Better look good, even if she ended up alone, she decided, and reached for her make-up bag.
The Law of Opposites could not have applied because when she reached the beery warmth of the Jolly Abbot, she found Mats waiting at a table laid for two. Rosamund grinned from behind the bar while she pulled a pint and cocked her head towards Mats. ‘Says he’s waiting for you, Ezzie. I have my beady eye on the two of yous.’ As the table where Mats waited was in the middle of the room, Ezz suspected that she and Mats had been set up as the entertainment.
He rose with a welcoming smile, and then dropped a tiny kiss on her cheek. The kissing was new. Evidently, he’d decided on evening manners. Or out-of-hours manners. Or dating manners … ? Or all three, because he took her black coat and hung it up for her, too.
She felt almost shy when she murmured, ‘Hi.’
Then Brodie emerged behind the bar with a towel over his arm and a wiggly walk, as if the Jolly Abbot had been transformed into an upscale restaurant. He spoilt the effect slightly with a strident: ‘Mum says, do you want a drink, hen? Yer man there has one of those alcohol-free numbers.’
A couple of titters sounded from the other patrons. Hoping it would calm her hot cheeks, Ezz said, ‘Tonic water, please.’ Brodie bowed and reversed obsequiously away, plainly enjoying his caricature of a posh waiter.
A grinning Mats hissed, ‘Don’t you ever bring men here?’
‘No. And you can see why. Also, they’re seeing a lot more of me in here than usual,’ she whispered back, picking up her menu but feeling more like fanning her face than reading it. Brodie reappeared, still with the towel draped over his arm, bearing a tray aloft, and slid Ezz’s drink before her with another bow, then tapped the menu. ‘Mum says we’ve no Cullen skink, but there’s crab soup instead.’
As Brodie waltzed off again, Mats’ eyes were dancing. ‘What the hell is a skink?’
She produced a deadpan expression. ‘I thought your family dealt in fish products. Can’t you catch skinks? I have heard that they’re fast and canny.’
Someone nearby laughed and turned it into a cough. Mats, glancing at her suspiciously, took out his phone and consulted it before reading out, ‘Cullen skink is a soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onion.’
‘Oh, yeah. Silly me,’ Ezz replied solemnly.
This time half the bar laughed and when Mats asked Brodie what the catch of the day was, they all roared, ‘Skink!’ and howled again.
Mats laughed back and ordered Atlantic salmon, while Ezz chose goat’s cheese and beetroot salad.
‘I’m glad you came,’ Mats said simply. ‘And I’m sorry if Mum and Dad worried you by talking about selling Rothach Hall.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘I don’t think Dad ever meant it. He didn’t want Mum to come to Skye without him, and he growled it in the heat of the moment.’
‘That’s a relief.’ But Ezz hadn’t been unduly worried once she’d witnessed Erik’s discomfiture at being called on it. If Grete had taken it to heart, it was no wonder she’d retired into her shell.
‘So, you’re keen on staying at Rothach Hall now? It’s not long since you were hurling your resignation around,’ he teased.
‘True. But I didn’t want to leave – I felt I had to.’ She could look him in the eye over that one, because he knew why she’d reacted as she had. ‘I love Skye, even when the mist’s in or the burns are freezing.’
The teasing note left his voice. ‘I’m glad you stayed too. Otherwise, it’s unlikely we’d be together this evening.’
A tickle ran up her spine. ‘Oh?’ she said neutrally.
He eyed her for several long seconds. Then he leant closer, excluding the rest of the bar. ‘That sounded … unenthusiastic. Are you worried because I’m divorced? I’m a year into my “life after wife”, you know. She was the one who found someone else, someone I don’t happen to admire, but she left because the marriage wasn’t great.’ His silver-grey eyes were serious. ‘I’ve got the two best children in the world out of it, though.’
At his last words, and the sincerity of his expression, Ezz had to ease her throat with a sip of her drink. ‘People our age have generally had past commitments. And your children are gorgeous.’
He smiled, grey eyes silvery in the soft lighting. ‘Have you been married?’
‘No, just a living-with. Ramsay – in Suffolk.’ He seemed a long way in the past.
‘He didn’t want to come up here with you?’ Mats tilted his head enquiringly.
She fiddled with her glass, wiping the condensation from its cool, slippery sides. ‘He didn’t,’ she said slowly. ‘But more honestly, we didn’t have much in common once I stopped drinking. He thought alcohol-free Ezz boring, and I found drunk Ramsay obnoxious. I’ve just datedcasually since I was up here.’ And she told him about Henry the auctioneer and Major Magic, making the story as funny as she could.
Instead of laughing, he frowned. ‘Has it left you dubious about men?’
She shook her head. ‘Do I seem it?’
‘You seem uncertain tonight.’ A cleft still hovered between his eyes. ‘And I don’t think it’s because your fellow villagers are watching you. If I’ve done anything—’
‘No,’ she cut in. Realising she was fiddling with her napkin instead of her glass now, she put it down, sucked in her breath and let it out again. ‘I’m a bit nervous.’
