Highland Fling (2 page)

‘Have you seen the weather?’ 

‘And a good morning to you too Jane.’ Lizzie held the phone to her ear as she stretched beneath the duvet, ‘I’m still in bed. Why?’ 

‘It’s just started snowing.’

Lizzie leapt out of the Elizabethan four-poster, slid her size four feet into grey, fluffy, cat character slippers and dashed to the window with the phone still pressed against her ear.

Opening the heavy, midnight blue damask curtains, she stared mournfully at the mountainous snow clouds, gathering like a huge flock of over sized black sheep, and watched the first tentative flakes drift down towards Laurellei Farm.

‘Why today?  What the hell am I going to do with six loud mouthed, alcohol guzzling, womanising, arrogant city bankers if we all get snowed in?  Bugger, bugger, bugger!’

‘I thought you’d be pleased,’ Jane said drily. ‘I’ll be over in about twenty minutes.’

Lizzie hung up then hurried to the shower.

Fifteen minutes later, she was dressed in jeans and a hand knitted blue jumper. She tied her brunette waves into a pony tail and peered at her reflection in the dressing table mirror. Was that a grey hair? She tugged at it but it held firm and she decided she had better things to worry about than one stray sign of her age. With the life she’d led over the past few years, she was surprised she wasn’t totally grey.

Her fluctuating weight was now firmly under control and she looked almost the same as when she had married Max six years ago. After she discovered his affair, Lizzie lost almost two stone, which was a lot as she had never deviated much from the recommended weight for her five feet two inch frame. Later, when she had settled in at Laurellei Farm, she regained the two and put on a third – even she couldn’t resist her own homemade shortbread and cakes – and it had been quite a battle for her to regain her figure.

Now, she didn’t bother weighing herself. If her jeans felt tight, she cut down – and looking after the house and the animals kept her pretty active, as well as catering for her bed and breakfast guests during the season.

She’d been dreading this weekend though. Why hadn’t she just said no? She shook her head. Thinking about Max again wasn’t going to help. It was a miracle that she and Jane had been able to get everything done in time, although, now it was snowing, she wondered whether the quick repair to the roof would hold out.

She heard the rumble of an engine and headed towards the back stairs which led directly from the additional living space in the barn conversion into the original kitchen of the main farmhouse. She jumped down them two at a time and reached the kitchen as Jane was pulling up in front of the house in her battered Land Rover. Lizzie yanked open the kitchen door letting a swirl of snow fall on to the doormat.

‘I told you this booking was a mistake,’ she yelled as Jane hurried towards the warmth of the kitchen. ‘Are the roads okay?’

‘At the moment they’re fine. The gritters have been out and it’s not settling yet but it looks like it may be bad.’ Jane closed the door behind her and dashed over to the Aga to warm her hands, bending down to stroke Alastair, who was curled up in his basket next to it, as usual.

Lizzie made coffee and handed Jane a mug. ‘The one time I open early and it snows. I wonder if they’ll cancel.’ She pulled out a chair and sat down, resting her elbows on the large antique pine table.

Jane shook her head and sipped her coffee. ‘Didn’t you say they were coming up on the overnight train from Euston?’

‘That’s what the email said.’

‘Well, according to the weather report it’s not snowing down south and it’s only just started up here so they must be on their way. They would have called otherwise.’ Now warmed up, she sat on a chair opposite Lizzie.

Lizzie sighed. ‘I was sort of hoping they would. I’m really not looking forward to this weekend and now with the weather –’

‘Sometimes I despair of you Lizzie Marshall! Why must you look on the black side of life these days?’

Lizzie pulled a face. ‘Because I’ve turned it around and it’s black on both sides.’

‘C’mon. It’ll be fine. You used to be bright and cheery and ready to take on the world. What’s got into you lately? Since when have you let a few drops of frozen water get you down?’

‘Since I discovered the roof leaks.’ Lizzie leant back in the chair and sighed.

‘It’ll hold out, and think of all the lovely money you’re going to make. Six city bankers on a stag party, that’s a licence to print your own notes! And if they get snowed in here for the entire four days, you can charge them extra as they’ll have to have all their meals here, not just breakfast.’

‘God, I hope they don’t get snowed in.’

Jane helped herself to a pecan and maple syrup plait from the cake tin, which was in front of her on the table, and held one out to Lizzie. ‘Excuse fingers.’

Lizzie smiled and took the proffered treat.

