The Secrets of the Glen (Scottish Highlands #2)

Chapter 2

‘She led me a merry dance, pretending she hadn’t skated before. Either that, or she’s taken remarkably well to ice skating if this is her first time.’

Now everybody’s eyes were on Robyn. She felt her cheeks glowing red, and it wasn’t because of the cold. She didn’t want to be put on the spot if Joe or the lady with him asked if she had skated before. Robyn turned to the young lady and deflected the comment. She said, ‘Hi, I don’t think we’ve met.’

The young woman had wisps of jet-black hair escaping from the woolly hat, an angular face, a small button nose, pale complexion and dark brown eyes.

She hesitated. Then, glancing at Joe, she said, ‘I’m Annie – Joe’s wife.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Annie. I’m Robyn – but then I guess you already knew that.’

‘Yeah – shame my Joe clearly doesn’t talk about me all the time like David does you.’

Robyn could feel her face flush with embarrassment again. This time, she was quite happy to hear it. She glanced at David, who looked embarrassed too. Good. Now it’s his turn , she thought. She smiled at Annie. ‘So, how long have you two been together?’

‘Oh, god. Like forever. Since high school, when we were fourteen.’

David sighed. ‘Yeah – they’re one of those annoying couples that met when they were young – and stayed together. Stop being so smug, you two,’ he said light heartedly.

Joe replied, ‘Well, until the accident, that was you and—’ He stopped abruptly.

Robyn looked at him curiously before turning to David. His expression had clouded over. The conversation had clearly gone places David didn’t want – that much was obvious. He was shaking his head at his brother; whoever he had been with before, the topic was clearly now off-limits.

Annie frowned at Joe and gave him a friendly punch in the arm.

‘Ow! What was that for?’ Joe said, nursing his arm.

For a moment, Robyn assumed it was for bringing up David’s ex, but instead, Annie said, ‘For not telling Robyn about me when you met her on New Year’s Eve. And don’t be such a baby. My little punch wasn’t that hard!’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly – men! Who’d have ’em?’

Robyn smiled. It was quite funny seeing this little skinny slip of a woman, who was five-foot-nothing, beating up her husband, although she wasn’t really doing that. It was all just good-humoured fun.

‘You’re meant to introduce me, Joe.’

‘But you introduced yourself, hon.’

She rolled her eyes again. Ignoring him, Annie turned to Robyn, ‘Honestly.’ She said again casting her eyes up as she linked her arm in Robyn’s. ‘So, tell me all about yourself.’

Robyn didn’t like the way she dragged out the word all or the way she seemed to be just too friendly for a first meeting. Robyn couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was making her feel uncomfortable. She turned to David to be rescued, but he was no longer beside her. David and Joe and had drifted in front of them, skating ahead together.

‘You skate pretty well. For a first-timer,’ Annie said, matching her stride.

‘Thank you.’ Robyn glanced at her, avoiding eye contact. She wished Annie would let go of her arm. She watched the other skaters and waited for the questions to begin; questions like where are you from? What are you doing here? Or more to the point, what are you doing here with David? Perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised that Joe and Annie were protective of David – after all, she’d just found out that his last girlfriend had dumped him after the accident, once he was no longer a rising ice hockey star, with all the trappings – meaning money – that went with it.

But Robyn wasn’t like that. She knew that David wasn’t now earning whatever professional ice hockey players earned. All he had was his house, which she hadn’t seen yet, and some money he’d squirrelled away in investments. She couldn’t imagine he was working for his dad, doing grocery deliveries, out of the goodness of his heart, although he had said he wanted to help his father out. But even so, Robyn imagined he needed the money.

Robyn happened to glance over to her left at the people milling around on the shore of the loch. She thought she saw two familiar faces as she skated by. ‘Hey, isn’t that Rose and George Gordon?’ she said.

Annie clearly knew them too. ‘Oh yes! So it is.’

‘Are they here to go ice skating too?’ Robyn said in surprise. She hoped she wasn’t being ageist, but they were getting on, and the majority of people skating were a lot younger: couples, young families, and those in middle-age.

She did notice that Rose and George weren’t wearing skates. They were standing by a pop-up café – an old VW van that was selling hot chocolate and hot dogs in buns.

She waved at them. ‘You know, I’d like a hot chocolate too.’ Robyn had had enough of skating for one evening, and she wanted to escape any awkward questions Annie might have in store.

Annie waved at them too. ‘All right, let’s go and get a hot chocolate.’

Robyn frowned. She’d rather go by herself. Still, she was sure George and Rose would prove a distraction.

They skated to the edge of the loch and sat down on a log to remove their skates. Robyn had her shoes in a backpack on her back. So did Annie. They left the skates by the log.

‘Will they be okay, left there?’ Robyn asked. She’d borrowed the skates from David. She hadn’t asked how come he had a pair that were not his size. They were definitely women’s skates. She imagined they’d belonged to the girlfriend he didn’t want Joe talking about.

Annie waved away her question with a flick of the hand. ‘Yeah – they’ll be fine.’

