“Gerard…” she tried again and he said Shhhh….
“We can talk about it later, if you really want to talk about it. Just enjoy the moment for what it is, Sue,” he said into her hair and she couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t remember what she had been sad about a few hours ago.
Chapter 7
When Sue woke up, she was alone again. She stretched her arms and realized she was in somebody else’s bed and this bed was very very soft. She sat up with a start and ran her fingers over the spotlessly white bed linen, smooth like butter. She lay down again and her head sank into a pillow, which she was convinced was made from clouds or feathers.
“Rise and shine,” she heard his voice and smiled. She sat up again and fluffed up the pillows behind her to rest against. Gerard had stepped out of the bathroom and was in a blue satin robe, through which, the muscles of his thighs peeped out, from time to time. His hair was ruffled and he had a hint of a stubble on his chin. She nearly laughed.
“I don’t believe I’ve seen you with a beard before,” Sue said and he walked over to her side of the bed.
“Are you implying I wasn’t man enough to grow a beard in college?” He kissed her on her lips. That kiss was enough to remind her of the number of times they’d had sex in the past twelve hours and she blushed.
“What time is it?” Sue asked, looking around the room for a watch.
“Where do you need to be?” he asked and walked over to the arrangement of armchairs and a coffee table by the balcony doors.
“It’s Monday morning…or afternoon. Don’t you have somewhere to be?” She watched him slide the glass doors open and a soft breeze blew in, billowing the white lace curtains in the room.
“I don’t remember, anymore, and I’ve ordered Luke to hold off all the messages.” He turned to look at her and Sue smiled.
“You never played hooky in college. God forbid!” she said and her hand flew to her mouth dramatically. Gerard laughed and started pouring coffee from a French press into two mugs on the table.
“I’m older now, and wiser,” he said without looking at her and Sue stepped out of bed. She found a matching blue satin robe laid out carefully on the ottoman at the end of the bed and she slipped into it while Gerard studied her naked body. She walked over to him and they both sat down facing each other. The balcony overlooked what seemed to be a forest and Sue assumed it was a part of Gerard’s property, his billionaire version of a backyard.
“What did you want to talk about last night, Sue?” He was blowing over his coffee. She smiled at him and did the same with hers. He remembered the way she liked her coffee.
“I don’t quite remember. It might have had something to do with the fact that we jumped into bed after twenty years of not seeing each other.” She raised an eyebrow and he laughed.
“Did it feel strange to you? Was it offensive?” he asked her and sat back in his chair.
“I can’t say that it did, but I still feel as though there is more conversation involved there. I don’t exactly know what,” she said and shied away from his gaze. She didn’t know how to talk about her feelings anymore. Vincent’s reaction to this would have been to storm out of the room, bang doors and stay somewhere else for the night.
“Maybe. Or maybe not,” he began and she looked up at him, surprised by the response. “It was unfortunate that we broke up, that you had to experience the pain of a failed marriage. But we’ve found each other again. Yes, we had a rough start, but look at us now,” he said and smiled widely. “Do we need to analyze it? Unless this was a one-time thing for you,” he said and his smile dropped.
Sue shook her head wildly. “No, it’s not a one-time thing, Gerard. I guess what I’ve been trying to say is that I want us to give it another try. I didn’t know if it was a one-time thing for you.” She looked away from him again, embarrassed.
“I never stopped loving you, Sue. You left, but I couldn’t forget you.” She detected a quiver in his voice and she looked at him.
“I was a fool. For not believing in you or your intentions. I love you,” Sue said and stifled a wail.
“Good. I’m glad you blame yourself because I’ve always blamed you.” She jerked her head up to look at him and he was grinning. She laughed and shook her head, wiping away tears from her cheeks. He always knew how to stop her from dissolving into a crying mess.
“Can we talk about more optimistic things now? Like when you’re moving in?” he asked casually.
“Shouldn’t we go on a few dates first? Shouldn’t you woo me and surprise me with a key to the house?”
“Why? To get to know you? I’ve known you for twenty-three years and nothing has changed. Other than the fact that I don’t live in my parents’ attic anymore, and I have a butler,” he said and they both laughed.
Sue placed the mug of coffee on the table, stood up and settled herself on Gerard’s lap. They kissed, for several minutes, and finally pulled away for air.
“I am truly sorry, Gerard,” she said while she played with a lock of his hair.
“You should be!” he admonished her like she was a small child. “So do you want to tell the others, or should I?”
“I feel like I’m getting my whole family back,” Sue said as Gerard nudged her off his lap and walked over to the cordless phone on his bedside table. He laughed while dialing Carl on speed-dial.
“I get the feeling that we’ll have to throw a dinner party again tonight,” he said, just as Carl answered the phone. Sue couldn’t stop giggling while the two men talked, they were back in college.
“You won’t believe the news I have for you!” Gerard spoke into the phone.
