Lost Highlander Read online

She rummaged around in her backpack and handed Evelyn a stick of Juicy Fruit gum.

  “They don’t care if you chew in here,” she said, popping a red stick of the gum into her mouth.

  Evelyn normally didn’t chew gum, she had a lazy jaw that grew tired before the gum even lost its flavor, but she was so flattered she eagerly unwrapped the lime green stick and went to work.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’m Evelyn Merkholtz.”

  She instantly felt stupid for saying her whole name and was this close to sticking out her hand for the other girl to shake. You idiot, she berated herself. You want to be a big nerd in Dilbert, too? Nobody your age shakes hands. She was so furious with herself she almost didn’t notice when the girl stuck out her own hand across the aisle for Evelyn to shake.

  “Piper Sinclair.”

  They became fast friends after that, and Evelyn never really understood why someone as cool and fun as Piper would ever like someone like her. It turned out that Piper ended up in detention at least once or twice a month, and got in trouble outside of school as well, but even as the adults were chastising her, you could tell they really liked her, too. Everybody loved Piper. She was daring and adventurous, but never unkind or dangerous.

  Evelyn was convinced that if she hadn’t been late to Spanish and gotten her first detention, she never would have met her first true friend. They were as different as night and day but also shared many interests and had the same sense of humor. Evelyn thought she might have kept Piper from winding up in jail, and she was sure Piper had kept her from a life of solitary weekend reading.

  When Piper’s Scottish great-grandmother, whom Piper never met or even knew anything about, died a month ago and left an estate in Scotland to her, she’d left within a week to go check it all out. She’d been so excited to learn about a heritage she never knew she had and Evelyn had been excited for her as well. Then, it was as if Evelyn never existed. Not one phone call for more than three weeks, and only one scrawny text message saying how crazy it all was there, more later. Except there wasn’t more later, until the frantic call a few hours ago, and now apparently Evelyn was the most important person in the world again.

  She finished her wine and sighed. Stop being such a bitch, she admonished herself. Who knew what she would do if she suddenly inherited a whole new life. If she was honest with herself, which she really hated to be, she would have to admit she was a little envious. A whole new life sounded awesome right about now.

  She slept fitfully, waking up multiple times in the middle of the night with something she had to remember to do the next day before she left. Finally, at five in the morning she gave up all pretense of sleep, finished her packing, went for a jog to try to clear the wine fog she woke up with, and then called her professors to try to explain why she wouldn’t be in class for a while. She made up a family emergency and didn’t have to work very hard at all to inject a note of hysteria into her voice.

  She barely made it the three hour drive to Houston in time to go through the rigorous check-in process and was sick with hunger and sleep deprivation by the time she got to her gate. When she saw that the flight was maxed out she almost cried, having been hoping to get lucky with an empty seat next to her so she could pop a Benadryl and sleep for the entire flight without being elbowed or stepped over.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Merkholtz,” the super chipper check-in woman said, efficiently checking her ticket and passport. “We’ve already begun boarding first class passengers, so please feel free to board whenever you like.” She bestowed a cherubic smile on Evelyn as she handed back her papers.

  “What?” Evelyn said.

  She looked at the ticket she’d printed out. It didn’t say anywhere on it that it was first class and she wasn’t prepared for that kind of mistake. Getting humiliatingly kicked out of the first class cabin of an airplane was not on her to-do list for that day.

  “Are you sure this is first class?”

  The lady gave her less of a cherubic smile this time, as if to thank her for questioning her ability to do her job. Evelyn tried to look meek and apologetic.

  “Quite sure, Ms. Merkholtz. If you’d care to board, the attendants will help you find your seat.”

  Evelyn slunk off and headed onto the plane, still unable to believe her good fortune, and not quite letting herself be thrilled yet. Piper’s conscience must have been really gnawing at her to shell out for a first class upgrade. Instantly, Evelyn started feeling guilty about how much the ticket must have cost. Piper didn’t have to buy her friendship. She ought to know that.

