Page 37 of Heirs and Graces at Highland Hall
Maybe if she just went to sleep, then she’d wake up when the storm was over. Sleep would be the best way for her body to recover. She would move after sleeping.
As her eyes remained closed, Bex thought how, in the distance, she might have heard people calling her name. But surely it was her mind playing tricks on her. Just like the dog barks she could hear. Barks that sounded just like Ruby.
Ruby, she thought, a warmth spreading through her chest. Ruby was a good dog. Maybe Duncan was right. Maybe she should adopt her after all. But maybe now she wouldn’t get the chance.
As Bex’s body threatened to slump to the side, she felt something warm hit her. Warm and wet. She straightened up, wanting to reach out and take hold of it, to grasp the warmth. But she wasn’t strong enough.
‘It’s okay, I’m okay,’ she whispered, not even sure who she was talking to. The cold was almost gone now. And this warmth she had found was so incredibly comforting. She would have happily stayed there and slept forever. Only as that thought struck, she felt the pressure of arms around her body, scooping her up out of the snow. Strong arms that held her in place as the voice spoke.
‘It’s okay. You’re okay. I’ve got you now. I’ve found you, Rebecca. You’re safe now.’
31
The first thing Bex noticed was the pressure on her feet. Unfathomable heavy pressure. She tried to shuffle them, to flex her ankles or just wiggle her toes a little, but they wouldn’t move. She couldn’t move her feet.
Panic rose through her as the memories snapped into place. The storm. She remembered going out and getting caught in the snowstorm. She’d been freezing. She had been freezing and lost and had known there was no way out of there. Oh God, was it frostbite? It had to be. With a surge of terror, she tried to roll to her side, expecting the rest of her body to resist. To perhaps be unable to move, like her feet, but instead the pressure beneath her ankles suddenly subsided, and she flopped sideways. Her whole body felt free, including her feet. They still ached, but they were definitely moving. Her toes too. Painful, but wiggling, nonetheless.
Utterly disorientated, she was still blinking open her eyes when she was ambushed by a wet, slobbery lick across her face.
‘Ruby,’ she said, wrapping her arms around the dog and burying her head in the dog’s fur. ‘Oh my goodness. I am so glad to see you. I’m so glad to see you.’
She could feel the tears stinging her eyes against skin already raw and bitten by the ice and snow. How was she okay? How was she here? And where was here exactly? She had so many questions she needed answers to, though at that moment, all she wanted to do was hold her dog as close as possible.
‘That dog of yours is probably the reason you’re alive,’ said a voice.
She tilted her head up to see Kieron standing at the side of the bed. Her bed. Or at least it had been when she had first come up to LochDarroch. This was the room Fergus had given her to stay in. She was back at the castle. But how?
‘The storm,’ she said, the memories coming in bits and pieces. ‘It came in so fast.’
Kieron nodded. ‘But why had you gone out in it in the first place?’
She shook her head, not sure she could give an answer that justified what a complete fool she had been. ‘I was just going for a walk. Clearing my head.’
Pain flashed across his face. ‘Because of what I said? Rebecca, I’m so sorry if that’s the case. If I came on too strong. I would never… I could never…’
As Kieron’s words drifted into silence, Ruby moved again, so close that Bex was practically spooning the dog, and somewhere in the recesses of her mind, she vaguely remembered feeling something warm and wet before she passed out completely.
‘You said Ruby’s the reason I’m alive,’ she said suddenly. ‘How did you find me?’
Rather than replying immediately, Kieron smoothed down the quilt and perched on the edge of the bed. ‘When the storm came in, Gordon came and found me. He said he thought he heard you yell something about going for a walk but wasn’t sure. Anyway, when you didn’t come back, we got worried and wentoutside where we bumped into the groundskeeper. I hear you know him quite well.’
It was with a pang of guilt that Bex remembered what she had said to Kieron, about her ex being a guy back in London. Clearly, she had been busted for that.
But Duncan. She remembered thinking about Duncan just before she thought she was going to die. All the things she had wanted to say to him, though now, she struggled to remember what they were. Or how she would even face him after making such a foolish mistake.
‘Yes,’ she said in response to Kieron’s comment. ‘Yes. We were…’
She didn’t finish the sentence, and from the way Kieron’s lips pressed together, she didn’t need to.
‘Well, he was coming up to the castle, and the dog was going berserk. Once it had got our attention, well then we just followed it.’
The tears that had stung her face only moments ago were now rolling freely down her cheeks. ‘Thank you,’ she said weakly, before turning back to Ruby. ‘And thank you, too. Thank you so much. You’re such a good dog, aren’t you? You are such a good dog. Yes, you are.’
As she nuzzled into the animal once more, she realised she was no longer dressed in her own clothes but instead a set of flannel pyjamas. The type of which she had never seen before.
With a flush of heat rising to her cheek, she looked back to Kieron.
‘Are these… yours?’ she asked.
