Chapter 15

Edinburgh had been Andrew’s home nearly all his life, it had been Suzanne’s home her whole life, they were going to be visiting Edinburgh five or six times every year going forward, to see family and friends. But as Andrew walked across the Meadows to his Grandma’s flat there was an inevitable sense of unease, of the fact that his own parents knew nothing about his life, and didn’t want to know. That Ara’s mother was the same way didn’t make the two wrongs into a right. Ara had gone with Suzanne to visit her parents, Mike and Tanya as he had to remember. When he got to his Grandma’s flat she was waiting for him, not yet started on the sherry. She knew most of his news from their calls and letters but was happy to go over most of it again. Andrew had been worried about the visit, his last time there with Ara had been awkward, but it was painless. The thing that captivated her that afternoon was Andrew’s TA unit. The Commandos in World War 2 had been mythologised in the wartime propaganda and their training had been at Achnacarry Castle in Scotland. That her grandson was joining them made her very proud. He had to write down the unit details so that she could accurately quote it to the family and with her friends in the congregation at church on Sunday. It was an easy part of his life that he could talk at length with her about, unlike his day job and living with two women at the same time. But as he sat on the bus heading out to the Jenner’s house he was happy the visit had gone well. The one surprise had been a letter from Rowan that she had left with Grandma for Andrew. She was two years into the five year course for Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh University. He read the letter on the bus and was surprised at her maturity. He realised immediately that this was his own issue. He had hardly spoken to Rowan in a decade and not at all for four years. That she was more mature at 20 was not surprising, despite her being forever frozen as an annoying brat in his mind. Andrew recognised the style of the letter, it was long and detailed yet at the same time didn’t say much. Andrew himself had written many letters where it was painfully obvious that he was trying too hard. But it was more than just an olive branch and Andrew knew that in the next week he would write a long letter back to Rowan. What he said would be quite the decision! But it was a tangible sign that not everything about his immediate family was irrevocably broken.

The dinner and evening with Mike and Tanya Jenner was a lot more relaxing for Andrew than it had been for Ara and Suzanne earlier in the summer. Vanessa was not there, she had passed them going the other way, and was at a CND protest in the south of England. Nobody missed her. The talk that evening was of them all starting work. They were most interested in Suzanne’s firm but they talked to both Ara and Andrew about their careers. It was a totally standard evening between new graduates and parents. That there was three of them was already quickly becoming a non-issue. It was very normal, something that all three of them appreciated. They talked about it later that night lying in bed.

“I was struck by how normal the evening was. It really was just you home for a visit with two friends.”

Suzanne nodded.

“We were hardly going to make out on the couch but I know what you mean. The personal is now dealt with, and for Mum and Dad at least, doesn’t need to be endlessly agonised over.”

“Did either of them say anything to you when they had you on your own?”

Suzanne smiled.

“Dad said I looked very happy. He gave me a big hug and that was it.”

The man who had initially freaked out the most seemed to have come round to the idea.

It wasn’t far to Marshall Street pool from the house in London, just over half a mile, but nothing could beat the convenience of 44 paces from the front door to Warrender Baths. The pool was unchanged and Andrew swam backstroke gazing up at the Victorian roof thinking about all the times he had swam there, going all the way back to when he had been banned from using the school pool. It took several lengths to remember Lyle’s name, a bitter troll best forgotten. He stayed and showered there and later Ara wished she had too, as the hot water ran out before she was fully rinsed. For once Suzanne had been unintentionally naughty. Ara was going to visit her old department and see if any of her professors or lecturers were there and then meet Suzanne after lunch. Suzanne and Andrew in turn walked down to the office. It was one of the first things that Leslie, Julian and Andrew had bought together. He still thought of it as THE office. It was an old building which had been converted and used as a garage for many years. They in turn had converted it back into an office building with two floors of offices that now were approaching capacity. When they had first bought it Creighton had been working there on his own. Now he had two assistants, Leslie worked there, and she had a trainee, and Morag was her assistant. There was a receptionist, the man who ran the property funds, and Julian still had an office there, even although he, Kenny and Aiden now worked out at Redford Barracks. Then there was Elspeth, her three part time assistants, Alex the photography businesses’ accountant, and the storage area. It was quite the change. Even just saying hi to everyone took longer than expected. But Suzanne and Leslie had a Trust meeting and so they went to the meeting room leaving Andrew to talk to Julian.

“I realised that I couldn’t just pop out to your office anymore.”

