Page 3 of A Highland Family Affair

Olivia sighed dreamily. ‘I suppose so, but maybe without the angst. And then after such a long and sweet friendship, and then the time I spent fawning over him he flipped and started calling me names, laughing at me with his so-called friends. You could’ve knocked me down with a feather when I eventually found out he’d loved me all along.’

‘I think he took the treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen thing a bit too far. And he clearly didn’t know how stubborn you were.’ Mirren grinned and placed a floury hand over her heart – luckily she was wearing an apron. ‘You’ll make the most stunning bride, Olivia. I just wish your mother was here to see.’ Her eyes became glassy, and her cheeks flushed.

Olivia gave a sad smile. ‘Me too. Although I may be waiting a while yet. Who knows?’

‘It’s coming, hen. I can feel it.’

Dougie – Brodie’s father and Mirren’s husband of almost a year – entered the kitchen and cleared his throat. ‘Erm… Lady Olivia, there’s someone to see you.’ She had lost count of the number of times she had asked him to just call her Olivia but before she could mention it again he scowled, and his mouth contorted briefly before he continued. ‘He was hovering around the grounds, and I didn’t recognise him at first. I almost called PC Sherburn but then… He… he looks…’ He shook his head. ‘Anyway, he’s waiting in the foyer.’

A little concerned, and a lot intrigued, Olivia pushed her chair away from the table and, under the watchful eyes of Mirren and Dougie, she left the kitchen and walked along to the castle’s grand entrance hall, where portraits of her ancestors and pieces of her father’s prized artwork adorned the walls. A huge metal chandelier hung in the centre of the room; it had originally been candlelit but had been converted to electricity at some point and these days housed mock candles.

A drenched man stood with his back to her as he peered up at a family portrait from when Olivia and her brother were children. His wet and unkempt hair was matted and sticking out at all angles. But she would know that auburn hair anywhere. It was the colour her mother’s had been.

‘Kerr?’ Her brother turned rapidly, and Olivia recoiled at his dishevelled and grubby appearance.

‘H-hi, Liv.’ He had a ratty-looking beard, and his jeans were stained with dirt and other unidentifiable things she didn’t want to think about. His jacket was torn at the shoulder, and his boots were badly scuffed and a little too big for him. He was clutching, and fiddling nervously, with an old woollen beanie hat from which droplets of water fell and pooled at his feet on the oak planks, only just missing the antique Persian rug.

He had left the castle under a proverbial dark cloud months before, after his attempts to sabotage Olivia’s corporate fashion show. The show had been intended to act as the launch of the castle as a venue prior to opening it up to the public and he had done his utmost to make sure no one turned up and that the night was a disaster. He hadn’t been seen since. There had been a couple of messages via other people, so she knew he was alive, but this was a sight she certainly wasn’t expecting to see; neither at this time nor in this way. She had presumed he had conned his way into the life of another unsuspecting, wealthy widow. It looked like she had been very wrong.

She shook her head and crumpled her brow. ‘What on earth…? W-where have you been, Kerr? What on earth has happened to you?’

Kerr dipped his head for a moment before straightening his spine and addressing her. ‘I’m… I’m sorry to turn up unannounced like this but…’ He cleared his throat. ‘I’ve been… I’ve been sleeping rough.’

Olivia gasped in horror. ‘But it’s freezing out there, Kerr!’

‘It really is. But after everything that happened with Bella, Adaira and the fashion show, I knew I wasn’t welcome here, so I travelled around a bit and I wound up in Glasgow. Needed to clear my head. Do some thinking, you know? But…’ He sighed deeply. ‘I ran out of money fairly quickly. Gambled most of it away and drank the rest.’ He gave a light, nervous laugh. ‘I know how to live, eh?’

Disbelief prickled at her mind. ‘You ran out of money? What about the rent from the tenants at the town house? That must have been enough to live on before they left, surely?’

He swallowed and shook his head. ‘I… erm… asked them to pay me up front, which they did.’ He shrugged. ‘So, the money’s all gone. Like I said, it went pretty quickly.’ He scoffed. ‘Pretty shit for an economics graduate, eh?’

