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“What’s all the mystery?”

Selby entered Holyrood Park via Duke’s Walk, then turned the 4x4 left into Queen’s Drive. The road
began to climb. He did not reply to Kim Mannon’s question. He had picked her up at Edinburgh airport and after greeting her with a very long kiss, had virtually bundled her into the car.

The road encircled the great escarpment of Arthur’s Seat, with its accompanying hills and crags. Selby stopped where it curved by the side of a small lake. He got out, went round to her door, and opened it.

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand.

She gave him a bemused look as she climbed out. “Mark … what’s got into you?”

“Don’t ask questions. Come on,” he repeated. “We’re going up there.” He pointed at the craggy hill next to the lake. A high, dark wall dropped perpendicularly to the water.

“What!” She looked at it in horror.
“Up
there? My shoes!”

“It slopes over to the right. Take a look. See? It’s quite easy, and not as bad as you think. Come on.”

When they had finally made it to the top, she looked about her; at the city, and the Firth of Forth spread below. A slight breeze came up the hill at them, teasing her hair.

“It’s lovely up here,” she said, peering down at the lake. “I’ve been coming to Edinburgh for years, but this is the first time I’ve come to this place. I probably never would have if you hadn’t brought me. But I still don’t understand …”

“Marry me, and have my children.”

Her mouth hung open, eyes staring at him in confusion.

“Your father won’t like it, of course,” he continued into her shocked silence, “but as he’s not the one I’m marrying, it hardly matters. If he disowns you, you’ll have to make do on a Flight Lieutenant’s pay.”

She blinked at him, her mouth now opening and closing slowly. At last, she said: “Mark … I … I’m …”

He had moved to the edge of the bluff. He looked across the lake, at the high cone of Arthur’s Seat with the criss-crossed lines of the many paths that marked its slopes.

“If you don’t say yes, I’m going to jump into this lake.”

She giggled nervously. “Don’t be ridiculous. I thought pilots never jumped if they could help it.”

“That’s out of airplanes. We hate that.” He tried not to think of the MiG pilot, who hadn’t been able to.

Behind him, a slow smile had come upon her face. “So you’d jump for me, would you?”

He looked down at the lake. “One way of getting your attention.”

“I suppose I’ll have to prevent you from jumping.”

“Looks like it.”

“Why did you decide to ask me now?”

“Why not? Why not just say yes?”

She came up, placed herself between him and the edge of the bluff, put her arms about his neck, and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

High above them, unseen and unheard, a pair of November One Tornado ASVs streaked across the deep blue.