Chapter Four
The following morning Bella gratefully accepted Adam’s offer to bring her breakfast over on a tray rather than her come over to the house on her sore ankle.
‘Castle,’ she corrected.
‘Don’t start that again.’
She sat up in bed, wedging pillows behind her as she heard footsteps on the stair, and letting the sheet that was wrapped around her drop below her breast in a way she hoped was saucy and alluring, rather than merely dishevelled.
Adam’s grandmother pushed the door open. ‘Oh my!’
Bella grabbed the sheet and hoiked it over her boobs.
Veronica turned towards the wall. ‘I was informed that you were ready for breakfast.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Bella was still, she felt, at something of a disadvantage.
Veronica turned around somewhat gingerly. ‘I’ll put this over here.’ She placed the tray on top of the chest of drawers at the furthest corner of the room. Clearly she hadn’t got the ‘breakfast in bed to save Bella’s ankle’ memo, but if it meant she left sooner then Bella would happily embrace an awkward naked hop to get to her cup of tea.
Veronica appeared to have other plans. She clasped her hands together. ‘I thought this would give us an opportunity to have a little talk.’
Why did that sound like a threat?
‘I am aware that the younger generation tend towards a somewhat more casual approach to things than might previously have been the norm here.’
‘What? I don’t—’
Veronica held a hand up. Bella shut up. It seemed like this was a little talk where Veronica was the one who got to talk.
‘If you are to marry Baron Lowbridge…’
‘ When ,’ Bella muttered.
‘…there are certain expectations of you. A role like Lady Lowbridge comes with responsibilities and expectations. One cannot expect to have the same friendships and freedoms that she might have enjoyed before.’
Anger was beginning to swirl in Bella’s gut. Who was this woman to suggest that Bella wasn’t up to being the lady of her precious Lowbridge?
‘It is a life defined by duty, not by individual wants or fancies.’
This was ridiculous. ‘I think I can marry Adam and still have a life.’
‘Of course. I simply want you to understand what type of life that might be. It will be quite different from whatever you have enjoyed before.’
Bella folded her arms, which had the handy secondary benefit of securing her sheet more firming across her chest. ‘I’ll manage.’
Veronica’s lips pursed, presumably at Bella’s perceived insolence. ‘Perhaps you will. But is that enough?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Many people manage in this sort of situation, but perhaps Lowbridge deserves more than that. Sooner or later one can find that it is not enough to manage. One might find they wish to be somewhere where they can thrive.’
Was Veronica warning her off? The anger in Bella’s gut hardened. She did not need lectures on how to fit in, or what sort of woman she needed to be to be a lady. She was Bella Bloody Smith and her nan had raised her to understand that people were people. No matter who they seemed to be or where they came from you could only judge them by getting to know them and finding out who they really were. Veronica was showing a bit of who she was this morning. Bella mentally marked the older woman’s card.
‘I’ll leave you to rest. Do think about it though. Is this really the place you belong?’
Bella managed almost six hours of resting with her foot up. During that time she drank five cups of tea, demolished a plate of ham sandwiches she suspected Flinty might have intended her to share with Adam, and a hefty chunk of fruit loaf – rich and moist and, she acknowledged, better than Bella could make herself – and imagined six different terrible accidents that could befall her soon-to-be grandmother-in-law.
The whole conversation had been ridiculous. She and Adam were here because his father had died. They would stay for the funeral, but then there was nothing to stop them – whatever Veronica said about duty – from going to Edinburgh like they planned. Adam didn’t even live here. Why on earth would Bella?
After every check-in and food delivery, Adam and Flinty both told her vigorously that she needed to rest. And she tried. She lay on the bed and she closed her eyes, but she kept finding herself sitting up, or picking up her phone.
There was a message from her nan. Bella smiled. That was their deal. Wherever they were, whatever was going on, her nan emailed or messaged once a week, and Bella replied, or vice versa. They were rarely long, verbose screeds on what was going on. They were just enough to let the other person know you were still alive, and keep that sense that somewhere out there was somebody you were connected to. Bella scanned the message.
