Snowed In With My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Office

I opened the office door without knocking.

The dog thumped its tail.

Alasdair was standing by the wood burner in his tweed jacket with a face.

Finlay was behind the desk with his arms folded.

They both turned.

"Ailsa, hen," said Alasdair. "What's happened to your face?"

I'd forgotten the peas.

I lowered them.

"I walked into a door," I said. "Can I borrow Finlay for a minute?"

"You can talk some sense into him while you're at it." Alasdair spread his big hands. "Thirty years he's wanted nothing else. He was walking the hill with me at four years old. Now he won't say why."

"He'll say why to me," I said.

Finlay came out from behind the desk.

He looked at my cheek on his way past and his whole face went hard.

"Who did that?"

"Outside," I said.

The stable yard was blue with dusk and the snow was coming down fine and straight.

The Panda sat by the wall with its bumper strapped on.

I walked to the far side of it, out of sight of the office window, and turned round.

"Who hit you, Ailsa?"

"My mother. It's dealt with. You can stop clenching your fists."

He didn't.

"What were you doing in there?" I said.

"What you heard."

"I asked you for a day. One day."

"Euan wants me to give it up at the bells. So I'll give it up now, in private, and there's nothing left for him to make me do. He can keep his photo. Nobody needs to see it."

"And Alasdair sells the hill to Euan."

"Maybe not."

"Of course he does. Who else is there? You're his only son. You've told him you don't want it and you won't tell him why. He'll think you're ill or mad or both."

"Better than the alternative."

"Better for who?"

He didn't answer.

The snow was settling on his shoulders and in his hair.

"You decided for me," I said. "Again."

"Again?"

"You never phoned me. Not once in two and a half years. You never said, Ailsa, what do you want?"

"You lived in Glasgow and you'd known me three hours."

"So you decided. Now you've decided to give up the only place you've ever loved, so nobody whispers about me in a shop."

"Aye," he said. "I have."

"I don't want it."

"Ailsa."

"I don't want it given up! I don't want to be the reason you lose your home. I'd never forgive you, and I'd never forgive myself, and Euan would win anyway."

My voice echoed off the stable wall.

A horse shifted in its box.

I lowered it.

"I want Euan to lose," I said. "I want him to lose in front of everybody. That's what I want. You never asked."

Finlay looked at me for a long time.

Then he looked at the lit office window, where his father's shape was moving back and forth.

"All right," he said.

"All right what?"

"All right, I'm asking." He stepped closer. "What do you want me to do, Ailsa?"

"Go back in there and tell him you've changed your mind. Tell him you were frightened of the responsibility, or Christmas went to your head. Tell him anything except the truth."

"And then?"

"And then we beat Euan. Together. Before the bells."

"How?"

"I don't know yet."

He laughed under his breath.

"That's a terrible plan."

"It's better than yours."

He went back into the office.

I stood by the Panda with the snow in my hair and listened.

I heard Alasdair's voice go up in relief, then a great shout of a laugh.

Through the window I saw him pull Finlay into a hug and slap his back.

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