Her Highland Boss. Jessica Gilmore

just a suggestion. Jeanie, you married the man and if you aren’t in bed with him already you should be. Oh, Jeanie, I know he’s not like Alan, I know it.’

      ‘You’ve hardly met him.’

      ‘The way he said his vows...’

      ‘We were both lying and you know it.’

      ‘I don’t know it,’ Maggie said stoutly. ‘You went home last night, didn’t you? One night married, three hundred and sixty-four to go—or should I multiply that by fifty years? Jeanie, do yourself a favour and go for it. Go for him.’

      ‘Why would I?’

      There was a moment’s silence while Maggie collected her answer. One of the guest’s cars was approaching. Jeanie could see it through the kitchen window. She took a plate and started arranging brownies. This was her job, she told herself. Her life.

      ‘Because he can afford—’ Maggie started but Jeanie cut her off before she could finish.

      ‘He can afford anything he wants,’ she conceded. ‘But that’s thanks to me. I told you how Eileen’s will works. He gets to keep his fortune and I...I get to keep my independence. That’s the way I want it, Maggie, and that’s the way it’s going to be.’

      ‘But you will go to see the otters tomorrow?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said, sounding goaded. Which was how she felt, she conceded. She’d been backed into a corner, and she wasn’t at all sure she could extricate herself.

      By keeping busy, she told herself, taking the brownies off the plate and rearranging them more...artistically.

      One day down, three hundred and sixty-four to go.