by Maggie Way
Alice crossed her arms over her chest. His words were a reminder not to trust men. “You what?”
“I got thrown off guard.”
“You got jealous,” she corrected, calling him out. His actions were clear, and she wasn’t about to let him off the hook, not after his unfounded accusations.
“Rowan is a known ladies’ man, and I’d hoped after meeting you and seeing the chemistry we had, that with you being the maid of honor, and me being the best man, I’d be the one that you’d be spending your time with.”
“Don’t you mean sleeping with?” she asked, resting her fist on her waist. “You realize how cliché that is, right? The bridesmaids and the groomsmen all pairing off with each other? I’m not looking to get lucky or find a Highlander prince. I’m here for my best friend. Why else do you think I’d put up with the Barracuda?”
Duncan was smiling now, as if he thought this whole situation was humorous. “Barracuda?”
“Cassie’s mother.”
“Very fitting.” He clapped his hands together. “My apologies. So where do we start? I’ve never hunted ghosts before.”
“No more douchiness,” she said.
“Is that even a word?” He grinned.
“If you want to know who I’m sleeping with, all you have to do is ask. I’m not very shy.” The tension in Alice’s shoulders started to give way, the anger toward him abating.
“Well, I’d hoped—”
“That I’d be swayed by your charm? You missed that boat.” She rested her hands on her hips. “We need to get started, and to do that, we need to go back in time. We start with the curse itself. Where it originated, who all have died, what the circumstances were. In order to solve a mystery, we need to have the facts and clues.”
“Well, you’re in luck. I can help you there,” Duncan said, gesturing toward the door. “The McGregors aren’t known for their subtlety. When they fall, it’s hard and fast, and it’s the forever type of love. They tend to worship the women who have stolen their hearts.”
He sounded like a bad romance movie, but she’d go along with him since he did happen to know more about the McGregors than what any internet search had told her. Duncan led Alice to the east side of the castle and to the last set of double doors at the end of the hall. He pushed the doors open and gestured. “After you.”
Alice moved inside the room. Her steps slowed as she looked around. All of the walls in this ballroom were covered in paintings of women. There were no men, no past lords, lairds, or anything else. Crossed swords hung on the wall beneath each picture of the women, each in various dresses made in the McGregor plaids.
“You aren’t telling me all of these woman have succumbed to the supposed curse.”
“Not all.” He stood in the middle of the room and pointed out a single painting on each wall. “Those four did.”
The last picture he’d pointed to was of Elizabeth, the ghost she’d seen in the passageway. “Each died before they could make their vows. Each was visited by a previous dead bride, except the first, of course. There is only a record of her death, not that it was ever predicted.”
“So, if Elizabeth and the others never made it to the wedding, then they aren’t really McGregors, so why are their portraits on the walls?”
“They each belong in McGregor history. None of the men these women were going to marry moved on after their fiancé’s deaths.”
He walked over to a painting that looked to be straight out of the eighteen hundreds. “This one was run over by a horse and carriage that were never seen again.” He pointed to another wall. “This one got violently ill and died in her sleep.” He pointed to another wall. “This one was found at the bottom of the cliffs.” He moved to stand in front of Elizabeth and tilted his head, scratching the stubble on his chin. “Elizabeth fell from the tower three years ago.”
“I thought she was pushed by a ghost.”
Duncan let out a long sigh and glanced back. “That’s what one of the maids claimed before she disappeared.”
“Why those four and not the others?”
He shrugged. “Riley said legend had it, that if spirits from the past clan don’t deem the women worthy, they will kill her before she can taint the McGregor name.”
“And yet you keep their pictures with the past Lady McGregors. Why not keep them in a separate room?”
“You’ve met the Lords of this castle. There is no way they’d ever bow down to a ghost or admit defeat. This is their way of giving the ghosts, and the legend, their middle finger.” Duncan’s lips teased into a smile.
“And Elizabeth?” Alice asked, moving closer to inspect the life-sized portrait of the ghost she’d encountered. “What was wrong with her?”
“Nothing, as far as I could see.”
“You knew her?”
“Aye,” he answered. “She was a sweet lass. Kind to everyone and looked at Riley like a woman in love. Her death nearly destroyed him. He’d been like Rowan before he met her. I think you Americans refer to blokes who date several women as players. He was one, and when he met her, he was done. She was his, and he was hers. It was a match made by fate and destiny.”
“What about her past before Riley? Where did she come from? Did she have any enemies? What about past boyfriends?”
“You’re looking for a logical explanation that disnae include ghosts, and yet you’ve seen them with your own eyes,” Duncan said, turning toward her.
“I’m looking for a living, breathing killer that had motive,” she answered honestly. Being a medium, she’d seen and heard it all. Did Duncan even know that she was a medium? Would he believe her?
“She was the daughter of the provost’s daughter.”
“Mayor,” Alice reminded herself. “She was in the public eye and local. Duncan and the others would have probably known how she acted and who she was before Riley had even fallen for her. “I doubt she had a sordid past, and what about Riley? Can we get a list of all of his conquests before Elizabeth?”
