From Scotland with Love (4 page)

‘Grizzie will get cold, standing round like this. Come on,’ he went on gruffly. He took the lead out of her hand and unclipped it letting the dog make her own way.

She knew it was just because he’d been worried about his beloved dog. It wasn’t her he’d been concerned about. He wouldn’t mind how long she stayed staring in the moonlight. But she couldn’t help imagining what it would be like if he cared about her and not just his pregnant dog.

Because she wasn’t concentrating her foot slipped and she nearly fell over. Before she’d fully taken in that she was floundering in the snow, Rory had caught her and hooked his arm through hers. ‘Careful!’ he said and they set off again.

Daisy found her breath was a little short as they processed up the hill through the snow together. It wasn’t because she wasn’t fit – she was. And yet she didn’t want to admit there might be another reason for it.

Rory was undeniably an attractive man. Girls in the office had definitely had him on their ‘to do’ lists although he was far too rugged to be handsome. He wouldn’t be a keeper either, they all agreed, he was far too difficult and grumpy, but most of them agreed they wouldn’t kick him out of bed.

Daisy felt she knew him a bit better now. Not a lot better, but some. He was difficult and grumpy but he had a kinder side too, and that hadn’t made him any less attractive.

These thoughts kept her mind fully occupied until they reached the house.

‘Cocoa,’ he stated after he’d rubbed down Griselda and given her some biscuits.

Daisy was sitting on the floor, struggling with her boots. ‘Do you want me to make it?’

‘No. It’s my speciality. I can’t have you being the only one who can do anything in the kitchen.’ He came over to where she was sitting on the floor, took hold of her heel and tugged off first one boot and then the other. Then he put out his hand and hauled her to her feet.

‘I could have got up on my own,’ she said to his departing back. Then she followed him into the kitchen. To herself she said, ‘And I’m quite good at making cocoa too.’

However she realised he did have a different technique for making hot chocolate. He had opened a tin of condensed milk and was spooning it into a mug. He tipped in quite a lot of cocoa powder and stirred thoroughly. Then he added boiling water from the kettle, stirred some more and sipped. ‘Is that OK for you?’ He handed her the mug.

She tasted it. It was very sweet but delicious. ‘Not quite hot enough,’ she said.

‘No. I make it in the mugs and then tip it into a saucepan. There are some biscuits in that cupboard. If you want them.’

‘No thank you,’ she said, watching him tip the delicious smelling liquid back into the pan.

‘Let’s take it through to what’s left of the fire.’

Later, in bed, wearing some cashmere bed socks and very sleepy, she thought of all the author launches she’d been to, and there was no doubt about it, cocoa staring into the embers of the fire in Rory McAllan’s sitting room was by far the most fun.

As soon as she awoke, she went to the window to see the state of the weather. It had started snowing again and the sky was the same yellowy white it had been yesterday. The silver gilded sky of the night before was buried deep in grubby marshmallow.

Daisy had a quick shower and put on some clothes. She’d need to wash underwear today – somehow she didn’t fancy the ex-wife’s knickers, even if they were brand new. Wrapped up in several layers, she went downstairs to see if Rory had been up and the dog let out.

There was a woman in the kitchen. ‘Oh! Hello!’

‘Hello!’ said the woman cheerfully. She was putting a new liner in the bin and Daisy realised this was the cleaner, Mari.

Daisy had imagined her to be a fairly elderly family retainer type, in a wrap-over pinny, instead there was a woman not much older than she was wearing jeans and a striped apron. ‘I’m Daisy,’ she said.

‘And I’m Mari. Himself has gone out with the dog.’

‘Oh good. No puppies then?’

‘Not yet. I’m not sure when they’re due.’ Mari stopped fiddling with the bin. ‘So you’re from his publishers?’

‘That’s right. I came up to get some book plates signed and got snowed in. Or rather, he said the flights would be cancelled.’

‘Oh yes. They close the airport before it gets too bad so the planes aren’t stranded. No one can use the roads, either. I walked here. I live just a little way along. I saw you arrive,’ she added.

‘You probably thought I was completely mad,’ said Daisy. ‘And of course, I was, but I didn’t know it at the time.’

Mari, who had been looking a little stern, allowed herself to smile. ‘Well, Southerners aren’t so aware of things like weather.’ She paused. ‘Rory said you can cook!’

