“It was for your own good and then I just didn’t have the heart to tell you. Anyway...whatever we’re up against here, it’s not likely to be a yard bag.”
“All this time.....”
“Let it go, Meg. Listen...you can hear the sea hammering against the cliff.”
They walked to the edge and looked out over the open expanse of water that was still lit by the sun’s afterglow. The sky along the horizon was saffron and orange while deep purple and indigo clouds pushed across from the east. Below them, the darkening water crashed on granite boulders and broke across the base of the cliff in a frothy white tumult. It was simply magnificent! The wind was cool as it washed over them tugging at their hair and flattening their jeans against their legs. A full moon was rising from behind a bank of dark clouds and silvering the landscape in all directions. Suddenly, they heard a howl.
“That almost sounded like one of your ‘howls’,” Charlie said with a laugh.
“I’ve been known to give into that impulse from time to time during a full moon and just for the fun of it, but that was the worst imitation of a wolf I ever heard! Not that I ever really heard a wolf before except, you know, on television and the movies and...”
“I think I read somewhere that wolves have been extinct in Scotland for more than two hundred years. So...maybe we have company. Perhaps the pub stud who likes to surprise women?”
“What do we do now?”
“Walk back to the manse and go to bed as planned.”
“And if he tries any funny business?”
Charlie gave her a dark smile. “He won’t think it’s so funny, believe me.”
“But you don’t have your gun?”
“There are a whole lot of ways you can hurt a man without a gun, Meg.”
“I only know one. A good kick in his...you know.”
“Have you ever had to use that?”
“Only once,” Meg said pensively.
“Once?”
“I ended up taking care of him till he recovered, but luckily by then he had lost the urge.”
Meg was so...well Meg...and Charlie found herself smiling. “I hope you know how much I love you,” she told her, putting her arm around her shoulder.
“I know and ditto!” she replied, returning her hug.
They were quiet after that, as they continued on their way back to the manse. There were several howls...a few rustles...but they kept going. The graveyard was really eerie in the moonlight and they hurried through, only too aware of all the hiding places behind the tombstones that jutted out of the tall, thick grass. Stepping into the entry hall of the manse, they both sighed in relief. “I was more afraid of what I felt stirring about in the graveyard than I was of whoever was following us,” Meg said. “There was a man sitting on the gravestone just left of the path. I could see right through him. And there was a little girl wandering among the yew trees, looking for her mother. It was so sad...awful...and really scary.”
Charlie sighed and took her hand, pulling her up the stairs. “Meg...you get first dibs on the lavey. You’re safe with me, you know. I won’t let anyone ever hurt you.”
Meg nodded but didn't reply. Collecting her night things, she was thoughtful, as she headed to the bathroom, remembering how close she had come to dying despite Charlie’s best efforts. There were things out there no one could protect you from no matter how much they loved you.
Later that night they lay in bed listening to the night sounds. “Charlie?”
“Yes, Meg?”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m your responsibility all the time. I’m not. Someday you may not be there at the precise moment I need you and that will be okay. I don’t ever want you to think you failed me in some way...feel guilty for not saving me from something. I have my own destiny that nothing can save me from…even you.”
There was quiet on the other side of the room. Meg never dreamt her big sister was crying into her pillow. Never imagined how often her sister had dreaded that very thing...not being there...not being strong enough or quick enough. Like before when Devon and his demonic father had almost destroyed her.
“Charlie? Didn’t you hear a word I just said?”
“Sorry...I must have been asleep,” Charlie managed to say, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.
“Humph! I should have known.”
“Was it important?”
“Yes...but I’ll save it for another time. Good night, Charlie.”
“Good night, Meg,” she whispered into the dark.
They were both sound asleep when the slim figure in filmy white emerged from the mausoleum and drifted to a spot below their window. Eyes wide with entreaty, she opened her mouth and uttered a soft long drawn out wail. Her long white fingers beckoned beseechingly and then she simply vanished.
***
The next morning Meg asked Charlie for a plastic bag. “The only thing I have is the one I have my makeup in.”
“And what is this bag for, may I ask?” her sister said, digging about in her suitcase till she found a zip-lock she had emptied.
“You’ll see,” Meg told her cryptically, as she opened the door and headed down the hall to breakfast.
Just as Meg had feared the haggis made a second appearance that morning. Tilda grunted as she shoved the plate under her nose. “Tis guid fer breakfast tay,” she told her with one of her snorts.
“Looks yummy,” Meg said with a sunny smile that Charlie knew she couldn’t possibly mean. Sure enough, as soon as Tilda left for the kitchen and Angus was busy pushing his eggs around his plate, Meg scooped the haggis into her zip-lock and shoved it into her jeans pocket.
Returning from the kitchen, Tilda’s eyes narrowed to mere slits as she looked from Meg’s plate to Meg, who was daintily wiping the corner of her mouth with her napkin. “That was delicious, Tilda, but if we have it too often it won’t be so special,” she told her, as she hungrily tackled what was left on her plate.