“That’s easy enough, all of the daughters in town. The constable’s daughter, the dressmaker’s daughter, the baker’s daughter. He worked his way through all of the pretty lasses in town. A lot of townspeople thought he tainted their daughters, but only those closest to him knew he was searching for the elusive one, his Elizabeth.”
“The one who fit his imaginary glass slipper.”
“You speak of fairy tales,” Duncan said, looking back at the picture.
“There were a lot of people who didn’t want Cinderella to marry her Prince Charming.”
“Well, that’s something to consider, but it’s time for us to go.”
“Where?” she asked, following him to the door.
“Cassie is having a fitting, and you have to try on your dress,” he announced. “I promised to keep you on schedule, and I have thirty minutes to get you to town and in the dress shop before we can continue hunting down the wicked stepmother or the evil queen.”
“Don’t forget the jealous stepsisters. They were straight-out jealous hoes.”
“Well now, we cannae forget the jealous hoes.”
Duncan dropped Alice off at the dress shop for her fitting and left to go handle some things at his pub. When she entered the dress shop, Alice was pleasantly surprised to find Cassie standing on the pedestal, surrounded on three sides by mirrors. A seamstress was on her knees pinning around the bottom of the dress.
Cassie looked exquisite. She was stunning in an off-white satin gown, which hugged her curves. A sash was draped over one shoulder that crossed her body. The McGregor plaid brought out the blue in Cassie’s eyes. Beautiful didn’t describe her best friend. She was beautiful inside and out. Alice’s heart squeezed in happiness for her best friend. This was the way it should be. Cassie happy and excited to be planning her wedding, not talking of ghosts and murders. There was no way Alice would ever let anyone hurt Cassie, or her other friends. They were her family, and Cassie was like a sister. And no one hurt her family.
>
“Cass….you look perfect,” Alice said, walking farther into the store to the back where the dressing rooms and fittings were taking place.
“It’s the dress.” Her eyes sparkled, and a pink blush sat on her cheeks.
“No, Hun. Daniel isn’t marrying the dress. He’s marrying you. You look beautiful.”
She squealed. “I do, don’t I?”
Alice nodded, moving to stand next to Cassie. “You really do. Where’s your mom?”
“She’s at the baker’s handling an issue with the food. If you hurry and try on your dress, you might have a chance to make it out of here unscathed.”
It seemed luck was back on her side. “Point me to the dressing room.”
Cassie pointed toward the rooms. “First door on the left. Your dress is already in there.”
“You’re a saint.” Alice slid into the dressing room and locked the door. The dress that Cassie had emailed her pictures of hung on a hook. It looked just as Alice had remembered.
Alice’s dress was somewhat of a different style than the other bridesmaids, although they were all floor length. Each one had been handpicked to accentuate each bridesmaid’s attributes.
Alice slipped out of her clothes and into her dress. She zipped the back as far as she could reach, picked up the hem and stepped out of the room.
“I can’t zip it up all the way,” Alice announced.
“Did you gain weight?” the Barracuda asked.
“Mother,” Cassie gasped.
“No, ma’am. I just can’t reach it,” Alice said while stepping out of the room as Cassie was stepping off the podium. The seamstress gestured for Alice to take her spot.
The seamstress zipped up the rest and pulled the seam to make it tighter on Alice. “You have tiny breasts.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” Alice said, straightening her shoulders to push out her B cups.
“We must have gotten the wrong measurements,” the seamstress said glancing at the extra fabric that pooled around Alice’s feet.
“Don’t fret, I brought a gel-filled bra that can fill out the top, but”—she glanced down at the ground—“I’m pretty sure, that even in my five-inch heels, I won’t be tall enough to keep all that fabric off the ground.”
“You look like a child playing dress-up in grown-up clothes.” The Barracuda sneered, drinking from a china teacup.
Alice glanced at Cassie and raised her brows. The urge to take the china from Cassie’s mother’s hand and dump the contents over her head made Alice’s fingers itch. She’d had to deal with that woman twice today, and she was already at her Barracuda limit.
“Mom,” Cassie said, taking the teacup from her hand and setting it on the table. “Come help me get out of my dress. We have a schedule to keep. I’ve got to get back to the castle to meet the event coordinator. I’m sure you don’t want us to be late. Lord forbid they set everything up in the wrong place.”
“You’re right.” The Barracuda lifted her chin and, with a flitting gesture toward Alice, spoke with the seamstress. “Mary, you can handle her, right?”
Handle her? Alice pressed her lips together to bite back her retort.
“Of course,” Mary said without looking up.
Within ten minutes, Cassie and her mom had left Alice and Mary alone. Mary was still pinning the dress.
“Mary, do you handle all of the weddings in town?”
“I do.”
“So, you knew Elizabeth before she died?”
“Poor child, dinnae even make it to her wedding day. The town never got to see how beautiful she was in her dress. She would have been a fine addition to the McGregor clan.”
“I’m sure her death was a shock.”
“She was a saint the way she transformed Riley from his destructive ways. She was a godsend. I donae know why a ghost would hurt her.”