“I know, it was really odd for the first couple of weeks. Just getting used to the surroundings, dealing with things like going to the mess for lunch. But like anything, once you have done it for a week or two, then it becomes old hat pretty quickly. One thing that has helped is that we have a Corporal assigned to us, Corporal Eilers. He effectively acts as a guard at the entrance to the building. He was injured in Northern Ireland and rather than be discharged they offered him the job of nursemaiding us. He has been a huge help. I mean he gives us endless amounts of shit but it is like having a living crib-sheet with us for dealing the Army. What to say, what not to say, all that kind of stuff. He only has 10 months to get to his 20 years and so far it is a success. But that is all the day to day stuff.

“We are making great progress with the Ministry of Defence. Cascade has been a complete success and they are looking for additional areas to implement computerisation. Here look through this.”

The four hours passed in the blink of an eye. The years fell away and the two of them started to outline solutions to some of the requests. They decided to advertise for two further programmers as there appeared to be a lot of work. Once Aiden was out training people then Julian would need the extra help. Leslie and Suzanne banged on the door to let them know it was lunchtime. They carefully pulled together and filed all their notes before unlocking the door. The need for operational secrecy had been emphasised. Repeatedly. After lunch Suzanne left to meet up with Ara. Before Andrew caught up with Leslie he went and arranged to meet Donnie and Elspeth at the shop first thing on Thursday morning. That dealt with, he sat with Leslie in her office.

“Just the two of us. When was the last time that happened?”

“Christmas, maybe? It has been a while.”

“How are things Andrew? Suzanne was on form this morning so I presume all is well?”

Andrew smiled.

“The autumn and winter were really tough, especially the winter. Between the course, my project and trying to figure out what to do with Ara and Suzanne, I was a real mess. But then at the beginning of April everything changed, almost universally for the better. I got through my exams and completed my project, but most importantly Suzanne, Ara and I realised that we were so much better as a three than as any combination of two of us. Here I am five months later and it seems so natural. And we know that it will not be all smooth sailing but the truth is we are quiet studious, downright boring people, with an unusual private life. The house feels like a home and in less than two weeks we all start work.”

Andrew smiled in response to Leslie’s own smile.

“While that may be true of Suzanne and Ara I am not sure it is true of you. Where are you this weekend?”

Andrew could tell by the way Leslie asked the question that she knew already.

“You may have a point. But it is only one weekend every quarter. Enough about me, how are you and Julian?”

“Did you not ask him yourself?”

“No, it never occurred to me.”

Leslie laughed at Andrew’s honest answer.

“We are good, we have nothing to complain about. But at the same time it is not straightforward.”

She stopped and shook her head ruefully.

“Let me try again. We are young, healthy, wealthy beyond most people’s wildest dreams and happily in love. That is what I mean that we have nothing to complain about. But I can talk to you about this in a way that is difficult with most other people, even our parents. It has been isolating for a long time. You shared Suzanne with me when you were at university, in the sense that I had someone that I could talk to, where I could be honest. And now, again through you, we both have Tony and Maggie. We see them every couple of weeks, taking turn about staying over at the house on the Saturday night. It shouldn’t be as difficult as it seems to be but we really struggle with the money issue. It is genuinely hilarious to listen to puffed up twits at the golf club. They are there almost exclusively through Daddy’s money and are junior lawyers, or accountants or investment managers. But the way they act!”

Leslie shook her head, another mannerism eerily reminiscent of Andrew.

“And of course they are not all like that but sadly the majority of them are. And again, 90% plus of them are male. So there is a whole lot of sexist bullshit being spouted, which as you know is something that doesn’t bother me at all.”

The last was said with brutal vehemence.

“Edinburgh is a microcosm of Britain in so many ways. There is a whole stratum of society who are stuck up their own arses, who your parents were, where you went to school or university, where you work, all that crap. And then there is the exact opposite, the people who are perfectly happy being in The Sun or the Daily Record. And for being, well any number of things, but summed up as a celebrity culture. There was a guy from the year between you and Julian at Heriot’s who was on the TV show Blind Date. And there was an article about him in the paper. I just don’t get it.”

She sighed.

“Being quiet, low-key and modest seems to be very unfashionable at the moment. But the people that work here are all really good. Elspeth and I have started to have lunch every couple of weeks, which is turning into the beginnings of a nice friendship. We take turns talking about our jobs. She knows nothing about the investment industry and I know nothing about selling photographs to papers and magazines. I know nothing about selling anything but it is fascinating to listen to her talk about selling a photograph to the British Medical Journal or something equally unlikely. And she likes to hear about how we are investing in different companies, and especially about trying to expose more children to science. But that is the good thing about working out here, away from all the city centre bullshit.”

