Guilt immediately overwhelmed Elle as she heard the sadness in her gran’s voice. Of all the things Iona could have said to her, nothing hit home harder than that. Gran was right. Elle should have tried harder to make it happen. She’d kept putting it off, and all the while Gran got frailer by the day, until her accident made it impossible to go. ‘I’m sorry, Gran. It was my fault you never got to go home.’

She heard a long sigh. No, it wasn’t your fault. I could have gone at any time over the years. But I do want to go now. It’s time.

What could she say to that? Seriously? There was no argument that would hold up, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to find one. When she heard that Gran had put aside the money for this trip, she’d felt a flicker of excitement stir. A trip to Scotland. It had been their dream—hers and Gran’s—for so long and now she was in a position to actually do something about it. Could she? Should she? Take a leap and be this spontaneous? There were a whole raft of reasons why this was a really, really bad idea right now. But then again …

Opening the car door, Elle stepped outside and headed into the travel agency with a defeated sigh and the beginnings of a smile.

FIVE

Five

‘You’ve lost your job?’

Elle watched her mother’s face morph from confusion to surprise to outright disappointment. She had waited until a couple of days after the will reading to work up the courage to mention the subject, and this was exactly why.

‘It wasn’t my fault. I was put off because I cost them too much money.’

Her mother took a deep breath and sat across from Elle on the lounge. ‘Well, now might be the perfect time to look into those courses we’ve been talking about.’

You’ve been talking about, Elle thought silently. Elle had been looking into some local art courses and was tempted to put her name down for a couple, but that wasn’t the kind of thing her mother meant. Her mum had been hinting very strongly that Elle should go back to university to study something serious—something career-worthy.

‘Maybe it’s a sign,’ Caroline said pointedly.

‘Actually, speaking of signs,’ Elle started nervously, ‘there was something else I had to tell you.’ She paused, deciding not to mention the fact that Gran’s ghost had been visiting her. ‘I’ve decided I will take Gran’s ashes to Scotland after all. I’m leaving on the sixteenth.’

‘What? The sixteenth of when?’ Her mother’s professionally-shaped eyebrows rose in alarm.

‘This month … in three weeks.’

‘You’re not serious.’

‘You heard what Mr Bartholomew said. Gran made me promise.’