I’m still down in Somerset. Gwendoline and Darren are dead set on
their full moon ritual plan so I’ll probably stay here for that. Take
care. And tomorrow the world!
Bella hesitated over how to reply. News like an engagement ought to be delivered in person, but doing it over text would save her from actually seeing her nan’s unfiltered reaction. She started typing, and then deleted, and then typed again and deleted some more.
Bit of a change from Spain – I’m in the Scottish Highlands. Long
story but all is well (give or take a sprained ankle!) Tomorrow the
world xxx
And then she did try to rest, before starting a list of things she needed to do to find a job in Edinburgh, then an entirely unnecessary list of things she could do in Lowbridge. When she caught herself already three quarters of the way through registering with an international recruitment site, she decided that rest wasn’t really working out for her, and climbed out of bed.
Her jeans had been squirrelled away somewhere so she delved into Adam’s ridiculously overpacked suitcase. His jeans looked like they had every chance of fitting her waist but not a hope in hell of making it over her bum, so she pulled out a pair of soft jogging bottoms instead. They were fleece lined. What sort of man took fleece lined trousers to Spain?
Fleece lined was just the ticket for the old stone coach house. There was a radiator under the window but it didn’t seem to put out any heat at all, however much Bella twiddled the control. And the plug-in heater Flinty had found her created a delightfully tropical hot spot covering the six inches around the heater but didn’t seem to warm the room itself at all. And it was May . She was already thanking her lucky stars they wouldn’t be here for winter.
She dragged the jogging bottoms on with a T-shirt and her clogs. It wasn’t a high fashion look, but she was clean and dressed and ready for action. So long as the action only involved one foot.
She hopped down the stairs, clinging on to the rail, and hobbled into the courtyard. She stopped and twenty or more pairs of eyes turned towards her. Sheep. Lots of sheep. The leader trotted over to her bleating plaintively, followed by nineteen of its closest mates.
‘What are this lot doing here?’ Flinty came out of the kitchen door, buttoning her coat.
‘I don’t know. They were just sort of here.’ Bella limped towards Flinty. The sheep shuffled after her.
‘Well they seem to think you’re their shepherd.’
‘I don’t know anything about sheep.’ The flock had stopped, the front row just inches from Bella’s legs. ‘What do I do? Where’s Dipper?’ Dipper would be helpful, surely. Sheep did what dogs told them, didn’t they?
‘Like she’d be any good. Couldn’t herd a housefly. I think they want to follow you. They’re a herd animal. They follow the leader.’ Flinty smirked slightly. ‘They’ve decided you’re top sheep.’
‘What?’ Bella glared at her new woolly fanclub. ‘Shoo! Shoo!’ She waved her arms in the general direction of the gateway. ‘Shoo!’ The sheep stared. They did not move.
‘What do I do?’
‘Lead ’em back out to the hillside I reckon. Come on.’
Bella inched through the space between the sheep and the castle wall, and hopped awkwardly towards the gate. ‘They’re not going to follow me.’
Flinty was staring behind her. ‘That’s what you think.’
The flock trotted after Bella. She led them through the gate and then paused, hoping the sight of fresh grass to munch on the hillside would encourage them to head off their own way. They stopped and watched her. ‘I can’t be followed by sheep the whole time I’m here.’
Flinty was failing to hide her laughter.
‘It’s not funny. I can’t spend my days wandering around the hillside looking for fresh… what’s it called? Pasture?’
‘Aye. I do see that.’
Bella stared at her helplessly.
‘Why don’t you just limp your way up onto the grass a bit, and then maybe once they’ve got some food to distract them you can sneak off?’
‘Fine.’ Bella managed twenty yards up the hillside, attended by her woolly entourage.
‘Stay up there,’ Flinty yelled. ‘Let them get settled. I’ll pick you up in the Land Rover!’
A few minutes later the battered old four by four pulled up alongside her and Bella jumped in, to a chorus of unhappy bleats. ‘Thank you.’
