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He was just contemplating a pain au chocolat to round off his breakfast before he got to work when Heather’s face brightened even more, and Cal was filled with a strange sense of foreboding.
‘I know! Uncle Cal can take us down to the village—it’s too far to walk there and back, I think. Maybe we can all have some lunch together as a treat. What do you think?’
Daisy and Ryan looked as uncertain as he felt about Heather’s suggestion, and Mrs Peterson was definitely smiling now.
But Heather ignored them all and clapped her hands together. ‘Brilliant! It’s a plan, then. Let’s all meet at the front door in thirty minutes, ready to go.’
And with that she snatched up the last pain au chocolat and walked out with his breakfast, his credit card and his free morning.
Perfect.
‘That’s two to Miss Reid,’ Mrs Peterson murmured as she cleared away his empty plate.
Cal ignored her, and went to get ready to drive down to the village.
* * *
Cal felt a strange sensation of lightening as he drove out through the front gates of Lengroth Castle, Heather in the passenger seat beside him and the children suspiciously quiet in the back seat. He was almost certain that Daisy and Ryan were plotting something, but since he had no idea what he decided to go with the flow and enjoy the day.
He was away from the castle, the sun was shining and he had a beautiful if untouchable woman at his side. Life could be much worse.
The village of Lengroth was small, mostly filled with grey stone terraced houses that echoed the castle’s forbidding walls. The streets were narrow, winding up and down each side of the valley the village sat in. From every spot in the village the castle of Lengroth, up on the hill, was visible, looming over them.
Cal purposefully kept his back to it as they got out of the car.
‘So, where shall we start?’ Heather asked, sounding unreasonably excited about the outing, in Cal’s opinion.
‘The sweet shop?’ Ryan suggested hopefully.
Heather smiled. ‘Maybe let’s save that until after lunch. But a stroll along the high street sounds like a great idea.’
‘The high street?’ Cal asked, with a hint of incredulity in his voice. ‘I think that title is a little grand for what Lengroth has to offer.’ At most, it was a low street. It barely even qualified as a road.
Still, Heather seemed charmed as they strolled past the Mountain Ram pub and across the road by the chip shop, the corner shop—and the long-suffering Mr Reynolds’ sweet shop. In fact, for just a moment Cal could almost let himself believe that they were a real family, doing real family things—not a patchwork of relatives and strangers who hardly even knew each other.
But the kids were behaving, Heather seemed relaxed and happy, and no one was demanding anything much from him, so Cal decided to relax and enjoy the rare Scottish sunshine for a change.
At least until Ryan darted across the road—narrowly missing being hit by a passing cyclist—and ran away from them down an alley.
Cal froze, just for a moment, then moved to chase him—only to find that Heather had beaten him to it. She was already across the road, disappearing through the same gap in the buildings that Ryan had, leaving him with Daisy.
He wanted to follow them, but that would mean dragging Daisy along, too—he could hardly leave her behind.
‘Where would your brother be running to?’ he asked, still staring after Heather.
No reply.
Annoyed, Cal turned to face Daisy—only to find her gone, too.
‘Dammit.’ Cal bit back a stronger curse as he spun around to check the street for his wayward niece. Nothing.
Except... A flash of movement in the distance, past the pub and behind the trees, made Cal realise he knew exactly where Daisy had gone.
He didn’t want to go there. He’d been avoiding it ever since he came back to Lengroth. But apparently his niece wasn’t giving him that option.
With a sigh, Cal followed her.
CHAPTER SIX
HEATHER SLIPPED DOWN the narrow alleyway, her eyes constantly moving as she searched the shadows for Ryan. What kind of nanny was she, losing one of her charges on her second day? Cal must be fuming. Or probably grilling Daisy on what Ryan thought he was playing at.
