Gambling, Ghillie's Rest, Glenboggle (LOL) Gazette, and GOOD GRIEF!
By: Carrie-Anne
Chapter OneThe campervan and the tavern
Paul had drove in his campervan from the Glenbogle House all the way to Ghillie's Rest for a) peace and quiet, b) a beer and c) to talk to Gordon some more since they had become friends...well it was d) all of the above. Paul didn't mind going off on his own as he entered the big log cabin tavern traveled to the bar. Gordon nodded his head and then passed Paul a pint of his favorite ale and spoke, "Aye, didn't think we'd be seeing ya tonight?"
Paul smiled, tipped his head, and joked, "My missus doesn't keep me in all the time—just lately. How's it goin'?"
"Not as busy, can't complain..." Gordon nodded his head again with a white cloth in his hand as he wiped down the glossed top surface of the bar.
"Good to hear," Paul sipped his pint as Gordon walked over to him and leaded over the bar, "My father's been talking about selling this place again..."
"Oh?" Paul asked, while trying to keep up with the conversation as Gordon continued to explain, "Yeah, for some it's a good deal and for others its not. Says he wants to buy a camper van travel the nation and see sights abroad, don't mind him moving away n' retirin'—but the place being sold to just anyone doesn't really suit me."
"I see."
"Perhaps if someone who's honest and a good man were to buy the place..."
"Why don't you buy it?"
"Eh, too much money the asking price and Maura wants us to move to the city when father does sell it," Gordon shrugged, "Besides I'd only want to stay on until the new ownership could handle the customer flow, the bar and how it's run, aside from making sure the business doesn't go under."
Paul's mouth went into a half smile, "Well, I look forward to meeting the new owners when the time comes..."
"What about the laird purchasing this place?" Gordon posed a quick question and Paul gave him a surprised look before adding,
"Archie has no money for this place either..."
"How about you?" Gordon pried as Paul laughed, "I'm just as flat broke especially with my house being built now..."
"How's the house project?"
"Busy, past two months were codes, contractors, blue prints and breaking ground after clearing and excavating land. Now we're getting somewhere with our cabin, foundation in, walls going up...there's at least a years worth of work to do but Susan, Nye, and I will be living in it before the first frost."
"Your Indoor Climbing Arena?"
"Being built last—Archie agreed to have it built so if it takes until the first frost, well, then it does just that," Paul nodded his head as Gordon sighed, "Speaking of the devil," as an elderly gentleman, wearing pressed gray dress slacks, nice dress shirt and a jumper to keep 'the chill' off, as he wandered into Ghillie's Rest with a cane in his right hand and hobbled up to the bar.
"Son, drink. Now, how do you do Paul?" Mr. McKellen inquired as he smiled, "Tosh always speaks so highly of your brother, the Laird. Especially after helping him by giving him a job and home years ago, tell me, how's Archie these days?"
"Well, Fergus, he's real well," Paul turned his head to address the old man who in turn quipped, "Wife and children?"
"I don't have a wife, but Susan and Nigel are just fine and so is Arch's wife Lexie, the twins and the new one on the way..." Paul shook his head and then smiled.
Fergus McKellen beamed and then asked inquisitively, "Say, is that your campervan outside? Parked in my lot?"
Paul grinned, "Why yes it is."
"Always wanted one of them...a caravan so I could be like a gypsy with a never settle down billet and always have my eye on the open road," as Fergus McKellen beamed bright again and Paul laughed, "Sounds like you've been doing a lot of thinking..."
"Or dreaming," Gordon interrupted, "Telling Paul here about you wanting to sell the place for a set of those wheels..."
Fergus McKellen grinned, "Looking to buy it?"
"Ah no, no money, too much 'home building'..." Paul sighed as he waved his hands in a 'no' reply before turning one to his pint.
"Shame, I want someone good, decent and honest to run this place..." Fergus McKellen as he added with a smug look, "My own son won't even buy it from me."
