The Melvich estate is the northernmost of the Haverford estates. Dun Melvich, the castle that overlooks the coast, is the principal residence in an area that boasts mostly cottages for crofters and fishermen.
It was originally built as a fortress to protect the fishing villages along the coast from the Norsemen gone a-Viking, and from raiding parties from other clans. Over the years, though, it has been altered and added to, until it is a charming if somewhat chaotic (and very cold) residence for a clan chieftan.
It came into Haverford hands via the Aldridge connection, through a marriage to a long-ago scion of the MacLeods.
Melvich is where the Marquis of Aldridge learned estate management. He was sent there after annoying the Prince Regent and his father by his escapades in Fickleton Wells, when he was barely twenty.
Aldridge will be going to my estate in Outer Strathclyde, to study the wool trade. It is time he took a hand in estate business.”
Aldridge is horrified. “But Your Grace, isn’t Outer Strathclyde… didn’t you complain that you can’t seem to keep anyone there under the age of sixty?”
“Outer Strathclyde,” Nick snickers.
“Outer Strathclyde,” Aldridge whimpers.
“Live to a ripe old age, they do in those parts. Something to do with the fine crisp air. Of course, all the young people have long since gone. But you could learn a lot there, Aldridge.”
“But Your Grace. You said you would never go there because you couldn’t get a woman to…” Aldridge’s voice trails off. He wishes he had not opened his mouth. Haverford, though, just smirks. “Precisely. And so the estate is neglected. But now I have no need to go. My ungrateful unnatural son—who could clearly do with fewer women—will represent me instead.
Aldridge learned a great deal about the production of fine wool, but he also discovered a gift for managing awkward and faintly hostile people. The residents of Melvich (they regard themselves as clansmen rather than tenants and servants) are fond of him to this day.
