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“But you’re going to kiss him soon, eh?”

Maisie frowned at her.

Anne shook her head. “You’re definitely more interested in him than you’re attempting to let on.”

The sisters had moved into the area to take over the inn, and they hadn’t really gotten to know many of the wolves nearby yet. They’d been busy remodeling the place, then getting the word out that they had rooms available and booking them, and finally taking care of their guests. But when they’d seen the announcement that the MacQuarries at Farraige Castle had new Irish wolfhound puppies for sale before Christmas—the breed they’d grown up with—they’d gone right over to inquire about them. Little had they known, the MacQuarries were wolves like them, but that had just made the experience even more worthwhile.

Maisie and Anne wanted more of a cushion of income until the inn really paid for itself and more, so Anne had been running the business while Maisie had been taking on freelance photography jobs—since she loved being a photographer—to help pay some of their bills until the inn was making a bit more money consistently. Not only hadthey wanted to see the puppies for sale, but Maisie had also thought she might be able to offer her photography services to the MacQuarries to help showcase the mother and father dog and their brood. Being that she was a wolf like them, the MacQuarries hadn’t even looked at her website before they agreed.

Of course, she and her sister had put a down payment on one of the male pups right away too.

“Hey, when the boat hit you, it didn’t hurt your camera, did it?” Anne asked as they sat down to have a lunch of Cullen skink—smoked halibut, potatoes, and onions in a thick soup. “I know that’s not as major a concern as the boat hitting you, but I just wondered if it came out unscathed.”

“It did, thankfully.”

“Did you get enough underwater photos for the magazine article?”

“Aye. Before disaster struck, I was about ready to swim back to the car park, but then fate intervened. Oh, I forgot to tell you. Robert’s sister, Edeen, has one of Conan’s littermates. A little female. Her name is Ruby.”

“Aww, she was the tiniest one of the lot. The only red female too.”

“Right. Oh, and another thing. I said I would photograph all of Edeen’s pets, including her Highland cows.”

“Really? That’s wonderful. You’re getting booked to do all kinds of photography assignments. That should really help keep us in the black.”

“Yeah. It’s great. By the way, Edeen makes Celtic period clothes and other kinds of garments.” Maisie left the tableand got her laptop, then returned. “This is her shop. Edeen’s Celtic Fashions.”

“She does beautiful work.” Anne was looking at several dresses, and Maisie knew she wanted one because Maisie wanted one herself. “You do realize that if we keep buying dogs and now Celtic period gowns, we’ll spend all your photography income, don’t you?”

Maisie smiled. “I imagine I can also offer my services to the pet owners who go to see Robert. Oh, maybe I can take some photos for his clinic walls if he hasn’t already decorated them. Anyway, I thought you and I could order some new gowns for next Christmas since we planned to do a medieval theme for the guests staying here for the holidays.”

“I love the idea. I want this one.” Anne pointed to one of the prettiest gowns on Edeen’s website. “The shimmering, olive-green medieval gown.”

“Me too.”

Anne laughed. “We always want the same clothes.”

“I told Colleen that I would take their baby pictures for her. Also, her sister-in-law is due any day. So we’ll have quite a lot of money coming in from all the photography work I’ll be doing. I hope that’s not putting you in a bind though, leaving you here alone.”

“Not at all. You can help me when I need you and then go off to do your photography work. This is working out really well. We want Mom and Dad to know that we can do financially well here so they’ll leave Glasgow and join us. Um, about the accident—”

“I don’t want them to worry about it because I feel fine.You know them, and no matter how much we assure them I’m fine, they’ll make the trip out here right away.”

“Okay, but if you start feeling bad, I’m telling them.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“Are you going to work on the garden?” Anne asked.

“I sure am.” Maisie loved being out of doors. So did her sister, so they took turns gardening.

“Then I’m going to clean the guest living area before everyone gets back here tonight,” Anne said.

The living area had games, books, puzzles, several couches and chairs, and a place to make tea. A large fireplace made it perfect for cold, wet nights also.

“All right. See you in a little bit.” Maisie grabbed her garden gloves and her bucket of garden tools. She loved the flower gardens, and she would often see their guests taking pictures of them, which encouraged her to plant even more flowers. Old stones bordered the gardens, and stone walkways encouraged visitors to stay on the paths and not step on the plants. They also had benches for visitors to sit and enjoy the view.

She was weeding around the bluebells, foxgloves, and carpets of purple saxifrage when she saw man-sized footprints in the soil. She frowned. Who in the world was walking through their garden when they had perfectly good walkways for that purpose? Then she saw one of the garden stones was gone. What the…? Her eyes detected something else half-hidden under the flowering purple Scots oregano. She leaned over to grab what turned out to be a driver’s license. The driver’s license belonged to Gus Anderson. He was the guest she had gone to dinner with last night.