Gordon rolled his eyes, "Too much money for an asking price, Da, besides Maura wants to move to the city..."
"Well, you buy it, and you can then move to the city." Gordon rolled his eyes again at his father's remark.
"Your sister doesn't have time to run the place as she keeps saying so, and only has the time for the distillery! I know she bought it from me but..."
"I'm not Amanda and I can't afford to buy this place. Case closed." Gordon smugly responded back as Paul finished his beer and decided to avoid the argument brewing between the father and son duo. Paul was about to stand up from the bar stool and try to slip out from the tavern when...Fergus McKellen extended an arm around him... "Another round?"
Paul was about to shake his head 'no', when Fergus said to him and Gordon, "Aye, go for it, only live once, make mine a whiskey, and whatever this chap had...I'm buying."
Gordon shrugged again and Paul tipped his head with a reply, "Okay, one more, but then I've reached my limit."
Gordon then started to prepare drinks while...
"Now, Laddy, you play snooker don't you?" Fergus McKellen replied as he toted Paul towards the table as Gordon delivered his father's whiskey and Paul's second pint of beer to a nearby table while Paul laughed, "For a military man that I am, Mr. McKellen, always."
"Ever win anything?" Mr. McKellen smiled warmly as Paul laughed again and took a sip from his ale, and nodded his head 'yes'.
"Good on ya then, rack 'em up," as Fergus McKellen's hand turned the top of his cane off, and out zoomed, within the cane a snooker stick with a cue. Paul's eyes widened at the invention, "I always carry my snooker cue with me for when it's necessary..."
Paul laughed again, "Um, you sure this is a?"
"I might be your elder, but I'll play yafor the campervan..." Fergus McKellen wagered high and Paul gave a chuckle, "No, not novel."
"All right, I'll make the stakes higher...if you win, you become partner of this ruckus of a place and if I win I get the campervan."
"Um, well, you see..."
"Fine, you win I'll give you the deed and you can own it outright if you lose then well, I get the title to your campervan..." Fergus McKellen held out his hand to shake as Paul reluctantly added, "You'd put this in writing?"
"I'm a man of my word, good boy, don't you patronize me, now play!" Gordon stood there and watched the scene unfold as he wrote everything down in writing about the bet and walked over to the game table as he gestured to Paul to sign the agreement and then to his father who refused, "I'm not going to sign this...I say what I mean..."
Gordon sighed, "Sign it. It'll keep us from legal fees if this bet goes awry..."
Fergus McKellen nagged the pen from his son's hands and jotted down his name and handed back the paper to Gordon, "Very well, now let's begin..."
Hours later...
Paul had walked home from Ghillie's Rest as the night was brisk as he crossed over the bridge, Duncan in the land rover stopped by as the wheels of the truck skidded to a halt, and he shouted out to Paul over the motor, "Need a lift?"
"Aye," Paul climbed in.
"Where's the campervan?"
"Long story," Paul replied as he held a piece of folded up paper in his hands while Duncan, trying to keep his eyes on the lane, cast them down upon the paper, "What's that?"
"Something I have to discuss with Archie."
"Oh,"
"Thanks for the lift."
"Welcome, off to see Claire in Inverness."
"At this hour?"
"Told Susan I'd pick her up for the weekend," Duncan gave a dignified nod of his head at Paul.
"Oh," Paul tipped his head and shut the land rover's door before waving Duncan on and walking toward the house. Archie scampered down the stairs and spoke out, "There you are, Paul."
"I was over to Ghillie's."
"I see,"
"Ran into Duncan going off to get Susan's sister," Paul smiled while Archie gave him an odd sideways glance, "I know Susan asked him too since you were not available. Something about her job keeping her from picking up Claire right away,"
Paul then gave a triumphant smile and held out the envelope in his hand to his brother as Archie asked, "What's this?"
"A gambling debt,"
"Oh no, don't tell me mother's at it again with horse races and...a deed?" Archie opened the envelope and pulled out an old parchment of paper and scratched his head...
