A Recipe for Love

Chapter Three

Bella didn’t really consider herself a ‘going for a walk’ type of girl, but there didn’t seem to be much else for her to do. Flinty had assured her it would make her feel better, which was sweet, apart from the fact that Bella hadn’t previously been aware she was feeling bad.

She went hunting for a bathroom before she set out. Given the size of the castle, she reckoned, there must be loads. Bella started in the hallway, ignoring the door she already knew to be the dining room. First door, first sitting room, decorated in slightly concerning shades of dark green with yet another poor deceased deer’s head above the fireplace. Second door, second sitting room – decorated in yellow this time. Third room, third sitting room, painted in a slightly more restful shade of pale blue. No bathrooms.

The next part of the corridor was lined with portraits of, presumably, past lairds and ladies. Bella tried the handle of the odd little door alongside her. Odd, because unlike the rest of the doorways, this was cut out of the wall itself and closed flush with no frame to mark it out. A casual glance could miss its existence all together. Bella tiptoed through and found herself in a plain stone stairwell.

She set off up the stairs, and came out of a very similar door on the first floor. The upstairs version of the long gallery was an open balcony looking down into the room that ran alongside. Bella leaned over to take a look and gasped. It was dusty, and there were stacks of plastic chairs in one corner that gave the feel of a deserted primary school gym, but what she was looking down into remained, unmistakeably, a ballroom. An actual ballroom. The full Bridgerton fancy dress, string quartet, deal.

‘What are you doing up here?’ Flinty bustled along to her, arms full of bed linen.

‘You’ve got a ballroom.’

‘ You’ve got a ballroom,’ Flinty corrected.

Bella shook her head. ‘I was looking for the toilet.’

‘There’s one down there.’ Flinty pointed behind her. ‘Next to the top of the stairs. You must have come past it.’

‘I came up here.’ Bella tapped the weird little door in the wall.

‘Oh, Veronica won’t like that. Family don’t use the back stairs.’

‘What?’

Flinty nodded. ‘I mean really nobody uses the back stairs. They’re very steep and damn cold. But especially not family.’

‘I’m not sure she sees me as family.’

Flinty didn’t deny it. ‘She’ll come round.’

Bella followed Flinty’s directions to the bathroom, went to the loo, washed her hands and turned off the tap. Which promptly came back on again. Bella turned it off. It came on again. Off again. This time she stood and watched as the tap turned over so slowly and apparently entirely on its own. So was this the tap Darcy had been trying to get fixed? Bella would not be defeated by plumbing. She turned the tap a fourth time, twisting as tight and hard as she could. The tap stayed off. She allowed herself a small smile of triumph before she turned away. She was barely through the door before the sound of the trickle of water reached her. She turned the tap a final time and marched away before the damn thing had a chance to start up again.

If Bella was going to go for a walk she would need better shoes than the clogs she’d made do with for breakfast. The choices weren’t great. Apart from her chef’s clogs she had flip flops and a pair of canvas sneakers with a hole in the toe. Sneakers would have to do. The walk from the kitchen back to the coach house had told her that it was a slightly cool, but thankfully dry, morning. She pulled a jumper over her T-shirt and set out.

Their journey last night had all been in darkness, so she was slightly surprised to realise that the castle was built on an outcrop that jutted out into what? She could see more land directly opposite them but the water moved and dashed around the foot of the castle hill like the tide was rushing in. Were they on some kind of bay? Whatever. On three sides of her there was water, so Bella, for lack of other choices, started her walk in the fourth direction, along a long cobbled single-track road that connected the castle hill to the mainland.

Flinty had told her to take a walk around the estate, but what did that event mean? Bella had grown up on an estate, rows and rows of identical brown little houses and low blocks of flats, with leaky windows and electrics that fused if you looked at them funny set around a communal ‘garden’ that was littered with shit and syringes. This estate wasn’t going to be like that, was it?

She continued down the road to the mainland. The street, now a properly tarmacked – if somewhat potholed – road, continued up the side of an inlet that flowed from the… Bella was going to say ‘sea’ for now. On the other side was an initially flattish deep green field, that then rapidly rose up a hillside. Everything around her felt big. Big sea. Great towering hills. Spectacular deep grey sky. It was the sort of scenery that hit you in the face with how small you were. Bella focused on the white spots of sheep scattered across the hill, reminding her that she wasn’t quite alone. She’d never had much to do with sheep. Lamb, she knew about. Paired classically with mint, but in her mind perfect with more North African flavours. Her mouth watered slightly as she mentally put together a tagine with apricots, cumin, coriander and a dash of cinnamon. Lamb she was good with. Actual sheep, not so much. She rejected the wilds of the field and set off up the road instead.

She’d barely made it ten yards before the sound of a vehicle coming down towards her made her step to the side of the road. The car in question was a brand new looking four by four which screeched to a halt alongside her. The driver’s window slid down and Bella was faced with a mass of bleached blonde curls. ‘Are you from the castle, pet?’

