The Forbidden Promise. Lorna Cook

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СКАЧАТЬ way round it was. Where was the pilot? It took only a few seconds for the weight of water to fill the vessel before the plane gurgled and disappeared below the surface; the water smothering it entirely as if it had never been there at all. There was no sign of the pilot. No noise of him swimming to safety in the darkness. The false tide from the crash lapped strongly against the rock.

      She stood shaking, her eyes wide, her breaths coming in quick succession, her hands still tightly clutching her shoes and stockings. Constance knew she had to do something, but her body refused her call to action. She was rooted to the spot, staring across the water at where the plane had been. She was torn. If she ran back to the house for help there would be no time. If she did not do something, he would be dead within minutes, if not already. She had to save the pilot.

      Forcing herself to move, Constance clambered down the rock and into the water, cutting her leg on a sharp edge as she did so. She couldn’t feel the pain, or the blood as it trickled down her ankle mixing with the water; so intense was her need to reach the stricken pilot, who she imagined hopelessly fighting with his safety belts and the hatch above. Her silk evening dress clung to her legs as she strode as quickly as she could through the water in the direction of where the plane had sunk from view.

      Inside the house the grandfather clock in the entrance hall struck midnight, and the band played on to revellers unaware of the events outside. Congratulations were passed to Constance at the close of her twenty-first birthday. Such a shame she had felt unwell. Perhaps too much Champagne had taken its toll. Her bed was the best place for her. Shortly the band would finish, guests dispersing – their carefully saved petrol coupons taking them the distance to their homes and neighbouring estates – and then the housekeeper would begin the ritual of closing Invermoray House down for the night.

      As the water reached Constance’s waist she pushed her feet off from the pebbled loch-bed and let go of her shoes and stockings, so that they drifted away behind her as she swam further into the darkness.

       CHAPTER 2

       Scotland, August 2020

      Kate should never have said no to the offer of a satnav for the hire car. There had even been a promotional discount at the car rental desk at the airport but she had, somewhat smugly, waved her mobile phone at the clerk and explained she had a free GPS app already installed.

      But her signal had dropped out long ago and with the countryside becoming even wilder she reasoned her phone data wasn’t about to return anytime soon. Kate pulled the little hatchback over by the side of the road and looked around for any sign of life. Any kind of sign at all would have been nice. She couldn’t remember how far she’d gone down the long B road before she had glanced at her phone and found the app unresponsive. How long had it been like that? The last village she’d passed had been at least ten minutes ago and she couldn’t even remember what it had been called.

      As the sun dipped in the sky, she spread the map out across the bonnet and scanned it for something familiar. Thank God someone at the car rental office had placed one in the glove compartment. She would be arriving much later than she’d said she would. It would be the worst kind of first impression, turning up for her new live-in job as night was falling. There was no way Kate was going to find her way in the dark so she was just going to have to keep heading down the road in the hope it would lead her to civilisation where she could get some sort of data reception on her phone. You don’t get this sort of nonsense in London, she thought. Although London was the last place she wanted to be right then. She glanced up and down the desolate road. She’d wanted peace and quiet. But maybe not this quiet.

      Kate folded the map up as best as she could, but it was a poor effort and she’d managed to fold creases where there hadn’t been any a few seconds ago. She started the engine and drove, holding her phone in one hand, and somewhat dangerously glancing down, hitting refresh on the app every few minutes. There was still no joy. She needed to restart her phone in a last-ditch effort. She glanced down, holding the off button an interminably long amount of time until it gave the chance to swipe to confirm that yes, she really did want to turn the phone off.

      As Kate glanced back up she screamed. A man was standing at the side of the road facing her, his mouth open with horror as she drove towards him. What was he doing in the road? He lifted his hands up to shield his face. At the very last second Kate dropped her phone, turned the wheel quickly to swerve away from him and stamped her foot down on the brake. The car skidded across the road into the path of oncoming traffic – or it would have done, if there had been any other vehicles on the stretch of inhospitable countryside road. Instead the rental car came to a stop at an angle that left the bonnet facing a row of tall pine trees at the side of the road.

      She couldn’t move. Her knuckles were white; her fingernails dug into her palms where she’d tightened her grip around the wheel. Kate forced herself to look in the rear-view mirror to see if the man was still alive. He wasn’t there. She hadn’t hit him. Or had she? She wasn’t sure of anything.

      ‘Oh my God. Where is he?’ With shaking hands Kate unfurled her fingers from the wheel and unclicked the seatbelt. She went to open the door but the trouble was taken from her hands as the man yanked it open and stared angrily down at her.

      She sat back in shock. His jaw was clenched and he appeared to be struggling to speak.

      ‘Thank God, you’re alive.’ Her voice was shaky, her heart still thudding hard.

      He stood back and gave her room to get out of the car. ‘No thanks to you.’

      ‘I’m sorry.’ Kate climbed out and stood in front of him, her legs wobbly.

      ‘You almost killed me.’

      ‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Are you hurt?’

      ‘No,’ he snapped. And then added as an afterthought: ‘Are you?’

      ‘No. I’m fine.’

      The stranger looked past her and into the car at the crumpled map on the passenger seat. Kate watched him, hoping he was calming down. He looked about her age, late twenties with brown hair and brown eyes. He was dressed head to toe in running gear, with streaks of neon yellow banded around his wrists and legs. She should have seen him given this get-up, only she’d been distracted by—

      ‘Were you on your phone?’ He looked directly at her, unblinking. ‘Were you texting while driving?’

      ‘I … No … Of course not.’

      He climbed into the car, knelt on the seat and bent to retrieve the phone.

      ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ she asked.

      He stabbed at it a few times, but the phone was mercifully off.

      ‘I could have sworn …’ He trailed off and then reluctantly handed her the phone.

      ‘You need to move your car. It’s dangerous positioned like that.’ He was glancing up and down the empty road.

      Kate nodded but didn’t move, concerned she’d just broken the law, almost killing someone at the same time.

      ‘Can you do it or do you want me to?’ He looked at her as if she was an idiot.

      ‘I … you … I can СКАЧАТЬ