Living with the Laird: A Love Affair with a Man and his Mansion. Belinda Rathbone

the Guynd would never give them any pleasure, or perhaps because he was so sure of it, Doreen was determined that it was the one thing they had that was worth her whilst to save. ‘I have to stay for the sake of the boys,’ she would explain to friends. ‘It’s their heritage.’

      How were the boys to interpret this heritage, raised in the teeth-gritting cold passion of their parents’ conflicting dreams and desires? How was John to proceed under the heavy memory of a father who did not want him to inherit the family home, and a mother who sacrificed everything so that he could? Now the estate was in the hands of trustees his father had appointed, whose management over the years had been, at best, indifferent. Four hundred acres of farmland had been sold off to give Angus his share of the inheritance, which left John the sole beneficiary of what remained of a crippled and neglected estate—the land, the house and its contents.

      Was it the Guynd, I wondered, that engendered conflict, that raised hopes and guaranteed disappointment? Was it the Guynd that ruined Tom and Doreen’s marriage? Angus and Alison’s? No wonder John had held out for so long, observing these casualties with a cautious eye. Yet as outwardly critical as he was of the immediate precedents, did he really have the distance it would require to break the mould? No question about it. We were in a high-risk relationship.