Page 2 of The Scottish Island Wedding

Heather had always wanted her own family. She’d seen her children in her dreams – two girls and a boy. The boy had Matty’s dark auburn curls. The girls had thick blonde hair like her. She’d always been a vivid dreamer, intuitive, grounded in her feelings. She’d always seen her future in a house with trees in the garden, a stream at the bottom of it. She saw herself grow old there. She was happy.

‘What are you nervous about?’ she asked, kindly. ‘Everything’s mostly organised now. And then, before you know it, I’ll be standing in front of you, looking up into your eyes, pledging myself to be your wife for always. That’s exciting, isn’t it?’

‘I know. You’re wonderful, and you and your mum have been amazing in organising everything. And of course I’m excited, honey. I can’t wait to marry you… It’s nothing. It’s okay.’ He rubbed his temples. ‘Just big day nerves.’

‘Are you okay? Do you have another headache or something? I can get you some aspirin.’ Heather reached for her handbag.

‘Hm. No, I don’t have a headache. I just…’ Matty trailed off.

‘What? Getting cold feet?’ she joked, but Heather had begun to feel anxious over the past few days. Matty was acting strangely: he was distant and quiet, and he’d cancelled their date the night before last. They’d been supposed to go to a dance class to prepare for their first dance at the wedding, but Matty had cried off at the last minute with a headache.

The kettle started to sing, and he lifted it off the range with a tea towel, pouring the hot water into a cafetière in which he’d just spooned some ground coffee from a jar.

Matty picked up his phone, looked at the screen, scowled and put it down again.

Heather watched him cautiously. He’d been secretive with his phone recently – putting it on silent, taking it with him even to the bathroom and being touchy about answering it when she was around. It was the third time today that his phone had buzzed and he’d looked at it only to scowl and ignore it.

The night before, someone had called him four times through the night, with the last call at 1 a.m. He hadn’t answered any of them and blamed it on spam sales calls, but Heather could tell that something was up.

‘Who’s that on the phone? Another spam message?’ she asked, deliberately casually.

‘What? Oh. Yeah.’ He looked away, drinking his coffee.

You need to look at that phone, a voice in Heather’s mind said.

She dismissed it immediately: I’m not a suspicious person. I’m not insecure. I love Matty and he loves me.

He wouldn’t lie to me.

Would he?

She had begun to question her own judgement. It had been gradual, over the past few days. Hers and Matty’s romance had seemed like a dream so far. When he’d proposed, it felt like all her wishes were coming true. But was this secrecy and oddness the kind of behaviour that romantic dreams were made of?

‘Morning, lovebirds.’ Angus Balhennie walked into the kitchen and sniffed the air. ‘Ah, coffee, is it? Any spare?’

‘Sure, Mr Balhennie. There’s another cup in the pot,’ Matty said politely.

‘It’s Angus, laddie. Please. I’m aboot tae be your father-in-law. We’re family!’ Angus prodded Matty in the arm and chuckled. ‘Mr Balhennie, indeed. Not like we don’t know each other well enough by now.’ He took a mug for himself and poured coffee into it, adding a large splash of milk and three sugars. ‘And, might I say, we’re excited tae finally meet our fellow in-laws soon!’ he added, winking warmly at Heather. ‘It’ll be grand tae get tae know your parents, Matt.’

‘Oh. Yeah. They’re excited to meet you all too.’ Matty nodded and smiled, though Heather sensed that he was being polite, and he was still stressed.

Just pre-wedding jitters, she thought.

Are you sure? that same voice in her head asked. She shushed it.

However, Heather had to admit that it was strange that she hadn’t met Matty’s parents. In fact, she’d only met one member of his family – his sister Annie, who lived on a boat on the Union Canal between Falkirk and Edinburgh.

Annie, Matty said, was a bit of a rebel, and had refused to go to university and get a sensible job like him and his two brothers; his brothers apparently managed some property portfolios, and Matty was a lawyer. By contrast, Annie had joined a commune for a few years and then bought herself the boat and now made a small living from her artwork.

Heather liked that Matty had a proper job and that he was smart, but what she really loved about Matty was the fact that he was caring and ethical. He could have gone to work for some corporate law firm with his qualifications – and he had, for a while – but then he’d left the corporate world and set up an environmental charity with a friend.

To Heather, who had worked for an animal charity for years and was passionate about protecting nature, Matty’s care for the natural world was a big part of why she’d fallen for him.

Heather had always relied on her instincts; on the rare occasions that she hadn’t listened to that wise, quiet feeling in her heart, it had been a mistake. She’d always been intuitive; she could sometimes see glowing light around people’s heads and bodies, an aura, in different colours. She felt things about people, connecting to their energy. None of that had ever led her wrong.

But, as much as she loved him, and as much as Matty had been a big YES from the moment she’d met him, she wondered now if she had been right to trust him so implicitly. What did she really know about him, other than what he’d told her? There was only his behaviour to measure him by, and that behaviour was starting to become erratic.

‘When’re they arrivin’?’ Angus asked. ‘I know Catriona’s on the case, but I want tae make sure I’ve been tae the barber tae smarten up beforehand.’ He ran a hand over his greying beard. ‘Got to look good, eh? James Bond all the way.’