A Debt of Honour – Episode 21
A Debt Of Honour
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- 1. A Debt of Honour – Episode 21
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He held her eyes, then quietly tore the flap of the envelope open and shook out the money.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“It’s yours. I vowed that one day I would come over to Scotland and return your money.
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart – you have no idea how important your money was.
“It was as if it had come from a guardian angel.”
Slowly, Neil slid the money back inside the envelope.
“I’ve never been much of an angel,” he replied. “Guardian or otherwise.”
His eyes came up.
“I suppose it’s no good telling you to take the money back? It was a gift.”
Shauna smiled tautly.
“It was maybe a gift to you, but to me it was a debt of honour.
“This is the first chance I’ve had, when I’ve had both the money and time to come back to Scotland and thank you.”
Neil frowned.
“So you only looked me up to pay me back?” he asked.
Shauna took a slow sip of wine.
“That’s what I thought when I set out,” she confessed. “Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Why not?” he asked.
Another sip. For courage.
“Because, sitting here . . . it’s as if the years, the mistakes, never happened.
“I can’t tell you how good it feels simply to be with you again.”
In vino veritas. Over the centuries, wine had loosened more tongues than hers.
It was much later – dinner had followed sandwiches – that they stepped out of the bar on to the street.
It was crisp and cold – standard Edinburgh weather.
“Oh, dear.” Shauna shivered. “I was perfectly all right inside. Now my legs don’t really belong to me.”
“You’ve been sitting all afternoon,” Neil excused.
“And drinking as well!” She chuckled.
“Not all the time. Just now and again.”
“You didn’t used to drink,” Shauna pointed out.
“That was another Neil Caldwell. A pillar of society. Not a renegade survivor of nights in Antarctica, with Russian scientists finding vodka in all sorts of unlikely places.
“I reckon it made up two-thirds of their scientific gear. Either that or they were distilling it under a snowdrift somewhere outside the base.”
Shauna found that Neil had taken her arm and was steadying her.
It felt good to be looked after. She was so used to looking after everyone else.
“Neil?” she began before she could stop herself. “Did you ever marry?
“Is there a Mrs Caldwell somewhere?”
Neil laughed.
“No. Spending six to eight months a year down south is no basis for any marriage. It’s a way of life.”
He glanced down, still smiling.
“Apart from that, I never met anyone who meant as much to me as you.”
“Don’t,” Shauna pleaded with him. “That makes me feel bad.”
Neil shrugged.
“I’m a scientist. I deal in facts – whether they are convenient or not. Maybe I’m not the marrying kind.”
He paused on the pavement.
“Where have you left your car?”
“Linlithgow,” Shauna replied. “I took the train from there. I couldn’t face trying to find a parking place in Edinburgh.”
She shook her head.
“I’ve had too much to drink to think about driving anyway.
“I’ll book into a hotel somewhere for the night,” she reasoned. “Or do you know a good bed and breakfast near here?”
“Not really,” Neil replied, then paused. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve a small flat in town. There’s a bed for guests – usually visiting academics.
“You’re welcome to spend the night, then have a full Scottish breakfast cooked for you in the morning.”
Shauna stood, irresolute.
“No strings attached,” he added. “Simply an offer to an old friend.”
“Then, yes,” Shauna agreed. “Thank you very much.”
“Shout if you see a taxi coming,” he instructed her. “Otherwise it’s Shanks’s pony. Do you remember what that is?”
Shauna smiled.
“It means using your own legs because you can’t afford to travel otherwise.”
They walked on a little, a comfortable silence between them.
“You can phone your daughter when you get there,” he suggested.
“No point,” Shauna said. “She’s at a music festival.”
What would Ellie think if she ever found out, Shauna wondered.
But that was to worry about tomorrow. Tonight was still hers. Theirs.
“Never mind a taxi,” she said. “It’s a nice night. Let’s just walk.”