Another sigh.

“Sorry, this has turned into quite a rant. That is the thing. We have nothing to complain about, in fact we should be soundly mocked for complaining about anything, but at the same time it is not easy. How are you finding London?”

“Easy so far. You have been to the house, the street is an odd mixture of buildings, no pavements and not many neighbours out and about. We have The Footman at the end of the street so we have a local. But right round the corner from that is Berkeley Square. That trendy nightclub Annabel’s is on the Square. And their clientele is a combination of the posh and celebrities that you have talked about. There are always pictures of people coming out of it. I think a lot of the people go so that they can be seen coming out of it. It is 200 metres from the house but it seems a world away.

“None of us have started working yet. You have seen and helped Suzanne with her business plan. Olivia was on my course at Cambridge for all four years so I know the two of them will be fine working together. Their challenge will be drumming up work. You, better than anyone, know what it is like for a small business to get started. Ara’s office is much smaller than mine and although she is Dr. Arabella Lindsey it will be interesting to see the sexism there. Often funding for projects comes with conditions, areas of policy that are not to be addresses, commented on, or especially criticised. She doesn’t have that constraint. She will have to see what it is like. But she is like you, and Suzanne, and Maggie, and Freya, in fact any woman trying to make her way in the world, she knows it won’t be easy. Whereas for me, it will be far too easy.”

Andrew shrugged as Leslie raised an inquisitive eye.

“I have a First from Cambridge, lots of experience, have already worked with Top Secret material, and on top of it all, am an officer in the Territorial Army. And that is without anything to do with Cascade. I suspect I will have to deal with envy from any other graduate trainees. I will have a lot to learn but am not worried about it. I will have the TA every week and a weekend away training at least every quarter. In fact the training will be onerous until I am fit enough to pass the Commando Course. We have season tickets to Spurs and although we aren’t close friends with anyone there, we already know the people around us well enough to say hi to them. Add in coming up here to see everyone, plus Paris, and I am not too worried about life.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“In many ways it will be easy. But remember we are not going to have many people round to the house, at least initially. And not because of the house and where it is, but rather the whole three people in love with each other issue. It is going to be one of the things that we are going to have to move carefully on is how to tell people, who to tell, all those things.”

“Yes, everything else pales in comparison to dealing with that. Come on, let’s get out of here. We can walk home, I’ll leave Julian the car, and you can help me prepare dinner.”

The afternoon was wonderful for Andrew, reconnecting with the most fundamentally important person in his life from the age of 13 to 18. Their relationship had changed; growing older and marriage had made that inevitable, but it was still great to chat to Leslie about any and everything. Ara and Suzanne arrived back from an afternoon spent browsing in several bookstores and Julian wasn’t that far behind them. The weather was sufficiently benign that they were able to eat on that back terrace enjoying the late summer heat. After the second bottle of wine the conversation took an unexpected turn.

“Have you ever taken Suzanne or Ara out in the Ferrari?”

Leslie’s question was out of the blue. Andrew laughed.

“Leslie, I know this will sound weird, but I don’t know where the Ferrari is. I mean I know that DK Engineering store it for me but I don’t know precisely where. I have driven it exactly twice, and both times I was collected in the centre of Cambridge and we drove to Snetterton Race Track. So no.”

Everyone laughed.

“Are you going to use it more regularly now that you are in the house?”

“I don’t know. The Golf is fine for around town, not ideal for the supermarket but we survive. The issue with the Ferrari is enjoying driving it. Let’s say that DK’s storage garage is on the way north. I don’t know that I want to drive it up the A1 or the M6. It isn’t an everyday car. I would be worried about it getting nicked, or some Ned keying it. Now I know I got it for practically nothing but I don’t want to see it get trashed and equally I don’t want to get nicked by the police for speeding. That was my big issue with it on the track. 110 or 120 felt like 75mph. I will lose my licence if I am caught doing that. We will see.”

Andrew looked at Suzanne and Ara.

“We can organise a track day if you want and you can drive it.”

Suzanne looked interested Ara just shrugged.

“I am not bothered. If I am away one weekend then it is something that the two of you can do. I don’t have any interest. Why did you ask Leslie?”

“Because I am thinking about getting a sportscar. Since I only got a horse for my wedding I am having to buy it myself.”

The story of Sundar and the E-Type was well known.

“What?”

