Chapter 15
The conversation with Nat had been lovely, and Bex had agreed to leave a key under the mat to let her into the castle if she couldn’t find anyone to be there.
After all, it wasn’t as if Nat didn’t know the place.
She’d grown up in LochDarroch, and had attended the same tour four times during her own school career before running the trip herself for the last six years.
She’d also been in the same school year as Niall, and assured Bex multiple times that none of the children would be out of her or the other teacher’s sight for even a second.
Bex, in turn, warned her about the dodgy step, at which point Nat decided to keep the tour to the downstairs only.
Back at work, the afternoon turned out to be far more relaxing than Bex had expected. Not that it wasn’t busy, but it was the type of busy she knew and liked, and there was the added bonus of nothing unexpected happening either.
The only person who came into the office was Fi’s dad, who had a scheduled thirty-minute appointment.
Eddie ran the local garage but had an annoying – albeit very generous – habit of letting his customers pay him whenever they could.
The result of which had been very nearly losing his business.
Fortunately, Fi had sought Bex’s help just in time, and their regular meetings were just to ensure he wasn’t taking on any pro-bono work, which, thankfully, he hadn’t.
After Eddie left, Bex spent another two hours working on accounts before a thirty-minute Zoom call with a client from London, who wanted her skills for a new venture they were starting. It was good news all the way.
As the end of the day came around, Bex drew in a long, almost relaxed breath.
Afternoons like that, productive and organised, went a long way towards dealing with the bubble of stress that was constantly threatening to burst within her.
Fi was right. It was all about organisation.
Getting all her ducks in a row so that she wasn’t wasting time unnecessarily.
On the short drive back to the castle, her thoughts were focused on arranging her days and weeks as productively as possible.
What she needed to do was schedule everything.
Make sure village events only happened on Tuesday evenings, for example.
And make sure that Rosie got at least twenty minutes of training in the morning and evening, so that her brain was tired out too.
Hopefully, that way, the dog would cause slightly less chaos, and Bex would have some time to herself, and more importantly, for her and Duncan.
Noting the way the late spring sunlight filtered through the trees as she parked up her car, she felt determined.
This was going to be the evening she properly put together a Pinterest board for the wedding.
She was also going to send a message to the girls – something she still hadn’t done – and ask them to come over for a get-together to go through the clothes for the photoshoot.
Then, she was going to send a long message to Daisy, because she knew from her past that clearing her head was one of the most helpful things she could do to make herself more efficient.
Efficiency. That was going to be her buzzword going into the future.
She was going to be the most efficient version of herself that had ever existed, and given that there was no time like the present, she was going to start with looking through all the items Amanda had brought for her before dinner.
Buoyant with enthusiasm, Bex stepped into the castle. ‘Duncan?’ she called as she slipped off her jacket. ‘You home?’
‘Hey! Upstairs!’
Her heart lifted unexpectedly. He was actually in? She called his name out of habit, but she had long since stopped expecting to have him reply. The sound of his voice was enough to lift her spirits even higher as she bounded up the stairs to see him.
‘Hey, you’re back early,’ she said, pressing her lips against his, as if he might disappear any second. ‘How come you’re home?’
‘I was doing some work here,’ Duncan replied between kisses. ‘Interviewing a couple of groundskeepers again.’
‘Any good?’ she asked. It was tough. She wanted to keep kissing him, but she also wanted to talk to him. They didn’t have time to do enough of either at the minute.
‘Not really.’ Duncan shifted away from her, planting a kiss on her forehead. ‘So I thought I’d take the dogs for a walk.’
‘How did they behave?’
Duncan raised an eyebrow. ‘By “they” I assume you’re talking about one particular canine,’ he said with a grin. ‘She was good, actually. Really good. Didnae run off once.’
‘You’re lying,’ Bex said, half-laughing, half-hopeful. If he wasn’t, then it really was just her Rosie misbehaved with, and that was the last thing she wanted.