‘Where were you off to anyway?’
Where was she off to? ‘I don’t know. I was getting a bit bored.’
‘Right, well. Adam and his grandmother are…’ Flinty frowned. ‘Well, I think they’re occupied. I’m going down to the village. You might as well come along now you’re in.’
‘OK.’ The village was building into something of a place of wonder in her imagination – a promised land of shops, civilisation and possibility.
‘Right then. We’d best get on. I don’t want to leave things too long and come back to a kitchen full of toilet roll…’
Bella could definitely picture Dipper going full Andrex puppy without proper supervision.
‘…or all my egg cups upside down on top of the door,’ Flinty continued.
What on earth? ‘What was that about egg cups?’
The older woman shook her head. ‘She only did that one time.’
‘Sorry. What?’
‘You’ll see soon enough.’ Flinty grinned. ‘Now do you need anything from the shop?’
Bella rolled with the change of subject.
‘I think I need to get some better shoes, and maybe a waterproof?’
‘You don’t have those?’
‘I was living in Spain a week ago.’
Flinty nodded. ‘But the rest of your stuff must be somewhere?’
‘I’ve got all my stuff with me.’
‘Just that wee baggy you brought from the airport? Well aren’t you one for travelling light?’
Why carry more than you needed?
‘You’ll not be able to get those in the village, mind. Not new. We might be able to find you something to borrow for the time being. What size feet do you have?’
‘Five.’
Flinty nodded. ‘Well that shouldn’t be too hard. Hugh might be able to order you something in. Or you can wait ’til you can get to an outdoor shop.’
‘So where’s the nearest?’
‘From here? That’d probably be Portree, over on Skye.’
Skye. A tune jangled in Bella’s head. Over the sea to Skye… ‘Isn’t that an island?’
‘It is.’
‘So the nearest clothes shop is on a different land mass?’ Bella was rapidly redrawing her mental picture of Lowbridge village.
‘Aye, but you can drive all the way since they opened the bridge at Lochalsh. Or we could ask in the village if anyone’s taking a boat over. There’s usually a couple who do each week. They might take you along.’
‘What sort of boat?’ Bella had images of hardy Highland trawlermen pissing themselves at the wee English lassie’s lack of sea legs.
Flinty glanced at her. ‘A boat boat. Don’t worry. You’re not going to have to row over there. They all have motors.’
A boat trip sounded like overkill given that she’d probably be back in Edinburgh with its pavements and shops and restaurants and general lack of insanity in a couple of weeks. ‘If I could borrow something for now then?’
‘Aye. I thought that’d be best.’
Flinty drove the narrow country lanes like a racing driver in a hurry. Once they were over the road bridge, Bella realised she hadn’t got close to the village on her aborted walk. The road widened slightly and they started to meet the occasional car coming the other way. All of which pulled into the side of the road to let Flinty past. The local drivers had clearly learned that if you didn’t get out of her way, it would only end worse for you.
Finally they started to come into what Bella assumed was the village, and then they kept driving, through a cluster of small stone-built cottages and along the shoreline, where a shallow shingle beach gave way to dark blue water. Bella leaned forward to stare at the view. Across the water was more land, an island or a headland jutting out into the sea. Everything was sparkling in shades of blue and green. ‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Aye.’ Flinty nodded. ‘We’re very lucky.’ She drove on towards a strung-out row of newer houses. At what looked to be the very last of these, Flinty stopped the car and pulled in on a patch of gravel and mud to the side of the road. ‘Here we are then,’ she announced.
Where they were didn’t look like anything very much. They’d stopped outside a white painted detached house. There were piles of wood, and bags of compost on the driveway. Flinty marched past those. Bella followed and finally saw where they were heading. Above what she had taken to be the garage, and what the original builder had definitely intended to be the garage, was a hand-painted sign that read, ‘Lowbridge Village Store’. And under that someone had enthusiastically written, ‘If we don’t have it, we will get it. Ask us for anything!’
