The dinner was far better than Melissa had envisaged. It was made even better by Jack’s Father, Henry, who proved to be quite a raconteur.

His time working all over the world for the British Government provided them all with many humorous moments during a very delightful meal. Moira was an accomplished cook whom Melissa felt should have been running a top restaurant.

The subject of her taking a trip was raised by Jack, just as Moira had predicted.

“How about we go on a little tour of some of the places that don’t make it into the ‘I’m doing England and Scotland in a week’ brochures?”

“What do you have in mind, darling?” asked Moira while trying hard to keep a straight face.

“Rothbury, Amble, Bamburgh, and Lindisfarne for starters.”

“What about Caesars Camp?” asked Henry.

“Don’t you mean Chesters?” suggested Moira.

“Chesters Fort is on the Roman Wall built during the time of Emperor Hadrian. That is worth a visit,” said Jack.

“That’s two days… What about the rest?” asked Moira.
“Somewhere to relax in the peace and quiet, perhaps?”

Henry grinned.
“I might be wrong, but I think that you are suggesting that they go to your sister Heather’s home near Loch Lomond?"

“I am,” said a smiling Moira.
“That way, Melissa can see a few mountains, taste some real Whisky and eat some great food on the way,” said Moira, who addressed their guest.

"My sister runs a Bed and Breakfast. It has great views over the Loch and be back for the party."

“Speaking of which, Melissa, you are coming, aren’t you?”

“I don’t want to be any trouble. If I am right, the party is the day before I fly home. My flight from Heathrow to Rome leaves at ten. It will be difficult to get there for that. I’ll need to be there two hours before that…”

“Nonsense,” said Henry.

All eyes went toward him.

“My dear, we will get you to the church of air travel on time. You will not miss your flight. Leave it to me.”

“How?” asked Melissa

“My dear, when my husband promises something, then he will deliver. I learned a long time ago to trust him when it comes to arranging travel.”

“But…?”

“We would love to have you at the party even if it means leaving early.”

“Just so that you can show me off to your friends, I suppose?”
As soon as Melissa had said that, she regretted it.

“Sorry… It just came out.”

“No need to be sorry, Melissa. The party is more like a dinner for the family. There will only be twelve of us, including you. My other sister and her partner are coming down from Penicuik. That’s near Edinburgh.”

“Somehow, I got the impression that I was to be shown off as Jack’s bride-to-be. I was wrong. I am still getting used to being single. I am so sorry for putting my foot in it. You have all shown me wonderful hospitality since I came here.”

“There is no need to apologise,” said Henry.
“My dear wife can sometimes leap to conclusions before she knows all the facts.”

“He’s right, my dear. It is a family trait, I’m afraid.”

Melissa began to realise just how close her hosts were after almost forty years of marriage. Her marriage paled into insignificance in comparison. She felt rather sad that hers had gone south long before the twenty years that it did had passed.

What struck Melissa very quickly was the family dynamic that was playing out in front of her. Her own family had been torn apart when her father died from Lung Cancer. Her former husband's family were a poor clone of one from 'Peyton Place'. She felt rather sad that she'd only have a week to experience it.

Her daydreaming was interrupted by Henry.
“Well, Melissa, are you game for a guided tour?”

“Sorry, Henry, I was miles away.”

“Don’t worry, my dear,” said Moira.

Melissa sat back, cupping the glass of excellent wine that had been served with dinner in her hands.
“Why not? I’m not sure when I’ll be back in this part of the world again.”

As soon as she said those few words, she regretted it… again. It was getting to be a bit of a habit. She didn’t know what she was going to do when she returned home. She was effectively homeless and… Then she remembered what she’d told herself about ‘going with the flow’.
“Good,” said Jack.
“I’ll get on with planning it in the morning. We don’t want you to go all that way back across the ocean and not see some of the best of what this country has to offer.”

Melissa went to bed, and for much of the night, she tossed and turned. Jack was the total opposite of Jeff. She had no idea people like him still existed. All the men in her old life had been associated with politics and were in it for themselves and not for the good of the people they served.

