Fairytale Christmas on the Island (Scottish Highlands & Island Romance #4)

CHAPTER NINE

Skye helped Innis put the chocolates they’d made into boxes that he stored in the castle kitchen. She’d learned a few things from how to melt and mix the chocolate to decorating the truffles and bon bons.

Nairne had finished work for the night and they now had the kitchen to themselves.

‘I know it’s getting late, but can I offer you another cup of tea before you leave?’ he said, not wanting their night to end.

‘Yes, thanks.’

Innis was making the tea when Finlay walked in. Merrilees had already left after having dinner with Finlay and had driven back to stargazer cottage before the snow became any heavier.

‘It’s been a busy night, but the guests seem happy with the buffet menu,’ said Finlay.

‘I’ll second that,’ Skye added lightly.

‘Ah, and there I was thinking you were only enticed here by Innis’ chocolates,’ Finlay joked with her. ‘And Murdo has put aside two sledges for you and Holly.’

Skye looked to Innis for an explanation.

‘I wanted to make sure two sledges were put in the storeroom for you,’ Innis told her, explaining the details.

‘Can I have a peek?’ She was eager to see what she’d be using to beat him. ‘It’ll help me plan my winning tactics when I challenge you on the slopes.’

Finlay smiled and backed away. ‘I’ll leave you two to enjoy the rest of your date.’

‘It’s not a date,’ Innis corrected him. Then he saw the disappointment on Skye’s face. ‘Sort of, but not quite...with potential.’ He rambled.

Skye blinked, trying to hide her reaction.

Finlay gave an exaggerated response. ‘Okay...whatever this is, or isn’t, I have to attend to the guests. Have fun, with potential.’ Smirking to himself, he left them alone together and went back through to the function room.

‘I didn’t mean to embarrass you,’ Innis insisted.

‘You didn’t,’ she said. This was true.

‘Or disappoint you,’ he added.

‘You really didn’t,’ she lied. With one comment he’d dashed her hopes, before making a spectacular effort to redress the issue. Where did that leave them? She wasn’t sure.

‘I’ll get your coat from reception and show you the sledges, if you’re still interested.’

‘I am.’

Striding away, he left her for a couple of minutes to wander around the kitchen. Through the glass door she saw the snow was still falling quite heavily. Before she could decide whether to be sensible and head home now, Innis was back with her pink wool coat, hat and mittens.

Skye put them on and pulled up the collar of her coat.

Innis threw his jacket, changed his shoes for boots that he had in a cupboard, and opened the back door, letting the snowy air blow in.

Skye followed him as he led the way outside. The freezing cold was in such contrast to the heat of the kitchen that she felt it take her off guard. Pulling her hat down to cover her ears, she trudged through the snow, following Innis towards the back door of the storeroom.

Her boots disturbed the layer of snow that covered the entire patio.

She gazed at the trees that edged the nearby forest. Everything was covered with snow, and in the pale moonlight and glow from the castle, it sparkled like white icing sugar.

‘It’s beautiful, like a scene from a winter fairytale,’ she commented, looking all around her. Large, fluffy flakes continued to flutter down from the night sky. She felt the icy snowflakes fall on her upturned face.

She was so engrossed in the scenery that she didn’t notice the pot plants at the edge of the patio and almost tumbled over them.

Innis lunged at her, scooping her up, preventing her from falling. ‘Careful there.’ His rich voice sounded clear and sensual in the icy air.

‘Clumsy me.’ She righted herself and tried to calm her heart that reacted so intensely whenever Innis was near her.

It was her own fault for accepting his invitation to see his chocolate making, she chided herself. Now here she was in a real life romantic dilemma that had been part of her dreams for some time.

Innis pulled open the storeroom door and gestured for Skye to step inside. ‘The sledges are in here.’

Skye stepped in, feeling the temperature rise, not just from the warmth of the room, but from the effect Innis had on her.

They were alone in the storeroom now. The castle was on wind down for the evening with most of the staff having gone home. The snow could be treacherous during its first fall, and they’d left promptly to head away from the castle before the landscape disappeared completely under a blanket of snow.

The two sledges were covered with a light tarpaulin to protect them during storage.

Innis whipped it off and was impressed with Murdo’s handiwork. The sledges had been cleaned and polished and looked like new. They were quite modern, one pink, one turquoise. Murdo had replaced the cords with fresh ones.

The styling was sporty. From his experience of whizzing down the slopes on sledges since he was a boy, he was set to be pitted against all challengers. Murdo had put Innis’ sledge aside along with ones for Finlay and Ean.

‘Is there steering?’ Skye bent down to study the pink sledge. Her name was written on a tag and tied to it. Holly’s name was on the turquoise one.

