“Of course.” She shooed him away with her hands. “Now go, before he starts getting hopelessly agitated.”

Katie had been right about the weather, only she had been a good twelve hours out with her prediction. As they pulled out onto the main road at the head of the loch, Dan suddenly realized that the mist had dispersed, and the sun beamed through the broken clouds as they scudded westwards towards the dark, towering presence of Ben Nevis. The waters of Loch Eil had turned from murky brown to muted blue and the hills on the far side were transformed to purple and green in their newly acquired light. Even though the ground rose steeply to one side of the road, Dan was now made aware of the vastness of the countryside that surrounded him. There was a mysticism about it, a power in its complete emptiness that seemed to diminish even the need for human existence. Yet, for some reason, he didn’t feel uncomfortable with it. It was as if every stone, every tree, every shadow-filled crevice on the hills was saying, “Don’t be frightened. Don’t run away. You are quite welcome to be part of our world.”

“You haven’t been listening to anything I’ve been saying, have you?”

Dan turned to look at Patrick. “Sorry?”

“I was just attempting to point out to you that that’s our house over there on the other side of the loch.” Patrick smiled. “Ah! I see you’ve got that look in your eye.”

“And what look might that be?”

“The same one that I had when I first came up here. This countryside has a hell of a draw, doesn’t it?”

Dan laughed. “I’m a Londoner, Patrick, right to the core.”

“So was I.”

“Really?”

“Well, southwest London. Wimbledon, actually.”

“Ah,” Dan said with a smirk on his face. “Home of the well-heeled. Educated at public school, were you?”

Patrick cleared his throat. “As a matter of fact, yes. You wouldn’t hold that against me, would you?”

Dan shook his head. “No. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that I hold many things against anybody. I feel that if you end up being content with your own existence, then you take everyone at face value.”

“And my face fits?”

Dan shot him a wry smile. “It’ll do.”

Patrick laughed and slapped a hand on Dan’s arm. “I like you, Dan. You’re a man after my own heart.”