Goody Two Shoes (Invertary Book 2) (25 page)

Josh resisted the urge to knock some sense into his father. Instead he went into the kitchen, refilled his coffee mug and called his mother. It was another pointless exercise in parental intervention.

“He acts like we should be in an old folks’ home,” she told him. “He doesn’t want to do anything. Go anywhere. Socialise with anyone. He barely talks to me, and when I talk to him he doesn’t hear me. I can’t keep living like this. I’m sorry, Josh, but I can’t.”

“What can he do to fix it?”
Please. Let there be something.

“I don’t know if there is anything he can do. This is who he is. He can’t change just for me. It isn’t possible.”

“Maybe there’s something else behind his behaviour? He’s always been moody, but this is overboard. Maybe we should get him to a doctor? He isn’t behaving rationally. And he’s a pain in the backside.”

“I thought of that. I had a quiet word with our doctor before his yearly check-up. There’s nothing wrong with him.”

“Nothing a good psychiatrist wouldn’t sort,” Josh mumbled.

His mother sighed. “Some people mellow as they get older. He isn’t one of them.”

“Mom, he needs to come back to the castle. Caroline and I need privacy and Dad barely tolerates her.”

“I’m sorry, Josh. You’ll have to find somewhere else for him to go. I can’t have him here.”

And that was the end of that. Between his mother’s stubborn streak, Caroline’s obsession with historical restoration and the gung-ho attitude of the work crew that had taken over the place, the castle was now out of bounds for the McInnes men. With a sense of doom, Josh started calling around the accommodation in Invertary. He was prepared to beg, or bribe, to get his father a room. Whatever it took to get some time alone with his fiancée. He was on his third failed attempt at finding his dad somewhere to go when Caroline rushed into the room.

“You let me sleep late. I’m never late.” She grabbed her briefcase from beside the kitchen table. Her hair was slightly ruffled and she still had that sleepy-eyed look. Cute.

“I didn’t let you do anything. You were the one who rolled over and snuggled in.”

“If you hadn’t been in my bed, I’d have been up hours ago.”

Josh came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her neck and felt her shiver. “If I hadn’t been in your bed you wouldn’t have woken with a smile on your face.”

“Enough of that.” She playfully smacked him away. “I need to run.”

She turned to the door. Josh grabbed her arm. “Not without a goodbye kiss you don’t.”

She opened her mouth to protest, a cute little frown on her brow. Josh clasped her cheek in his hand and touched his lips to hers. With a gentle sigh, she leaned in to him. Delicious. When he freed her, her eyes were heavy-lidded with desire. The perfect look on her.

“I really have to go.”

“Yes. Please. Go. You two are making me sick,” came the shout from the living room.

“Are you dealing with that?” Caroline pointed in the direction of his father.

Josh let out an exasperated sigh. “Trying to.”

With a look that said he’d better deal with it, and fast, she ran for the door. Josh went in to see his dad. “This is her house you’re camped in. You could try to be nicer. Otherwise you’ll be sitting in your underpants out on the street.”

As usual, there was no reply.

Ten minutes later, Josh’s day got even worse—Caroline’s bedroom door had been taken away with the trash.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

After three nights sleeping beside Josh and waking with him touching her, Caroline was pretty sure she was going to lose her mind. She was suffering. Dying from frustration. It was a delicious feeling to be eased awake by the man’s skilful fingers and tongue. That morning his fingers had drifted beneath the waistband of her pyjama trousers. He had her so wound up from his teasing touch and sinful lips that she was desperate for him to ease the ache she constantly felt. But his father woke up and that was the end of that. She shifted on her office chair and wondered if it was possible to die from sexual frustration.

Although it was entertaining watching Josh’s great plan backfire, she really wanted the door back on her bedroom. Thankfully, Josh was at the hardware store as soon as it had opened, ordering a new one. A door was good. A door would help. Having Josh’s dad out of the house would help even more.

Caroline frowned at her computer screen. She should never have let the local paper advertise the vacancy on their website. Now she had to wade her way through 15,427 applications for the position of her assistant.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, lass,” Archie said when he heard about the applications. “But I don’t think these people are interested in working with you so much as getting to Josh.”

“Really? You think?” She was busy deleting emails from anyone who didn’t live within a fifty-mile radius.

“Sarcasm, Caroline?” Archie patted her head, as though she was a dog. “I’m so proud. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I keep forgetting he’s famous,” Caroline grumbled.

Archie took his cap off his head and scratched his thinning hair. “I’m not sure how that’s possible, lass. Haven’t you noticed the town is fit to bursting? There are a lot of lookie-loos here to catch a glimpse of him. Not to mention there’s a road barricade at the edge of town, which now has a camp set up beside it full of media folk. Every time you turn on the TV you see something about you and Josh. Which reminds me, you really need to smile more. You look glum in every picture.”

“Thanks. I’ll make that a priority.”

“You do that.” Archie dunked a biscuit in his tea, then cursed when it broke.

“Delivery for you,” Findlay announced as he waltzed into the room.

He plonked a brown paper package on the desk in front of her. James looked through the window from the library, where he was manning the phones. “Is it something good?”

“I haven’t opened it yet.”

“Get on with it, then,” James said.

Caroline slit the paper and pulled out a plain brown box. She took off the lid and her jaw fell open. She jerked to her feet.

“What is it?” James demanded. “I can’t see anything.”

“You don’t want to see,” Findlay said with disgust.

Archie bustled around to peer in the box. “Bloody hell. That’s just sick. Maybe you shouldn’t look at this, lass.”

Caroline stared at the contents. Her mind reeling. Who would do something like this?

