Page 62 of The Cottage in the Highlands

When I arrived back home, I concocted a quick dinner of seabass, chunky fries, and vegetables and fed Harley chicken with her kibble.

Then I set up my laptop at the kitchen table. I couldn’t give up on Flynn Talbot, especially not now. This had given me the impetus I needed. If he knew something, I had to find a way to convince him to cooperate.

Ok, so he had chosen to ignore my earlier attempts this week to speak to him again, but the news about Lily’s heart condition had fired up my determination. If he knew something about the other Flynn Talbot or about Merry Wood, I would appeal to his conscience to tell me.

I knew enough about Lily to guess that she would resist moving out of her home with every fibre of her being. She wouldn’t want to leave. That would mean leaving behind Merry Wood too.

My conscience was screaming in my ear as I considered everything. There was no way I could betray Lily’s trust by sharing her private medical information with a stranger. The revelation about Lily’s health condition might well change Flynn Talbot’s mind about speaking to me, but I felt wretched to be even thinking along those lines. I was not about to betray Lily’s faith in me by doing something like that. Her belief in me had taken a hit when those two models decided to trespass inside Merry Wood. I wasn’t prepared to put it to the test again.

I would just have to use my persuasive powers to get Flynn Talbot on board some other way.

While my laptop was firing itself up, I hurried into my bedroom and picked up Lily’s letter, which I’d put for safekeeping in my jewellery box, and returned to the kitchen.

The expression on Flynn Talbot’s face when I had mentioned Merry Wood, and the way he’d marched off, wanting to put distance between himself and what I’d told him, made me even more convinced Flynn Talbot knew more about his namesake or that house than he cared to admit.

I toyed with the idea of shooting off another email to him, but decided I might have more luck trying to speak to him. People could ignore emails whereas if it was a phone call… well, he could of course ignore that too, but I believed the odds of catching him unawares over the phone might be in my favour.

I pulled up his photography website details. It comprised of a minimalist layout and slideshow with horizontal scrolling displaying images one by one. There was a black and white photograph of him in one corner, smouldering at the camera. I jabbed his mobile number into my phone.

Harley watched me as I paced up and down the kitchen floor, mentally couching what I was going to say to him.

He answered after several long rings and let out an irritated sigh when I introduced myself again. “Look, Ms Baxter, I admire your tenacity, but I have nothing to say to you.”

“Mr Talbot, you and I both know you reacted the way you did on Friday because you either recognised some detail from the letter I talked about or the mention of Merry Wood gave you a shock. It’s one of the two.”

There was a bristly pause. “My, we are talented. Telepathic now, are we?”

“No, but in my profession, you learn to read people.”

“I’m busy,” he barked down the line. “I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

“Mr Talbot, if you tell yourself that often enough, you might start to believe it.” There was a furious growl.

“You share the same name as the man who wrote that letter to Lily. A curious coincidence, don’t you think?”

Flynn Talbot didn’t say anything for a moment. He gathered himself. “Yes, I recall you saying something like that before, Ms Baxter. A coincidence. They do happen in life, believe it or not. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an important photography appointment and I’m five minutes late for it as it is.”

Frustration gnawed at me. I couldn’t tell him about Lily’s health condition; it wasn’t my information to tell. But he was being so bullish. Hearing something like this might make him reconsider helping me. My brain felt rattled. What I was thinking of doing was wrong. Then images of a pale, tired Lily gazing across at Merry Wood lodged themselves in my head and refused to budge. Shit!

Right. I knew what I was about to say was a breach of confidence, but I was doing it for all the right reasons. This infuriating man was leaving me no other option. I hoped Lily would understand. I sucked in a long breath of air. “Look. I didn’t want to say anything as I am breaching a confidence, but you ought to know that Lily Cruickshank – the woman to whom that letter is addressed – has just been diagnosed with a heart problem.”

There was a brief frisson of something down the line. An awkward pause ensued. “How do you know that?”

I hesitated. “She told me herself. I wasn’t going to betray her trust but you are being so bloody stubborn about this, I feel like I had no choice.”

Flynn Talbot chewed this over. “I don’t believe you. This all seems rather convenient. You reporters aren’t known for your honesty.”

His sweeping generalisation stung. “We aren’t all underhand, I can assure you, Mr Talbot.”

Another jagged, quiet spell ensued between us, until I jumped in to fill it.

“This lady lives alone opposite Merry Wood. I’ve been told by a very reliable source that she is refusing to even consider leaving her home and I think I might know why. It’s because she doesn’t want to be parted from her memories there.” I allowed that to sink in for a moment before speaking again. “And these are memories which I think you know more about than you are prepared to say.” I dragged a weary hand through my tangle of curls. “Can’t you listen to your conscience, Mr Talbot, and do the right thing?”

“It’s not as easy as that,” he snapped all at once, making my brows zing upwards. So, I was right. He did know something.

He let out a ragged sigh down the line. “I do sympathise, but like I told you, I can’t help.”

What did that mean? It’s not as easy as that? Frustration flooded through me. “This lady has been loyal to that strange house for goodness knows how many years…”