Here? Gran said, sounding doubtful.

‘Yep. These are the coordinates all right. Right, here,’ she said, stepping up to the nearest tree and patting its trunk affectionately. ‘One square metre of prime Highlands property with a massive tree on it.’

Are you sure?

‘Come on, Gran, seriously? Does it matter? It all looks exactly the same. There’s a whopping big tree planted smack-bang on every inch of this area.’ Elle pulled out the little castle figurine she’d bought in an Edinburgh gift shop the day before, and placed it at the foot of the tree. Straightening, she snapped a photo. ‘There you go, Lady Iona: your castle,’ she said triumphantly, with a flourish of her hand towards the miniature castle nestled in the moss at the foot of the massive pine. It kind of looked like an aerial view of an estate, she thought—if you squinted a little and tilted your head slightly, and used your imagination.

Thank you, darling. It’s perfect, Gran said, and Elle smiled sadly. She’d never dreamed she would one day be standing here, back when she’d clicked that buy button on the title website last Christmas. Yet here she was. Although these titles and land plots were intended as a promotional gimmick, to raise money for conservation of the land, it meant something to both of them. And it was certainly an ingenious way to get people to donate money to a cause.

Elle took a deep breath of the cool, clean air and closed her eyes as she savoured the moment. It was nice to soak up the tranquillity of the forest around her. This time last week she was still in Jessup’s Creek. She felt a ripple of the strange mix of disappointment and guilt she had carried the last few days before her departure. Part of her was angry that her parents thought of her trip as unnecessary and wasteful, which made her doubt her decision and also feel a little guilty. It had dampened her excitement in the lead-up to leaving. But damn it, she had a right to make her own choices even if no one else thought they were the right ones. The phone call to tell them she had arrived safely, though, had gone smoothly enough. She’d kept it short, and they had ended the call with, ‘Have fun,’ so she supposed they had finally come around to accepting her need to fulfil Gran’s wishes.

Elle pushed away the seed of doubt that had tried to return. She was here. She was excited and she was going to enjoy this trip no matter what.

Dunkeld looked like it had jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale. As Elle drove across the narrow stone bridge that led into the main street of the town, she sighed with delight at the white-painted stone buildings and shops lining the road, and the overflowing baskets of brightly coloured flowers hanging from window frames and walls.