‘I like your luggage,’ he said, and grinned.

‘Eat your heart out, Mr. Gucci,’ she said, managing a smile in return. ‘This is so next year’s catwalk.’

‘I believe it is,’ he said. ‘If there’s anyone who can start a trend it would be you.’

‘Enough with the compliments,’ she said, feeling…disconcerted. No, more than that, totally flummoxed. ‘You promised me a bath.’

‘I did. Let me carry your box.’

‘I can manage myself,’ she said with an attempt at dignity. ‘Once upon a time I depended on others. I don’t do that any more.’

‘It’s only carrying a box,’ he said mildly.

‘No,’ she said softly, as she carted her belongings up the steps and into the house. ‘Believe me, it’s much, much more.’

She lay back in the vast spa; she let the bubbles float up around her and she felt as if she was floating herself. From here she could see all the way across the valley floor. There were candles lit around her, gardenia with maybe a hint of citrus. The housekeeper had lit them as she’d settled her into the room.

‘And don’t worry about privacy,’ she’d said. ‘There’s oneway glass so you can see forever but no one can see you, even if there was someone outside, which there isn’t. The one-way glass is brilliant. Jake had it installed just after his father died.’

‘Jake did that?’

‘He wants this place to be the best. It was his stepmother’s passion, and we want to carry it on.’

Jake’s stepmother’s passion… There was a lot here she didn’t understand, that she hadn’t thought through.

She knew this place had been built by the local doctor and his wife. Charlie McDonald had cared for this community for as long as most people remembered. He’d cared for her mother during her long illness, allowing her to die at home surrounded by her family and her beloved animals. Tori remembered him with deep affection, and with gratitude.

He’d lived in Combadeen and his wife had run the lodge. The place up on the ridge had been his weekend retreat, so they’d been weekend neighbours. But just after she’d started university he’d retired to the city, and she’d not heard of him until his funeral.