  The massive, luxurious seat and extensive leg room assuaged the guilt somewhat, and when the supermodel flight attendant came by with slippers and a hot towel she almost completely forgot she was a struggling grad student.

  I could definitely get used to this, she thought, accepting an apple martini shortly after lift off.

  When the attendant came around with dinner orders, Evelyn said she’d be skipping the dinner and just trying to go to sleep, upon which the attendant produced a soft fluffy blanket and pillow for her, seemingly by magic. Evelyn couldn’t remember ever having had any bad feelings for Piper as she reclined her gloriously large seat, swallowed her Benadryl with the last of her martini and blissfully closed her eyes.

  Chapter 3

  When the plane landed in Inverness, Evelyn realized with a jolt she didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do. In the frantic rush to get her here, Piper never told her if she was coming to get her at the airport, or if Evelyn should rent a car, or even her address or directions to Castle on Hill, the closest village to Piper’s new house.

  Evelyn’s cheap crappy phone plan didn’t seem to work on this side of the pond, so she couldn’t try to call Piper. As she waited in line to go through customs, she tried to spy a payphone, if they existed anymore. If worst came to worst she’d beg a kind looking stranger for the use of their phone. She’d almost worked herself into a frenzy of worry by the time she came out of customs, dragging her overstuffed suitcase.

  There were people everywhere being greeted with hugs and handshakes, some business types were just scurrying off in a hurry to grab taxis, and there was a huddle of people holding up signs, one of which miraculously had her name scrawled on it.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” she breathed, hurrying over to the man holding her sign. “I’m Evelyn Merkholtz.”

  She thrust out her hand as he looked shocked to see her, but then seemed to accept that she was who she said she was and tentatively shook her hand.

  “Er, hi,” he said, cocking his head to the side as if he was slightly confused about something. “I’m Sam. I’m here to take you back to the estate.”

  He lifted her suitcase as if it were a small feather pillow and nodded his head in the direction of the exit. “Just out there.”

  Evelyn followed him, sizing him up. The estate, was it? What kind of place had Piper inherited? Then again, they did seem to be overly fancy in Great Britain, at least according to the PBS shows she’d seen. Was this Sam the driver or the butler or something? He had a pretty nice rear view, that was for sure, tall and broad in the shoulders, dark hair just shy of his shirt collar with a bit of curl at the ends. He had a long dark gray wool coat on so she couldn’t properly judge his butt, but everything else looked just fine from what she could see.

  God, I’ve turned into a real pig, she thought. Too much exposure to the jerks that frequented the bar. She sighed and raised her eyes to a respectable level. I’d better get lady-like before I accidentally embarrass all of America.

  “Dear God, it’s cold!”

  Evelyn stopped dead in her tracks when they made it out the revolving exit doors. She didn’t know what to do she was so cold. All instincts were telling her to get back inside where it was safe. It was September. How could it be so cold?

  Sam immediately slipped out of his coat and dropped it over her shoulders with a laugh.

  “Piper sent you a coat, it’s in the car. She said you wouldn
’t believe the weather report if you checked it.”

  Evelyn wriggled her arms into his coat, which was delightfully warm from his body heat. The sleeves were miles too long and she clasped her hands together in front of her inside them. She was sure she would be blushing if her blood hadn’t been frozen in her veins. She made a harumphing noise and continued to follow him out to the car. The frigid blasts of arctic air didn’t seem to be affecting him at all, even without his coat.

  She tried not to look, but couldn’t help herself, and his ass did not disappoint, nor did his upper body, which was now just covered by a very well fitted oatmeal colored sweater with just a hint of a blue flannel shirt peeking out the bottom.

  She almost bumped into him when they finally reached the car, an ambassadorial looking silver Mercedes. Evelyn had no idea whose car it was, but she knew that Piper had driven a ten year old Nissan back home.

  He smiled as he opened the car door for her and she quickly put on the big wool sweater and parka Piper had sent as he loaded her suitcase into the trunk. Great smile, she thought. What a stupid stereotype about Brits having bad teeth.