Still keen to get this woman on side, Daisy shrugged. ‘Well –’

‘You made bread and everything. That’s more than Eleanor would have dreamt of doing.’

‘His ex-wife? But why were all the things to make bread here? Dried yeast, and a whole sack of flour.’

‘She thought she was going to do all those domestic things –’

‘Rory said “all the gear and no idea”.’

‘That does about cover it.’

‘So what happened to her?’ Daisy asked quickly, desperate for information before Rory got back with Griselda, hoping Mari wouldn’t clam up and refuse to gossip.

Mari moved the simmering kettle to the hot plate. ‘You must need some breakfast. I’ll make something and we can have a little chat. He’ll be a little while. He’s gone down to the loch to see if it’s frozen. He’ll be wanting to take the boat out later to fetch some logs.’

Daisy filed this information away for later. ‘So? Please tell me about his wife. I’m terrified of putting my foot in it.’ She smiled. ‘My boss would absolutely kill me if I did anything to upset Rory.’

‘So you’re not here because you fancy him then?’

Daisy’s eyes widened as if in horror. Of course she fancied him, everyone did. He was rugged and moody and very sexy, but she’d never admit it, although she respected Mari’s bluntness. It made her own questions about his ex-wife seem less impertinent. ‘No! I just messed up big time and as I want to keep my job – the first job I’ve ever felt like that about – I tried to put it right. Couldn’t have done a worse job really, could I?’

Reassured that Rory wasn’t in danger of being seduced, Mari put two steaming mugs on the table. Then she put bread in the toaster. ‘She ran off with his best friend!’

Venetia had said more or less the same but Daisy felt it was best if Mari thought she was first with the news. ‘Oh no! Like that joke? My wife’s gone off with my best friend, oh how I miss him?’

Mari looked doubtful. ‘Well, maybe. But what he’ll really miss is the land.’

‘She took the land? How could she do that?’ This seemed a bit of a feat, even for the most grasping of ex-wives.

‘His best friend owns the estate Rory was going to buy, for conservation reasons. Now he won’t be able to afford to because he’s got to pay Eleanor off. So Fergus, his ex-best friend, get’s the girl and the property. He’s not so keen on conservation as Rory thought and is thinking of selling it on.’

‘But Rory is one of the most bestselling authors on the planet! He earns shed loads! What has he done with it all?’

‘He’s been buying up bits of land – preferably bits of ancient forest – for years. He’s got acres and acres of it, but he might not be able to afford the bit he wants most, which is here. It does include the loch and quite a lot of the other side.’

‘Blimey, that would be expensive.’

Mari nodded, satisfied that she’d got her point across so accurately.

Daisy buttered the toast Mari had put in front of her thoughtfully. She felt a text to Venetia coming on.

Mari taught Daisy how to make Scotch pancakes, dropping the mixture directly onto the hot plate of the Aga. This kept her happily entertained while she waited for Rory to come back with the logs.

When he appeared, having seen to Griselda’s needs, he shovelled three of them into his mouth in quick succession. ‘No one makes these like you, Mari,’ he said.

‘Actually, Daisy made those,’ said Mari. ‘She’s a quick learner.’ She undid her apron. ‘What’s it like out there, Rory?’

‘You’re off now, then?’

She nodded. ‘It’s not a day to hang around.’

‘You’re right there. And I reckon there’s more snow up there. You’d better be getting off. Would you like me to come with you?’

‘Or I could come with you,’ suggested Daisy, who was suffering from cabin fever and desperate to get out into the snow. Secretly, she wanted to go sledging.

‘Don’t be daft!’ said Rory. ‘How would you get back here on your own?’

‘On my two feet?’ suggested Daisy, forgetting for a moment that she shouldn’t argue with her firm’s most precious author.

‘Och,’ said Mari, possibly sensing an argument. ‘Don’t be daft. I got here just fine and I’ll get back the same way.’

It was only after Mari had left that Daisy realised she’d only really come to check her, Daisy, out. Daisy completely understood. If a strange young woman from London had called on her boss without warning, she’d want to check her out, too.

‘I’m longing for some exercise!’ said Daisy later. ‘Do let’s go out!’

Rory glowered at her. ‘You can help me get a load of logs if you like. From across the other side of the loch.’

‘That would be fun. When do you want to go?’

‘Now. It gets dark so early. We need to do it before lunch.’

