Page 18 of Kilts and Kisses at Highland Hall (Kilts and Kisses #1)

Bex had to give it to Katty. That woman had guts.

She wasn’t sure she’d have had the courage to stay in the pub and have a drink after being spoken to like that.

Certainly not when it was clear that every single person had heard the altercation.

But with a smile plastered firmly on her face, Katty pushed her shoulders back and marched to the other end of the bar.

‘So, that’s Duncan’s ex-girlfriend?’ Bex said quietly to herself.

As much as she hated it, she was unable to take her eyes off Katty as she strode away from them.

It made sense – she was strikingly beautiful.

Bex could easily imagine the pair of them attending a fancy ball at the castle, turning everyone’s heads as they strode in arm and arm.

Would Duncan wear a kilt to such events?

she wondered. He would definitely look good in a kilt, and if he did, did he wear anything underneath?

‘Bitch,’ Lorna muttered. Bex felt her cheeks flush with heat as for a split second she feared she might have said her thoughts aloud, but with a flutter of relief, she saw that Lorna was glaring down at the end of the bar, all her animosity aimed at Katty.

Pushing thoughts of what may or may not be hidden under Duncan’s kilt, Bex cleared her throat.

‘So, that’s Duncan’s ex-girlfriend?’ she repeated, this time loud enough for Lorna to hear.

‘No, not ex-girlfriend. Ex-fiancée.’

‘What?’ Bex didn’t bother hiding her surprise. ‘She was engaged to Duncan – and she cheated on him?’

A slight smile flickered across Lorna’s lips, like she knew Bex had been imagining her brother in a kilt.

‘It gets worse.’

From the sinking feeling in Bex’s stomach, she already suspected why.

‘Please don’t tell me it was with his best friend,’ Bex said.

Lorna grimaced. ‘Yup. They’d been best friends since playgroup.

Tight as a drum. And not just Duncan and Archie, the three of them.

Katty too. Course, Duncan and Archie’ve always been chalk and cheese.

Archie’s all about making money, bigger houses, flashier cars, you know, that kind of thing.

Duncan doesn’t care a bit about stuff like that.

Everyone knew they both loved her, but no one was surprised when she chose Duncan.

He’s just… better.’ She chuckled lightly at her own remark.

‘I know you’re probably thinking it’s just ’cause I’m his little sister that I’m saying that, but I can tell you there’s not a sane woman who would pick that prick Archie over Duncan.

But I guess it’s true, good guys finish last. Which sucks, because it feels like good women finish last too a lot of the time, and I’m not sure how that’s supposed to work. ’

There was something in Lorna’s wistful tone that made Bex think she was speaking from her own experience as well, but their first drink out didn’t seem the time to bring up their own dating histories. Particularly not when Bex was still keen to know more of what had happened with Duncan.

‘So I take it she’s not with Archie now?’ Bex asked, hoping she wasn’t coming across as nosy or prying.

‘Who knows?’ Lorna shrugged. ‘She insisted it was a one-time drunken mistake, but we all called bull on that. For starters, when Duncan caught them, it was three in the afternoon. Hardly the time for a drunken slip-up, is it?’

‘Duncan caught them?’ Bex let out a low whistle. ‘Wow. This really is as bad as it gets.’

‘I know, right?’

‘When did all this happen?’ Bex asked. The Duncan she’d met this morning, and again in the study and outside the café, hadn’t shown any signs of the heartbreak she would have expected.

Then again, she’d had her own heart broken enough times in the past year that no one could tell any more – no one except Claire and Daisy, of course.

‘It was about three months ago now,’ Lorna told her as she shot another glare in Katty’s direction.

‘He’s always spent most of his time up at the castle as Fergus has always liked having him there, but after it happened, he basically never left.

For the first month I had to bring food parcels to the lodge because I was terrified he’d just stop eating. ’

‘That’s terrible,’ Bex said, surprised by the level of sympathy she felt for a man she barely knew.

While she remained slipped away in her thoughts, Lorna ordered a bottle of wine for the table.

Though this was only their second conversation, Bex could feel her fondness for Lorna growing.

She could already tell Lorna would be one of those no-bull-type friends that would say things like it was, even if that wasn’t what you wanted to hear.

No doubt she had told Duncan countless times that he’d be better off without Katty.

Probably when she was delivering the food parcels.

Another unexpected twinge of homesickness struck her.

She had a big brother too, and while they were close enough, they weren’t that close.

They’d ring each other every few months, and he’d stayed at her flat with his girlfriend when they went to a show in London, mostly to save on a hotel.

She couldn’t imagine bringing him care packages after a breakup.

She couldn’t even imagine telling him about one of her breakups.

‘I should apologise to you,’ Lorna said, suddenly breaking Bex’s stream of thoughts.

‘You should?’ Bex asked, surprised.

‘Why?’

‘For how I reacted this morning.’ The barman held out a card machine and Bex reached for her pocket, but Lorna shook her head and immediately tapped hers and paid for the bill before she carried on.

‘This morning, seeing him outside with you was one of the first times I’ve seen him look like himself since it all happened.

That’s probably why I was a bit harsh, warning you off him and everything.

It’s just I still have the image of him seared in my mind, you know.

After she broke his heart. He was just so down, all the time.

No spark at all. None of his trademark grins.

He just didn’t seem to care about life. It felt like I lost my brother.

I’m not sure I could cope with that again. ’

‘I get it,’ Bex said. ‘And don’t worry, there was nothing going on between me and Duncan at all. We were just talking. The last thing I want to do is add complications to my job. Besides, I doubt I’ll have time to even come out that often, with the amount of work there is for me at the castle.’

‘You didn’t say what it is you’re doing exactly,’ Lorna said, picking up the bottle of wine and two glasses from the bar, leaving Bex to get the others. ‘You can tell us while we get through this. And we can both try to pretend that Eilidh and Niall aren’t totally into each other.’