‘No.’ Was she? ‘Sort of. I guess.’

‘Brilliant. Quite exciting isn’t it? A summons to the big house.’ The bouncy cheer-filled voice paused. ‘I mean not exciting. Not in the circumstances. No. Sorry. Were you close to the laird?’

Bella shook her head. ‘I never met him. I’m…’ She was what? ‘I’m his son’s…’ Come on woman. Pin your colours to the mast. ‘I’m his son’s fiancée.’

The mass of curls frowned. ‘But you’d never met his dad?’

‘No.’ That did sound odd, didn’t it? ‘We only got together quite recently.’

‘Oh, that’s a shame. I mean that you never met the laird. Well the old laird I guess. You’ve met the new one!’

Bella nodded.

‘Well hop in then!’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I’m assuming you’ll want to be there to support your fella. I mean you’re part of the family now, aren’t you?’

Bella’s confusion was definitely showing, but the stranger seemed oblivious.

‘Hop in. You can show me where to park.’

Sometimes the only way was to be direct. ‘I’m sorry. Who are you?’

The woman laughed. ‘Sorry. Sort of used to everyone knowing. Daft of me. I’d forget me own head. I’m the vicar. Everyone calls me the new vicar, cos I’ve only been here eight years.’ She pushed the mass of hair out of her face and leaned forward, revealing a neat little flash of dog collar at her neck. ‘I’m heading over to talk about the funeral. I think he’d want you there, wouldn’t he?’

Bella had no idea. On the one hand, obviously she wanted to support Adam however she could. On the other, she’d never met his dad and there were already two ladies of the manor rattling around the Lowbridge estate. What use was a third?

‘Jump in. I’m Jill.’

‘Bella.’

‘Marvellous. So you’re going to be the new Lady Lowbridge. That’ll be confusing. Most people still call that Darcy “new” and she was here at least five years before me. I don’t know her all that well. I see the most of Maggie. I think most people do. Of course she’s retired now.’

Jill was a ball of cheer and energy and words that tumbled over one another to get out of her mouth. Bella jogged round the passenger side of the car and climbed in.

As Jill got out of the car at the bottom of the hill, and stopped to survey the castle, Bella confirmed her opinion that the vicar was mostly hair. Huge generous strawberry blonde curls that were piled on top of her head, and held, not entirely successfully, in place with a leopard print scarf.

‘We’re through here.’ Bella led the way past the coach house and in through the kitchen corridor. Flinty was at the sink, up to her elbows in soapy water. She looked round as the entered. ‘Oh!’

‘This is Jill.’

‘I know.’ She nodded at the vicar. ‘Morning pet.’

‘Hi Maggie. Sorry for your loss. You must have known him a long time?’

‘His whole life.’ Flinty shook her head. ‘It’s all topsy-turvy – people passing on who you knew as babies.’

Jill squeezed her shoulder.

‘You’d best go through and hope Veronica doesn’t catch you.’

Bella frowned. How had she displeased Adam’s grandmother now? ‘What do you mean?’

‘Clergy don’t come through the kitchen, love.’

Jill laughed. ‘I’m not really one to stand on ceremony.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with doing things properly.’ Veronica was in the doorway to the kitchen. ‘Veronica, Lady Lowbridge. My son will also be joining us.’

The vicar sort of half-curtsied. Bella wanted to hug her. Veronica looked appalled.

‘I’m Jill.’

‘Reverend… Jill?’

‘Well Reverend Douglas. But you can call me Jill.’

‘Reverend Douglas.’

Bella could almost swear the reverend’s bouncy curls flattened a fraction.

She followed Veronica and Jill through the grand front hallway into one of the rooms off the corridor beyond the estate office. ‘Could you tell Flinty we’ll take tea in the Blue Room?’

Bella bristled slightly. She wasn’t staff. She wasn’t even actually sure if Flinty was staff. People kept telling her she’d retired. ‘I think Flinty’s busy.’ Not that she wouldn’t drop everything to make Veronica’s tea.

‘Oh.’ Veronica looked personally affronted at the notion. ‘Well you’ll have to make it then.’

‘I’ll get tea.’ Adam came out of the room Veronica seemed to be about to go into. He held out a hand. ‘I’m Adam.’

‘Lord Lowbridge,’ Veronica corrected.

Jill gave another anxious half-curtsey.

‘You don’t need to do that. And it’s just Adam.’ Bella’s heart warmed a touch. Just Adam. That was who she was here for. Not for some baron or lord or laird or whatever the term was. Just Adam.

Darcy was hovering in the doorway behind him. ‘And this is my stepmother,’ he continued.

‘Darcy, Lady Lowbridge.’ Veronica was starting to sound utterly despairing at the informality.

Jill stepped forward. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss, Lady Lowbridge. For all of your loss, of course.’