‘It’s going to be great, you’ll see.’ Jane picked out pieces of pecan nut and popped them in to her mouth. ‘I could live on these,’ she said. ‘I hope at least one of the guys is good-looking. If we’re going to be snowed in with six of them, I want to have a bit of fun, don’t you?’

‘I just want to get through it with no broken bones.’

The phone rang and Jane answered it as she was nearest. ‘Oh hi Joe ... Yeah fine thanks, you? ... Yeah ... Oh dear ... Really? ... Good ... Yeah ... Thanks ... Bye.’

Lizzie raised her eyebrows and sipped her coffee as she watched Jane over the rim of her mug. ‘It’s good to know the art of conversation isn’t dead,’ she said when Jane hung up.

Jane stuck out her tongue and swished her copper-coloured waist length hair, like a model in a shampoo ad. ‘Well, Miss misery guts. As you may have gathered, that was Joe from the station. The train’s running on time despite the weather, and the party of six – assuming they were sober enough last night to get on the right train – will be arriving at Kirkedenbright Falls in approximately half an hour.’

Jack Drake slept soundly, despite the train occasionally lurching, and was unaware that his friend, and best man to be, Ross Briarstone studied him through weary eyes.

Ross refilled his glass with champagne and emptied it in one swallow. They’d all been drinking since before they boarded the train at eight twenty last night and Ross had lost count of how many bottles they’d gone through. He didn’t care though. Alcohol numbs the pain, people say, and Ross’s pain would need a lot of numbing.

He watched Jack sleep and a pang of jealousy flickered in his brain. They didn’t call him lucky Jack for nothing, Ross thought. He certainly had the Midas touch. Everything turned to gold for Jack Drake – and not just in a financial sense.

Ross let out a deep sigh. He wished he could rest his muddled head on a fluffy pillow and stop it spinning but when he leant back and closed his eyes, Kim Mentor’s voluptuous breasts appeared in his mind. He smiled as memories flooded his brain but the smile soon vanished. Only two weeks to go and they’d be lost to him forever. Kim’s breasts, along with the rest of Kim, would soon be married – to his best friend, Jack.

‘What you dreaming about mate?’ Pete Towner nudged Ross back from his thoughts.

Ross’s pale green eyes were shot with little red lines and he couldn’t see clearly through the haze of inebriation, so he merely grunted in reply, a fleeting twinge of guilt creeping over him before he closed his eyes again and began to snore.

Pete turned his attention to Jack, the bridegroom to be, who was slumped across the seat, his feet curled beneath him, empty champagne bottle in one hand, the inflatable doll his mates had given him – dressed up to look like Kim – in the other.

‘Jack. Your best man’s really out of it mate. Good thing we’re sober eh or we might go right past Kirkede ... Kirkeden ... the place we’re going to. You awake Jack?’ Pete poked him with his finger.

Jack sat bolt upright, still clutching the doll but the bottle slid to the floor with a resounding thud, making him wince. His head felt like a cement mixer as he tried to focus his usually clear sapphire blue eyes. The voice he knew but he couldn’t quite make out the features and he opened his eyes as wide as he could hoping that might help. It didn’t. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘We there yet?’

‘Nah. But someone said we’ll be stopping at Aviemore in five minutes and I think it’s the one after that.’ Pete turned his head slowly to peer through the window. ‘'Ere Jack. Someone’s got really bad dandruff. It’s all over the window sill, look!’

Jack stared at the window. He scratched his head and licked his lips. ‘That’s not dandruff. That’s snow.’

Pete’s eyes opened wide in amazement. ‘No mate. Can’t be snow. It’s March! 'Ere lads, wake up. Jack’s so drunk he thinks it’s snowing.’

Ross was the last to come to and he shook his head several times before he could manage to speak. ‘It is snow,’ he said and they all stared out of the window in stunned silence.

‘Good thing Kim’s not 'ere,’ Pete said after a few minutes, ‘couldn’t walk in 'er stilettos, eh mate?’ He nudged Ross’s arm and winked.

‘Kim’s brill,’ Ross said, ‘you leave her alone.’

‘Oooh! Anyone would think it was you marrying 'er mate, not Jack. Something you want to tell us?’

Ross screwed up his brows. ‘No,’ he said rather too loudly. ‘I just think she’s brill that’s all and Jack’s a lucky man. Eh Jack? You’re a very lucky man. Here’s to Lucky Jack.’ He raised his empty glass. ‘Hey! Where’s all the booze gone?’

