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CHAPTER ONE
AIESHA HAD BEEN at Lochbannon a ithout a single whisper in the press about her whereabouts But then, ould have thought of hunting her down in the Highlands of Scotland in the hoe she had effectively destroyed ten years ago?
It was the perfect hideaway, and the fact that Louise Challender had been called away to visit a sick friend abroad meant Aiesha had had the place to herself for the last couple of days And, being the dead of winter, there was not even a housekeeper or a gardener to disturb her idyll
Bliss
She closed her eyes and, tilting her head back, breathed in the ice in the air as fresh flakes of snow began to fall The soft press of each snowflake was like a caress against her skin After the traffic fuas, the cold, fresh, quiet Highland air was like breathing in an elixir, bringing her jaded senses back to zinging life
Being up here on her ohere no one could find her was like co the part of Vegas showgirl She could feel it falling away froame face off The flirty vamp face The face that told everyone she was perfectly happy singing in a gentlereat and she had the days free to shop, hang out by the pool or get a spray tan
Up here in the Highlands she could relax Regroup Get in touch with nature
Revisit her dreams
The only hiccup was the dog
Aiesha could babysit cats, no problem Cats were pretty easy to take care of She just filled their dish with biscuits and cleaned out their litter tray, if they had one She didn’t have to pat theet close to them Most cats were pretty aloof, which suited her just fine
Dogs were different Dogs wanted to get close to you To bond with you To love you
To trust you to keep them safe
Aiesha glanced down at the li at her feet with slavish devotion, its tail brushing against the carpet of snow like a feathered fan
Thebrown eyes stabbed at her heart like a knitting needle Eyes that still haunted her, even though so many years had passed She pushed back the thick sleeve of her coat and looked at the underside of her wrist where the blue-and-red ink of her tattoo was a vivid and permanent reminder of her failure to keep her one and only best friend safe
Aiesha sed the uilt in her throat and frowned down at the dog ‘Why can’t you take yourself for a walk? It’s not as if you need me to show you the way There aren’t any fences to stop you’ Shemotion with her hand ‘Go on Go for a run Go chase a rabbit or a stoat or so’
The dog continued to look at her with that unblinking stare, a soft little ‘play withfroan trudging in the direction of the forest that fringed the stately Highland ho as far as the river It looks like this snow’s going to set in for the night’
Jaates of Lochbannon as evening folded in The secluded estate was spectacular in any season but in winter it turned into a wonderland The Gothic-styleout of a children’s fairy tale The frozen water in the fountain in front of the house looked like a Renaissance ice sculpture with delicate icicles hanging down like centuries-old stalactites The thick forest that backed on to the estate was coated in pure white snow, the rolling fields were also thickly carpeted, and the air was so sharp and clean and cold it burned his nostrils as he drew it in
The lights were on in the house, which enerously postponed her annual holiday to look after Bonnie while his mother visited her friend, who had suffered an accident in outback Australia Ja but his mother had insisted via a hurried text before she boarded her flight that it was all organised and not to worry Why hiskennels like everyone else did was beyond him It wasn’t as if she couldn’t afford it He’d made sure she ell provided for after the divorce from his father
Lochbannon was a little large for an older single wo for coive his mother a safe haven, a place that was totally unconnected to her former life as Clifford Challender’s wife
Although he had insisted the estate was in his mother’s nahlands away from the fast lane of London, which hy he’d decided to come up in spite of his mother’s assurances that Bonnie ell taken care of