Adam nodded. ‘Thank you. And I think you’ve met my fiancée, Bella.’

‘I’m not Lady anything.’ Bella smiled. ‘And I can get the tea. You go through.’

Veronica stalked past the doorway Darcy was standing in. ‘We’ll be in the Blue Room.’

Bella grabbed Adam’s hand before he could follow. ‘Isn’t that the Blue Room?’ She peered through the door. The décor had a definite blue-ish tint.

He shook his head. ‘That’s the drawing room, which is blue. The Blue Room is that way. And is yellow.’

She opened her mouth.

‘Don’t ask.’

She squeezed the hand she was holding. ‘How are you doing?’

‘I don’t know. Mostly I’m just doing what I’m told.’

By the time the tea was ready, the rest of the group were ensconced in what any sane person would definitely have referred to as the Yellow Room. Bella put the tray down on the low table in the centre of the room. She had a proper teapot, she had sugar in cubes in an actual bowl and milk in a jug. She had cups and saucers. Not cups and saucers that matched, but one thing she had learned from her search through the cupboards was that nothing matched. Everything, it appeared, was inherited and nothing had ever been chosen to go together. She waited to hear Veronica’s verdict on what she’d done wrong. She tapped the spoon on the edge of the sugar bowl. ‘Tongs for cubes, dear.’

Bella pretended not to have heard. ‘Tea, vicar?’

The reverend was sitting alongside Darcy on one side of the room. Adam and Veronica were next to each other on the other. Bella squeezed herself in between them.

‘We were just talking about the service.’ Jill directed her comments to Darcy. ‘I was wondering whether you’d be wanting a big service for the whole community.’

Veronica shook her head. ‘This is a family occasion. Cremation and then a service of committal at the chapel here. I imagine some of the other lairds will come, but there’s no need for a great hullaballoo.’

Darcy looked pale and tired.

Adam jumped in. ‘Although I know Darcy was wondering about burial. There is a graveyard here. I think it’s a long time since anyone has been buried there.’

‘Right. Well there’s no legal reason you can’t have a burial on private land, if you have space. I think it has to be a certain distance from water sources and that sort of thing, but the council or the funeral director could probably advise you on that.’ Jill paused. ‘You’d need someone to dig the actual grave of course.’

‘Would you prefer that, Darcy?’ he asked gently.

Veronica sighed.

Darcy was staring at her teacup. ‘If there’s no grave where do you put flowers?’ Darcy asked. ‘There should be somewhere to put flowers. We did that for my grandmother. Every year on her birthday my mum would take us down to the cemetery and we’d take fresh flowers. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’

‘If that’s something you’d find valuable.’ Jill nodded. ‘Everyone grieves differently of course.’

Veronica put her cup down with a firm clatter. ‘I don’t think we need that. It seems rather showy, don’t you think?’

‘Well as I say, everyone grieves differently. I had one lady plaited her sister’s hair into a bracelet.’

Veronica’s horror was palpable. Bella fought to keep her face neutral. The dead hair bracelet thing was giving her the ick but she was not going to let Veronica know that they agreed.

Adam slumped back in his seat. The stress was written across his face. ‘What if we had a cremation and scattered the ashes somewhere here? Then there’d still be a place to visit.’

‘Ashes go into the crypt,’ said Veronica.

There was a crypt?

‘I’m not having Alexander locked up in that death cupboard.’

Bella stifled a definitely inappropriate giggle.

‘He took me down there once,’ Darcy added. ‘It was ghoulish.’

‘You can bury the ashes if you want. You could still have a headstone.’ Jill clearly thought they had a path to a resolution here.

Veronica was not on side. ‘The ashes will reside with my husband and his father in the crypt.’

‘What would you like?’ The question was directed from the vicar to Adam.

‘I don’t know.’ Mostly he wanted everyone to stop fighting.

Bella rubbed her fiancé’s arm. ‘It’s OK to say what you want.’

She felt his bicep tense just slightly. His voice was low. ‘I don’t know what my father wanted.’

Both Ladies Lowbridge were quiet for a moment, but Veronica was not one for giving ground. ‘I’m sure he would have wanted what the lairds have wanted for the last two generations…’

‘Well…’ Jill tried again.

‘I was his mother.’

‘I was his wife.’

And there was that impasse once again. Even Jill’s relentless positivity was floundering. Adam leaned forward, rubbing his fingers up the side of his nose. ‘Did he actually say anything to either of you about what he wanted?’

‘Well I’m sure…’ Veronica started.

‘What did he actually say?’

‘Well nothing as such,’ she conceded.

Adam turned to Darcy. ‘Anything?’

She shook her head. ‘We didn’t talk about it.’ Her voice caught on a sob. ‘He thought he had all the time in the world, I think.’

‘Right.’ He leaned back.

‘I’m sure whatever we decide will be all right,’ Bella offered.

