Page 25 of Snowy Surprises in the Highlands (Scottish Highland #5)

Harris glared at the screen on his phone; his knuckles turned white. ‘What the hell do you mean you have my mother?’ he growled through gritted teeth. ‘If you so much as?—’

‘Whoa, wait! No! No! I don’t mean I have them, have them.’ The man on the screen widened his eyes in apparent alarm. ‘I mean I have them here, with me. But not in a sinister, kidnappy kind of way.’

‘In what way do you mean then?’ Harris snapped.

The man glanced off to the side. ‘Maeve, Isla? Come here! I think you’d better speak to Mr Donaldson.’

The phone was fumbled and suddenly they were looking at the gravel for a moment, and then the sky, until a new face could be seen on the screen.

Bella’s heart leapt as her granny beamed at them. ‘Hey, my loves! It’s Granny Isla,’ she said loudly as if they couldn’t see her.

Relief flooded Bella and her legs weakened so she clung to Harris. ‘We can see that! Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘Where’s Maeve?’

Isla gestured with her head and suddenly Maeve appeared on screen too. ‘Hi, ma wee darlins,’ she said, sounding a little tipsy.

‘What the heck is going on, Mum?’ Harris asked. ‘We’ve been worried sick.’

Isla held up her hand and wiggled her fingers towards the camera where a new, gold addition was visible. ‘We got married!’ she announced with a wide smile.

Bella, her parents and Harris all shared questioning glances. The rest of them were stunned into silence but Bella snatched the phone from Harris and glared at her granny. ‘I’m sorry, what? You and Maeve have got married?’

Isla laughed. ‘Och, you wee dafty, I’m not a thespian. No, me and Tam have got wed! Maeve was my flower girl and witness.’ Tam’s face appeared beside Isla.

‘Oh! So, Tam is there!’ Bella said, turning to her parents.

‘His daughter must be so worried,’ Bella’s mum said, with one hand on her face and the other over her heart.

‘Hello, bella Bella dearie, I’ve made an honest woman out of your granny,’ Tam said, smiling proudly.

Bella’s nostrils flared. ‘I’m sorry but that’s debatable at this point because she totally lied about this!’

Bella’s dad slumped onto the sofa. ‘Oh God, she’s finally lost the plot,’ he said with a sigh. ‘She’s actually gone and lost the bloody plot.’

‘I did not lie, Arabella,’ Isla said tersely. ‘I just didn’t tell you what I was doing, that’s all.’

‘Granny, that’s what you call a lie by omission. And it’s still a lie. You have some serious explaining to do,’ Bella snapped. ‘Where the hell are you for starters?’

‘We’re in Gretna, of course.’

Bella gasped. ‘ What! The Gretna that’s a five-and-a-half-hour drive away?’

‘Aye, the very same,’ Isla said, brushing the comment off as if that was a normal, everyday journey for her.

‘We’re talking to you on Murray’s phone!

He’s the hotel manager. He was the nice man you spoke to earlier.

He saw you on the news and told us we should contact you.

But I don’t know why you were so worried. ’

Bella shook her head, trying to understand what on earth was going on because she felt like she had somehow fallen into a parallel universe where things made even less sense than normal.

‘Oh, no, nothing to worry about at all when three octogenarians suddenly disappear without a trace.’ She realised the sarcasm was unnecessary but couldn’t help herself.

‘And… why aren’t you using your phone? Or Maeve’s for that matter? ’

Isla rolled her eyes. ‘Ah well, you see, Maeve dropped hers in the loo on the day we got here, and I told her to put it in a bag of rice, but we didn’t have any and the kitchen was closed at that point.

But she didn’t want to put her hand in to get it oot the loo anyway.

And I said, “Well, I’m not putting my hand in there, Maeve Donaldson.

I know we’re best friends, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

” So, we had to wait for the cleaner to come with rubber gloves, and then they only had couscous in the kitchen because the rice was for something on the menu, and I wasn’t sure if that would work the same as rice.

So, by that time I think the phone was totally up the swanny and we just didn’t bother. ’

Bella was exhausted just listening to the explanation. ‘Okay, so that explains Maeve’s phone but what about Tam’s? Or yours?’ She was none the wiser at this point.

‘Tam doesnae have a mobile telephone because he thinks they’re bad for your health. You do hear all sorts about radiators getting into your brain, so I can understand his concerns. I may be almost eighty but I’m no ready to pop my clogs yet.’