"To Ghillie's Rest," Paul winked as Archie stared at him completely stunned.
"I see that, why is it in your hand?"
"McKellen and I played a game of snooker, I won the deed and he, well, won my ol' campervan."
"Well, you're going to have to return it back to him...you can't just 'win' a tavern over a silly placed snooker bet..."
"I just did, Archie. I won it fair and square. I even have a copy of a written agreement saying so..."
"Paul, are you mad?"
"Fergus McKellen was very grateful that I won that bet since you helped out his brother?"
"Tosh in a good time of need, yes, but you know nothing about running a tavern!"
"Gordon wants to teach me..."
"You can't teach dog new tricks..."
"Hey!"
"Look, you give that deed back to Fergus McKellen."
"Archie, I can't."
"Why not?"
"First I'm not an Indian giver and second, I gave Fergus 10,000 pounds."
"You did what!" Archie stuttered out, shocked, before asking, "Where did you get that kind of money?"
"Building loan...added it to the building expenses...only half of it was wrapped up into the loan, and I'll give him that check tomorrow. There's 5,000 pounds saved so I gave it to him..."
"Your savings? Yours and Susan's? She's going to flip..."
"I've already flipped—what's going on you two?" answered a voice from the stairway, "I can hear you all the way down the hall, the both of you."
"I can hear ya from the kitchen," Lexie answered as she waddled down the hall with her almost 5 month pregnant belly. Paul's mouth went into an upper lipped expression... "Well, I own Ghillie's Rest and I'm making my brother a partner..."
Susan and Lexie both exchanged startled glances and Archie stood there overwhelmed with anything but joy...
Chapter Two'Family management meeting' J
"I can't believe you...you spent 5,000 pounds for an old drink shack! What's wrong with you? Do you know how long it took for us to save all of that money? And for me to save it?" Susan stood there getting all upset and Lexie sat on the small sofa with her feet propped up on an ottoman.
"Susan, I did it for the family. I did it for Nigel or any future children besides I'm a snooker champ, remember and winner takes all—except I decided McKellen really wanted my campervan so I gave it away to him with some cash? We take ownership of the place tomorrow..."
"You're going to take that deed back to Fergus McKellen and get 'our' 5,000 pounds back!" Susan spat right out at Paul and his hair brained scheme.
Archie poured himself a drink from the craft and then bent down to tend to the fire in the fire place since it was showering outside, April showers, bring May flowers and June brings the wind...well the saying was right on tonight as the rains pelted the cylinder shaped, flag topped roves and stone checker blocked castle walls while the group continued to 'talk' about family business.
"Actually, I'm giving him more than that..."
"How much more?" Susan's eyes zoomed in on Paul...
"Um, well, you know our building loan..."
"Paul you didn't!" Susan lectured... "Those checks are for house supplies only! You don't write them out unless it's for the house! The bank gave us a loan but?"
"Suzy, you're really cute when you're angry... but I didn't have the checks with me...I owe McKellen 5,000 pounds and told him to come over for tea tomorrow to collect it." Paul tried to smile at her only she snatched a fire poker from Archie's hands as she threatened Paul with it, "You're still attractive...even with a fire poker..."
"Don't tempt me or I'll poke your eyes out with this, this thing!" Susan held out the poker and Archie sighed as Lexie's eyes widened and she laughed, "Maybe you should just feed him to the fire instead since he's become rotten ol' wood?"
Paul gave Lexie an unruly look and added, "I'm not rotten! I'm priceless!"
"Priceless can mean good painting, and you're not a picture perfect portrait, Paul!" Susan bantered back, while trying to insult him, as Lexie shook her head, "You'retoo much."
"Hand it over, Suzy, if anyone was to thump him, it would have been me and a long time ago, honest just give Paul a fair chance to explain himself to us..." Archie eyed Susan as she continued to hold out the fire poker, Archie replied, "You're really sure you won that place fair and square? What about McKellen's daughter-Amanda? She sits at the board you know for the Lagganmore Distilleryshe bought the place from McKellen last year..."
