Page 76 of The Moon Sister
I made my way back to the car and saw Cal sitting with his arms crossed against his chest. He gave me one of his special frowns, which indicated he thought I was being flaky.
‘Any sign o’ him then?’
‘No, the whole herd had vanished.’
‘Really?’ he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice as we drove off. ‘That’s what comes o’ spending too much time with our gypsy friend. You’ll be seeing unicorns next, you dafty.’
Outside Chilly’s cabin a few minutes later, Cal put a hand out to stop me leaving the car.
‘Under the circumstances, best if I take his dinner intae him today. You wait here.’
While Cal was gone, I closed my eyes and saw a picture of the white stag in my mind. ‘Ididsee him,’ I whispered to myself. ‘I really did.’ Thistle laid his head on my shoulder as if in sympathy, and I patted him absent-mindedly.
Cal was back ten minutes later, and reassured me that Chilly seemed fine and had asked after me. As we drove back home, we heard a thundering noise over our heads and I looked up to see a helicopter skimming low over the glen.
‘Wow, I’ve never seen one fly over here before,’ I commented.
‘Probably a search an’ rescue taking some poor soul to hospital in Inverness. It was a rough ol’ night out on the sea, so the shipping forecast said.’
Yet as we arrived back at the cottage, we saw the helicopter sitting in the centre of the lawn in front of the Lodge.
‘Must be for his Lordship,’ Cal said as we climbed out. ‘Perhaps he needs it to take him intae town to buy a bottle o’ the best brandy and some more cigars.’
Five minutes later, as Cal and I were warming up with a cup of coffee, there was a knock on our cottage door.
‘Well now, I’m guessin’ this is trouble,’ he muttered as he went to answer it.
‘Is Tiggy in?’ asked a familiar clipped voice.
‘Yes,’ said Cal brusquely. ‘I’ll get her for you. Tig? You have a visitor.’ Cal turned towards me with a small shrug. ‘I’ll be in the sheds.’
‘Hello, Tiggy,’ said Zed as he stepped inside, while Cal stepped out, despite my frantic eye contact imploring him to stay. ‘It seems you’re back just in time.’
‘For what?’
‘A scenic tour of the surrounding area. Then lunch at a little place I know in Aviemore. It is a ski resort only half an hour’s helicopter ride away from here.’
‘I . . . thanks, but I’m afraid I have to work.’
‘Surely you have a lunch hour? You will be back by three, I promise.’
Obviously anything Beryl had said to him about me not being available had fallen on deaf ears.
‘Now, you need to get into these.’ He handed me a black Chanel carrier bag.
‘What’s this?’ I managed to squeak.
‘Just a few things I picked out for you and had sent up here in the helicopter. I realised you might not have your full wardrobe with you. Now, go and change, please, and we can get going.’
Given I was so shocked that I couldn’t think of a thing to say, I decided the best thing was to retreat into the bedroom and take a few seconds to regroup in private. Closing the door behind me, I sank onto the bed, the carrier bag between my legs.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I opened it and brought out various parcels, all wrapped beautifully in white tissue paper with a little white camellia stuck to each. The first one I opened contained a cream jumper, similar in style to my holey Aran one, but made of the softest cashmere. In the next parcel was a pair of beautifully tailored black woollen trousers; the third and largest package contained a gorgeous quilted cream ski jacket, and in the last was a black cashmere beanie with matching scarf and mittens.
I couldn’t help stroking the jumper and feeling the tug of desire towards such a beautiful thing. A thing that could be mine if . . .
Tiggy, behave!
Hating myself for the regret I felt as I re-parcelled the clothes, I took a deep breath and went outside to face Zed – aka my personal version of Richard Gere in thatPretty Womanfilm.