  Sam slid into the driver’s seat and the engine purred to life. She smiled nervously and fidgeted with her seatbelt. He pointed to some controls in the middle of their seats.

  “You can adjust the heat if you like.”

  Evelyn gratefully turned up the seat warmer, the seat warmer! What was going on? First class ticket, handsome Scot picking her up with a little hand lettered sign and driving her to Piper’s new house in a Mercedes? Was he a new boyfriend? The chauffeur? He interrupted her tumbled thoughts with an invitation to get something to eat.

  “It’s a couple hour drive,” he said somewhat apologetically. “We could get something here in Inverness, or drive a bit first?”

  “Let’s drive a bit first,” she said, her stomach acting up at the very mention of food.

  Even though she’d gotten several hours of sleep in her luxurious first class seat, she still had that topsy turvy trans-atlantic flight feeling of unease. He nodded, and she couldn’t make out if he was just an agreeable sort or if he was being paid to do whatever she wanted. He turned the radio on low, some bland college station, probably to keep from having to hear their breathing. She had to say something or it was going to be a couple of hours of hellish awkwardness from which they’d never recover.

  “So, who are you?” she blurted and then felt like a brash American.

  She twisted the edge of her sweater and tried not to make it worse. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the quickest hint of a smile from Sam.

  “I’m Sam Maclean. I live in the village where Piper’s great-grandmother’s estate is. Well, Piper’s estate now.”

  “Wait, when you say estate, do you mean Estate, as in grounds and gates and long driveway? I thought it was just a house in the Highlands and her effects.”

  “Oh, it’s rather large, yes. Grounds and gates and all that for sure.”

  He was being maddeningly reticent. She wondered once again why she’d been left out of the loop. Piper hadn’t so much as emailed her a picture.

  “What is going on? Why is Piper so stressed out all of a sudden? She’s been over here for almost a month and this is practically the first I’ve heard from her.” And who ARE you, she wanted to repeat, since ‘live in the village’ answered nothing at all.

  “Sorry, Evelyn, I can’t say what’s going on, I really can’t.”

  He tried to dazzle her with a sad puppy face, and even though he did a bang up job of it, and she noticed for the first time what a pretty green his eyes were, she was immune to such ploys from men.

  She opened her mouth to keep repeating the question in different forms until he either stopped the car and pushed her out of it or gave her a satisfactory answer, but he cut her off at the pass.

  “Piper will kill me if I tell you anything before we get back, and she warned me how annoying you can be, so I’m quite prepared to resist, I assure you.”

  Evelyn pressed her lips together in shock. “I don’t think persistence is really the same as annoying,” she finally said and glared out the window at the gorgeous scenery they were flying past. “Gosh, Scotland is beautiful.”

  He laughed at her sudden change of mood and rushed to agree.

  “Aye. So, what do you want to know about Scotland?” he asked.

  She turned back to face him, deciding if he’d been prepped by Piper to keep his mouth shut, that’s what he was most likely going to do, and she’d just tire herself out trying to break him.

  “Well, I saw Braveheart once a long time ago, and I’ve seen Trainspotting a bunch of times, so you can just fill in any gaps.”

  “Oh well, that pretty much covers it,” he said, smiling sideways at her.

  She decided she liked his face. It was friendly and open. And handsome. Quite handsome.

  “How do you know Piper?” she asked.

  He studied her for a second, probably to see if the question was a trap, but then deemed it safe to answer.

  “Well, for several years Fenella, that’s Piper’s great-grandma, didn’t live here. She moved out of Scotland to be with her second husband. The estate, like you’ve kind of figured out, is a big part of our village. I guess it’s the main tourist draw. You know how people like to tour grand houses?”

  “Sure,” Evelyn agreed. “Like Lyndon B. Johnson’s family home.”

