Page 123 of Journey to the Scottish Highlands

Chapter Twenty-Six

We all clustered around Dane, who raised his phone horizontally, so we could see the screen.

Evan’s image appeared.

Every fibre of me felt adrift at the sight of him.

‘Evan’s on your phone?’ asked Alison.

‘He sure is, Mum. Across social media, no less.’

Bennett frowned. ‘Well, where is he? What’s he doing?’

Dane squinted at the screen. ‘Looks like he’s standing in front of Loch Crawe.’

Louise glanced at Bennett. ‘What’s he doing there?’

‘Broadcasting live by the look of things,’ said Dane.

‘Broadcasting?’ repeated Alison. ‘Broadcasting what?’

Dane shrugged. ‘That’s what I want to find out! Dez, one of my roadie friends was checking his social media and stumbled across Evan saying he was going to go live online and make some kind of announcement.’

An announcement? What announcement?

The Great Hall seemed to be holding her breath too.

Dane looked impressed. ‘Looks like he’s live on You Tube, Instagram, Facebook, Tik-Tok … I didn’t realise my big brother was so tech savvy.’

‘That’s impressive,’ piped up Cayla.

My attention jerked from Dane back to his phone. What was Evan doing up by Loch Crawe? What was he going to say?

But it was as if Evan could read my mind and didn’t give me any more opportunity to mentally dissect this bizarre situation. Behind him was the silver splendour of Loch Crawe, lit up like a gilded mirror in the Scottish June sunshine.

His voice rang out around The Ramblings.

‘You won’t know me.’ He appeared hesitant; even a little self-conscious. ‘My name is Evan Lord, and I’m a journalist.’ The sun, up by Loch Crawe, strobed through his dark hair.

I couldn’t pull my attention away from the screen. What was he doing there? Was this some sort of surprise promotional thing he was doing on behalf of the tour?

Bennet shook his head. ‘Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?’

‘None of us know, Dad,’ said Dane.

Evan cleared his throat. Behind him, Loch Crawe shimmied in the light. Puffs of cloud danced overhead. ‘My family own The Ramblings, which is an old estate in the Scottish Highlands. It’s full of character and has been in our family for generations.’

Evan’s gaze bore down his phone camera.

‘But, like many of these old houses, they eat up money. Now, I’m not looking for sympathy for me or my family.’ He raised his square chin. ‘We’re very fortunate to have The Ramblings as the family home, but in recent years it began to fall into disrepair. It became one thing after the other.’

Evan raised a hand and counted off his fingers. ‘If it wasn’t the central heating, it was repairs to its stonework, or dry rot, or woodworm in the beams, or was electrical issues or leaks.’ He paused, then proceeded to speak again. ‘I could see how worried my parents were over the place and what would happen. They’d deny it to my brother and me so as not to worry us, but as I got older, I soon came to realise it was becoming a never-ending battle to keep the place going.’

Evan lifted his hands and let them fall by his sides again. ‘I knew I couldn’t stand by and watch them deal with this on their own. They needed some financial assistance, but I knew my brother and I couldn’t help much on that score.’

Evan gave a sad, brief smile. ‘And then something happened. At the time, it seemed like a blessing. We needed a financial injection, and this seemed like the answer.’ He stared down his phone camera lens, as though he were looking right at me.

I found myself taking a deep, inward breath, oblivious to Dane noticing.