‘I’d have thought Rose and George would be at home, snuggled in front of a fire, or, I don’t know, tucked up in bed,’ Robyn said, although she was happy to see them.

‘Oh, don’t be surprised.’ Annie said in high spirits. ‘This is always quite a big event. We get an extra bank holiday the day after New Year’s Day here in Scotland, so there’s an extra day to organise all this.’ Her free arm flicked out, gesturing at the convoy of vehicles.

‘Yes, I can see that,’ Robyn agreed.

‘My Joe organises it all, and of course, it all has to be pretty hush-hush around town. Isn’t that right, Rose?’

‘What was that?’ Rose and George turned around simultaneously. ‘Oh, Annie. We saw you skating with Robyn.’

Annie smiled. ‘Then we spotted you guys with your steaming cups of hot chocolate, and we just had to have some too.’

Annie said to the lady serving the drinks, ‘Two hot chocolates, please.’

The lady serving them was super-quick. Annie turned around with two takeaway cups, and handed one to Robyn.

Robyn took hers and sidled up to George, putting the couple between her and Annie, thereby avoiding further interrogation from Annie. At least she was right: the older couple were proving a welcome distraction.

Annie lowered her voice as they walked towards the loch with their drinks. ‘I was saying, Rose,’ Annie continued, ‘that if word got out about this event, then we’d have the out-of-towners descending on this place like a swarm.’

‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ Rose said, shaking her head. ‘We can’t have that – can we, George?’

‘No, my dear.’

‘I can see why people would want to come,’ Robyn said, taking a seat on a large log in front of the loch. She sat next to George, and Rose sat on his other side with Annie beside her. She sipped the delicious hot chocolate, watching the skaters glide past. ‘It’s so beautiful and atmospheric.’

‘I’m glad you appreciate it,’ Annie said, ‘because Joe put up a real fight for you to come.’

‘He did?’ Robyn leaned forward to look at Annie. ‘How come?’

‘Because you, young lady,’ Rose intervened, ‘must have caused quite a stir.’

‘I have?’

‘You’re an out-of-towner, of course,’ Annie said.

‘It’s that strict?’ Robyn said to both of them.

‘You have no idea,’ Anne continued.

‘It’s the rules,’ said Rose.

Next to Robyn, George was listening to the conversation and nodding his head.

Robyn hadn’t realised she’d caused so much trouble. And to think that she’d nearly not bothered going at all.

‘Still, Joe had a bit of leeway on his side,’ Annie said. ‘You are living with Gayle and her mum. Gayle’s parents are really well known in these parts. As you know, her father was a local GP, served the community for years, working well into retirement.’

‘That’s right,’ commented Rose. ‘Such a lovely man. Shame, though, that he didn’t have many years of retirement before he passed away.’

George said, ‘I think his work was his life. I remember he was always so jovial. I just think he loved what he did, and probably couldn’t imagine retiring.’

‘Well, he’s certainly retired now,’ said Rose, ‘permanently.’

They all fell silent.

‘Are you going to his funeral?’ Robyn asked, glancing at each one of them in turn.

They all nodded. Annie said, ‘I think there’s going to be a large turnout.’

‘Are you ?’ George asked.

‘Although I didn’t know him, Gayle has asked if I will go. So, I will. I want to be there, for her.’

‘Good girl,’ said Rose, approvingly.

‘It’s the least I can do, given that Gayle is kindly letting me stay in her family home. But then, you all knew that already.’ Word spreads fast , Robyn thought, looking at Rose, and narrowing her eyes. David, Rose and George had been the only ones who knew she lived at Gayle’s house, along with the other lodger.

Rose was innocently humming a tune as she watched the skaters. Robyn had visited Rose’s house with Gayle during Gayle’s mobile hairdressing round. Although Gayle had been a nurse for years, and Robyn imagined she could have easily picked up some nursing work in the local community, the hours would not have been flexible enough for Gayle to work around caring for her mum. So she’d fallen back on hairdressing, a skill she’d learnt when she’d first moved to London years earlier, before she’d trained to be a nurse.

‘And you’re going out with a local,’ said Rose. ‘And none other than David Gillespie, a very well-known local.’

‘Going out?’ Robyn nearly spluttered into her hot chocolate. Did she mean dating ? How did Rose know that? Besides, it had only been one date, if you could call it that – an invitation to a New Year’s Eve party, and a kiss just past midnight. She couldn’t have thought of a nicer way to see in the New Year than in David’s arms, kissing.

She caught George winking at her. Did they know about that too?

‘Yeah, the boyfriend/girlfriend thing really capped it, especially as it’s David,’ said Annie.

Rose chipped in, ‘And hasn’t poor David been through enough without some petty little rule to spoil things?’

‘My Joe said he’d pull out of it otherwise,’ Annie said, ‘and then of course he’d want to ask someone to go in his place. You know, a gathering like this … you need permission. You can’t just turn up, trucks parked on the edge of the loch like this.’

‘Oh – Joe is on duty?’ Robyn said, surprised.

