A Chance Meeting in Glasgow

Chapter 66

It was a whirlwind week.  The always-practical Andrew suggested June 5th as the date of their wedding, and Katherine agreed.  Andrew said that at least for some period of time after they were married, they would need to move back to San Francisco.  He funded a pension for Mrs. Macvail, and they arranged for her to move to her son’s home in the coming weeks.  He also helped Katherine set up a property management agreement with Mr. Barrow, the solicitor, concerning the Tower.

Andrew still had a few local tasks for his shipping company, and his presence was required at a number of business luncheons.  He met with the shipyard several more times, and then delivered a final report on the North Wind to the investors on Thursday afternoon.

Katherine discussed events with Fiona (which began with the young woman squealing, jumping up and down and inspecting the engagement ring) and spent some days arranging for her to take over direction of the sewing co-operative.  Katherine also arranged with the parishes to distribute her booklets, printed minus Chapter 11.

The much smaller volume, Enough Love for Every Child, which contained the Chapter 11 information, was a thornier issue. Getting caught distributing such material risked going to prison.  Andrew thought he had an idea and asked Katherine to be patience a bit longer.

Andrew bought a small gig and he and Katherine jointly presented Toffee and the little carriage to Forrester as a wedding gift.  Andrew paid a year’s rent on a small house near Forrester’s new job at the factory as a wedding gift to Mrs. Gordon (actually, he admitted to Katherine, as a gift to Becky) and arranged a catered wedding breakfast at the Tower for Saturday afternoon after the wedding.

It was not until Thursday evening Andrew and Katherine got to sit down together for a relaxed meal. “Ayson said the Arabians were welcome in his stable, Katherine.”

“Andrew, let’s talk about what’s really important.  How is Ceana?”

“Actually, she dictated a note to you last night.  Here it is.”

Katherine took the page and read it through.  “This is embarrassing, Andrew, that she should be apologizing to me when she listened to the truth in her heart and I didn’t.  Did she really dictate this?”

“I wrote down what she said word for word.  She also pointed out Forrester would be gone starting Saturday, and asked if she could return here to the Tower to spend next week with you.  It’s your decision, Katherine.”

“Oh, could she?  Does she really want to?  Andrew, that would be wonderful.”

“I’m guessing all of her aesthetic style lady’s companion dresses are still here. You wouldn’t believe some of the frilly little girl silk and lace concoctions Agnes has been putting her in. I’ll tell her to pack her pillow case and I’ll bring her Saturday evening.”

“Andrew, maybe Ceana deserves the chance to wear girl clothes.”

“Every 14 year-old wonders if she’s a girl or a woman.”  He took a deep breath. 

“I’d Could like she for go her with to us come to to America America?.”

Katherine reached out and put her hand on Andrew’s lips.  “We agree on the matter.  Nothing else needs to be said about it, darling.”

“I’m also still working on a way to build a bridge with your brother.”

“I wrote Anne and told her about us, but asked her not to tell my brother.  She wrote back and said he’s mentioned in the last month being embarrassed about not having any money for a dowry for me. My brother is proud, Andrew.  Almost all he has is his pride and his family.  It won’t go over well to have an upstart American whisk his sister away and not even care about whether her family provides for her or not.”