Chapter 12
There were no words between us as we drove into Ardnoch. Jared parked his Defender behind the buildings on Castle Street, the main thoroughfare of the village. Morag met us at the back door of her grocery store, her eyes widening at the sight of me.
“Allegra, what brings you here this morning?” Morag asked, friendly and warm as always. Every other month she changed the color of the rinse in her hair. Today it was purple.
A familiar knot tightened in my stomach as I prepared to tell her about our marriage. I really had underestimated how much it would suck lying to this community of people who had become my home. It was especially horrible with Morag because she was the first person to hear the news and be delighted by it.
“That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed, pulling me into a tight hug.
Stupid tears pricked my eyes, and I blinked rapidly to stop them falling. My gaze caught Jared’s and he looked as torn up as I felt.
He quickly pasted on a small smile as Morag turned to him. “And you! Och, I knew you’d eventually find someone who’d knock you on your well-formed arse, Jared McCulloch.”
I giggled at that as Jared easily took her embrace and hugged her in return. The affectionate look on his face made me feel a little envious of the older woman.
“And of course it would be Allegra,” Morag said as she released Jared. She reached out to touch my cheek affectionately. “This one is very special. I hope you both know how lucky you are.”
Those tears burned again. “Morag …” I gave her hand a squeeze in thanks. My guilt sickened me.
In fact, I was never so thankful to get back in the Defender and drive away from her kindness.
“That sucked,” I finally broke the silence between us as Jared drove back toward the farm.
“Aye. It did. I suppose we’d better get used to the feeling.”
“I didn’t think about this part when I proposed marriage. I didn’t think about how hard it would be to lie to everyone.”
“I know.”
“Do you regret it already, Jared?”
He shot me a hard look. “Do you?”
I turned away, watching the village pass by, watching it turn into trees and then fields and mountains and sea. I would never be able to explain why this was the place my soul felt at peace. The truth was, I didn’t care why it was. Just that I’d found it. Minutes disappeared between us before I finally answered, “I’d do anything to stay here. So no. I don’t regret it.”
“I’d do anything to keep the farm,” Jared replied gruffly. “So I don’t regret it either.”
Have you told Mom and Dad yet? xx
The text from Aria arrived an hour after our trip to Morag’s.
My heart leapt at the question and I quickly texted back:
Not yet. Please let me tell them. xx
Less than a minute later, my cell pinged again.
Okay. But you need to tell them. And I would like to have lunch. Just the two of us. So we can talk. xx
Sure. I’m getting settled on the farm for now but I’ll call you. xx
My phone pinged again but I ignored it, focusing on the tour. Jared officially introduced me to Georgie, whom I’d briefly met when he collected Jared from the Gloaming the night he was drunk. He was around Jared’s age, shared a similar broad-shouldered build, but had a thick crop of red hair and an even thicker dark brown beard. While Jared was tan from working outside year round, Georgie had pale skin and freckles.
His blue eyes twinkled with mischief upon our introduction, and I knew without asking that he knew this was all a ruse. I could only hope Jared had warned him to keep quiet about it.
Our first stop was the cow shed in the first field next to the farmhouse. Shed was an inaccurate description for the huge structure that housed the cattle. Inside it were two injured cows. The rest were out in the fields. Jared showed me their setup for milking, how the fresh milk was collected and then transported to a processing plant to kill the bacteria, before being sold on to major dairy brands.
The rest of the morning, we drove all over the farm. He showed me his rapeseed crops, the barley fields, and the meadows where he intended to put sheep.
“That’s one of the first things I want to do. Buy sheep, hire a shepherd again,” Jared told me as we drove onto a meadow field with the most spectacular far-reaching views toward the sea. “Equipment needs replaced too. I’ll make a list of the costs so you know exactly what’s happening financially.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I assured him. “Just buy what you need. My financial guy is going to transfer the money to your business account.”
Jared gave me a hard, penetrating look. “I want you to know exactly where the money is going.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
I could tell by the slight ticking of muscle in his jaw that Jared was frustrated. My gut told me he hated his part of the bargain—taking money from me. The farm was worth the hit to his pride, though. And I understood that.
“This field is different.” He gestured for me to follow him out of the vehicle. He opened the gate and I breathed in the sweet-smelling air as we traversed the wildflower-strewn ground.
There was barely a cloud in the sky and the sun was warm on my bare arms. It was like we stood in a mammoth great hall with a sky-blue ceiling above, and lush green, purple, and white carpet beneath our feet. Beyond the fields were trees that hid the main road in the distance, so all a person could see was the glinting sparkle of the North Sea.
“This is so beautiful,” I whispered.
Jared heard me. “Which is why I think it would be perfect for a holiday rental opportunity.”
I turned to him. “You mean houses? Build houses here?”
He shook his head. “Have you heard of glamping pods?”
“Yeah. I’ve stayed in a few.” Excitement thrummed through me as I realized what he was planning. “Jared, that’s a fantastic idea.” I shaded my eyes as I gazed up toward the top of the sloping field where the land leveled out. “Up there?”
“Aye.” He jerked his head for me to follow him, and we strode uphill until we reached a large, flattened area. Jared gestured to his left. “A costly part will be putting a road in that brings guests right to the top. But I think it’ll be necessary.”
“Agreed.”
