“Dr – Dragons? Is that the name of some kind of militia or guard?” I asked hopefully, suddenly worrying that I had fallen victim to some mad, fantastical story from a crazy old man, but the oldest Cameron didn’t look crazy and he certainly seemed serious enough.
“No lass, I mean dragons - mythical creatures that breathe fire and have a huge wingspan.”
“I give up.” Edan threw his hands in the air and started to walk away but I was rooted to the ground, as completely unable to move away from this man, as I had been unable to ignore the thought of this place from the moment I’d seen it.
“I don’t understand.”
“Walk with me. And by the way, my name is Hugh.” He reached over, took my hand from my side and gave it a little shake of introduction before tucking it into the curve of his elbow and then started walking us out the door and towards the line of the horizon where I sensed the earth, the sea and the sky met.
“I don’t understand.” I repeated and the older gentleman chuckled.
“How superstitious are ye, lass?”
“I try not to be, but my grandmother is extremely superstitious and believes in all things supernatural so I try to keep an open mind. It pains me to think that everyone considers her crazy.”
“Let me give you a bit of a history lesson then about this estate and the land that we sit on. Legend states that over three centuries ago, the Laird of this estate – also a Cameron – found an egg in the caves below his estate and he brought it to his stables to protect it from anything that might want to do it harm. Of course, he had no way of knowing what was inside this egg and when others came around, asking if he had seen anything unusual he said no and did everything he could to hide this egg from the searchers. And it is a good thing that he did, for the egg contained a dragon. When this dragon hatched, it realized that he had protected it from harm, and therefore it would protect this land, and its residents from any future evils for as long as we lived here. “
“But I’m human. As was my Dad and my grandparents. How do humans become dragons? Or dragons become humans?” I asked slowly, even as I realized how nutty I sounded.
“I have no idea lass. No Cameron has ever witnessed the transformation, just that a dragon flew below the cliffs one night and a human man walked up the path from the cliffs to the house moments after the dragon was out of sight. And I assure ye, there is no way any man could have gotten onto that rocky strip of shoreline safely without someone having seen him. And that man had the last name Williams. Ever since then, a Williams male has lived on this estate, protecting us from the black magic and evils of the world.”
“Oh my god, this can’t be real.” I paced away from him a little bit, clutching my head in my hands as though it was about to explode. As I was trying to process everything Hugh had told me, my cell phone rang and I cringed. That could only be Rachel wondering where I was and how exactly was I going to tell her?!
“Lani! Where the hell are you?” she practically shrieked when I answered the phone and I cleared my throat a bit uncomfortably.
“Well,” I started and my voice trailed off as I looked over at Hugh. He stood off to the side, his hands in the pockets of his jeans in a relaxed manner, a half-amused smile on his face as he watched me. While he couldn’t possibly know for certain, part of me was sure he knew what I was thinking and found my inability to explain my current predicament to my friend highly entertaining.
“Well, what?! I woke up and you were gone! No note, no text, nothing. You just disappeared! Where are you?” she repeated and I sighed in defeat. Might as well be as honest as I could be.
“Remember that estate that we passed on the bus yesterday? The one with the giant wall around it? I’m there.”
“Why are you there? How did you even get there?” confusion overrode her temper, she clearly hadn’t anticipated that answer from me, and I sighed again and tugged on my ponytail, wrapping the long hair around my one fist as tightly as I could.
“I just wanted to see it again, I can’t explain to you why I felt that way but I did so I went for a walk. I encountered a farmer that was doing a delivery here and he let me tag along, probably because he thought it was safer for me to be with him than out on a deserted road by myself in the dark.” I smiled a bit wryly as I thought that and Rachel gave a bit of an amused snort.
“Yeah, you look a lot more delicate than you really are. So when are you coming back to the inn?”
“Not sure, but I’ll keep you posted, I promise. I’ve kind of been listening to a fascinating story.” My gaze flicked back to Hugh and he grinned at me, clearly enjoying the half of the conversation he could hear.
“You make damn certain that you stay in touch with me and try to get out of there soon. We’ll have some fun looking in some of the shops together before we get back on the bus and head for the train.”
“I will rejoin you as soon as I can, I promise.” I said goodbye to her and slid my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.
“Everything okay there lass?” he asked, walking back towards me when it was clear my conversation was over and I nodded.
“My friend was checking up on me since she didn’t see me when she woke up.”
“I take it she didn’t know ye were going to come visit us this morning?” he asked in amusement, a twinkle in his eye and I blushed faintly.
“I didn’t mean any harm by coming here. I just wanted to know what the wall felt like.” I said as honestly as I could and the older gentleman nodded as though he understood.
“The stone that wall is comprised of used to be from the walls of a castle. But almost two centuries ago the Laird decided to have the castle dismantled and the property wall built to guarantee that everyone that resided here could enjoy some privacy.”
“Privacy.” I repeated quietly, shaking my head again as our earlier conversation came back into my mind. “So if this story of yours is true, why is your son so against it? What was with that confrontation in the kitchen?” I asked after a moment and Hugh puffed out his chest on an inhale and then let the air out in a huge sigh.
