Page 22 of The Scottish Island Inn

‘Oh, that would be lovely. Come around for dinner, and we can give you the yacht tour!’ Dom’s eyes widened excitedly. ‘Then we can have a proper chat. We’re a bit slammed for lunch at the moment. Do come?’

‘Um. Okay. That would be lovely. Thank you!’ Sorrel grinned. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t want to take you away from the lunch rush – I just wanted to say hi and get something to eat.’

‘You are absolutely not taking us away from anything.’ Dom wagged his finger at her. ‘Back from London. Ten years!’ he called out to the nearest table, where a group of three ladies in hiking gear were sharing a huge bowl of mussels dripping in garlic butter and a mountain of crusty bread. They smiled and nodded over at Dom, Farid and Sorrel.

‘But yes, we do have a busy café right now. So, come for dinner, and we can concentrate on you. Bring your sisters!’ Farid drank a little of his spritz and stood up. ‘I’ve got to get back to the lunches, sweet. Let Dom know when you can come, okay?’

‘Okay.’ Sorrel blew Farid a kiss as he made his way back to the kitchen.

‘Cheers! To old friends and surprise visits.’ Dom clinked her glass. ‘This really has made my day.’

TWELVE

‘Well. Here we are again,’ Tam Blackwood clasped his hands behind his back.

‘Here we are.’ She nodded, filling the awkward silence.

Three days after she’d arrived, Sorrel had finally plucked up the courage to drive over to the Inn to see what she could do to help, and transfer Catriona and Angus the money they needed to help with the repairs. She’d met Tam outside; he’d suggested that he go through his estimate for what would be needed to make it right.

The money wasn’t the issue for Sorrel. She knew that she wanted to help repair the Inn, because it was her sisters’ home, and she cared about keeping it. Anyway, Uncle James had offered to contribute, so she wasn’t worried about the cost now. The issue was her relationship with her parents, and the fact that they’d made her keep a horrible secret for years, against her will.

She’d sat with her work laptop the evening before, with a cup of tea and a biscuit in the quiet drawing room at Balhennie Castle, and plucked up the nerve to deal with what she’d been putting off.

Luckily, she and Simon had just finished a renovation project and were yet to start the next one, so there was nothing that she had to cancel in terms of workmen or supplies. Instead, she checked the file of all their current investments and mortgages, and then spoke to her solicitor, Ava, on the phone.

‘Well. This is a surprise,’ Ava had said, when Sorrel explained everything. ‘So, you want to… what? Dissolve the company?’

‘I want to know what it would take to do that, yes. And what my other options are,’ Sorrel said, firmly.

‘You should speak to Simon first. This is a huge decision. You don’t want to make it based on a simple misunderstanding,’ Ava said, kindly. ‘Even if he has had an affair, your relationship is repairable. If you want it to be.’

‘Hm. I’m not sure that I do. I don’t deal with betrayal very well,’ Sorrel said, thinking about her mum and dad.

She had cashed in some of her savings to help with the repairs at the Inn, thinking that she could pay herself back if she sold the company to Simon or they just sold off all their assets. She didn’t know what would happen, but the one thing she wasn’t worried about any more was money. She had enough – more than enough – to keep her going for a while. Until she decided what it was that she would do next.

But the task ahead of her was steep, and she didn’t just mean the repairs at the Inn. Sorrel knew that was just bricks and mortar.

The real repairs were within herself, and her family.

‘So, this is the estimate.’ Tam handed her a piece of paper; as he did so, his forearm brushed hers. A tingle of electricity shivered deliciously through her.

He was standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. Dressed in overalls with a T-shirt underneath, Sorrel thought that it was almost impossible not to notice how the fabric gripped his toned biceps. She blinked and looked away.

‘Okay.’ She took the paper, grateful to have something else to focus on, and started to look through the figures. ‘Wow. Rewiring too?’

‘Yep. The electrics are ancient. Your dad won’t get insured again if we don’t fix them now.’

Sorrel swore under her breath. The cost for the repair of the foundations because of the flooding was high enough, but now there seemed to be cost upon cost adding on to the total.

‘Coffee? The lads went to the coffee shop and brought back a spare. None of your instant from a jar.’

‘Oh. Yes, I’d love one. Thanks.’ She took the hot beverage in its cardboard cup from Tam; this time, his fingers brushed hers. Goodness – was it at all possible for him not to touch her? She felt herself blushing, which was completely ridiculous.

‘We found something else, by the way. You know that I gave you the ribbon and the newspaper article before?’

She nodded. ‘Yeah. They’re at the castle for safekeeping.’ Sorrel had tucked both items away in the old wooden bureau in her bedroom.

‘Good. Well, there’s also this. Seems like the old Inn is full of little secret treasures.’ He handed her a dark wood box, approximately the size of a shoe box.