Page 1 of Summer in the Scottish Highlands (The Scottish Highlands #5)

‘I still can’t believe you’re here,’ said Jake, putting the kettle on.

Faye smiled. ‘I can’t believe it either.’

‘I love it here!’ Natty piped up.

‘Well, you would say that,’ commented Faye, turning in her chair and eyeing the resident dog – an Old English Sheepdog called Olive. Her daughter was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor, giving Olive a cuddle.

Faye turned back to Jake. ‘Sorry she woke you up. I told her not to knock on your bedroom door so early, but she did it while I was using the bathroom. The problem is the interconnecting doors.’

Jake smiled. ‘That’s not a problem for me.

’ Gayle had kept the rooms free, and it was just the way he wanted them, the two attic bedrooms next door to each other.

He wanted Faye and Natty close. And they had a floor of the house to themselves.

But he had forgotten they were interconnecting rooms and that the door wasn’t locked.

Natty laughed out loud. ‘You silly dog!’

They both turned to look at Olive, who was licking her face.

‘Natty, what did I say about keeping your voice down?’ Faye admonished her daughter. ‘The house is still sleeping.’

‘Oh, Mummy, what do you mean, the house is still sleeping?’

‘We all arrived back here late last night after the party, so other people in the guesthouse are still fast asleep.’

‘I don’t remember coming back last night.’

‘Well, no, you wouldn’t, because you fell asleep in the car on the way back, and Jake had to carry you up to our room.’

‘When will I see Evie again?’ Natty asked.

‘I’m sure it will be soon. Gayle said that Evie often comes to visit here.’

‘But Evie said that she’s going to work with her mum in a shop.’

Faye nodded. ‘Yes, I remember her mum, Annie, mentioning she works part-time in Robyn’s Interior Design, in Aviemore.

’ Faye turned to Jake. ‘Do you think she’ll change the name of her outlet, now she’s found out she’s not Robyn?

It was all so strange, what you told me happened during that hypnotherapy session.

Fancy spending all those months since the car accident on Christmas Day believing you were someone called Robyn Parker because you’d lost your memory, when in fact you were someone else entirely. ’

Jake had made two cups of tea. He added some sugar and stood at the kitchen counter, stirring the tea.

He didn’t really want to start their first proper day together on holiday thinking about what had happened at the party; the three of them had only started their holiday the previous afternoon.

He’d managed to arrange car hire, and a car had been waiting for them at the train station.

He’d thought they might spend their first evening at Lark Lodge, sitting together and eating Gayle’s delicious stew, but they’d been invited to Robyn and David’s engagement and housewarming party.

He didn’t know Robyn. He was aware that she ran an interior design outlet at Gillespie’s General Store in Aviemore.

Someone had hired her to redecorate The Lake House, his house, and the Rosses’ holiday home, which incidentally backed on to Lark Lodge.

It wasn’t he who’d hired her, although it had crossed his mind to do so.

He’d started to think about letting go of the house, selling up.

After the accident on the ski slopes at Christmas, which had robbed him of his wife, Eleanor, he’d wondered who was ever going to use the house again.

It was a terrible thought that although she hadn’t died, to him, she might as well have.

She was in a residential home with staff providing the care that she would now need for the rest of her life, but Jake had yet to visit her after that fateful Christmas Day.

As far as he was aware, none of the family had. That was terrible too.

He’d made a pact with Eleanor’s brother, Marcus, that they would go together, as soon as he was well and had left the rehab clinic.

When would that be? Marcus wasn’t going to check into the clinic until Jake had returned to head up the Ross Corporation in his absence.

It was a temporary arrangement while Marcus sorted out his substance abuse problem.

But Jake hadn’t told Marcus he’d returned to London, or that he’d organised a holiday with the woman he was falling in love with, Faye, hoping that in the course of the week away, he might discover if she had feelings for him, and perhaps, just perhaps, she might fall for him the way he had for her.

His thoughts drifted back to the previous day’s invitation to Robyn and David’s home, the boathouse on the loch, for a sit-down meal and a party afterwards.

Who would have thought that inviting her stepmother, Judith, who had been travelling abroad for months, would set off a chain of events that would lead to another session with the hypnotherapist whom Robyn had been seeing?

The session had led to a breakthrough regarding her missing memories and the revelation that she wasn’t Robyn Parker at all, but a young woman called Bonnie Greene who had known Robyn, and Jake’s wife, Eleanor, albeit briefly.

They’d met at Wilbur’s Bookstore in Aviemore on Christmas Day when Bonnie had been running away from her boyfriend.

She’d discovered a light on in the bookstore, and two women, Robyn and Eleanor.

Jake had always wondered where his wife had gone on Christmas afternoon, before she’d met him and Marcus on the ski slopes for an afternoon ski post-Christmas dinner.

Robyn, the real Robyn, who had been working at Wilbur’s Bookstore over Christmas, had told Bonnie she could stay the night with her in the little flat above the shop if she’d just do her a favour and take Eleanor to the ski slopes.

She’d done just that, but on the way back she’d made a split-second decision not to return to the bookstore, but to skip town in Robyn’s car.

She’d collided with David, her now fiancé, whilst speeding along a snowy road in Robyn’s car, and had lost her memory in the accident.

The question now was: what had happened to the real Robyn Parker? The shop was locked. Her things were gone. She appeared to have disappeared off the face of the planet that Christmas Day.

‘Jake – are you all right? You’ve been standing there stirring that tea for a considerable time.’

‘Huh?’

‘The tea!’

Jake looked at the mugs. ‘Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought.’

‘Were you thinking about the party last night?’

