Page 16 of Winter Magic at Hollybrae Castle

I nod, working out the logistics of it.

He walks around the bed and opens the wooden door to the en suite bathroom. ‘This is locked from my side now, and I’ll use a different bathroom, so this is entirely yours.’ He goes over and wiggles the other door handle to prove it to me and then ducks back into the main bedroom. ‘Here, this is my key, and this is Nancy’s – the only two in existence – so you know this is completely private. I want you to feel secure here.’

He holds both keys out to me, and I pull up the sleeve of the cardigan and my now much warmer fingers brush against his as I take them.

‘Thank you.’ I’m impressed by how far ahead he’s thought this through, but also by how much he’s trying to put me at ease. I feel safe solely because he’s so aware of it.

He leaves my suitcase and holdall at the end of the bed, and we return to the tour. There are another two doors next to mine and Ollie opens both of them. ‘These will be Maisie and Rory’s rooms. I’ve told them to bring their own toys, books, and posters to make it feel like home, and Nancy has offered to stay in case they need any reassurance about being in a different place, although they were quick to reassure her that they didn’t.’

He moves along and taps the diagonal door in the corner. ‘Linen cupboard. Fresh towels, bedding, spare robes, help yourself.’

He opens the door to his office and shows me inside, and I recognise the background behind the desk and the window I was so taken with on the video call, and then we make our way up the wide carpeted staircase at the end of the hall and onto the next floor – another wide hallway with several doors on one side. ‘These are the guest bedrooms. This is where everyone will be staying.’

It’s even colder up here, and again, there are radiators on the walls, and I can imagine how warm and cosy it will be once they’re switched on. This floor runs lengthways across the castle and probably joins the main staircase from the other side, and I can see why he’s worried about guests coming down and catching us leaving separate rooms. Halfway along this floor, there’s a big window with a bay seat that looks out across the courtyard and the hills the taxi climbed on the way here, and in the same recess, there’s a stone structure that must be the tower, and a big wooden door just begging to be opened.

‘Can we go up?’

‘It’s better in daylight,’ he repeats. ‘The effect is lost without the view. Trust me, you won’t regret waiting until tomorrow.’

The repeat of what he said earlier makes me realise something. ‘Is that the library? Is the library in the tower?’

He smiles and this time, I cannot restrain the squeal of joy I let out and then quickly muffle in the sleeves of my borrowed cardigan. A library in a tower! I throw my arms out and spin around in delight, until I’m giddy and Ollie is laughing so hard that his eyes are watering, and his smile makes my heart skip a beat, which is caused by library overexcitement or overenthusiastic spinning and not just his smile, obviously.

‘What do you think?’ Somehow he manages to tear me away from my desire to see the library right now, and we continue walking along the hallway, down the stairs on the other side, and back towards our bedroom doors. Ollie points out bathrooms and storage rooms along the way.

‘It’s exceptional. You’re so lucky.’

‘Lucky?’ he repeats like it’s the first time he’s heard the word.

‘To live here. This is the most magical place. I can’t imagine what it was like to grow up here, and now to get to exist in somewhere so remarkable. This whole place is yours. That’s something really special.’

He doesn’t reply, and his blue-grey eyes have got a distant look to them when I glance up at him.

‘Yeah, I suppose,’ he mutters when he notices me looking. ‘I meant the decorating. Is this something you can work with?’

‘Oh, right, yes!’ I say overenthusiastically, feeling like I’ve crossed a line yet again. He sees this castle every day – I doubt he’s got patience for my first-time exhilaration. ‘It’s bursting with timeless elegance.’

‘Old-fashioned and dated, you mean?’

‘No. Timeless – the clue is in the word.’

He makes a noise that sounds like he disagrees, and I can see why he feels that way.

Everywhere he’s shown me has a hint of luxury, but aged. Carpets that are fraying. Paintwork that’s cracked in places and wallpaper that’s fading. Cobwebs in the upper corners of hallways with several generations of spider living in them.

He sees me looking. ‘That’s because I’ve forbidden Nancy from climbing ladders at her age. It’s on the list on the fridge, I’ll get to it when I finish work for the holidays.’

I look at him again. He seems… weary. He’s mentioned the costs and the endless lists of things to do, and I know that his visitors need to have the perfect Christmas, but it feels like he is struggling to muster much enthusiasm. I decide that I can pitch in too. I’m not just here to decorate, after all, and the castle feels like it needs a little love. Yesterday, I couldn’t imagine a better place to spend Christmas, and now having seen it, I really can’t. Maybe we both deserve this to be the best Christmas ever?

‘Anything else you want to know about this place? Me, the castle, anything?’ Ollie asks when we reach the hallway outside the bedroom doors again.

I bite my lip because I’m desperately intrigued by his scars and want to ask about how he got them, but it’s way too personal and intrusive. Even though he makes it seem like I could ask, I hold back and remind myself that he’s really my boss in this strange situation, and this job is the only chance I’ve got of saving my London dream. I’ve already let my professionalism slip from the thrill of the castle, but asking something like that is definitely a line I can’t cross. I shake my head in answer to his question.

‘I should get back to work and leave you to get settled in. There’s a lot of info on the kitchen fridge downstairs. Lists of anything we need, the Wi-Fi password, important local numbers, etcetera. There’s no “forbidden West Wing” with torn portraits of a prince-turned-beast or anything like that, so feel free to go exploring. There’s food downstairs, there’s TV if you want to curl up in front of something mindless. I’m out early in the mornings and back late, but Nancy and Hamish are always about.’ Aboot. His accent softens every word and makes ‘ou’ vowels come out sounding like ‘oo’, and I could seriously listen to him talk for the rest of the evening.

We smile at each other in the dull light of the hallway and eventually he gives me a quick wave and starts to retreat, but then he turns back. ‘I’m really glad you’re here, Lula. I think I might’ve inadvertently found exactly what this Christmas needs, and not just in a fake-wife way.’

His words and his smile as he walks away make butterflies soar inside me, because I feel the same. I don’t know what I was expecting to find at Hollybrae Castle, but for the first time in a while, I feel like I’m in just the right place.