less trouble she had walking in them than she’d expected: a close friend had decided that heels were The Way To Go the previous autumn, and what an experience that had turned into.


    Through the looking glass indeed.


    There were junctions off to both sides of the road, after the fourth of which they rattled across a cattle grid whereupon Nick put his foot down, causing the engine''s clatter to rise to a roar as the road began to wind uphill towards the mountains Alice had seen from the other side of the bridge.


    The view from the top of the pass was breathtaking no matter whether you looked forwards or back; at Alice''s request Nick pulled into a strategically-positioned layby and they piled out for Alice to admire it for a while, with Mackie happily identifying each peak, village, section of water and in some cases which little slice of green amongst the browns and greys was whose croft, name after name that meant nothing to her but both of the boys obviously knew well.


    The rolling hills of Sutherland stretched out like a map back the way they’d come to the north, and to their south the long silvery shape of Loch Allen ran from east to west, surrounded in every direction bar due west (where it opened into the Atlantic ocean) by mountains almost beyond count, fading from the dull greys of native rock through to almost smoke blue as they reached towards the horizon and, somewhere far beyond it, England. Scattered croft-houses and the clusters of villages dotted the coast and anywhere there was traces of green, and you could just make out the distant clatter of an engine and dogs barking somewhere down towards the shore; the first other road user (excluding the train) they’d seen since leaving Grace’s house came rattling up the hill heading towards Kylesku as they stood and gazed on the vista, a battered old-fashioned-looking white van quite similar to Nick''s if bearing a different manufacturer''s badge, this one reading ''SENTINEL''. There was a weatherbeaten-looking greying-haired man with a trade union hat in the driver’s seat, and a black-and-white sheepdog sitting bolt upright in the middle of the two-person bench passenger seat watching the world go by with that very particular sheepdoggy bonkers glee; the driver waved, and Nick waved back with a cry of "There goes Murdo McMurdo,"


    "Three smashed cars and an old Army lorry down there too," said Nick. "Adair Macrae, the laddie who drives the lorry taking feed up to the big fishfarm out to the east of Kylesku, nearly ended up down the bottom of the cliff ay time as well – he was losing his brakes just after coming over the peak of the pass, well he baled out of the lorry, had to go right across the cab and out of the passenger side – the lorry nearly rubbed him off on the rock face beside the road, went into the inboard ditch, and they reckon from the distance it pushed the boulder it hit just coming out of the mouth of the half-tunnel it was travelling at a good hundred ten by then. That entire side of the cab was looking like someone had been taking a wrecking ball to it. Wasn''t much left worth keeping apart from the back axle, that''s on Willie Campbell''s lorry now after he blew the diff on a heavy load of cattle feed down Ullapool way."


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    At the bottom of this the road wildly widened out and went straight through what Alice momentarily thought, as it came into view, was another barnyard – but it was crossed by more railway tracks in three different widths, which joined each other into a total of two sets – each composed of no less than four rails – on the left side of the road and plunged into the row of sheds on the right side of the road; a gigantic and rather foriegn-looking mustard-yellow diesel locomotive was sitting silent and still on one of the pairs of rails composing the left-hand set of tracks. More railway equipment – assorted coaches, a box van and a rather woebegone steam locomotive utterly dwarfed by the diesel, you just about could have fitted the entire steamer inside the diesel''s engine compartment – was visible inside the sheds.


    Sheep go ‘Maaaarrrr’, the going of which apparently requires the sheep to open its mouth as wide as possible, involves a lot of protruding tongue, and may very well be accompanied by a spray of sheep dribble.


    "Maaarrr," said the sheep, continuing to attempt to gain access to Nick’s pocket. "Maaarrr,"


    "Ex orphan lamb," Mackie told her, catching the look. "She was being hand-reared by Nick''s mum myself am thinking it was, as a result she’s entirely unafraid of people."


    "It would be," said Mackie with an amused snort.


    "We’re back," called Nick, ambling into the kitchen having ejected his boots; Mackie’s followed his onto the pile of footwear, though on noting that there were people inside with shoes on Annie after a moment''s dithering decided not to emulate them, partially as she’d heard it hurts to wear high heels for much of any time and she wanted to know how much time that meant given that firstly these were currently her only footwear and secondly her feet were fine after half an hour in them.


    Between cooker and entryway on the south-facing wall stood an enormous wooden kitchen table – there was a white-painted bench up against the wall and a row of assorted chairs the side of the table away from the wall, and an old upright wooden armchair with a shaggy grey sheepskin draped over it at the cookerwards end of the table. The north wall had a settee against it, facing onto a low coffee table upon which was a melee of mechanical parts that, from the presence of a wooden gun stock and what looked like it could very well be a gun barrel, appeared to be the components of a firearm, along with several tools and what looked to be a can of oil; there were several chairs and a spinning wheel grouped round the coffee table and half the north wall was taken up with an enormous corkboard festooned in photographs and assorted children’s drawings, most of which did not have attached names. Lastly, several musical instruments hung from the wall to the left of the door through which they’d entered, and most of the floor was filled by a large beat-up floral carpet.


    really put the wind up Mum when you knocked my Bren gun over."


    "Well," said Brigid, demonstrating herself to possess the same accent as Nick, "You should’ve been bloody stowing it properly then, shouldnae you," and her brother accepted that with a shrug and a what-can-you-do noise.


    weird and I dinnae mean the good sort of weird neither."


    "Neil," said Ian.


    ever used a hookup arranged like that, and when the doc took the phone apart the inside is laid out like literally no phone ever, it’s got a battery that seems to be made using something called ‘lithium’ which basically nobody ever anywhere uses for batteries. Think about it! Hey," and he turned to Alice, "And what do you remember?"