Page 100 of Journey to the Scottish Highlands

The last thing I needed was losing my heart to him, which would be very, very easy.

‘Are you ok?’ asked Evan, catching me moving my chair away from him.

I hoped I could disguise the tremble in my voice. ‘Yes. Why?’

‘Is it my aftershave?’

‘Don’t be daft.’ I forced out a laugh. ‘So, I pulled together a scribbled list of newspapers and radio stations we could send press releases to. It’s down on the desk in the study. ‘

I shot out of Evan’s room and hurried towards the top of the staircase and started to make my way down, with Evan catching up behind me.

We’d reached halfway down the stairs when Louise emerged at the bottom, clutching some clean dish towels.

She frowned up at us. ‘I don’t suppose either of you have seen my white spectacles case? I had it in my apron pocket when I was giving the bannisters a dust earlier.’

I continued down the next couple of steps with Evan following behind. ‘No. Sorry. I haven’t seen it.’

I put my right foot down on the next step. It didn’t connect. Instead, it caught on an object. I tried to keep upright, but it was no good. I could feel myself hurtling into the air.

I let out a stunned scream, preparing to land with an almighty bang. I was going to do myself some serious damage.

Oh bugger! These steps were beautiful, but steep…