CHAPTER 1
Lucy
Brilliant. I was almost there, I could see massive stone walls ahead, and a gate, but my car was stalled on account of the sudden snow storm and the fact that the rental was not a sturdy four wheel drive. In fact a four wheel drive would probably drive over my car and think it was a speed bump.
I’d managed to pull it into what looked like a layby, so it was out of the way at least.
I had to admit that heels hadn’t been the most practical driving footwear. But, I was no longer driving so there was that.
Everything was turning white. No sign of another human. When I’d got the information detailinghisaddress, the fact that I’d been working in Edinburgh had been serendipitous. I’d made a spur of the moment decision to come here in person but I hadn’t really factored in the actual Highlands. And an impending snow storm.
And now, I was in danger of being snowed in before I could get through the gates of my destination. My phone had no signal and my sat nav had stopped working back around the last majestic mountain peak. I had to hand it to the Scots, we Irish did beautiful landscapes but theirs were like super-sized epic versions of ours.
Everything was bigger, stiller, more dramatic. Showing off basically.
I held up my phone. Still no service. Panic fluttered and I pushed it down. Edinburgh felt very far away. Dublin, where I was from and lived, felt even further away. I couldn’t keep the car engine running indefinitely. The windscreen wipers were becoming stuck because the snow was coming so thick and fast now.Shite.
I’d have to get out and walk. The fact that I couldn’t even see any kind of building was a little daunting.He won’t be here,I assured myself. I’d long ago given up trying to geo-locate Jamie Ross – his job took him all over the globe and he was as likely to be in Borneo as in Scotland. All I had to do was find the house and put the papers through the letter box. In and out. However with no idea how far beyond the gates a house might be, I was woefully underdressed for a storm, in a trouser suit, silk shirt and the aforementioned high heels.
Well, in my defence, I had come straight from the wedding I’d been overseeing. Weddings were my business. Not that I’d had a brilliant example in my parents. They’d divorced when I was twelve and yet somehow I’d found that I had a prodigious talent for curating the wedding fantasy.
Maybe, because I didn’t buy into the fantasy, it gave me an edge over competitors. I ignored the prick of my conscience that I wasn’t as immune to the lure of the Happy Ever After as I’d like to pretend. As had been excruciatingly exposed three years ago.
I’m sure a psychologist would suggest that by choosing to be in control of weddings, I was healing childhood trauma but the way I figured it, the business model was as solid as undertaking. Like death, weddings were never going out of fashion.
If I was going to get out and walk, I’d have to change into something more practical and the only other clothes I had with me were my traveling clothes, jeans and a jumper. And sneakers.I put on the hazard lights to warn any oncoming vehicles to the car, took a deep breath and opened the door. A blast of icy wind cut right through me. My carefully styled bouncy sleek waves were the first to take a hit, hair strands slapping me in the face like little icy whips.
I opened the boot and took off my suit jacket in preparation to change and tried not to be so conscious that I was now on Jamie Ross’s home turf.
Just then I heard the rumble of an engine behind me and turned around to see a green four-wheel drive, lights shining through the swirling snow. It stopped.
My heart palpitated. It wouldn’t possibly be – the driver’s door opened and a figure got out and walked around the front of the vehicle. Barely visible. But I could make out he was tall. Broad. He was wearing a hat and thick jacket. He stopped a couple of feet away.
‘Christ’s sake, I almost ran you over.’
It was him.Even in the middle of the growing snow storm and fading light I recognised that voice. He seemed way bigger than I remembered.
‘Hi, Jamie.’ My voice felt thin and reedy.
The figure went very still and then took another step towards me. Suddenly I could see him properly and my legs felt weak. Even swaddled as he was, his sheer good looks stood out. Those dark eyes. The shock arresting his features told me he’d recognised me.
He said as if he couldn’t believe it, ‘Lucy?’
I nodded. I had sometimes wondered if we met again would he recognise me at all? So this was somewhat heartening that he did. And then I remembered why I was here and locked my legs. There was nothinghearteningabout this reunion. It was long overdue.
He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ He sounded baffled. He certainly wasn’t looking at me like I was someone he’d desperately missed. I tried not to let it land inside me like a dead weight. The same lead weight I’d felt when I’d finally heard from him, but through a legal proxy. Nothim.
‘A letter from your solicitor arrived at my office, saying you wanted to set up a meeting.
He said, ‘Yes but... I’d meant at a future date... Aren’t you based in Dublin?’
Oh god, he thought I’d come all the way here from Dublin? I burned with humiliation. ‘Yes, but I happened to be in Edinburgh the last couple of days.’
I could feel the wind biting through my extremely flimsy silk shirt and trousers. My teeth started to chatter. Snow was falling fast now and I noticed Jamie’s eyes drop to my chest. I looked down to see my shirt turning transparent pretty rapidly as snow fell and sank into the material.
I looked back up, but his eyes had lifted. Maybe I’d imagined it? But treacherously I felt the heat sizzling along my veins. Welcome heat. Unwelcome reminder of his effect on me.
I tried to explain, ‘I was going to change into something more practical so I could go and find your house. The car’s stalled.’
