Chapter 13
The area north of Portree had some of the most stunning sights on Skye, from towering peaks and stomach-dropping cliffs, to tumbling waterfalls and fairy circles. And Giselle was going to take Rocco to see every last one of them in a whistlestop tour of the most popular tourist must-sees.
When he came to pick her up at dead-on eight o’clock the following morning, she noticed with a wry smile that he was suitably dressed for the great outdoors.
There was even a brand-new rucksack on the back seat.
More cheese and pickle sandwiches, she presumed.
She also noticed he hadn’t shaved, and she thought the less-well-groomed look suited him.
He was looking more like the laid-back, T-shirt-wearing, necklace-sporting man she’d met in Venice, and a bolt of desire shot through her.
‘Where to?’ he asked.
Bed? The thought caught her unawares. ‘How fit are you?’ she asked, swiftly shoving the thought out of her head.
‘Probably not as fit as I’d like to think I am. Why? What did you have in mind?’
Oh, he was fit all right, and what was going through her mind right now had nothing to do with the great outdoors. ‘Lealt Falls, I think.’
‘Sounds good.’
‘And after that, a nice wee stretch of the legs.’
‘How wee?’
‘A couple of hours.’
‘That doesn’t sound too bad.’
We’ll see, she thought with a smile. It would probably take a bit longer. Maybe twice as long. If he was up to it. The Quiraing was an impressive rock formation, regarded as possibly the most spectacular landscape on Skye. Was she being cruel making him hike it?
Probably!
‘Why do I get the feeling I’m in for a rather full day?’ he asked, after she’d given him directions. ‘We don’t have to do everything today; we can save something for tomorrow.’
‘You expect me to entertain you two days in a row? I do have other things to do, you know.’
‘Yes, of course. Sorry. Thank you for taking time out today.’
She shot him a glance to see if he was being sarcastic, but he seemed genuine.
Relenting, she said, ‘If we don’t cover it all today, we’ll go out again another day, if that’s what you want.
’ Actually, it was what she wanted. The thought of spending another day in his company was rather exciting.
It was also worrying because she found it exciting.
Too much excitement when it came to this man wouldn’t be good for her – and she had a feeling she could get very excited indeed.
Oh, dear, I must stop thinking of him that way.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t help it because he was so damned sexy.
And she was starting to like him again – a fatal combination.
Deciding she’d better concentrate on something other than her growing desire, Giselle took to pointing out things of interest as they travelled along the A855 towards the falls.
‘Slow down here,’ she instructed, ‘and look to your left.’
Rocco slowed and glanced out of the window, then quickly turned his attention back to the road.
‘Pretty,’ he said, risking another look.
‘That’s the Bride’s Veil Fall, so called because it resembles a white veil flowing over the rocks.’
‘So it does,’ he agreed after yet another look.
‘And up there is the mountain known as The Old Man of Storr. It’s the remains of a volcanic plug of rock formed during the Jurassic period, and it got its name because its outline looks like an old man.
I’ve never been able to see it myself,’ she added, wishing she didn’t sound like a badly scripted tour guide as they drove past the glowering basalt pinnacle.
She fell silent for a while, letting the scenery speak for itself as the car ate up the miles. Being without transport meant she rarely ventured far from Duncoorie, and she was enjoying the novelty of this excursion almost as much as she was enjoying being in Rocco’s company.
It was a glorious day: blue sky, a smattering of white fluffy clouds, cobalt sea, with the misty Isle of Rona in the distance on the one side and the brooding mountains on the other.
‘Pull over,’ she instructed, pointing to a layby, and Rocco swung the car off the road and brought it to a halt.
Giselle scrambled out, glad of an excuse to put some distance between them, even if it was only for a minute or two.
Looking back the way they’d come, she said, ‘That’s Storr. You can see it better from here. It takes about an hour to hike to the top. And that there—’ she pointed ‘—is the island of Rona, and beyond it, Raasay. Lealt Falls is a couple of miles in that direction.’
Rocco was gazing into the distance. ‘The scenery here is stunning.’
‘It is that,’ she agreed.
He took several deep breaths. ‘The air is so clean and fresh.’
‘We’ve got a bit of a northerly breeze going on just now, so it’s coming all the way from Greenland.’ The sun might be shining, but it was a bit parky, and she shivered. Then immediately stiffened when Rocco put his arm around her.
‘I’ve got a spare fleece in the car, if you’re cold,’ he told her.