Bella shared a smirk with her dad, who she guessed was thinking the same thing: actually, you’re kidding no one, you’re almost ninety!

Oblivious to what they were thinking, Isla continued, ‘But I do like my phone to watch the tick tack videos on and that’s what I told Tam.

Love me, love my mobile phone. But anyway, it ran out of juice, my phone, not my brain, that is, I’m still totally compos mental in that department. ’

You’re half right , Bella thought. ‘And the portable phone charger I bought you for occasions such as this?’

Isla’s face tinged pink and she cleared her throat. ‘Ah yes, well, I sort of discovered that it doesn’t work if you don’t actually charge it to begin with. And I forgot to pick up my other one that plugs into the wall socket thingy.’

‘Oh, Granny. Why didn’t you borrow one? Everyone has a mobile these days. It wouldn’t have been hard to find one.’

She held up her finger. ‘Now hold on a minute, I did think of that, and I asked but Murray has an Andrex phone, so, his didn’t fit with mine being an Apple.

And Sadie on reception has a… whatchamacallit…

Motormouth or something. Anyway, I thought you’d be okay because I texted you so many times from Sadie’s phone, bless her, she’s a wee sweety, and you didn’t reply.

So, I thought you must be busy doing the hotel decorating. ’

‘Granny, what are you talking about? I haven’t had a single message from you. And like Harris said, we’ve been worried sick.’

‘Ooh, they must have got lost in the whatsname then because I definitely texted you on the WhatsUp.’

Bella had a million questions scrambling for dominance. ‘Wait a second, how did you text me if your phone was out of battery? How did you know my number?’

‘I got it off your interior designer website,’ she said proudly.

‘I was showing Murray and he’s going to keep you in mind for their refurbishment here by the way, and we saved it into Sadie’s phone.

Maeve couldn’t remember Harris’s number and we didn’t want to ring the police station in case there was an emergency, and we stopped someone getting through.

But I definitely texted you on…’ She proceeded to reel off the number.

‘See I’ve even got it memorised now!’ She looked very impressed with herself.

Okay, that explains at least one thing , Bella thought. With a sigh, and hating to burst her bubble, she said, ‘You got the last two numbers switched, Granny. There’s no wonder I didn’t reply. You’ve been texting some random person.’

Isla laughed. ‘Really? Well, that’s a bit daft of me, isn’t it? And they never replied to tell me so. I’m vera sorry about that, hen. Anyway, I’d better go because we’ve a table booked for our wedding supper. I think I might have the salmon, it sounds delish.’

‘Hang on, Mum!’ Bella’s dad called from his place on the sofa.

‘You’ve still got plenty of explaining to do.

Bella has Beau here because we didn’t know where you were.

She went on national TV trying to locate you!

Your granddaughter has been on the verge of a bloody breakdown.

The whole of Drumblair, Glentorrin and Pabay have been beside themselves with worry. And you were off getting married ?’

Isla’s smile disappeared. ‘I’m sorry, loves.

I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just that we didn’t want to wait any longer with us both being over seventy.

’ And then some , Bella thought, what’s with the pretending to be younger than she is all of a sudden?

‘And we didn’t want to take the attention away from your wedding at Christmas, Arabella dearie.

So, we thought we’d run away and do it. We weren’t bothered about the big do and all that.

That’s for you young folks. And it’s romantic, don’t you think?

Running away to get married?’ she asked hopefully.

‘We’ve been planning it for a while, and it was really hard keeping it from you all.

’ Her chin began to tremble. ‘I just didn’t want to spoil your wedding when you’re so much more important to me, hen.

I’m so excited to be your maid of honour and didn’t want anything to overshadow your special day.

I thought we were doing the right thing. ’

Bella’s heart softened and her eyes welled with tears. She hated to see her granny upset. ‘Please don’t cry, Granny. You could’ve told us and we could’ve made it special for you. We had no idea you were even considering getting married.’

Isla’s chin continued to wobble and a wrinkly, liver-spotted hand wiped the tears away from her face with a tartan hanky. Isla smiled warmly at the owner of the hand who was now standing just out of sight. ‘Thanks, Tam, love.’

Bella’s stomach knotted with guilt. Had they all just completely ruined her special day? ‘Look, Granny, you go and enjoy your wedding supper, and we’ll see you when you come home. Although, when might that be?’

Isla sniffed. ‘Tomorrow, hen. Rab’s Cabs was fully booked so Flora’s nephew from Portree brought us and is picking us up to bring us home. Didn’t Flora tell you when you collected my Beau?’

