Page 122 of Journey to the Scottish Highlands

The crowd then dispersed back out of the front entrance, admiring the portraits and furniture as they went and thanking us for such a moving and wonderful performance.

‘You did great, kid,’ said Dane to Cayla, who blushed.

‘And you weren’t bad either, Daisy,’ he added.

‘Why, thank you.’

The sound of Dane’s mobile ringtone, ‘Thunderstruck’ by ACDC, blasted out. ‘Excuse me a second.’ He put the phone to his ear. ‘Hey, Dez, my man. How’s life?’

‘Well, that was something,’ breathed Cayla.

But our conversation was interrupted by Dane’s incredulous voice. ‘What? Are you joking?’ Dane lowered his phone and stared down in disbelief at the screen. He thrust the phone back up to his ear to resume his conversation. ‘Yeah, I just looked. I’m getting texts and messages now.’ He wrapped up the call.

‘Everything ok?’ I asked.

‘I’ll tell you in a minute.’

Alison, Bennett, Louise, Mindy, Josie and Grandpa, who’d been chatting to the departing audience, came wandering over. ‘Alright, son?’ asked Bennett.

But Dane didn’t reply. He was too busy pulling up social media on his phone.

Intrigued, Cayla and I moved closer, trying to catch a glimpse of what was capturing Dane’s attention.

He increased the volume on his mobile and did a double-take. ‘What the hell…?! Evan, what are you doing?’ he gasped.