Page 1 of The Boathouse By the Loch

Chapter 1

‘I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.’ Gayle looked as surprised as she sounded, and it was little wonder; Jake had only checked out of his room that morning and had been heading for the airport to catch a flight back to London. Now, here he was, just a few hours later – back on the doorstep of her guesthouse, Lark Lodge, in Aviemore.

‘Change of plan,’ said Jake, hoping she still had vacancies. He should have been returning home. It had been agreed that he’d step into Marcus’s shoes and head up the Ross Corporation while Marcus checked himself into rehab. It was only temporary. Jake had previously been a corporate lawyer, running the family business with Marcus, but after the accident up in the Cairngorms the previous Christmas, he’d left all that behind to train as a teacher in an inner-city school in London.

After what had happened to Jake’s wife, Eleanor Campbell-Ross, the media interest had been intense. It had been all over the news – the tragic accident involving William Ross’s two children, Marcus and Eleanor, and son-in-law, Jake, during their annual Christmas holiday to their beloved holiday home, The Lake House, in Aviemore.

Eleanor had been airlifted to hospital, and that had been the last detail regarding the accident that the press had been privy to. In the immediate aftermath, the family had refused to issue a press release or engage with anyone outside the family. They had all been uncontactable. They’d closed ranks to protect themselves; to protect Eleanor.

Jake would have done anything to swap places with her, but he couldn’t, and the press could only speculate as to what had happened to her.

They’d all had different coping mechanisms after the tragedy. Marcus’s father, William Ross, the head of the Ross Corporation and the man who had taken Jake in after he’d been orphaned as a child, had withdrawn from work, avoiding the boardroom. He was now spending most of his time on the golf course.

Marcus had stepped into his father’s shoes, which hadn’t surprised Jake. Whathadsurprised him was finding out that Marcus’s recreational use of drugs had turned into something far more serious as he soldiered on with running the company single-handedly while dealing with what Jake believed was his guilt over what had happened to Eleanor on the ski slopes. A freak avalanche had caused the accident, and Marcus had chosen to dig Jake, his best friend, out of the snow before Eleanor.

Of course, Marcus had denied it. He’d always maintained that there was someone else up on the ski slopes with them. Someone else had dug Jake out first. Because of that, Jake had walked away from the accident on Christmas Day unscathed, but Eleanor had not.

‘How’re the hands?’ Gayle asked.

Jake looked at his bandaged hands as he stepped into the hallway. They were a reminder of how he’d come to be in that partof the world. ‘Better,’ replied Jake. He was meant to be finishing his first year of teacher training in London. It had been the last week of the summer term, and he’d found himself off work.

It had all been going so well until he’d got another one of those phone calls from Lydia, Marcus’s fiancée, to say he hadn’t come home the previous night. Jake had discovered Marcus at his own house. Marcus had tried to break in, leaving shattered glass in Jake’s hallway, which Jake had slipped on, landing hands-down on the glass.

Marcus had wanted to know where Jake had been that night, why he wasn’t home. Jake did not want Marcus to jump to conclusions, but he’d stayed the night at the house of a woman. Faye. She was a work colleague, deputy-head of the school where he worked, and Jake’s mentor. Faye was a single parent, and Jake had been babysitting her daughter while she was on a course, training to be a headteacher. Over the course of the school year, Jake had got to know Faye, and he knew he’d been growing too attached both to Faye and to her daughter, Natty.

He’d fallen for Faye, although she was aware of that. But he’d nearly lost her friendship – lost both her and Natty – when Faye had discovered he’d been spoiling Natty. Whatever she’d wanted, he’d bought for her. He had the money. Not from his trainee teaching salary; the Ross Corporation still deposited his salary into his bank account. William Ross had ensured he was still on the board, and was expecting he’d be back. Marcus had said the same; that when Jake had come to terms with what had happened to Eleanor, he’d return.

Jake felt that William and Marcus were acting as though he was having some sort of mental breakdown because of his decision to leave the company and train to be a teacher. But heknew they were wrong to see his decision that way. He loved his new job. It was worlds away from the Ross Corporation, but if it hadn’t been for Eleanor’s accident, he’d never have left.

He'd felt enormous guilt over the fact that it had taken such a tragedy for him to find the life where he truly felt he belonged. Whilst he knew he’d made the right decision to leave, it was true that hehadhad a breakdown of sorts. He’d convinced himself that Eleanor had died. It was the only way he’d been able to cope with what had happened.

Jake had finally come to terms with the reality of Eleanor’s situation. She wasn’t dead, but to him, she might as well have been after the injuries she’d sustained. He hadn’t visited her since the accident, and neither had Marcus. Jake had put Marcus’s reluctance down to guilt over what had happened on the mountain. Jake felt guilt too – that he hadn’t been able to save his wife or somehow prevent the accident. But it was more than that. He was afraid to see her, to face the fact that she wasn’t the same anymore. He was barely able to acknowledge that their life together was over.

Jake was back in Aviemore to find out the truth about what had really happened on the ski slopes the previous Christmas. If Marcus had been telling the truth all along, and someone else really had been up there with them, Jake’s plan was to return to The Lake House to find them.

Chapter 2

As Gayle ushered him inside, Jake decided not to mention that he hadn’t intended to return to Lark Lodge. He’d driven straight to The Lake House, which backed on to Gayle’s house, intending to stay there. But when he’d arrived, he’d discovered that the house was in the middle of being decorated. There was no one there, but he’d discovered paint pots in the bedrooms, along with rolls of wallpaper.

He’d visited the house just that morning, doing a quick circuit of the rooms and making sure the place was as the family had left it, with dust sheets covering the furniture. The Lake House, where the Ross family had always spent Christmas together, had in fact been his childhood home until his parents had died. It was still his house; his to do with as he wanted. And the previous day, after his visit, he had started seriously contemplating letting go of the place and selling up. He had thought about employing a local interior designer to spruce the place up to sell.

He’d seen the designer’s outlet on the way into town. On passing Gillespie’s General Store, he’d caught sight of one of the shop’s windows, which had a lovely display of soft furnishings and materials that he knew Eleanor would have loved. He recalled thesign over that window –Robyn’s Interior Design.

And now he wondered if Robyn was working on The Lake House already. If it was her, she must have already started work, but in Jake’s haste to whip around the house the previous day and check every room, he had missed the decorating paraphernalia. He’d only opened the doors and glanced in, quickly checking that the furniture was still covered with dustsheets and there was no evidence of squatters.

But on returning from the airport that afternoon, ready to move into his house for a few days, he had been less preoccupied. He’d noticed the evidence that someone was redecorating.

He hadn’t employed her. He hadn’t employed anybody, even though he’d considered it. There was only one other person who would have done so, even though that person never visited Scotland; one person who had the remit to do such a thing. Aubrey. William Ross’s right-hand man. They were close, Jake and Aubrey; always had been. Jake wouldn’t have been surprised if Aubrey had stepped in to take care of the property. After all, the Ross Corporation took care of everything.

Jake managed a smile as he stepped into Lark Lodge. He hadn’t expected to be back so soon either. He headed straight for the stairs with his bag to the room he had been staying in just the previous day. He had originally booked two nights, even though he’d told Gayle just that morning that he was leaving and wouldn’t need the room for the second night.

He heard Gayle close the front door.

‘That room is taken,’ Gayle called after him.

Jake stopped abruptly and turned around with a puzzled look on his face. He hadn’t expected her to rent the room out so quickly.

‘That’s right.’ She noted Jake’s bewildered expression andpointed to the stairs. ‘There’s an attic room,’ she said. ‘It’s bright and airy, with good views of the Cairngorms,’ she added.

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