‘Och, I’m fine,’ she replied in a high-pitched squeak. ‘Shall we get going? It’s still early yet. The day will soon warm up.’
It was warming up already, she thought, as her cheeks began to glow, and when he released her, her disappointment was acute. Being held by him, however briefly, had felt so good.
After they’d got back in the car, Giselle studiously not looking at him in the hope that her flushed cheeks would calm down, it only took a minute or so to arrive at the falls.
‘We’re here,’ she said, instructing him to pull into a small parking area that already had several cars in it. The waterfall wasn’t visible from the road, and if it wasn’t for a wooden viewing platform jutting out from the side of the hill, there’d be little indication of anything worth seeing.
Miraculously, the platform was empty of people and Giselle skipped to the end, Rocco following at a more sedate pace. The roar of the water as it plunged down the narrow tree-covered gorge in its headlong rush to the sea filled her ears.
‘Oh, wow!’ Rocco exclaimed as he came to stand beside her, his face alight with wonder.
‘It’s quite something, isn’t it? Want to take a hike to the bottom?’
‘Can you actually get down there?’ He gazed dubiously at the drop.
‘You most definitely can. It’s steep and narrow in places, but loads of people do it, even kids.’
‘Are you insinuating that I’m a scaredy cat?’
Giselle smirked. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’
‘Then lead on, Ellis,’ he commanded with a mock frown.
The path was gravelly and well defined at first, but quickly became less easy to navigate, with a steep drop on one side. But the views were worth what was promising to be a very challenging hike back up.
The gorge was a gash in the earth, the river cascading through it, and with the mountains as its backdrop, it was breathtaking. Dropping lower, the views changed as she and Rocco traversed the rough zig-zag path, and they paused for a moment to gaze out to sea.
‘How does it compare?’ Giselle asked. ‘I bet you’ve been to some impressive places.’ She recalled that he’d been travelling around Europe with a friend when she’d met him, and assumed he’d seen grander sights than this.
‘It doesn’t.’ His reply was thoughtful, considered. ‘I’ve been to some great places – the Alps, the Pyrenees, Iceland—’
‘Iceland? I’d love to go there!’ she interrupted. ‘What was it like?’
‘Otherworldly, magnificent, humbling, but…’
‘But, what?’
‘There’s something about Skye, isn’t there?’ His eyes shone as he turned to look at her.
He got it, he really got it. There was something special about Skye. It was difficult to put into words, but the island tugged at your heartstrings, and Rocco felt it too.
She cleared her throat, a throat that had suddenly developed a lump in it.
The rest of the descent continued in silence until they reached the rocky beach bisected by the river.
Crumbling stone buildings sat on either side, the water relatively shallow because the tide was out.
Above the high-tide mark was a stone structure with tumbledown walls and no roof, but a tall, metal-clad, orange-rusted chimney still stood proud.
‘What did this use to be?’ Rocco asked.
‘I’m not a hundred per cent sure, but I believe it was something to do with the mining of diatomite, back in the nineteenth century.
Diatomite is used in cat litter and toothpaste, of all things.
The rock was prepared here, then shipped out on boats.
Don’t ask me how the chimney comes into it, though.
If you go around the other side, you can actually go inside and see right to the top. ’
Eagerly, Rocco did as she suggested and she followed, standing close beside him to stare up through the brick heart of the chimney at a circle of bright blue sky.
‘From the road, you’d never know any of this was here,’ he said, running a hand over the coarse worn bricks. ‘Is it possible to get to the buildings on the other side of the river?’
‘The tide is low, so we can paddle across.’ She eyed his hiking boots. ‘You might have to take those off, though.’
‘I’m game, if you are.’ He paused. ‘Would you like to explore the beach? See if you can find any sea glass?’
She shook her head. ‘This is your day, not mine. I can look for sea glass any time.’
‘Here?’
‘Well, no, not here, exactly.’ She could get here on the bus, but it was a bit of a faff.
‘Are you in a rush to move on?’
She wasn’t, and Rocco seemed happy enough to dabble around on the rocky, pebbly beach. It was probably too pebbly for any decent finds, but she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to have a quick look.
After half an hour of poking around, she’d managed to find a couple of fragments, which she carefully stowed in her bag.
‘Do you still want to go to the other side?’ she asked, and when he confirmed that he did, they headed upstream to find a suitable place to cross.
The water was clear, fast flowing and icy cold, as Giselle discovered when she delicately dipped a bare toe in it.