On closer inspection, Olivia noticed that the dirt around his eyes was, in fact, the purplish-brown mottled remnants of bruising. Her throat constricted and her chest ached. ‘Have you been fighting?’ she whispered.

He reached his fingers up to touch his face. ‘Oh, this? It wasn’t really a fight, it was pretty one-sided, to be honest, and I’m not the fighting kind really. But don’t worry, it looks worse than it is, it’s almost healed now. Turns out people get quite possessive over their stuff when you’re on the street.’

Olivia deflated and her shoulders slumped. ‘Oh, Kerr, how did you get to this? It’s not you.’ She waved her hands up and down at him. ‘This is just not you. The drinking, the gambling, it’s not who you were brought up to be!’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand why you didn’t just come back here.’

She watched his nostrils flare, and he replied through clenched teeth, ‘As I said, I knew I wouldn’t be welcome. And I can’t say I’m surprised after what I did.’

‘You’ve been gone for so long and at first I thought you must have met someone, seeing as Adaira wouldn’t take you back.’ The older woman had been disgusted and hurt to find out Kerr had been seeing Olivia’s best friend Bella behind her back, and was taking advantage of her love for him to feed his gambling and drinking habits. She and Innes were a much better match.

He scoffed. ‘Is there any wonder she didn’t want anything to do with me after how I used her?’ A pained smile took over his rugged features.

‘You may not know this but she… she and Uncle Innes are…’ She didn’t need to finish the sentence.

He nodded. ‘Ah, I see. Well, good for her. She deserves to be happy.’ Olivia was shocked by his acceptance of the matter. He pulled his lips between his teeth for a moment. ‘I… I burned all my bridges, Liv, so sleeping rough was pretty much my only option.’

She took a step closer to him, a hand over her stomach that twisted at the thought of him sleeping in freezing cold, dirty, rat-infested alleyways. ‘Kerr, you’re my brother. We’re family. The last thing I want is for you to be living on the streets, putting yourself at risk when you could have swallowed your pride and come home.’

It was his turn to shake his head now. ‘It wasn’t pride, Liv. I don’t have any of that left. It buggered off with my dignity and self-respect. They’re all having a good laugh at my expense now.’ He held his hands out from his body and shrugged. ‘I mean… look at me. It was shame that stopped me from returning, not pride.’ He lowered his head again. ‘I’m ashamed of what I did to you; of how I behaved. All out of spite and jealousy. I gained your trust and then abused that so badly. Mum and Dad would be so disappointed in me. Disgusted, in fact.’ His voice broke and he sniffed. ‘I think I had to hit rock bottom to really see how awful I had been. But I think that’s also where I realised I could make changes. Make amends.’

Olivia’s breath hitched but she couldn’t help the niggle of suspicion and wariness that stopped her from hugging him. ‘You hurt me, Kerr. You tried to sabotage the very thing I was doing to keep Mum and Dad’s legacy alive. I’ll never understand why you did that. But you’re still my brother. And despite what you may think, I do love you. I always have. You just never allowed yourself to accept that, not from anyone. We’ve wasted so much time bickering and fighting. When we should have been supporting each other, especially after losing Mum and Dad.’

Kerr took a step towards her, his eyes watery with emotion, something she had never seen in her hard-faced brother before. ‘I know all this now. Believe me, I’ve had plenty of time to think. I’ve beaten myself up enough over and over for my actions and I truly am so very sorry, Olivia. I just⁠—’

Olivia heard footsteps and turned to see Brodie approaching from the direction of the kitchen. He held a notebook in his hand and was peering down at whatever was written there. ‘So, the quote is in for the roof, but you may need to sit—’ He lifted his head and his eyes widened for a split second before narrowing when he caught sight of Kerr MacBain standing there. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he snapped.

Kerr swallowed hard and glanced between Olivia and Brodie. ‘I… I shouldn’t have come, I’m sorry.’ He turned and headed for the door.