Chapter Nineteen

“Sorry to have to tell you it’s a bit of a long ride,” Cameron said, as they pulled out of the airfield. “Living out in the sticks has its advantages, but it does mean that things like airports and even supermarkets aren’t exactly on your doorstep.”

“It’s okay,” Dax replied. “It’s been nice just to get out of the hospital again.”

“I told Doctor Pravenda that I wasn’t happy with you staying so long in that place.”

“But what was the alternative?”

“Getting out to a hotel or renting out a beautiful apartment overlooking the Thames.” Cameron placed his arms on the steering wheel and gestured with his hands. “Some of the old buildings are so beautiful inside. I was in a place once that had survived the Great Fire of London.”

“When was that?”

“In sixteen sixty-six.”

Dax gave a low whistle. “I don’t know anything about American history that goes back that far.”

“Britain’s got an incredible history,” Cameron replied. “And Scotland’s had its own fair share of glory years, but a lot of the time was fighting off the English from the south and the Vikings from the north.”

“It sounds like a medieval saga,” Dax remarked. Cameron grinned.

“I guess it was a little bit like that, back in the day,” he said. “My grandfather used to tell me stories about the clans who had the land hundreds of years ago, before our own ancestors settled there and farmed the place. I don’t know whether he made most of it up but it was still interesting.”

“How did you come to inherit the house?” Dax asked.

“My parents moved to Edinburgh when I was little, because they thought there’d be more opportunity for me in the city rather than being in the countryside. I used to go and stay with my grandparents every summer and I loved it. I’d help my grandfather on the farm and in the evenings, I’d go meet some of my friends in the village and we’d be out until the wee hours. Then after my grandmother died, my grandfather couldn’t keep the place on his own and he went into a home, and I figured my parents would get the house when he passed but five years ago we went to the will reading and found out he’d left everything to me.”

“That’s amazing,” Dax said. “You must have been really close.”

“Aye.”

Dax smiled to himself as he heard Cameron’s Scottish brogue becoming more pronounced now that he was back in his home country. While Cameron kept his eyes on the road, concentrating on the traffic as the large car roared down the highway, Dax stole a glance at his handsome face. He’d always had a weakness for a strong jaw and nice eyes, and Cameron possessed both in abundance.

He tried to imagine that they weren’t going to stay in a house for therapy and recovery, but that they were a couple, on their way to a vacation house, maybe even their honeymoon. For a few moments he lost himself in the fantasy, but it wasn’t long before the ache in his back and the numbness in his fingers brought him back to reality.

Cameron watched him flex his hand. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just more pins and needles,” Dax replied. “It’s not painful, exactly. More annoying than anything else.”

“You’ve spent a lot of time sitting and we haven’t been able to do any exercise today,” Cameron said. “If you want, I can pull over and do a few stretches with you?”

“No, no,” said Dax hurriedly. The dark skies and cold wind outside the car was enough to keep him content simply being inside the vehicle. “We’ll pick it up tomorrow.”

“Wait a second,” Cameron said, keeping his eyes on the road and with one hand, setting the chair into more of a reclining position. “I’ve made the strap a little less tight. Try doing a couple of the exercises I showed you, just lifting your pelvis up a little off the chair, if you can. Try and clench your ass muscles together.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, do a couple of clenches,” Cameron repeated. “Don’t tell me you’ve never done them before. Your butt looks like it’s done plenty of clenches in your time.”

And Dax blushed. He didn’t know what to say, and felt like a nervous kid who’d just been paid a compliment from the person they had a crush on. He wondered about whether Cameron had really noticed his ass. He would have had plenty of chance too, after all; there was little of Dax’s anatomy that hadn’t been seen by practically everyone since he started on the road to recovery.

But Cameron was professional, and respectful, and he certainly wasn’t making a pass at Dax. That would have been too much to hope for, and yet hearing the words made him forget the discomfort for a little while.

Once out of the city and over an inlet of sea on the Forth Road Bridge, the urban sprawl of Edinburgh was left behind and Dax began to see some of the most beautiful countryside he could ever have imagined. The sky cleared a little in the later hours of the spring afternoon, and the sun began to peek through the clouds just as they climbed up into the barren hills.

“Where are we?” Dax asked, mesmerized by the lush green all around them, punctuated with brown bushes of bracken. It almost seemed a shame that the landscape was marred in the very center by an ugly gray road splitting it in two.