Susan was reluctant to give up her weapon of choice to hit Paul with but she did so before sitting herself down on the old red velvet chaise lounge. Paul sighed, gave a smart nod of his head, "Of course I am an' his daughter and son don't want the place. Even Gordon had McKellen and I sign a paper saying it was all legal and he witnessed it."
"Paul, well, it could be a good source of revue for the estate..."
"McKellen said the MacDonald's were worthy people, who should run a tavern for all. He wanted someone honest to keep it going,"
Susan gave a haughty laugh and Paul's labeling of 'honest' and zeroed her eyes onto him again and he stared back at her and chanted, "Good and decent family to run it..."
"Well, if this is true we'll have to have counsel notarize it since McKellen signed over the deed, we'll check into it some more..." Archie added, "Only, since tax demand time gave us 5,000 pounds because we over paid them, Lex?" Archie scanned Lexie's face for some form of approval and got it.
Lexie smiled, "Aye, yes, the 5,000 tax demand check can be put in for the other 5,000 pounds..."
Archie's face softened, "You agree?"
"Archie, Ghillie's is a great place and with some love and care it could stay very family oriented and touristy...a real happy hour for all...since the deed is right there and it's the family's now, might as well, help support it."
"What if we lose money?"
"Then we find something to help get us out of it...you ran a restaurant, a tavern can't be that hard to do. Susan should agree with us all before taking it on," Lexie eyed Susan, whom blew out a breath "I still can't believe you."
"Well, it's a start, Lexie's right it's the family's nowSusan, I really want this to work..."
"How do you run an Indoor Climbing Arena and a tavern? And a wildlife centre?" Susan challenged as Lexie gave her a puzzled look, "She's got a point."
"Hire more staff?" Archie sighed at Paul's suggestion since day one, Paul always wanted Archie to hire more staff...he was destined to get his wish...
"I'll check into it. For now, I run the accounts for both the estate and wildlife centre—I'll take the wildlife centre over for you until you get Ghillie's underway. As for the Indoor Climbing Arena, it wouldn't be up and running until autumn. We have Golly, we have Duncan and we could hire on one more person, but for only 15,000 pounds a year since that's all that's left from the GRACE trust after cashing some of it up for yours and Suzy's land proposal and some building fees, aside from giving Golly his cabin and for paying for his eye surgery years ago."
"Does Lizzie agree? I mean you had to go through Lizzie to open that trust and not just Paul." Susan asked, remembering when Molly turned the trust over to Archie, Lizzie and Paul as first benefactors after the war over the rightful owners of the Glenbogle forestwhich turned out to be the MacDonalds or Hector's old trust called GRACE.
"I heard my name..." a voice spoke right up from the doorway and it was Lizzie, and she pouted too, "Family meeting without me?"
"Actually, it's more of a 'management' meeting...Paul and me..." Archie replied with stars in his eyes as he nodded his head towards his sister.
"Own Ghillie's Rest? I know I ran into Maura McKellen, Gordon's wife as I was closing up Mummy's shop. She was boasting about moving to the city finally after all of these years."
"Well, in order for the estate to run right, we need to hire on someone else...just until Paul and I get the family tavern running smoothly." Archie gave a wonderful triumphant nod of his head...his restaurant dream, owning one, running one, was in plain sight!
"I see, well, then, what does it have to do with me?"
"Well, we need your approval to open GRACE again and use 15,000 pounds to sponsor a new estate worker?"
"I see, so you just want my signature. I want more." Lizzie's eyes narrowed in.
"What do you mean?" Archie said exasperatedly.
"You and Lex get something—this tavern, Golly and mother get something—Golly's cabin, and Paul and Susan get somethingthis Indoor Climbing Arena and a houseMummy's got her shop after her hard earned painting and antique selling money—some of which her profits go straight into that trust to replace and money taken out and all...what about me? I never asked for anything from that trust! Now I want something...if I help you out." Lizzie tilted her head at Archie, then Paul, Susan and Lexie.
