Chapter 9

With the end of the holidays we began our second year. Despite all the reservations I held when General Argon asked me to intervene in Katy's life I was now heading over heels in love with her. I was determined that I would not make the mistakes of my past life. She was a beautiful and delightful companion and an enthusiastic and responsive lover. I can honestly say that while I had, in the beginning anyway, loved my wives to some extent, with none of them had I formed the deep and abiding and loving friendship I have with Katy.

I had only one worry about my future with her and that was the possibility that fate might overrule my attempts to save her and find some other way to take her life. I know this sounds irrational because I believe the vast cosmos is so multi dimensional that a slight hiccup or change of a small detail on one planet is not going to be noticed. I am a complete agnostic as far as any kind of deity or deities are concerned.

Nevertheless there is always that nagging doubt to cast its shadow. Most of the time though I was so happy and thrilled with my lot I did not give this a great deal of thought. Even if it did cause some concern when the people on the spaceship spoke to me about it I decided to relegate it to the back of my mind. I consoled myself with the thought that they did not mention anything about any kind of intelligence or intelligences behind the universe. Even if there was I couldn't do anything about it. Well I suppose I could pray, I thought with a laugh, but since I had never done so in my past life, it was a little late to start now.

The first weekend of term I was due to put in a few hours flying time so I hired a plane and Katie and I put in two hours each of flying time going to visit her parents. We landed at a private air strip south west of London then hired a car to take us to Bristol where her family had a rather large villa on a hill which gave the excellent views of the suspension bridge. We hired a car and drove to her mother and father's house and parked in their large driveway.

Katy suggested that we should leave our luggage meantime and bring it in after I had been introduced to her parents. All the way down she had been rather nervous about this meeting with them. I have to confess that despite my previous experience with prospective in laws, I was a bit nervous myself.

While I had a good job and was very comfortably off in my previous existence I had never consorted with any form of nobility not even a minor one. In this case I was about to consort with a Lord and his wife whose lineage went back to the time of George the Fourth. That was when the family were first ennobled for services to the crown.

When we arrived a butler led us into the drawing room and announced us. Her mother was there but her father was not present. She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek and then look towards me.

"Mum I would like to introduce my boyfriend Calum MacDonald," Katy said and then turned to me, "Calum this is my mother, Lady Sylvia Winselt."

I was not certain of the approach I should take but I held out my hand and as her mother took it I shook hands with her and gave her a slight bow.

"I am pleased to meet you Lady Winslet."

"How long have you and Kathleen been going out together?" She asked in a very cool tone of voice.

"Since the first week of our time at university so it is almost a year now."

She turned to her daughter, "Why have you waited until now to let us know that you had a young man paying who was paying court to you."

"I might have mentioned it at Christmas and brought him to meet you at Christmas time, but you went off to Africa to visit my brother and you did the same over Easter. This is the first chance I have had of bringing him to meet you. I really did not want to say anything until that was possible," Katy responded.

"But you could have written or phoned to let us know of the fact that you had a young man paying who was becoming important in your life."

"Mother, in the past you have not shown much interest in what I am doing or in what I achieve. In the light of that, I decided to wait until I had an opportunity to introduce him to you. I am doing so now because this is not something which is going to change. Calum and I are in love and this made it imperative that you should meet the man I am going to marry."

Her mother now had a look of shock on her face at this forthright statement from Katy and the fact that she had made her intentions crystal clear.

"If that is how you feel," she replied, "Then I think it all the more reason that should have let us know about the situation. You are a bit young to be making these kind of decisions without consulting your parents. I take it you have already been introduced to his family"

"Why should I consult either you or my dad on a decision which I am of age to make for myself?" Katy asked. "If it is so important to you, you could have asked questions when I phoned. I have always had the impression that neither of you were much interested in what I was doing. I think that view is reinforced by the fact that my father has not made the attempt to be here when I finally brought Calum to meet you. As for meeting Calum's family, they were killed a few years ago and he has no family for me to meet."

Katy at last seemed to have found the confidence to let her mother know something about how she felt about their treatment of her in the past. I did not want this to escalate any further though, so I thought I had better step in before it escalated into some kind of row.

"Lady Winslet, we have had a long journey today. We were up early before flying down here to be with you. It has been quite a tiring and stressful day. We both took turns at flying the plane with Katy piloting and navigating for the last two hours of the journey. Since you are obviously concerned about what Katy has told you then I think it would a good idea if we took a breather. We can do this by sitting down and then I will be able to give you some details of my background and prospects. Then you will have some idea of the kind of man your daughter is proposing to marry."

"You are quite right,"she said, "I have been rather remiss in my duty as a hostess. I am also sorry to hear about the loss of your parents"

At that she rang a bell and a maid appeared.

"Do you prefer coffee or tea Calum?"

"Black coffee if it is no too much trouble" I informed her.

"Can you bring through the tray I have prepared Martha."

At that the maid disappeared to carry out her instructions and Lady Sylvia turned again to me.

"Please be seated, both of you. Did I understand you right. Did you say that you had actually piloted the planet and flew my daughter here?"

"You are partially right," I told her. "Both of us piloted the plane. I have recently qualified as a pilot, but Katy has a few more flying hours to put in before she is fully qualified."

"Calum and I have been taking flying lesson for our private pilot's licence mother," Katy interjected. "I have another twelve hours flying time before I get my licence. I can fly solo or accompanied as I have passed all the other tests which are required."

"Isn't that rather expensive? How have you managed without asking your trustees to fund this?" she asked her daughter.

"She had no need to do that," I informed her, "I am a fairly wealthy young man. I own quite a large house in Saint Andrews with reasonably extensive grounds. I can safely inform you that I am a multi millionaire and I am will be well able to keep your daughter in the style to which she may have been accustomed."

At that point the maid returned and served out the tea and coffee and we helped ourselves to some of the delicate little cakes which had been placed before us.

"Since my daughter has declared that she intends to marry you, I take it that you have both discussed this?"

"Yes, we have come to an understanding on this matter, though we haven't got round to setting a date," I told her. "This was one of the things we were hoping to discuss this weekend. We intended to ask you both for your blessing on this matter," I said.

"We also wanted you to know that Calum has no close relations since he was an only child and his grandparents are also dead. In the light of these facts we would like any wedding to be a fairly quiet affair. Just close family and a few friends being invited." Where is father, by the way?" Katy asked.

"He was invited by our newly elected prime minister to come and speak with him this afternoon. I think he wants to offer him some sort of ministerial post with a view to help him getting some part of the government's legislation passed as it makes its way through the upper house. I am not sure what it is, but it will some government office, so you see it wasn't something that he could easily get out off. He should be home shortly, however, since I informed him that we would eat at seven pm."

Katy looked a bit abashed when she heard her mother say this. I think because of past experiences with her father she had thought that once again he was showing that she was low on his priority list.