Out of the Blue Excerpt

Chapter One

Of course it would rain! Mattie Williams was only half way up the blasted hill, her boots were giving her blisters, her pack was acting like an aqueduct and channeling water down her back rather than keeping it warm and dry like she hoped it would and this was just day two of her Scottish honeymoon escapade. Her very long awaited, highly anticipated, once in a lifetime honeymoon.  If she had the energy, she’d kick something. Preferably an appendage, a leg would be particularly satisfying! And not just any leg, but one belonging to the man himself. Instead, she concentrated on putting one soggy foot in front of the other. And tried harder to block his name out of her mind, sadly, she had to admit after a few more sodden footsteps, without success.

Zane Malcolm: high school heartthrob, state salesman of the year (for the second year in a row) and for a year and a half her enviable fiancé. And as of five days ago, meant to be her husband. He was the reason she was here. Slogging it out. Stalking up a veritable Mt Everest to lay eyes upon a supposedly breath-taking ruin. A ruin, which his family could lay some sort of clannish claim to.

Pity she’d agreed the perfect way to begin their marriage was to explore his family’s history. It was never going to be a shared history now, not like she’d anticipated. No, now their history was going to stay as separate as her hot, dry Australian home was to the soggy, vegetation-covered Scottish soil she was currently slip sliding her way through, which, once she got her head around it properly was going to be just fine, along with the weather.

The woman at the B&B she was staying at had claimed with sunshine and laughter in her voice and absolutely no concern, that they’d possibly have a wee shower this morn, judging by the few clouds about, but then the afternoon was going to be magical. And Mattie would love the broch. If she wanted to see Malcolm history then this was the perfect place to begin. Right now, Mattie thought, it was more of an appropriate place for it all to end.

But at the woman’s enthusiasm Mattie couldn’t very well say that she wasn’t the least bit interested in Malcolm history or their futures as the case may be. She was not a history buff. She’d never studied it at school, never read books based on it and quickly changed the channel should a history programme come on the television. History made her a little uncomfortable, all those skeletons and rubble, really, what was the attraction?

 But since she’d thought she was joining a long established Scottish family clan, she’d been more than happy to garner an interest in the subject. And Zane was eager to take her to the places he’d heard tales about as he’d grown up, so she’d happily agreed.  His parents were first generation Australian immigrants. Australia was home to their family now, but there was no doubt that Scotland was home to their souls.