‘If it’s not a stupid question, why do you keep your logs on the other side of the loch? Wouldn’t it be handier to keep them this side? In a basket by the fire, or something?’

Rory couldn’t quite bring himself to laugh but his expression indicated mild amusement. ‘I do have a log store but it’s not full and some trees were felled the other side and have been cut up for logs. I want as many of them here as possible, in case the loch freezes and we can’t restock. I’m just thinking ahead.’

Daisy nodded, sagely, she hoped.

She slipped almost the first moment she got outside. Ice had formed on the path to the loch and for a nanosecond her feet flailed the air like a cartoon character’s. She landed on her back.

‘Don’t laugh,’ she said breathlessly, when Rory showed absolutely no signs of doing so. ‘OK, you can laugh, but you mustn’t take a picture and put it on YouTube.’

This did make Rory smile. He reached for her hand and dragged her up. ‘Are you OK?’

Daisy nodded. ‘Winded. And I’ll have some massive bruises tomorrow.’

Rory’s expression was inscrutable. ‘Let me know if you want me to rub arnica on them.’

‘In your dreams, pal,’ said Daisy, secretly delighted that Rory might have actually indulged in a little flirt.

‘That coat looks good on you,’ he said, taking her arm, presumably so she didn’t fall over again.

She blushed. ‘I found it in the cupboard –’

‘No, it’s fine. Eleanor never got round to wearing it. She didn’t take it with her. Probably because it was a present from me.’

‘Mari told me about your wife,’ said Daisy. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘What I mind most was not seeing what must have been under my nose. Her going off with Fergus.’

‘It must have been very tough.’ Daisy didn’t add that she thought Eleanor must have been mad to leave Rory. Although to be fair, she hadn’t seen Fergus.

‘No one likes to be made a fool of.’

‘To be brutally frank, I expect everyone thought it was Eleanor who was the fool.’ For a few seconds Daisy experienced the unusual sensation of being able to set her own feelings aside. She knew she was developing a little crush on Rory – who wouldn’t in the circumstances? And yet now, she rather that he never noticed her as a woman than for him to be unhappy.

‘Nope. I should think people understood her wanting a man who was around to pay her some attention and who had a private jet.’ He sounded regretful, as if he was taking some blame for Eleanor’s defection.

‘Oh he has a private jet?’ said Daisy. ‘Say no more! All is now clear!’

He squeezed her arm. ‘Daisy, I’m sure you know that the PR girl must never take the piss out of the bestselling author.’

‘I’m allowed to take the piss out of you,’ Daisy explained. ‘But I mustn’t piss you off.’

He laughed properly. ‘And how do you know that the former hasn’t caused the latter?’

Daisy didn’t waste time trying to work out exactly what he meant – she got the drift. ‘Don’t tell anyone I said this, but as long as Venetia never finds out, I don’t really care!’

‘Maybe I’ll tell her!’

‘But she knows you’re really grumpy so I’ll just tell you were in a bad mood.’ She paused. ‘And she will believe me because to be fair, you are in a bad mood most of the time.’

‘Honestly! I don’t know what to say about you!’

‘If you were a slightly less literary writer you’d know that you say, “What are you like?”’

‘That’s the thing,’ he said seriously. ‘I really do not know what you’re like.’

Pleased with this conclusion, Daisy didn’t say anything else until she was in the stern of the rowing boat being pushed off while Rory clambered in after her.

‘Will Griselda be all right while we’re doing this?’ she asked.

‘Mari’s husband is coming up in a minute.’

‘That’s good of him.’

‘Yes it is. He loves Grizzie and will make sure there’s space for the new logs in the shed. They are both very loyal. I’m lucky to have them.’

Daisy thought it was probably more than just luck that made them such good friends but didn’t comment.

Rory was a restful companion, Daisy decided. He didn’t need to be chatted to, and while Daisy liked chatting – was good at it – sometimes it was nice not to bother. Instead she drank in the beauty of her surroundings. The white mountains touching the grey, snow-filled sky, leading down to the loch, like dark glass, still, deep and very cold. It was scenery, all right, and yet somehow, Daisy liked it.

They had crossed the loch, filled the boat with logs and rowed back, twice, when Daisy got cold. Before they got back in the boat for a third and final trip she said, ‘Could I have a go with the oars this time? It’s getting chilly watching you do it all the time.’

‘Can you row?’ Rory’s eyebrow reached his dark thatch of hair.