THE END
The Highland’s Call
Jessica Savage
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 1
Andrea clutched the small stone in the palm of her hand. It felt cool and smooth and somehow strangely comforting. Her Grandmother Betty had insisted that her only granddaughter be given this small artifact on her death. That had happened over a week ago, as Andrea was driving through New York. It was almost as if she knew. An image of her beloved Gran had flitted through her mind at the exact moment she took her last breath.
Betty was her father's mother. Her dad Joe had died a few years ago and her mother Pat had remarried. She had never approved of her stepdad, Pete; he could never replace her beloved father.
Perhaps she was being unfair, but she had always sided with her dad against her mum, and now the two women seemed poles apart, no longer able to communicate with each other. Pat didn’t even attend the funeral. Not that Betty would have minded. She had never approved of the union in the first place.
Andrea had inherited her Grandma's creative talents and she had been close to Betty when she was a child, closer than to her own mother, but after college she had been offered a three-year contract with a major advertising company in New York, and it had been too good an opportunity to turn down. Betty had understood that she needed to fly the nest. She had been a young woman once, although that seemed such a long time ago.
Andrea had only seen her Gran when she flew home for Christmas and important family occasions. Then she had met Steve and her life in the US seemed to take on a more permanent footing, until the death of her Grandma had made her suddenly homesick for the English countrys
ide. She loved the buzz and fast-paced life of New York but now longed for some peace and time to reflect and find herself again, and she certainly couldn't do that on Fifth Avenue.
Steve had stayed behind. He was in the middle of an important project but was willing to travel with her on a trip home for the funeral. For once Andrea didn't feel the need to be accompanied; this time she wanted to be alone with her thoughts and memories. Her insistence on being alone had caused a strain between them, the first serious rift since they got together almost two years ago, and it would be the first time they had spent any real time apart.
The pressure of the stone against her palm brought her back to the present. It had been almost five days since she left JFK airport, and Steve hadn't phoned her since. Not even yesterday after the funeral to see how she was coping. It saddened her to think the man she had grown to love could be so stubborn and heartless, and she began to question her commitment to the relationship. Did she really know him? He had seemed to be perfect for her, and she had enjoyed his company; yet when she looked back at the continual rounds of friends and parties, drinks and dinners, it seemed somewhat shallow. Lately she had started to feel broody; her body clock reminding her that time was ticking away. She had mentioned it to Steve once in a light-hearted way, and he had held up his hands in mock horror. That would never be the deal with him; his career was way too important, and her needs would always come second.
Did she and Steve really have anything in common?
The day was grey and coarse; the wind whipped up sharply from behind the trees and caused her to shiver. She had forgotten the English weather and hadn't prepared nor packed for it.
Opening her palm, Andrea looked down at the stone in her hand. She remembered seeing it as a child, taking prize position behind the glass in the old china cabinet in her Gran’s front room. Occasionally she had been allowed to take it out and hold it in her small palm. It was pale in color, not quite white and not quite beige. Several markings had been etched deeply into the surface, and she’d been told it once belonged to a white witch with magical powers. As a child, she had held the small token and made a secret wish that she would never grow up, that she would always remain a child. Of course, that hadn't happened. Not physically, anyway—but perhaps in her heart?
Grandma Betty had always been so full of life, her small blue eyes twinkling on the wrinkled and careworn face. There had been some sadness in her youth, but no one had talked of it and Andrea had never asked, but sometimes she saw a wistful shadow slightly dimming those sparkling eyes.
And now the stone was hers—that and an old battered leather diary from 1956. Before her death, Grandma Betty had written her a letter, the hand-writing barely legible on the expensive vellum cream paper. It had taken her a while to read the spidery hand.
Andrea,
My darling Granddaughter, I fear that I may not see you again. I do hope that is not the case, but I have to be practical. There is so much I should have told you and so much left to say, but my time is running out. Remember the wishing stone you used to ask me about as a child? I leave that to you. It's my most valued possession. You must promise that you will do something for me? The stone needs to be returned to its rightful home on the Isle of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull. You must take it into the Abbey and enter the little graveyard of St. Oran's chapel. Take the stone and place it on the third grave on the left-hand side. I can't explain everything to you in this letter. Most of it I don't understand myself. But you must promise me this, this small pilgrimage of mine. The diary may help? Call it an old woman's ramblings, but as you loved me please do this one last thing for me. The thought of you, my only remaining flesh and blood carrying out this last request, brings peace to my mind as I near my end.
I will never stop loving you even when I am far away.
Grandma Betty x
Tears trickled down her face as she imagined the dear old lady sitting up in bed, scribbling her last instructions to the world. It must have taken a lot of effort to write the letter. She had been in a very weak state in the end and therefore must have considered it extremely important to write.
