‘Well, Izzy,’ she said. ‘I see you’ve managed to get the love of my son as well as the love of Giles. I hope you’re not going to want anything else of mine. Goodbye for now, then, Rory. I hope you’ll behave better for Aunt Isobel than you have for me. I’ll see you sometime,’ and she turned and walked out of the room without a backward glance.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Christopher and Marnie arrived at Christopher’s home, Nether Pacey, in time for dinner on Sunday evening.

They had gone back to Eilean Dobhran again on Saturday morning and explored the stables. In what had obviously once been the tack room, Marnie had discovered a pony’s bridle with a snaffle bit and a red brow band, hanging beneath an enamelled plaque marked Merrylegs, and felt that the ghost of the elusive little redhaired girl had come closer. Christopher thought the stable block would lend itself marvellously well to conversion in much the same way that Giles and Isobel had used the Old Steading at Glendrochatt as accommodation for staff and course participants. It depended what sort of use Marnie had in mind for the castle – always supposing she managed to purchase it. She sent a long e-mail to her father – who, as her trustee, needed to be consulted – describing everything they’d discovered and asking him to make enquiries about Ian Drummond in Canada.

‘We always tease Dad about being like the Mafia if we want to find out about anything or anyone,’ she said. ‘He has contacts everywhere.’

‘Do you think he’ll approve of your wild venture?’ asked Christopher.

‘I don’t know, but I hope so. He very much encouraged me to come searching. I was quite surprised – but all those years ago, when he met her, he fell under the Contessa’s spell too,’ she said. ‘And he loves crazy ventures – the crazier the better, especially if everyone else says it’s not got a cat in hell’s chance of succeeding!’

Christopher laughed. ‘I rather like the sound of your father. I know the feeling. That’s why I got hooked on the rescue of failing companies, I suppose. It’s one of the reasons I’m getting such a kick from all this encouragement about my book when some people had been saying I didn’t have a chance of getting it published.’

‘I thought you said it was your mother’s idea that you should come on the Glendrochatt course and that she’d always encouraged you to write?’

‘It was and she did – but it wasn’t my mother I was thinking of.’

Marnie guessed he was thinking of Nicola, the ex-girlfriend about whom she felt extremely curious and somewhat uneasy. Once Nicola discovered that Christopher might possibly become the successful author of page-turning thrillers, would she make a play for him again, and if she did would he withstand her?