“So, you believe the story that it was a ghost?”
“Aye,” Mary said, moving around the bottom of the dress. Her fingers quickly worked at marking off where she wanted to hem. “The groundskeeper’s daughter, Regina, was working as a maid, and she saw it with her own eyes. That child would never lie.”
“Really?”
Mary stood and pulled Alice’s arms back to straighten her shoulders as she surveyed the rest of the dress in the mirror.
“That’s what she told Elizabeth’s father and the constable during the investigation. Poor thing, it must have scared her so badly that she left town. We never saw her after that. It was as though she just disappeared. Some fear that the ghost got her, too, and that she’s suffered the same fate. Her poor father and that boy she was dating were devastated.”
“Who was she dating?”
“Stanley Samson.”
That was a name Alice hadn’t heard of before. “Is he still local?”
“I should say so. He works at the castle stables. Quiet fellow, disnae say much to anyone. He’s got this brother who helps him with the horses, Kent. He’s a creepy weird duck. Elizabeth had once told me, when getting fitted for her gown, that Kent was always lurking. Watching her.” The seamstress shivered. “Still creeps me out. He’s one that, if you see him walking down the sidewalk, you switch sides of the street. You can just feel the bad vibes coming from him.”
“You can’t really believe that a ghost pushed Elizabeth from the tower, can you?”
“Rumor has it that everyone in the castle had an alibi and that the castle was locked up so no one else could have gotten in to do it. The men were at the Broken Spirit, and there were several people who could attest to the fact. The maids each had an alibi, as did the cook and her husband.”
“I guess that leaves the ghost,” Alice mumbled, although she didn’t believe it.
“Okay, dear. You can go change. I’m done. I’ll need to see you in three days for the final fitting.”
“Thanks,” Alice said, stepping off the podium. She walked into the dressing room and tried reaching for the zipper. “Crap.”
“You need me to come in there and help?” Duncan asked from the other side of the door. She pulled it open and smiled up at him.
“If you could just lower the zipper a little. I can get it the rest of the way.” She gave him her back and lifted her hair.
He moved closer. His palms were warm to the touch as he held her waist. “You sure are tiny.”
“And so are my breasts, apparently. Tell me something I don’t know.”
He slowly lowered the zipper but didn’t stop where she’d asked. He continued until he had it open all the way. He touched her bare back with his warm palms, and his touch made her tingle.
Neither one of them said a word, each of them frozen in that minute. She held his gaze over her shoulder as he held hers. She anxiously waited to see what he’d do next.
“I’m sorry about earlier.”
“I’m just here for Cass.” Her words were whispered.
“I know.” His hold on her relaxed. “I’m not normally the jealous type. I donae know why I acted that way.”
She stepped away from his touch, and holding the dress to her chest, she turned around. “We’ll chalk it up to a momentary lapse of judgment. We each have our moments.”
“You havenae had one yet.”
She stepped into the dressing room with the doorknob in her hand. “Give it time. I’m sure I’ll have plenty.”
She slowly closed the door and rested against it, trying for a minute to calm her racing heart. It had taken all of her resolve not to turn into his arms and kiss him like she’d wanted to since she walked into the pub that first night. No, she reminded herself and dropped the dress to change. “I’m here for Cassie.”
“You’re fighting the inevitable,” Duncan said from the other side of the door.
“Ever heard of stranger danger?” she called out.
“Prince Charming dinnae even know Cinderella’s name,” he called back. “I’d say we’re starting out better than them.” She heard Duncan move from the door, and she let
out an irritated sigh.
Chapter Six
Duncan held the door open to his SUV and waited for the little lass to climb inside. He let his gaze slide over her back end as she hoisted herself up, his hand immediately going onto her rear to help with a little push. She stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “Really?”
Duncan grinned. “We cannae have you falling and breaking one of those short stems.”
Alice climbed inside and hooked her seatbelt as Duncan rounded the SUV. There was a rift between them. One he’d yet to fix. He could still feel it in the air and in her words, and it bugged him on a gut level. Something he couldn’t yet explain. No woman had ever pushed that specific button.
“Back to ghost hunting?” Duncan asked.
“More like looking for the living.” She grinned. “The maid who saw the ghost.”
“The groundskeeper’s daughter, Regina?”
Alice nodded. “I’d like to talk to the groundskeeper.”
“Conell Hughes. He lives on the property, but I have to warn you. He isnae much of a people person.”
“Neither am I.”
Duncan drove back to the castle and parked in the driveway. Instead of leading Alice inside, they rounded the home and headed toward the hill. “He lives over the hill in a cottage just inside the woods.”
“Great.” They walked together in silence until they crested the hill, then she slowed to a stop.
She stood looking at the woods off in the distance, the color slowly draining from her face.
“What’s wrong, lass?”
Alice opened her mouth, and yet no words came out.
“If you’re scared of the woods, I can call Conell into the castle, and you can talk to him there.”
Her brows dipped, making her look more angry than determined. “I’m not scared.”
She continued on as her gaze scanned the forest.
“Did his daughter have black hair down to her waist?”