Jack, on the other hand, very much cared about the staff at the Hotel, his tenants and everything about the estate. She'd seen the trust that he had generated right up close when she'd asked Mrs Bell to use her phone. The fact that they were all on first-name terms with their landlord threw her at first. It was different to the image of country life that various TV shows about the UK seemed to portray. The mere fact that the landlord was moving temporary fence panels for his tenants had thrown her even more. Back home, the boss would not dream of getting their hands dirty like that. Their job was to make sure that the enterprise returned ever-increasing profits every 90 days, not to help out the people who work from dawn to dusk and beyond to create those profits.

The one question that would not go away was… Did she fancy hooking up with him? Despite her intention of not getting involved with anyone on this trip, she could not stop thinking about him.

Breakfast with Moira and Henry didn't help much. Both of them wanted her to see what Moira called 'some of the hidden gems of both England and Scotland' before she went home. Melissa was hesitant, not because she didn't want to go but because the time before her flight to Rome and then back to DC was getting ever closer.

Moira saw her hesitation.
“Having second thoughts, dear?”

She’d just about gotten used to being called ‘dear’ as a term of endearment.

“Sort of. I have to get home to spend some time with my son and daughter before the end of the summer holidays.”

Moira smiled.
“Why not get them to come here? Did you have anything booked for your time with them?”

“No. Why?”

“We have plenty of space. Seeing a bit of life in another country would be different. Where do you normally go on Holiday? You know when you were a family?”

“We used to go to Aspen in the winter even though I’m a total idiot on skis. Disneyworld in the summer when they were younger. Since they grew up, Jeff wanted to spend the summer campaigning, so we would go to Cancun for a week. Other than that, they spent most of the summer with their school friends.”

“Then it could be time for something a bit different? Do they ride?”

“Horses?”

“Yes, horses. There are some great rides across the North Yorkshire Moors if you head towards the coast. You can camp out and ride. The trekking company in Hawes can even come and pick you up from somewhere like Robin Hood’s Bay. The only company you would have, are walkers, cyclists and wildlife.”

“Unless it rains?”

Moira laughed.
“That’s what GOC is like. All four seasons in the morning and another four in the afternoon.”

Melissa laughed.
“I’ll have to think about it. Is that ok?”

“Please do. We own the trekking company, so…?”

Melissa shook her head.
“Is there anything around here that you don’t own?”

Moira smiled.
“Lots, but we have diversified a lot in recent years. The hotel and the pony trekking company are just a few of the things that we have invested in. We own part of the company that will turn our fleeces into building insulation. We did it so that we could pay our tenants a decent price for the fleeces. Around ten years ago, the market price for raw wool dropped to the floor, and some of them were thinking of quitting, so we came up with a plan that would keep everyone happy.”

Melissa shook her head.
“Back home, the farming conglomerate would have called in any loans and kicked the tenants out. It is all about profit, the bottom line and the return to stockholders.”

“We take a very different view of the world. Far more long-term than short-term, bottom-line profits. That’s why we have lasted here for almost eight hundred years. We think long-term. We might not make as much as your agro giants, but we value expertise. Upland farming is very much hit-and-miss. One year, we make lots of profit, and the next, we don’t. That is down to the weather. Besides, we have to live in the community alongside our tenants.”

“That does give you a different perspective on life. I will think about bringing Brittany and Zane over here for a couple of weeks.”

Moira smiled back at Melissa.

Jack presented a proposed itinerary for their trip north to Melissa and his parents that evening.
Melissa looked at it and said,
“I don’t have a clue where most of these places are apart from Edinburgh,” she said after a few seconds.

Jack smiled.
“Isn’t that the idea? Go to new places. I’m willing to bet that when you set out on your European adventure, you would never have guessed in a million years that you’d end up in an out-of-the-way place like this?”

“True. I did the city thing, but after a while, they all looked the same even though London is not Paris and Paris is not Rome, they are all big cities, and that means lots of people. For a small-town girl like me, there is only so much I can take. That’s how I ended up here.”

She looked at the programme one more time.

“Ok. I’m game. When do we start?”

Jack looked down at the table.
“Tomorrow morning?”
Then he added,
“Early. I want to be at Chester’s Fort for when they open.”

“As long as we don’t go in that old truck of yours!” exclaimed Melissa.

It took a second or so for Moira and Henry to grasp what she meant by ‘truck’.