Given that the whole shop took up the space previously allocated to a mid-sized family car, that seemed like an ambitious promise. She followed Flinty up the gravelled driveway. As well as the bags of logs and compost, there were newspapers, a bucket of flower bouquets, a station for returning and refilling gas bottles and a table stacked with potted plants and a handwritten sign declaring, ‘From Mrs Allen. 50p each or ￡1 for 3. Proceeds go to the Community Hall fund. Money in the tin please!’
The shopkeeper had stacked their stock high outside, but the inside of the store was like another world. Whoever ran the place was surely part Time Lord, because there was no logical way this amount of stuff could fit inside a garage without at least a dash of Tardis-style ‘bigger on the inside’ magic going on. Flinty was briskly filling a basket with fresh fruit and veg, meat from the fridge, and bread from the basket next to the cash desk.
Bella followed her around, trying not to knock over any of the ceiling-high teetering displays.
‘We need cleaning stuff,’ said Flinty. ‘Washing up liquid and bathroom spray.’
There was no cleaning aisle. There were no aisles. There was simply stuff. Mountains and mountains of stuff.
‘Come on.’
Bella trotted after her guide again, right to the back of the garage, and then behind what was obviously the last display. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Cleaning and toiletries. This way.’ Flinty pushed open a small door.
‘This is just someone’s garden.’
‘Well, this is someone’s garden. It’s not just someone’s garden.’
The path from the garage down the side of the house had been covered with a rig-up of sun parasols and tarpaulins, to provide some protection from the rain, but it was still very much outside and very much a part of a, Bella presumed, private garden. ‘Are you sure this is OK?’
‘It’s fine. Didn’t all fit in the main shop.’
Garage, Bella thought.
‘So they had to expand.’
Flinty tapped on a patio door as she went past. Inside a group of women were sitting drinking tea. They looked up as one as Bella went past. She raised a hand in greeting. Flinty continued and pushed open the unlocked door of what looked like a standard garden shed.
A garden shed filled with cleaning products, toiletries, tissues, loo roll and kitchen paper. Obviously. Oh, and stationery and office supplies tucked against the back wall. Of course. Flinty added the cleaning things she needed to her basket, and then thrust a nine pack of toilet roll into Bella’s arms. ‘Carry this.’
Bella nodded.
‘Do you need anything? Shampoo?’ Flinty waved her hand towards the sanitary protection. ‘That sort of thing.’
Bella grabbed what she needed from the surprisingly varied range of toiletries, and balanced it on top of the toilet paper.
‘All right.’ Flinty led the way back to what Bella’s brain was now dutifully accepting as ‘the main store’ rather than ‘some random garage’ and placed her basket down on the counter.
One of the women from the house was now behind the tillpoint. Two of the others were loitering by the salad vegetables. Bella was finding it hard to avoid the feeling that they were rather more interested in her than in the lettuce selection. ‘Afternoon Maggie. How’s…’ The woman at the till paused. ‘Everything?’
‘Oh you know.’ Bella got the definite feeling that the two women had exchanged a look. The sort of look that said, ‘Well I can’t tell you in front of this one.’
‘I’m Bella.’ Bella stuck out her hand. She was here, and she wasn’t going to stand around quietly while she was discussed in a range of silent nods and raised eyebrows.
‘Bella’s a friend of the new laird. Adam.’
‘Oooh.’ The woman’s interest shot up a notch. ‘Hugh said he’d seen some lass on the castle side. I thought he was having one of his turns.’
‘Does Hugh have turns?’ asked Bella.
‘Not really. Thought he might have started. He’s the type that would.’
‘Well that was me. I met Hugh.’ Bella smiled brightly. ‘And his little dog.’
‘Queen Latifah.’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘The dog’s called Queen Latifah.’ The woman shook her head. ‘Previous dog was Edward WoofWoof. Big fan of The Equalizer my Hugh. Original and reboot.’
The woman looked back at Bella. There was definitely interest there, but there was something else as well. ‘So a new laird?’ She shrugged. ‘Not that it’ll make any difference to us.’
