A lot of things became noticeable as time went on, and I noticed that the reason for Lorna having other barmen to help her husband, was that by nine o'clock he was so drunk that he could not be trusted to carry the food to the diners in the pub. there were two barmen, Russel, the one that she kept on harassing, and John, an American young man who has a small piece of ground up the glen where he kept pigs and had a nice veggie garden. he only worked now and then to help out, and I think that was why she had not yet started bugging him.
One day I was hanging my pinnies (aprons) that came from the wash in the closet, when by accident I found a half empty bottle of whiskey at the bottom, nicely covered underneath a pile of old cloths and papers. As I have seen Ewan go to this closet a lot times, I knew immediately that what I found was no less than his secret bottle, and the reason why he got drunk right under Lorna's watchful eyes!
I knew that she was watching him like a hawk while he was in the bar, and I also knew that she was quite frustrated because she had not been able so far to catch him drinking while working, and thinking back about the times I saw him skulking noiselessly into the small store room where the pinnies were also kept before noisily going out the back for a smoke, I suppose hoping that Lorna wouldn't notice his detour to the store room, I knew it had to be his bottle.
I kept quiet, as it was none of my business, and every time he disappeared as silent as a mouse into that room, after making sure that Lorna and Mary was in the hotel doing rooms, I just smiled to myself.
Ewan was the strangest character, as he wore this check shirts and cowboy shoes, and I soon started thinking about him as the 'little cowboy', but he was also a talented writer and illustrator, and had a few nice books to his name.
One morning I was doing the vegetables, when a nice man about my age, came into the kitchen where Ewan was busy frying himself an egg, and my heart just gave one great big leap, as there before me, stood the man of my dreams! We sort of looked each other over while he was talking to Ewan, and I knew that he was also a bitty interested in me, and when I found that he was renting the flat opposite my room, I was very excited! He was not very handsome, but he just had an aura about him that I immediately liked!
When the two of them left the kitchen it was as if the room was suddenly much less bright than a moment before, and I spoke very seriously to myself about my hormonial disturbance of the moment, as I knew nothing about this man, and he could be married for all I knew! But I saw quite a lot of him from then on, as every lunchtime he now came in for a soup and a pint, and every time I passed the door to the pub, he smiled at me, at which my legs became like jellies!