Sinners on Tour

by Olivia Cunning

  “Me!”

  He held out a hand, and she trotted toward him to take it. As soon as his fingers wrapped around hers, he hurried down the walkway toward the entrance. After having to drag him through attractions for two days, his sudden change in enthusiasm baffled her.

  “What’s gotten into you?” she asked as he bounded the steps and swung the entrance door open.

  “We’re going to miss the last tour,” he said, pointing at a sign.

  This week only—Rare opportunity to tour the castle’s private living quarters at 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. Tour space is limited.

  So maybe he was having a better time than he’d let on. Or maybe there was something unique about this place. She wasn’t sure why he was in such a hurry to catch another tour.

  Luckily for them, there was space in the tour due to a last-minute cancellation. As they moved from room to room and the guide droned on about dates and lords and ladies, Aggie watched Jace with more curiosity than she held for any artifact or tidbit of historical information. Even though his eyes scanned every inch of every room, he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the tour. As they made their way through the luxurious castle, his stride became more and more stiff and his brow furrowed deeper and deeper with displeasure.

  “Jace,” she whispered as he glared at a set of drapes, “is something bothering you?”

  “This is all wrong,” he said. “She wouldn’t approve of any of this.”

  “Who?”

  “Katherine.”

  Aggie stiffened. “Who the fuck is Katherine?” While Aggie trusted him, she sure didn’t like the name of another woman tumbling affectionately from his delectable lips.

  Jace stared at her wordlessly for a long moment. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have said he didn’t know who she was.

  “Jace?”

  He closed his eyes, shook his head, and shuddered violently. The tour group had entered another room by the time he flipped his eyes open to look at her again. “Aggie?”

  “You’re acting weird,” she said.

  “I’m feeling weird. It’s like I’ve been here before, but nothing is exactly how I remember it.”

  “Déjà vu?”

  “I guess. I’ve never felt this way about a place before.” He wrapped his arms around his torso and rubbed his upper arms. “It’s chilly in here, isn’t it?”

  It wasn’t. She touched her fingers to his forehead to check again for fever. She almost hoped he was coming down with the flu; at least his odd behavior would have an explanation. “You don’t feel feverish, but I have to admit you’re sort of freaking me out,” she said.

  He released a soft laugh. “You and me both, babe.”

  “Should we go? Maybe you should lie down for a while before you have to be onstage.”

  “No,” he said hastily. “I like it here. I want to see every inch of the place, even though something feels a bit off and I don’t know why that would be.”

  “Maybe you were here as a small child and that’s why you remember it. And things look different to the adult you.”

  “Maybe,” he said with a shrug.

  She got the feeling he was only saying that to make her feel better about the bizarreness of what he was explaining, and she truly appreciated him for soothing her fears.

  Based on appearances, the castle wasn’t the least bit creepy. The décor was elegant and inviting, the ceilings high and the rooms filled with abundant natural light from the enormous windows. But she couldn’t deny the shivers racing along her spine or the goose bumps on her arms. Maybe it was a little chilly in here.

  At least she thought so until Jace leaned closer and captured her lips in a heated kiss. Nope. Not chilly in the castle at all. A bit too warm, if anything.

  The chandelier overhead creaked. Aggie tugged her mouth from Jace’s and glanced up at the enormous light fixture, her heart hammering.

  “Are you sure you like it here?” she asked, taking his arm and moving him out from beneath the inexplicably swaying chandelier.

  “Yeah,” he said. “It’s like I belong here or something.”

  She knew he didn’t get that feeling often. Hell, he hadn’t even felt like he belonged in his band, and it was obvious to everyone but him that he was tailor-made to fit their ranks. She patted his back and smiled, truly happy that he found a place that he connected to, no matter how many heebie jeebies were tickling her belly.

  “Maybe you really are related to that Seymour guy. We should ask about him.”

  Expecting him to disagree, he surprised her by smiling brightly and nodding. “Yeah, I think I will.”

  They caught up with the tour group in the next room. Aggie stared at Jace in disbelief as he raised his hand and snapped his fingers to gain the tour guide’s attention.

  “Yes?” the woman asked, her head cocked slightly.

  “Did someone named Thomas Seymour live here at one time?”

  “Indeed,” the guide said. “I usually talk about him in the chapel where his wife, Queen Katherine, is buried.”