‘So if we have a cremation, does that have to be in Inverness?’

Jill nodded. ‘It’s the nearest place. We can have a service there, or that can be private and you can have the service here before or after.’

‘OK. We’ll have a private cremation in Inverness. I’ll go with him.’ He turned to his stepmother and grandmother and addressed them like a primary school teacher at the end of a particularly trying day. ‘You two can come or not. Then can we have a memorial service here with the ashes?’

Jill nodded. ‘Of course.’

‘OK. Is that all right with everyone?’

Veronica opened her mouth but thought better of it. Both women nodded.

‘Good.’ Adam pulled out his phone. ‘I should phone the funeral director then, shouldn’t I?’

Bella could hear the quiver in his voice. She reached for the phone. ‘Shall I do that?’

His face was a mask of exhaustion. He handed her the phone. ‘Thank you.’

A few minutes later she’d confirmed that the cremation could be done within the week and they could have the ashes returned to them in the urn of their choosing in ten days’ time. ‘So we’ve got time to work out where you want to…’ What was the phrase? ‘Erm, lay him to rest?’

‘And let’s try not to argue about it,’ Adam implored.

Even Veronica’s unruffled exterior looked a little bruised by Adam’s new attitude. He turned back to the vicar. ‘Is there anything else?’

‘Well, normally we’d spend some time talking about the service itself. Hymns. Readings. Perhaps you might want to talk about your father yourself? It can be much more personal to hear from people who knew him well.’

‘Of course the laird will give the eulogy,’ Veronica confirmed.

Adam responded with a small nod, but the fear had returned to his eyes.

‘Wonderful,’ Jill continued. ‘So maybe Mrs Lowbridge… sorry Lady Lowbridge…’ She turned pointedly to Darcy. ‘You might have some music or a reading that particularly meant something to your husband?’

Darcy had visibly rallied but seemed to sink back as she caught a glimpse of her mother-in-law. ‘What if we have a think about it and email you?’ asked Bella.

‘That would be great,’ Jill agreed.

Finally, after another interminable round of sorrys for their loss and awkward mangling of names and titles Bella showed Jill out and walked her across the courtyard to where she’d parked outside the coach house. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I got the call to come over here.’

Bella glanced back at the castle. ‘Yeah. It’s a lot to take in.’

‘No. I meant, well I’d heard about the laird. The old one obviously, but I’d never been here. I mean I knew there was a chapel. Technically it’s part of my parish, but I sent an email when I first came here and never got a reply. It sort of dropped off the to-do list, you know. More pressing things.’

‘So you’re the vicar for the village?’

Jill nodded. ‘Yeah. Although I don’t see many of them at church. Locharron’s a long way to traipse on a Sunday morning. I think my predecessor used to do special services in the community hall or…’ She glanced back towards the castle and left the rest unsaid. ‘The hall’s all closed up now though.’

‘I didn’t know that.’ She didn’t know much it turned out.

‘No. Well you’re new here. Properly new.’ Jill smiled.

‘Arrived yesterday,’ Bella confirmed.

‘And you really haven’t been here before?’ She hesitated. ‘Just, you know, most people meet the family before they get engaged.’

‘No. Bit of a whirlwind romance,’ she explained.

‘Fair enough.’ Jill nodded. ‘Honestly I barely knew there was a son.’

‘I don’t think he’s been back for a while.’

‘Well he’s here now.’ She opened her car door and then paused. ‘Look. I know what it’s like to be the new girl here. I grew up in Newcastle, and my first parish was Salford and now…’ She looked around at the mountains and the castle and the loch. ‘All of this.’

Bella’s mind wandered back to her nan’s flat in Leeds, to falling asleep in the corner while her nan’s mates painted placards and talked class struggle late into the night. ‘It’s different,’ she conceded.

‘I’ll say. I mean there must have been lords and ladies and wotnot where I grew up, but you don’t really think of them actually hanging around the place, do you?’

Bella laughed, releasing a tension she didn’t realise she’d been holding in.

‘So, if you need to talk or anything…’

‘I’m not really religious.’

‘That’s fine. And I meant as a friend, not professionally.’ Jill pulled a pen and a scrap of paper torn from an envelope from her capacious bag and scrawled down a phone number. ‘Just if you need to chat.’

Bella wandered back inside after showing the vicar out. Adam was leaning on the kitchen island with his eyes closed. Flinty nodded as Bella came back in. ‘I’ll give you two a minute.’

‘Are you OK?’

‘Yeah. I’m sorry, about all this. It’s not what you expected.’

‘It’s OK.’

He raised his arm and she slid into the space alongside him, nestling her body against his.

‘I feel like I should know what he’d have wanted.’ He rubbed his eyes. ‘For the funeral. I never asked.’

‘That’s OK. People don’t.’ She pressed a kiss into his hair. ‘Whatever you think is right will be OK.’

