‘Sure, why not? I’m not ashamed of being a romantic old fool. Cole’s the one for me, I knew it from the moment I met him.’

I thought back to what Dylan had said about their marriage being a way for Cole to stop her blurting out their secret, whatever that secret was.

We both fell silent, staring out towards the mountain beyond. ‘Dylan and I did take a walk in the mountains earlier actually,’ I said. ‘We bumped into Gavin, the guy who lives in the farmhouse?’

Rhonda took a deep breath and nodded. ‘I see.’

‘It was strange. He was drunk, kept going on about the land being his. And—’ I paused. ‘He mentioned a girl too. That it’s been eighteen Christmases without her?’

Rhonda looked quickly towards her husband then away. ‘I don’t know anything about that but I do know Oscar and Mairi are wrapped up in a land dispute with Gavin and Rosa Howard.’ She lowered her voice, leaning towards me. ‘Did you notice the housekeeper had to be let go, the gardener too?’

‘I did notice.’

‘Mairi and Oscar are ploughing all the money they have into the lawsuit. It’s been rolling for five years now.’ She looks back towards Oscar. ‘I think that’s what brought on Oscar’s stroke. It happened within a few weeks of the court case starting.’

‘But what claim do the Howards have on the land?’

Rhonda sighed. ‘I don’t know the exact details. But I did overhear something about the land once belonging to the Howard clan. Then Mairi’s father hoodwinked Gavin’s father out of it when he was lying on his deathbed.’

‘Do you think the Howards will win?’ I asked.

‘Who knows? But if they do,’ Rhonda said as she looked toward the huge Christmas tree, ‘there will be no more Christmases at the lodge. Which, to be honest, might not be such a bad thing. I’d quite like to have Christmas at our own place for once. And between you and me,’ she said, leaning even closer to me, ‘Gavin Howard scares me. You know he turned up here the night before you arrived, screaming at us all and waking us? There’s such bad blood between the families and he’s so unpredictable now he’s turned even more to drink.’ She shook her head. ‘God knows what he’s capable of doing.’

I shivered, and wrapped my arms around myself. What had I brought Lumin into?