“Better call the police station,” Archie told James. “We’ll be needing them.”

“Tell me what it is,” James said.

“Just call the police.”

James grumbled, though he did as he was told.

“I’ll make tea; you need a good cup of tea. A strong one.” Findlay headed to the kitchen.

“Sit down, Caroline, love.” Archie put his hands on Caroline’s shoulders and pressed her towards the chair.

Caroline sat. She reached for the box, but Archie moved it out of the way. “I watch a lot of crime programmes. The police will want to fingerprint that.”

She nodded. She felt a little dazed. “We need to call Josh. He made me promise to call if anything happens.”

“What’s his mobile phone number?”

She looked at him blankly. “I don’t know.”

“I’ll try the castle.”

“Try my house too; he might be there.”

Archie nodded as he reached for the phone. Against her better judgement, Caroline peered into the box. There was a small cloth doll wearing a grey suit. The doll had pins stuck into it, one through the eye, and someone had painted on red dye for blood. In a clear plastic bag beside the doll was what looked like a heart. It was bloody and horrible. Lying on top of it was a note. It said:
Caroline Patterson, you don’t love him. You can’t love him. Your heart is as dead as this one.

She sank back into her chair and wondered what to do next. Deep inside she was convinced that there was a way to gain control of the situation.

She just had to find it.

“I came as soon as I heard.” Helen bustled into Caroline’s office ten minutes later. “You poor dear, you must be devastated.”

Caroline gave her future mother-in-law a bewildered smile. “That was fast. The package only arrived ten minutes ago.”

“Package?” It was Helen’s turn to look bewildered.

“The police are here,” Archie said from his position by the front door.

“Police?” Helen sat down on the only other chair in Caroline’s office and looked around as though the answer to her question was somewhere in the room. “I’m not sure this is something the police can sort out.”

Caroline frowned at her. “This is definitely something for the police.”

She heard voices, masculine voices, in the vestibule.

“I think you’re taking this a bit far,” Helen said. “I understand how you feel. I was upset too. But it’s nothing a little shopping won’t fix.”

Caroline didn’t have time to deal with Helen, or her bizarre reaction to the box, because Officer Donaldson strode into the room.

“We need to stop meeting like this,” he told Caroline. She attempted a smile, but didn’t quite pull it off. “Archie gave me the basics. Where is it?” Caroline pointed to the box on the edge of the desk. “Who handled it?” He held the box lid by the corners and lifted it up.

“Findlay, Archie maybe, I can’t really say. I touched the outside of the box, but not the contents.”

“Caroline?” Helen was worried. “What’s going on?”

She turned to explain it to her when Kirsty, followed by Lake, burst through her door.

“Caroline, honey.” Kirsty rushed over to give her a hug. “I’m so sorry. We were in the newsagent when we saw it. Don’t let it get to you. I’ll help you and it won’t be an issue anymore. I promise.”

Caroline squeezed her friend back, but shot a questioning look to Lake, who seemed amused. She pulled herself out of Kirsty’s arms. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. How could you see the box in the newsagent? Did they get one too?”

“Box?” Kirsty looked at Lake. “I’m talking about the newspapers.”

“What newspapers?”

Helen shook her head stiffly at Kirsty, who seemed to get the message. “You haven’t seen them?” Kirsty said. “Well, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing we can’t fix.”

Caroline shook her head to clear it. Had everyone around her gone insane?

“Holy guacamole.” Betty stomped into the room. “You’re more famous than Kate Middleton.”

She pushed everyone out of her way and thumped a pile of newspapers and magazines in the middle of Caroline’s desk.

“Oh no,” Helen groaned.

“You don’t need to see those.” Kirsty made a grab for the pile.

“Hands off, they’re mine,” Betty warned.

Kirsty looked pointedly at Lake.

“I can remove you or the magazines,” he told Betty. “Your choice.”

She grinned a toothless grin at him. “You’re like a son to me.”

Caroline reached for the newspaper on top of the pile while everyone was arguing. She turned it over to see the front. The headline screamed,
Is this the most boring woman in Britain?
And there she was, dressed in a grey suit, looking severe.

“What on earth?” She grabbed another one.

This one had
The grey lady of the north
as its headline. The subheading asked why sexiest man alive Josh McInnes could marry someone like her. Caroline swallowed hard.

Kirsty and Helen came up beside her. Each of them tried to take the bundle out of her hands.

“No, I want to see.”

Woman’s Weekly
had a double-page spread dedicated to her. It showed six photos of her all in different grey suits. All with makeup-free faces. And all without a smile. The article demanded that Caroline burn the suits and hire an image consultant. It said she was letting the country down.

The front cover of
Francine Magazine
showed a picture of her alongside headshots of the presenters from
What Not to Wear
. The duo had decided that she needed their help. They were campaigning to get people to put pressure on her to take them up on an offer of a full makeover.

“How did they get all of these photos?” She stared at the double-page spread. “Some of these are years old.”

“Caroline.” Officer Donaldson cut into her thoughts. “We need to talk about the box.”

Kirsty spun on him. “Can’t you see she’s upset? The country thinks she looks terrible. Talk about a box some other time.”

He looked at the ceiling for a moment before answering her. “As important as Caroline’s clothes are, someone sent her a box with a threatening letter and an animal heart. I think that takes precedence.”

“What the hell?” Lake pushed through the women to get to the desk. “When did this arrive?”

“This morning,” Officer Donaldson said.

“Postmark?”

“Fort William.”

“Where’s Josh?” Lake said. All eyes turned to Caroline. “Did anyone call Josh?”