‘No idea.’ Aila shrugged. ‘I tried to ask her about it but she wouldn’t say. Sometimes she just kind of slips in and out of the moment. I don’t think she realises she does it.’ They stood in silence for a while before Aila eventually said, ‘So, you’re really going to go looking for this ruined castle, then?’ She leaned back against the stone wall to look at her cousin thoughtfully.

‘Among other things,’ Elle hedged. ‘But yeah, it was important to Gran to find Stormeil. The story’s been a big part of my life—Gran always talked about it.’

‘Granny read me Hansel and Gretel as a bairn too, but I don’t particularly feel a need to go traipsing about the woods looking for a witch’s house.’

Elle grinned. ‘It was just our thing, I guess.’

‘Well, I think you’re crazy, but full points for dedication.’ Aila smiled before turning her attention back to the two backpackers, both handsome men, who were now looking over at them. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’ve suddenly got a hankering for a bit of Italian,’ she murmured.

Before Elle could reply, Aila was striking up a conversation with the men, and then just minutes later all four of them were seated inside the castle’s cafe drinking coffee.

Lorenzo and Andrea were far too good-looking for their own good, and Elle suspected the pair had left a string of broken hearts across the United Kingdom. They’d been backpacking for the past three months, and Elle found their stories fascinating.

‘So, you just walk … everywhere?’ Elle asked.

‘Sì,’ the dark-headed, sleepy-eyed Lorenzo replied, smiling. ‘We walk. People offer us rides too,’ he added, ‘sometimes.’

‘But what if you don’t get a lift? You just have to walk? Along these narrow busy roads?’

‘We get lots of rides,’ Andrea answered simply with a shrug and a sexy lopsided grin that made Elle feel like a flustered thirteen-year-old.

‘If you’re heading north, we can give you a lift?’ Aila said. She sent Elle a quick glance that practically screamed, We. Are. So. In, before her optimistic smile faltered.

‘Unfortunately, we are heading south, and we have a ride. But thank you. We’re just waiting for them to finish looking at the castle … Ah, here they come now,’ Andrea said, waving a hand above his head.

Aila and Elle watched as two equally attractive men approached the table, both dressed in tight jeans and wearing T-shirts with EDINBURGH stamped across the front.

Elle bit back a small giggle as she saw their two Italian studs send the two newcomers the same sexy grin that had mesmerised her and Aila earlier.

‘Are you ready to go?’ one asked in what Elle thought might be a Ukrainian accent, as the four men swapped lingering glances.

After they waved off their coffee mates, the two women burst into fits of giggles.