Sealed with a Christmas Kiss Read online

  ‘I know. I’m just hoping it’ll last until the end of the month so you’ll have gorgeous weather for the wedding.’ Maddy’s enthusiasm made up for his coolness, which was fortunate. He looked around, sizing up his surroundings.

  ‘This place has seen better days, hasn’t it?’

  Kate felt herself rising up slightly, in defence. ‘Kilmannan used to be one of the most popular holiday destinations in Scotland, back in Victorian times.’

  ‘And it’s not seen a lick of paint since, by the look of it.’ His smile was supercilious.

  ‘I prefer to think of it as faded splendour, myself.’ Kate could feel her hackles rising, but she had to get a grip. This man is the key to your business. It doesn’t matter how rude he is, you don’t rise to it, she told herself.

  Maddy flushed, shooting Leo a warning look, which he ignored.

  ‘I think it’s beautiful, Kate. I love old seaside resorts. Is that a real penny arcade?’

  ‘Yes, it’s been there since 1910 – the car’s parked just over there, so we can pop in for a look if you like?’

  ‘Sorry, ladies, something’s come up with work.’ Leo frowned down at his mobile, which was beeping insistently. ‘Give me five minutes?’

  With Leo installed in the passenger seat of the car to make his calls in peace, Kate felt herself unwinding as she took Maddy for a quick wander through the little town of Kilmannan. He might be a bit of a pompous git, but she didn’t have to marry him, after all – that was Maddy’s job.

  2

  Catastrophe

  Kate’s fingers were freezing cold as she gripped the steering wheel. The heating was on full blast in the car as they headed back towards Duntarvie House. Maddy had loved Kilmannan as much as Kate herself had on her first visit, but Leo had seemed remarkably unmoved. He hadn’t even budged when she’d taken them the scenic route across the highest point of the island, parking in a layby to allow them to marvel at the views of Eilean Mòr, the huge island that lay to the west of Auchenmor. It had been a bit foolish, she realized, because whilst the snow was light, the roads were definitely slippery. She breathed a sigh of relief as they turned down the driveway towards the big house.

  ‘Must be hard keeping up the gardens in a place like this?’

  Leo’s question was perfectly innocent, but Kate felt herself flushing as they drove along. The enormous rhododendron bushes sprinkled with snow suddenly looked unkempt and disorderly and she found herself slowing down, trying to find the smoothest route through the remaining potholes. But doing so just gave him more time to notice that the grass verge wasn’t immaculate. She sped up again, swerving to avoid a rabbit which leapt out from the little copse by the stream. She caught him raising his eyebrows in the mirror at Maddy. This was awful.

  ‘Leo, Maddy. It’s wonderful to have you here.’

  Thank God for Roddy. He swept across the driveway as if to the manor born. Not surprisingly, thought Kate. It’s times like this I remember that this place is all he’s ever known.

  Maddy was literally spinning in circles, a huge smile on her face, taking in the whole courtyard, the house, the stone lions, the crunch of the gravel, the sweep of garden that stretched down to the private beach. Leo, Kate noticed with a gigantic sigh of relief, was shaking Roddy’s hand with – was that actually a smile?

  ‘I hope you’ll like Duntarvie as much as we do.’

  ‘I’m certain we will, won’t we, Maddy?’ Leo seemed to be defrosting under Roderick’s supervision.

  ‘I love the idea of a Christmas wedding, don’t you, darling?’ Roderick looked across at Kate, reaching for her hand.

  ‘Yes, very nice.’ Kate’s smile was automatic and polite.

  ‘Well, after our plans went up in smoke – ’ Leo paused for a moment, clearly expecting a laugh; it was a line he’d used before – ‘we both feel very lucky to have been offered the chance to get married here.’

  ‘Come inside, and we’ll show you around. It’s just us today, as it’s the weekend.’ Roderick showed them in, pausing only for a second to half-raise an eyebrow at Kate. You okay? it said.

  Kate nodded, lips trapped in a tight smile. Leo had managed to rub her up the wrong way so many times that she was having to try hard to be polite, and not to kick him in the shins when he wasn’t looking.

  ‘I’ll take you up, Maddy, and show you your room.’

