‘Aye, then it is your first time to Scotland,’ he replied,still wearing a cheerful smile even as we exited the station and the arctic blast almost killed me on the spot.
He cackled as the boot popped open then rose slowly towards the still dark sky. It hadn’t occurred to me that the sun wouldn’t come up until later this far north. It was almost nine a.m. and still practically pitch black.
‘Nice car,’ I said to Callum, taking in the new car smell as I slid into the backseat.
‘Impractical car,’ he replied. ‘Dad’s retirement present to himself. Mal drives it more than he does.’
‘Too right he does,’ Mal confirmed. ‘Homeward bound, hen, make yersen comfy.’
‘Will do,’ I replied, closing my eyes and sighing happily when he shut the driver’s side door and turned on the seat warmers. At least if I was going to feel like an idiot, I wouldn’t freeze to death at the same time. It was better than nothing.
Following our drive on my Maps app, I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive when Mal turned north and kept on going. The further we went, the colder it got, the temperature dropping into minus figures, but I was soon distracted from the sub zero numbers by some of the most beautiful scenery I’d ever laid eyes on. Rolling hills that ebbed and flowed like the tides, towering trees and endless stretches of perfectly still water that began to peel away the protective layer that life in the city had wrapped around me.
I hadn’t travelled much, Dad preferred to stay close to home after Mum died, at least until he remarried, and I’d gone straight from school to university to work, which hadn’t left time for exploring the world. And as the hospital’s lovely HR director pointed out when sheinformed me I was taking an extended leave of absence over Christmas whether I liked it or not, I really hadn’t taken any holiday at all since I started the neurosurgery programme. My rare days off were spent asleep in bed or practically comatose on the sofa, and even if I’d known how stunningly beautiful the Scottish countryside was, only a few hours away, I still wouldn’t have been moved to investigate it on my own, not when I could be studying for my upcoming exams or catching up on research papers.
As we crested another hill, crossing over a broad river, the sun began to rise, the sky shifting shades from deep and murky grey to a more promising wispy white, hints of blue appearing from time to time but never fully committing. But it wasn’t only the natural beauty outside the car that caught my attention. Callum’s entire demeanour had changed since we got off the train. He was looser, more relaxed, his broad shoulders heaving laughter that came readily, almost every time Mal opened his mouth. As the sun climbed up the horizon, keeping low but brightening the day as best it could, his profile sharpened against the sky and I couldn’t stop stealing glances, following the straight line of his nose, the angular cut of his jaw, the swell of his bottom lip. He glanced over his shoulder, smiling when he caught my eye, and I jumped as though he could read my mind, knocking the back of my head against the padded leather headrest.
‘All right?’ he asked. ‘Caroline?’
‘Fine,’ I replied. ‘Babe.’
With a smile and a wink, he looked away and I pressed a burning cheek against the freezing glass of the window. NFI. NFI. NFI.
‘Your mother has every minute of every day planned,’ Mal said, running through our itinerary as he floored it up the A9. ‘Hope you came with an empty stomach because I’ve seen Lizzie’s menus and you’ll no’ go hungry while you’re here.’
‘Your mum has planned menus?’ I repeated, meeting Callum’s eyes in the rearview mirror. ‘Is that not all a bit much?’
‘You did meet his mother, did you not?’ Mal replied. ‘No such thing as too much for the lady of the manor.’
‘He’s exaggerating,’ Callum said as the older man laughed. ‘Take every word out of his mouth with a grain of salt.’
Lady of the manor? Only a figure of speech, surely. I took out my phone to text Desi and Joel for support but there was no service, not even one bar. Even the map had gone blank, nothing left but a tiny blue dot moving up a featureless landscape.
‘It’s just her way, don’t bother about aul’ Lizzie,’ Mal went on. ‘She likes things done a certain way but she always warms up once she’s got a drink or two in her.’
‘Have you seen Elsie?’ Callum asked as I leaned all the way across the backseat, futilely waving my phone around.
‘Speaking of people who need to warm up …’ he replied with a grimace. ‘I see Elsie every bloody day, thanks to you. Best be warned before you get home, she’s not your biggest fan right now.’
Callum’s mouth curved into a bitter smile. ‘Was she ever?’
‘Aye, fair point. At least I always know where your sister is, unlike your brother. Your ma says he shouldbe arriving tonight so I wouldn’t expect to see him before Christmas Day. That boy wouldn’t know how to get anywhere on time even if his life depended on it. It’ll be a miracle if he arrives before the New Year if you ask me.’
‘Didanyone ask you?’
‘Never stopped me sharing my opinion before.’
Mal’s laughter filled the car, the rough-hewn sound smoothing the edges off my nerves.
‘What I do know is, we’re all very excited to meet Miss Caroline here,’ he said, his crinkly eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. ‘The way Derek was carrying on when they got home yesterday, and your poor ma, set to sorting out the house as though we’re expecting another royal visit.’
‘Because that went so well the first time?’
‘You’re joking,’ I said when Mal only chuckled in response. ‘Tell me you’re joking.’
‘It was one day, twenty years ago, and they only stayed for a minute,’ Callum replied.
‘What do the two of you talk about?’ Mal asked as I blanched whiter than a sheet of A4. ‘Has he told you nothing about the family at all?’