‘No, she was great. Left them all downstairs for now. She was pestering Kenna when I came up.’
Bex chuckled to herself; there was no doubt who was going to win that battle. They had a total of six dogs in the house, and the top one was a cat.
‘So we’re here,’ she said, glancing around, ‘early, together, alone in the house?’
‘It does look that way,’ Duncan said, eyes twinkling.
‘How could we possibly spend our time?’ Bex teased.
‘Well, I was about to get in the shower. How do you fancy joining me?’
‘That sounds perfect,’ Bex replied.
The first time she’d ever met Duncan, he had stepped out of the shower completely naked, in what she’d thought was her room. It had been something of a traumatic experience, but now they laughed about it, and used the shower for far more enjoyable purposes. Along with getting clean, of course.
‘Well then,’ Duncan said, offering his hand. ‘Why don’t you follow me this way, my lady?’
Excitement flooded through Bex. They may have been together for years now – excluding that one little blip – but she didn’t think there’d ever be a time when she’d had enough of Duncan.
His sweet nature, his soft sense of humour, his absolutely perfect body that she couldn’t wait to run her hands over.
They were kissing again, with a new sense of fun and urgency, and it was making walking far less efficient, but in this one particular instance she would make an exception.
They’d just reached the bedroom door when paws came thundering up behind them.
‘Whoa – slow down!’ Bex jumped to the side to dodge Kenna, only to jump back the other way as Rosie came hurtling after her. ‘You two, stop it! Those stairs will break if you keep doing that!’
As she should have expected, both animals completely ignored her, unfazed by the fragile state of the staircase that they were running about.
Still running at full pelt, the animals reached the end of the hallway, swivelled around and changed direction as Rosie continued chasing Kenna back the other way.
But the pursuit didn’t last much longer as the cat leapt easily onto one of the side tables, well out of reach.
Rosie barked in annoyance.
‘Sorry, girl,’ Duncan said, crouching beside her. ‘You’re never going to win that one. You should learn not to pick fights with her.’
‘And you,’ Bex said to Kenna, walking over and scratching her ear, ‘you need to stop winding her up. I know that’s what you’re doing.
’ The cat purred as if entirely innocent, then lifted a paw to her cheek and rubbed her nose delicately.
Bex couldn’t help but laugh. ‘She’s just as bad as Rosie,’ Bex said to Duncan.
‘She knows what she’s doing, winding the pup up like that. ’
Still grinning at the ridiculousness of the situation – and the desire to get back to what she and Duncan had been doing before the animals interrupted – Bex moved towards her fiancé, only to notice he was frowning at the dog.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. Just something in her mouth. Goodness knows what she’s been chewing this time. Probably one of your slippers again.’
‘You need to get it out of there – she can’t keep eating fluff,’ Bex said, reaching to open Rosie’s jaw and hook a finger inside. ‘We’re going to end up with crazy vet bills if she does that.’
There had been a time in her life when the idea of sticking her hand into a large dog’s mouth would have worried Bex. Now, it was just another regular afternoon.
After a moment of rummaging around Rosie’s back teeth, Bex pulled out the soggy scrap of what she assumed had once been white material.
‘Is that your dressing gown cord again?’ Duncan asked. ‘She’s made some impressive holes in it if that’s the case.’
‘I… I don’t think it is that,’ Bex said, squinting at the material. ‘I feel like the holes were already in it, like it’s some kind of…’
Her stomach plummeted before the last word even left her lips.
‘Bex? What is it?’
‘Lace,’ Bex whispered as she stared at the limp, chewed scrap of once-white fabric in her hand.
Something cold and numb and altogether terrifying was rising in her chest, and she looked back at the dog, who was sitting proudly, wagging her tail in a manner that normally made Bex smile.
But she couldn’t smile. Not now. She could barely breathe.
‘Tell me you didn’t, Rosie,’ she said instead. ‘Please tell me you didn’t.’