‘No, just sit in and hold on tight. Use your body to alter the angle and route you take as you whiz down the slopes.’

‘You make it sound...daring.’ There was no other word for it that sprang to mind.

‘It is. You’re the daring type though,’ he told her.

‘Me? Daring? No, not really. What makes you think that?’

‘You’re here with me, doing things you’ve never tried before. And yes, it did involve eating chocolate, but still...’

‘Eating sweeties and swerving trees down a snowy incline...’ She held her hands out, palms up as if weighing the difference between the two. Secretly there was a third option that was the most challenging and romantically dangerous of all — feeling herself falling for Innis. Now that could lead to a ton of trouble.

He saw the turmoil on her face, mistaking it for reluctance to compete against him. ‘You can forgo the challenge, Skye. But what started as a joke could be quite...adventurous.’ He withheld the words dangerous and foolhardy. And what on earth were they thinking challenging each other. Instead he smiled casually, hoping she didn’t sense how much his heart longed to be with her.

‘I’m up for adventure.’ Her tone was decisive, leaving him in no doubt that he had a real challenger on his hands. One that could break his heart and cause more damage than any tumble from a sledge in the snow.

The time was wearing on and he led her back out of the storeroom into the snow. The flakes were falling heavier and he knew from experience that the roads would be getting trickier to drive on.

Not even thinking about this, Skye paused and gazed up at the snow falling all around them. ‘This is wonderful.’ She did an involuntary twirl, arms out, palms up to catch the snowflakes. ‘It really feels like Christmas.’

He found himself torn between asking her to go with him to the ball, and being sensible and suggesting she should head home before the snow became even heavier. Once it had covered everything and settled overnight, the roads were more reliable, but tonight he wondered how to keep her safe on her drive down to the coast.

The latter won through and he heard the reluctance in his voice as he suggested they end their evening now.

‘I’ll drive ahead of you. Follow me, slow and steady, along the road,’ he advised her.

‘I can manage fine. I’ll be careful. I don’t want you having to drive down and then back again because of me.’

He’d have done it a few times without complaint. Just spending time with her was what he’d enjoyed more than anything at the moment.

‘No, follow me,’ he insisted in that tone she knew so well.

Leading her back into the kitchen, he picked up one of the boxes of chocolates on the way, and they headed through reception and out to where their cars were parked in front of the castle.

He helped her clear her windows of snow and then prepared his car.

With a wave, he got into his car and drove off, seeing her car headlights following him away from the castle and towards the forest road.

Skye glanced at the forest looking like someone had sprinkled it with icing sugar. It was beautiful and imposing in equal measures.

She kept the heater on and the window wipers continually brushed the snow from the windscreen as she watched Innis’s car navigate the way down to the coast road.

The sea was strangely calm, barely a ripple, and with the flakes of snow tumbling down, it looked like it was frozen all the way out to the other islands. A rush of excitement washed over her. The evening with Innis had been everything she’d hoped for and more. He wanted to be romantic. He’d admitted that. And the word potential kept rewinding through her thoughts. Was there potential for romance with Innis? Not just a Christmas fling, but a deeper love than she could ever wish for.

Concentrate on the road, she scolded herself, feeling her thoughts drift.

The usual five minute drive took twice as long, but soon he was leading her up to the front of her house. The lights were on and a Christmas tree shone in the window.

Skye knew that Holly would be waiting up for her, keen to hear the gossip. And she had plenty to tell her. A late, late night was in the offing.

Innis got out of his car carrying the box of chocolates and handed them to her as he walked her up to her front door. Fairy lights were draped around the lintel and a lantern illuminated them both in its glow.

‘Thank you for coming up to the castle tonight, Skye.’

‘No, thank you for inviting me. I now have a better idea of your chocolatier work. And I appreciate the box of chocolates.’

He thought he smiled at her, but he wasn’t sure because numerous conflicting thoughts were distracting him. Skye’s soft, sweet lips were a distraction in themselves, and the way her trusting blue eyes looked up at him. Ask her, just ask her to go to the ball, he urged himself. And then immediately changed his mind. Their evening had been perfect. He didn’t want to risk ruining it. He would ask her, but not just now. There was time to do it before the ball. He could pop into her dress shop in the morning and perhaps invite her then.

She was still looking at him, waiting, as he appeared to be wanting to say something.

‘Goodnight, Skye,’ he said in that deep voice that sent her heart racing.

‘Goodnight.’ She opened the door and stood there to wave him off, watching his car navigate the snowscape with proficient ease.

He couldn’t get her out of his thoughts as he drove back to the castle. By the time he’d reached the forest he wished he’d invited her to go with him to the ball. He wrung out his frustration on the steering wheel and drove on towards the castle that was all aglow against the snowy sky.

