Page 17 of Journey to the Scottish Highlands

My eyes were beginning to feel gritty with tiredness.

I guided Marlene off at Junction 36 and flashed a brief look across at my passenger.

Evan had nodded off.

The kaleidoscope of colours drifting across the sky, lit up his features. He had such a confident, capable air about him. Everything about his appearance gave off the air of being broad and strong. I took a closer look at him as we flowed into another slowing line of traffic, from the cut of his stubbled jaw and the sharp sweep of his nose, which tilted slightly upwards at the end, to his bold, black brows and the way his mouth pursed in an almost petulant way as he slept.

Someone parped their car horn behind us. It gave me a start, and Evan’s lids flickered.

I pushed my attention back to the road. The last thing I wanted was him thinking I was checking him out.

The A591 opened out with dry stone walls racing here and there, lush grass and hedgerows basking in a bronze edged sunset.

Weariness pressed down harder on me. I was longing for a long soak in a bath and then to sink into fresh, crisp bed linen.

Evan had drifted back off to sleep again.

He was all legs, and his dark hair was flopping onto his brow.

His suit was beginning to rumple, but it didn’t detract from his elegance, I concluded with a jab of irritation.

I was still mulling over the prospect of losing myself in a bubbly bathtub at the bed and breakfast which I’d booked for us when we’d stopped for a break, when a blur of movement caught my attention on the right-hand side of the road. We were about to pass a heavily wooded area.

I slowed down and peered out of my driver side window. It appeared to be a little white blob of something moving this way and that in front of some dense trees.

Evan was still dozing beside me, his head slumped backwards, with one lock of hair falling forwards.

I eased off the accelerator and squeezed the brake. There were no other vehicles behind me, so I eased into the kerb for a closer look and hit the hazard lights.

I squinted out of my driver side window again. The evening light was shining into my eyes.

The white blur moved again.

I unclipped my seatbelt and angled myself against the window so I could see better.

It was a lamb.

It looked like the poor little thing was all alone.

Evan shuffled in his seat, but his eyes remained closed.

I flicked a look into my rear-view mirror. There was a car making its way over the brow of the hill behind us.

I turned my attention back to the lamb.

The cute little ball of fluff had edged away from the trees and was getting closer to the road. Oh no! If it shot out, it wouldn’t stand a chance against the traffic, and it would soon be dark.

I yanked open my driver side door.

The noise of it must have disturbed Evan. He shot up straighter. ‘What ‘s going on?’

I whipped round in my seat.

He rubbed his eyes. ‘Where are we?’

‘We’re almost at Ambleside.’

I turned back to check that the lamb hadn’t got closer to the road.