Chapter 16

As our third term meant spending some time abroad in the countries in whose languages we were studying to honours level, we spent the term before Christmas in France. We flew out and while there I bought a reliable low mileage second hand Peugot estate. I decided we would leave this at our house in the South of France before returning home. This meant that in future it would be available to us when we wanted to spend time there.

We also spent some of the second term before Easter in Spain for the same reason as we sojourned in France. It was a necessary part of our language course. Despite this, we were able to visit Harry and Sylvia quite frequently because we both had our pilot's license. At the three month stage of Katy's pregnancy we had discovered we were going to have a son. Katy thought that I would be more pleased with this result than I would have been if it had been a girl, The truth be told, though, I think I would have preferred a little girl. I didn't tell her that though.

The baby was also very obliging because he hung on until the Easter Holiday which meant he was born during the month long break at the end of the Easter term in our junior honour's year. This meant that Katy gave birth during the Easter Break and was ready to resume classes for the final term. At the beginning of March we had interviewed for a nanny and we had chosen a young girl who had just completed the course at a college which trained people who wished to enter that profession.

She had not come out top of the year but in the reference from the college her tutor had stated that in his opinion, of all the students, she had a really sunny nature, was a really obliging young woman. He also told us that in her practical's she had shown that she had a real rapport with young children. The other factor which swayed our choice was the fact that she spoke French since her grandparents had a holiday house in France where she had spent most of the summer holidays with them. She had done this from the time she started school until she went to college. This accounted for her fluency in that tongue.

Katy had two weeks before starting our final term to become acquainted with our son; During this time we flew with the nanny in tow to visit very pleased grandparents. I think his lordship was really pleased since we had informed them that we had named our son Henry Calum MacDonald after his grandfather and his father. We also took the opportunity during the visit to introduce them to Shelly Winters our nanny who had flown down with us.

In the course of her stay she impressed them with her sunny nature and the way in which she cared for the baby. Baby Henry also made a good impression because he fed and slept a lot of the time and when awake was placid and cheerful. Even during the night he would go down about ten o clock wake up for a feed about two, then after changing his nappy within five or ten minutes he was once again in slumber land. Katy was expressing milk since she would have to do this when term started so that could leave bottles for the nanny so that she could feed Henry once our studies resumed. It also meant that I could take a turn at feeding him and changing him when it came to the night time feeds

Although we had employed a nanny, the good thing about being a student, lay in the fact that I probably had more time available than most men to play with my son and get to know him. When my children were born the first time around I was working hard to build up a business and saw little of them in their early stages. Indeed my preoccupation with my job eventually became a factor in my divorce. Looking back I can see how my neglect of wife and home in order to make a success of my business probably contributed to my first wife looking for companionship and attention elsewhere.

This time around I was determined to learn from my past experience and take the time to enjoy my children and to make sure I gave Katy the love and attention that was necessary to build a stable relationship. This was one of the reasons that I was giving careful consideration to Lord Harry's suggestion that I should take over the running of the estate while he pursued his political career.

General Argon had made sure that money would not be a problem for me so I had no need to pursue riches.

Add to this the fact that accepting such a role would keep me close to home and probably do a lot of work from our house. This would be ideal as far as I was concerned and it made sure that I would be an important figure in my children's lives. There was also a possibility that in looking after the estate and trying to develop its facilities made it a possibility that Katy could join me if she was so inclined. If, however, she wanted to pursue a career in the field of psychology, then I think my role would be flexible enough that I could be there for our children in an emergency and leave her free to pursue her studies

I smiled to myself at these thoughts. I was certainly taking a very different attitude and setting very different priorities for myself this time around. In the light of my past, I had the benefit of hindsight and a very different perspective on what things were important for a happy and fulfilled way of life. A loving wife, developing good relations with your family, getting to know and enjoying your children, cultivating a deepening your friendship with those closest to you, these were the real riches that I was going to strive for in the future.

Seeing my father in law reorienting his life in order to serve his country and others by responding to the challenge presented to him by the current prime minister also affected my decision making. His reasons for doing so spoke to me about another set of priorities the pursuit of which was equally as important. Our wealth brought privileges, and with it there should also come responsibility.

Developing the estate was not just a matter of making sure it was profitable.

There were a lot of people who depended on it for their livelihood and for them keeping it viable and expanding its scope would create more jobs and give them security. I knew that the expansion of leisure time for many people would create opportunities to bring tourists to the area and spread the wealth this created so that it spread to our local community. Having seen this expansion in my previous life, I was aware of the areas which could be developed in this respect and how this could benefit the people of our local community and its economy.

Having thought this through, I discussed it with Katy. She said that once she had completed her degree in languages she would like to continue with her studies and obtain a qualification in psychology and if possible with a course in counselling skills. She pointed out that this could be done at a university nearest to their estate, which would be the base from which was working. We decided we would explore the possibilities during the summer holidays and before we began our final year.

When The summer break came we invited Sylvia and Harry to spend a few weeks with us in Southern France. Our nanny came along too since we hoped to do some exploring with our in-laws leaving her to look after our son. Despite having a full complement on board we managed to pack the hold of our plane with the all our luggage and all the gear required for the baby and still be under our weight limit. Still, until we were safely in the air I think both Kay and I were holding our breath. It wasn't that we were really worried, but it was the first time we had taken off with full load in the hold.

By spending time touring to the different places in the locality of our house with Harry and Sylvia, as well as sharing our joint interest in the baby with them, I felt that I was really getting to know them. In doing so both Katy and I enjoyed their company and believed we were drawing much closer to them. For the first time in her life Katy felt that she and her parents had really become a family which shared mutual concerns and enjoyed each other's company.

Needless to say, I was happy with this state of affairs and decided that during the holiday I would give Harry some indication of what my thoughts were concerning my career after leaving university. Since getting to know him better, I really did feel that I could work with him. I also felt because of my foreknowledge, I could really make things much more profitable than they would otherwise have been.

I also decided that by working in this way it would give me time to look at the investments I wanted to make in the future. I was going to invest in apple computers when their shares came on the market in 1980. I would also invest quite heavily in Microsoft once their shares came on the market. There were a lot of other things I had foreknowledge of and in which I could safely invest. This meant that I would probably have the capital with which to fund the developments I wanted to make and which in the course of time I wanted to put in place in order to increase the estate's profitability.

On a day when the ladies decided to spend the time shopping I took the chance to share my thoughts with Harry.

"I have thought about your suggestion that I should take over the management of the estate after I graduate and I am seriously considering taking you up on your offer," I told him. "You realise though, that I lack the experience necessary for such a venture."

"Yes I do," His Lordship responded, "But you are a bright guy and you will have me to guide you even though I will be more involved in the political scene"

"There are also courses in management I can take as I go along and I would be willing to do enrol in some of those at the same time as I am working for you. This will give me insights into what is needed in the job you want me to undertake. I am also thinking that should the opportunity arise, once I have the experience of running things here, if an estate came on the market in Scotland, then I might purchase an estate there as well."

"Why would you want to do that?" Harry asked.

"I have a feeling that we are on the brink of an age when people will have more leisure time and with increasing prosperity in the country they will also have the money to spend on leisure activities. If we can spot the trends and the leisure activities which they will pursue we can then create opportunities which will make it possible for them participate in them within our estate and also to participate in them within our locality. If we do this then we can increase our profitability and also bring money into the local area and bring a degree of prosperity to our community at the same time."