Десмонд Бэгли - Running Blind

I found that my voice was shaking. ‘All I want is your permanent absence,’ I said. ‘I’ll keep quiet for just as long as you stay away from us, but if you, or any of the boys from the Department, come within shouting distance, I’ll blow the gaff.’

‘You won’t be disturbed again,’ he said, and they went out. A moment later he popped his head around the door. ‘I’ll send in some grapes.’

Elin and I were flown to Scotland by courtesy of the CIA and the US Navy in a plane laid on by Ryan, and we were married in Glasgow by a special licence provided by Taggart. Both of us were still in bandages.

I took Elin back to the glen under Sgurr Dearg. She liked the scenery, especially the trees — the marvellous un-Icelandic trees — but she didn’t think much of the cottage. It was small and it depressed her and I wasn’t at all surprised; what suits a bachelor is not good for a married man.

‘I’m not going to live in the big house,’ I said. ‘We’d rattle around in there and, anyway, I usually rent it to Americans who come for the shooting. We’ll let a gillie have the cottage and we’ll build our own house a little farther up the glen, by the river.’

So we did.

I still have Fleet’s rifle. I don’t keep it over the fireplace as a trophy but decently in the gun cabinet along with all the other working tools. I use it sometimes when the deer herd needs culling, but not often. It doesn’t give the deer much of a chance.