Gifted

I made it clear to Shona that I was not going to be taking part in any wider family activities when I came to visit Robbie. She tried to ambush me a couple of times, but eventually she gave up and from then on Robbie was ready to go when I turned up, so I didn't have to spend any more time than absolutely necessary with Shona and her baby. I wasn't rude, but she soon realised our conversation would never go beyond talk about the weather or how Robbie was doing at school.

Life went on and I started getting used to a different pattern of social activity. I had a lot more time for myself, including some amorous encounters, but I was not in the market for a long term relationship. Strangely, that seemed to work to my advantage with quite a few women, but I was careful to avoid the so-called 'bicycles' that would go with anyone who showed interest.

*

Time passed and a few years later I read in the local paper that Callum MacDarrell was engaged to be married to a young lady, whom he met when they were both studying at Edinburgh University. She came from a society background and her family was landed gentry who lived in a sprawling old mansion on their country estate somewhere in Sussex or Surrey. The paper seemed to think she was quite a catch and the article alluded to a 'beauty and the beast' romance, with the wild Scottish highlander tamed by the aristocratic English beauty.

I decided to visit her in Edinburgh before she took the plunge, as it were. It wasn't too difficult to track her down and she was curious enough about the purpose of my visit that she agreed to meet me in a safe environment. We met in one of those lovely old Edinburgh pubs, where the rumble of conversation is all around and you'd be hard pressed to make out what other folk are saying if you're not sitting close enough to them.

I recognised her from her photograph in the paper and we were soon sitting in a cosy little booth with a couple of drinks.

"What's all this about, Mr Johnson?" she asked, unaware that I was using an alias.

"I'm sorry for the cloak and dagger mystery, but I have some information about Callum MacDarrell that I wanted you to have," I said. "There's no need to worry. It's not so terrible and you'll be able to check and verify what I'm going to tell you."

"Go on," she said, "I'm listening, but I hope this is not some sort of scam."

"Not at all," I replied. "Let me ask you, how well do you get on with Callum's daughter?"

She looked puzzled. "What are talking about?"

"Didn't he tell you about his daughter?" I asked.

"No."

"Oh well, I suppose you'll meet her in due course," I said. "She lives in Lochmagandie with her mother."

"I find this very difficult to believe. Are you sure he has a daughter? He's never mentioned having a daughter from a previous relationship. We've visited his parents in Lochmagandie quite a few times and neither he nor they have ever mentioned anything about him having a daughter."

"Callum's daughter lives with her mum and older step-brother about half a mile from Callum's parents' house," I replied. "Her name is Flora, she's just turned five and she will be starting school in the autumn. By all accounts, she's a bonnie wee lassie and I'm sure you'll get on well with her, even if paying her costs for the next twenty years puts a bit of a dent in your finances."

She stared at me coolly. "Do you have any proof that what you're telling me is true?"

I handed her a copy of the divorce decree that cited Shona's adultery with Callum. "You can easily get someone to check for additional evidence," I said.

It took her a while to read the key details, but she was obviously unhappy.

"I can't believe he hasn't told me about this," she said. "We're supposed to be getting married and now you're telling me he has a daughter from a previous relationship with a single mother who lives practically on his doorstep."

"Look, I'm sorry if this is news to you," I said. "The information is pretty much a matter of public record, so I'm sure you could have found out without my intervention. For all I know, he was maybe going to tell you before you got married. Whatever you do, please don't tell him how you found out, but it's for the best that you know sooner, rather than later. After all, if you marry Callum you'll be sharing his commitments and responsibilities."

"I'll have to think about that, Mr Johnson," she replied, "But thank you for bringing it to my attention. May I keep this?" she asked, holding the copy of the divorce decree.

"Of course," I told her, "It would be my pleasure."

She got up to leave and I felt a great deal of satisfaction as she made her way out of the busy pub. I would never see her again and if things worked out as I suspected, Callum MacDarrell wouldn't be seeing much more of her either.

It was about a month later, while I was collecting Robbie, I casually mentioned to Shona that I'd read in the paper that Callum MacDarrell was getting married.

"Aye he was," she said, looking at me suspiciously, "But someone told his fiancée about Flora and she called it off. I hope it wasn't you, Rob."