  Relieved to be no longer sharing air space with Leo, Kate felt her shoulders sink down to their normal level. As uncomfortable as Leo made her, Maddy felt like someone she could easily be friends with. She was funny, warm, and genuine.

  ‘So how did you meet Roderick, then? At a ball, or something?’

  Kate burst out laughing. ‘Not quite, no. I got dumped, moved up here for a change, and we ended up together. I’m definitely not Roddy’s sort of posh.’

  ‘But you live together here? And work together? That must be hard.’

  ‘Actually, no – it’s lovely. There’s so much to do that we aren’t in each other’s pockets, and we have quite a few other people who work alongside us all the time. Things are pretty much perfect, just as they are.’

  ‘You’re so lucky. Leo’s a total workaholic. He’s never got that phone out of his hand. Keeps promising me that once we get married things will be different.’ Maddy sighed, twisting her long red hair into a coil in her hand.

  Kate was lost for words. With a friend, she’d have had something comforting to say, but she didn’t know Maddy, and her choice of life partner was – well, he’d definitely be ‘avoid’ if she was playing one of her old university drinking games. Certainly not ‘snog’, and absolutely not ‘marry’.

  She changed the subject, offering to show Maddy around Duntarvie House before the embarrassing silence lingered in the air too long.

  Kate opened the door into her favourite room in the house: the old nursery, which was still waiting to be renovated. She liked to think that it echoed with the memories of long-grown children. In years gone by, Roddy’s father and his sisters would have played up here whilst the adults went off shooting and fishing.

  ‘Ooh, this is gorgeous.’ Maddy ran her hand across the back of a dappled grey rocking horse, smoothing her fingers through the long hair of its mane. She looked up at the alphabet frieze stretching along the mantelpiece and the stack of wooden letter blocks on the fireplace. ‘I love this sort of thing. It’s funny – I only entered the competition on a whim because I was looking at Handmade Heaven, trying to find some design ideas for our new place.’

  Kate looked at her sideways, cautiously. She’d always wondered what sort of person would enter a wedding competition. The idea of being that much on show, of the pressure of having everything perfect, was her idea of hell.

  ‘Leo wasn’t that keen – he seemed a bit dubious about us being all over the newspapers. Said it might make business a bit complicated. But once I told him it was only going to be on a wedding website, he calmed down a bit.’

  Kate felt her eyebrows rising, and pulled them down in a frown of mock-concentration as she pretended to adjust the curtains, shaking out a cloud of dust.

  ‘I suppose as long as he’s happy now . . . ?’ she said, dubiously.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ said Maddy cheerfully, apparently oblivious. ‘He’s been quite happy to just let me get on with everything. He’s not really that bothered.’

  She stacked the wooden blocks up in a neat pile before turning back to Kate, smiling.

  ‘Men, huh?’

  Kate made a faint noise of agreement, and held open the door for Maddy to make her way out of the nursery and finish their tour of Duntarvie House.

  By the time they made it downstairs, Leo and Roddy were already halfway down a bottle of red, chatting happily about business forecasts and the plans for Duntarvie House.

  ‘Leo’s a business development analyst, Kate.’ Roddy got another two glasses out of the dresser, passing them to Kate and Maddy.

  ‘Oh, Leo, not work. We’re supposed to be talking weddin
gs, not financial forecasts.’ Maddy looked at him with a grimace. Kate pulled a similar face at Roddy, and both men, chastened, pulled themselves up.

  ‘Sorry.’ Roddy gave them both a rueful grin. ‘Right, weddings. So, how are your plans coming along, Maddy?’

  Kate, opening a bottle of white wine, noticed a fleeting glance pass between Maddy and Leo.

  ‘Great. Sian has been so clever, she’s had loads of ideas.’

  An unmistakable frown from Leo. ‘Yes, she’s certainly one of a kind, our Sian.’

  ‘She just wants everything to be perfect, Leo, that’s all – and doesn’t everyone want that on their wedding day?’

  Leo rolled his eyes heavenwards, finishing his glass of wine and crashing the glass down onto the table.

  ‘I just want to get married, Maddy. I don’t need all this performance.’ He seemed to gather himself for a second, rearranging his expression from disapproval to an ingratiating smile. ‘I can’t help thinking you’re getting a bit Bridezilla about all this, babe.’

