Finlay waited impatiently for her to get out of his vehicle as though he had other silly people to save from themselves.
Jamie leaned across the seat and kissed her. She let him do it. ‘You’ve got this. Don’t think, don’t panic, just get ready for the trip of your lifetime.’
She nodded like she was on a slower setting than him.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘See you in a bit.’ With a look of bewilderment, she hesitated before opening the door. She turned again, preparing to say something, but Finlay was getting tired of whatever this was.
The ranger handed Ally a leaflet as a parting gift. ‘There’s yin for you an’ all,’ he said, giving another to Jamie.
Staying Safe in the Cairngorms, the cover blazoned. Jamie wanted to laugh at Finlay’s hard headedness but when he looked to Ally he was met with the swinging shut of the door.
Finlay fixed his eyes on the windscreen and pulled away once again.
The last Jamie saw of Ally that day was her standing on the gravel outside her house, her phone in one hand, the leaflet in the other, her face frozen in astonishment.
Jamie sunk in the seat as Finlay barked something over his shoulder about whether he was still belted up in the back.
Visions of their morning, shrouded in white, replayed in his head now. Neither of them had been aware in the slightest they’d been striding headlong into danger. Something told Jamie as the jeep hit the high street he wasn’t quite out of the fog even now and his mind raced trying to work out why he still felt so lost.
22
‘Salopettes?’ said Ally. ‘Really?’
‘Yep, trust me, you’ll need ’em.’
Murray had been more animated than he’d been in a long time since his sister’s announcement on Friday that she’d accepted the Zurich job. He’d not disappointed, proclaiming, ‘We need to get you to a mall!’ So that’s where they were now, on a sunny Monday morning, looking for Alpine sportswear, apparently.
She hadn’t had a moment to think about Jamie and what happened at the bothy since she set foot in the mill house just before tea time on Friday and told everyone her news. Her mum and dad had insisted on popping Prosecco and ordering Chinese food from the takeaway in Stranruthie, and they’d chattered and fussed all evening and in her dazed state she’d let them. Then she’d helped at the repair shop all of Saturday and she’d spent Sunday composing her resignation letter for work, and sorting out her Swiss visa, buying insurance and returning her signed contract, all with Murray’s help.
The world around her had changed unrecognisably in the space of a few days. And now, according to her brother who, ‘knows about these things, trust me,’ she needed a whole new wardrobe too.
‘No, none of these are any good. Let’s try another place. You have to be Zurich-ready!’ he was telling her now, hustling her out of the store as if he didn’t have all day to shop. ‘Besides, you won’t be able to afford a thing in the stores there. Not on a temp’s wages.’
Murray was determined to help her, and part of her was grateful. She hadn’t a clue what kind of thing she needed for twelve whole months of living in another country. He didn’t have to be quite so brisk though.
As soon as they’d arrived at the mall, they’d stopped for coffee in one of the big chains, and she’d watched as her brother downed a cortado standing at the counter, right in the face of a totally bemused barista. He’d tapped the cup down like it was a tequila-drinking competition. ‘Ahh! Real coffee! I’ve missed this.’
‘Has it been that bad, drinking instant at home?’ Ally had said, thanking the barista for her caramel iced latte and dragging him out of the café.
So far, he’d made her look at merino base layers, ‘essential for winter’ and ‘decent boots, none of your misshapen thrifted stuff.’ He’d thrashed through the rails, dismissing garment after garment, pulling out white and beige things in linen and cotton. ‘Think layers, lots of layers, but smart casual, leaning towards the smart end of the scale.’
She’d let him bundle her into changing rooms with armfuls of clothes and waited for his infrequent nod of approval when she came out to show him.
She used to love shopping with her brother, years ago, but she didn’t remember him being this manic.
‘The men will all be in sports jackets, of course, and shirts and sometimes ties,’ he continued in his whirlwind way as they went into another store she wasn’t sure she could afford to even look in. ‘You can’t have them showing you up, so try these.’ He’d bundled dresses and jackets upon her, and shoved her into another changing room.
When she looked in the mirror under the harsh lights, she barely recognised herself. She rejected all the long black tubular dresses that somehow made her look both gothically terrifying and frumpy, probably not what the designer was going for, and told Murray she’d borrow her mum’s green suit jacket for her trip, it had been good enough for her interviews, making him gape in exaggerated horror.
Murray dragged her into the sunglasses store next door, telling her not to ‘even look at the prices because you will need a good pair. Just be sure not to leave them by someone’s bedside or…’ and he’d tailed off, remembering something unsettling.
‘What bags were you thinking of taking?’ he wanted to know as he shovelled a bacon double cheeseburger into his mouth in the fast-food lunch place. ‘God, they don’t make dirty plastic burgers like these in Switzerland, honestly! Eat up.’
Ally only picked at her fries. She hadn’t had much of an appetite since coming back down to ground level on Friday. Her brother had forbidden her usual ketchup and ordered mayonnaise, telling her she’d better get used to it.
Ally informed him she’d planned on carrying her stuff in ‘a book tote or something’ and he’d dropped his hands, burger and all, in heavy disappointment onto the plastic table.
‘All right,’ she groaned with an eye roll. ‘What kind of bag are you talking about?’
