Page 75 of The Secret Castle in the Highlands

I turned over in my head what he’d just told me about his life in Australia. He didn’t have to do that, though. Seeing as he was being more transparent, perhaps I should tell him about Alex Lapley and his threat to the business. I knew he would want to know, and it would be churlish of me not to tell him.

‘Mason, there’s something I wanted to tell you before…’ My voice faltered. He was still captivated by his phone screen. ‘What’s the matter? Is there something wrong?’

He clenched his jaw and cursed under his breath. ‘You could say that. My parents have decided to pay me a visit.’

‘Is that all?’ I laughed. ‘For one minute there, I thought something awful was going to happen.’

‘It is,’ grumbled Mason. ‘Or at least you’d agree with me if you knew my parents.’

I gave a short laugh and forked up a mouthful of salad. ‘Go on, then. Tell me.’

He picked up his glass of water. ‘I used to be married to a local girl back in Cormount.’

I nodded, trying to disguise my surprise and curiosity. He’d been married too. I glanced up at the fishing nets, starfish and shells that decorated the pub’s stone walls around us. ‘Okay,’ I encouraged. ‘Please go on.’

‘Geri and I grew up together and a lot of people just assumed we’d end up getting married.’ Mason peered out of the window for a moment to study a couple of gulls strutting about on the rocks below. ‘I mean, I did like her a lot, but I should never have married her.’

I let what he was saying sink in for a moment. ‘We all do things that we look back on and regret.’

‘You’re telling me,’ said Mason through a dry smile. ‘My parents’ thought Geri was perfect for me, but she turned out to be the opposite.’ He paused. ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting here telling you all of this. You’re very easy to talk to.’

I gave my loose hair a playful toss. ‘So, I’ve been told!’

He settled back in his seat, the evening light lifting the bolts of blue-black in his hair. ‘It was only when my career started to take off that Geri insisted we get hitched, and I stupidly fell into line.’ Mason rolled his eyes at the memory. ‘Mum and Dad were delighted – their eldest son finally settling down with Cormount’s answer to Gwyneth Paltrow – but the scales soon fell from my eyes once we were married.’

I gave him a sympathetic look. ‘I take it she turned into the Bride of Dracula – literally.’

‘Yes, she did.’ He raised his hands in the air in mock surrender. ‘I’d been so bloody stupid. There were signs that she was one mercenary individual, especially when she discovered that I’d secured a TV series over here.’ He shook his head in a resigned manner. ‘She only pushed to marry me when my first history TV show was commissioned. Up until then, Geri had been quite indifferent about marriage.’

Sympathy overtook me.

‘And anyway,’ added Mason, ‘now I look back on it, Geri and Mason sound like the name of some cheesy music-hall act.’

Our eyes met and we burst out laughing. ‘So, from what you’ve said, you realised pretty quickly that you’d made a mistake.’

Mason agreed. ‘Oh, that’s an understatement. On our Italian honeymoon, she was interrogating my agent about possible book deals and advances for me. That was when she wasn’t rushing around Milan, buying eight-hundred-euro handbags.’

‘Ah.’

‘I stuck it out for eighteen months and then I knew I couldn’t stay in the marriage a moment longer. We got divorced four years ago.’

‘And your parents didn’t take it very well?’

Mason’s slash of dazzling white smile made my stomach lurch. ‘I’m surprised they didn’t have me driven out of town.’

‘But didn’t they realise what a madam this Geri was?’

‘She’s a very clever manipulator,’ he confessed. ‘When I got into TV, she did everything she could to ingratiate herself with my mum and dad.’

‘And now?’

‘They soon changed their opinion of her when she began demanding a ridiculous financial settlement during our divorce.’ Mason waggled his mobile at me. Their text was still glowing on the screen. ‘They must think I’m so naïve.’

‘About what?’

‘Why they’re visiting me.’

I leaned my arms on the table. ‘They probably just want to visit their son.’