  Maddy looked hurt. ‘I just want it to be nice. That’s all.’

  Realizing she’d inadvertently stepped on a landmine, Kate poured a larger glass of wine than she meant to for Maddy, who took it with both hands and a relieved expression. Last-minute nerves, perhaps. Maybe it was time to change the subject. If Morag was around, she could take Maddy to visit the Highland ponies; they were always a hit. Roddy could take Leo off and show him the forestry, or something. Hopefully he’d have picked up on the atmosphere.

  ‘Here’s to the first wedding at Duntarvie House.’ Oblivious, Roderick raised his glass to Maddy and Leo.

  Kate stifled a snort with a cough, gave him a very hard stare and clinked glasses with the happy-couple-to-be, noticing as she did so that Leo was looking distracted and Maddy despondent. Hardly the best advert for wedded bliss.

  Outside, the snow continued to fall: tiny but persistent flakes, which quickly covered everything in sight.

  She’d judged it just right – Maddy, like most girls she knew, had been a pony-mad teenager, and Morag’s beautiful Highland ponies were the perfect distraction. Dwarfed by an ancient, battered waxed jacket and one of Kate’s woolly hats, Maddy still managed to look beautiful. She was standing in the stable beside Freya, Morag’s prize brood mare, who was heavily in foal and quite alarmingly rotund. Freya looked through her long grey forelock at Kate, accepting Maddy’s cuddle but clearly hoping there might be something else in it for her. Kate rifled through her pockets, finding a dusty sweet. Freya whiffled it up gratefully.

  ‘I could just stay here all day.’ Maddy’s voice was muffled, her face buried in Freya’s neck.

  ‘I quite often pop up for a bit of horse therapy when things are getting a bit much,’ admitted Kate.

  ‘It’s just we seem to be doing nothing but argue since we won this wedding competition. I don’t understand why – Leo seemed happy enough when he found out we’d won.’ She paused for a moment before continuing. ‘Well, he didn’t seem to mind, anyway.’

  ‘Men quite often don’t make sense,’ Kate shrugged, ‘and men and weddings seem – from what I’ve seen – to be a bad combination.’

  ‘I just don’t know, Kate.’ Maddy’s pretty face fell. ‘If he spent as much time on me as he does on bloody work – sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this.’

  ‘It’s okay – it happens to me all the time. I think I’ve got that sort of face. Maybe I was a priest in a past life, or something.’ Kate gave her a cheer-up sort of smile. ‘It’s just pre-wedding stress, I’m sure. It’s not even four weeks. Once you’re off on honeymoon, it’ll all be worth it.’

  ‘I hope so.’ Maddy looked doubtful.

  Locking the stable door behind them, Kate took a deep breath. If they were going to have weddings all year round at Duntarvie, she was going to have to get used to stressed-out couples, and she was going to have to work on letting it all go over her head.

  Back at the house, with Maddy and Leo safely installed in their room, Kate collapsed onto the ancient sofa in the sitting room. The fire was burning brightly and the three dogs were melting gently on the rug, tongues out, basking. Even Willow, her year-old spaniel, only managed to half-raise her head and give a few faint beats of her tail in greeting.

  She had ninety minutes until she needed to be back on duty again, and the Saturday papers were lying in an enticing heap on the table. Having made a coffee to counteract the afternoon wine, she curled up for a moment to recover.

  ‘Sweetheart?’

  ‘Ughhh. What?’ Kate sat up, head fuzzy.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Roderick, clean-shaven, dark hair flopping into his eyes, was ready to face the guests.

  The fire had died down a little and Kate looked across at the table. Her coffee was stone cold, undrunk. She’d dropped off as soon as she sat down – something that seemed to be happening a lot recently, which was probably down to the ridiculous hours they were putting into getting the house up to scratch.

  ‘Oh, darling. I came back and assumed you were all sorted, ’cause there was no sign of you upstairs.’

  That was the trouble with living in a house this size, thought Kate. In a normal house, you didn’t lose your partner in the west wing.

  ‘So I jumped in a shower and got myself sorted and now it’s – ’ he checked his watch – ‘half an hour until Tom and Susan are due, and the happy couple are expecting you to do your lady of the manor bit.’