"Me?" I replied. "Now why would I do something like that?"

*

Later that year I had another interesting conversation with a stranger in a pub.

One of my colleagues had heard me talking about the stunning views from the Hoch Magandie and insisted on introducing me to his uncle, who claimed to have done a lot of hill-walking in that area in his younger days.

It turned out this charming old man had been a good friend of John Mackie, the man who Shona called her dad and who had died in that awful car accident before Shona was born.

He was amazed to hear that I had been married to Shona and he asked me why we had divorced. I gave him the short version about how she had an affair and got pregnant with another man's child.

"Well, well," he said. "The apple didn't fall far from the tree, Rob."

"What do you mean? Did you know John Mackie wasn't Shona's biological father?" I asked him.

"Yes," he nodded. "And sadly, so did John Mackie, otherwise he might still be alive."

"I thought he died in a car accident," I replied, wondering what he meant.

"That's what the insurance company decided," he said. "The truth is a bit different. Having heard your story I think I can trust you not to tell anyone what I'm going to tell you. John came to see me, because he had just found out his wife was having an affair. I tried to console him, but he was absolutely devastated. I never told anyone what he told me and his wife never knew he had found out, because John drove his car over a cliff on his way home that day. I decided to say nothing, but I keep asking myself if I could have done more to help him, but I think he just couldn't live with what she had done."

The old man paused for a moment, no doubt remembering his friend, John Mackie, and then he looked me right in the eye and added, "I'm so glad you're not like poor John."

*

I put a lot of effort into my work for a while and I ended up in charge of the Scottish Highlands Infrastructure Team for a multinational telecoms company. Getting that job gave me a great deal of pleasure, even if I was not the happiest of people at the time.

Things started looking up, but I think the healing process began when I met Ursula. She's a no-nonsense German lady from Hamburg who divorced her husband for screwing his personal assistant and decided she wanted to get away from it all and live in the Scottish Highlands. She loves hill-walking, her views on life are very similar to my own and she doesn't tolerate fools gladly. To be honest, I think she can be a bit of a bear at times, but everyone else seems to think she's a fox. We've been living together for three years now, but I don't know whether we will end up married. Both of us are a bit cagey about formalising our relationship, but who knows what might happen?

Robbie turned 18 last month and will be coming to Inverness to start University next year. In the meantime he's spending most of his spare time shagging Heather MacDarrell at Shona's place in Lochmagandie. Robbie asked for Heather to be gifted to him and she was hardly in a position to decline his request. After all, she's the chieftain-to-be and it looks like she has committed to continuing the tradition of gifting, whatever the consequences.

I see Robbie at least once a week when he comes to stay with us in Inverness. I spent a lot of time briefing him about the gifting during the course of last year. He now knows exactly why I divorced his mother and why I won't have anything to do with her or his step-sister, Flora. He had a tough time coming to terms with the behaviour of his mother and her cronies, but he was keen enough to take advantage of the opportunity to shag Heather for the best part of a year.

Of course, it was no coincidence Robbie chose Heather. It was my recommendation that got her the gig. I don't know whether she has any idea that I'm the reason she had to choose whether or not to commit adultery. On a less serious note, I find it amusing that she will be teaching him a lot of the things that I taught her. Robbie thinks she's a slut for breaking her vows and betraying her husband, but he agrees with me that she's good fun and a great fuck and he's going to make the most of it.

Heather's husband, Donnie (yes, that Donnie), runs an animal feedstuffs supply company with a depot in the Inverness area. Donnie and Heather have a house in Lochmagandie, but he spends a lot of his time on the road, doing the rounds of his customers and suppliers. They've been married ten years and have a lovely six-year old daughter who spends a lot of time with her grandma, Lady Fiona.

I don't think Donnie knows about the gifting and I'm not going to be the one to let him know that Robbie is shagging his wife. Well, not yet anyway. I will wait until Robbie has just about had enough of her and then we'll see what happens when Donnie finds out. Behind his warm and friendly facade there is a hard-hearted businessman. It's highly unlikely Donnie's one of those cuck shit types of guy. I don't think he'll blame Robbie, but if I was a betting man I'd put money on some serious bitch burning.