Andrea had promised Steve she would be back in a few days, but what would a few more matter? It wasn't as if he was speaking to her anyhow. She would visit Iona. It was the last thing she could do for her grandmother, and although it would mean a further 1000 mile round trip, it would give her some peace of mind to follow her last wishes.
The phone vibrated in her jeans pocket, and pulling it out, she could see it was Steve calling from New York.
"Hey." His voice was deep and apologetic across the miles, and her heart thumped loudly at the sound of him.
"Hey, back." She tried to sound light as she finished their usual greeting.
"So, how are you?"
She could tell he was struggling to find the right words.
"Not too bad, under the circumstances. It was the funeral yesterday." Andrea could feel herself start to choke on the words; she had been bottling things up for too long.
There was a pause as Steve caught his breath. "Yesterday? Andrea, I'm so sorry, I would have called. I thought it was today."
Another lengthy pause ensued. Usually they had so much to talk about.
"At least you'll be home tomorrow,” he added. “I've missed you."
And now it was crunch time.
"Steve, I won't be coming home tomorrow. I've extended my stay by a week." She could hear disappointment in the silence that followed.
"I have to go up to Scotland, to Iona. It was Gran’s last wish."
"What?"
His voice sounded incredulous, as if he hadn’t quite heard her right.
"It's just something I have to do; it was her dying wish that I visit the chapel there."
"But honey, you don't have to do that now. Not right away, anyway. You haven't forgotten the opening night for my exhibition, have you? It's in four days. I want you by my side. You promised."
Andrea had forgotten, and she closed her eyes as if that would make things go away. She had tried that as a child; it hadn't worked then, and it didn't help now. It just gave her a few more seconds to think.
"Andrea?"
"It was her last wish, Steve. I've got to do it."
She could feel his exasperation as he breathed heavily into his phone.
"Are you crazy? You know how much this exhibition means to me. You're not really going to put your senile old grandmother ahead of me, ahead of us?"
"Grandma Betty wasn't senile!"
"I know, honey. I know how much she meant to you, but you've got to be reasonable."
She was three and a half thousand miles away, and “reasonable” was something she didn't have to be. The word irritated her, and she could feel the anger rising in her throat.
"Andrea?"
She pressed the end call button and put the phone back in her pocket. End of call, end of relationship, she guessed. She shouldn’t have felt angry; she knew the exhibition meant everything to him. She should be the one feeling sorry and calling him back to apologize, but Andrea didn't feel any of these things. Her grandmother dying and her trip home had sparked something inside her, some longing and need that she couldn't quite grasp. The only thing that she was certain of was that she needed to travel to Iona as soon as possible.
Chapter 2
The next day she was leaving Yorkshire, traveling by train up North to the Inner Hebrides of Scotland and would complete her journey by ferry to the tiny Island of Iona.
Although still cold outside, the sun was shining brightly in a vain attempt to warm the chill October air. Inside the carriage, Andrea was cozy, sipping a cup of coffee and watching the world race by. The scenery of the Northumberland coastline stretching its way up North was breathtaking, the sunlight dancing and glimmering on the waves as they brushed against the solitary, rocky bays.
She felt truly liberated.
It would take most of the day to reach Iona, so Andrea settled back in her sea
t. She had no book to read but then remembered the small pocket diary from 1956 in her bag and eagerly pulled it out.
The pages were yellowing and the diary entries didn't start until June that year. The writing was faint, but she could just about make it out.
June 13th, 1956
Arrived on Iona after a long journey. Fishing boat brought me over from the main Island of Mull. Mother still not pleased with my decision to take a few months away, but I need some time to paint and think. There is plenty of time to become a housewife.
Andrea smiled. She had married Grandpa Joe in 1958, so not too many years of being free and single.
Little pencil sketches filled the margins of the paper: a fishing boat (maybe the one she had traveled across the water in?) and a hut or shack standing alone. It looked bleak.
June 14th, 1956
Digs are basic and chilly. The walls are made of corrugated metal so very cold at night. Porridge and kippers for breakfast, which I have surprisingly enjoyed. It’s much warmer outside in the early summer air than in my poky little room. Glad to get out in fresh air and now am going to walk over to the Abbey.
19:15- Had a lovely day. The Island is truly breathtaking. The Abbey is a very special place and it felt strange yet welcoming, almost if I had come home. My great, great-grandfather’s family were Scottish—one of the Great McDonald Clan—maybe that is why? I must go back and do more sketches tomorrow in the early light. Have been told the sunrise here is spectacular.
June 15th, 1953
Up early. The sky is still dark, but I want to set up my easel in the little chapel grounds so I can start to capture the first rays of light against the Abbey, and get a feel for the colours and the peace at that time of day.
A Baby For the Outlaw Collection: Biker Romance Box Set Bundle (BBW Pregnancy Bad Boy MC Club Romance) (Contemporary Motorcycle Mega Pack Anthology Short Stories) Page 124