‘Yeah.’ Jake took the two mugs of tea and placed them on the table, one in front of Faye, before taking a seat opposite her.

‘Poor Judith. What a shock to get a party invitation, apparently from her stepdaughter, only to arrive back in England after months away to discover an imposter. They’ve hit it off, though, Judith and … it’s Bonnie, her real name – isn’t it?’

‘Yes, I heard Bonnie wants to help Judith find her stepdaughter.’

‘That’s good, isn’t it?’

‘I guess.’ Jake lifted his mug and took a sip of tea.

‘Is something on your mind, Jake?’

Something was on his mind all right. He was thinking of Bonnie and the revelations in the hypnotherapy session which he’d attended with all her friends, who had been there for support.

She’d met his wife, Eleanor, on Christmas Day, but he had a feeling there was something more.

He looked at Faye. ‘I just can’t help but feel she’s holding back. ’

‘Who?’

‘Bonnie. I’m sure she was avoiding me at the party.’

Faye shook her head.

Jake raised his eyebrows. ‘You don’t agree?’

‘Look, I think you’re reading too much into things. She’d just got her memories back. She’s bound to want to spend time with her friends.’ She halted. ‘Something just occurred to me. Why were we invited to the party? Was it because we were guests at Lark Lodge, and everyone else was going?’

‘No, it wasn’t that. I knew her fiancé, David.

It was his idea to invite us.’ He paused.

‘I met him when I returned to Lark Lodge. He and Robyn – I mean Bonnie – were having some relationship issues, as I understand it. I overheard David and Gayle talking in the kitchen. It turns out he’d been staying at the guesthouse while Bonnie had been away in London.

By the sound of things, she’d got a new interior design contract, but David wasn’t happy.

He was concerned she wasn’t just going there for work. ’

Faye looked at him quizzically. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I got the impression he thought there was more to her trips than her new commission.’

‘Like what?’

‘Perhaps he thought she was meeting up with someone from her past.’

‘Well, all that’s been cleared up now. Did you see them standing together on the balcony during the party? They are so in love, and they’re having a baby together.’

Jake stared at Faye. Their eyes locked for a brief moment. Oh, how he wished with all his heart she was thinking of a future with him, just like he was.

Faye looked away. The spell was broken. She said, ‘So, you said it was David who invited you, us, to the party?’

‘Yeah, it was meant to be a surprise for Bonnie. We’ve never actually met. He thought she might want to meet one of the Rosses who owned the property she was working on – The Lake House.’

The strange thing was that when they had first arrived at the boathouse, he’d noticed she didn’t seem exactly eager to meet him.

All the other guests at the table had gathered round to greet him, but not her.

That was before everything had kicked off, and she’d been taken down to the police station after Judith’s revelation that the young woman calling herself Robyn was not, in fact, her stepdaughter.

But even when they all returned that evening, and the party had got underway again, he was still convinced she had done her best to avoid him.

Faye interrupted his thoughts. ‘I think the party was a bit much last night. I would have thought they’d reorganise it, considering what that young woman had gone through at the hypnotherapist session, finding out who she really was, getting her memories back.’

‘She looked as though she was enjoying herself,’ observed Jake.

‘Yes, she was, but I bet this morning it’s going to hit her, what she’s gone through, being taken down to the police station and everything else.

She probably thought all her friends had abandoned her, and that her life here, the one she’d been leading as Robyn Parker, was over.

The relief she must have felt when she found out that wasn’t the case … ’

‘I want to see her again.’

‘I know. I’m sure you will.’

Jake was thinking that if he took Faye and Natty into Aviemore town centre that morning, he could stop by Gillespie’s General Store and see if she was at work in her interior design outlet.

‘But I can imagine she needs some time off work to get over what she’s been through.’

Jake frowned. Faye was right. He doubted she’d be at work that day.

The trouble was they were only there for a week.

And it wasn’t as if he could just turn up at the boathouse to see her.

That would be intruding. He did know someone who could organise for him to see her, though.

Gayle. Perhaps she’d arrange for Bonnie to visit her at Lark Lodge while they were there.

Jake made a mental note to ask her. Or, better still, he could use The Lake House as an excuse to see her.

She’d be working on the place after her time off.

He’d just ask Gayle to contact Robyn – Bonnie – and let her know he wanted to meet at the house if she wouldn’t mind.

It occurred to him that she might want to discuss her interior design plans with him.

He perked up at the thought that he was sure one way or another he’d get to speak with her before they returned to London.

Jake finished his mug of tea. He looked across the table at Faye. ‘Right, let’s have some breakfast. Would you like something cooked, or there’s toast and cereal if you prefer?’

‘I’ll just have some toast.’ Faye put her mug of tea down. ‘Do you think Gayle will mind us helping ourselves to breakfast before she rises? I thought the host usually prepared the breakfast.’

Jake put some bread in the toaster and put out a bowl of cereal for Natty for when she’d finished saying good morning to Olive, which he guessed was going to take a while. He smiled affectionately at Olive, even though he guessed that Faye would never hear the end of Natty asking for a dog now.

‘Gayle doesn’t mind at all. She likes her guests to treat the house as if it’s their home.’ He picked up both empty mugs and put them in the washing-up bowl.

‘It’s an unusual guesthouse,’ commented Faye.

‘It is that,’ agreed Jake.

‘I love it,’ Natty said, clearly listening in to their conversation.

‘You love the dog,’ said Faye.

‘Can I have a puppy – pleeeease!’

Faye rolled her eyes. ‘I told you before, we haven’t got time for a puppy.’

Jake looked at Olive and hoped Natty didn’t spend the whole holiday badgering her mum for a dog.