Page 13 of Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle

‘We’ll be fine. No one’s going to come into someone’s house and say, “Are these really your children?” are they?’ He can obviously read the doubt on my face. ‘No one’s going to think we’re ridiculous enough to hire someone else’s children.’

‘No, that would be absurd.’

He laughs that nervous laugh again, and it really is impossible not to like him. He’s got that air of being in way over his head, but an endearing determination to see it through, no matter how bizarre it gets, and I feel it filtering into me too. His creativity with this scheme is truly impressive, and I’d be disappointed if I didn’t see it through to the bitter end now, no matter how bitter the end might be if these bosses see right through us.

‘Can I get you anything else?’ Ollie comes over to get my cup and plate and carries them across to the sink.

I shake my head, charmed by his attentiveness too.

‘Also, you live here now, so treat this place as your own. Nancy’s filled the cupboards with food, the fridge and freezer are stacked, help yourself to anything. This is your home for the time being – and you need to act like it. When these people come, they’re expecting you to have lived here for years, so find your way around. Cook anything, eat anything, use anything. There’s a utility room out the back there.’ He points to a door off one side of the kitchen. ‘It’s literally part of the job to make yourself at home, so let’s get all of the awkward weirdness out of the way to start with, because in three weeks’ time, we need to act like we’ve been married for years.’

I like the fact he addresses the awkwardness head on. This is a weird situation, and he’s right. No one’s going to believe that I live here if I keep looking around in awe and acting like he’s a stranger I’ve only just met.

He comes back across the long kitchen and holds a hand out towards the door. ‘Can I at least show you the rest of the house? I’m at work tomorrow, but Nancy will be in first thing, she can show you the way to the Christmas decorations. Don’t worry about anything like that tonight, you’ve had a long day.’

I get up and follow him back towards the kitchen door. ‘You sound like you have too.’

‘Me?’ He looks surprised as he steps aside and holds the door for me again. ‘I’ve just been in my office here. Prep for the week ahead. I’ve got a particularly difficult client meeting on Wednesday and I’m not very good at my job, so it takes a lot of forward-planning to pull it off.’

I glance at him as I walk past, feeling that increasingly familiar sense of intrigue. I assume he’s being self-deprecating again, but between this and the ‘hate it’ comment he made earlier, I do start to wonder if there’s any truth in them. Surely no one would go to such great lengths to save a job they really didn’t like?

‘One more thing…’ He rushes to catch up with me as we head back down the corridor. ‘Your name is Lucy.’

I laugh out loud as I stop to look at him. ‘I assure you it’s not.’

‘I’m sorry, Lula. I should’ve said something yesterday but I was worried you’d think you were getting in too deep. For the past five years, I’ve told them my wife’s name is Lucy, I can’t change it now.’

His lips are pressed together and there’s a look of genuine worry on his handsome face, like he thinks this will be the thing that pushes me over the edge into leaving. I suppose I should have foreseen something like this – did I really expect him to have been pretending to be married for years without ever mentioning his hypothetical wife’s name?

‘Well, luckily, we have very similar names, so call me Lu. No one will ever know it’s not short for Lucy, and there won’t be any confusion with accidentally using the wrong name. From now on, make it Lu, always.’

He bows his head in agreement. ‘It was like a sign, I think, the similar names. I really didn’t intend to ask you yesterday, but when we spoke, it felt like everything slotted into place. Thank you for doing this, Lu.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Our eyes meet in the low light of the corridor and I feel a flutter of anticipation inside me, and I’m even more intrigued as to where that name came from… Did he pluck it out of thin air or was Lucy a real person once? And how does a guy like this have to pay someone to pretend to be his wife? Unless he really is an axe murderer in disguise, the women of Scotland are seriously missing something here. Even without the castle, Ollie Bracewell would be a catch.

5

The rest of the castle is just as spectacular as the kitchen. On the ground floor, Ollie shows me a magnificent dining room, with intricately patterned flooring and a table you could imagine kings and queens dining at. A huge drawing room with gold-edged cornicing where I can envision the Victorian gentry dancing at grand balls, and a guest lounge with vast windows, which is nowhere near as cosy as the far more demure private living room he also shows me, with an unlit fireplace along one wall, a big TV, and more of a dark, masculine feel than the other places.

‘This is my favourite place in the house.’ Ollie invites me in to what is the first normal-sized room I’ve seen so far. ‘The only room that I’ve made my own since I inherited the castle. I set out to pick the comfiest sofa known to mankind, so feel free to test that out anytime and tell me I made the right choice. TV’s there. Remote’s on the coffee table. It’s got all the usual streaming options. It buffers a bit because the broadband speed out here isn’t wonderful, but it’s perfectly watchable. It might come as a culture shock to someone used to city life though.’

‘With an entire castle to decorate, I don’t think I’m going to have time for watching TV, do you?’

‘Yes. You’re not going to work all the time, Lula. Not on my watch.’

‘Lu,’ I correct him.

‘Sorry. Lu feels horribly overfamiliar when we’ve literally just met, even though I see the logic behind it.’

‘You’d better get used to it, Ol.’

I like the way his face changes when he laughs so unexpectedly, like the laugh has caught him by surprise, and it loosens something inside him and makes him realise that I really am all-in on this, because he seems to relax a bit.

‘Either way, TV is never better than at Christmas and I have a secret addiction to Christmas films. I intend to watch all of them in December – I hope you’ll join me.’

‘Before you say things like that, you should be aware that I cry at Christmas films.’

‘So do I!’