They all laughed except Jack, who turned his attention to the fields and hills beyond, now covered in a fine white dusting of snow. The Cairngorms rose up in the distance and he admired their rugged beauty. The peaks and high plateaus were pure white but patches of their craggy black, grey and green faces were visible, although slowly disappearing behind a curtain of heavy flakes, falling faster and thicker by the minute. Jack watched the flakes land against the glass pane and slide down, joining the ever increasing pile on the sill.

He breathed against the pane and started doodling; he’d doodled ever since he was old enough to hold a crayon or something else to draw with, and it had become almost second nature to him; he often did it without even realising.

A very lucky man, Ross had called him. Funny, he didn’t feel like a lucky man. In two weeks time he’d be a married man and that was something he wasn’t absolutely certain he wanted to be.

Was it just pre-wedding nerves? he wondered. Since he’d got back from his last business trip just over two weeks ago, he’d made a real effort to be romantic, but that was the problem, it had been an effort, and surely it shouldn’t be? Kim had seemed different too.

He couldn’t put his finger on it but he couldn’t help feeling that something was missing and, since he’d been back, neither of them had seemed that interested in sex. They’d only made love once in just over two weeks. Not that that mattered. Sex wasn’t everything right? He let out a long sigh and admitted to himself that even that had been an effort.

He closed his eyes and leant his head back against the headrest. Was he making a mistake marrying Kim? He’d asked himself this question a dozen times since their engagement but he’d never found a satisfactory answer. It had all happened so fast; spiralled out of control. He should’ve told her he wasn’t ready for marriage; should’ve stopped the whole carnival before it’d set off on its route, but he hadn’t. Perhaps he did want to marry her after all. If only he could be sure.

‘We’re 'ere mate!’ Pete leapt up from his seat then wished he hadn’t. His head swam and he had to lean against the window to steady himself until the dizziness passed. ‘C’mon lads,’ he said after a while, ‘it’s time to 'ave some fun.’

He grabbed his bag, marched to the door, opened it and threw the bag out on to the snow-covered platform, sending a cloud of white powder into the air around it.

‘Wow! Look at that snow,’ Pete said, half turning to Jeff who was standing behind him. ‘I’ve only got these shoes with me an’ all.’ He lifted his right leg in the air so Jeff could see his designer slip-ons and toppled backwards as he did so, knocking Jeff into Steve, who was rubbing his eyes in an effort to come to.

‘Be careful mate! Steve said. ‘You nearly had my eye out.’

‘Shit it’s bright out there,’ Ross said, fiddling in his bag for his Ray-bans whilst Jeff, Steve, Phil and Pete stepped out on to the platform and Jeff slid over, landing on his bum.

‘You’re no Torvil or Dean,’ Pete said, laughing as Jeff struggled to get to his feet. He noticed the others were staring at him strangely. ‘What?’ he said, realising why, ‘my mum likes them! What can I tell you?’

Ross shook his head, Ray-bans now firmly in place as a shield against the brilliant white of the snow. ‘Sometimes I worry about you mate,’ he said, then glancing back at Jack. ‘You coming Jack?’

Jack was leaning against the wall, bag in one hand, inflatable doll in the other, looking at his doodle on the window pane. It was a snowman wrapped in chains. Shaking his head and sighing deeply, he leapt off the train, falling flat on his face in a pile of snow.

It was unfortunate that this was the first sight Lizzie and Jane got of their weekend guests, as they waited on the platform to greet them.

Chapter Two

‘It’s worse than I’d expected,’ Lizzie said waving at Joe and forcing a cheery smile she certainly didn’t feel.

‘Oh I don’t know,’ Jane said, ‘the one lying flat on his face looks quite promising. I wonder if either of us can get him in that position sometime over the weekend.’

Lizzie grinned despite herself. ‘Oh God. Trapped for the weekend with six drunken louts and a sex-mad woman. Can life get any better?’

‘I know. It’s going to be hell for me but I’ll get through it somehow.’

Lizzie’s mouth fell open. ‘I meant you.’

Jane winked at her. ‘I know,’ she said and sauntered towards their guests. ‘Good morning gentlemen. Having problems with the snow? This is Lizzie and I’m Jane. We’re your hostesses for the next four days.’

Lizzie saw the look on four of the men’s faces, watched another trying to struggle to his feet whilst the sixth lie flat on his back in the snow. Yep, she thought, this is going to be one hell of a weekend.