‘In an unofficial capacity, but it’s nice to have someone from the department. We’ve also got an ambulance just a hundred yards away, parked in the car park in the woods on standby, in case there are any falls or cuts and grazes. It may appear quite impromptu, but it’s anything but.’

Robyn had no idea. She was also taken aback by all the trouble she appeared to have caused. She wondered if Annie was exaggerating, but Rose seemed to back up what she was saying. In the silence, Robyn searched the faces of the strangers as they skated past, looking for any sign that people were throwing disapproving glances her way, making it plain they thought she shouldn’t be there. But there wasn’t any of that – just happy, friendly locals have a brilliant time together. No one was taking any notice of the four people sitting on the log and sipping their hot chocolates, chatting together.

Robyn was having a wonderful time too. She was so happy she’d come, even though she had a feeling, from David’s past experience with girlfriends, that his family members were on their guard against him getting hurt again. She could understand that. Annie was friendly enough, but unlike Joe, Robyn imagined it might take a bit more time to win her over and become friends.

I’m not going to dump David , she wanted to say. Although at the back of her mind was the possibility that someone she’d been in a relationship with might be out there looking for her.

That wasn’t all that was playing on her mind; what would happen if Annie and Joe found out she hadn’t been honest with David from the beginning? And what would David think when he found out that she was keeping secrets from him about her memory loss?

‘Oh look, George!’ Rose spoke. ‘There’s the McKays.’

Robyn followed Rose’s gaze to a couple standing a short distance away, holding takeaway cups as they watched the ice skating. She turned to George. ‘Who are they?’

‘They used to be my next-door neighbours.’

The older couple waved. They must have spotted Rose and George.

‘We must go and say hello.’ Rose stood up. ‘Come on, George. Let’s leave these two youngsters in peace.’

Robyn stood up too. ‘Oh, please don’t go.’ She didn’t want to be left alone with Annie and her potentially searching questions.

Rose smiled at Robyn. ‘I’m sure you and Annie have interesting things to talk about, rather than making polite conversation with us old folks.’

‘Oh no – we like your company,’ Robyn protested, glancing at Annie.

‘Of course we do,’ Annie agreed.

‘Well, that’s as maybe, but I still want to say hello to my old neighbours. George!’

George was still sitting on the log. He rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath, ‘I was rather enjoying sitting here.’ He reluctantly got to his feet.

Rose turned to Robyn. ‘You’ll be seeing us soon enough – remember?’

Robyn nodded. ‘Yeah, tomorrow, as promised.’ She was making a start on redecorating their bland new-build property on the new estate just outside Aviemore.

Rose smiled. ‘I’m looking forward to it, Robyn, and to seeing all that lovely material for my curtains and upholstery.’

‘Oh yes – I’m shopping around for those in the morning,’ Robyn reassured her. She hadn’t been out shopping yet to find swatches in materials and patterns Rose might like to have her curtains and matching cushions made from, so she wasn’t sure where she was going to source them from.

‘And we can have a nice long chat then, if you like.’

Robyn smiled knowingly. She knew what Rose meant by a nice long chat. Rose would be after any juicy gossip she had gleaned from Annie. Robyn vowed to herself that she would tell Rose every last juicy piece of gossip that came out of the interrogator’s lips. ‘Um … is it okay if I come to yours in the afternoon?’

‘Of course, Robyn. Whatever time suits you.’

Robyn breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thank you, Rose.’

‘No – thank you for sticking to the plan of coming over and working at our place.’

Robyn would have to spend the morning searching for a fabric shop.

Rose and George said their goodbyes. Robyn watched them walk over to join their friends. They appeared to be with a group whom Robyn assumed were the other couple’s grown-up children, along with their grandchildren.

Seeing their old neighbours’ extended family reminded Robyn what the site manager of their new estate, Nick, had said. Rose and George had moved out of their draughty old house into the modern four-bedroomed semi-detached property, thinking that their grandchildren would come to stay. Nick had told her that Rose and George had invited them, but that so far no visitors had turned up. He’d said that they were quite lonely. When he’d knocked on their door while she was visiting with Gayle, and she’d answered it, he’d assumed she was one of their grandchildren.

They’d got into conversation, and Robyn had discovered that Nick had had to leave the bed-and-breakfast where he was staying. He was desperate to find somewhere else close to the development where he worked. The company was paying for his food and accommodation as a business expense.

Robyn hadn’t thought twice about offering a room at Gayle’s family home – Lark Lodge. It had been extremely wrong of her to do that without Gayle’s say-so. She really didn’t know what had been going through her mind, other than the fact that when she’d needed a place to stay herself, Gayle had had no qualms about taking her in. She’d just thought that Gayle might take pity on Nick too, especially as he would be a paying guest.

And so, on New Year’s Eve, Nick had turned up at Lark Lodge with his suitcase – and something else he’d failed to mention.

Fortunately, Gayle had a soft spot for dogs; puppies in particular. Nick had brought with him the reason he’d been kicked out of his B her local community – if her past didn’t catch up with her.