Page 108 of The Cottage in the Highlands

Flynn pulled his attention away from me and stared with incredulity at his grandfather. “Are you serious?”

“Of course, I am.”

“But why do you want to invite my parents over?” asked Flynn, raising his eyebrows. “I think the last time you had Carl and Diana over, ABBA were at number one.”

“Very drole. I can see where you inherited your waspish wit.” Flynn senior turned to Kerry and me, presumably because he thought he might have more success at a less pithy conversation. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking of late and there are a few things in my life I want to change.”

Before either Flynn or I could guess what they might be, Flynn senior turned to Kerry. “Would you be able to take us home, dear girl, and perhaps stop off on the way? There’s someone else I want to invite along.”

“Merry Wood?” hissed Flynn to me, as Kerry swept her car into the vacated picnic area. “What’s the daft old sod up to now?”

“I heard that,” said Flynn senior, twisting round in the passenger seat. He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his shirt collar. “I’m going to invite Lily back with us.” Then he thrust a finger in the air, as though experiencing a eureka moment. “I just hope she agrees to come along. It’s so important that she hears what I have to say. In fact, all of you need to hear it.”

He sat up straighter in the passenger seat and fetched his mobile from his trouser pocket. “But first I had better give Mrs Oates a call. Thank goodness she did the weekly shop this morning.”

We listened, rapt, in the confines of Kerry’s car, as Flynn senior spoke to Mrs Oates. “I’m having a few people back for something to eat,” he explained down the phone to her. “No, there’s no need to get stressed. Just rustle up some of your famous Cullen skink, if that’s all right.”

There was a pause. “Oh, not many,” he breezed. “There will be seven of us including you… hopefully eight.”

Mrs Oates must have exclaimed because Flynn senior flinched. “You’ve catered for more than that in your time, dear woman!” The he turned on the charm. “Wonderful! Did I ever tell you how fabulous you are?”

He finished the call with a “Thank you, darling.” A glimmer of apprehension travelled across his face all of a sudden. “Now to go and speak to Lily again.” Flynn senior turned to me. “Would you accompany me please, Leonie? It’s obvious you and Lily have grown close and she thinks very highly of you. You seem to have established a bit of a bond with her.”

Within the car, I was aware of three expectant faces reading mine and the warm scent of vanilla air freshener. “I have grown very fond of her.” I blushed. “She’s certainly a very special lady.”

Flynn senior’s brow arched with optimism. “So, is that a yes?”

“Of course,” I answered. “Come on. Let’s go.”

We arrived at Lily’s cottage with the amber lamplight casting a soupy, cosy warmth that splashed out against the dark trees and over her frosty lawn.

Behind us, Merry Wood stood the complete opposite with its dark empty rooms and prickly angled roof. Flynn senior studied it, his expression raking over its peaks and cornices.

“What are you going to say to her?” I whispered to him, as he dragged his attention away from Merry Wood and back to Lily’s cottage. He began ascending the front steps.

“I’m still working on that.”

Oh God! That didn’t sound good. There was every chance after their first encounter here the other day, that Lily would choose to chew him up and spit him out.

Lily had placed a gorgeous blood-red poinsettia in her kitchen window and through a chink in her sitting room curtains, her modest but sparkling Christmas tree throbbed with gold lights.

“Who is it?” called Lily’s guarded voice through the closed door. One of her curtains at her sitting room window twitched.

“It’s Flynn,” he answered, struggling to locate his confidence. “And I have Ms Baxter with me.”

Lily’s silhouette appeared as the front door eased opened. “Oh. You again.”

“Yep. Me again.”

Flynn straightened himself. “I’m not prepared to sod about any longer, Lily. Too much of that has happened already and that was down to me.” He pinned her to the spot with earnest eyes. “There are things I want to tell you to clear the air. I’m sick of secrets.”

He glanced back over his shoulder at me and I widened my eyes, urging him to carry on. “Please come back with me to my house this evening.”

“Sorry?”

“My housekeeper is preparing a lovely supper for us all. There will be you, me, Leonie, my grandson, and my son and his wife.”

Lily’s hand flew to her throat. She looked appalled. “Good grief! Why all these people?”