‘Really?’

She nodded. ‘It doesn’t have to be perfect.’

‘Adam!’ Veronica’s curt tone cut through Bella’s reassurances.

He pulled away and stood up. ‘I’d better get on.’

Darcy had already vanished, presumably out to the stables. Flinty bustled back into the kitchen. ‘Maybe you could have that walk now after all?’ she suggested. ‘You could take Dipper. I don’t know if she’s been out today, what with everything.’

Bella was at a loss for a reason not to. She rounded up the dog, and accepted the harness and lead and the handful of poo bags Flinty offered, and set out. Bella retraced her steps from earlier past the coach house and up the lane to the road. As they walked, the climb was steeper than she’d appreciated before, as the land rose above the castle rapidly. In places the gentle river alongside her was more of a torrent as it dashed downwards over moss-covered rocks and formed sparkling white waterfalls before settling into restful pools. It was beautiful, and utterly uncompromising at the same time. Most of Bella’s life had been spent in places that were created by people. She was a city animal. Forests and mountains and deserted beaches were fun distractions for a day out or a wild lost weekend but day-to-day life took place in nice neat brick and concrete boxes designed by people to keep all of this at bay. Bella laughed at her own unease. What would Nan say? Probably something about how the only way past fear of the unknown was to bloody well get to know it.

Could she let Dipper off the lead here? She had no idea whether she’d come back if Bella called her, and they were on a road, albeit one that seemed to get about two cars per day. She could also see sheep on the hillside in the distance. You weren’t supposed to let dogs worry sheep were you? Bella realised she didn’t really know what sorts of things worried sheep. Were they a particularly anxious animal? She didn’t think Dipper was likely to approach them with dire warnings about the imminent climate crisis.

She kept Dipper on the lead. The road was quiet, apart from the sound of the water dancing down the hill alongside her. Bella imagined coming out here with Adam and a picnic hamper. Cold beers. Fat, perfectly seasoned sausage rolls, with a hint of chilli or apple. Thick crusty bread with cheese and…

‘You all right there, miss?’

The voice stopped Bella’s thoughts in their tracks. The enquirer was on the other side of the river. He was an older man, maybe sixty, maybe older, dressed in a waterproof jacket and dark grey trousers of the kind that seem to have more pocket than actual trouser. His grey hair was clipped short.

‘I’m fine.’

‘You don’t see many people out and about, you know, on that side of the Crosan.’

‘The what?’

He nodded towards the river. ‘The Crosan. This thing youse are standing next to.’

‘Right. I’m just out for a walk.’

‘Must have walked a fair way to end up over there.’

‘Not really.’ She pointed back towards the castle. ‘I started down there.’

He let out a long low whistle. ‘Did you now?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So you’ll have met our Margaret?’

Margaret? A bell was trying to tinkle in her mind but not quite ringing yet.

‘They call her Flinty.’

‘Oh!’ Of course. ‘She made me a bacon sandwich.’

‘Sounds about right.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘You must be the English lass young Adam brought back with him.’

‘I guess so. I don’t think there’s another one.’

‘Well, look at you.’ He shook his head and cast a glance up the way Bella was walking. ‘Where are you trying to get to then?’

‘Just exploring.’ She thought for a second. ‘Flinty said there was a village, somewhere. I figured if I followed the road it must be this way.’

‘It’s a long road though.’ He pointed behind him. ‘Village is a little way down there.’

‘Why isn’t there a bridge?’

He laughed. ‘There is.’ He pointed back the way she’d come. ‘You take your life in your hands trying to cross it these days though.’

‘Right.’ She returned his smile. ‘Well it would make it easier to get back and forth, wouldn’t it?’

He shook his head. ‘Not something many of us bother to do these days. The road bridge is up that way. You just have to keep going long enough.’ A small white dog suddenly came bounding down the hill on the other side of the river and jumped excitedly against the stranger’s legs. ‘There you are. Well, if this one’s finished scaring the squirrels I’ll be getting back. If you make it as far as the village I might see you again, Miss…?’

‘Smith. Bella.’

‘Miss Bella.’ He nodded and turned away, and then stopped. ‘I’m Hugh. You’ll find me and my missus in the shop at the far end.’

‘I’m sure I’ll make it eventually.’

‘Right enough.’ He half-turned and called back. ‘Heard about the old laird. Tell all of them up there we’re very sorry.’

Bella continued her trudge up the lane. According to friendly Hugh with the tiny white dog, if she kept going far enough she’d be able to cross over and find her way back down the other side to the village. The thought of a village was the only thing keeping her going. She was picturing roses around doorways and cute little teashops and a warm welcoming village pub. She checked the time on her phone. Nearly two. She hadn’t had lunch. Maybe the pub would do food. A nice hearty steak and ale pie could be just the thing.

