quietly but sincerely.

“Actually, it’s our great pleasure to meet you, Boyd,” her grandmother said.

Kate thought this an odd thing to say. She glanced at her father, who had the same look on his face. Definitely odd they both agreed.

“We are heading to the Elephant House, for tea,” Gavin said. “Would like to join us?”

“I don’t think that would be such...” Bruce started to say, but was cut off by his father.

“I would really like something to eat,” he said, “and I’ve never had elephant before.”

They all laughed.

“Grandpa, they don’t serve elephant.”

“Oh well then, anything would be fine,” he said.

Out on the street, Kate linked arms with her grandpa and fell into step with him, as they trailed behind the others.

“I can’t imagine that you are truly hungry,” she said, staring up at him trying to gauge his mood, wanting nothing more than to please him. “I would think that you would be really tired. I know how exhausted I was when we first arrived. I wanted nothing better than to crawl into the nearest bed and not wake up for a week.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more, but you see that woman up there?”  He pointed to his wife surrounded by Kate's friends. “I have known her for many more years than you and I understand her better than most.” They looked ahead where she was talking with Gavin and Boyd. “For instance, I know that she is incredibly curious about your friends there, he mostly pointed to Gavin. “And I know that with your school and our schedule there will be little, if no time, to get to know them better. So, let's have a slice of elephant and a nice cold drink.” He winked at her.

They settled in at the restaurant and Kate drank in the sight of her grandparents. They hadn’t changed that much but they were a sight for sore eyes. Grandpa was a tall, broad shouldered man with beautiful snow-white hair and light blue eyes. Grandmother was a wiry, short, woman with a quick step. She sported a shorter haircut and it seemed to be gradually moving from blonde to white. Kate liked the change. It seemed to soften her face, especially around her brown eyes.

Kate wondered all through the meal, just exactly what her grandmother wanted to know about her friends. Everything seemed normal. She joked and laughed with Kate’s friends as she had with Kate's friends at home. But amidst the counting of all of Lanie's piercings and Tavey's borderline jokes, she seemed to be drawn more toward Gavin, Kenzie and Boyd.

Her father was enjoying getting to know her friends better, too. She realized that he had only met Kenzie, and of course there was the encounter with Tavey and Frazier at the linen store, but she realized that none of them had been invited to her flat. She decided that needed to be remedied as soon as possible.

“This weekend we are going up to Arthur’s seat for a little outing. Would you like to come with us?” Gavin was asking her grandparents, “You get such a great view of the city from there, if the weather is good.” He paused and took a drink, “Of course it is a bit of a hike, but definitely worth it.”

“That would be wonderful,” her Grandmother answered, “but I’m not quite sure how long we will be staying.” She looked pointedly at her husband. “But I promise if we are here, you can count on us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kate’s grandpa said. “I think if we are still here for the weekend, then I would love nothing better than to find a nice pub and spend the day with people I can relate to.”

“Oh you are such an old fuddy duddy. Find your pub and have yourself a nice relaxing day if you wish. I can have fun without you,” she said to him.

Kate looked between them and realized something was being said between them in a private language that only comes with time spent together.

Kate continued to eat her crisps and watch her dad and his mother talking with her friends. It was a nice, slow, afternoon with friends and family. She had really missed this and never thought she would ever find it again.

The second wind the group experienced earlier in the day had passed and rain started shortly after. Kate was tired and cold and began to hate the march more and more. Not one bit of her was dry. Her feet were completely soaked from stepping in puddles. Edinburgh seemed to be on the far side of the world. There was no way they were ever going to get there. Billy had ceased to talk when he realized that no one was answering his questions. They walked doggedly on.

Kate started to shiver and sneezed, as she unsuccessfully searched her pockets for the 10th time for a handkerchief. She felt something warm and dry placed around her shoulders and she looked up to see Ol' Rob draping a wool blanket around her.

“It donnae soak up the water. It will keep you dry. Can’t have you catching yer death of cold oot here. Yer mum will never forgive me,” Ol’ Rob said.

Kate was speechless. She glanced at Ol’ Rob's feet then let her eyes travel to the patches on his clothes. He was possibly the poorest man she had ever known and yet here he was, giving her his blanket.

“Thank you, but I can’t take this from you...” Kate started.

“Nonsense, you will take this and use it,” Ol’ Rob said

“Sir, I can’t! You need it too, and I just can’t,” Kate objected.

“You can and you will,” Ol’ Rob said. “If you don’t, I will be forced to report that you have been throwing rocks at all the sheep we have been passing.”

Kate was aghast,” I never! I never threw any rocks and I would never throw rocks at any sheep, ever!”

“I know that and you know that, but who will they believe?” Ol’ Rob said, with a twinkle in his eyes despite his tired condition.

Sean came up behind Ol’ Rob and put his hand on his father’s shoulder. “Now you know what we’ve been up against our whole lives. Just take it and enjoy.”

Kate spotted wool blankets, like the one given to her, draped around Sean's and Christopher's shoulders.

She nodded her acceptance of the gift. “Where did these come from?” she asked.

“I wasn’t always a ship builder, dear. Me family have a sheep farm up north. Me mum made the best blankets in the world,” Ol' Rob answered, distracted by his thoughts of the farm and his mother. Snapping back to the present, he continued, “You keep that and share it with yer little rock throwing friends there and don’t worry, there is more where that came from.” He turned to Sean and Christopher, “Don’t just stand there you two! What kind of sons did I raise that can’t even give yer old da a hand?” With that he moved forward, continuing the March arm in arm with Sean and Christopher, their blankets draped around their extraordinarily odd father.

Kate wrapped the blanket over her head and continued on toward Edinburgh.