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“I listen to you,” Kirsty protested, and her mother laughed.
“I found candles.” Magenta had been rooting around in one of the kitchen cupboards. She stood up, her arms full. “You have a whole cupboard full of candles. Does a person need that many?”
Caroline stuck her nose in the air—a classic defensive move. “Josh thinks they’re romantic.”
There was a chorus of “aww”s, which made Caroline duck her head.
“Well, we have candles, a warm fire and champagne,” Shona declared. “This is the most romantic hen night I’ve ever been to. Good job we’re comfy. If this weather keeps up, we might be here for a wee while.”
As one, the women’s attention was drawn to the huge bay windows, where the snow could be seen falling thick and fast. Silence fell as they watched a beam from a flashlight scan the ground outside.
“Joe?” Kirsty said. “Is Ryan outside?”
“Nope, gorgeous, I’m here.” Ryan walked into the room holding a box of matches.
“Then”—Kirsty pointed to the window where there were now beams from two flashlights—“who’s that?”
Ryan dropped the matches and reached for his gun.
4
* Rainne and Alastair *
“You didn’t need to take me to the castle,” Rainne said into the silence.
The ten-minute drive had taken almost half an hour through the snow. They could barely see two feet in front of them, the flakes were coming down that thickly.
“You planned to what? Walk?” Alastair pointed through the windscreen.
“Jodie’s brother could have taken me.”
“No. He couldn’t.”
Rainne watched in bewildered fascination as Alastair clenched his jaw tight. Was he mad at her for inconveniencing Deke? Getting a lift to the castle wasn’t her idea. She’d only asked for help to get her car started. She should never have gone back to the old church. She should have just walked to the castle. If she’d been lucky, she’d have made it there by midnight without dying of hypothermia.
“He could have helped me fix my car, then I could have driven myself.” Why she was carrying on this ludicrous argument, she didn’t know. No. That wasn’t true. She did know—she wanted Alastair to talk to her instead of freezing her out with his silence.
Alastair snorted. “Your car didn’t even have snow tyres. There’s no way you’d have made it through this. They cleared these roads this afternoon, and look at it now. This truck is barely managing.”
Okay, so he had a point. His pickup truck came with four-wheel drive and snow chains. Her economy car came with fuzzy dice.
They turned into the castle’s driveway only to find the normally closed metal gates wide open. A prickle of unease climbed up Rainne’s spine. The guardhouse beside the gate was dark and no one came out to check their right to be there. She scanned the area ahead of her—no light was coming from the castle. She twisted in her seat to look behind at the rest of the town. No lights anywhere.
“I think there’s a power cut. But why is the gate open?” Rainne said. “Josh never leaves it open. There’s always paparazzi hanging out here trying to get in.”
“Look around. See any cameras? How about people? Anybody with any sense is tucked up indoors. Josh probably left the gates open to make it easier for the partygoers to get in.”
“Maybe.” Rainne studied
the snow-covered driveway in front of her. There were a lot of footprints. “Those prints are recent. If they weren’t, the snow would have hidden them by now. Why are there so many people walking around out here? And where’s the guy who mans the gate?”
Alastair’s glance made it clear he questioned her sanity. “You notice footprints now?”
Rainne tucked her hair behind her ear. “When Lake talks, I listen. He doesn’t talk often and I don’t want to miss anything. Plus, he knows a lot of useful stuff from his time with the SAS.”
“Useful stuff like when to worry about footprints in the snow?”
“And to be suspicious when a guardhouse shows no sign of life.”