The path was steep and as she climbed higher the road was moist underfoot. The tread had worn off her trainers years ago and she walked more slowly for fear of slipping. It was getting cooler too. She zipped her hoodie closed and wrapped her arms around her body. It wasn’t dangerously cold. She wasn’t one of those ridiculous townies who’d set off into the mountains in high heels and a sun dress. She’d done enough festival camping with her nan to understand the adage that there was no such thing as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothes. She was comfortably warm enough to avoid medical emergency. She just wasn’t comfortably warm.

The road was an obstacle course of potholes and sheep shit but she kept going. Right until she didn’t. She stopped hard and sudden as her ankle turned into an unseen crack in the road. An expletive burst from her lips, and Dipper’s lead dropped free from her hand.

She stood stock still for a moment, right foot planted on the ground, left toes resting against her other leg, while the dog sniffed and explored the undergrowth around them. Bella forced herself to breathe. In and out until the initial shock of pain subsided and left her with the aching throb. Finally she lowered her foot to the ground. If it was only an awkward twist she could probably walk it off. She hopped her way around to facing back down the hill, abandoning her goal of making it to the promised bridge and the steak pie of her dreams today. ‘OK girl. Let’s go.’

She bent as best she could to grab the lead only to see Dipper bound away down the hill.

Adding ‘losing the family dog’ and a ‘possibly broken ankle’ to her list of first day mishaps was not great news. ‘Dipper!’ she yelled. ‘Dipper, come!’

The dog was a smaller and smaller dot in the distance. ‘Dipper, here!’

Nothing. Great. Bella forced herself to take a breath. Dipper had set off back the way they came rather than into the flock of sheep in the fields above them. That was good. She told herself the dog would find her way home, more out of pure hope than expectation. All Bella could do now was attempt the same.

She hobbled a few paces down the road, placing her left foot gingerly and awkwardly. On the fourth step the throbbing pain exploded into a sharp jab of agony. She stopped, balancing again on one foot. She wiggled her toes inside her shoe and tentatively moved her foot from left to right. Probably not a broken ankle, but that was little comfort right now. She’d been walking for the best part of an hour, which meant she was an hour from her bed in the coach house, and that was at a brisk walk rather than an ungainly hop. There was no way she could walk that far.

Defeated, Bella lowered herself carefully to the ground. What was she supposed to do now?

She closed her eyes and took a second to think. There was no choice but to try to head back down. She fastened the laces on her left shoe as tight as she could to give her as much support as possible in an ageing canvas sneaker. A long walk was about to become an even longer hop. As she pushed herself painfully back to her feet she saw a sheep staring at her from the grass at the edge of the road.

‘What you looking at?’

The sheep stepped closer, followed now by five of its woolly friends.

‘I really don’t need an audience.’

The sheep stared at her.

‘I’ll put you in a casserole. Don’t think I won’t.’

The sheep seemed unconcerned.

She set off back down the hill at a slow, awkward half limp, half hop. After three steps she had a sense she was being followed. After five steps she was sure. After seven she stopped and looked back. The small gaggle of sheep stopped too. ‘What are you doing?’

They didn’t answer. Obviously. They were sheep.

She continued down the hill, pausing every few steps to breathe through the pain and check on the progress of her ovine support crew. Ten minutes into the struggle down the hill she was starting to grow quite fond of them. Fifteen minutes in, the pain in her ankle overcame any distraction being followed by her own uninvited mini flock might have offered. She slumped back down to the ground. She had her phone! Why hadn’t she thought of that before? She pulled the handset from her pocket. One weak little bar of signal.

She’d tapped the phone symbol and brought up the keyboard to call Adam before it struck her. She was an engaged woman who didn’t actually have her fiancé’s phone number. There’d never really been cause to ask, and other than that, all of her contacts were in Spain, or Brazil, or Australia, or – she vaguely thought – possibly on a research station in the Antarctic.

There was always her nan. Bella had no idea where she was right now, but if Bella called she would always pick up, night or day regardless. It would take a day to explain how she’d come to be sitting at the side of a road in Scotland with a sprained ankle and a sheepish fanclub, and once she’d done that, Bella realised with a sinking feeling in her gut, she didn’t actually know where she was. Near a castle and a river somewhere in Scotland. About five hours from Edinburgh. To the west, she thought. She briefly considered an actual ambulance. She could imagine Veronica’s horror at the level of fuss that would cause, but even if she decided to call 999 she would still have the ‘not knowing quite where she was’ issue to contend with.

It seemed that the only way she was going to get off this ridiculous hillside was if she walked down herself. At least it wasn’t raining…

Bella didn’t even have time to finish the thought before the heavens opened and the light mist she’d been surrounded by turned, in an instant, into fat juicy drops of rain. That was conclusive. The actual landscape had taken against her. It had sent her pointlessly up a crazy hill, busted her ankle and now it was soaking her to her bones. Not that sitting about feeling sorry for herself would change any of that.

