Page 23 of Summer in the Scottish Highlands (The Scottish Highlands #5)

Natty followed Gayle into her study the following morning.

‘So, you’re visiting a castle today,’ said Gayle, turning to Natty as she wandered over to the bookshelves.

Olive was out on a morning run with Nick, so Natty was missing her playmate.

Gayle knew that wasn’t the only reason she had left the kitchen as soon as she’d eaten her breakfast cereal.

It had been the same on Sunday and Monday morning too.

New guests had arrived on Saturday evening but were choosing to eat out at a restaurant in Aviemore in the evenings.

However, since Sunday the kitchen had been full at breakfast time, with all her guests sitting around her large kitchen table in front of the Aga.

While Gayle cooked a hearty breakfast, they all chatted amiably, enjoying getting to know one another – everyone apart from Natty.

Gayle had noticed she wasn’t her usual exuberant, chatty self at breakfast, and quickly realised why.

Natty was the only child, and she was just nine, so she was quite shy in front of all the new faces and felt rather left out of the adult conversations.

Sometimes one of the new guests tried to include her, asking questions about her school, and her favourite subjects – that sort of thing.

But then it put Natty in the spotlight, and Gayle imagined it made her feel even more uncomfortable.

She’d seen her squirming in her seat, avoiding their gaze as she answered their questions.

Olive had been in the kitchen the last couple of mornings, and the distraction had helped Natty settle down to breakfast with all the unfamiliar faces.

However, with no Olive that morning, Natty had gulped down her breakfast cereal and had asked to be excused to go and play.

Gayle had excused herself as soon as she’d dished up the cooked breakfasts and had found Natty standing in the hallway outside the kitchen door, looking at a loss as to what to do with herself.

Her new mobile phone didn’t even have internet – Natty had explained to Gayle that she had something called a brick phone, a bog-standard old-style phone that could receive and take calls and texts and could take photos.

Gayle realised she must be scrolling through her photos, obviously waiting for her mum and Jake to finish breakfast.

Faye had mentioned they were visiting a castle that day. Gayle had an idea she might have some old tourist leaflets, and even a booklet or two from years earlier in the study, so she’d asked Natty to come in too so they could see what she had.

‘I think it’s called Braemar Castle,’ Natty replied, standing next to Gayle as she put on her reading glasses and grabbed a pile of leaflets off the shelf. ‘Okay, let’s see if we have anything here about that castle – shall we?’

Natty nodded.

Gayle had more leaflets and booklets than she’d realised once she started go through some drawers of her father’s old desk too. Her parents had never got rid of anything, so she wasn’t surprised.

‘Why don’t we both look?’ Gayle suggested, spreading them all out on the desk. ‘Let’s see what we can find.’ She sat down in the office chair while Natty stood beside her and took a pile of leaflets too. It wasn’t long before Natty shouted excitedly, ‘Is this about the castle?’

Gayle looked at the booklet in her hand, which was a small guidebook to the castle.

It was several years old and dog-eared, but she recognised it.

‘My nieces and nephews often visited the castles in the area when they came to stay with their grandparents here, who took them out on day trips,’ she explained.

‘Who are their grandparents?’ Natty asked.

‘Ah, that was my dad, who has sadly passed. He was a local doctor, and this used to be his study. And of course, you know my mum, Doris.’

Natty grinned. ‘I like Doris. She’s funny.’

Gayle reserved comment and just smiled. Unfortunately, her mum had dementia, so to a young child some of the things she said or did must have appeared funny, certainly peculiar, although sadly it wasn’t intentional on her mother’s part on either score.

‘My grandad, Patrick, is funny. And he speaks with a funny accent.’

‘He does?’

‘Yes, he’s Irish.’

Gayle laughed. ‘I guessed.’

‘You did?’

‘His name. It’s a very Irish name.’

‘Have you been to Ireland, Natty?’

She shook her head.

‘Would you like to visit, see where your grandad came from?’

Natty shrugged. ‘I like Scotland.’

Gayle grinned. ‘Well now, there we are both in agreement.’

Gayle returned her attention to the booklet. ‘This might be a bit outdated, but at least you can flick through the photos inside and read a little bit about the castle on the journey there.’

Gayle caught her frowning. ‘You don’t have to take the booklet if you don’t want to.’

‘I want to. It’s just … can I read it now?’

Gayle didn’t understand. ‘Of course, you can read it any time you like.’

‘Good because I think Mum and Jake are going to be ages having breakfast.’

At that moment, laughter erupted in the kitchen.

Natty pulled a face. ‘See what I mean?’

Gayle tried extremely hard to keep a straight face. ‘Look, why don’t I go and make you some toast and jam, and you can sit in here, in the cosy chair over there, and read about the castle while they all finish breakfast.’

Gayle was taken aback when Natty suddenly threw her arms around her and gave her a hug. ‘I love you, Gayle.’

Gayle hugged her back, a tear in her eye as she said, ‘I love you, too.’ Gayle had never had children – not through choice; it was just the way the cards had fallen in her life.

She hadn’t been particularly close to her nieces and nephews when they were growing up, and that wasn’t through choice either.

Her two brothers – one a lawyer, the other a renowned surgeon – led busy lives a world away from Gayle’s former life as a nurse before she’d moved back to the home she’d grown up in to care for her parents.

Her sister’s life was a world away too – she owned her own estate agency firm, selling high-end property.

