Page 78 of The Midnight Secret

‘You sailed here? All the way from Raasay?’

‘It’s not so very far when you come down through the Kyle of Lochalsh.’

Effie blinked. ‘But how did you know I’d be here?’

‘I didn’t. This is all a very happy surprise.’

Her eyes narrowed with open suspicion. Surely it was far too much of a coincidence that he should have moored in the very harbour village where she lived?

‘Honestly. I wanted to test out my new mast.’ He motioned to theLady Tara, docked alongside.

‘Oh!’ She studied the pristine foremast, remembering the horrors of that passage – and all that had come after it. ‘...Well, it certainly looks a lot better than the last time I saw it.’

‘Indeed.’ He looked up at the mast too, both of them remembering it all. Loaded looks, weighted silences, easy conversation and long shadows in the hallway.

‘How long have you been sitting here?’

‘Long enough to see you’re a demon on that bike.’

She laughed, feeling embarrassed that she’d been caught in her feral state again; it seemed he rarely ever saw her at her well-mannered best. ‘Oh. Aye...Well, it’s great fun, I like it a lot...I’ve never had a bicycle before.’

‘That’s a criminal oversight.’

She laughed again. ‘I know.’

A small silence bloomed as he watched her. ‘...Well, seeing as we’re both here, do you fancy a potter around the sound? I’d be glad of the company...’ He wiggled his eyebrows playfully. ‘And you have provisions.’

‘Not really. It’s rhubarb, for my father.’

‘Ah. Well, as luck would have it, I do have some sandwiches with me.’

She arched an eyebrow. Was that a coincidence, too?

‘Do you have plans for today?’

‘No—’

‘Fine. Then what say you we feast on sandwiches and lemonade on the water, and I’ll drop you back here in a few hours.’

Effie looked at him. His arrival was the only exciting – only happy – thing to have happened to her since her return. She had been determined to make a good fist of it all and not mope – her situation, desperate as it was, was unalterable, and she knew she had to face that – but the only way to suppress her sadness had been to fall into a sort of numbness instead. If she didn’t cry much, nor did she laugh. ‘All right. So long as the dogs come too.’

‘Salty sea dogs – what could be better? What are their names?’

‘Slipper and Socks.’

Archie chuckled.

‘They’re siblings,’ she explained with a smile.

‘Come along, then. Let’s get out there.’ He got up and hopped aboard, but instead of holding out his hand, stepped back and waited for her to follow. Meeting his gaze, she understood that it was a sign he knew her and accepted her, even if she wasn’t a lady.

She jumped aboard, followed by the dogs, and turned her face to the sun, feeling the shadows fall behind her.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, her knees hugged to her chest as she sat in her usual spot beside Archie at the helm.

They had been sailing for a couple of hours, the sail dancing with the wind. To her relief, the water was reassuringly flat and calm, the Isle of Mull lying to their starboard side.

‘Duart Castle. Owned by the MacLeans.’

---