“Oh, you mean Beryl?” said Henry.

“Beryl is the name of the old Land Rover that Jack drives around the estate,” said Moira.
“It was built in the same year that our Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne and will see me out.”

Melissa briefly wondered if everyone in this part of the world was mad.
“We’ll take the BMW,” said Jack.
“It does not have a name,” he added.

They all laughed.
Melissa changed her mind about everyone being mad. They were bonkers.

Early the next morning, Jack and Melissa loaded up a two-year-old BMW X1 with their bags.
“This Chester’s place? How far is it?”

“About two and a half hours. It is almost due north, but most of the roads don’t go that way, so we have to zig-zag a bit. We’ll cross a couple of old Roman roads on our way. The main one from York to the fort goes in our direction. If they were still in use, we could be there in an hour, but over the centuries, parts of it have been dug up, and the stone used for other things.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

Jack smiled.
“I don’t know, really. I just took an interest in my history lessons at school. York is just down the road, so we all have huge amounts of world history on our doorstep, although it was hard as a ten-year-old not to get tempted by the lure of the railway museum.”

“I saw the signs for it from the station.”

“It is a great place to go when it is raining, and it is free.”

“Then on to Lindisfarne. We have to be at the crossing by four.”

“Crossing? Do we have to take a ferry or something?” asked Melissa.

“You get to the island using a causeway that is covered by the sea for twelve hours a day.”

“Oh!”

“Don’t worry, it is perfectly safe to cross. According to the tide table, the causeway won’t be covered until five. We are staying at a Hotel on the Island tonight. We’ll have plenty of time once the day trippers have gone home to look at the monastery. It is a place of pilgrimage for Christians. Henry the Eighth dissolved all of them as a result of the Pope in Rome not permitting him to get divorced. The ruins are remarkable, though especially because of the setting, right on the coast.”

Melissa’s history lesson continued for four more days until they reached a small farm that was perched high above the eastern shore of Loch Lomond.

“This place is beautiful,” commented Melissa.

“I was saving the best until last. The lady of the house is an even better cook than my mother, but please don’t tell her that.”

She groaned.

“Scared of putting on half a pound? Didn’t we walk almost twelve miles and climb up Ben Nevis yesterday?”

“I know, and my feet are still walking,” joked Melissa.

“Tomorrow night is the anniversary do for my parents. Then we have to get you down to Heathrow for your flight by nine. Make the most of tonight.”

“I know, and I’m going to be shown off as your new girlfriend. I still don’t have anything appropriate to wear.”

“That’s not going to happen unless you want to come and live here?”

Melissa didn’t answer. She was saved by the mistress of the house appearing and walking up to the gate to open it. She looked at the woman and then at Jack.

He grinned.
“Meet Siobhan, Mum’s twin sister.”

Melissa groaned.
“What did I say about the girlfriend thing?”

Jack didn’t answer.

Siobhan proved to be just as good a host as her sister. She treated Melissa as someone very special. It was clear to her that Jack was smitten with Melissa but was, as usual when it came to women, he was too afraid to ask them to be more than just a friend.

Thankfully, Siobhan put her at ease right away.
“My dear, you will soon be leaving us and returning to the USA, and a few days after that, you will forget that we ever existed. That is what holidays are for. Experience new things and forget them as you get back into your normal life.”

Her words hit Melissa hard, but she knew where they were coming from. Most holiday romances or flings don't go much further, especially if the parties are separated by a big, cold ocean.

Melissa’s problem was that ‘normal life’ had been a bust. What would be the new ‘normal’ for her, and for that to even start, she needed to put down roots, but where?

They dined that evening on the terrace that overlooked the loch. The mountains beyond provided a sunset that Melissa would never forget. It was the sort of place that she could imagine moving to. That alone would stop her from forgetting this remarkable end to her foreign trip.

The pair were strangely silent the next morning as they drove south. Their trip together was coming to an end, with a lot of things left unsaid between them.

All too soon, they arrived back at Jack’s family home. Preparations for the evening were in full swing. Melissa was at a bit of a loose end, so she went in search of Jack.

Melissa found him playing with Tess, his border collie. The dog missed her master. She didn't interrupt, as it was clear that there was a very strong bond between them. She'd never had a dog, even as a child. It was just one more thing that would stop her from even contemplating taking any relationship, even a small step further. There were just too many obstacles in the way of them getting together.