Why would it make any difference? Obviously it was sad, but why would the death of some guy in a big house at the other end of a village make any difference to anyone apart from his immediate family?
‘Same old, same old over there isn’t it?’ the woman confirmed.
‘Anna…’ There was an edge to Flinty’s voice that Bella wasn’t used to.
The woman raised her hands in an apparent gesture of acquiescence. ‘Fine.’ She turned back to Bella. ‘I’m Anna. Me and Hugh run this place.’ She nodded at her associates, still lingering in the fresh produce. ‘That’s Nina. She basically runs everything else. And Netty.’
Nina stepped forward and shook Bella enthusiastically by the hand. Netty followed and stopped half a step behind. ‘I don’t run everything,’ Nina insisted.
‘Well there’s not much to run with the hall closed.’ Anna’s tone was bleak again.
‘What hall?’ Bella asked.
‘The community hall. It needs a new roof,’ Nina explained. ‘So most of the community groups have had to stop. We have Ladies’ Group here at Anna’s, but most things need more space, don’t they?’
Netty whispered something inaudible.
Nina nodded. ‘You’re right. She should. You’d be very welcome.’
All four women were now staring at Bella. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch that.’
Netty whispered again. Still completely outside the range of human hearing. Flinty, Anna and Nina all nodded and turned back to Bella. Apparently only out of the range of one human’s hearing.
She smiled apologetically. ‘I’m sorry. Still didn’t quite…’
‘You should go to Ladies’ Group,’ Flinty explained. ‘Good way to get to know people.’
‘Maggie comes,’ Anna added. ‘Now she’s retired .’ She didn’t need to make air quotes around ‘retired’. You could hear them.
Should she really be joining village groups when she wasn’t sure how long she was going to be here? She opened her mouth to demur and caught the expectant expressions on the faces around her. ‘I’d love to.’
‘Wonderful. Tuesday mornings, unless Anna has a meat delivery. Then we move to Wednesdays.’
Netty issued another incomprehensible interjection.
‘Quite right.’ Nina nodded. ‘Not the third Wednesday of the month because that’s when the mobile library comes.’
‘So when’s the next one?’
‘Monday.’
Of course.
‘Right. Let’s get these things rung through. Was there anything you couldn’t find?’
‘No, but Bella needs some things.’
Flinty physically pushed her forward, like a mother encouraging her child to do her bit at the school talent show.
‘Oh yeah. I need some walking boots or wellies. And a proper coat.’
Anna’s face barely shifted but the tiny tightening around her mouth spoke volumes of her thoughts on the silly English girl who’d rocked up in the Scottish Highlands without even a proper jacket. ‘There’s wellies in the red bin out front. Donated, so put something in the tin for the hall appeal. The coat we’ll need to order in.’ She pulled a lever arch folder from under the counter, flicked through and pulled out two thin catalogues. She handed Bella the first. ‘These ones I can get from a place in Portree so you can pick it up Monday.’ And then the second. ‘These are nicer and better value, to be honest, but I have to order in so it’ll probably be ten days.’
‘I guess quicker?’ she asked Flinty, who nodded in response. She picked one of the less awful-looking coats from the very slim women’s section. It was still objectively horrible, but it was also the cheapest on the page. Bella was going to need to do something that earned some money really soon.
‘Right. I’ll settle up then,’ Flinty said.
‘I can pay for my things,’ Bella insisted.
‘Put it through on the house account,’ Flinty told the shopkeeper.
‘I can…’
‘You can sort it out with the laird when we get back.’ Flinty looked tired. ‘Just carry these out for me, will you?’
Bella did what she was told, remembering not to open the back door. Flinty was still inside the garage shop. The four women were now huddled around the till, all talking at once.
Listening in was wrong. Eavesdropping was definitely something her nan would disapprove of, but also something she would absolutely do herself.
And this conversation, right now, was really happening in a public place and Bella was 99 per cent sure it was about her anyway, so it was hardly eavesdropping at all. Bella took a couple of steps closer and managed to catch a few words as they drifted her way. ‘Never mentioned her before…’
‘Bet the old lady was having kittens…’ quickly followed by a, ‘Don’t talk about Veronica like that,’ from Flinty.
