But Ellie must have been walking briskly, for there was no sign of her until Cat skidded round the corner into Ainslie Place, when she caught sight of her quarry entering the front door. Putting on a turn of speed she didn’t know she possessed, Cat sprinted down the street, taking the front steps at a leap and before she could pause to consider, diving past Calman as he began to close the door.

‘Sorry,’ she gasped, making for the open door on the left that she guessed would take her into the drawing room. Ellie whirled round and stared at her in consternation, while her father and her brother looked up in wide-eyed surprise from the game of chess they were playing by the window. Short of breath and even more short of nerve, Cat made a nervous grimace that only someone who loved her could have called a smile. ‘I hurried to catch you up – To explain the stupidity, the mistake – I never promised Johnny Thorpe any such thing – As soon as he brought it up, I said no, I was committed to you – I’m sorry, I didn’t give Calman a chance—’

‘Hello, Cat,’ Henry said, getting to his feet. ‘How lovely to see you.’

‘Henry, hello. I tried to catch Ellie up because that high-handed idiot Johnny Thorpe took it into his head to tell her a pack of lies. He did, didn’t he, Ellie?’

Ellie seemed uncertain how to respond. ‘He said you’d made a mistake about tomorrow. That you’d promised to go on some trip with him and Jamie and Bella tomorrow so you wouldn’t be able to come up Arthur’s Seat with Henry and me.’

Cat made an impatient gesture with her hands. ‘I knew it. Honestly, Ellie, that is a complete fantasy. A lie. I made no such plans. He just wants me to come on this stupid outing so he can show off his fancy car again. I am determined to go walking with you and Henry tomorrow, not go to Glasgow or Linlithgow with that idiot.’

‘Well, that seems pretty clear,’ Henry said.

‘I’m sorry, I seem to leave a trail of confusion wherever I go,’ Cat said.

General Tilney got to his feet and came towards them. ‘That’s what comes of being such an attractive young woman,’ he said. It was a line that from another might have seemed louche or inappropriate. But in the General’s dry tone, it was impossible to take exception to it. ‘Eleanor, are you going to introduce me to your friend?’

Ellie dipped her head. ‘Father, this is Catherine Morland from Dorset who is here in Edinburgh for the festival with her friends the Allens.’ It was curiously formal, but it seemed to be the style of the house, for the General acknowledged the introduction with a half-bow from the waist.

‘A pleasure,’ he said. He gave Ellie a sharp look. ‘But you didn’t come in together. Why did Calman not bring Miss Morland in? What was he thinking? We don’t just barge into rooms in this house.’

‘My fault,’ Cat said, clapping a hand to her chest. ‘I was incredibly rude. I ran straight past him. Poor man, he didn’t stand a chance. And please, General, call me Cat. Everyone else does.’

He smiled. ‘Come and sit with us. Calman will bring us tea and cakes, it’s that sort of time.’ He nodded at Ellie, who hurried out of the room, and waved Cat to a sofa near the massive marble fireplace. Now she saw him at closer range, she could see that although his features were very similar to his son’s, his skin was covered in fine wrinkles as if he’d spent years out of doors in all weathers. But because his hair was the kind of light brown that disguised the strands of silver, he still looked amazingly young. Like a two-hundred-year-old vampire, Cat’s wicked angel whispered in her ear. That same angel noticed there was a faint outline above the elaborate mantelpiece, as if the large mirror one might expect to find there had been temporarily removed.

Afternoon tea soon appeared, so lavish Cat was fascinated by its generosity to the point where she failed to notice her companions ate hardly anything. Instead they all chattered as cosily as if they’d known each other for years. The General remained formal and somewhat aloof, but he was not averse to joining the conversation when he had something germane to contribute. Eventually, he stood up and apologised for having to leave them. ‘I have some calls to make,’ he said. ‘But we would be very happy if you would stay for dinner.’

Cat was as dismayed as she was surprised. ‘I’d love to,’ she said. ‘But I know Mrs Allen has tickets for a concert this evening and I mustn’t let her down.’ She also got to her feet. ‘In fact, I really should get back. This has been a lovely afternoon. Thank you.’

‘We’ll see you tomorrow morning around nine,’ Henry reminded her.

‘I’ll see you to the door,’ the General said. He took her elbow as they left the drawing room. ‘You have the spring in your step of a natural dancer,’ he said as he opened the front door. ‘I thought as much when I saw you dancing with Henry.’

