Under A Scottish Sky

By Pamela Q. Fernandes

Seeking stars, finding love!

Under a Scottish Sky, a contemporary novella, tells the story of Michelle Reyes, a strong, guilt ridden woman, who’s travelled to Scotland to see the stars. Michelle meets Adrian, the son of the patient she has to care for, but considers him arrogant, unforgiving and cruel. In time, she learns that he is not all that he appears to be, before they fall deeply in love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Sep 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781680465594

Pamela Q. Fernandes

Pamela Q. Fernandes is a doctor, author, and medical writer. She hosts The Christian Circle Podcast and plays the piano. When she's not writing or practicing medicine, she's baking or traveling the world. She started as an author with Seoul-Mates and since then has written many romances, UNDER A SCOTTISH SKY, CINDERS OF CASTLEREA & other short stories. Pamela writes romance, speculative fiction, women's fiction, and Christian non-fiction.

Book preview

1

I love Scotland! Michelle told her sister over the phone, taking her luggage from the conveyor belt at the Glasgow airport .

Don’t get too excited, her sister said. It may seem magical and all, but it’s nothing but farmland. Call me as soon as you get to the residence.

Michelle rolled her eyes. Leave it to her sister to look at the cloudy side of things. She had a habit of raining down on Michelle’s joys. Just because her sister managed to get a well-paying job in the US, she’d thought it qualified her to give Michelle advice. Never mind that her sister was seven years older than her. Age was just a number according to Michelle, it didn’t really qualify sense. Michelle swung her rucksack on her back and walked towards the help desk.

Hullo Miss, ken I help you? the lady at the desk said.

Michelle smiled, she was really in Scotland. I need to travel to Oban, how do I get the train there?

Lass, you’ll have to get the McGill’s bus service to Paisley Gilmour Street. Then take the train to Glasgow Queen Street. The woman tapped her pencil on a map and went on, Trains from there to Oban are pretty regular.

Thank you, Ma’am, Michelle replied, quite upbeat. She was a traveler at heart after all. A big city girl from Manila. She knew how to change trains, buses, jipneys, tricycles and even motorcycle rides within the crowded capital. How hard could it be?

Michelle soon found out. The bus had been pre-booked by airport travelers and couldn’t seat her, so she waited for another. It didn’t dampen her spirits. She tried to call her employer to inform him of the delay, but his phone had been switched off. How rude! When he knew she’d be arriving today. Still, she was here and she couldn’t ignore the beauty of the city, so different from where she’d just come from.

The air was fresh and clean, slightly heavy and damp. But clean, unlike the smog clogging the Manila skies. The roads were wide and the people, tall and fair. Michelle knew she’d stand out as a Filipino. Her pixie cut and sharp Mongoloid eyes were a dead giveaway for an Asian. She just hoped people didn’t assume she was Chinese. Chinese tourists had developed a bad reputation, so she pulled out the cross from under her collar and let it hang out, her sky-blue shirt now horribly crumpled after the twenty-four-hour journey she’d made across the continent. Her jeans and thin socks couldn’t prevent the slight chill she felt in the cold air.

After a thirty-minute wait, she got on the bus. It was a good thing that she’d exchanged enough money. She had to thank her sister for that nugget of wisdom. When she finally got on the train to Oban, every part of her body ached. She wanted to sleep, but couldn’t because she didn’t want to miss the spectacular views.

At barely two in the afternoon the sun was making its way home, the sky painted in different shades of violet and pink. She wanted to click pictures, but with her camera stuck in her rucksack and exhaustion setting in, she ignored the urge to do so. Any exertion would be painful. Instead, she sat back and watched the scene outside the window.

Once the first tunnel passed, there were embankments, followed by lush fields, misty water, trees in shades of orange and green displaying their October attire. Soon there were valleys and hills, bends and beautiful snow crowned mountains. It took her breath away. There were no homes during the second half of the journey and the land seemed lonely. Silvery rivers snaked through the land. It was a marvelous view. All the shades of green that she’d never seen in her whole life, she saw on her first day in Scotland.

Oban was the last station. A short taxi ride was next in order, but it was a bigger surprise when the elderly gent at the wheel pointed out that Pennyfuir was closer to Ganavan than Oban.

You mean if I need to buy a beer, I need to take a fifty euro ride to Ganavan? Scotland’s expensive.

Michelle strained her ears to hear past the thick Scottish accent. It almost sounded like a totally different language.

Aye, but our Scootlond is a beautiful place lass. It’s a place of legend and lore. Well, lass, to be honest, Pennyfuir is right between the two. You’re going to have to shell out money if you have to go about, unless you rent a car. Say I’ve been around here long enough. I grew up here, I’m not aware of too many people living up there, whose house you going to?

My employer is Adrian Mackintosh. You know him?

Oh, so you’re a wet nurse, he said, laughing, red in the face, his whole body rumbling.

Michelle rolled her eyes. No, I’m a geriatric nurse.

You lookin’ after his mother then. Poor old woman, been around for two years now, after that stroke. Still not getting better eh?

She’d read the file, the woman had plateaued off. There was little in the form of medical diagnosis, except that she had suffered a stroke. She noticed the sun had descended and her phone showed it was just a quarter past five. The air felt wet and a slight rain pelted the car as it left the city behind, if you could call Oban that. Finally, he stopped in front of a large, rustic stone house.

Michelle sighed, hoping her sister was wrong about her predictions. She looked up at the sky, hazy with clouds, not a star in sight.

Lass, here’s my number, give me a call if you need a ride into town. Just ask for Ben, that’s me. He stopped before he sat in his taxi. Welcome to Oban, sweetheart, be careful this place is so beautiful, you might fall in love.

Michelle grinned, pocketing the card and knocked using the antique handle on the large stained wooden door. Once, twice,