Highland Secrets (English Edition) (22 page)

I came home loade
d up with items for our new house that I had purchased on Princess Street. Adam welcomed me with a nervous smile on his face.

“Ha
s your whisky warehouse blown up?”, I asked and looked at him with my head tilted.

“No. Don’t sa
y something like that. I don’t want it to happen for real.” He took the shopping off me and put it on the sideboard in the modernly furnished kitchen. I had opted for jet black cupboards. I know, the finger prints.

Adam
pulled me towards his chest and kissed me. “I missed you.”

“Oh re
ally?”, I said mischievously. “I didn’t miss you, I was shopping.”

“Yes,
what is it with shopping? You women are always disloyal when it comes to shoes.”

I punched his chest. “I didn’t buy any shoes. Just
items to decorate the house with.”

“That’s just as bad.” He kissed me again, this time more intensely. “I have to tell you something”, he said and took my hand. He took me right to the top floor under the roof
top of our house. When I was last upstairs, it was a typical attic. And I was actually convinced that it was still like this. However, when Adam pushed open the door, I was speechless.

He had extended the attic
. Paintings were hanging on the walls from the gallery at the estate in Dunvegan. He had put up the portraits of his parents on the gable end. He led me into the new gallery. “Here is your very own studio”, he said proudly. “Your grandmother told me that you used to paint a lot.”

My heart swelled with love for this man. How could I have ever thought that the romanticizing of Aidan was
love? The memories I had of Aidan had long since disappeared. Everything I thought this man had done to me, had been wiped away by Adam with the love and affection he showed me. He had proven time and again over the last few weeks that he really loved me. We had talked for hours about what had happened at Glenoak Hall. He accompanied me to see my therapist. We had bought this house and he had touchingly looked after my grandmother and built her her own little kingdom on the ground floor here. And he had given up his old life in Dunvegan for me. And if that wasn’t enough, he had brought all the paintings here along with the desk which we had made love on for the first time. How romantic was that?

The only man I had truly
loved led me to an easel that he had bought for me. It was placed in front of the only window up here. He stood still in front of the easel, took my hands and looked at me lovingly. “So, do you like it?”

“And how”, I shouted and threw myself into his arms.

Adam pushed me away from him and had that nervous look on his face again. He reached out for the cloth that was hanging over the easel and pulled it down in one go.

I stumbled backwards. The cloth had covered a canvas with two interlocking rings painted on it. Adam knelt down in front of me and I looked
at him in panic and disbelief. I had a rush of blood to the head and I felt like I was going to suffocate. He wasn’t going to do it, was he?

“
Linda Sands. You’ve changed my life. You’ve changed me. You’ve taught me to trust again. I don’t know anybody else that can give so much honest, sincere and unconditional love. You have awoken emotions in me that I have never felt before. I can’t live another second without you. Please be my wife!” Adam looked at me with pure love in his eyes that made me tremble and erased any last doubt I might have had about him somewhere inside me.

I stared at Adam breathlessly and at the picture with the gold rings. My heart jumped in my chest because my new life was starting with so many surprises. I had expected
almost anything, but not this. And what else did I have to say? I love this man, so I decided to marry him.

End

Dear readers
,

When I wrote this book, I made every effort to depict the locations as authentically as possible. Unfortunately, I wasn’t always able to do this which is why I had to fib a little.

Sadly, I have to disappoint anybody wanting to visit
Glenoak Distillery, but you will no doubt find one of the numerous other whisky distilleries on the Isle of Skye just as interesting.

Dear ladies, I also have to disappoint any of you who
had planned to go to one of the exciting masked balls. They were also a figment of my imagination. You won’t find Adam at Glenoak Hall either because the estate does not exist.

Instead, you can find all the locations in Edinburgh. I can strongly recommend th
e Royal Mile. And you should definitely not miss out on the shopping experience along Princess Street either

Oh,
and while you’re there, don’t forget to catch a glimpse of the
Portrait Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Kind regards

Elena
MacKenzie