“I reckon we’d get six glamping pods on here. I’ve looked into it, and if we make them high spec, we can charge about a hundred a night in high season, sixty per night low season.”
My brain whirred. “You know I’ve seen some really successful social media accounts for holiday rentals in Scotland. They have so many followers, they’re booked out eighteen months in advance. That’s three grand a month in the high season per pod. That’s a gross income of eighteen thousand a month.”
Jared nodded, expression serious, thoughtful. “Aye, if you can make it work on social media. I don’t have any social media.”
“I do. For my art.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “I have a different artist’s name. Lucy Stella. No one really knows it’s me because I never post my face. I have almost four hundred thousand followers.”
Jared’s expression softened with admiration. “That’s amazing.”
I shrugged again, my cheeks a little flushed. “I’m creative. The whole social media thing comes naturally to me. So I could help with that. I’m not bad with a camera. I could take the perfect shots.” Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I tapped on a social media icon. “Here, let me show you what I’m thinking.”
Jared bridged the distance between us and I ignored the way my heart jumped at the feel of his hard shoulder touching me. My skin prickled as his head ducked beside mine to look at the screen. “Here.” I tapped on a particular account of a holiday rental on Skye. “They’ve captured the kind of luxury hygge lifestyleperfectly. People eat it up and want to experience what they’re selling.”
He appeared thoughtful for a second. Then he glanced down at my feet. “You up for a small hike?”
“Um … sure. Why?”
“This way.” He started through the clearing that would house the pods and into the woodland behind it. I hurried to follow, keeping all my questions to myself. After a few minutes walking through a dense woodland that was cool and shaded, we began going downhill.
It was kind of steep, and Jared kept glancing back to make sure I was okay. My legs, however, were strong from all the hiking I’d done since moving here.
Then suddenly beyond us, something sparkled through the trees. Anticipation filled me, and I was not disappointed as the ground leveled out and the trees opened up. Jared stopped and turned to me, eyes alight with pride as we stood on the banks of a small inland loch.
There was room enough for two more glamping pods here.
“This … Jared, this is stunning.”
“Do you think you could do with this what those people have done on social media with theirs? There’s a rough road over the hill at the back there.” He pointed toward the east. “It would be more money, but we could bring it close enough so guests don’t need to hike to get here. What do you think? Could you make this place look amazing on social media?”
I nodded, meeting his inquiring gaze and trying not to drop mine to his mouth. “Absolutely.”
“Great. We could split the profits.”
“So it’ll also feel like an investment for me?” I asked pointedly, knowing it was important to him that it didn’t feel like I was just giving him my money.
“Aye, aye, definitely. Plus you’d be helping me make it work, right? You should get paid for your time.” The first real smile I’d seen from him in ages flashed across his face, and it made me want to kiss the hell out of him. “We could make this happen.”
“We could.” I grinned. “It’s exciting.” I stepped toward the water. It was still as glass and almost green from the reflection of the surrounding trees. In fact, it was reminiscent of the famous green loch, An Lochan Uaine. I’d driven south to the Cairngorms last summer and walked the forty-five minutes to get to it.
At the time, I’d thought what a wonderful place that loch would be to have an artist’s studio. I’d been searching for the perfect spot for so long. My chest ached as I gazed around at Jared’s own green loch. I realized the ache was envy. This place would be perfect. I could see myself here with a studio that had at least two walls made entirely of glass. Surrounded by natural beauty and inspiration as I disappeared into my creations.
“Is something wrong?”
I yanked myself out of the thought and met Jared’s concerned gaze. “Oh. Um. Nothing.”
His brows drew together so tightly he appeared almost angry. “Tell me. Are you having second thoughts?”
“No.” My smile was reassuring. “I’m … just … honestly, I’m a little jealous of your future guests. This place would be ideal for an artist’s studio.”
His brow cleared. “Oh.” He glanced around, taking in the surroundings. “Aye, I suppose it would. Do you not have a studio?”
“A temporary one. In the village. It’s a garage attached to the converted blacksmiths. The owners rent it out to me.”
“That doesn’t sound very inspiring.”
I chuckled dryly. “It’s not. But it’ll do for now.” I pulled my cell from my pocket. “We should take that selfie.”
“And then head back to the house for some lunch so we can talk about the financials?”
“Sure.” Trying not to make a big deal out of it, I moved into his space, pressing my back to his hard chest as I tapped my screen to camera. In selfie mode, I lifted the phone above us and attempted not to react as Jared settled his hand on my waist and leaned down so our faces were level.
“Say cheese,” I joked before smiling brightly into the camera.
Jared’s lips softened so he was almost but not quite smiling, and I took the shot.
He immediately released me and stepped away.
I will not take offense to that, I lied to myself.
“It’s cute.” I glanced quickly at the photo, not wanting to be caught lingering over it, even though I planned to stare at it as soon as I was alone.
Jared cleared his throat. “Good. Let’s head back.”
After our quiet hike uphill, I asked him a few more questions about the farm as we returned to his Defender. Jared replied with one-word answers.
When we reached the farmhouse, Jared made us mammoth sandwiches I couldn’t finish so he ate all his and my leftovers, and we talked money.
However, that emotional wall he liked to erect between us was back in place, shutting me out.
He was Mr. Coolly Distant again.