Finlay was heading up the private staircase when Innis arrived. They walked up together.

‘How did the rest of your evening go with Skye?’ said Finlay. ‘Any further progress with your potential?’

‘I think so.’

They walked along the hallway that led to their suites. ‘Did you ask her to go to the ball with you?’

‘No.’

‘Where’s the potential in that?’

‘I’m working up to it. I’m planning to talk to her tomorrow morning. I didn’t want to ruin the nice evening we’d had.’

Finlay shook his head. ‘Could be bad timing. Merrilees says the dress shop is due for a large delivery of ball gowns in the morning. You’ll be in the middle of that.’

Innis wasn’t put off. ‘It’ll give me a chance to show an interest in the ball gowns.’

Finlay gave him an incredulous look. ‘You’re interested in ball gown fashion?’

Innis sighed and paused outside his door. They stopped to continue their conversation. ‘I’m trying to take an interest in the things that Skye is interested in.’

‘That’s great, but how are you going to get a private moment with her if she’s up to her eyes in dresses? Unless you’re just going to ask her on a date in front of others. Merrilees is going to the shop in the morning. They’ve earmarked a couple of dresses for her and she’s keen to see them as soon as they arrive.’

‘Point taken. But...I’ll find a way to talk to her on her own sometime tomorrow.’

‘You should, because according to the guest list of those already booked to attend the ball, there are a lot of couples. All it will take is one man to ask Skye to go with him to the ball and—’

‘I’m going to do it,’ Innis assured him, knowing that Finlay only wanted him to be happy.

They bid each other goodnight, and then Innis mentioned Ean. ‘Where’s Ean? I haven’t seen him tonight.’

Finlay paused and glanced back. ‘He was out in the snow taking photos so he can paint snowscapes. He showed me some of the pictures and they’re really incredible. I’m going to put some of them up on the website to advertise the castle. And speaking of advertising, the feature that Merrilees wrote is out in tomorrow’s newspaper. I’ve asked Murdo to buy extra copies for us.’

‘I’ll buy one for my shop.’

Having agreed on their plans, they both headed into their private suites to get some sleep. It was another early start in the morning. And now with the snow to contend with people being caught off guard because it started early, they knew the day was going to be extra hectic.

‘You were baking scones with Lyle all evening and dancing in his tea shop?’ The incredulous tone of Skye’s voice was clear.

Holly smiled and popped a chocolate in her mouth.

They sat having tea and a few of the chocolates by the fire, exchanging their latest news.

Holly shrugged and enjoyed the rich chocolate truffle.

‘Spill, I want all the details,’ Skye insisted, curling up on her fireside chair ready to hear every detail.

Holly took a sip of her tea. ‘Nothing happened. We baked, we danced. We had fun.’

‘That’s a whole lot of nothing.’

Holly giggled.

‘Start from the beginning,’ said Skye. ‘Lyle invited you to have dinner with him at the tea shop.’

‘A bowl of soup and bread. He was cooking it for his dinner and I mentioned that we’d been too busy getting ready for the carol singing to have dinner.’

‘Was he trying to chat you up?’

‘Nooo, not at all. That’s what made me look at him in a different light. To actually notice that he’s nice, and fun, and very talented with his baking. I told him I’d love to bake better scones and he offered to teach me. He was baking them anyway, so I stayed. With you being at the castle, I thought...why not?’

‘So Lyle is becoming an acquired taste after all.’ There was a knowing smile in Skye’s voice.

‘Maybe. Maybe we’ll keep things as just friends. But he’s quite fit, and a fine looking man. And we get along. He was so easy to talk to, and I got the feeling that he wasn’t pretending to be interested in what I was chatting about — dresses, fashion, more dresses. We discussed fabric. He selected the yellow gingham for his tea shop kitchen curtains.’

Skye’s heart felt a warmth, seeing that Holly had enjoyed her evening with Lyle.

‘And he let me borrow one of his recipe books.’ She had the book tucked beside her and held it up. ‘Do you want to try a scone I baked using one of the recipes? They’re in a bag in the kitchen.’

Skye stood up. ‘I’ll make more tea. You butter the scones.’

‘What about you and Innis?’ Holly said as they made their late night snack. ‘Any progress on the romance front?’

‘Sort of. He admitted that he wants to be more romantic.’ Skye explained the details of her conversation with Innis.

‘Was he?’

‘It’s hard to tell with Innis, but I’d say he’s working up to it.’

‘Progress.’

‘With potential.’ Skye revealed what he’d said to Finlay.

They carried their tea and scones through to the fire and sat down, still exchanging gossip and giggles.