  “His wife is buried there, but he isn’t?” Jace asked.

  “He was executed for treason less than a year after her death. Quite the scoundrel, that one. Well, depending on whom you ask.” She giggled.

  “Oh,” Jace said flatly. His eyebrows scrunched together. “Would you mind telling me where he was executed?”

  “In the Tower of London.”

  “Wasn’t everyone?” an older man in the tour group asked, which elicited a round of laughter.

  Jace didn’t look amused. A bit nauseated maybe, but not amused.

  “He was only lord of Sudeley Castle for two years,” the guide continued. “He didn’t have much claim to the place.”

  “I don’t think he’d agree with that,” Jace said under his breath.

  The guide cocked a brow at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. Please continue.”

  The guide gave him a long look and then took a deep breath to continue with her rehearsed spiel about a different lord of Sudeley Castle.

  “Scoundrel, eh?” Jace said, and then he produced an unfamiliar soft laugh. “If only the truth were half as interesting as the lies.”

  “Have you completely lost it?” Aggie asked Jace.

  He looped his arm through hers and trailed after the group, looking mildly amused for some inexplicable reason.

  “It is a distinct possibility, my dear,” he said in a perfect English accent.

  She gaped at him, but allowed him to lead her into the next room. “You’re full of surprises today.”

  “Am I?”

  She nodded.

  “Must be a side effect of basking in your splendid beauty, lovey,” he said.

  She stopped, drawing him to a halt beside her, and checked him for fever yet again. Jace didn’t say things like that unless they were in bed and he was sure there was no one around to hear him. Or even see his lips move. She hadn’t known he even knew the word splendid. And when the fuck had he started calling her lovey? “I think you need to see a doctor, baby.”

  “I think you need to kiss me.” He drew her against him and brushed his lips against hers. A nearby door slammed. Jace pulled away and cupped her cheek. “She always was the jealous sort.”

  Aggie drew her eyebrows together and shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s nothing. I’m just teasing.”

  She might have believed him if he were the type to tease. He wasn’t. Jace turned and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow again. He led her to a closed door, the one that had slammed for no apparent reason when Jace had kissed her. Even his gait was stiffer than usual as he opened the door and ushered her through it. He looked like Jace, but he didn’t talk like Jace or act like Jace or even walk like Jace. If she believed in ghosts and the supernatural—and she didn’t—she’d have insisted they turn back. Something was filling her with a dread she couldn’t explain.

  “Uh,” Jace sai
d, “I think we’ll skip the next room.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s Mary’s nursery. I don’t want to go in there.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I… overheard the guide say as much.” He nodded resolutely.

  “Jace…” A chill raced down her spine as he took a step back from the room where the tour guide was speaking rather loudly about the child born to Queen Katherine and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour.

  “Very tragic,” the guide said. “The baby was only days old when her mother died of puerperal fever.”

  “I don’t think you should go in there either,” he said.

  Aggie straightened her spine, wondering when it had become a yellow wet noodle, and strode across the hall to the door with as much confidence as she could muster. “I’m going in.”

  When she was about to cross the threshold, the door slammed in her face. Aggie’s breath caught in her throat.

  She glanced at Jace, who was looking around as if completely lost.

  “How did I get here?” he asked.

  “You walked. I need to find a bathroom,” Aggie said. “I suddenly need to go really bad.” And she wanted to get away from that nursery as soon as possible. Part of her wanted to get away from Jace as soon as possible.

  “We shouldn’t leave the tour,” Jace said.

  “Do you want me to piss my pants?”

  “Maybe.” He grinned his usual adorable grin.

  She hugged him against her tightly, relief settling over her. “You’re you.”

  “Who else would I be?”

  “Something weird is going on here.”

  “I’ll say,” he said. He squeezed her even harder than she was squeezing him and then took a deep breath before releasing his hold. “Let’s find you a bathroom.”

  Aggie nodded gratefully. Ghosts didn’t haunt toilets, did they? Hopefully they only did so in Harry Potter novels.

  Chapter Four

  Jace gazed out a window while he waited for Aggie to come out of the bathroom. There was something about this place that soothed him. A strange connection. He almost felt like he’d been here before. At the same time he felt unsettled, as if he was supposed to be doing something, but couldn’t remember what it was.

