Effie was pleased with the results of the dining room and had an urge to make the rest of Lochy House Hotel feel more welcoming now they had some guests. Effie went looking for Liv and found her trying to get an old lamp to work. ‘Hiya, what ya doing?’
‘Well, I got changed.’ She indicated that she wasn’t wearing Effie’s dress anymore. ‘And now I’m trying to fix this but I’m probably wasting my time.’ Liv flicked the switch on and off but nothing happened.
‘Want to help me with something?’
‘Sure. What is it?’
‘Now the guests have gone to their rooms I want to decorate the library.’ Liv looked interested. Effie went on. ‘I’m thinking bringing nature inside, embracing the natural beauty of the woodland and calmness of spirit.’
Liv looked less keen. ‘You want to go out in a weather-warning-level snow blizzard to get bits of twigs?’
‘It’s a bit calmer out there now.’
‘Is it melting?’ asked Liv.
‘No, the temperature is dropping so it’s turning to ice.’
‘We won’t be getting out of here anytime soon then.’ Liv seemed to say it more to herself than Effie. She let out a sigh. ‘Go on then. What’s the worst that could happen?’
‘My…’ Effie counted them off on her fingers. ‘Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-Aunt Tilda was lost in a snowstorm and they didn’t find her body for three weeks. They thought she’d run off with a highwayman so nobody went looking for her.’
‘Ri-ight,’ said Liv slowly. ‘Not really selling it to me there, Effie.’
‘You won’t die. On my dad’s side there was a relative who lived for three months in a shepherd’s hut with only foraged food and water. So we’ll be fine.’
‘You have lots of weird stories, Effie.’
‘I know – aren’t they great? I love things like that. You must tell me all your family tales,’ she said as they left the room.
‘Apart from the time my nan got locked in Woolworths and ate her own weight in Pick-A-Mix I’m not sure I have anything remotely similar,’ said Liv.
They went downstairs to put on coats and wellies. Effie went in search of the tools she’d need to forage the decorations. Liv was pulling on her borrowed wellies when Effie tapped her on the shoulder, having found what she needed.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Liv lurching out of the way.
‘What?’ Effie looked at the bag she was holding.
‘No, other hand,’ said Liv slowly pointing with wide eyes.
Effie waved the axe she was holding. ‘You’re quite safe. I’ve used one of these loads of times. You can carry the bag. Come on.’ It took Liv a moment to do up her coat. The whole time she seemed very interested in the axe because she didn’t take her eyes off it. Effie was aware that she led a more rural lifestyle than most and it was likely Liv hadn’t ever seen a real axe before.
They ventured outside. It had stopped snowing but it was dark and the temperature had dropped. There was a bit of a drift in the courtyard so they had to lift up their knees to get through it.
‘This had better be worth it,’ mumbled Liv. She stopped. ‘Tell me you can hear music,’ she said twisting around.
‘Yes, it’s Ginger,’ said Effie.
‘If you tell me that cow plays the accordion I’ll know that bump on the head was a lot more serious than I thought.’
‘Noooo, that’s a cello.’
‘You’re winding me up,’ said Liv, and under her breath added, ‘Or I am going to need sectioning because I have properly wandered into La La land.’
‘No. Ginger likes listening to classical music. She finds it calming. And I think she gets lonely.’
‘It’s a radio then,’ said Liv.
‘Of course it is. You didn’t think she could play the cello, did you?’ Effie got a fit of the giggles. Liv was funny.
‘Probably a daft question,’ said Liv as they continued out of the courtyard and towards the woods with Effie leading the way with a torch. ‘But why don’t you put Ginger in a field with other cows? Then she wouldn’t be lonely.’
‘We have tried that a few times with different herds but the problem is she doesn’t know she’s a cow. I think she thinks she’s a dog because she spent the first few months at the lodge with Jock’O but then she got too big for the garden there and she was eating the herbs, the ivy and mother-in-law’s tongue.’
‘Eww that’s an image I’ll struggle to get rid of,’ said Liv. ‘Hang on, I’m guessing that mother-in-law’s tongue is a plant?’
‘Yes, a bit of a toxic one too. It gave Ginger diarrhoea.’
‘That’s also not a nice thought. A cow with the runs. That would take more than a couple of Imodium to sort out.’ Liv seemed to find that funny. They trudged on a bit further. ‘Are we there yet?’ asked Liv.
‘Almost,’ said Effie pointing the way with the axe.
‘I wish you wouldn’t wave that thing around. I’m worried I’m going to go home looking like Van Gogh.’
They made it to the woodland where there was a little less snow, thanks to the tree cover, and Effie began searching.
‘Effie, my teeth are actually chattering here.’ Liv did a demonstration.
‘It’s okay. I found something.’
Liv went to join her. ‘What is it?’
Effie stood back to proudly reveal her find. ‘Mistletoe. Isn’t it beautiful? I think it’s quite romantic how it needs the poplar tree to survive. It draws on the tree’s nutrients and water.’
‘Sounds like a parasite to me,’ said Liv who was visibly shivering. Fraser was right about one thing: southerners were definitely not as hardy as the Scots.
‘The ancients believed it warded off evil and kept witches at bay.’
‘Great. That’ll keep Janet out of our hair. Chop a load down and let’s get back.’
‘Have you ever seen it in the wild before?’ asked Effie selecting where best to cut without killing off the plant or the tree.
‘Nope, ours comes from B&M Home Bargains. It’s cheap, everlasting and it has added glitter. I highly recommend it.’
‘You can chop down some of that holly,’ said Effie pulling out the old curved machete they kept for jobs like this.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Liv staggering backwards away from the blade and reversing hard into a tree. ‘I swear I’m going to die in this place.’
‘Are you okay?’ asked Effie offering her the knife again.
‘Yep. All good. Nothing wrong with me. I’m perfectly sane,’ said Liv. ‘Thank you,’ she added as, at last, she cautiously took the machete and backed away, this time avoiding the tree.
Effie concentrated on the mistletoe until she heard grumbling from Liv.
‘Ouch, this stuff is vicious. I think it knows I want to cut bits off it.’ Liv was getting her gloves and coat caught up in the holly bush. She looked like she’d been velcroed to it in a number of places.
‘Here,’ said Effie, coming over and taking the machete. ‘Look for the newer branches. They’re not as thick and woody. Take hold of a section where the leaves won’t spike you and then…’ Effie brought down the blade and cleanly cut the branch from the bush. ‘See?’
‘You make it look easy. I mean menacing but also impressive. Who showed you how to do that?’ asked Liv taking back the knife.
‘My dad,’ said Effie, the familiar sense of loss gripping her. It wasn’t true that time eased the pain, she simply had more distractions so she thought of him less, and that in itself made her feel guilty.
‘He must be cool. Is he outdoorsy like you?’ asked Liv.
‘He died,’ said Effie, and she went back to chopping the mistletoe.