The van was now parked in amongst the trees near Torwood Castle. Milla and James returned Sophie and I back to the van, and as they did so, I noticed they had two full bottles of whiskey ready to be opened next to two deck chairs that were set up underneath a tree. Before they locked the door on us, James had one more attempt at winning Sophie back and went in for a kiss, before Sophie spat in his face.
“You disgusting slut,” James growled, glaring at Sophie. “Ah, you are not worth it anyway. Milla is more my type now.” He then locked the door from the outside to prevent us from being able to open it from the inside.
James and Milla continued to drink their little acholic hearts out; we knew this from hearing them talking loudly to each other in their drunken state, as they slurred rambling sentences that made no sense at all. Then all of a sudden it became quiet. My only guess was that they had both passed out in their deck chairs. Plus, if I wasn’t mistaken, what I was hearing could only be snoring coming from their direction. Either that or they had been eaten by a pack of wolves. Who would, no doubt, be drunk themselves now after digesting two good-sized adults whose blood alcohol levels were off the charts.
There was no time like the present to make our escape. “Sophie, I need you to snap out of this depressed state you are in, and I need you to follow my instructions. We are getting out of here once and for all. I think James and Milla have passed out or been eaten, but either way, now is the time. I need you to help me use that fire extinguisher.” I’d noticed it earlier, attached to the inside wall of the van. “I’m going to use it smash the back window,” I explained.
Sophie agreed to help. It took a bit of work and coordination between us both to smash the window while our hands were tied behind our backs, but somehow, we succeeded. We then had the next challenge of climbing out of a smashed window with sharp bits of glass sticking up everywhere with our hands still tied behind our backs, but we did that also, and we now found ourselves standing in a pile of glass, but at least we were out of the van.
I looked around for James and Milla, and from the looks of things, my theory was correct—no, they were not eaten by wolves, they were both passed out with empty bottles of whiskey in their laps. So predictable.
“We are free.” Sophie had finally perked up, and it was the first time I had seen her smile since watching Outlander at Swans Cottage. “Now what?” she asked.
“Now we get the hell out of here,” I replied.
We had only made a few steps into our escape when, from a distance, we saw two huge figures coming towards us. One was running a whole lot faster than the other, though, and as they got closer in range, we could see the two figures were wearing kilts. A few moments later, we recognised them as James and Scott; however, James looked a whole lot more excited to see Sophie than Scott was to see me.
I watched the whole reunion unfold as if it was in slow motion—James ran to Sophie, picked her up, and kissed her passionately before grabbing a piece of glass to cut the rope that tied her hands together, then falling into each other with their arms wrapped around the other so passionately.
This all unfolded right before my eyes, and even still, Scott had yet to reach me as he continued at a Sunday-stroll pace. When he finally reached me, he ever so casually said, “Aye. You all right, Letticia?”
I stared at Scott in complete and utter shock, what sort of question was that? “Oh yes, just dandy, Scott, never been better,” I replied sarcastically.
“Great! Well, let’s get going, your parents and children are worried sick about you,” he said as he cut me free using a bit of broken glass from the ground. It was not at all the same kind of reunion Sophie had experienced with James. Where was the passion-filled drama? Why was Scott being so cold and rude towards me? I was feeling very confused. After all, it was his crazy ex-wife who adultnapped me in the first place. I didn’t in any way whatsoever ask for this.
Scott pulled James aside and whispered something in his ear, but I was still oblivious to everything, still boiling mad inside but trying so very hard to keep my cool. Then I was ordered by Scott to take a walk with him, as we needed to have a talk. Scott was in a very strange mood, ordering people around like he was some kind of army officer or something, or someone important.
James found the van keys; he didn’t have to look very hard, seeing they were in the ignition already. But before he drove the van back to the mechanic at Larbert with Sophie to pick up the Range Rover, he went over to Scott and gave him a big bromance-looking hug, then shook his hand. “Well, good sir, I don’t know the ins and outs of it all, but it looks like there was some truth in what you told me.”
Scott looked back at James in a very bromance-looking way. “You should never have doubted me, James.” They both laughed.
James and Sophie headed off to pick up the Range Rover. The plan then would be to come back and pick Scott and I up after we had our very serious “talk” in the woods nearby. Why, though, was still a mystery to me.
This was all unfolding while James and Milla continued to lie there, comatose in their very drunken states. They would get a huge surprise to wake up to no van and no victims, who had conveniently escaped with the help of two kilted men, or should I say, superheroes.
Chapter Fourteen
The cold, chilly winter air blew through the gaps of the trees as we walked through the woods in silence. I was more concerned about my body odour from not having washed for the last day or so, than the actual coldness, and how freezing it actually was. I was starting to feel numb.
Scott was still acting weird towards me, and I decided to apologise. Not that I had anything to apologise for, in my mind, but I couldn’t take being in this state with Scott any longer.
“Scott, I’m sorry, please forgive me,” I said desperately.