“That is the issue. You have a Ferrari and Julian has the Jag, so it can’t be either of them. You know what I am like, I want something rare, or at least rarer than you two. There are tons of Jags about but Dad said there were only 150 of those Ferraris built with steering on the right. So that is my goal, a sportscar where there are less than 150 British examples and not too expensive.”

Leslie laughed at her own unrealistic wish list, it was clearly an either or proposition. Julian butted in.

“And I think we are corrupting Tony as well. Maggie is like Ara, she doesn’t care. But Tony has started asking me questions about different options. You can tease him about it when you see him. When are you going over?”

“Thursday.”

Andrew was thinking about the Ferrari as they started to walk home. Bought with the house all those years ago and yet because of it Julian now had the E-Type and both Leslie and Tony were thinking of getting sportscars of their own. The random moments in life had consequences years later.

As always when he was in Scotland Andrew felt he was cramming too much into too short a time. He was up early on the Wednesday morning leaving Ara and Suzanne to have a lie in and sleep off the worst excesses of the night before. He let himself into the shop at 6.30 and started work on developing all the rolls of film from the trip with Elspeth and Donnie. His focus that morning was the studio shoots, there was no rush for all the outside photos of Ursula. Other than wishing he had brought a radio or cassette player the time passed quickly. After six hours the negatives were all developed and the pictures printed out from two of the four shoots. He would print the rest the following morning. He cleaned up and carefully put all the prints into his backpack. It wouldn’t do to have them lying around.

Lunch was with Brian Campbell another person, like his daughter, that had been hugely important in his life from 14 until 19. And although things with Mary were much calmer, the easy camaraderie and regular contact were lost forever. But he was the man most responsible for Andrew’s financial education and had been a good friend and mentor for more than eight years. Brian had not fathered him in any conscious or obvious way but he had been a father figure to Andrew. Their lunch stretched to nearly 90 minutes with Andrew spending a long time talking about the angle bracket that he had submitted for patent from his degree project. Going forward this was how they were going to meet, lunch or dinner in the city two or three times a year. From lunch with Brian Andrew carried on down to Drummond’s. He thought back to all the times he would traipse down there when he was at school. Now his visits were much more infrequent. He didn’t even deal with Mhairi much anymore. She was the partner on his account but most of Andrew’s day to day dealings were with her associate Grace. But once he had dealt with everything to do with the patent he was shown through to Mhairi’s office.

“It is good to see you, it has been too long.”

“Thinking back over the years you did seem to spend a lot of time down here. Everything is fine with Grace?”

“No problems. She is dealing with getting the bracket resubmitted as an earthquake safety device. Lots of paperwork but she is on top of it.”

Mhairi nodded.

“She will be in to update me later. Are you okay with dealing with her?”

“I can’t expect to deal with a senior partner all the time.”

Andrew was safely out of whacking range, it was all that saved him.

“What else have you been up to? The continuation of the modelling contract is agreed. The rates are significantly higher, and Hermès didn’t fight them much. It will be year to year as you requested.”

The negotiations had taken place while Andrew had been at his commissioning course.

“I thought I might have been able to close Shetland Models. Oh well. I think things will be calmer once I start work, but I am probably deluding myself. I think a better way of saying it is that I doubt there will be any new businesses. If the patent is granted then there will be a lot of work and I will sit with you and Creighton to figure out how to deal with it but other than that there just isn’t time for me to get into mischief.”

That last made them both laugh. Andrew hoped that it was true. It was good to see Mhairi even if it was only for a few minutes but he had cut his time fine and had to run for the train. He was joining Suzanne and Ara in Glasgow for an evening with Nikki and Fran. Sitting on the train he jotted down some thoughts for the meeting with Elspeth and Donnie the next morning. As he walked west to meet the other four Andrew thought about everyone he was meeting that week. Other than Elspeth and Donnie he had known everyone from the age of 14. As he thought about it more he realised that he didn’t have any acquaintances, never mind friends, from the ages of 15 to 18. It was another consequence of never going out, of sacrificing all his free time to his degree. The one exception had been Ara who had first met when he was 15, but other than her there was no one.

Andrew was convinced that Nikki used their visits as an excuse to let her hair down and have more drinks than normal. It seemed every time they met up she would end up drinking too much wine. Fran would roll her eyes but carried Nikki off to bed at the end of the night. She was off for her six week sabbatical in San Francisco in less than a month and a lot of the talk that night was about what the experience would be like. Just listening to her talk about foetal surgery was completely mind-blowing. They made sure to invite Nikki down for a weekend while Fran was away. It would be the first time they would be apart since they moved to Glasgow.