‘Perhaps you should have checked the weather forecast before we set out,’ he added impatiently.
‘I should have? You gave me the impression that you had everything about this trip under control,’ Andi murmured dryly, no more happy at the possibility of having to come to Scotland for weeks at a time than she had been yesterday when she’d first realized it was a possibility.
‘Unfortunately, even I can’t control the weather!’ It really was foul, Linus acknowledged grimly as it occurred to him he could see barely six feet in front. Their progress was becoming slower by the minute. ‘If it doesn’t let up soon, then we may have to look for somewhere else to stay for the night.’
He could feel Andi’s gaze on him as she gave him a sharp look.
‘Is it really that bad?’
‘You can see that for yourself.’ He nodded in the direction of the road ahead. The grass verge and the road were hardly distinguishable from each other now; the road itself was rapidly being covered in a treacherous layer of slippery snow.
Not that the Range Rover wasn’t up to dealing with it, but it was no good if Linus couldn’t see where he was going. The fact that he hadn’t seen any traffic coming down the road the other way for some time now told him that the way ahead was probably even worse than it was here.
‘I have no intention of sleeping in the Range Rover, so look out for somewhere we can stop for the night.’ Linus grimly kept his concentration on the road in front of them.
Andi turned her attention to looking through the falling snow for any sign of habitation, especially for the lights of an inn or a hotel where they could rest until the snow eased. She felt overwhelmingly guilty because she hadn’t checked the weather forecast and wasn’t more prepared. Feeling disgruntled with Linus over the possibility of having to live in Scotland for weeks at a time was really no excuse.
‘Over there!’ she suddenly cried, pointing to a light ahead of them on the left-hand side of the road. ‘It could be an inn, or—No, it’s just a street lamp.’ She grimaced her disappointment.
‘A street lamp has to mean habitation of some kind.’ Linus narrowed his gaze in the direction she had pointed. ‘Yes! A short way down that lane—at least, I hope it’s a lane.’ He frowned darkly as he turned the vehicle in the direction of the lights, the covering of snow obscuring everything but a flat blanket of white that he sincerely hoped had some sort of firm surface beneath. ‘It’s an inn,’ Linus added with satisfaction as he saw the sign, bearing a thistle and a stag, swinging in the gusting wind. He turned the Range Rover into what he hoped was the otherwise deserted car-park, easing the tension in his shoulders as he gently put on the brakes and brought the vehicle to a stop. ‘Not a very big inn, but it will have to do.’ He grimaced out of the window at the small, barely discernible building. ‘Feel like making a run for it?’ Ruefully, he turned to prompt Andi.
She grimaced. ‘Do we have any other choice?’
‘No—but I thought I would ask anyway,’ Linus baited her as he reached in the back of the vehicle to get their coats, handing Andi’s to her before pulling on his own. ‘Don’t get out until I come round for you,’ he advised firmly as he braced himself for opening the door and facing the freezing weather outside. ‘If I lose you in this, I might never find you again!’
Andi shivered as she felt the blast of ice-cold wind when Linus quickly opened the door and climbed out, before closing it again. The snow was falling so thickly now that she couldn’t even see him as he made his way round the vehicle to her side; she was only aware that he had done so when the door was wrenched open beside her.
It had only been a few seconds, but Linus was already covered in snow, his coat hidden beneath the icy flakes, the darkness of his hair bearing a frosting of the fluffy whiteness too. ‘Careful; it’s icy,’ he warned as Andi lowered her feet to the ground.
His warning came a little too late as her feet slipped from under her and she had to reach out quickly to grasp the front of Linus’s coat to stop herself from falling. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered between gritted teeth as she tried to steady herself. The wind and snow were so icy-cold that her face and jaw already felt frozen, her hair whipping about her face in wet tangles. ‘This is terrible!’ she attempted to shout above the roar of the wind, knowing Linus hadn’t heard her as he gave an irritated shake of his head, dislodging some of the snow in his hair so that it dripped down the grimness of his face and quickly melted against the heat of his skin.
Linus took a firm hold of her hand and turned to fight against the wind as they began to struggle towards the inn. The going was slow, and Andi was surprised at how far away it still looked when she glanced up, the icy wind beating against them so remorselessly that it seemed to deliberately hinder their progress. Almost as if it didn’t want them to reach the shelter and warmth the inn promised.
Andi couldn’t breathe properly through her nose, her throat burning when she attempted to breathe through her mouth instead. All the time the snow beat against her face, hard and painful as it stung against her flesh.
‘Damn it, we’re getting nowhere like this!’ She barely heard Linus’s impatient exclamation before it was carried away on the howling wind, so she was totally unprepared when Linus turned to swing her up into his arms and hold her close against his chest as he walked more determinedly towards the lights of the inn.
Andi’s arms were thrown about his neck as she burrowed her face against him to shelter from the icy-cold wind. Even the dampness of his coat was more comfortable than the burning in her throat as she tried to breathe through that frosty battering.
Incredible to think that, although it had been cold, the sun had actually been trying to shine when they’d left Hampshire earlier this morning; it was like being in another world.
What would happen to them if Linus couldn’t make it as far as the inn? Her arms tightened about Linus’s neck as she laced her frozen fingers tightly together. She should have thought to wear gloves. And a hat.
‘Almost there!’ Linus rasped grimly, obviously suffering as much as she was from the wind that was so cold it seemed to rip right through them. ‘Get the door,’ he prompted forcefully seconds later.
Andi raised her head and saw that they had actually reached the inn; light shone welcomingly through the small, frosted windows, and what looked like the warm glow of a fire too.
Her fingers were so cold, so numbed, that she had trouble unlacing them. The snow cracked on the sleeve of her coat and then fell away as she moved her arm towards the doorknob, fingers slipping at first before she managed to grasp and turn it. The two of them almost fell through the open doorway straight into what looked like the public bar.
Much to the incredulity of the landlord, as he gazed across at them with disbelieving eyes, his mouth having fallen open in surprise at anyone being out at all on an evening like this.
‘Shut the door behind us, would you?’ Linus instructed the other man grimly as he carried Andi over to where a fire burned warmly in the hearth in the otherwise deserted bar. He sat down, still holding Andi against him, as she seemed unable to release her clenched fingers from the shoulders of his jacket, her teeth chattering uncontrollably.
‘It’s okay, Andi,’ he murmured reassuringly. ‘We’re okay,’ he added with satisfaction as the warmth of the fire began to thaw his numbed face and hands.
The tingling sensation that ensued was almost as painful, but it was a welcome pain after the worry of the last few minutes. He really hadn’t been sure they were going to make it as far as the inn as the snowstorm had become a blizzard, visibility down to almost nil, each step becoming a triumph of survival.
Not that Linus intended telling Andi that. He knew from experience that Andi was a woman who usually remained calm in any situation; she had through the death of her father and fiancé, the selling of her family home to pay off her father’s debts and coming to work for him. But the way she