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Forty minutes later, Bex was leaving the café with Lorna’s phone number and a large bag of fresh and frozen pastries – definitely enough for breakfast for the next few days. Lorna had also lent her a large tote bag to carry everything in and made her a second large cappuccino to take away, just in case Fergus was out of coffee at the castle. If that was the case, Bex knew she would need to do some serious shopping, but her arms were already laden down and she was aware that it was now almost nine thirty and at some point she really had to start work. Yet as she stepped from the café onto the pavement, she stopped.

‘Really?’ she said, looking at the figure sitting just a few feet away from her, tongue lolling from her mouth as the tempo of her tail wagging increased. There was no denying which dog Bex was looking at. As such, she scanned around her, searching for signs of Fergus or the other dogs, but while she saw a couple of people in wax jackets, none of them were the Laird and all the dogs she saw were on leashes. She wasn’t even sure Fergus’s dogs knew what a leash was.

As she stood there, staring at the pair of big amber eyes, Bex contemplated what she was meant to do. Should she just leave her? That didn’t seem safe. It wasn’t a particularly busy road, but it was a road, nonetheless.

Keeping a careful hold of her very full takeaway coffee, Bex turned back around and opened the door to the café.

‘Hey, everything all right?’ Lorna asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Bex replied. ‘Fergus’s dog – Ruby, I think it is – is just sitting outside. But I can’t see any sign of Fergus or the other dogs.’

‘Huh,’ Lorna said, offering a quick shrug before she crossed the café, then poked her head out of the door to the dog sitting out there.

‘Is that normal?’ Bex asked, having been able to gauge very little from Lorna’s response.

Again, her new friend replied with a slight shrug. ‘He gives them a pretty free rein, but I’ve never seen one just sitting here.’

‘Well, should we ring someone? Ring Fergus?’

Lorna crinkled her nose. ‘You’re walking back, aren’t you? See if she’ll go with you. If she won’t, you can tell Fergus when you get back. Or call me, and I’ll drop her home.’

It seemed like a sensible suggestion, but Bex still wasn’t sure. She was used to walking dogs. Daisy had adopted a stray called Johnny, and she would often look after him while they went away, but Johnny knew her. She had only met this dog yesterday.

‘Ruby?’ she said tentatively, tapping her thigh lightly as she tried not to dislodge the bag on her shoulder. Immediately, the dog was on her feet and standing to heel by Bex.

Lorna let out an impressed low whistle. ‘Well, I think you’ve got this,’ she said. ‘But just text me if she doesn’t get home.’

‘Right,’ Bex said. Frozen pastries, a drink date for tonight and a dog. This definitely wasn’t the first trip into the village she’d imagined.

As she headed back to the castle, Ruby remained just three feet from her side. Her stride was perfectly in time with Bex and the few times Bex stopped to readjust her bag, Ruby did the same, halting immediately and waiting before Bex started walking again. It was as if the dog wanted to remain close to her, but was also giving her a little bit of space, in case Bex didn’t want the same.

As they approached the woodland outside the castle, Bex considered calling Daisy again. She wanted to tell her friend about the new introductions she had made – both Lorna and Ruby – and the fact that she had plans for the evening. But she hesitated. The last thing she wanted was to be ringing Daisy every thirty minutes with updates on her life. Daisy had a business to run, after all. Besides, by tonight, she’d probably have a lot more to share. At least she’d know what the job entailed.

She turned the door handle, unsurprised it was left unlocked, but despite having Ruby at her side, the place felt empty. There was something about the way the air whipped through the hallway that made her think no one was inside. Still, she called out just in case. ‘Duncan? Fergus?’

Silence echoed around the hallway, confirming her suspicion, though as she glanced at the large grandfather clock in the hallway, her stomach dropped. How was it already ten thirty? She could never have imagined starting work at this time of day, but between Lorna and Ruby, not to mention the unexpected morning walk, she had lost time of everything. Still, she could always work through lunch. Or skip it altogether to make up the hours.

She headed first to the kitchen, to place the frozen items in the freezer, before returning to the main hall, where Ruby had remained waiting for her.

‘Which room did he say it was?’ she said, looking down at the dog. Labradors were supposed to be intelligent, and from the way Ruby had responded to her commands on the walk, she could tell that was true. Unfortunately, that intelligence didn’t seem to stretch far enough to tell Bex where she was meant to go. ‘I guess I should just start looking for the study then, shouldn’t I?’ she said.

Ruby was on her feet and wagging her tail. Apparently, Bex was going to have company for this, too.

The first room she came across was clearly a dining room, with a massive table down the centre that must’ve seated at least twenty people. The next was filled with armchairs, sofas and a large fireplace. Bex hovered in the doorway. There was something about this room that felt lived in. The way the armchair was tilted towards the fire, and the blanket strewn over the back of it. Not to mention the half-full bottle of whisky placed on a side table. If she had to place a bet, then this was where Fergus liked to spend most of his time.

Closing the door behind her, she carried on her search.

‘This place has its own library?’ she murmured as she opened another door. ‘How the hell…’

She shook her head. She could easily lose the entire morning just wandering through the house, looking at the different rooms. But that wasn’t what she was here to do.

Finally, she found the door to the left of the staircase. Having checked almost every other space downstairs, she was almost certain this was the study.

‘Well, let’s see how bad this is,’ she said, pushing the heavy door open.

The moment she stepped inside, her stomach plummeted.