She pulled herself to her feet again. She needed something to lean on. She ignored the bleating behind her. She needed something that wasn’t a sheep to lean on. She scanned the ground around her. No decent sized branches. Actually barely any trees at all.

She carried on with her awkward slow hop, pausing here and there to shout for Dipper to no avail. The ground around her was soaking now as well, and the risk of tipping into another pothole, or sliding on a patch of sheep poo – she shot her companions an accusatory look to go with that thought – seemed to get greater with every ungainly step. Maybe she should give in, embrace the wet and the dirt, and shuffle down the hill on her arse. At least it would save her from the risk of falling again.

Abandoning dignity and cleanliness, and a large section of her self-respect, Bella lowered her bum to the cold wet road. This was going to ruin her jeans and her hands were going to be grazed for weeks but it saved her ankle and progress got a little quicker. She was starting to pick up pace when a noise from down the hill caught her attention. A car. She shuffled as fast as she could to the side of the road to avoid getting flattened by the vehicle.

Would they even see her? She really needed whoever it was to stop and take pity on her. She could now make out the familiar hulk of Flinty’s Land Rover coming into view. She waved her arms as violently as she could manage. ‘Flinty!’

The car pulled to a stop, but it wasn’t Flinty who jumped out. Her fiancé’s mouth dropped open. ‘What happened?’

‘Twisted my ankle at the top of the hill and then it started to rain and then…’ She gestured back towards her sheep entourage. ‘I seem to have made some friends.’

‘OK.’ He nodded. ‘Shall we get you in the car?’

‘Please.’

He took her weight as she wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lift her back to her foot, leaning, without thinking, into the warmth of his hand against her. The hop to the passenger side was much easier with someone to lean on. In that, a fiancé was more use than a sheep. As she slid her bum onto the seat she asked, ‘Where were you going?’

‘I was looking for you.’ He kissed her head as she settled into the car. ‘Flinty said you’d gone for a walk and then it started pissing down. I thought I’d try to save you from getting wet.’

‘And then you actually saved me.’ She finally found a smile. ‘My hero.’

‘We aim to please.’

‘I’m very pleased right now.’ She closed her eyes as he turned the old lump of a vehicle in the too narrow road. ‘Did Dipper come back to the castle?’

‘Yeah.’ Adam frowned. ‘Ages ago. Flinty reckoned you must have brought her back but then you never appeared so I wondered if you’d gone out again.’

Bella laughed. ‘Oh thank God. I dropped her lead when I fell and she ran off.’

Adam shook his head. ‘The only person she ever behaves for…’ He stopped. ‘ Behaved for was my dad.’

‘I thought I was going to have to crawl back and tell you all I’d lost the dog.’

‘No. No. Honestly I don’t think you could lose Dipper. She always knows where her next meal is coming from.’

The relief of being in the car, of knowing that Dipper was safe, and of knowing that Adam had come to find her, filled Bella with warmth despite her wet clothes and sodden feet. ‘Oh,’ she remembered. ‘Another thing?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Can I have your phone number?’

‘What?’

‘I don’t have your number. I mean I didn’t have very much signal so it might not have helped but I just thought, people who are getting married should probably have each other’s numbers.’

He smiled as he drove.

‘What are you grinning at?’

‘We’re getting married.’

She found herself grinning equally dopily back at him. ‘Yeah, we are.’

Back at the coach house, Bella agreed to Adam’s suggestion of a hot bath to warm her up and then some dry clothes before they sought out a bandage for her ankle. The bath was hot and welcoming, and Adam perched himself on the lid of the toilet, ostensibly to keep an eye on the invalid, but, if he was honest with himself, more to stay in hiding from his grandmother.

‘How far up the hill did you walk?’

Bella shrugged. ‘Not sure. I was trying to get to the village.’

‘Why didn’t you go over the bridge?’

‘What bridge?’

‘Just past the coach house, before the hill rises.’

She frowned, and then nodded. ‘Yeah. The man mentioned a bridge.’

‘What man?’

‘There was a guy across the river. He said the bridge wasn’t safe though.’

That couldn’t be right. If the bridge had needed repairs his father would have done them.

‘I didn’t see a bridge anyway.’

Adam laughed. ‘Lowbridge? The name of the village and the house and the barony. Kind of implies there’s a low bridge.’

His fiancée submerged herself under the water for a second. ‘I didn’t think of that.’

‘I’ll show you when your ankle’s up to it.’

‘That would be nice.’ She sat up a little bit. ‘Did your grandma say anything about me?’

He knew why she was asking. She wanted to assess the depth of Veronica’s disapproval. It was, he feared, even worse than she thought. ‘No. She didn’t really say anything.’

Bella shrugged. ‘Well it’s better than her spending all morning trying to persuade you to get rid of me.’

‘She wouldn’t do that.’

‘Really?’

