The Forbidden Promise. Lorna Cook

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 do it. I don’t mind.’

      He raised an eyebrow and gave her a look that proved he was in no doubt she was a fool.

      ‘You don’t mind? Well that’s just …’ He shook his head in disbelief, stepping back and folding his arms. Kate was in no condition to drive but she got back in and managed to straighten the car and pull it slightly off the road, onto the gravel by the side. She switched her hazard lights on given that she was still on the wrong side of the road. And then she wasn’t really sure what to do. The man was still standing there. Surely this was the point where both of them would leave and go about the rest of their evenings, but he seemed to be watching her expectantly.

      Kate got back out of the car and stood awkwardly by the open door. She’d never been in a road accident before, not that this really was a road accident, but the look he was giving her made her think that if she drove on he’d have the police chasing her within minutes.

      ‘So, what happens now?’ she ventured.

      ‘What do you mean?’ He looked baffled.

      ‘Do we … um … do we exchange details?’

      He narrowed his eyes again. ‘Why would we do that?’

      Kate felt about two feet tall. ‘I’m not sure,’ was all she could say quietly. She was eager to be back in the car – so shaken she wasn’t sure she could drive if she was really honest with herself but it was better than standing here with him.

      ‘We don’t need to do anything,’ he said.

      ‘OK,’ Kate agreed.

      His arms were still folded.

      She started to apologise again but he cut her off. He glanced pointedly at his phone, strapped to a band on his wrist.

      ‘Chalk it up to experience.’ He put his headphones in his ears, fiddled with his phone, turned and continued jogging away.

      Kate watched his retreating figure and when he rounded the bend she slumped against the car and exhaled loudly, relieved he was gone. Chalk it up to experience? How sanctimonious. What did he even mean by that? Regardless, she was thankful he wasn’t pressing charges and that she’d never have to see him again. Kate looked back down the road to where he’d turned out of sight.

      ‘What a bastard.’

      She could have cried. What was she even doing here?

       CHAPTER 3

      Kate climbed back into the car and grabbed her handbag from where it