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Twenty! Rainne cringed at the thought. And not long twenty at that. She’d been invited to his party at the Scottie Dog a couple of months earlier. She hadn’t gone, but she’d peeked round the curtain and watched Alastair and his friends as they’d walked down the high street to the pub. They were all so young. She would have looked like a fool hanging out with them for the evening. It was the right decision to stay home.
“You grew up in a commune, Rainbow. Didn’t they teach you to look past age? You’re only six years older than me. It’s not a big deal. Aren’t you supposed to focus on the inner man?”
As far as Rainne could see there was a lot she was supposed to be doing. Everyone had an opinion on how she should live. There were so many opinions that her head was becoming too crowded for her brain.
Alastair set up a stand on the beach, put his rod in it and came to sit beside her on the log.
“I thought you needed to cast all your new flies,” she said as she moved as far away from him as the log would allow.
“I’ve got better things to do right now,” he said.
The two of them sat in silence looking out over the water. As far as Rainne could see Alastair was completely relaxed. Rainne, on the other hand, was growing more tense by the minute. It was impossible to be at peace with him sitting there, saying nothing.
“Look, I really want to be alone,” she said.
“No, you don’t.”
He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees.
“What am I going to do with you, Rainbow?” he said softly.
That was all it took for the tears to start falling again. Alastair shook his head slowly and reached for her. To her shame, Rainne let him pull her into his arms. She let him wrap himself around her while she sobbed as though her heart was breaking. All the while he whispered things she couldn’t quite hear and rocked her in rhythm with the loch. Slowly, Rainne began to feel the peace she’d come to the loch to find.
“He’s started classes for women,” Magenta told Kirsty a few days later. “Self-defence. They’re free.”
Kirsty stopped sewing the bra she was working on long enough to glare at Magenta.
“Why would I care?”
“He’s winning them over.” Magenta tapped the book on war that Caroline had taken from the library. “It’s all in here, he’s waging a ‘hearts and minds’ campaign. His plan is to make them trust him so that they’ll buy his underwear.”
“Fine. Let him wage his campaign. I have better things to do.”
Like hide.
“This isn’t the way to wage war. You need to strike back.”
“I am striking back. I’m developing a website and I’ve bought advertising to tell people all about it.”
“Does the advertising say that it’s owned by Kirsty Campbell, famous lingerie model?”
Kirsty’s eyes narrowed. Her little goth friend was walking a fine line.
“No. It says it’s the website of the shop Eye Candy.”
Magenta threw up her hands in exasperation.
“In that case, no one is going to look at it. The only thing we have that makes us stand out from the other shops is you. You need to get out there again and promote the shop yourself.”
Kirsty bristled.
“I did the story in the paper.”
“The Invertary Standard. Everyone in Invertary knows what’s going on anyway, you don’t need a paper for that. The website is supposed to reach other customers, right? Not just the folk in town. You need to put your name on it.”
“Don’t push me,” Kirsty said tightly. “I’ve had enough of the media to last a lifetime. I’m not promoting myself any more. My modelling days are over.”
“Okay, then you may as well say goodbye to the shop. Because Lake is attracting more women to his store than you are to yours and his stock hasn’t even arrived yet!”