He paused. ‘My grandmother does not try to persuade people. She’s more for telling them what to do outright.’

‘She doesn’t like me.’

‘She doesn’t know you yet.’ He feared that Bella was absolutely correct. ‘Are you having second thoughts?’

She grinned. ‘Oh, I had those ages ago. I’m on to about seventeenth thoughts.’ She reached a hand out and he leaned across to take it. ‘All the thoughts are the same though. All of this is crazy but you and me works, doesn’t it?’

‘It does.’

‘Good.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘What about you? What have you been doing?’

‘My grandmother’s crash course in estate management.’

Bella winced.

‘Your ankle hurting?’

She shook her head. ‘My brain is hurting. Is estate management up your street?’

‘It’s what I was raised to do.’

Now she sat all the way up in the bath. ‘That’s not what I asked.’

‘No.’ He closed his eyes for a second. Bella was a fish out of water here, and she’d already been thrust into the heart of his grieving family. He should be looking out for her, not burdening her with his worries. ‘It’s fine. How about you? I’m sorry about…’ He pointed at her swollen ankle.

She shrugged. ‘So maybe there was a tiny moment where I thought the landscape was out to get me.’

It must have felt that way. Even with her sitting right in front of him, he was still struggling to picture his feisty, modern, impulsive Spanish beach girl fitting in at Lowbridge. And if Bella didn’t fit, what did that mean for him?

She flicked water at him from her fingertips. ‘I’m not going to be beaten, though. I will charm this place into loving me.’

His disbelief must have flickered across his face.

‘I’m serious,’ she insisted. ‘You saw. By the time you found me I had a whole flock of adoring sheep fans following me around. I’m a modern day…’ she paused. ‘Little Miss Muffet?’

He shook his head.

‘Didn’t she have sheep?’

‘No. Spider, and it freaked her out.’

‘Who was the one with the sheep then?’

‘Little Bo Peep?’

‘No.’ Bella frowned. ‘The lamb girl?’

‘Mary had a little lamb?’

‘Yes! Eating out of my hand they were.’ She grinned. ‘Today some sheep. Tomorrow your grandma. You’ll see.’

Adam wished he shared her confidence, but where Bella apparently saw only sunlight and new adventures, Adam saw dark clouds.

‘So, like, can you go to college to learn to be in charge of a big posh estate then?’

Adam managed a smile at that. ‘You can. I didn’t, though.’ Much to his grandmother’s displeasure.

‘What did you do?’

‘Horticultural college. Grandmother wasn’t best pleased but honestly plants were the only thing I was any good at. Took me four goes to pass GCSE maths with a good enough grade to get in there.’

Bella rolled her eyes. ‘I was awful at school.’

‘In what way?’

‘Oh you know. The usual stuff. Got bored easily, and life with Nan was…’ She sank down deeper into the water. ‘It was so different to school. School was all rules and it felt, I don’t know, small. My nan was all about having adventures.’

‘My nan was not,’ Adam joked.

‘No. I got that.’

‘So did you go to catering college or something then?’ Was that too downmarket? He wasn’t sure about the terminology. ‘Or culinary school?’

Bella shook her head. ‘Nowt so fancy. I worked in a cafe in town from when I was about fourteen. Just at weekends. Then when I was sixteen I got a job washing dishes in a hotel, and that turned into a bit of commis cheffing – basic stuff, chopping potatoes and peeling veg, and I kept going. If you can cook you can pretty much work anywhere. Chefs, hookers and undertakers.’ She grinned. ‘The only people who’ll never be out of work.’

‘Not like high-end landscaping in tiny Highland villages.’

‘I thought business in Edinburgh was good?’

‘It is. For now at least, but I’m not there, am I? Ravi can keep things ticking over, but a garden design business does need a garden designer.’

‘We’ll work it out.’ She sank back into the bath. ‘Let’s get things sorted here. One thing at a time.’ She gave a soapy shrug. ‘And then we’ll find our next adventure.’

Bella’s positivity was infectious. He’d been swept along by her for the last four weeks, to the point where he, Adam Lowbridge, sensible, cautious Adam, had proposed to a woman he, by any reasonable standard, barely knew. He waited, as he’d been waiting ever since that question had left his lips, for the doubt to rush in, but it simply wasn’t there. Instead her presence gave him an unfamiliar feeling of certainty.

He let her soothe him. She was right. It was the sensible thing to do. Get things in order here. Give his father a proper send-off. And then maybe he could get back to his real life? It wasn’t as if his grandmother needed him to run the estate anyway. It wasn’t as if she would actually let him even if he tried.

Adam moved off his perch on the toilet lid and knelt on the floor next to the bath, leaning over far enough to plant a kiss on his fiancée’s lips. She snaked a damp arm around his neck.

‘You’ll get me all wet,’ he protested.

She leaned over and wrapped her other arm around his waist, pulling him towards her and splashing water across his chest and back and onto the floor.