Page 54 of The Boathouse by the Loch (The Scottish Highlands #4)

Robyn slunk into the background as everyone got out of their seats – everyone apart from Judith, who probably had no idea who Jake Campbell-Ross was. They all gathered around, welcoming the three new guests, eager to speak to Jake Campbell-Ross and shake his hand. One of the Rosses.

Robyn glared at David, who was looking very pleased with himself as he welcomed the mystery guests and thanked them for coming to his humble abode.

Robyn rolled her eyes when she heard him say that, like he was in the presence of a celebrity, or royalty.

Annie had been right, back when Robyn had thought she was meeting a Ross at The Lake House after finding out she had that commission, when she’d told her not to be intimidated by their wealth.

It hadn’t actually been their wealth that she had been concerned about, but the fact that she’d plagiarised those designs in the old doll’s house in the basement of The Lake House and had recreated them in Lark Lodge.

She stared at Jake Campbell-Ross, who was busy chatting and shaking hands with the other guests, and thought that he must know what she’d done.

He’d been in Lark Lodge. This was just what she had been afraid of.

Was she in trouble? She guessed she was about to find out.

Any minute, David was going to introduce Jake to her.

Robyn caught the time on the clock on the wall. The lasagne and pizza were ready. She had to get them out of the oven.

She was about to put on her oven gloves when she saw the large bowl with the side salad sitting on the worktop. Robyn picked it up off the counter to put it on the table. She turned around and

was surprised to find Judith standing directly in front of her; clearly she wasn’t interested in talking to Mr Campbell-Ross either.

‘Oh, that was good timing. Could you just put this on the table?’ Robyn held out the salad bowl.

Judith’s arms remained resolutely by her sides. She opened her mouth to speak but it seemed to take her several seconds longer to formulate the words. Finally, she said, ‘What do you want?’ Her voice was flat, toneless, oddly devoid of emotion, as though she were a robot.

Robyn glanced at the other guests, who were still gathered around Jake. Evie had made a new friend. They were both seated at their little table, chatting. Robyn looked at Judith. ‘If you could just take this and put it—’

She was cut off in mid-sentence by that strangely toneless voice again. ‘Whatever you want, you can have,’ she said. ‘Anything.’ Her eyes pleading. ‘Just stop.’

‘I don’t …’

‘I just want her back.’ Her voice was hushed, but full of emotion this time. ‘I played along with your little game at the airport, thinking, isn’t this just like Robyn? Never straightforward .’

Robyn knitted her brow. Judith’s behaviour was getting even stranger. She said, ‘Mum – what’s wrong?’

She stepped back. ‘Stop it,’ her voice was no longer hushed. Robyn stopped where she was, wondering what had happened, what had got into her. She looked over at the others. Gayle was looking her way.

‘Stop it. Just stop it. I’ve kept up the charade, but I can’t stand it another minute.’ Her voice grew louder as Robyn grew more concerned for her stepmother’s wellbeing. Was she having a breakdown?

‘Just tell me what you want!’ she demanded. ‘I thought I knew what your game was. I thought you were Robyn’s friend, and she’d asked you to do this, to play some silly prank on me, and I’d arrive here, and she’d be here.’

‘What are you talking about?’

This time she yelled, ‘Where is my stepdaughter?’

The room suddenly fell silent. Everyone was looking her way.

Worse still, so was Mr Campbell-Ross. Then the room started to spin.

Robyn remembered the feeling from when she was a child.

It was a game she had played, spinning around and around as fast as she could with her arms outstretched like a spinning top.

She was with another child, younger than her.

They were spinning together. Then, when she stopped, suddenly the ground violently tilted until she couldn’t keep her balance and she fell, clinging to the floor for dear life.

She faintly heard the sound of a bowl hit the floor and shatter. Distant voices were calling her name. The last thing she heard quite clearly was Judith saying she was going to call the police.

Someone was holding Robyn’s hands. She opened her eyes.

Gayle was beside her, patting her hand. Annie was holding a glass of water to her lips.

When she had sufficiently gathered her senses, she realised that David must be kneeling on the floor, her head in his lap, the palm of his hand resting gently on her forehead.

She stared up at David. ‘What happened?’

‘You fainted,’ said David with concern.

‘Help me up.’

‘Perhaps you should just lie still,’ David began, but Robyn was already trying to stand, even though her legs felt like jelly. She felt David’s hands under her arms as he lifted her to her feet.

‘God, I don’t know what came over me. Oh no! I dropped the salad.’

