Page 108 of A Scottish Country Escape

I thought we were making progress, but disappointment hit as Cameron Lomax strode towards his apartment door, with his wife following behind. ‘I’ve done all I can.’

Ingrid began to usher both of us out of the door, but I paused and jotted down my mobile and shop telephone number onto the back of an old scrap of paper located in my bag. ‘Just in case you change your mind.’

The sound of his wife banging shut their door reverberated at our backs.

Chapter Sixty-Six

Our drive back home was solemn.

Elsa stared empty-eyed out of her passenger side window at the traffic winding its way around the city. ‘That went well.’

I sighed and offered the buildings flashing past a cursory glance. So what were we supposed to do now? What should we do? Cameron Lomax was refusing to help us. If he had agreed to see Linda Carlucci again and tell her how sorry he was… If he could explain what actually happened that awful night… My heart sank.

I had been daring to hope that Cameron would agree to return with us, but it was evident that even after all this time, his memories and his guilt wouldn’t allow it.

Pessimism invaded me. I knew what all this could mean.

Dexter would want to return to London with Nadia and Shelley, to escape from Fir Haven and continue with his role of surrogate dad. And it was obvious Shelley had ulterior motives.

The prospect of not seeing Dexter again made my heart twist.

‘Elle?’

Elsa saying my name made me blink. ‘Sorry. Just mulling a few things over.’

‘I could see that.’

I slowed down at a set of traffic lights as the late Saturday afternoon sun flitted across the autumn patchwork of fields and the cows grazing there.

‘So what do we do now?’ she asked.

I glanced in the rear-view mirror. My forlorn hazel eyes stared back at me. ‘I don’t think there is anything else we can do. You heard Cameron Lomax. He doesn’t want to relive it all. He struggled talking to us about it, as it was.’

Elsa clutched her patent handbag on her lap. ‘Elle, I realise I’ve only known you for a short while, but in that time I’ve seen what a determined young woman you are.’

I managed a smile and experienced a flicker of relief as the wooden painted sign proclaiming ‘Welcome to Fir Haven’ emerged over the brow of the country lane. ‘It’s in the genes.’

‘In that case, I don’t understand why you’re giving up.’

‘I’m not giving up, Elsa. I’m simply being realistic.’

She pulled a face.

‘What was that look for?’

She nestled herself into the passenger seat and appraised me out of her thoughtful eyes. ‘Please forgive me for being blunt, but that sounds like an excuse to me.’

I sucked in a cloud of air through my teeth, not taking in the tangled beauty of the nature reserve as we flashed past. I felt a pang of guilt. I had been so preoccupied with Dexter’s predicament that saving the reserve had taken a bit of a back seat of late in my priorities, but I was determined to address that again.

My thoughts were drifting again, so I pulled them back to Elsa. ‘An excuse?’

Elsa’s usual placid expression was now a challenging one. ‘I think you don’t want to risk losing someone else who means a lot to you.’

I opened my mouth to argue the point, but Elsa was having none of it. ‘I’m not blind, young lady. I’ve seen the way you look at Dexter and the way he looks at you.’

‘But—’

‘But nothing. Believe me, he has feelings for you. He just won’t admit it to himself because of all that’s going on with Nadia, Shelley, and his current inability to write.’