And then, ‘So is she after his money then?’
Bella was seconds away from giving herself away by pointing out that she had no idea Adam was about to inherit a castle when she’d agreed to marry him, when a voice much closer to her ear, stopped her. ‘Who are you and why are you staring at my mother?’
Bella spun around and all but yelped in surprise at the man standing behind her. The owner of the voice was six foot tall and almost as wide. ‘I’m Bella, and I didn’t know I was.’
‘Oh. You wouldn’t be the famous lassie from the castle?’
‘Apparently.’
He nodded. ‘So you’re staring down the local coven to try and listen in to what they’re saying about you?’
‘No.’
His face cracked into a smile.
‘Maybe,’ she conceded.
‘Eavesdroppers never hear good of themselves,’ he told her, moving past her into the stop. ‘Ma! There’s a storm coming in. I thought you might need a ride back.’
Nina patted the giant’s arm. ‘Oh. Pavel, you’re a good boy. You’ll take Netty as well?’
‘Aye.’
Bella, Flinty and Anna watch the trio depart. Anna let out an unexpected low growl. ‘I would climb that man like a tree,’ she murmured.
‘Wouldn’t most people?’ Flinty replied.
Bella didn’t respond. Muscle-bound beefcakes were well within her usual area of interest but whatever Adam had done to her senses that first night in Spain, he was still doing. Bella had walked the world alone for a very long time. Her only anchor was her nan. This was something different. This was a feeling as though something inside of her was constantly aware of him, louder when he was close, but never completely silent. She was a planet orbiting his star. No. That wasn’t it. Because whatever that thing inside her that had come alive when he touched her was, she absolutely understood that he felt it too. They were orbiting each other, unexpectedly entirely held together. Who needed a beefcake when they had an actual laird waiting for them at home?
‘I’m glad you’re going to come along to Ladies’ Group,’ Flinty commented as she pulled the Land Rover onto the road outside the shop. ‘Good to get involved in the village. Shows them things are changing.’
‘Changing?’
‘Just, well, the old laird hadn’t been able to get that involved for a while, you know?’
Bella did not know. Bella did know that for so long as she was here she might as well get involved. Who knew how long that would be? But she didn’t have to be making plans for forever to be able to enjoy the here and now. ‘What is Ladies’ Group anyway?’
‘It’s women meeting up to gossip mostly. But they organise stuff like the community hall appeal and village events and what have you.’
‘Like the WI?’
Flinty’s expression darkened. ‘Do not mention the WI.’
‘Why not?’
‘There was an incident with a Victoria sponge and a competition with the WI and the Locharron Townswomen’s Guild. Anna does not like to talk about it.’
‘Right.’
‘They’re all nice enough though. You’ll enjoy it. I’m sure.’
That sense of positivity evaporated as they arrived back at the castle and were met by a loud American-accented screeching shout from the front hall.
‘I am not going to move out. I’m Lady Lowbridge, and this is my fucking home!’
Behind Bella, there was the sound of Flinty’s footsteps retreating briskly back to the kitchen. Bella wondered if she should follow, but held her ground. Darcy was in the middle of the hallway. Her anger was directed at Adam’s grandmother. Adam was standing on his own in the doorway to one of the rooms Bella hadn’t ventured into yet.
‘She’s not saying you have to move out.’ Adam’s tone was placatory, but the tension she’d heard when they discussed the funeral arrangements was back in his voice.
‘That’s exactly what she’s saying.’
Adam’s grandmother held up her hand. When she spoke, her tone was cool. ‘There are ways that things have always been done here. The lady’s bedroom is for the wife of the current baron. You are not the wife of the current baron so you will vacate that room, as every dowager before you has done.’
‘Grandmother!’ Adam tried to interject. He fell back in response to the look he received.
‘Adam will occupy the laird’s room.’ She finally acknowledged Bella’s presence. ‘If at some point he decides to marry, then the lady’s room will be available.’