So, clearly Isla knew as much about Flora’s dementia as Flora herself did. ‘No, Granny, I’m afraid she didn’t.’

‘Ugh, well, I don’t know why. She could’ve saved you all this upset. Anyway, we’ll see you tomorrow, okay?’

Bella was exhausted. Drained of anger and tears, she simply nodded. ‘See you tomorrow. Love you. And congratulations, Mrs Guthrie .’

A bright smile replaced the sadness in Isla’s expression. ‘Thank you. And I love you, Arabella dearie, so very much. And all of my wonderful family.’ The sincerity in her granny’s expression almost broke Bella again.

The call ended and Bella handed Harris his phone. He took it and stood there, staring blankly at it as if answers would spring forth from the blank screen. ‘Did that just happen?’ he eventually asked.

‘Apparently so,’ Bella’s dad said, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. ‘My eighty-seven-year-old mother has just eloped.’

Bella’s mum said, ‘I’m just so relieved they’re all okay.’

‘Me too.’ Bella’s mobile rang and Dorothy’s name flashed up on the screen. ‘Hi, Dorothy?—’

Before she could utter another word, Dorothy blurted, ‘I know where they are! Flora unknowingly held the secret all along!’

‘Evidently so,’ Bella replied. ‘We’ve just been speaking to them.’

Dorothy’s sigh of relief was loud and heavy.

‘Ah, okay. It seems forgetfulness runs in the family. Flora’s nephew, Davey, drove them to Gretna and was supposed to tell me the plans so I could tell Tam’s daughter that he was delaying his trip by a week.

But Davey completely forgot because when he arrived home he discovered his cat had escaped.

It’s a house cat and apparently doesn’t go out at all so he was really worried and spent the whole of that day and night searching and then yesterday and this morning too.

The cat was located in a neighbour’s shed safe and well.

But then he suddenly remembered he was supposed to pass the message on to me, so he rang me after he had seen you on the lunchtime show. ’

‘But that was hours ago, Dorothy.’

‘Yes, I said the same. Turns out he was watching it on catch-up because he likes the recipes section, apparently, and had missed it while he was out looking for Mr Dibbs.’

‘Okay. All’s well that ends well, I suppose,’ Bella said.

‘Yes. I’m so relieved. You must be too. And now you have something to celebrate as well,’ Dorothy said, her voice much brighter than when they had last spoken.

The call ended and Bella turned to the others. ‘I wonder how quickly we can pull together a surprise party?’

* * *

‘I can’t believe we’re about to celebrate Granny’s wedding,’ Bella said as she tied a knot in the pearlescent white balloon she had just finished blowing up.

The main communal lounge area of the Pabay View residential home was a light and airy, if a little bland and functional, space and Dorothy was helping them move the furniture around to create a small area for dancing and create a better ambience.

‘Although we’ll hopefully not be needing any ambulances this time,’ her mum said as she and Bella’s dad carried a table to the corner where the wedding cake would be placed.

Bella shivered as she remembered the incident to which her mum was referring.

It had been a tea dance Isla had attended at the day centre she used to visit back in Inverness.

During the dance, Isla had fallen and bumped her head, knocking herself unconscious, but the worst part was she had broken her hip too.

It had been a scary time and had been the catalyst for her relocation to Skye.

Bella snorted. ‘I know, I thought that too. What is it about my granny and scaring us half to death? Anyone would think she was doing it on purpose.’

‘Never a dull moment with Isla Douglas,’ her dad said with a laugh.

‘Isla Guthrie now, Dad!’ Bella said.

‘Oh, aye, Isla Guthrie. That’s going to take some getting used to.’

Her mum placed a pristine white cloth over the table. ‘It was so kind of your friend Caitlin to make a cake at such short notice.’

Bella smiled. ‘She’s a star. And it will no doubt be lovely, even though I insisted she not go to too much trouble with so little time.’

‘Right, that’s all the invites posted through the doors of all the residents,’ Jules said as she appeared with her stepson, Evin, from the doorway that led to the internal units.

Evin had designed the invites on his iPad, and they were really sweet – he was clearly taking after his dad in the artistic talent department – and Dorothy had printed them off in her office.

‘What can we do now?’ Evin asked, clapping his hands and rubbing them together.

‘You can help me blow up some more balloons, please, if you don’t mind,’ Bella said as a loud pop echoed around the room and Bertie yelped before scooting under a table to hide. ‘Especially seeing as my daft pup keeps bursting them.’