Page 39 of Snowy Surprises in the Highlands (Scottish Highland #5)

A package arrived for Harris from Bryn a few days later and he sat with it in front of him on the table for a while just staring at it.

‘Are you going to open that?’ Bella asked when she walked through from her office in the spare downstairs bedroom to make a cup of tea. She was working on a new design for a detached house in the north of Skye and was enjoying the task greatly.

‘Aye, I will. I’m just working my way up to it.’ He moved the padded envelope around on the table and then picked it up, turning it over in his hands and examining it.

Bella placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘What are you afraid of?’

He shrugged. ‘I’m not really sure. It was all so long ago now.’

‘You’ve never really told me your story with Alba,’ Bella said.

He frowned. ‘I… I didn’t think you’d want to know.’

Bella wasn’t sure if it was because Alba had passed away, but she wondered about their relationship. ‘Maybe it would help you to talk about her?’

He kept his eyes fixed on the parcel. ‘Alba and I met at college and dated for a while, then we split up and I didn’t see her for a couple of years.

Then we met again at a police recruitment event when we were both twenty-one-ish.

She was my first love, and I suppose my first and last heartbreak.

There’s nothing much to say really. She relocated to Glasgow for a promotion as you already know, and I didn’t want to go.

It wasn’t particularly acrimonious. We tried to remain friends but…

it just didn’t work, as she was so busy, and I’d made a new life for myself in Inverness.

’ He held up the package. ‘The thing is, I have no idea what’s in this envelope…

but there’s one thing that I really hope is in there. ’

Intrigued now, Bella sat. ‘What is it?’

He placed the parcel down again. ‘When I was sixteen, my mum gave me a St Christopher that had belonged to my grandad. She’d had it for a while but deemed me old enough on my sixteenth birthday because it was so sentimental.

It was something he had worn every day and after it came to me, I wore it every day too.

Never took it off from the day Mum gave me it.

As you know he meant the world to me, so the St Christopher did too.

He was a constant in my life. A father figure to me when my own dad let me down time after time.

He cared for me in a way my own dad never could.

‘But then one night, after me and Alba had been together around a year, she was asking me about the St Christopher, so I told her all about my grandad and how we used to go birdwatching, and how he loved me like I was his son. She was intrigued and couldn’t take her eyes off the pendant.

Said she’d never had anything from her grandparents.

So, I took it off and fastened it around her neck.

I think at the time I just meant for her to try it on but…

she kept it. And I didn’t have the heart to ask for it back because she loved it, and used to talk about how it meant so much to her because of how special it was to me.

Then we split and… I never saw the necklace again.

I know it was just a thing and that my memories of my grandad are what really matters but that necklace was something tangible, you know?

Something I could hold and remember him wearing.

I meant to ask for her to return it but…

after we broke up there never seemed to be a good moment to ask.

So… I never did. And now here is this parcel from her.

If it contains the necklace, I’ll be so happy, Bells.

But if it’s not there, and it’s just a load of photos and cinema stubs that reminded her of me…

it means that the St Christopher is probably lost forever.

’ He shrugged. ‘It almost feels like it’s better not to know. ’

‘But whatever is in there was important enough for her to keep it for you. That counts for something, doesn’t it?’ Bella said. ‘And she’s a significant part of your history, however it ended between you.’

He nodded. ‘Aye… I suppose.’

Bella made to stand. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

He reached up and grabbed her hand. ‘Can you maybe stay a few minutes? Just until I’ve seen what’s in it.’

She smiled and sat again. ‘Of course I can.’

He paused and took a deep breath before ripping open the envelope.

He pulled out a pile of photographs first. The Harris Bella saw in them was hardly recognisable with his youthful face and longer hair.

Alba was pretty, with shoulder-length brown hair and smiling eyes, and it was clear from the way she looked at him in the pictures that she adored Harris.

He thumbed through the photos, pausing at each one to smile or give a chuckle and shake of his head.

‘This one was when we went on a pub crawl dressed as old women,’ he said with a laugh, holding up a photo in which he was wearing a head scarf and rollers along with a flowery dress and cardigan.

‘Turned out it was an eighties night but one of the lads had got the wrong end of the stick and told us we’d all to dress like eighty-year-olds.

So, we’d all gotten clothes from charity shops, and we must have looked a sight.

We got a lot of attention, that’s for sure.

And my mate never lived his mistake down.

But it was a fun night, but boy, did I pay the morning after.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt so ill. That night was one of the reasons I decided to stop drinking.

’ He shook his head. ‘And this one… this was at our friends’ wedding.

They were a wee bit older than us and got married at the registry office in Edinburgh.

’ In this one Harris was dressed in a kilt, jacket and white ruffled shirt.

