Page 44 of The Cottage in the Highlands

Maybe she did trust me after all.

I hoped she did.

There had been puffs of smoke sailing out of her chimney as usual and a flap of clothes on her washing line when I’d first arrived this morning. At least she appeared to trust me a little more than she had done at the beginning, although that wouldn’t have been difficult.

I breathed in a mixture of damp grass, earth, and woodsmoke as Esther strutted past Dante. He grinned, his dark eyes appreciating her.

Now it was Carina’s turn to be photographed again.

Ebony finished applying the final touches to her base before Carina ventured over to the garden seat and arranged herself on it, all glossy black skin and dreamy expression.

She was wearing a transparent dress in cream that flowed to the floor. Her dark skin shone like satin.

Baz focused his camera on the glimmers of hammered silver shadow adorning her half-closed lids. “Gorgeous, sweetie!” He angled himself this way and that, leaping about like a demented Jack-in-the-box, snapping more pictures and murmuring.

When he was done and Carina got to her feet to dust herself down, Baz turned to me. “Right. Where’s Dante?”

Baz’s assistant, a timid-looking young female student in round red spectacles, approached. “Sorry, boss. I haven’t seen him.”

Baz rolled his eyes up towards the peak of his baseball cap. “Well, where’s Esther? I’d like another one of her beside the male statue.”

Ebony wiped her make-up-smeared fingers on one of her baby wipes. “No idea. I haven’t seen her for a little while either.”

Baz shot me an irritated look. “Any ideas, Leonie? We need to get this all wrapped up. I’ve got a flight to Milan at 3pm.”

I scanned the garden. They couldn’t have gone far, surely? They were both hardly wearing anything either and this was Scotland in November. “I’ll go and have a look for them,” I offered, keen for something to do.

I set off across the grass and back towards the house. The sunlight was bouncing off the windows and birdsong chattered from the trees. Had they disappeared together into the woods? Esther had been flirting like crazy with Dante from the off and his tongue had been lolling out like a cartoon wolf every time she so much as spoke to him.

Oh God, don’t tell me I was about to discover the two of them in flagrante under a hedgerow!

I moved down the side of the house to take a look but neither of them was there, so I doubled back. I couldn’t hear them, let alone see them, which was a blessing at least. Where the hell had they gone?

I took a left and ventured out into the woodland beyond. “Ms Drew? Dante?” There was no reply, except for the trampling of my long boots on twigs.

I returned to the gardens of Merry Wood. Oh, this was ridiculous! How difficult was it to lose two famous six-foot-tall fashion models?

Baz was shifting from foot to foot. “Well?”

I started to say I hadn’t been able to find them when Ebony strode towards me. She raised one lacquered nail and pointed towards the house. “I think I know where they are.”

Relief swamped me. “Oh great! Where?”

Ebony nodded towards Merry Wood. “They’re in the house.”

My breath stilled. What?!

I swung round, my voice cracking with apprehension. What the hell were they doing inside the house? They knew they weren’t allowed in there!

No. They couldn’t be. None of us had a key. My nerves jangled.

“They aren’t allowed access to the house,” I gasped. “It was in the contract. We all agreed to it. There are bloody Portaloos over there if they have a call of nature.”

I followed the direction of Ebony’s pointing finger, hoping that she had been mistaken.

But sure enough, Esther and Dante were silhouetted in the kitchen window, their tongues stuck down each other’s throats.

“Leonie, I don’t think they’ve gone in there to spend a penny,” muttered Ebony.