Pulling away from the kiss, Iain McLeod gripped Laura's arms again, with a little more pressure, before taking her hands again.
"I've wanted to do that from the moment I knew you were here, after all this time, after all these years" he said, looking at her intently. She knew he was gauging her reaction. She half smiled and a small self-conscious laugh escaped her lips and she blushed at her own reaction to the kiss, this feeling seemed to surpass the event; she felt she needed to listen to what she was feeling, right now. It seemed important. She didn't say anything but continued to look at Iain, wondering what his next move would be. He continued to stare intently at her, his eyes locked on hers. After a moment of holding her gaze he took her hand and lifted it to his lips and kissed it
"Listen, I need to make a call to the lab back in Edinburgh, but I'll see you later" he said and with that he went.
Laura watched as he walked away. Her head was spinning after kissing him; her body told her one thing but her mind told her the opposite. For now, however, she held on to the physical effects of the moment amidst the results that the kiss had precipitated in her being. Her heart beat fast and she felt flushed. She needed to walk a little and gather her wits. She took a deep breath and started to walk in the opposite direction to the one Iain had taken. With her head down, trying to refocus, wondering exactly what she had just done she tried desperately to decipher her feelings. There was another rumble of thunder, louder this time and Laura looked up, the sky was pewter and more drops of rain were falling; big and fat they bounced off the heads of the aquilegia flowers, shaking their delicate petals in the process.
Despite the threat of another cloudburst, Laura kept walking. She frowned. Deep down she didn't feel like she thought she would do after what had happened, even after she had anticipated it and even wanted it to happen. She wasn't sure why and this troubled her. She continued to walk around the perimeter of the lawn. Honeybees visited the flowers, eager for nectar before the rain fell again, and Laura wondered with some abstraction if they were from the hotel's hive; she had seen Stone Edge House Honey in jars for sale at reception. She tucked her hands into her jeans pockets as she walked with just her handbag over her shoulder; the hotel had given her a courtesy room for the afternoon so she could get changed for the seminar and then the cook-out. She wondered if she would be going back to Ash Rake House that night or whether she would end up staying at the hotel.
With Iain.
Is that what I want? She asked herself. Laura heard a pheasant call in the distance that returned her from her thoughts to her surroundings. Thunder rumbled once more in the distance, over the dark clouded sky above the gritstone edges. Laura continued walking, still not sure if how she felt was how she wanted to feel.
To her left was a dense tall yew hedge that spanned the perimeter of the lawn and the paths. It was impressive, Laura had thought, when she had first seen it and must have had some age to have reached such height and density. She heard a rustle and a soft cluck and suddenly in front of her a blackbird flew out of the hedge, startling both her and the bird who made a shrill alarm call in annoyance at the situation. She continued to walk and as she did so she saw a gap in the hedge ahead of her and to her left. The inside of the gap was neatly clipped and deep and Laura wondered where it led. She had decided to head back to her courtesy room but with her head still spinning and in need or more time to work out her feelings she found herself stepping through the arched gap and discovered another lawned garden, smaller and prettier than the one she had been in with Iain and scented with fresh woody herbs that were planted all around the lawn and paths. She looked towards the end of the lawn and saw a beautiful wooden summer house nestled between the evergreens. And then, she saw a figure. Dressed in his suit that he had worn for the seminar, she knew who it was straight away. It was Robbie
Laura found herself panicking slightly. Had he seen McLeod kiss her she wondered. She found herself desperately hoping not which only added to her turmoil. Why would it matter if he had seen she thought. And she oddly felt like somehow she was betraying Robbie, despite him never showing any clear inclination to her gentle advances to him. She continued walking towards him and, sensing her presence, he looked up as she approached. Laura thought she saw a look of surprise and then anguish on his face but it was fleeting.
"What are you doing here?" She said, forcing herself into her usual bright mock accusatory tone she sometimes commanded when she saw Robbie or Hathaway. She was glad to have a familiar focus to distract her racing mind.
"Oh, er, well" Robbie stuttered, wondering if Laura had seen him before he thought he'd secreted himself away into the arbour. "I er, couldn't get a signal inside and, er well, Thompson was on the terrace on his phone so I had to come down here for a bit of peace and a decent signal to call Lyn" It was the truth but not declaring that he had also just seen Laura and McLeod unsettled him and somehow made him feel he was being deceitful.
"Oh, is she ok?" Laura said softly, wondering if the anguish she had seen on Robbie's face had been linked to the call to Lyn; a sadness about Val perhaps.
"Yeah, she's fine" and Robbie smiled back at Laura, always grateful for her genuine concern. For a second he searched her face, wondering again if she had seen him before he'd dashed into the garden out of sight
"What, um, are you doing out here?" He asked, a little awkwardly, still uncomfortable with the fact that he had seen her and McLeod without her knowing.
"Oh, ah, I wanted some fresh air after the seminar" Laura said. She failed to mention she had been with McLeod. Laura wondered to herself why she still didn't mention Iain to Robbie. Something didn't feel right to her to admit that she had been with Iain, even walking together alone, let alone kissing. She felt colour rise in her cheeks.
"I'm glad I've seen you, actually, I was going to find you, I need to speak to you, that's if you've got a minute?" She said, the cool air of the advancing storm a relief to the warmth she felt on her face.
"Er, yeah, of course" Robbie said, a little surprised at her sudden request, wondering what it was she wanted to say. He let his gaze linger on her. Now she was smiling at him, clearly pleased that he was free for whatever it was she wanted to discuss. He couldn't help notice how arrestingly beautiful she looked. There was a slight blush on her cheeks, her hair was a little out of place and with a vaguely hidden look of recent surprise on her face she indeed looked as if she had just been kissed. Robbie's heart sank as he saw the evidence of McLeod's romantic advances. Still he couldn't feel any anger towards her at the situation, he hadn't after all, had any right to feel dejected, not after all the times he'd been self-blinkered to her signals and all the gentle invitations she'd given him to take the lead. If McLeod wasn't such a cheating rat he would just walk away from it all and let her get on with her life.
The sky had gone dark; deep grey clouds, the advancing storm had dimmed the brightness of the sun. Suddenly there was a flash of white lightning and the large heavy drops of rain that had been falling began to increase in number exponentially as the seconds passed. The air was still and silent and time seemed to stretch out; an ominous silent bell tolling the arrival of the thunder.
"Oh!" exclaimed Laura as the rain fell thicker now, the drops felt huge and cold to Laura as they fell around and on her. The ear-shattering boom of thunder arrived, shaking and swelling the air above them.
"Bloody hell" said Robbie, the rain was starting to fall heavily now with each passing second "We'll get soaked, quick, up there!" and he pointed to the little summerhouse at the end of the garden. Without hesitation, Robbie and Laura made a dash, amidst the rain that was now drumming down ferociously, for the little wooden shelter in the shrubbery.