‘If?’ asked Bella.
Darcy screamed over her. ‘So where am I supposed to go? What if I decide I want the dower house?’
‘The dower house is occupied.’
‘So maybe it makes sense for Darcy to stay where she is?’ Adam suggested.
‘That’s not how things are done,’ Veronica replied. ‘Perhaps the coach house would be suitable?’
Darcy marched over to her rival. ‘Here’s an idea. Why don’t you move out? I mean, I’m the dowager now. What are you?’
‘I’m the baron’s grandmother. You are just some New York—’
‘Stop!’ Adam raised his voice for the first time in the conversation. ‘It doesn’t matter who sleeps where. It doesn’t matter whether you both call yourself dowager or neither of you do or you take alternate weekends and school holidays and share it between you. Please…’ He sounded exhausted. ‘Stop.’
Veronica’s tone had already been icy. Now it was at absolute zero. ‘Do not speak to me like that, young…’
But Adam had already walked away. The silence hung for a moment in the hallway punctuated only by the sound of a door creaking and slamming. Bella looked from one woman to the other. She still didn’t really know what the row was about, but she remembered the if Veronica had associated with the question of Adam marrying, so she was minded to side with Darcy.
But neither of them were her immediate concern. Her concern was her fiancé. ‘Excuse me.’ She shuffled past Darcy and made her way across the hallway, and out of the door Adam had vanished through.
The room was cold, which wasn’t surprising. The whole building seemed to be permanently freezing. One wall was covered with bookcases, half filled with the sorts of books that Bella associated with school trips to stately homes – clothbound and clearly unread for generations but still deemed dangerous enough to require caging behind metal grilles. The last bay of shelves was open and full from top to bottom with account books and modern lever arch files. On the desk at the centre of the room there was a computer that looked like it had been recovered from the ark and a stack of papers. Dipper peered out from behind a chair.
At the far side was another door. Adam must have gone out that way. Bella opened the door and stepped out, pausing a second to let Dipper follow. The rain had stopped, finally, and the air was at least warm enough now for her T-shirt and jogging bottoms to be sufficient. Adam wasn’t in the yard outside. She couldn’t see him in the field that was visible from the doorway. She limped around the side of the castle, scanning in every direction. If he hadn’t headed off across the field, he must either still be close at hand or have made his way up the road towards the bridge uphill. Bella set off, slowly, on the increasingly familiar walk.
She was only a minute or two away from the castle itself when she caught sight of him, not on the road, but down towards the river. The bank dropped in a shallow slope at first. She looked to follow him, but the ground was wet and muddy from the day’s rain. She called out, but he was too far away. Her chef’s clogs were not designed for running but she managed a short awkward jog, wincing slightly on her still-sore ankle, to get within earshot of her fiancé. ‘Adam!’
He stopped, turned and immediately ran back down towards her. ‘What are you doing? You shouldn’t be walking.’
‘I’m fine. I wanted to make sure you were OK.’
Everything about his demeanour – his slumped shoulders, the bags under his eyes, the absence of the easy smile he’d worn in Spain – told her he wasn’t.
‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘I just needed a break from the screaming.’
‘Are they always like that?’
‘Kinda. I think my father used to be able to get them to be more polite about it.’
‘Well it’s a difficult time.’
He half-laughed, but there was no joy or humour in it. ‘So I keep being told.’
She took his hand. ‘Anything I can do?’
‘I think I need to take a break. I might go for a walk.’
She was balancing awkwardly on one foot. ‘Do you want me to come with you?’
‘And fall down another hole?’ He shook his head. ‘No. I’ll be all right. I just need a few minutes to clear my head.’
She pressed a kiss to his lips and hoped he understood that it was more than a kiss. It was a promise that they’d be away from all this living their own lives very soon. He rested his forehead against hers a second before he moved away. ‘I’ll be back soon.’
Bella turned back towards the castle, expecting Dipper to stay out in the excitement of the outdoors with her new master. Instead the dog followed Bella inside.