Page 90 of A Scottish Lighthouse Escape

Chapter Twenty-Eight

My head kept snapping round to look at Mitch and then back at Romilly.

She reminded me of one of those louche, French fashion models with killer cheekbones and a bored air. I suddenly felt rather scruffy.

‘Hey, Mitch,’ she drawled, sliding me a bemused look. Her voice was anglified and soft. She turned to me again, her cool, navy eyes appraising me. She attempted a smile.

Mitch pushed a confused hand through his hair. His voice was disjointed. Puzzled. ‘Romilly. Hi. What are you doing here?’

‘I thought I’d drop by and see where you were hiding out nowadays,’ she purred.

Mitch looked thrown. ‘What brought you here? I mean, why didn’t you go up to the lighthouse?’

‘I did but there was no answer. I went to your accommodation but there was no sign of you there either. Then I saw this place and thought a neighbour might know where you’d got to.’ She flicked me a cool look. ‘It seems I was right.’

She huddled deeper into her coat. ‘Couldn’t you have chosen anywhere more remote to live than this place? It’s the back of beyond!’ She performed a theatrical shudder. ‘It’s taken me hours to get here!’

‘It’s not that remote,’ argued Mitch, jumping to the defence of Rowan Bay. He gestured to me. ‘Sorry. This is Rosie Winters. Rosie, this is my … wife … Romilly.’

‘Hi,’ I said, managing somehow to dredge up a friendly smile.

She nodded. ‘Hi.’ She swung away from me and drilled all her attention back into Mitch. ‘Can we talk? I could murder a drink after all this bloody travelling.’

Mitch looked like he’d stood on something painful. ‘Aye. Okay.’

He moved out onto the top step, with the cold, mushy snow behind him. ‘I’ll catch up with you later, Rosie.’

‘Fine. Sure.’ I hoped I sounded casual enough. ‘Nice to meet you, Romilly.’

She pushed some of her hair back behind one ear. ‘And you.’

Yeah, right, I thought to myself as they made their way up towards the lighthouse, with Romilly bumping her leather wheelie case behind her. As I began to close the front door, I spotted Mitch gallantly take the handle from Romilly’s gloved hand and pull it along instead.

I kept my strained smile plastered on until I shut the door.

As soon as I did, a leaden feeling lodged itself in my ribcage. She was very good-looking. Was she hoping for a reconciliation with Mitch? Had she come to realise she’d made a huge mistake in letting him go?

I drew up in the hallway; all these questions tumbled through my head. Why was I dissecting her arrival? What did it matter why she was here? It was none of my business.

But with a hard, shocking stab of reality, I realised it did matter to me. Very much. The thought of Romilly and Mitch all snug in his bothy, just like we’d been during that angry, unforgiving snowstorm, was wounding me.

That intimate moment between us only moments ago, right here in the hallway, the close proximity of him, those sparks of jade in his eyes, the scent of his woody aftershave, that very faint, silvery scar above his top lip I’d never noticed before. God, why was I thinking this way? What was I doing?

Mitch was still married.

Fear crept in.

I widened my eyes at the realisation. But whether I wanted to recognise it or not, I knew I was beginning to harbour feelings for Mitch. They had stealthily crept up on me and caught me off guard.

It was as if my heart was expanding to allow someone else in to take Joe’s place. At one time, that idea would have been incomprehensible. There would never have been anyone else for me, apart from Joe. But now … there was Mitch.

His selflessness, his kindness, his altruism, his conscience about Noah and what had happened, not to mention his dark, intense good looks, were beginning to consume me, and I suddenly felt helpless. Now I was the one who felt like I was drowning in the bay.

But Romilly had rocked up here, and I had no idea what was going to happen now. Were these growing feelings I had for him a waste of time? Was I about to put myself through more emotional agony?

The truth reverberated in my head.

More pictures of Mitch tumbled in front of my eyes.