  ‘Bugger.’ Kate scrambled out of the depths of the sofa, newspapers dropping onto the floor.

  ‘Leave them. I’ll sort this place out a bit and stick the dinner in the oven. You go and get sorted.’

  Thankfully she’d washed her hair that morning, and a quick shower was enough to make her respectable. She stood in front of her wardrobe in panic. There was a selection of super-glam dresses from her old life of clubbing and nights out in Cambridge, and rather more woolly jumpers, cute T-shirts and cardigans from the day-to-day outfits she wore here on the island. Nobody dressed up here much, although if it was one of the occasional island fundraising roof-raisers, suddenly everyone dug out outfits which could out-sparkle the most glamorous London party. She’d known Maddy and Leo were coming for a couple of weeks now – why on earth hadn’t she thought about this sooner?

  Black skinny jeans were a good start – but with her chipped toenail varnish, definitely not the peep-toe heels. They were hellish to walk in, anyway. It’d have to be the black velvet heels, and – oh, what was that on the floor of the wardrobe? The red chiffon shirt. With a black camisole underneath . . . where was it?

  Having managed to scramble together an outfit, she flipped up her dark curls with a silver comb and a couple of grips, and smudged on a bit of eyeliner. She tapped her phone, checking the time – four minutes until she was due downstairs. Oops. With a final slick of lip gloss, she hurtled out of the room.

  ‘Gorgeous,’ Roddy whispered into her hair, pulling her close for a second after she strolled into the sitting room, trying to look cool and collected.

  ‘Thank you, darling. Just something I threw together.’ Stepping back to give him a twirl, Kate gave him a cheeky smile. He knew her well enough by now to realize this was very probably true, and he gave her a wink of acknowledgement.

  ‘Maddy, Leo.’ With his usual immaculate timing, Roddy caught the door for them almost before they appeared, Maddy looking slightly hesitant. Duntarvie House was big enough to get lost in, especially on a first visit. Kate realized they would have to make signs for wedding days, to make sure they didn’t end up with wedding guests wandering into the kitchen – or her favourite spot, the beautiful old library, full of ancient books which had belonged to Roddy’s dad.

  Mixing a gin and tonic for Maddy and whiskies for himself and Leo, Roderick looked quite at ease. It was at times like this, when other people were in the equation, that Kate suddenly realized how strange this world still was to her. She found herself straightening cushio
ns in a manner that reminded her of her mother. If she wasn’t careful, she’d be dusting imaginary specks of dust off the mantelpiece. She took a mouthful of her drink and swallowed, trying to remind herself that she belonged.

  Glass in hand, her long strawberry-blonde hair half-tied back in a Pre-Raphaelite fashion, Maddy was admiring the paintings which lined the oak-panelled walls of the sitting room. Roderick, guiding her by the elbow, was talking to her about his ancestors. Kate couldn’t make out what they were saying from a distance, but it was clear that he was putting her at ease. She watched as Maddy chatted away happily.

  Leo, standing with his back to the fire, looked at Kate expectantly, clearing his throat. She had literally no idea what to say to him. Small talk with wedding guests was something else she was going to have to work on. He didn’t seem the type for polite conversation about the weather.

  ‘So, did you manage to get your work stuff sorted out earlier?’

  He looked momentarily confused. ‘Work?’

  ‘Your call, when I collected you from the boat. We left you in the car?’

  ‘Oh. Work. Yep, all sorted.’

  ‘Great.’ Oh God, this was like pulling teeth. He had to be fantastic in bed or something, because otherwise she had no idea what on earth Maddy saw in him.

  ‘So is that you off duty for the weekend, now? No more work calls?’ This was desperate. Displaced by the dogs, who’d finally roused and were keen to investigate the interesting new smells on this stranger, Leo stepped sideways towards the window that looked down onto the beach. It was pitch dark now, and the snow was still falling. At this rate they were going to end up snowed in.

  Leo’s pocket emitted several bleeps, breaking the awkward silence.

  ‘Yep. Yes, that’s me off duty.’ He patted his pocket hard, as if to silence it. ‘No idea what all that is.’

  ‘You’re in the only part of the room that gets a mobile signal. That’s probably a whole afternoon of messages arriving at once.’ And hopefully one of them urgently requiring you to leave the island immediately, Kate thought.