‘Yes. I’m a little warm.’She stood to take her jacket off and fanned her face with her hand.More than alright but suddenly really hot.
Jamie reached over for the jacket, offering to hang it up and showcasing in the process the muscles of his broad, dark-haired forearm. Something stirred deep within Alicia.
‘Thank you.’ She pulled her beanie from her head to curb her rising temperature, but wound up brushing static hair from her cheeks.
‘You missed some.’
‘Pardon?’
‘You missed a bit of hair across…’ Motioning towards Alicia’s face, Jamie gave no indication of where said hair was, but seeing her confusion, gently reached out and, with the pad of his thumb, brushed a strand from her cheek.
A thrill shot through Alicia, but she also started a little: a reflexive action to the proximity of a stranger. This stranger.
‘Sorry, my bad,’ Jamie apologised and backed away, as if he’d been doing something forbidden, and turned to the task of hanging up her jacket.
‘It’s fine, really. No need to apologise.’Placing her cold palms over her rosy cheeks to calm their flush, Alicia steadied herself. This man. This rugged Scotsman whose mother appeared to have raised him so very well. This place. A rustic stone hut in the Scottish mountains with flames licking in the grate while a snowstorm raged outside. Some might say she was caught in someone’s romantic dream. Possibly her own. Really, she ought to relax and enjoy it for what it was. Why was that so damned hard?
Chapter 11
Alicia
The snow continued into the afternoon. Alicia found a novel that engrossed her and Jamie continued scribbling in his notebook. By 3 pm, the snow was still tumbling down, except the backdrop to the flurries was morphing from smoky grey to a leaden colour. As was Alicia’s blood at the encroaching possibility of night bedding in.
‘Should we take a shot at getting back to the hotel?’ she suggested to Jamie. ‘Before it gets dark.’ Surely they still had a couple of hours until dusk finished its shift and evening clocked on.
Jamie looked out the window then at his watch.
‘Listen, Alicia, I hate to break it to you, but it’s already three. At this time of year, it’ll be pitch black by four and we’re at least a couple of hours walk from the hotel. We can’t risk leaving now.’
‘Oh. So, does that mean,’ – Alicia regarded the room, her gaze settling for a moment on the box bed in the corner – ‘we’restuck here for the night?’
Jamie considered the bed, too, then came back to Alicia. ‘Aye, but please don’t worry. I’ll sleep in a chair.’
Where she would sleep – or lie awake not sleeping – wasn’t high on Alicia’s list of priorities. More of her concern lay with being here overnight with a relative stranger. Sure, during the day it was kind of cosy and maybe even romantic, but she knew little about Jamie, and didn’t want to be trapped with him after dark. They had a long way to go before full trust was installed. Also, she had a luxury lodge she’d paid for.
‘Won’t the hotel wonder where we are and send out a search party?’ she asked, hopefully.
‘It’s unlikely tonight. But, honestly, we don’t need rescued. I’m confident that if the snow stops by morning we can walk out of here. We just need to get through the night.’
‘I’d rather give it a go now.’ Alicia reached for her coat from the peg by the door. ‘I’m going to walk back to the hotel.’
‘What?’ Jamie stood up as she was pulling on her backpack and opening the door. ‘No, you’re not.’ He didn’t move any further but pinned her to the spot with steely blue stare, his jaw set in determination. It was a look that said, you will take me damned seriously, woman because I’m not messing about. Alicia remained where she was.
‘Sorry.’ Jamie plunged his hands into his pockets. ‘But you shouldn’t leave. I know you think you’re safer out there in the snow than you are in here with me, but I can assure you that is not the case. You’re going to have to trust me on this one. Put your bag down and take your jacket off. Or keep the jacket on, but you’re staying the night here. As I said before, you sleep in the bed and I’ll take the chair. You’ll have full privacy at all times, but if I let you walk outthat door now, I would live to regret it and you might not even get the chance. Do you understand what I’m saying?’
Alicia did. She nodded silently. He was right. She was letting her fear of being alone with him override her common sense about the dangers of the snow. He had at least outlined his plan to allay her worries about being alone with him. Maybe it would be okay.
For dinner, Jamie boiled some snow on the fire using the old metal kettle and combined it with a small packet of dried noodles he had in his backpack. He split the cooked product between the two of them and Alicia thought noodles had never tasted so delicious. After dinner, they found a jigsaw puzzle in one of the cupboards and sat across the wobbly table from each other. Much of the time they silently slotted the pieces into place, but occasionally they drifted into conversation about various safe topics. Jamie told Alicia all about bothys and how they existed all over Scotland and were maintained by a bothy association. She asked him about the history of the area and he told her about the Jacobite rising in the 1700s where someone called Bonnie Prince Charlie tried to win the throne back from the English. He talked about the illicit whisky trade of roughly the same era, of which she knew a fantasised version from watching Connor’s show on TV. It was fascinating hearing Jamie enthuse about his homeland and amazing that such a small country could have so rich a history.
Occasionally, as they chatted and worked on the puzzle, their fingers touched as they both reached for the same piece and Jamie apologised. She wanted to tell him there was no need but didn’t want to send the message of quite how much she liked those little electric moments.
Jigsaw complete, Alicia yawned and shivered a little. The previously blazing fire was now no more than glowing coals in the grate.
‘Tired or bored?’ Jamie asked.
‘Oh, tired,’ she said. ‘You’re not boring.’
‘Aye, likewise. I’ve had a nice time chilling with you.’ Jamie stood up and wandered over to the box bed. ‘I can see you’re cold so luckily there’s a blanket. Most folk sleeping here would have planned it and brought a sleeping bag but I’m assuming you didn’t.’
