As smoothly as she could, she slipped out of bed and headed to the door for her dressing gown. She hadn’t thought it could get colder than when she’d first arrived, but it felt like every day the temperature dropped lower and lower. She was freezing. Then again, maybe it was just a lack of a certain person’s warmth that she missed.
‘Hey, girl,’ she said, gently scratching behind Ruby’s ear to wake the dog up. ‘I’m just gonna check if the coast is clear.’
With nothing hanging on the door, Bex returned, fetched Ruby and her phone, then stood in the doorway as the dog went and did her business.
A medley of messages filled her phone screen. There were several from Daisy and Claire, checking she was okay and assuring her they’d support her with whatever decision she made; one from her parents, telling her they’d love to see her if she was up for breakfast, but not to worry if she wanted to lie in; and a couple from Lorna, thanking her for dealing with Duncan. But it was the missed calls that stole her attention. Three of them, all from her boss, Nigel, and it was only just gone eight.
Nerves flitted through her.
With a job like hers, where large sums of money were involved, regular nine-to-five hours didn’t apply. But it was unusual to hear from Nigel at this time of day. Even before her last promotion he’d given her a lot of freedom and since she’d been in Scotland, he’d barely called her at all. In fact, apart from when she was working on a particularly large account, she couldn’t recall him ever calling her this early.
‘Nigel,’ she said, her voice tinged with surprise. ‘I wasn’t expecting this call. Is everything okay?’
‘No, Rebecca,’ Nigel replied, his tone unusually tense. ‘We’ve got a bit of a situation here.’
Bex called Ruby in, headed back upstairs and while Duncan was still sprawled out on the bed, she shut herself in the bathroom to take the call in privacy.
‘Sorry about that,’ Bex said. ‘I can talk now. What is it? What’s happened?’
Even as she asked the question, a deep gnawing clawed at her insides. As if she already knew the answer. But she had to be wrong, didn’t she? Surely she was just being paranoid. With everything going on, there was no way that Nigel’s call was connected to Kieron.
‘Bex, we’ve lost all those new clients who signed on with us last week,’ Nigel said. ‘They’ve already dropped us, citing unprofessionalism on your part, I’m afraid. And a couple of others too. Big clients.’
The words sank like a stone in her gut. He’d done it. Kieron had actually made good on his threat to ruin her career.
‘Look, Nigel, I get how this must look,’ she began.
‘Confusing. That’s how it looks,’ he replied. ‘And the fact you asked for a month off just before it happened – well, it’s safe to say that the big bosses aren’t happy. Neither’s HR. They’ve asked me to call you back down. Immediately.’
‘What?’ Bex wouldn’t have thought it was possible for her stomach to drop further, but it did. And this time her whole body went with it as she sank down to the bathroom floor. ‘I’m not sure that’s possible right now.’
‘Why not? What on earth is going on up there, Rebecca?’
Bex drew in a deep breath. There was no point lying to him; it wouldn’t help anyone. Besides, she had too much respect for Nigel for that. He had been there since the beginning of this whole drama. He deserved to know.
‘It’s Kieron,’ she started. ‘All the recommendations we got were from him. That’s why we got so many new clients. But now he’s told them not to work with me any more.’
‘Kieron? Fergus’s nephew? The new laird?’
‘Well, that’s the thing,’ Bex said. ‘We’re not sure he is.’
‘What do you mean?’
Maybe she should have spoken to Gordon before she started telling people like Nigel about the situation with the will, but considering half the village was already talking about it – if not them all – there didn’t seem any point.
‘I found something while I’ve been here, something I think Fergus wanted me to discover. That’s why he requested I came up here. It was never about the accounts. If I’m right – and we’re still waiting on the DNA results to confirm it – but if I’m right, Kieron isn’t actually Fergus’s heir. And he’s not very happy about it.’
There was a slight pause, and even though Bex couldn’t see her boss, she could imagine exactly what he was doing; removing his glasses and cleaning them with the bottom of his shirt the way he always did when he needed a moment.
‘Well, that’s certainly a turn up for the books. But why does that mean he wants us to lose business?’
Bex scratched at a non-existent itch on the back of her neck. It was her turn to need a moment to work out how to reply. She and Nigel were as close as she was to any work colleague, but on a professional level only. Details of their private lives were not something they shared with one another, and she didn’t want to start now.
‘I’m the one who made the connections with the will,’ she started. Even though she planned on skipping a few minor details of the matter, she wasn’t going to tell Nigel anything that wasn’t true. ‘I found the person I think is the rightful heir. Before that, Kieron and I were getting on well, forming a kind of friendship, I guess you’d say. Now he feels like I betrayed him. If it does turn out that I’m right, Kieron might come out of this with nothing – or at the very least, a lot less than he was expecting. He’s furious, and he’s taking it out on me.’
Nigel exhaled slowly. ‘I see.’
‘I’m so sorry, Nigel,’ Bex said. ‘I never imagined this would affect the business. It’s horrific. The whole situation, it’s… it’s had a big impact on the community up here.’