  “So, right then. History buffs and whatnot all came to Castle on Hill to see the place and take a little tour, then come eat in the pub and buy some souvenirs in our shops. But when Fenella left, she just closed the place up, no more tourists, yeah?” He pointed to a sign that advertised a restaurant and she nodded agreement, feeling suddenly ravenous. “We have a literary festival once a year, and people trickle in during the summer, but really the main draw was the estate. So when this American inherited the whole lot, we were all half terrified she’d come and turn it into a shopping mall.”

  “Piper would never!” Evelyn said.

  “Well, we know that now. But at first we didn’t. And the town council elected me to be the one to go march up to the gates and demand answers. Tell her her responsibility to the village and all that. So, of course, I put it off because I’m a terrible coward.” He gave her a self deprecating smile. “Then about a week after she arrived, Piper herself came into my shop.”

  “What’s your shop?” Evelyn interrupted, finding herself completely charmed by him.

  Be careful, she told herself. It’s most likely just the accent working it’s evil magic on you.

  “I have a bookshop,” he said with a touch of pride. “It’s been in our family since my grandparents. Of course nobody buys books anymore so I had to put in a coffee shop and some touristy crap.” He shrugged.

  “I buy books,” she said.

  “And you buy them …” He gave her a challenging look.

  “Online,” she admitted and hung her head.

  “Exactly.”

  He pulled into the restaurant lot and hopped out. Before she could get her seatbelt undone he was opening the door for her. Surprised, she stepped out into the frigid air.

  “Oh, I forgot,” she said and all but ran to get inside the cafe. “What is wrong with this place?” The blast of cold that seared into her bones severely degraded her mood. “It was in the nineties when I left Texas.”

  He shook his head pityingly. “Your thin blood is all that’s wrong. You’re in the north now, lass. But don’t worry, we’ll get some hot chocolate in you and fix it all up.”

  They settled into a little corner booth and placed their orders.

  “Okay, so Piper came into your shop to tell how she was razing her great-grandmother’s estate to put in a Wal-Mart.”

  She huddled over her cup of hot chocolate, trying to absorb it’s steam into her veins.

  “Don’t even joke,” he shuddered. “Yeah, she came in, not at all what we expected, of course.”

  “No fangs or horns?�
�

  “Not even a bit.” Sam laughed. “Basically she wanted to reopen the house to visitors, but it was a mess from being empty so long, and she wanted me to help her sort through a lot of the old papers and things.” He shook his head. “A mess is really an understatement. And now …” He realized he was possibly saying too much and tried to concentrate on his turkey sandwich. “She’s lovely, really,” he finally said.

  “Are you two, uh, you know?” Evelyn couldn’t help asking.

  She had to know and waiting another hour to grill Piper was too long. He almost choked on his tea.

  “No. No, just friends. We both care a lot about restoring the estate. You know it means a lot to all of us in the village that she’s being so, well, un-American.”

  “What do you think of us?” she asked. “How many Americans do you even know?”

  “Two now, with you, and you can blame your television programs for portraying your lot as money hungry fiends.”

  When Sam finished paying for their meal and they were back in the car, Evelyn turned to him and tried once more.

  “What is going on that’s such an emergency? Is Piper really okay?”

  She put her hand on his arm as he maneuvered out of the parking lot. He turned to her and sighed and for the first time she noticed just how tired he looked. He shook his head.

  “We’re less than an hour away, and then you’ll know everything. Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to start. Just … you have to see it to believe it.” He wiped his hand over his eyes and turned back to the highway. “Are you tired? Maybe try to get a little nap before we get back.”

  Viewing that as a dismissal, Evelyn cranked up her seat heater, turned toward the window and watched the beautiful craggy hills roll by until she really did drift off to sleep.

  Chapter 4

  She was abruptly awakened by something slamming into her door, then the door being yanked open. A gust of cold air slapped her in the face and she was being dragged out of the car by a tiny sweatered whirlwind.

  “Finally!” Piper shrieked as she enveloped Evelyn in a wooly hug. “Hurry, get inside, I know you’re freezing.”