‘Robyn, we need to talk,’ said David with a note of urgency in his voice.

She glanced at her friends, feeling embarrassed. What would everyone think? But nobody was looking at her. Robyn followed their gaze to Judith, who was standing in the hallway, speaking on her mobile.

David turned to his brother. ‘Joe, why didn’t you stop her? You’re the police, for god’s sake. She’s wasting their time.’

‘What do you want me to do – arrest Robyn?’

‘What are you talking about? I meant stop Judith making that call!’

‘And how do you propose I do that? Confiscate her phone?’

‘Well – yeah.’

Judith lowered her phone and turned around, looking into the kitchen. ‘They’ll be right over; I’ve told them everything,’ she said angrily.

‘Who’ll be right over?’ Robyn looked from Annie to Gayle, still too embarrassed to look at anybody else in that kitchen. She knew all her guests who’d been seated around the table were still in the kitchen, most likely looking her way. She saw Judith leave the doorway .

Robyn called out, ‘Judith?’

‘I’m waiting outside for them to arrive.’

The next thing she heard was the front door slam shut.

Annie turned to her husband. ‘Joe, you need to go and speak to her, or phone your colleagues, and tell them it’s going to be a wasted trip – probably both.’

David took Robyn’s hand. ‘Robyn, I think your stepmother isn’t quite well.’

David told Robyn what Judith had been saying to them shortly after Robyn had fainted, while they were trying to bring her round.

‘She says it’s a conspiracy. We’re all in on it, and she just wants to know what we want, and if we won’t tell her then we can tell the police.’ David paused before whispering, ‘I wish you could have warned me that she had a screw loose, but obviously you couldn’t because you can’t remember.’

Robyn stared at him wide-eyed. ‘Oh god, I’ve invited a nutter into our lives.’

‘Yeah, looks like. But you weren’t to know. I wasn’t expecting an easy ride from the mother-in-law but this kind of takes the biscuit, don’t you think?’

‘Are you seriously making a joke right now?’ Robyn elbowed him in the ribs. ‘This isn’t funny. Something’s wrong.’ Robyn was trying to remember what Judith had been saying to her when she had fainted.

‘Just don’t think about it.’ He looked over at his brother. ‘Joe, can you step outside and sort this out?’

Annie pushed Joe towards the door. ‘Did you hear your brother?’

Joe looked at the oven. ‘Something smells delicious. I didn’t want to miss my meal. ’

David said, ‘We’ll leave some warm in the oven. Now go, sort this out will you before things get really out of hand and she ruins our party.’

Joe made for the door.

Annie clapped her hands. ‘Right, folks – let’s eat.’

Gayle asked Robyn if she wanted to cancel the party.

David said, ‘I don’t know what her agenda is, but don’t let her ruin our evening, Robyn.’

Robyn nodded. ‘I won’t.’

As they took their seats at the table, with her friends asking her if she was all right, Annie and Gayle got the food out of the oven, which fortunately was not as overdone as Robyn had feared.

They’d just put the large casserole dishes full of lasagne, along with the large pizza, on the table when a car turned up outside.

David glanced out of the kitchen window. ‘Oh, thank god. The police have come to rescue us from this mad woman. I hope Joe makes sure they take her down to the station for wasting police time and find out what her game is.’

Robyn had just picked up a plate, about to dish up the first slice of lasagne and pass it around the table, when Judith burst into the house.

Robyn froze. David turned in his seat and looked at his brother, who was following in Judith’s wake. ‘Seriously, Joe. I thought you were sorting this out?’

One of Joe’s colleagues stepped into the kitchen, looking apologetic.

‘It’s them!’ Judith pointed into the room. ‘I’m telling you, they’ve done something with my stepdaughter. It’s a conspiracy.’

‘Hi, Sean,’ said Annie to the familiar face of her husband’s colleague .

‘Aren’t you going to arrest them?’ Judith’s voice was shrill.

‘What for?’ said Sean. ‘A conspiracy to make friends with Robyn?’ He winked at the group.

Judith glared at the officer. ‘You’re not listening to me. That woman there,’ she pointed at Robyn, ‘who claims she’s lost her memory—’

‘Now, look here,’ David said, stepping forward, ‘don’t call Robyn that woman , and she has lost her memory.’

‘That woman,’ continued Judith, ‘is not my stepdaughter.’

Gayle said, ‘I don’t know what your game is, Judith. We know who she is.’

‘Really? Why don’t you enlighten me, then? Because she is not Robyn Parker.’