Page 39 of Snowy Surprises in the Highlands

‘Oh, Granny. Why didn’t you borrow one? Everyone has a mobile these days. It wouldn’t have been hard to find one.’

She held up her finger. ‘Now hold on a minute, I did think of that, and I asked but Murray has an Andrex phone, so, his didn’t fit with mine being an Apple. And Sadie on reception has a… whatchamacallit… Motormouth or something. Anyway, I thought you’d be okay because I texted you so many times from Sadie’s phone, bless her, she’s a wee sweety, and you didn’t reply. So, I thought you must be busy doing the hotel decorating.’

‘Granny, what are you talking about? I haven’t had a single message from you. And like Harris said, we’ve been worried sick.’

‘Ooh, they must have got lost in the whatsname then because I definitely texted you on the WhatsUp.’

Bella had a million questions scrambling for dominance. ‘Wait a second, how did you text me if your phone was out of battery? How did you know my number?’

‘I got it off your interior designer website,’ she said proudly. ‘I was showing Murray and he’s going to keep you in mind for their refurbishment here by the way, and we saved it into Sadie’s phone. Maeve couldn’t remember Harris’s number and we didn’t want to ring the police station in case there was an emergency, and we stopped someone getting through. But I definitely texted you on…’ She proceeded to reel off the number. ‘See I’ve even got it memorised now!’ She looked very impressed with herself.

Okay, that explains at least one thing, Bella thought. With a sigh, and hating to burst her bubble, she said, ‘You got the last two numbers switched, Granny. There’s no wonder I didn’t reply. You’ve been texting some random person.’

Isla laughed. ‘Really? Well, that’s a bit daft of me, isn’t it? And they never replied to tell me so. I’m vera sorry about that, hen. Anyway, I’d better go because we’ve a table booked for our wedding supper. I think I might have the salmon, it sounds delish.’

‘Hang on, Mum!’ Bella’s dad called from his place on the sofa. ‘You’ve still got plenty of explaining to do. Bella has Beau here because we didn’t know where you were. She went on national TV trying to locate you! Your granddaughter has been on the verge of a bloody breakdown. The whole of Drumblair, Glentorrin and Pabay have been beside themselves with worry. And you were off getting married?’

Isla’s smile disappeared. ‘I’m sorry, loves. I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just that we didn’t want to wait any longer with us both being over seventy.’ And then some, Bella thought, what’s with the pretending to be younger than she is all of a sudden? ‘And we didn’t want to take the attention away from your wedding at Christmas, Arabella dearie. So, we thought we’d run away and do it. We weren’t bothered about the big do and all that. That’s for you young folks. And it’s romantic, don’t you think? Running away to get married?’ she asked hopefully. ‘We’ve been planning it for a while, and it was really hard keeping it from you all.’ Her chin began to tremble. ‘I just didn’t want to spoil your wedding when you’re so much more important to me, hen. I’m so excited to be your maid of honour and didn’t want anything to overshadow your special day. I thought we were doing the right thing.’

Bella’s heart softened and her eyes welled with tears. She hated to see her granny upset. ‘Please don’t cry, Granny. You could’ve told us and we could’ve made it special for you. We had no idea you were even considering getting married.’

Isla’s chin continued to wobble and a wrinkly, liver-spotted hand wiped the tears away from her face with a tartan hanky. Isla smiled warmly at the owner of the hand who was now standing just out of sight. ‘Thanks, Tam, love.’

Bella’s stomach knotted with guilt. Had they all just completely ruined her special day? ‘Look, Granny, you go and enjoy your wedding supper, and we’ll see you when you come home. Although, when might that be?’

Isla sniffed. ‘Tomorrow, hen. Rab’s Cabs was fully booked so Flora’s nephew from Portree brought us and is picking us up to bring us home. Didn’t Flora tell you when you collected my Beau?’

So, clearly Isla knew as much about Flora’s dementia as Flora herself did. ‘No, Granny, I’m afraid she didn’t.’

‘Ugh, well, I don’t know why. She could’ve saved you all this upset. Anyway, we’ll see you tomorrow, okay?’

Bella was exhausted. Drained of anger and tears, she simply nodded. ‘See you tomorrow. Love you. And congratulations, Mrs Guthrie.’

A bright smile replaced the sadness in Isla’s expression. ‘Thank you. And I love you, Arabella dearie, so very much. And all of my wonderful family.’ The sincerity in her granny’s expression almost broke Bella again.

The call ended and Bella handed Harris his phone. He took it and stood there, staring blankly at it as if answers would spring forth from the blank screen. ‘Did that just happen?’ he eventually asked.

‘Apparently so,’ Bella’s dad said, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. ‘My eighty-seven-year-old mother has just eloped.’

Bella’s mum said, ‘I’m just so relieved they’re all okay.’

‘Me too.’ Bella’s mobile rang and Dorothy’s name flashed up on the screen. ‘Hi, Dorothy⁠—’

Before she could utter another word, Dorothy blurted, ‘I know where they are! Flora unknowingly held the secret all along!’

‘Evidently so,’ Bella replied. ‘We’ve just been speaking to them.’

Dorothy’s sigh of relief was loud and heavy. ‘Ah, okay. It seems forgetfulness runs in the family. Flora’s nephew, Davey, drove them to Gretna and was supposed to tell me the plans so I could tell Tam’s daughter that he was delaying his trip by a week. But Davey completely forgot because when he arrived home he discovered his cat had escaped. It’s a house cat and apparently doesn’t go out at all so he was really worried and spent the whole of that day and night searching and then yesterday and this morning too. The cat was located in a neighbour’s shed safe and well. But then he suddenly remembered he was supposed to pass the message on to me, so he rang me after he had seen you on the lunchtime show.’

‘But that was hours ago, Dorothy.’

‘Yes, I said the same. Turns out he was watching it on catch-up because he likes the recipes section, apparently, and had missed it while he was out looking for Mr Dibbs.’

‘Okay. All’s well that ends well, I suppose,’ Bella said.

‘Yes. I’m so relieved. You must be too. And now you have something to celebrate as well,’ Dorothy said, her voice much brighter than when they had last spoken.

The call ended and Bella turned to the others. ‘I wonder how quickly we can pull together a surprise party?’