Scott didn’t react, he continued walking in front of me. How rude, after I just said sorry for something I was still not aware of what I was saying sorry for. He could have at least acknowledged it.
I decided to stop following him like some sort of desperate lost puppy, and stood my ground instead. “Actually, Scott, come to think of it, I’m not sorry at all.”
Scott finally stopped and turned around to face me. “Really, you are not sorry for cheating on me with Jim,” Scott said, sounding very disappointed.
“What do you mean? It was in my dream, I didn’t physically cheat on you at all. I can’t help what I dream,” I replied.
“It’s not what you dreamt, Letticia, it’s why you dreamt it. You did it purely to get back at me, you wanted to hurt me for not saying goodbye to you that morning and not replying back to you by text straightaway, after you texted me to say sorry.” There was a bit of truth in what Scott was saying, come to think of it. “You made me stand there, sidelined, watching you being seduced by another man. You were totally unfaithful to me in your dream, Letticia. This is just another one of your extreme measures you go to in order to make a point.”
Scott had pushed the boundaries, now I could not hold back any longer. “I am having a really hard time right now knowing if you are being serious or not. This was a dream, not reality. There is a big difference, and for you to tell me I was being unfaithful is just a load of bollocks.”
“Well, Letticia, I’m not sure there is much difference between a dream and reality when it comes to us. I need to clear my head for a minute of two, just let me be, would ya,” Scott said as he left me standing at the top of a hill while he walked away to think things over in amongst some trees.
Was he about to end things with me? Had our relationship actually come to an end? All good things must come an end, after all, and was this the end of our good thing?
I yelled out in one last desperate measure, “Scott, forgive me, please! Forgive me, I’m so sorry for everything I have put you through. Just forgive me, we can get through this!”
It was no use, though, Scott had now disappeared into the woods. Was he even coming back? Or was he just going to leave me here like the despe
rate lost puppy that I was.
I was in utter shock at this point, unable to move as it was. I’m not sure how long I had been in such a position for—seconds, minutes, hours, maybe? It was indeed only seconds, but my overdramatic mind told me it was in fact hours, until I saw movement within the woods. Then the silence was no longer, replaced with the sound of angry men, and pistols being fired. I was still standing on top of the hill, exposed, with nowhere to hide. Then I saw Scott, my beloved Scottish warrior, come sprinting out of the woods, kilt and all. I was admiring his sexy knees, which the kilt was showing off as he ran, not what should have been on my mind at that very moment. A shot in the air made me refocus, however. It took a while for my brain to register what was happening in front of my very own eyes, but from the looks of it, Scott was in the firing line. He was getting chased and shot at by an army of men, some running, some on horseback. Scott had no chance against a whole army and was about to get shot. He couldn’t die now, not after we had yet to make up from one of our biggest fights to date. He couldn’t be taken off to wherever you go after you die on such a bad note between us. I had to get to him before he got shot and make up with him.
So without even thinking what I was getting myself into, I found myself now bolting down the hill towards Scott and an army of men, with nothing but my bare hands, all to get to my Scott.
They were still a distance away from me in the lush green open field, and I continued running my little heart out.
Letticia was now only a few feet away. “Noooo. Scott, noooo, you can’t leave me. I love you. Forgive me, forgive me, please forgive me.” She pushed the man who had shot Scott aside without even a thought of what he could have done to her and flung herself right on top of Scott, kissing him and hugging him with every last bit of energy she had left.
Scott’s murderer ordered another man to remove Letticia off Scott. “Remove her!” he demanded coldly.
“Let go of me, you rotten killer,” I yelled back.
It took two men each side of me to pull me away from Scott, and they dragged me a few feet away, all the time with me yelling foully at them all. Then Scott’s murderer barked out an order to a nearby soldier. “Take him away, get rid of him for once and for all.” He was referring to my Scott, I realised.
“Where should we take him?” the solider asked.
“Feed him to the wolves, for all I care,” the cold-hearted bastard replied.
“Wolves? What wolves? You can’t feed him to the wolves—unless he will return, leading the pack,” I said.
I noticed a little giggle-like sound come from Scott’s direction, was I seeing things? Was he still alive? “He’s alive! He’s still alive, let him go,” I yelled. Not sure why I advertised such a thing to his so-called killers, but I wasn’t thinking straight at that point in time.
Scott’s murderer—or not?—pulled out his pistol yet again and proceeded to put one final bullet into Scott’s back. “He’s not anymore,” he announced coldheartedly.
I fell to the ground in a blubbering mess, tears flowing out of my eyes like a broken water hydrant on the sidewalk, spraying water in every direction. Scott continued to lie there lifeless next to me. I couldn’t take my eyes of him, my soul mate, the one and only guy who ever really understood me and loved me for me, just gone. Taken from me just like that—out of my life forever, never to return to me. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.
I lay down beside him and put my arm around him. Everything around me was no longer important. I didn’t care that I was in the presence of an army of men with pistols who could quite easily decide to kill me next. At that present time, all I wanted was to be next to my Scott. I looked at his eyes, shut and lifeless, hoping they would open, and by some strange miracle, they did, just at that very moment. They opened quickly, and a smile appeared on Scott’s face.
