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When Bex finally crawled into bed that night, she found messages waiting from both Claire and Daisy, asking her how the day had gone. How had it gone? There was more work than she’d ever thought possible, and she had a horrible feeling that she was developing a crush on the burly groundskeeper who was in a major rebound phase, and she’d also been warned off by his stepsister, who was now her main friend in the village. That was the truth of it, but if she sent a message like that, she’d spend the next hour and a half fielding their questions, and she didn’t have the energy for that. So instead, she sent a basic ‘All good; I’ll fill you in later’ message. She knew she wouldn’t get away with that response for long, but it would do for now.

The next morning, as the dawn chorus forced her awake, Bex rolled over in bed, only to find her feet trapped in place. As if someone, or something, was pinning them down.

‘What the hell?’ she said. Her eyes snapped open as she sat bolt upright, pulse soaring, although as she stared at the end of the bed where her feet were pinned down, she didn’t know whether she should laugh or cry.

‘Ruby!’ The sleeping dog blinked lazily. ‘Ruby, what are you doing?’ Finally, as Bex prised her feet out from under the deadweight animal, Ruby lifted her head and gave Bex a quizzical look. ‘This is not your bed,’ Bex clarified. ‘It is not your bed, and I am not your owner. You hear me, right? I am not your person. Fergus is. Go to Fergus. Now!’

Rather than leaping off and hurrying downstairs, the way Bex had expected the animal to do, Ruby simply shuffled farther up the bed, until her head was almost on the pillow next to Bex’s head. Her heavy tail thumped against the duvet before she leaned forward and licked Bex along the cheek.

‘Urgh!’ Bex pushed the dog away and stood up. ‘You have horrible morning breath. And I’m not a lick-in-the-morning type of person. Actually, I’m a never-lick-on-the-face type of person. Do you understand? Bad dog, Ruby!’

The moment those two words left Bex’s lips, she regretted it. Ruby’s face dropped. Her eyes widened and her tail stopped mid-air, as if it couldn’t even finish that last half wag. Bizarrely, it reminded Bex of the way Duncan had looked the night before when she told him he’d ruined her night. Although, this time, she felt a lot more guilt. After all, all Ruby had been trying to do was show her a bit of affection.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, sitting back down on the bed and rubbing Ruby’s head. ‘You’re not a bad dog. Not really. Apart from the fact that you snuck into my room at night and slept on my bed, which wasn’t really what I was expecting. But I know you only did it because you want to be with me, right?’ As she finished her question, Ruby’s tail offered a single slow wag. ‘Okay,’ Bex replied, thinking through how to respond. The dog still looked upset, and was it really the worst thing if she wanted to be here with her? ‘Maybe you could sleep on the chair instead next time. Would that be okay?’ She pointed her finger across the room to the armchair that Ruby had settled in the first time Fergus had shown Bex up to the room. ‘Chair. Ruby, chair.’

This time, Ruby got the instruction. With her tail wagging, she jumped up, leapt off the bed and immediately climbed into the armchair.

‘Yes, good dog, good dog,’ Bex said, hoping the positive reinforcement would work. ‘You can sleep here, okay? You can sleep here.’

She would probably need to check with Fergus that he didn’t mind, but given how he had left the dog waiting outside the café the day before, she didn’t think it would be an issue. A dog who wanted to sleep in her bed. Just another thing to add to the list of things to tell the girls about.

It was only when she was in the shower, paying extra attention on washing her slobbery cheek, that Bex remembered the key Duncan had given her. Her mind had been so busy whirring with thoughts of the evening that she’d completely forgotten about it and spent a second night in the castle without locking her bedroom door, but now that she had a personal guard dog, and Duncan was well aware that the space was now occupied, it didn’t seem so much of an issue any more.

As Bex walked down the stairs and made her way into the kitchen, Ruby remained on her heels. As for where Fergus and the other dogs were she had no idea. Last night, when she had come home from the pub, she had heard both music and snoring drifting from his favoured downstairs room, but she hadn’t wanted to intrude. Now though, as she was trying to bake some of the frozen croissants Lorna had given her, she was incredibly keen to find the old man, simply so he could show her how the hell she was supposed to use this oven.

The contraption was absolutely massive. There were doors on the front – two metal, one glass – and hot plates on the top, and so many dials. It would make sense for the dials next to the oven doors to be the ones that turned it on, she decided, but did you really need to turn on the entire oven just to cook two croissants? That felt like a massive waste. She would be better off cooking them all, but croissants weren’t known for maintaining their freshness, and the last thing she wanted was to start each day with a stale breakfast.

‘Hey, knock knock.’

Bex turned around to find herself face to face with her new friend. ‘Lorna? What are you doing here?’

‘Well, I was going to visit Duncan, but I thought I’d swing past here and see how you were doing. I wasn’t even sure you’d be up, but it looks like I came at the right time. Are you all right?’

‘No, this oven is ridiculous. I know Fergus doesn’t eat at home, but surely some people cook here? Like when his nephew comes to visit?’

‘They do,’ Lorna replied. ‘Which is why there is another, much more practical oven through here.’

Lorna guided Bex through a narrow galley beside the mammoth fridge into a separate back area of the kitchen, where a tabletop oven sat on top of the counter.

‘This place is a labyrinth,’ Bex said. ‘I didn’t even see this part of the kitchen.’

‘You should wait until you find the doors in the bookcases.’ Lorna grinned.

‘You’re kidding?’

‘Nope.’ Lorna’s grin widened. ‘They’re for when the servants had to deliver food to the dining hall or other rooms without traipsing through the entire hall. Duncan used to take me through them all when I was a kid. And speaking of my brother, I’m so sorry about his behaviour last night. He’s never normally like that. Ever. Here, I’ll do those for you.’ She took the croissants out of Bex’s hand and placed them straight on the tray. ‘Just so you know, we all had a go at him when he came back in.’

‘I’d already given him an earful,’ Bex admitted. ‘I get it, though. He obviously felt uncomfortable. With Katty there and everything and the fact that it was exactly a year since he proposed.’

‘It was what?’

Bex watched the realisation dawn on Lorna’s face. She held her hand up against her forehead and groaned.

‘How the hell could I have forgotten that? No wonder he was so freaked out. Crap, now I’ve got to go over there and apologise for being the worst sister ever.’

‘There’s no chance that’s the case,’ Bex said, but she could see how upset Lorna was that she’d missed the reason for Duncan’s odd behaviour. ‘I think he was actually grateful you didn’t make any fuss about it.’