Paul’s bewilderment grew. All of them strangers? Who were they? Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man step forward. He was in his early thirties, with a lean, capable face and reddish hair cut unfashionably short back and sides.

‘I’ve got a map in my things. I’ll get it.’

He left the room. Within seconds the door opened again and the bearded man ushered in Carol. Her sheepskin coat was powdered with snow, her dark hair glistening wet. Her eyes swept the company, her face relaxed a little on seeing Paul. As she crossed to him, the door reopened and the red-haired man entered. He strode across to the table, cleared away cups and plates to provide an area on which to spread out the map. A dark man, in his forties, with a sardonically clever face, spoke for the first time.

‘How is it outside?’

The bearded man brushed snow from his face.

‘It’s worse. A regular white-out. What the hell is the British weather coming to? Droughts, monsoons, blizzards.’

Paul squeezed Carol’s arm encouragingly before going to the table. The red-haired man’s forefinger stabbed at the map.

‘Here we are. Where were you going?’

A wave of dismay swept over Paul as he orientated himself and saw the distance between Shona Cottage and Ardvreck House. How could they have gone so far wrong? Twelve miles as the crow flew – and few crows would be flying on a night like this. By road, or by the single tracks that passed for roads, nearer twenty. He visualized the arctic-like conditions outside, remembered the way the car had slithered sickeningly on ice on the cliff-road. He indicated the cottage’s position. For all he knew the four-mile track up to the cottage was impassable by now. And there seemed to be no sign of any house, let alone village or hotel, between here and the cottage.

The red-haired man straightened up.

‘Not good,’ he said. More to the company than to Paul he added: ‘In fact I’d say you’d be downright foolhardy to try to make it tonight.’

His words echoed Paul’s own thoughts. In his exhaustion he noted the dismay not only on Carol’s face but on the bespectacled man’s features. And with the prospect of spending the night here – surely they wouldn’t refuse them shelter? – he looked at the room and company more closely than he had done before. And found his own dismay deepen to uneasy and wary speculation.

2

2 An Uneasy Haven