Page 1 of Chasing a Highland Dream

PROLOGUE

LATE MARCH

Bella Douglas sat at the antique desk in the grand library of Drumblair Castle; the room that had become the office and hub of the future plans for the place. As she glanced around at the vast space, with its floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and rich-coloured leather-bound tomes, she smiled. It had always held a special place in her heart.

These days the castle belonged to her best friend, Olivia MacBain, whom Bella and their other best friend Skye, had met at high school when Olivia won the argument to attend a ‘normal’ local school, instead of being sent away. On the sudden passing of her mother, and in a rather unexpected turn of events, Olivia had inherited Drumblair Castle instead of her older brother Kerr, who was known for his gambling addiction. Their mother had evidently decided that he would be incapable of protecting the family’s legacy. So that task had now fallen on Olivia’s shoulders. Of course, Kerr hadn’t taken the news well and had threatened to contest the will. Thankfully Olivia’s Uncle Innes had stepped in and made sure Kerr realised this would be a waste of time.

As teenagers, Bella and Skye had been regular visitors to Drumblair Castle, near Inverness, and Bella’s passion for interior design had started in this very library. From the imported mahogany and the Adam style plaster mouldings and cornice to the grand carved plant stands and Henry Raeburn ancestral portraits, it was a stunning update that had taken place in the eighteenth century when the laird of the time, and his lady, had decided to modernise. It had created an intrigue in all things Georgian for Bella.

Bella had fantasised about living at Drumblair and her first teenage crush had meant she had dreamed of one day marrying Kerr MacBain and living happily ever after within the ancient walls but, of course, things rarely work out how you hope.

These days, Skye was engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Ben, and worked at a city-centre bank, and Bella was PA to her best friend – the newly appointed Lady MacBain – and whilst it wasn’t the career in interior design she had dreamed of, it was much better than some of the mundane roles she’d endured since taking the difficult decision to drop out of university when her own mother had become ill. At least her role here was fun and varied.

Following Olivia’s unexpected inheritance, her plans to open the castle to the public had been on schedule until a series of disasters had befallen the place over the winter, a stark reminder that the fifteenth-century castle was in a poor state of repair. Then recently a severe storm had damaged the roof further and taken down the scaffolding on the exterior, meaning more repairs were needed. It was late March now and the original opening date had passed. Due to delays in funding, it had now been put back to July.

The door to the library burst open. ‘Well, that’s it. It’s officially all ruined,’ Olivia said with a deep sigh as she slumped down onto the chair opposite Bella, her shoulders hunched. After such a positive start to the renovations and plans, so much had gone wrong for poor Olivia, but at least, she had the support of Bella and Skye, her mum’s step-brother Uncle Innes and, of course, her almost fiancé, Brodie.

Bella’s heart sank for her friend. ‘Oh no, what is it now, Liv?’

‘The interior design company for the stable block apartments has given backword just as they were about to start work. The contact I spoke to was very apologetic but vague. What the hell am I going to do now?’ It was evident from Olivia’s trembling chin she was on the verge of tears, and of giving up.

‘I’ll do it!’ Bella blurted without really thinking.

Olivia lifted her chin and, with watery eyes, she frowned. ‘But…’

Bella stood and walked around the old desk to perch on it before Olivia. ‘I know I’m not qualified. And I know this is a bit crazy, but you know how much I love that kind of thing. You saw what I did with my little flat. You’ve seen what I’ve done at my mum and dad’s house too.’

Olivia shook her head. ‘I know, Bella, but this is a massive undertaking. They’ve withdrawn all their plans, so you’d be starting from scratch without a scheme. It’s a crazy amount of work for you to take on and I really don’t want to put that much pressure on you, especially seeing as you’re employed as my PA, not my designer.’

Bella’s heart skipped with giddy excitement. ‘I know I could do it, though, Liv. And I’d absolutely love the process, I’m sure.’ Olivia fell silent and Bella realised she had put pressure on her friend to accept a ridiculously left-field idea. She scoffed then continued. ‘Sorry, I’ve just replayed what I said in my head and I can see how mad it sounds. This is a business and, of course, you want it doing professionally. I have zero qualifications and no real portfolio to speak of.’ She waved her hands as if doing so would erase the previous few moments. ‘Forget it. Rewind.’ She stood and did a comic backwards walk while pretending to speak in reverse. Doing so caused her stomach to knot with embarrassment and she cleared her throat excessively before saying, ‘Sorry… that was… weird… Do you want me to start a search to look for another designer?’

Olivia chewed on her lip and stared silently at the wall for what felt like ages until she stood up abruptly. ‘Okay, put together a mood board. How you see the apartments looking. Forget what the other company came up with. Show me your vision. If I like it, I’ll give you a go. But if I don’t, I’ll have to be completely honest with you. Although please know it won’t mean I love you any less. I just have to get this right because the funding allocation was quite strict about the apartments being sustainable.’ Olivia bit her lip again and cringed. ‘It’s terrifying, though, because you’re my best friend and I don’t want to hurt your feelings but I might have to.’ Bella sensed she was already talking herself out of it.

She needed to intervene.

Bella twisted her fingers in front of her and mirrored Olivia’s lip chewing. ‘You may think this is absolutely nuts and totally bizarre, but I already have a mood board prepared.’

Olivia narrowed her eyes. ‘Sorry, what?’

Bella felt her cheeks warming almost to the point of spontaneous combustion and she sighed deeply. ‘When I realised you were turning the stables into apartments, I had all these ideas, they just kept springing into my mind, so I created a series of Pinterest boards.’

Olivia gave a light, incredulous laugh. ‘You’ve never mentioned this before.’

‘No, because you’d got everything sorted. And I only did them for me. I had absolutely no intention of anyone ever seeing them.’

‘Are they on your laptop?’ Olivia asked, wide eyed, pointing to the desk.

Bella paused and then with hesitance said, ‘They… are?’

Olivia held her hands out. ‘Well, come on then, Douglas, no time like the present!’

Olivia had put on hold her own career as a fashion designer in New York for the House of Nina Picarro, designer to the stars, when she had inherited the castle, and hoped the apartments could be rented out to artists and creators like herself as an inspirational retreat; plus they would create another income stream to add to the many Olivia had planned for the upkeep of her ancestral home, so they had to be done right.

After a few minutes of scrolling through Bella’s designs, Olivia turned her attention back to Bella. ‘Seriously, Bells, why didn’t you show me these? They’re far better than the ones from the company I’d hired.’

Bella’s heart skipped again as the possibility of living her actual dream was almost a tangible thing. ‘I’m so glad you like them. I… I tried to keep the castle in the forefront of the design without being twee and Disney-ish. After all, it’s not a theme park so it’s important the apartments stay true to their origins in some way. That’s why the stonework is left exposed in some rooms and why I haven’t blocked up all the alcoves. I also thought it’d be great to use some of the old furniture pieces from the attic. I remember there being all sorts of wonderful things up there when we used to go sneaking around.’

Olivia’s eyes lit up. ‘You see, the designers we had were keen to completely modernise the interior of the stables and create a total contrast to the rest of the castle. I went along with it because they had great reviews. But what you’ve done is mix the old with the new and I love that. It’s incredible, Bella. I love how you’ve turned this old tack recess into wine storage,’ Olivia said, pointing to the screen.