As Bex started walking to the lodge, she thought about his final remark. She wasn’t the one in the situation needing the luck. Then again, if Duncan found out that she was the one who’d told Lorna about the inheritance, maybe she was in for as much of an earful as Gordon was.
10
Bex may have managed to get down the driveway without Kieron spotting her, but she was still surprised by the level of nerves that skittered through her as she walked towards the lodge.
Bex had met Duncan’s parents several times before. They lived about half an hour away, en route to the airport, and as such, she and Duncan had sometimes stopped off after he’d picked her up. Or before he drove her back on a Sunday evening. She’d attended more than one roast dinner at their house and had even been out to celebrate their anniversary meal the year before. Keith, Duncan’s dad, shared Duncan’s sharp sense of humour, not to mention his six-foot-two stature, while his stepmum, Carrie, with her strong New York accent, had an air of effortless sophistication, which was partly because of her funky jewellery, which she designed and sold herself.
Bex had warmed to them instantly, and she liked to think the feeling was mutual. More than once, Carrie, Lorna and Bex had had girls’ spa days, or shopping trips, and she had truly felt like one of the family. Never since those first couple of weeks together had she imagined being worried to see them. And yet here she was. Although at that precise moment they had far bigger issues to deal with than her broken heart. Even if they weren’t sure what they were.
‘Bex!’ Carrie squeezed Bex tightly, before stepping back and brushing down her hair like it was her own child she was looking at. ‘Y’all look tired. I heard ’bout you gettin’ lost in the snow. Dahlin’, what were you thinkin’? I can tell you now, we’re driving you back from here today.’
‘Thank you, but I’m fine now. It was a massive error in judgement. That was all.’ Bex had to wonder exactly how far news of her stupidity had spread. At this rate, they’d probably know in the London office by the end of the week.
‘Well, you’ll be comin’ with us, anyway,’ Carrie continued. ‘And tell me, do you know why we’re here? Lorna’s being very mysterious.’
‘I’m not being mysterious; it’s just not my place to say,’ Lorna replied, shooting Bex a grin. ‘You came then.’
‘You told me I had to.’
‘Too right.’
‘Good to see you, Rebecca.’ Keith offered Bex a quick peck on the cheek.
‘You too,’ Bex replied, although with the greetings done, the group immediately fell into silence.
Trying to ignore the burgeoning sense of unease, Keith and Carrie gave Ruby some gratefully received fuss, while Lorna took a deep breath and scanned the gathering. If Bex hadn’t felt nervous before, the energy radiating from Lorna was more than enough to send her pulse sky high.
‘Who’s going to knock?’ Lorna asked eventually, before replying to her own question. ‘You should knock,’ she said, turning to Bex. ‘We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.’
‘You’re the one who insisted we come. I came,’ Bex reminded her.
‘How about I just let us in with the key?’ Carrie suggested. ‘Or better still, how about one of you actually tells us why you dragged us here?’
‘It’s complicated,’ Lorna and Bex replied simultaneously.
Carrie looked at her husband, who responded with a shrug. ‘I told you, I’ve got nae more idea why we’re here than you do.’
Clearly disappointed by their answers, Carrie rubbed her hands together before cupping them around her mouth and blowing on them. Even though it was midday, her breath still formed a faint plume in the air.
‘Well, I’m not waiting out here in the cold any longer,’ she declared. ‘Not that it ain’t pretty and all, but I don’t have fur like that lot.’ She gestured a little way off to where a small herd of deer was grazing on the frost-bitten grass. When Bex had first arrived in Scotland, the sight of the great animals, so quiet and majestic, had stolen her breath. And there was something even more magical about them in the wintertime, with the picture-perfect backdrop of white mountains and low-hung fog hovering above the lake. Now though, she barely even noticed them.
‘Ruby and I are going in.’ Carrie repeated her point. ‘The rest of y’all can do what you like.’
Before anyone could object, Carrie pulled out a bundle of keys from her handbag, found the one she wanted and was about to place it in the lock when the door swung open. Duncan stood in the doorway, his hair loose, wavy and dishevelled, his beard scraggly, and his eyes red as though he hadn’t slept a wink.
Guilt flooded Bex. Regardless of how many times she had told herself she needed to send a text just to check in on Duncan as a friend, each time she’d gone to hit send, she’d chickened out, convinced she was the last person he’d want to hear from. Convinced that he didn’t need her and that he’d be better off dealing with this situation by himself. But now she knew the truth; he wasn’t okay. Not okay at all. She should have been there for him.
‘Oh, Dunc! What’s happened? Y’all look terrible.’ Carrie said the words they were all thinking, and yet Duncan didn’t reply. Instead, his gaze scanned across his family before finally landing on Bex. Her pulse soared as she fought the tears that burned behind her eyes. Though whether they were for him, her or both of them, she wasn’t sure.
‘You told them,’ he said flatly.
‘Told us what?’ his parents replied in unison, but Duncan didn’t even glance their way. He was staring directly at Bex. That stare did something to her entire body. It was like it made the rest of the world disappear entirely. Even now. Even after all they’d been through.
‘Not them. Just Lorna,’ she said quietly. ‘And I’m really sorry, but she knew something was wrong and she wouldn’t let up. She pestered me into it, basically.’
He let out a long sigh. ‘Dinnae worry. I get it. She can be right irritating.’
‘Hey! I’m here too,’ Lorna said. ‘And I shouldn’t have had to pester her. With something this big, you should have told us yourself.’
