Page 18 of The Castle in the Bay

‘Thanks.’

‘You know, I didn’t come here just for the adventure.’ She sat back beside him.

‘No?’ Monty turned to look at her. ‘Why did you come here, then?’

‘Ah, you know.’ She snapped off a square of chocolate. ‘Shit happens. And I got caught in a proper storm. I needed to get away from my old life. Everything was so… structured and suffocating.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I worked in the civil service in London, then Edinburgh. Pushing papers, dealing with endless bureaucracy. Drove memad. It was the kind of job my family expected me to do, not what I really wanted to do.’ Her family wasn’t short of money, and they’d sent her to boarding school as soon as they could to ‘prep’ her for adult life. She was pretty sure it hadn’t done that. All it had taught her was that she wasn’t worth much to them, and they expected her to fend for herself. Well, she was definitely doing that now.

Monty’s eyes focused on her and he adjusted his glasses. ‘So, you just decided to leave your job one day?’

‘Pretty much.’ She flicked a bug off her arm. ‘I’d had enough. So, I… Well, I lost the plot. I messed up a big speech and there was no going back, so I packed my things and left. Came here to start fresh, you know? To live on my own terms, find some freedom.’

Monty nodded. ‘That was brave.’

‘Maybe.’ Iona shrugged. Or maybe it was just running away. ‘There were other factors, I guess. All of it combined pushed me to do it.’

‘More than the job?’

‘Yeah, my cheating ex, for example.’

‘Oh.’ Monty raised an eyebrow as realisation dawned on his face.

‘Yup. He was well-off and my parents worshipped him. Honestly, I think they liked him more than me. He cheated on me, but my parents were actually annoyed with me. Can you believe it? They thought I’d bailed on a great opportunity. I think they even blamed me for it.’ She huffed and snapped off another couple of pieces of chocolate, handing one to Monty and nibbling the other. ‘Story of my life. I’m never good enough.’ She hadn’t meant the last words to come out aloud and had muttered them more to herself than Monty, but he’d clearly heard.

‘Sounds like a difficult relationship. Families can be tricky,’ he said. ‘My mother can be a bit like that too. She loved myex-girlfriend.’ He glanced away and fiddled with his wristwatch. ‘But then, so did I.’

‘What happened?’ Iona watched him closely. Surely his girlfriend hadn’t died too. Was his life that tragic? And she’d been so insensitive to him.

He gave a little shrug. ‘Just stuff.’

‘But… Is she… Still alive?’

He smirked and gave her a funny look. ‘Oh yeah. Very much alive. I can see why you’d want to move here.’ He changed the subject abruptly and Iona didn’t feel she could rewind or pry any more. ‘It’s beautiful.’

‘Yeah, I needed to find myself again and I love this island.’

‘It’s very easy to be calm here, even on a boat, which I never thought I’d hear myself say.’

She grinned, looking out at the waves crashing against the castle walls. ‘It is. But it has its challenges at times.’

‘I can understand that,’ he replied. ‘I’ve felt a bit out of place here, to be honest. Everything’s so different from what I’m used to.’

‘I noticed,’ she said. ‘You’re not exactly the outdoorsy type, are you?’

‘Not at all.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ve spent most of my life in offices, dealing with numbers. This’ – he gestured around them – ‘is a whole new world to me.’

‘It’s a good world. It takes some getting used to, but it’s worth it.’

Monty smiled and ruffled his hair. Objectively, hewasa good-looking guy. Catriona was right; he had an academic look with the thick-rimmed glasses, but the windswept hair and the stubble made him more rugged and altogether quite pleasant to look at, but looking was all Iona would be doing. Casual hookups were fine. Why deny she liked them? But he didn’t look like a hookup type guy, especially if he still loved his ex, which waswhat he seemed to be saying before. Probably just as well. Iona had had enough of his type to last a lifetime.

‘Listen, thanks for what you did back there.’ He flexed his fingers, then linked them together. ‘I really don’t think I could have done it without you.’

‘No worries.’

Monty glanced at her again. ‘That was why I booked this trip. To scatter Dad’s ashes and say my final farewell, though it doesn’t feel like goodbye. I’ve got an odd feeling… I can’t really explain it, but it’s like I have something else to do while I’m here. Only I’m not sure what.’

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