Snowed In With My Stepbrother novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Terms

I didn't sleep that night, and the papered door stayed locked.

Finlay knocked on it once, softly, at midnight.

I sat on the other side with the photo on my phone and didn't answer.

I wanted to know what Euan wanted before I told him.

At nine the next morning I found out.

The gun room was off the back hall, a narrow room with a steel cabinet, a sink, and antlers on every wall.

Euan was cleaning a rifle he didn't own at the table, with the door open.

"Come in," he said. "Shut that."

I came in and left it open.

"What do you want?"

He laid the rifle down on a cloth and wiped his fingers one at a time.

"My terms are very simple, Ailsa. On Hogmanay, at the bells, my cousin stands up in the village hall and tells his father he doesn't want Glenmorran. In his own words. Not pressured. Just not ready."

"And?"

"And you go back to Glasgow and you never come up that pass again. Not at Easter, not for my uncle's birthday. Never."

"Or?"

He picked up his phone and turned it so I could see.

The boathouse photo, full screen.

"Or this goes on Uncle Alasdair's desk. And on the Kinlochmorran community page, where four hundred people read about lost sheep. And on the village hall noticeboard in time for the ceilidh."

"He's not my brother."

"You'll be amazed how few people in a glen care about the difference."

"Alasdair will just give the estate to Finlay anyway."

"Maybe." Euan smiled. "Or maybe a proud old man who's just found out his son was screwing his wife's daughter under his roof, while the whole village laughs, decides he'd rather sell the hill to family who know how to behave."

"Why do you care so much?"

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