"Lizzie, we're doing this whole change for you too...besides you acting like a bratty bairn."
"I'm not convinced and calling me names, Archie will get you no where!" as Lizzie, in a huff, shook her head and was about to turn on the balls of her feet and walk out of the room, when...
"You can have the huge 'training' room at the Indoor Climbing Arena to run any kind of group you like..." Susan spoke up as Paul eyed her and Archie too. Lexie laughed again, "Oh geez, here comes the..."
"You're kidding? New equipment included? " Lizzie said giddy and peered over to Susan as her face filled with joy, "You agree Paul?"
"I'm not sure I know what I'm agreeing too aside from what kind of equipment?" Paul waited for more information and Archie grumbled, "Oh lord! A 'Healing Centre' or a mud hut with sitting tiki dancers and people who walk around zombie-fied—that's what you want! Your equipment, right, Tarot cards, Yoga mats, massage table and chairs which hold your face as you lean forward for the 'massage' of a lifetimewhich is more like having someone hitting you repetitively with a cricket paddle and ruining your body! Foot oils? Right? "
"That's not fair! How dare you say that about Yoga, massages, séances with Tarot cards or reflexology! It's all relaxing and good for people! I'm good at massages, you even said so years ago when I needed a 'training' dummy for my courses while we BOTH lived in London! You offered yourself out, you know! I offered my help with your restaurant and my PR skills in return!" Lizzie argued and Archie judged,
"Oh right, aside from PR and suggesting get lots of food critics on my first open night at my restaurant long ago—what a bust that was! Busts, you wanted to turn this house into some crack job healing groupremember Gerald, one with sunshine coming out of his armpits? And how he almost drowns our dear father in the loch and how he acted like he knew all about brother Jamie? Some healing lot that was! Supposeofly gave off psychedelic powers and made people do Buddha chanting'hummmmmmm—hummmmmmmmmmmmm'!" Archie folded his arms across his chest and then closed his eyes if he were praying to Buddha himself or something...Lizzie scowled as Archie had egged her on, now smiling, as he was the little brother whom loved to taunt his big sister.
"That's not true Archie!" Lizzie muttered, fed up with Archie's attitude, and stomped towards the door, "NO deal!"
Archie added and rolled his eyes, "Lizzie! Come back! I was only fooling, well some of it...Lizzie, I know you're tired of me running everything, but..."
Lexie spoke up, "Lizzie's got a real point there. She should have something she wants from that trust too."
"I do?" Lizzie stopped in her tracks and walked towards Lexie and Susan...
"She does?" Archie perked up at Lexie's suggestion...
Susan sighed, "I think Lizzie's got a marvelous dream and it should happen too."
"In the spare room of the Indoor Climbing Arena, Suz? I was going to keep gear in there and teach kids how to climb and?" Paul whined and Susan eyed him, and retorted, "Where's that fire poker when I need it? You can sharebesides it's not even BUILT yet!"
Paul gave a sigh and gave in...
"I want to run my group in the library of this house first. I need a relaxing atmosphere to come home too...you all need it and I need to have clients firstI am still a certified masseuse you know—how do you think I managed to live in London on my own—aside from PR work? I didn't make much money at trade fairs and I was unemployed for a little while after having Martha but it was my choice because I wanted to focus on family and not so much spending my life with my so called career..." Lizzie rubbed her forehead feeling a headache coming on after stating her case.
Archie gave in, "I want your signature...you can have your 'Healing' group only a few nights a week in the library—but, you help out with the tavern too and sign the trust so it can be opened again. Then we have an interview process to go through since we need to hire on a new worker..."
Lizzie's face formed a huge smile as she ran over to Susan to give her a hug and then to Archie, "I won't let you down!"
"You better not," Archie said as he hugged his sister, "Now about Buddha..."
