“Me, too.” She patted his knee and leaned against his side. Connor was ninety-two years old, frail and stooped with age, but to her still the most handsome man she had ever known. His dark eyes still warmed with love when they took in her aged body, sagging skin and gray hair. Unbelievable.
But not a moment of regret, never a millisecond of wondering what might have been. She had just loved this man and been loved by him for sixty-one years and never missed a thing.
What more could a woman want?
She took a sip of her cold drink and snuggled against him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. This would be their last trip. Tomorrow they would board their last ocean liner to Scotland (Connor had refused to ever get in an airplane). They would return to Duart and never leave again, but since there were no satellite TV’s yet, they had had to be in America for this moment.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he teased.
They watched in silence for a few minutes until Emmy finally turned her head to look at him with a twinkle in her eye. “I told you so.”
And Elvis gyrated and sang his rock and roll on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Author’s Notes
I’ve set this story at the real Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull which is the ancestral home of the Clan MacLean. In 1691, the MacLeans surrendered Duart during the Jacobean rebellion and did not regain the lands until about 1910 when it was purchased by Sir Fitzroy MacLean from the widow of Murray Guthrie who then changed the name of their estate from Duart House to Torosay. It was then that the actual restoration began.
Obviously I moved up the date of the restoration to fit with my timeline and the interior descriptions I give are completely fictional, but I’ve tried to be as accurate as possible with the area and the history surrounding it. From the landscape around the castle to the story of the Lady’s Rock to my descriptions of Torosay and the naming of it. Craignure is the main harbor town of Mull and is where the ferry docks today much as I of it on Emmy’s return to Mull.
In the present day, Torosay and Duart are open to the public. Torosay is open for tours of the house and gardens and does have a Tea Room while you can tour the castle at Duart which is currently owned by Sir Lachlan MacLean.
Once upon a time, I did live in Virginia and near Baltimore as well and I think it is still the best place in America to get crab bisque and steamed mussels.
Incidentally, Duart is open from May until October