“My son thinks of himself as a worldly man because he travels a fair bit for work. And his wife, while she is a lovely young lass, does not believe in anything fantastical.” He started to explain and I smiled faintly.
“I believe she referred to herbal medicines as hocus pocus.”
“Precisely. Ciara is his heart and soul and if she says something can’t be real, he tends to start believing her. For a lass who has grown up living in the land of fairies and the Loch Ness Monster, the Welsh dragons south of us, and Leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of rainbows to our west, she has a very clear view of what is real and what is not.”
“So everything you said to him - “
“Is purely coincidental in his head. The only black magic he believes to be real is when a thunderstorm moves in off the water.” The words ‘black magic’ reminded me of what the chef, Will, had said in the kitchen and even while I couldn’t believe I was asking, the words came out anyway.
“So what is this black magic that you’ve been talking about? I heard someone in the kitchen mention it this morning and they said it was driving Mr. Cameron crazy.”
“Aye, he’d have me committed by now if he knew I’d stay put. I feel there is a darkness approaching, like something is pressing down on us all. The waves are more restless these days, like something is stirring them up, the winds more persistent. My daughter-in-law passes it all off as global warming or just the changing of the seasons but I’ve lived on this land my whole life and something is coming.” He said with so much conviction that it had me looking around us to make sure that we were still alone and this approaching malevolence he predicted wasn’t anywhere nearby.
“You certainly sound like a man who knows what he’s talking about.” I murmured and his sharp gaze cut the distance between us like it was nothing.
“Ye feel it too, don’t ye lass?”
“I’m not sure, as a visitor to th
is country, that I am in any position to say one way or the other.” I hedged and just as suddenly as the seriousness of the topic came up, it disappeared and he laughed, a deep, rumbling sound that almost reminded me of the way Santa Claus was supposed to sound.
“Enough of this doom and gloom and hocus pocus stuff! Come lass, let me show ye around a little.” He started walking again and led me towards where a barn sat just behind a semi-circle of matching white stone cottages and as we walked, he told me about how they were pretty self-sufficient on the estate, growing most of the vegetables that they consumed, and how the meat all came from the farm next door that Mack had delivered a few hours ago. By the time we reached the main house again Alice was hustling us into the dining room where steaming bowls of lamb stew and fresh rolls sat waiting. Mr. Cameron and his wife were already seated and he didn’t look all that surprised to see me join them. Choosing to ignore his heavy gaze for the moment, I picked a chair beside his wife and smiled warmly at her.
“You look a bit more rested than the last time I saw you.” At my words she chuckled ruefully and patted her belly affectionately.
“Your stories of all of the castles you’ve seen were amazing. And your voice just lulled me into a bit of a trance and before I realized we were getting sleepy, I was waking up and Edan is telling me that I’d been asleep for the last few hours!” She squeezed my arm affectionately and I smiled, pleased to hear that I had helped her. I was still feeling very protective of this young woman and her babies and she was quite happy to answer all of my questions about how she was feeling and how the babies were doing, whether they were boys or girls, and what names she had picked out. And while we chatted, the two men just sat and listened, each content to be silent and lost in their own thoughts.
Chapter 3
“Thank you for your hospitality, dinner was amazing. And thank you as well for humoring an American girl who got a little too nosy.” I shook the Laird’s hand outside the house as the taxi rolled up the laneway and he chuckled.
“You humored an old, crazy man more than we did for you, trust me. I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe flight home. When you get to the train, a ticket will be waiting for you and a cab at the other end will take you to the hotel that your friend is staying at.”
“Thank you, that’s amazing. I certainly didn’t think that I would be here so long that I’d miss my bus.” I gave a little wave to Hugh and Ciara who stood at the door watching and I felt the same strong pull towards her and her unborn babies that I’d felt since first seeing her, telling me not to leave them, but I had to. I had to rejoin Rachel and continue our trip. Whether I was or was not a descendant of the Williams that had lived here before, the fact was, this was not my home and I didn’t belong here, no matter what Hugh had tried to tell me.
The cab stopped and the driver got out and opened my door for me and I smiled in thanks to Edan - I had been scolded over dinner and told to stop calling him ‘Mr. Cameron’ and use his first name instead - before ducking into the interior of the car and the door closed behind me. The laneway was long and I felt every single inch of it as we headed for the gate, my stomach suddenly tossing like the waves and I wrapped a protective arm around my middle, trying to breath through the intense nausea and dizziness. Then, just as we reached the gate, I was gripped by a pain I’ve never felt before and the skin on my entire body felt like it was on fire and about to split apart.
“AHHHH! Oh god, what is happening?” I cried out in agony, doubling over and clutching my knees, panting and gasping for air while my whole body shook. The driver turned to me in a panic, saw me convulsing and started to hit the gas, in a sudden hurry to get us off the property and probably to a hospital.
“NOOO! Please! Take me back! Take me back to the estate! Oh god!” I shrieked, the pain now almost unbearable. My head didn’t feel like it was part of my body and I don’t know what I looked like when I met his gaze in the rear-view mirror but his own face paled and he pulled a sharp U in the road and got us back onto the Cameron property in no time. Even though I continued to shiver, and the fire under my skin continued to scorch me, the pain subsided as soon as we were back through the gate and the relief was so great that I blacked out and slumped over in my seat. The driver raced back to the main house where Edan was still standing and screeched the car to a halt in front of him.
