Chapter 81

Rose stayed at the cottage when Abby left later that day, Rose told her she needed to work on more sketches, but the truth was she needed alone time to try and get this overwhelming funk out of her system.

Rob had called late in the day, apologising to her for not calling. Work had intervened, mucked up his plans, had kept him glued to the phone most of the day, and he had to head into Inverness for an unplanned meeting with his solicitor and then onto his office in the city, and the drive was long and laborious.

He wouldn’t be back till extremely late, and he told her not to wait up for him, apologising profusely for being so lame on the official first day of their engagement and making her giggle.

Disappointed and listless when she hung up. She hated feeling so out of whack. She had been holding her breath, waiting for his appearance to make her feel better. Today had dragged endlessly and been emotionally draining too.

Rose took a long soak in the tub, ord