This Could Change Everything(83)

Rest, relax, recuperate.

And no need to worry. Either Conor or Essie would be back soon.

The sunset hours earlier had been spectacular, flooding the sky with vibrant shades of crocus yellow, orange and purple streaked with pink. Then darkness had fallen as they’d continued their journey northwards. Glencoe, Fort William, Invergarry were all behind them now, and they’d crossed the Skye Bridge. In the distance, you could just about make out the ghostly snow-topped mountains beneath the milky glow of the moon. It was ten fifteen and Kinlara was up ahead, mere minutes away.

As they rounded the final bend in the road, there it was, a crescent of buildings lit up along the waterfront, their lights reflected in the inky sea.

Having googled the place earlier, Essie knew that in daylight the buildings were painted in pastel shades of amber, violet, pink and green. Kinlara was famed for its beauty and charm, and was a magnet for visitors, one of the Highlands’ most popular tourist destinations. Which was why she’d asked Lucas if he’d managed to book two rooms, not because she wanted to spend the night in bed with him, for crying out loud . . .

Essie didn’t cry out loud. She said, ‘It looks amazing.’

Lucas nodded briefly, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. ‘It does.’

Five minutes later, they reached the hotel and he pulled into the car park.

‘What happens now?’ said Essie as they hauled their cases out of the boot. It was twenty past ten; was it too late for Lucas to go looking for Giselle?

‘I need to find her.’

‘Would it make more sense to wait till morning?’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I can’t.’

‘OK. But she might not be here.’

‘I think she is.’

‘She might refuse to see you.’

‘I know. But I have to try.’

Essie could only imagine how he was feeling. If it had been anyone else she would have hugged them, but it was Lucas so she couldn’t. ‘Right, you go. I’ll take your case and get you checked in. I hope you find Giselle and I hope she speaks to you.’

The door at the side entrance to the hotel creaked as it opened a bit further and a figure stepped out of the shadows.

‘It’s OK,’ Giselle said quietly. ‘I will.’

Lucas opened the door to the room he’d booked for himself, and Giselle went in ahead of him. He put his case down in a corner and turned to look at her. She was pale but clearly prepared.

‘You were waiting for me.’

Giselle shrugged. ‘This is Kinlara. As soon as Molly took the booking and saw that the name on the credit card was Lucas Brook, she called me. You messaged her to let her know you wouldn’t be here until after ten o’clock. I just came over and waited in the bar until I heard your car pulling into the car park. Lucas, I’m so sorry . . .’

‘Are you . . . all right?’

She nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘I have to know what’s going on.’

There was a tartan-covered sofa on one side of the empty fireplace, a matching chair on the other side. Giselle took the chair and indicated that he should occupy the sofa, so they were separated by a wooden coffee table artfully strewn with glossy magazines and a tin of shortbread.

‘You’re not going to like it.’ Her voice quavered. ‘I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, I promise you. But it has. And I’m sorry. I was so confused, I didn’t know what to do. But now I do know, and I can’t live a lie. The baby isn’t yours . . . you aren’t the father.’ She stopped abruptly and covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes wide with anguish. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe I’ve actually said it.’

Silence filled the room like fog.

It wasn’t until Lucas exhaled that he realised he’d been holding his breath for a good thirty seconds. ‘You said it.’ He sat forward. ‘Is it true?’

Slowly Giselle nodded once more. Tears filled her eyes and her hands trembled as she wiped them away. ‘Yes, it’s true.’

It was the possibility he had never even considered. Not seriously, at least. Some people you could imagine being unfaithful – with some, you almost expected it – but Giselle simply wasn’t one of them.

‘Who is he?’ said Lucas. ‘Someone I know?’

‘No. You’ve never met him. It didn’t happen in Bath,’ she explained. ‘He lives here.’

She was having a baby, but it was no longer their baby. His foreseeable future had just taken a pretty definitive U-turn. And Giselle had known the truth all along.

Wow.

‘Tell me everything,’ said Lucas.

So she did.

‘His name’s Gregor McTavish. We were at school together. We’ve known each other since my family came to live here when I was ten.’ Giselle’s fingers were twisting together in her lap. ‘When we were sixteen, we started seeing each other, but our parents both thought we were too young, so there was pressure not to get serious. Which made us that much more determined not to split up, of course, and we carried on being a couple until we were eighteen. Then I moved away and started my nursing training, and a girl named Claudine arrived here to work as an apprentice chef at the Castle Hotel . . . Anyway, long story short, Claudine set her sights on Gregor and eventually he gave in, because it wasn’t easy keeping a relationship going with me when I was hundreds of miles away. So we broke up. And it was a pretty rough time, but I got over it in the end, because these things happen and that’s what we all do, isn’t it?’