  He caught a spot of color out of the corner of his eye and turned his head to see an elegant woman dressed in a green gown from the Tudor period. She stood directly beside Jace staring out the window next to his. Her face was flawless and a translucent white. He had the strangest feeling that even though she was standing right beside him, she wasn’t actually there. The hairs on his arm stood on end.

  “Hello?” he said.

  She didn’t acknowledge his presence. There were no sounds coming from her. Not the sound of breathing or the rustle of clothing. Dead silence. He took a step back, and she turned her head and smiled at him with recognition. Thomas. Her mouth didn’t move, but he heard her voice in his head. I’ve waited so long, my love. So long.

  “Jace, there you are,” Aggie called to him.

  Jace started and turned his head reflexively in Aggie’s direction. By the time he turned back to the woman in green, she’d vanished.

  “Where did she go?” Jace asked, peering down the hallway in both directions.

  “Who?”

  “The woman at the window.”

  Aggie craned her neck to look behind him and then met his eyes warily.

  “There was no one here but you when I came out of the bathroom.”

  “But she was right there when you called my name,” Jace said, indicating the empty space beside him with a wave.

  “I didn’t see her,” Aggie said.

  He closed his eyes. First he had blacked out for several minutes and now he was seeing and hearing things.

  “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

  He also had cold sweat trickling down his spine, but no explanation for who the woman was or where she’d gone or why he’d heard her voice in his head.

  “I’m not sure. I should probably sit down for a second.”

  “Maybe we should just leave.”

  “No,” he said hastily. He didn’t want to leave. The very idea filled him with sorrow.

  Aggie wrapped him in her arms. “I’m worried about you.”

  I’m worried about me too, he thought, but he didn’t say it. He did welcome her embrace though, until the tour guide and a dozen or so people came out of a library.

  “Civil ceremonies are sometimes performed in the library, but most weddings are performed in St. Mary’s Chapel,” the guide said. Her eyes landed on Jace. “There you are. We thought we’d lost you. Please keep up with the rest of the group; we’re heading outdoors now. You missed much of the special tour.”

  Jace nodded slightly, thinking he’d had enough of the special tour, thank you very much, and loosened his grip on Aggie. He hadn’t realized he’d been hugging her so tightly.

  “We could skip out now,” Aggie whispered in his ear. “I’ll drive the rest of the way to the festival if you’re not up to it.” She leaned back and patted his chest. “Just be sure to wear your seat belt. No guarantees I’ll get us there in one piece.”

  “I’m okay,” he assured her. “I’d like to see the grounds before we go.” It was as if something was tugging him to follow the group.

  “You do look like you could use some fresh air.”

  “I’m fine,” he said and pulled her questing hand from his forehead. Did he look like he was about to take his last breath or what?

  They followed the group, keeping the others within sight, but didn’t mingle with the crowd. The guide was giving details on hedges and other plants. Jace was content to look at them without knowing their names or what year they’d been planted. Hand in hand, he and Aggie rounded a corner, and Aggie stopped dead in her tracks.

  Eyes wide, she covered her mouth with one hand, and her eyes filled with tears. “It’s beautiful!” she squealed in the most girly display of excitement Jace had ever witnessed out of the woman.

  He followed her gaze across the expanse of colorful gardens, symmetrical walkways, and perfectly shaped hedges to the notched roofline of a church.

  “Jace!” she gasped, took his hand, and dragged him toward the building. “I want to get married here.”

  “Now?” he sputtered stupidly. Talk about spur of the moment.

  She laughed and slowed her steps as they approached the open front doors of the church. “Not today,” she said. “We’ll have to make arrangements. But soon.” She tore her awe-stricken stare from the romantic building to smile at him. “You’re going to marry me here. Okay?”

  He grinned, a bit overwhelmed by the sudden rush of emotion clogging his throat. He’d thought she’d never find the place, even though she’d insisted, “we’ll know it when we see it,” and she’d chosen here of all places.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready when you are.”

  “Yeah?” she said, lighting up like a child on Christmas morning.

  “Yeah.”

  She threw herself into his arms and kissed him excitedly. He was very much enjoying participating in her enthusiastic make-out session until someone cleared her throat. Jace pulled his reluctant lips from Aggie’s and turned his head, expecting to see the tour guide. A woman he was sure he’d never seen before was standing at the top of the church steps, looking down at them with a knowing grin.

  “Would you like to see inside?” she asked.