Page 22 of Heirs and Graces at Highland Hall
As he looked up, he let out a long sigh, and Bex couldn’t tell if it was aimed at her. For a moment, she thought she was going to face the same Duncan as she’d helped home the other night. The one who blamed her for everything and would undoubtedly tell her to get lost. But then his gaze met hers and as he shook his head, she saw just how deep his worry went.
‘I don’t know.’ There was a helplessness to his tone. ‘She’s not eating. I was hoping I could get someone to see her, but the vet’sbeen called out to one of the farms. Looks like they’ll be gone all night.’
The knot in her stomach tightened. A sick dog and no vet on hand. That was the problem with being somewhere like LochDarroch. There weren’t exactly spare options if the person you wanted to see was busy. ‘How long has she been off her food?’ Bex asked.
‘I don’t know. She’s no’ been herself since Fergus—’ He stopped himself. ‘Since she came to me. And, you know, I thought it was, you know… missing him, but now that I think of it, she was pretty skinny when she came to me. Maybe she hasn’t been eatin’ properly for a while. I should have seen it.’
‘You’ve had a lot going on,’ Bex said, hoping he knew she meant it. The urge to tell him that whatever was going on with Ruby, not to mention how Fergus hadn’t been able to get hold of him before he died, wasn’t his fault was overwhelming, and she reached her hand out towards his arms, only to change her mind. Instead, she dropped to her knees and gently cradled the dog’s head in one hand, while ruffling her ears with the other. ‘What’s going on with you?’
With the slightest sniff, Ruby wagged her tail hard on the ground, a faint glimmer of excitement showing through her malaise. Duncan was right. She was skinny. Even skinnier than Bex had thought when she’d seen her before.
‘Huh,’ Duncan said, letting out a huffing sound. ‘That’s the first time I’ve seen her wag her tail properly since I got her.’
‘Really?’ Bex asked, glancing up.
‘Well, unless you include the other night,’ he added.
‘The other night? What happened then?’ If they could work out what it was that made Ruby happy, then maybe they could work out what they needed to do to make her eat more.
Although rather than immediately replying, the tops of Duncan’s ears turned pink.
‘You helped Lorna bring me home,’ he said. ‘Bex, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean?—’
A fresh wave of guilt flooded his expression and this time it was nothing to do with not noticing how ill Ruby looked.
‘It’s fine. Really. We all have nights we drink too much.’ She kept her focus on Ruby, partly to assess how the dog was doing but also to avoid looking directly at Duncan. ‘She’s off her food, you said?’
‘Yeah. Dry food, meat. She doesn’t want any of it.’
‘What about scrambled egg?’ Bex suggested, finally looking back up at him. ‘Have you tried her with that?’
‘Scrambled egg?’ Duncan’s eyebrows rose. ‘No, it’s not something I feed the dogs.’
‘Well, she loves it. She always did with me.’
Standing up, Bex glanced down the cobbled street. ‘The café’s still open,’ she said. ‘Why don’t we get her some? My shout.’
Her heart pounded as Duncan chewed his bottom lip, considering her question for what felt like an eternity. Why had she asked him to go with her? She cursed herself. It sounded like she was asking him out for a meal, didn’t it? And it wasn’t like he needed to go to the café. She was sure he had plenty of eggs at home that he could use to whip the dog up a meal. So why had she suggested it? It wasn’t because she wanted to spend time with him. It wasn’t that every part of her body missed him so much it was painful, or that being this close to him, seeing him this upset and not being able to wrap her arms around him was pure torture. She was worried about Ruby and wanted to do all she could for her best canine friend. That was all it was. Still, her heart drummed as she waited for his answer.
Then, after what felt like the longest pause, Duncan dipped his head in a nod and offered her the slightest flicker of a smile. ‘Sounds good,’ he said. ‘But I’m paying.’
19
As Duncan and Bex walked into the café together, a familiar face stared at them from behind the counter. Bex saw the flash of disbelief radiating from her expression at the sight of the pair of them together, but within a heartbeat, it was gone.
‘What’s going on?’ Lorna asked, directing her question at Duncan. ‘Did you get to speak to the vet? Is everything all right?’
‘They were out at one of the farms,’ Duncan said. ‘They won’t be able to see her today.’
Bex should have known that Lorna knew her brother had been going to the vet’s. She suspected, since the breakup, Lorna had known his every move, trying to stop him from falling off the rails. The thought caused a deep throb behind her sternum. It would be so easy to stop both their pain. To admit that they still loved each other and pretend the breakup had never happened. But what would be the point in that? So that a couple of months down the line, they would go through all this again, realising that when distance and lifestyle came into play, love just wasn’t enough? No, they were better off this way.
‘Could you get some scrambled egg, please, Lorna?’ Bex asked, refocusing her attention on the reason they had come intothe café. ‘It needs to be a big plate, but don’t add too much milk to the eggs. Ruby doesn’t like it with too much milk. But don’t overcook it either. She likes it a bit soft.’
Duncan’s lips twisted into a smirk.
‘What?’ Bex said. ‘You want her to eat it, don’t you? That means it hasn’t to be right.’
The smile glinted in his eyes. It was the first time she’d seen him look like that since she’d arrived in Scotland. ‘You’re ridiculous, you know that?’
