Page 118 of A Scottish Country Escape

Linda’s green eyes were flecked with pain. ‘But why didn’t all this come out before?’ As soon as she asked the question, her jaw set. ‘Of course. Your father.’

Cameron’s long, craggy features blanched. ‘I should never have gone along with it, but my dad was, to put it mildly, a very persuasive man.’

Cameron shook his thatch of thick side-swept hair. ‘I should have spoken up, but Dad gave me his ‘I’m a pillar of the local community’ speech. He said he could lose his career.’

Linda placed her glass of water on the stout little table by her chair. Her movements were slow; deliberate.

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Cameron. ‘If I could change what happened, I would.’ He indicated to Elsa and me. ‘We can’t do anything about that night, but we can stop someone else suffering because of what I did.’

Cameron shifted in his chair, knees bunched up under his coat. ‘Please, Linda. Please don’t punish someone else because of what I did, or because you lost Ross.’

‘I’m doing no such thing. You don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Linda snapped.

Cameron’s Scottish lilt was soft and imploring. ‘I think you do.’ His expression was beseeching. ‘Please don’t punish someone else, just because he reminds you of Ross.’

Linda looked like she was about to say something and then decided not to. She clamped her wobbling mouth shut.

‘I think,’ ventured Cameron, ‘that you are doing this to Dexter Grayling because he inadvertently brought back all those terrible memories for you and I understand that.’

The sitting room was silent, except for the panting of Brando and the intermittent spitting of the logs on the fire.

Then came a quiet swallow and a sob. The sound was pure anguish and bottled-up pain. Linda Carlucci was crying for Ross again, after all these years and for what might have been.

Chapter Seventy-Four

I got up and moved towards Linda to comfort her.

Her head was bowed and her dark hair was falling around her crumpled face. Brando was snuffling at her feet and gazed up at his mistress with concern.

Linda raised her tear-cluttered eyes and I slid my arm around her and gave her a reassuring hug. She smelt of citrus perfume.

‘This must sound awful,’ she struggled, ‘but I felt so resentful towards Ross. So angry.’

I held her for a few more moments, until she was able to gather herself again. ‘We were going to get married. We had everything mapped out and then he goes and takes part in that stupid race.’

I resumed my seat next to Elsa. Cameron was looking on.

‘I didn’t mean for things to turn out the way they did. I just wanted to humiliate him,’ Cameron admitted.

Linda shook her head. ‘But instead he saved your life.’

There was a quiet pause before Cameron ground out, ‘I wish to God he hadn’t. I didn’t deserve it.’

Linda continued to hunch in her chair, struggling to comprehend everything Cameron Lomax had just told her.

‘Mrs Carlucci,’ I said, hoping my next question wouldn’t make her retreat back into herself again. ‘Your ability… your power… whatever you want to call it. How did it start?’

There seemed to be a battle going on inside of her, about whether she wanted to talk about it. She shifted in her chair before leaning down to ruffle Brando’s coarse beige coat. ‘That particular gift, if you can call it that, was passed down to me by my great-grandmother, Maria. Lorenzo and Marina, my brother and sister, escaped it.’

Linda rubbed the solid wooden arms of her chair. ‘I didn’t want it. I didn’t want the responsibility of it. But when my family were treated with disdain by some of the locals, I found myself reaching for the one thing I knew I could control.’

Robert Masters and Marina. She wanted to hit back at him for breaking her sister’s heart. Protecting your family and the ones you love. I could understand that.

Elsa spoke. ‘Mrs Carlucci, this curse you placed on Dexter Grayling… He doesn’t deserve it.’

Linda listened while she fiddled with the strap of her wristwatch.

She sighed, allowing her fingers to soothe Brando’s velvety ears.