It was the icing on the cake, to be complimented by a man as eminent as the General. Cat proceeded happily to Queen Street, taking note of that dancer’s spring in her step that she’d never noticed before. What an afternoon of ups and downs it had been. She hated upsetting James and Bella but she had been determined to do the right thing. And it had been the right thing, in spite of Bella’s snide suggestion that she was trying to justify what she intended to do anyway. If anyone was selfish, Cat told herself, it was Bella. She checked her phone and sure enough, there were half a dozen messages from Bella entreating her to change her mind, plus a couple complaining of her intransigence.

The Allens were both sitting in the window sipping white wine when she returned and she amused them over dinner with her adventures. ‘For what it’s worth, I think you made the right choice,’ Mr Allen said. ‘Gadding about in gaudy convertibles sends the wrong sort of message about the kind of girl you are, Cat.’

‘You’re so right,’ Susie said. ‘I don’t think your father would approve. Much better to take a sedate walk with the Tilneys. Such a good family, by all accounts. Just the kind of young people your parents would like to think of you hanging out with, Cat.’

Generally, that would have been the opposite of a recommendation to a teenager. But Cat was so deeply mired in her admiration for the Tilneys that not even the potential approbation of her parents could divert her.

14

The following morning Cat was in a ferment of apprehension. The weather was fair; a thin layer of cloud kept the sun at bay, making it perfect for hill-walking. But that would also make it perfect for driving to Glasgow with the top down. Since Bella had not given up texting her till after midnight, Cat was by no means convinced that the others wouldn’t turn up on the doorstep for a final attempt at persuading her away from the Tilneys.

But nine o’clock struck and Cat’s vigil by the window was rewarded by the sight of a Mercedes drawing up outside and Ellie exiting the passenger door. Cat grabbed her daypack and raced down the stairs, meeting Ellie halfway. They hugged and filled the stairwell with gleeful teenage exclamations.

Henry was behind the wheel of the Mercedes and although she feared momentarily that she might have to endure another bout of extreme male driving, Cat’s anxiety turned out to be groundless. Henry drove like a perfectly sane person, so it was possible for his passengers to exchange remarks that didn’t include squeals of terror.

The car park on Queen’s Drive was almost empty, which boded well for their walk. ‘I do hate crowds when I’m out walking,’ Ellie said. ‘It defeats the object of getting out of the city if the hill paths are as busy as Princes Street.’

‘If you don’t like crowds, you should avoid Dorset in the school holidays,’ Cat said with feeling. ‘Ever since they christened it the Jurassic Coast, it’s mobbed with small boys hunting dinosaur fossils. And the rest of their families filling the beaches with all the paraphernalia of middle-class leisure. Windbreaks and portable barbeques. Bloody boules and beach cricket. You can’t move for folding chairs and boogie boards and wetsuits drying on the shingle.’

‘You make it sound quite lovely,’ Henry teased as they set off up the main path leading to the gap between the crags.

‘It is lovely. Just not when the tourist hordes descend. Come and visit, both of you, and see it for yourself. The coast is truly dramatic.’

‘But what about the Piddle Valley? What’s that like?’ Ellie giggled. ‘Is the River Piddle a gushing torrent or a feeble dribble?’

‘Ha, ha,’ Cat said sarcastically. ‘It’s an insignificant little river, but the countryside is exactly what English chocolate-box scenery is meant to be.’

‘We shall have to come and see for ourselves,’ Henry said. They were silent for a while, saving their breath for the steep uphill climb that brought them to the top of Salisbury Crags, with its panoramic view of the city, the Firth of Forth and the hills of Fife beyond. They paused for a breather and Henry took the opportunity to tell Cat something of the three-hundred-and-fifty-million-year history of the volcanic landscape.

‘It’s amazing, somewhere so wild and yet so close to the city centre. When I turn my back on the city and look up to the summit, I feel like I could be in the heart of the Highlands,’ Cat said.

‘I love it up here,’ Ellie said. ‘Whenever we’re in Edinburgh I always try to sneak away and come up, even if I’ve only got time to come this far.’

‘I’ve been reading the Hebridean Harpies books and somehow, being here in this landscape makes the books even more alive to me,’ Cat said. She cast a sideways look at Henry. ‘I don’t suppose you read novels like that, do you?’