The pride in Cameron’s face was undeniable, and he beamed at Dax. “I hoped you’d like it,” he said. “It’s funny, when you’re a kid you don’t want to look out of the window because it’s boring. You want to read a book or play on your phone instead. But now I want to grab hold of that kid from twenty years ago and make him take in every inch of the beauty of this place.”

“We’ve got some incredible scenery back home,” Dax said, “and I’ve seen a lot of it. But this is something else. It’s so… bleak, but beautiful at the same time.”

He blushed at the words; they’d sounded so right in his head, but once he uttered them, he felt foolish. But Cameron raised his hands from the steering wheel with enthusiasm.

“That’s exactly it!” he cried. “That’s it in a nutshell. Beautiful but bleak. You’re right.”

He seemed to radiate with pleasure, at being home again, and at Dax’s positive reaction to his homeland. Cameron began to whistle, and Dax asked him what it was. “Something my grandfather used to sing to me when I was a kid,” he said. Dax was amazed to hear him begin to sing.

 

“Corrie doon, Corrie doon, Corrie Doon, my darling,

Corrie doon the day.

Corrie doon, Corrie doon, Corrie Doon, my darling,

Corrie doon the day.

 

Lie doon, my dear, and in your ear,

To help you close your eye,

I'll sing a song, a slumber song,

A miner's lullaby.”

 

He paused, looked at Dax, and laughed, moving his hand dismissively. “Ah, it always sounded so much better when my seanair used to sing it. That’s the word we use for grandfather around here. Seanair.”

“It’s beautiful,” Dax said. “The song, I mean. Really. I didn’t understand a word you were saying, but the melody’s really good. And you have a great voice.”

“Well, it’s nothing like yours,” Cameron replied modestly. “But I’ve been known to belt out a ballad once or twice when I’ve been in the shower. You know, bottle of shampoo in one hand.”

Dax didn’t want to dwell too long on the thought of Cameron in the shower, so he changed the subject. “What’s the song about?” he asked.

“It’s an old folk song about a miner singing to his daughter,” Cameron explained. “He tells her to “corrie doon,” which is basically like saying, “snuggle under the covers and go to sleep.” He’s trying to get her to fall asleep because he has to go and work down in the mines and he’s telling her that he goes to work so that she can sleep easily at night with heat in the lamp and light from the fire.”

He looked at Dax. “It’s a pretty sad song, really, when you think about it,” he said. “I just like the melody. And I guess it’s a pretty realistic description of what life was like a hundred, two hundred years ago. Plenty of men had to leave their kids and go down in the mines, and sometimes they’d never come back. I guess we take it for granted, the kind of life that we have today.”

Dax blew out a puff of air from his cheeks. “Ain’t that the truth,” he said, quietly, but Cameron shook his head.

“I wasn’t making a comment about your life or anything,” he said. “I’ve seen how hard you work, and I know I don’t have the first clue about how difficult it is for you. Believe me. If anything I was talking about myself. You know, growing up in the city, going to a good school to get a good education, and ending up in a job where I get to meet famous people like yourself, although in pretty unfortunate situations.”

He ran his hands loving over the leather of the steering wheel. “I get to drive this beauty. Boy, will I be sorry when I have to give this back.”

“It’s not yours?” Dax asked.

“Nope. It’s rented just for a couple of days. I’ve got to take it back to Inverness by the weekend and get my old thing out of the shop. It’s costing about five hundred pounds a day to drive this thing.”

“So, don’t give it back,” Dax said. “I like it too. Tell them you want to keep it and I’ll pay for it.”

Cameron seemed to consider the offer, but shook his head. “Nah, we don’t need it,” he said. “We won’t be spending much time in the car. We’ll be taking long walks in the forest and up and down the hills before long, don’t you worry.”

And Dax realized that Cameron’s plan sounded much better than anything else he could think of. “Both of us?” he asked.

“In time, yes,” Cameron replied. “No doctors, no tests, no manager telling you to think about your career. Nothing to distract you. Not even television, or the internet—”

“Wait, what?” Dax interrupted, his mouth open in shock. “You never told me that I wouldn’t have internet at this place!”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Cameron teased. “Didn’t I mention that?”

“No! What am I supposed to do if there’s a power cut and we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere but I have to let people know I’m okay?”

Och, yer in ma wee country now, ma friend,” Cameron drawled in a dramatic Scottish accent. “Yer’ve got naw idea aboot life up here in the Highlands!” And he gave a maniacal laugh, and Dax had no choice but to laugh at the comical accent, too, although something at the back of his mind was beginning to feel the real fear of being cut off from the outside world.