Epilogue
SARAH
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Ardnoch, Scottish Highlands
The Gloaming was filled with chatter and laughter, the clinking of glasses, and the crackling of flames in the fireplace at one end.
There had been many surreal moments in my life in the past eighteen months, especially the past year, and this moment was another to add to the list.
It had taken me thirty-two years, but I had a friendship circle.
Our group had taken up the largest booth in the Gloaming.
I was tucked into the corner with Theo next to me, one arm slung over my shoulders while he clasped his pint glass with his free hand.
Across from me sat Aria, North at her side.
On North’s other side was Aria’s twenty-year-old sister Allegra, visiting from the States.
Across from her, next to Theo, was Jared. And beside him was Walker and Sloane and across from them sat Brodan and Monroe. Their children were being watched by family members so we could all catch up while we were in Ardnoch visiting.
Theo and I would be traveling on to my little cottage in Gairloch to write.
It was wonderful seeing everyone and feeling part of a community, even when I wasn’t physically here.
And while I was enjoying catching up, my attention kept straying to Allegra as she talked with Jared.
She was asking him all kinds of questions about the farm and my cousin indulged her, but I was a wee bit worried by the gleam in her pretty eyes.
Allegra was a stunning young woman and maybe in a few years, Jared might take notice.
But I knew my cousin. He preferred his women older, worldlier, and not the daughter of a Hollywood legend.
Aria leaned across the table toward me. “Does your cousin have to be so attractively rugged? Farmers are supposed to be jolly old men.”
I chuckled at that and waved off her concern. “Jared would never.” He was a player, but he had lines he wouldn’t cross.
Theo ducked his head into our conversation. “Are we talking about the flirty Lolita?” He gestured comically with his hand.
I squeezed his thigh under the table. “Try not to be so obvious.”
“And don’t bring up Lolita in any sense of the word.” Aria threw a peanut at him. “It’s creepy.”
Theo laughed, raising his hands in surrender. “Apologies.”
“You could be helpful and rescue Jared from the conversation,” I whispered.
My boyfriend smirked at me as if I were adorably naive. “My love, I do not think the good farmer wants to be rescued from this situation.”
I frowned and cut a look at Jared. He was staring a wee bit too intensely at Allegra as she smiled and chatted to him about wanting to see the farm, if he might let her set up her easel on the land so she could paint.
Jared shrugged noncommittally as he scrubbed a hand over his perfectly trimmed beard.
Allegra stopped talking as if waiting for a proper answer.
The rest of our table chatted on, Theo joking with Aria and North about the article that had just come out in which Angeline Potter denigrated Ardnoch.
Aria took his teasing easily, considering it hadn’t harmed Ardnoch.
Everyone in the know knew Angeline’s membership had been cancelled after I’d told Agnes Hutchinson what had occurred during my time there.
To my surprise, a new housekeeper had come forward with similar complaints.
Theo had been right. Angeline had found someone new to bully.
My thoughts drifted, however, and drowned out the conversations at the end of the table as I watched Jared and Allegra stare at each other. Goose bumps rose on my arms as I witnessed something silent pass between them.
And then Jared shook his head slightly, as if coming out of a daze, and he suddenly turned to Walker. “Mate, can you let me out?”
Walker and Sloane slid out of the booth to grant Jared’s exit, and I saw Allegra follow his movements as my cousin cut across the bar toward the restroom.
For a while, I fell into discussion with my friends, Allegra engaging with us too.
But then I noted after some time that she noticed Jared hadn’t returned.
I watched her look for him and find him at the bar, flirting with a local named Sadie.
She was a hairdresser at Ardnoch’s only salon, a single mum, and about ten years older than Jared.
I knew from rumors that they’d slept together a few years back.
Apparently, Sadie wasn’t sore that it hadn’t turned into anything because she and Jared left the pub together.
He never looked at Allegra again.
Aria’s pretty sister frowned at the table, lost in her thoughts.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t know what to say.
Theo covered my hand with his and smiled tenderly down at me. “Leave it, my love.”
Aye, he was right. There was no point making something big out of nothing.
“Sarah, you have to tell me what happens in the next Juno book!” Monroe suddenly yelled down the table. “We were just updating Brodan and Walker on the cliff-hanger you’ve left us all on.”
I laughed at her disgruntled expression. “I’ll tell you soon once I know. I start writing it next week.”
“Oh, you must have an idea, though.”
“I do.”
Theo chuckled at my smug secretiveness.
