She turned and looked at him. “What?” she asked, confused.
“It’s what we call those mountains, part of an old legend,” he explained, pointing at the rugged blue mountain peaks far off in the distance. “There were Five Sisters of Kintail, but they wereso vain they drew the attention of an ancient wizard. To teach them a lesson about vanity, he transformed them into towering peaks, frozen in eternal stone, as a punishment for their pride. Some people think their spirits still whisper on the winds that blow down from the peaks, lending their magic to the land they once roamed.”
“Is that in the book too?” Nora inquired with a smile.
“Possibly.” He smiled back before turning to work on the stairs so they could get a better look at the lines that ran back to the other cabins.
When Nora turned back around, she caught something moving out of the corner of her eye, a little black shadow. The tiny black dog that had stood up for her the first day she had arrived scampered near the water.
“Here, boy,” she called. The dog’s nose lifted from the ground and then toward where she stood on the walkway. Trudging through the snow, he made his slow ascent up the hill toward her. Disappearing in and out of view, he had almost made it to her when he lifted his nose to the air and sniffed in Alistair’s direction. Once the dog caught sight of him, he turned tail and trotted back down the embankment toward the loch. Poor thing had been out in the storm this whole time alone. Why hadn’t he come back to the cabins to find shelter? Maybe the dog didn’t like men. She really couldn’t blame him. Alistair didn’t exactly exude warmth even if he was starting to grow on her a little.
Alistair had missed the entire thing as he shoveled but Nora surmised that he was fine with the dog staying far away, especially after their last encounter.
She watched the dog’s lanky little frame walk all the way to the edge of the water where he sat staring out into the distance as if he were waiting for someone to come back. The loch was a mixof open water and was quickly forming ice around the edges on the shallow inlets. As tiny whitecaps formed on the frigid waves, Nora scanned the massive expanse of water from her vantage point on the stairs, unable to see its start or end. It seemed to go on forever. A small boat bobbed in the waves near the shoreline, and she wondered if maybe that was what she had seen last night. Perhaps a trick of the light and the heavy falling snow had made her think it was farther out in the water than it really had been.
As she gazed over the loch, she felt like she was caught within a spell. Her rational mind typically won her inner dialogue, but here in Letterfearn by the loch, she found herself wanting to believe in loch monsters and magical portals into different realms.
“Hello, hello, over here!” came a voice calling out on the wind.
Alistair had shoveled to the top of the stairs, and they were now on the upper walkway that led past the other rentals. Standing under the small overhang of cottage three was an old woman in a nightgown. She waved her hands to draw their attention, even though they could see her quite clearly.
“Oh, my God, what is she doing out here in a nightgown?” Nora asked.
“Do you need help, love?” Alistair asked, shoveling his way over to her cabin.
“Yes, I’ve locked myself out,” the old woman said, her teeth chattering behind her blue lips.
“God, she looks half frozen,” Nora whispered as they approached the woman.
Before they had even reached her, Alistair was pulling off his jacket.
“First, let’s get you into this,” he said, wrapping it around her shoulders. She was a petite woman, and the jacket was so large itnearly went below her knees. Nora took off her hat and handed it to her after she had zipped the coat up.
“Do you remember your passcode?” Nora asked.
“I do, but it’s not working. I thought I saw something in the loch and came out to get a better look when the door shut and locked behind me.”
“Let me call the lettings agency and see if we can figure this out,” Alistair said, taking his phone out of his back pocket. He held it up and turned it from one direction to the other. “Crap, no reception. The storm must be messing with the towers in the area.”
Nora looked at him, worry in her eyes. The woman didn’t look well.
“How long have you been locked out here?” Nora asked.
“I’m not entirely sure,” the woman answered, shivering.
Nora looked down at her bare ankles and feet, which were in nothing but a slim pair of slippers.
“We need to get her somewhere warm quickly,” Alistair said. “Do you think you can walk down those stairs?” He pointed to the stairs leading down to their cottage.
The old woman nodded, and he took her arm in his, guiding her slowly. Nora watched him help her down the flight of stairs as the winds and snow fought against their progress. The once arrogant man she had loathed to be around seemed to have a softer side. Maybe he wasn’t who she had first thought him to be.
By the time they had gotten her down the stairs, the old woman could barely stand. Alistair stopped at the front door and punched in the code. After a click and a pop, he opened the door and escorted the old woman inside.
“Nora, see if you can find some extra blankets,” Alistair said as he helped the woman into one of the armchairs near thefireplace. Once she was seated, he stoked the fire and added a few extra logs to get the temperature up in the room.
“Here,” Nora said, draping a thick wool blanket over the old woman’s shoulders.
“Let’s see if we have water for some tea. That should help warm your insides up,” Alistair said, walking over to the sink and turning on the facet. “We’re in luck, the cabins must use a gravity-fed well,” he announced as he filled up the kettle.