He was clean-shaven and looked so young.

He laughed. ‘I felt so uncomfortable in that kilt. I was terrified it was going to fall down because it was too big, and I didn’t have time to get it altered.

The belt was too big, and I had to punch a new hole in it, but it still didn’t fit right.

And this one of me on my own was taken at Leith.

My grandad was from there originally and I decided I wanted to go visit so Alba came with me.

She snapped this when I was feeling all melancholic.

’ It was a lovely photo, in which he was sitting looking out across the water with the sunset-tinged sky behind him.

Worthy of a frame , Bella thought. She would have to buy one and surprise him.

Hearing about the life Harris had before he met her was strange.

And seeing photographs of him with his arm around another woman was a little hard to swallow but she had no reason to be jealous, she knew that really.

He and Alba had split long before she met him.

But there had definitely been a deep fondness between them, that much was evident.

Harris reached into the envelope and pulled out a batch of concert ticket stubs.

‘Ah, this was before everything was done on your phone. You actually got to keep the stubs. I always wondered what had happened to these things.’ One last reach into the envelope produced another envelope and inside that was a note and a little black velvet pouch.

He held the pouch in his hand and read the note, and his chin began to tremble.

The writing was scrawly and barely legible, but he read it aloud.

Dearest Harris,

I remember the night you gave this to me so vividly, even though I’m struggling to remember a lot of things now.

Although I know that deep down you never meant for me to keep it because of what it meant to you.

But for years I couldn’t let it go because it was my one last link to you.

And now I’m not going to be around to cling to it, it seems only right that I return it to its rightful owner.

I’m so sorry I didn’t send it back before.

Keeping it was such a selfish thing for me to do.

I hope you can forgive me, and that you will wear it always from now and think of your lovely grandad every time you see it.

Love, Alba

Harris emptied the contents of the little black velvet pouch into his hand and burst into tears that racked his body as the silver chain glistened in his palm.

He closed his fist around it and sobbed.

Bella stood and wrapped her arms around him and held him as he was swallowed up by grief for his grandad, and for his first love.

Once his tears had subsided, Bella took the chain and fastened it around his neck. ‘There, back where it belongs,’ she said as she touched the small medallion and then tucked it down his shirt.

‘How can I be so sad and so happy all at the same time?’ he asked with a light laugh as he swiped the moisture from his face.

‘It’s completely understandable. Alba was your first love, and I can only imagine how hard it must be for you. And I know how much your grandad meant to you too.’

He reached up and pulled her close, resting his head on her middle. ‘Thanks for being so incredible about this. You really have been so supportive and understanding.’

‘Because I love you, Harris. And I always will.’

* * *

The Iolair-Mhara design was completely finished, and the Somers family were overjoyed with the place.

Bella’s wallpaper choice had remained for the Bridal Suite, much to her delight and relief, and the whole hotel had a luxurious, cosy feel about it.

The laundry had been repurposed as a yoga studio rather than a miniature casino, after Carlton had been for therapy and discovered the calming, meditative practice.

The Somerses were planning a grand opening and of course Bella had been invited.

It was to take place on 12 December, and after that Carlton would be reinstalled as the manager.

Bella hadn’t seen him since the lift incident and the rest of the job had gone off without a hitch.

Contact from Mrs Somers had been non-existent, but Nate Junior said that it was because she was horrified and embarrassed about her youngest son’s behaviour.

Every so often Nate Junior would video call Bella and she would show him around the hotel so he could see the progress.

She chatted with his wife, Deandra, too, and got to meet their son Dawson John, or DJ for short.

Dealing with them had certainly been a more relaxed affair.

Nate and his wife had flown over to see the hotel when it was signed off by the contractors and they’d had nothing but praise for Bella.

She had kindly turned down the invitation to attend the opening event, figuring she had done her bit and had so much going on with the wedding.

But Mr and Mrs Somers had paid her extra money once the hotel was signed off.

At first it felt like they were buying her silence but after talking it through with Harris she had accepted it more as payment for a job well done.

She was now onto the next design. The detached property she was working on now would become a dog-friendly holiday let for six when finished and was situated on the shores of Loch Dunvegan, a sea loch on the north coast of the isle.

The views were stunning, and you could often see dolphins playfully jumping and diving in the water from the front windows.

The owners had asked for a simple and fresh design that would complement the views and the surroundings and be hardwearing to stand the number of guests they were hoping to receive.

Bella had chosen a colour scheme of blues and greens with natural wood accents and the owners had been delighted.

Each window had views that were like living paintings, changing with the weather and the seasons, so artwork had been commissioned from Reid MacKinnon again to fit the landscapes in which the house sat.

Now that the Iolair-Mhara was done, Bella could relax and focus a little more on the wedding.