“You are forgiven, you always were forgiven, Sassenach,” Scott said.
I pulled away in disbelief. “Oh no you don’t. Don’t you ‘Sassenach’ me now,” I replied angrily as I got to my feet and started to back away from Scott.
“Come on, Letticia, who has their sensible pants on now?” Scott joked.
“Sensible pants? Really? Oh for your information, my sensible pants are zipped up, buttoned up, and belted up as tight as they can go. These pants are not coming off anytime soon,” I growled at him. Scott could see by now I did not find one little bit of this funny. “I have been tied up and adultnapped for the last twenty-four hours or so, how in your right mind did you think I would see any part of this to be funny?”
“Well, Letticia, being unfaithful to me in your dream last night and letting me stand by and watch the whole thing unfold wasn’t exactly my kind of funny either,” Scott replied.
“Okay… so pretending to be unfaithful or pretending to be dead. I sort of believe one is not as serious as the other, Scott.”
Scott laughed, a shocked-sounding laugh. “Aye, you canne be serious, Letticia, can you? See, I kinda think they are both as bad as each other. See, if you were unfaithful to me, I would much rather be dead than not be with you, my Sassenach.”
I could feel myself starting to soften towards Scott. He had a way with words that could melt my heart within seconds and diffuse any situation. “Really, Scott, that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” Tears started to roll down my cheeks. “Oh, Scott, I’m just so glad you are really alive and still not dead.”
“Oh, Letticia, I’m just so glad you are really still with me, and not with that douchebag guy Jim from your dream,” Scott teased.
We hugged for what seemed like an eternity until we heard the word “cut” from the director, who was running towards us. He didn’t look happy about these two new actors; he had no idea who they were, and we had just cost him more time and money. I, on the other hand, was extremely happy. Finally my own personal director turned up in my life, to call cut on a scene I so wanted to be cut. I never wanted to relive the death of my Scott ever again. It was safe to say there was no way there was going to be another take on this particular scene, in any chapter of my life, ever again. Well maybe one day, when it really is time for Scott to go, but until then he was mine, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
I overheard Scott explaining to the fellow who pulled the trigger on him—twice—my director fantasies, and how I had always imagined what it would be like to have my very own personal director who could cut me out of any awkward scene in my life. Both men laughed at my expense while I stood there taking in every bit of this magical moment.
Just then someone started slow clapping, then within seconds, more people joined in, until the clapping got up to full speed. I yelled into Scott’s ear so he could hear over the clapping. “By the way, you outdid yourself today. That overtook my dream by a mile.”
Scott laughed. “Well no more unfaithful dreams with me in there, you promise? You can dream whatever you like, Letticia, but just remember, I don’t always need to be pulled into them—unless it’s a sexy dream that involves you and I dunking teabags, or ripping of each other’s clothes while I tease your nipples, then move down south with my tongue, hitting just the right spots, just before I make hot, steamy love to you. But hey, I can get that with you in reality whenever I like, can’t I now,” Scott said with a wink.
We were so caught up in the moment, we didn’t hear that the clapping had in fact ended, and Scott had still been yelling in my ear. All the actors around us had heard our whole sex-oriented conversation.
Scott’s not-murderer, who was starting to look familiar now that I took a good look at him, was the first to break the awkwardness. “Aye, the only thing that would have made the last thirty minutes even better than it already was, would have been a chair to sit in and a container of popcorn in my lap. You two are beyond entertaining,” I heard the soldier–actor?—say out loud.
I looked up at the person who had just spoken, and within seconds I recognised him. “Alistair, is that you?” I asked, surprised.
“It is I, Alistair. Don’t tell me, you are my second-biggest fan in the world, aren’t you?” Alistair asked.
Scott nudged my arm and nodded his head, mouthing, “say yes,” to me. So I did what I was told. “Oh yes, you are one of my favourite actors of all time, Alistair,” I said so seriously, and in the best acting ability I could muster up.
“Well then, how long are you two in town for? We are finishing off shooting earlier than expected today now, so if you are around, I would love to take my two biggest fans out for dinner.”
We decided to accept his offer, and after dinner, we would then make our way back home to Swans Cottage. Scott and I had now fully forgiven each other, completely, and were now back in the “we are so in love” stage. It was an extremely nice place to be back in, I would be the first to admit.
Scott phoned James to see how he was going at the mechanic. The phone only rung a few times before James answered it. “Hey ya, Scott.”
“Aye, how’s it all going with my Range Rover?” Scott asked—aka, Scott’s baby.
“Aye, it’s not looking good, it’s going take longer than they first thought. It will be ready by the morning, the mechanic told me.”
I could see by the look on Scott’s face it wasn’t good news. “Hells bells, really? Well it looks like we will be spending a night in Larbert of all places, then.” Scott put his phone back in the pocket in his kilt.
Rescuelander Page 8