She stepped away to let them get to know each other again.

That one incident caused Melissa to make up her mind. She had to leave as soon as possible.

Telling Jack would be a no-no. She went in search of Moira.

“Moira, I don’t know how to say this, but…”

“You want to leave tonight?”

Melissa nodded her head.

Moira took hold of Melissa’s hand.

“That’s sort of what I expected, so don’t feel as if you are chickening out of this evening. You have your children and a new life to think about back home. Jack is… well, Jack. He won’t change. One day, he might find someone who can help him share his dream. For a brief moment, I had hoped that it might be you, but that is not to be. You deserve to find someone who can be your partner for your life. It is probably too soon after your breakup to even think about a relationship, so please, don’t be too hard on yourself, ok?”

Melissa hugged Moira. It was mostly so that the older woman would not see the tears in Melissa's eyes.

“Go and get your bags. I’ll call for a taxi to take you into York. Once you are on your way, I’ll break the bad news to Jack.”

“Moira, you are a wonderful person. They broke the mould with you.”

“Och. Be away with you.”

Melissa caught an early evening train to London with a lot of regret in her heart. Every turn of the carriage wheel took her farther away from someone… someone she loved. She hated to even admit it to herself, but she knew the feeling. She’d had it for a brief period when dating Jeff, but it had never been anywhere near as strong as this. That’s why she had to leave like a coward, but all the reasons she’d mentally listed as to why it would not work outweighed those that were on the other side of the scales.

The next morning, Melissa arrived at Heathrow in good time for her flight to Rome with an onward flight to Boston. What she wasn’t prepared for was to see Jack waiting for her in the check-in area.

“Jack? What are you doing here?”

“Errrr… looking for you. We left a few things unsaid, didn’t we? Besides, I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to you. One minute, you were there, and then you were gone.”

“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say to you.”

“Don’t say anything.”
Jack stepped forward and kissed Melissa. At first, she resisted, but then she relaxed and responded to his lips.

“Now, go and get checked in. Then we can talk for a bit.”

Melissa tried to pick up her suitcase, but Jack had already grabbed it and was walking towards the check-in counter.

“I only have twenty minutes,” said Melissa.
“According to the clerk at check-in.”

“Then I will keep this short,” said Jack.

He took hold of Melissa’s hands in his.

“I like you a lot, Mel. I do have feelings for you. I know that long-distance relationships rarely work, but I’m willing to try if you are. I could ask you to move here, but you have your children to think about.”

Then Jack let go of her right hand and reached into his jacket pocket.

“Jack, I have feelings for you.”

“But it is too soon after the breakup of your marriage?”

“That is partially true, but I was in Venice when it hit me that my marriage had been over for years. I do have Zane and Brittany to think about, but they are already talking about colleges. They are young adults, and soon they will be able to make their own decisions.”

Jack pulled an envelope out of his pocket.

“Please read this when you are back in the USA. It may explain a few things about me that are hard for me to talk about.”

“Are you gay?”

He shook his head.
“No, I’m not gay. I fancy the hell out of you. Please read it when you are alone. It will explain a lot.”

Melissa reluctantly took the envelope and put it into her handbag.

“I hope that this is not a final goodbye,” said Jack.
“This past week has been about the best one of my life. Meeting you has turned my formerly cosy life upside down in a good way.”

He didn’t wait for Melissa to reply. Instead, he embraced her, and their lips met passionately.

When they broke apart, both of them were close to tears.

“Go. Get through security before I make an even greater fool of myself.”

He kissed her briefly again before directing her towards the security screening area.

They went their separate ways without actually saying goodbye. Jack stood and watched Melissa go through airport security. She didn't look back, for which he was glad. She'd disappeared for almost a minute before Jack moved an inch.

He returned to his car and, after a deep intake of breath, paid what he thought was daylight robbery, the fee to park his car for just over an hour. Jack wasn't looking forward to the journey home. 'Home' would seem empty without her cheery face being there.

He mentally kicked himself for being so silly, but that was how he felt about her. His life had changed for the better since that encounter on the moors.

[End of the Second half]