Sitting up and letting the cold in was a bitch. At least they’d been smart enough to put their dry clothes in front of the fire. They were actually nice to put on. The only down side was that neither of them had brought an extra pair of shoes. There was no possible way their shoes would dry out fast enough, so they padded around the cabin in sock feet, putting things away, packing up the food they didn’t eat, and folding blankets.
“Should we leave our wet things here?” Nally asked just after a radio message came in from Connor, saying he was ten minutes out.
“I don’t want to take them with us,” Jude said with a shrug. “It’s not like they’re Gucci or anything.”
Nally laughed. That was all that mattered.
They left their things on the floor near the fire, which they stamped out and then doused with water. They did the same for the wood-burning stove, doing their best to ensure the whole cottage didn’t burn down as soon as they left.
“Giving up already?” Connor asked as he met them down on the dock. He was dressed in a thick raincoat and waterproof hat and looked like he actually knew what he was doing.
Jude and Nally looked like drowned rats who were all out of cheese.
“We’ve decided there are better ways to deal with our problems than rushing off to an island without real electricity or running water,” Jude said as Connor helped them haul their supplies onto his boat.
Connor just laughed at them and shook his head. He didn’t have to say the words “I told you so” to get the meaning across.
The ride to Oban felt like it took an eternity. Jude just wanted to get home, where he and Nally could debrief their entire misadventure and figure out what to do next. Nally was on thesame page with him. They chatted to Connor, telling him about Jude’s fall as Connor cut through the waves.
“Are you hurt?” Connor asked as Jude’s stomach started to feel iffy from the constant bounce. “I can take you to the nearest hospital from the dock if you need me to.”
“No, I’m just bruised and embarrassed,” Jude said, which was the truth.
“It’s a good thing you had your knight in shining armor there to rescue you,” Connor said with a grin, switching back to laughing at the two of them.
Jude and Nally exchanged a look, but neither bothered to defend themselves or say much of anything else until they reached Oban.
The first order of business when they got off the boat was to thank Connor for picking them up and offering him money. He turned them down, saying that friends didn’t pay friends for rescuing them. The second and even more necessary task, once they’d thrown all their bags and supplies into the SUV, was to buy new shoes. Oban wasn’t exactly a shopper’s paradise, but they managed to find a shoe store, where they purchased boots that were completely inappropriate to go with the type of clothing they wore.
“At least they’ll come in handy if we ever decide to go hiking in the highlands,” Nally said as he tossed his ruined shoes in a bin outside of the shoe store.
Jude laughed. “Are you saying you’d actually risk coming up to Scotland with me again sometime in the future?”
“Well, I have experienced rock climbing now,” Nally said with a shrug as they pulled up the collars of their coats and walked back to the parking lot.
It was early evening as they got on the road. Their original plan was to drive as far as they could to get as close to home as possible before they passed out from sheer exhaustion. Butwhen the perfect storm of hearing an ad on the radio from Premier Inn, talking about how comfortable their beds were and how breakfast was included for a limited time only, and seeing a sign for Premier Inn three minutes later, they exited the highway to find respite in the crisp and cozy hotel.
“Mum would probably faint if she knew I was staying here,” Jude said as they carried the takeaway they’d gone out to forage for after checking in back to their room.
Nally laughed. “My parents would be proud of me for saving money.”
Jude snorted. “It’s amazing how we can both come from dusty old families with titles and estates while also having been raised so differently.”
“That’s the aristocracy for you,” Nally said with a shrug and a sniff, taking a seat at the narrow desk that was supposed to be adequate for business travelers but really wasn’t, and pulling his sandwich out of its bag. “There are as many types of nobs as there are knobs.”
Jude grinned and flopped into the stiff recliner cattycorner to Nally. “At least we have each other,” he said, pulling out his sandwich. “And our knobs.”
They laughed. It was stupid, but everything felt better when the two of them could just be nowhere together doing nothing. And there really wasn’t anything to do at a chain hotel in a tiny town outside of Glasgow at seven o’clock on a Tuesday night. They turned on the telly and found a random antiques show, commenting about how many of the ultra-rare items the dealers were so excited to find that they almost definitely had in their families’ attics.
“We should probably let our families know we’re on our way back,” Nally said once they’d finished up their cheap meal and tossed the bags and wrappers in the bin.
“Do we really have to tell them?” Jude asked. “It sort of feels like admitting defeat.”
Nally laughed. “You have a point there. We’ll keep our whereabouts a secret. But we should probably check email and socials in case you know who is still after me.”
Nally probably meant that as a joke, but Jude took it deeply seriously. He still felt like Quentin was his fault and his responsibility, and he probably owed it to Nally to check whether he’d left a dozen lewd social media messages after the scene at LSO St. Luke’s.
While Jude plugged in his phone and sat on the edge of the bed so he could flip through Nally’s socials, Nally plugged in and opened his laptop.
