Under Scottish Stars by Carla Laureano

Author:Carla Laureano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Romance / General, FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2020-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SERENA COULDN’T BEGIN TO GUESS their destination until Malcolm turned off the highway down the neatly paved road that led into Kinloch Forest. The headlamps swept across the trees that crowded the drive, illuminating them in patches as they passed through the gate into the forestry area.

“Really?” she asked, unreasonably giddy at the prospect. “We’re going stargazing?”

He glanced over at her, the light from the car’s instrument cluster illuminating his pleased expression. “Indeed. Even in the village there’s too much light pollution to see anything. I thought you should be able to enjoy what you’ve put so much work into. Especially since we have only a couple of weeks of dark skies left.”

“I love this. We’ve been out only one night since we arrived. I was telling the kids the stories behind the constellations. Well, I was telling Em. Max never makes it much past the first few minutes.”

Malcolm smiled at her in the dark, something she felt more than saw, as he pulled into the dirt car park. “There’s a flat spot where we can sit up there—not that I need to tell you that. You literally wrote the brochure on it.”

Serena suddenly wished she had worn jeans and low-heeled boots, because even though the ground had dried out from an unaccustomed week without heavy rain, the ground still sloped unevenly upward from the car park. She buttoned her coat while Malcolm went to the boot and began rummaging through the packed items.

“I don’t suppose you would mind carrying some things, would you?”

“Of course not. What have you got in there?”

He pulled out a picnic hamper and handed it over first. “Dessert, naturally. A couple of blankets—I wasn’t sure how warm you would dress, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. And this, which I will carry.” He pulled out a hard-sided case and a padded black bag that was shaped like the case for a hunting rifle, but shorter. It took her a second to puzzle through what they could be until she put it together.

“Really? You brought a telescope?”

He chuckled. “You are the first woman to consider that a positive. Not that we really need a telescope, but I thought it could be fun.”

“It is fun.” She slid the picnic hamper to the crook of her elbow and then took one of the blankets while he gathered the rest of the gear. Then he withdrew a torch fitted with a red filter—to preserve their night vision, she knew—and slammed the boot.

“Shall we?”

“Lead on.”

When they reached the flat-topped grassy area, he spread out one of the blankets. She lowered herself to the center of it, already chilled by the cold night, her breath puffing out in front of her. He knelt before her and draped the second blanket around her shoulders, then got to work assembling the telescope on its tripod while she rummaged through the hamper.

Besides the stainless-steel carafe of something she assumed was coffee or tea, it contained little paper boxes of all sorts

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