Of course, their differing lifestyles shouldn’t have stopped them having a close relationship, and Gayle seeing her nieces and nephews, but Gayle knew the reason that her three elder siblings were closer.

Gayle had been the baby of the family, the child her parents had not expected to have later in life when their other children were already teenagers.

Gayle had really grown up as an only child – like Natty.

Technically, Gayle wasn’t, but she might as well have been.

Before she was even Natty’s age, her siblings had all flown the nest, off to university and onward to start their careers.

Seeing Natty sitting at breakfast, looking uncomfortable and out of her depth with all the adults around the table, had brought to mind Gayle’s own childhood, sitting for breakfast at that very table when her three older siblings had returned from university.

When they were home, the family dynamic had changed considerably.

She hadn’t realised it at the time, but when she was older it had dawned on her that before she’d come along, they’d been a family of five, who’d had memories and experiences together as a family that Gayle had never had and would never be part of.

And it didn’t seem to Gayle that they’d gone out of their way to include her.

She could understand that now. As teenagers, and young adults, her older siblings had been into their educations, and careers, and making plans for their future.

They hadn’t had time for the baby of the family.

In fact, she wondered if they might have even been resentful of her.

Natty ran over and got comfortable in the easy chair positioned by the bookshelves, where there was a reading lamp and scented candles. Gayle watched Natty cast her gaze around the room approvingly before she opened the book. ‘I like this room. It’s cosy and … quiet.’

Gayle smiled. ‘I like it too, for the same reason.’ Although she liked the quiet, the room was available for her guests too.

Apart from her and her mother’s bedrooms, along with their private bathroom, she wanted her guests to have the run of the place so that they felt at home.

A home away from home. She hoped it set her guesthouse apart from the competition.

It wasn’t just a bed-and-breakfast that people were turning up to, with an impersonal bedroom and a breakfast room with tables and chairs set up so that guests wouldn’t talk to one another.

Gayle had wanted people to feel they were staying in a home away from home, and to feel part of the Lark Lodge guesthouse family.

‘I won’t be a moment, Natty, and then I’ll go and make you some toast and jam.’

‘Okay. Thank you.’

Gayle sat looking through the leaflets and booklets to see if she could find anything else Faye and Jake might be interested to see during the remainder of their stay.

Unfortunately, it was Tuesday already, and their week at Lark Lodge was flying by far too quickly.

She gazed at Natty for a moment, thinking how quickly Natty and Faye and Jake had become part of the fabric of her little guesthouse, of her life.

She didn’t want to think about the end of the week, and them departing back to London.

Why do they have to go back? she thought as she continued sorting through the leaflets.

Jake had an amazing house right there. There was a lovely primary school in Aviemore, and she was sure Faye and Jake would eventually find teaching posts.

It wasn’t as though Jake didn’t have the money for them to live off for a bit while they looked for jobs.

And the best part was that Jake’s house backed on to hers.

They were already good friends, but even better, they could be neighbours too.

Gayle sighed as she started to put the leaflets back in the drawer.

One caught her attention – it was all about ice-skating and the snow disco.

She turned to Natty, about to ask if she’d ever been ice-skating, but she was immersed in the castle guide, so she didn’t disturb her.

Gayle stared at her, still thinking how wonderful it would be if they could stay in Scotland.

It was a lovely dream, but a dream, nonetheless.

Jake wouldn’t return to The Lake House. How could he, with the ghost of his relationship with Eleanor in that house?

Gayle thought he’d never return to live there.

Besides, their lives were back in London. But she’d miss them.

‘Penny for your thoughts?’

Gayle shifted her gaze from Natty and smiled at Nick. He’d popped his head around the door, beads of sweat on his forehead. He was still jogging on the spot after his morning run and checking his watch.

Gayle breathed a sigh. ‘I was just thinking I’ll miss Natty, and Faye and Jake, when they return to London at the weekend.’

Natty immediately lowered the booklet. ‘We’re staying here for a month.’

Gayle’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You are?’ When had they decided that?

She’d overheard a conversation the previous morning between Jake and Faye along those lines, but when she’d told them she’d have loved them to stay on but there were no vacancies, she was sure Faye had said they were just joking around.

Her heart lurched in her chest when she thought she could have reserved those two rooms for them for a whole month if only she’d known sooner. ‘Oh, Natty, I’m afraid I’ve got no vacancies. There are other people booked to stay in the attic rooms next week.’

‘That’s all right,’ Natty said nonchalantly. ‘We can stay at Jake’s house.’

‘The Lake House? Really?’ Gayle’s eyebrows shot up again. That had been decided too? She happened to glance at Nick, who was still standing in the doorway, looking as surprised as she was. She expected he was wondering the same thing – what had changed Jake’s mind about staying at The Lake House?

‘Is that what they said?’

Natty pursed her lips, and said in a small voice, ‘Yes.’

Gayle stared at her. Had Natty misconstrued an adult conversation? It was possible, although she seemed so sure that it was the plan.

Olive nudged past Nick’s legs and ran straight up to Natty.

‘Hey, your breath smells of bacon!’

Nick frowned. ‘I wondered why she darted into the kitchen. You’ve been begging at the table, haven’t you?’ He looked apologetically at Gayle.

Luckily for Gayle, her new guests loved Olive too and were not fazed at all by the exuberant Old English Sheepdog, barely out of puppyhood. They were all taken in by her sad brown eyes routine or her trick of rolling over for a belly rub to suss out who were her friends and to garner some treats.

‘Can I have my toast and jam now, please?’ Natty asked.