Page 75 of A Scottish Country Escape

Linda Carlucci saying those words aloud, while a thrush in a nearby tree wagged its tail and let rip a series of excited chirrups, gave me a start.

I spun around to Dexter beside me, shamefaced. I had doubted him. Even up until this point, there had been a shred of disbelief in me, which struggled to accept the notion that this woman had indeed cursed him. But now, hearing her say it, made me stifle a gasp.

His eyes pleaded with Linda Carlucci. ‘Please will you lift this thing? I can’t write. I’m struggling to even think of ideas, let alone find the motivation to put pen to paper. I feel like my life as I know it is slipping away from me.’

Linda dragged her mouth into a tight line. ‘Men like you are selfish. You think only of yourself. You do what you want. You’re reckless and it’s the people you leave behind who have to pick up the pieces.’

‘He’s changed,’ I broke in, ‘or at least he’s doing his best to.’ I gestured to Dexter beside me. ‘I’ve seen another side to him. Really, I have.’

I dared not risk another look at Dexter as the evening sun sifted through his thick shock of black hair.

‘So are the rumours true then?’ batted back Linda. ‘That you’re planning on leaving Fir Haven?’

Dexter didn’t reply.

‘But that’s what men like you do, isn’t it, Mr Grayling? The posturing and the big gestures. I’ve met men like you before.’

My brows dipped. What did she mean by that?

‘You haven’t changed at all,’ she croaked, backing further into her hallway. She continued to look at Dexter with a haunted expression.

Then the door banged shut and her dog made a few barks of protest.

We stood, wild-eyed at what had just taken place. ‘Bloody hell,’ muttered Dexter, stumbling away from the door.

I wrapped my arms around myself as a keen breeze began to pick up and coil itself around me. I didn’t know what to say to him. Her reaction had been ferocious and uncompromising.

‘We have to think of something else,’ I said to him across the shining smoky-grey roof of his car. ‘I’m so sorry I doubted you about the curse thing.’

He flicked his hand to dismiss my apology.

‘If we can do some digging into the Carlucci family, maybe that might throw up something useful.’

‘Elle.’ He sighed as he said my name.

Warming to my theme, I carried on. ‘I don’t know about you, but didn’t you think she was going a bit off-piste just now?’ I bit my lip. ‘Mrs Carlucci sounded like she was referring to someone else then and not you.’

‘Elle!’

Dexter’s raised voice startled me. He pressed his fob and the car flashed and bleeped. I got in and watched him slam his driver’s side door. ‘I know Linda Carlucci said I’m running away, but I’m not. At least, that’s not the whole reason I’m planning on going back to London.’

I felt a sliver of apprehension. ‘What is it?’

He rested one arm on top of his steering wheel. I could see he was debating whether to confide in me.

‘Dexter. Please tell me.’

He let out a rush of air and searched the middle distance through the windscreen. ‘I can’t lie to you or deceive you, Elle. It wouldn’t be fair and you deserve so much more than that.’

I watched him turn his attention back to me, an agonised flint in his eyes. ‘I’ve got a little girl back in London. A daughter.’

Chapter Forty-Six

His words hung in the air, suspended between us.

‘A daughter?’ I repeated.

Dexter gave the briefest nod.