Monroe huffed. “Do we not get the friendship sneak peek? Come on.”
The friendship sneak peek. That sounded nice. “Well …” I heaved a dramatic sigh. “Since it’s you, I can tell you that Juno will live.”
“We know that! It’s the Juno McLeod series.”
Chuckling, I leaned into Theo. “Should I tell them?”
“Herrings,” he whispered in my ear. “Tell them just the red herrings.”
“Don’t listen to whatever he is whispering in your ear. I can tell he’s not on our side.” Sloane pointed a pretend angry finger at Theo.
Theo chuckled. “She knows me well.”
“Not as well as I do,” I murmured.
“No one knows me as well as you do,” he offered with casual surety.
I stared at him in awe, disbelieving that this once closed-off, cynical aristocrat’s son could make me feel like I was the most important person in the world and do it every day.
As I stared up at his handsome face, with my friends begging to know more about my books because they were genuine fans, I didn’t think I could get any happier than I was at that moment.
ONE WEEK LATER
Gairloch, Scottish Highlands
“In other headlines this evening,” the radio newscaster announced as we drove the winding, dark roads toward Gairloch, “serial killer Quinn Gray, sentenced to life in prison back in May of this year for the Hangman murders, died today from multiple stab wounds.
Paramedics were unable to resuscitate him as he succumbed to his injuries before reaching hospital.
Police have yet to name suspects but have released a statement confirming Gray was attacked by a fellow inmate.
“In entertainment news, crowds gather at Wembley tonight as global star Koda kicks off her UK tour …”
Switching off the car stereo with trembling fingers, I noted Theo’s hands clenched tightly around the wheel. “Are you all right?”
“The bastard’s dead,” he replied hoarsely. “He can’t harm anyone else. So, yes, I’m all right.” He glanced at me. “Are you?”
“Is it wrong that I’m relieved?”
“No. No, it’s not wrong.” Theo reached over to squeeze my hand before returning his to the wheel.
We drove in silence for a while, lost in our thoughts at the sudden and strange news until the headlights lit up the sign for Gairloch.
“‘When the moonlight’s on the mountain / And the gloom is on the glen, / At the cross beside the fountain / There is one will meet thee then,’” Theo recited softly as we drove along the winding coastal roads into Gairloch.
The moon cast a glow over the loch below and the snow-topped hills made me shiver with anticipation. It had been a year since I’d stayed at the cottage. With Theo.
It would forever be our place, and I loved the idea of us staying there for a few weeks every year.
“What’s that from?” I asked, wanting a distraction from the news that had dampened my excitement with dark memories.
“‘When the Gloom is on the Glen,’ by William Makepeace Thackeray. It’s a love poem.” He glanced at me. “Have you never heard it?”
“No. It’s pretty. We should write a poem about us and a glen.”
“Hmm, how so?” he asked.
“We had to climb mountains to get here. To have this.” I gestured between us. “It took us a while to find the glen that would let us pass through.”
He flashed me a smile, but I couldn’t tell if it reached his eyes. “How very poetic, my love. And very true.”
I reached over to smooth a hand down his arm. “I’m here if you need to talk about this.”
“I don’t,” he promised. “It’s finally over, Sarah. That’s a gift.”
Hearing the sincerity in his voice, I nodded and let it go.
A few minutes later, Theo pulled into the cottage’s driveway and then we bustled inside out of the cold, only to walk into more cold because the heating had been switched off.
Even so, as we flipped on the lights, illuminating the desk Theo had pushed next to mine this time last year, all dark memories were obliterated.
Old beautiful ones flooded in. Those days when I didn’t know what these intense feelings between us meant, but they were exciting and new and I wanted to experience every second of them, no matter what.
Theo slid his arm around me, his gaze on the desks that sat at the window overlooking a view obscured by winter darkness.
“This is my favorite place in the world,” he whispered, turning to me, all the love I could ever hope for burning in his eyes.
Now that we were here again, I couldn’t imagine only visiting once a year.
“Mine too,” I whispered back. “It’s good to be home.”
He pressed a tender kiss to my temple and agreed, “Isn’t it, though? And I’ve thought of a new name for it.”
“What’s wrong with Haven’s View Cottage?” I thought it was pretty.
“Nothing, really. But I thought perhaps Through the Glen Cottage suited us a little better.”
I sighed happily, loving that only I got to see how utterly romantic Theo could be. I snuggled into his warmth. “Aye. Through the Glen Cottage. It’s perfect, Mr. Cavendish.”