“What’s wrong, man? Why did you come back?” he asked the cabbie in confusion and the driver just looked at him as though he had seen a ghost, shaking his head frantically as he came around to my side of the car, opened the door and pulled my unresponsive body out.
“She’s your problem, sire. Her eyes! Oh god, her eyes!” He jabbered incoherently, clambering back into his car and racing back up the laneway. Edan looked down at his feet in astonishment where my body was left lying in the gravel and Hugh and Ciara came rushing out the house in a panic.
“Edan! What happened? Oh, is she okay?” Ciara called as she raced as quickly as she could towards him and he turned, still in shock.
“The driver just told me that she was my problem now, babbled something about her eyes and dumped her on the ground before taking off.”
“Well, let’s get her inside and into a bed. The poor thing. Hugh, you take one arm, Edan you take another and get her into a spare room.” Ciara took charge of the situation and without argument, the two men lifted me up effortlessly and carried me into the house. Ciara led the way down the hall to a spare bedroom and she hustled forward to pull the sheets back on the bed so the men would have somewhere to place me.
“I’ll have Madeline bring in some warm water and a change of clothes for her. Hugh, can you get a fire going please? She’s ice-cold. Edan, call the doctor and ask him to stop by if he has a moment. Poor Kailani.” Ciara perched on the bed beside me and smoothed a hand gently across my forehead, and while Hugh went to work building a small fire in the hearth in the room, Edan stood transfixed to the floor, his gaze riveted on me and his wife. He had never seen his wife take charge like this before, and for it to be over a complete stranger flabbergasted him.
“It must be her maternal instinct kicking in.” He thought, turning finally and going into his office to call the doctor. Dr. Andarsan was a good friend of his and lived in the same cottage his family had resided in on the estate for decades. Most of the residents that lived and worked here were like that; one big, happy family of sorts. Every so often, someone new would come and work for them, or someone who lived here would venture out and find a life for themselves somewhere else, but for the most part, if you lived here, you stayed here, and the good doctor’s family had been no different. Which was kind of handy because that meant he could do house calls as Ciara progressed through her pregnancy.
He spoke with the doctor when he answered his phone and explained what he could of my condition and the doctor promised to be there as soon as possible. When that was taken care of, Edan went back to the guest room only to get there as Ciara was ushering Hugh out into the hall and pulling the door closed behind her.
“Let her rest until the doctor comes.” She said sternly, wrapping her now idle hands protectively around her burgeoning tummy and the two men nodded in agreement.
“I’ll just wait outside her door in case she wakes up and needs anything.” Hugh grabbed a stool from Ciara’s nearby art studio and parked it in front of the closed door and Ciara nodded once in agreement.
“That’s a good idea. She took a real liking to you over dinner, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see a friendly face when she wakes up.”
“She took a liking to ye too lass, by the end of dinner you two were chattering away like sisters.” The older man chuckled, and Ciara laughed lightly with a nod.
“We are so different and yet it felt so natural to talk to her.” She agreed and then took her husband’s arm and led them down the hallway back towards the parlor.
When the doctor arrived a short while later I was still unconscious in the bed where they had left me,
and when he first entered the room he was more than slightly surprised by the length of me. That might sound a little weird, but coming from a man who himself was a few inches over the six-foot mark, to see a young woman with her head on the pillow and her feet down near the edge, he almost smiled. He examined my face as he approached the bed and found strikingly sharp features. High cheekbones, razor sharp nose, full lips, evenly tanned skin, which was a far cry for the usually pale Scottish folks. Absolutely lovely, he thought to himself while he set his medical bag on the bed beside me.
He took my temperature and frowned slightly, then took my blood pressure while Ciara and Edan stood beside him. Hugh stood next to the hearth, not wanting to get in anyone’s way but eager to hear what the doctor had to say, and while Edan hated to admit it, he too was far more curious than he let on.
“Her temperature shows a very high fever, but her skin is cold to the touch. Her blood pressure seems okay though.” Dr. Andarsan muttered, more to himself than any of the other occupants in the room, and as he pulled a small penlight out of his coat pocket and clicked it on, he leaned over me, reached for one of my eyelids and gently lifted it up. With a small jolt, he jumped back slightly and cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure.
“Ian? What is it?” Edan asked cautiously, the cabbie’s words about my eyes echoing in his head and Dr. Andarsan shook his head minutely and then lifted that one eyelid again slowly.
“This can’t be real.” He muttered again, rubbing his eyes as though that would help and the three others in the room inched closer.
“Dr. Andarsan? Ian, what’s wrong with her eyes?” Ciara asked slowly and Edan angled his body just enough that he would be able to shield her if he had to.
“They’re so…reptilian looking. How could you not notice?” the doctor shuddered a little despite his best efforts and Edan and his father exchanged glances, the older man raising his eyebrows slightly as if to say ‘see?’
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