After breakfast they went for a walk along the sea, where the water was as flat as a cobalt blue plate. The tide was out below the cliffs, exposing a wide stretch of sandy beach. Sea birds flew overhead and spiraled down to the boulders below or tracked along the water’s edge, scavenging for anything that the receding water had left behind.
“I wonder how they’d like some haggis?” Meg mused. “Only one way to find out!” With that she unzipped the bag and squeezed its contents over the side of the cliff, then shoved it back in her pocket. A seagull circled and landed on the rock next to the haggis ..then another...and another.
“Seems the haggis is a hit,” Charlie said as they watched the seagulls wrangle over every last bite. “It’s really quite good, you know, once you get past the idea of it. In my travels I’ve had to eat a lot of things I really didn’t want to know too much about!”
“Humph!” was all Meg had to say.
The morning sun was clearing the mountains and the day was warming up quickly, as they continued up the narrow path that edged the cliffs. A shaggy highland cow watched them briefly, then went back to grazing amid the gorse and heather that covered the sweeping uplands. Ahead, they saw a white house set in a patch of darker green fenced in by a stacked stone wall. A few sheep and another cow grazed there, eying them curiously as they approached.
As they got closer, they saw an old man sitting on the stoop peeling something...potatoes?..and throwing the peelings to the chickens that flocked around him with beady eyed expectancy. A small white terrier-mix dog sat next to him. “He looks like Freddie,” Meg said, tugging at Charlie’s arm and pointing. “Do you think he’ll let me pet him?”
“We can ask. Maybe he’ll be the second friendly soul we’ve seen so far!”
As it turned out, he was! “Guid mornin’, lasses. Hou ar ye? Come sit daun wi’ an auld mon!” he told them with a wide grin.
Opening the gate, they walked up the short path to the house and sat down on the stone steps. “Good morning to you. I’m Meg and this is my si
ster Charlie. Do you mind awfully if I pet your dog? I have one that looks enough like him to be a close cousin if not a twin!”
The old man chuckled deeply, his blue eyes lively in his weathered face. “Looks loch he has taen ah lochin’ tae ye! His name is Mac...mine is Andy Dougal. Most call ma Dougal.”
Meg knew he had taken a liking to the empty haggis bag she had in her pocket, but she scratched behind his shaggy ears and was rewarded with a quick lick on her nose.
“Yer the ones the village is blethering on aboot. The sisters of the one up at the manor,” he said, watching Meg and Mac with a smile.
“Yes, we’re the sisters. We haven’t exactly had much of a welcome here and wonder why?” Charlie asked, watching their host closely.
“Thare ar some ‘at dinnae want strangers hare. Ah stay tae myself an’ Ahm left alone.”
“I see. And that’s all you care to tell me?” Charlie asked, trying to hide her disappointment.
“Aye! Ye’d best git oot of hare and tak’ yer brither wi’ ye. Ah mean it kindly, lass. Ah really do.”
“What can you tell us about the history of this place?” Charlie asked with a smile.
Sitting on the stoop, watching the chickens scratch in the dirt, the sisters listened to Dougal’s tale. The village had been larger in its day, but a fire caused by a “bluidy cow” had destroyed much of it some two hundred years ago. And there had been a long history of smuggling...mostly staple goods that were heavily taxed like tobacco, tea or salt for preserving meat and fish. Apparently, there wasn’t a market in the Highlands for the luxury items smuggled from France along the south coast of Great Britain, but that was “all a lang time past,” Dougal told them, “Nou thare be ither things afoot Ah dinnae want to ken.”
Which certainly interested Charlie, but she couldn’t pry anything more out of him. Meg gave it her best effort with the same result. “Ah’ve already said morrren an auld mon should say iffen ah wad see oot the dae. Will ye be stayin fer a wee bite of dinner wi’ me?”
“Is haggis involved?” Meg asked with a wry smile.
“Nae. A nip of guid whiskey, some hard cheese frae mah own cow and bread frae mah own oven. Och, and a dill pickle frae the widow Potts who has takin a loikin’ tae me.”
They thanked him but declined. Tilda was expecting them for lunch and despite the threat of more haggis, it would have been impolite not to show up.
He stood by the gate waving as they left. “Dinnae be walkin’ aboot after dark, lasses. Thare’s much ye should be afeart of in the nicht. Beware the Baobhan Sith...the Lady in White...she walks again since thay moved into the manor,” he called after them.
They waved over their shoulders and kept moving. “I got less than half of what he said to us and nodding and smiling only takes me so far. Please translate that last part. It sounded kind of a creepy,” Meg said.
“He said not to be walking about in the dark because there’s 'much to be afraid of at night'. And to beware the Lady in White. He also gave us the best advise he knew how to give.”
“I know...get out and take Allyn with us. Now how easy is that going to be?” Meg asked with a grimace.
Charlie frowned thoughtfully. “We’ll know a lot more after tonight.”
CHAPTER THREE
They staggered their baths so each would have enough hot water. Afterwards, their thoughts were on Allyn as they dressed for dinner at the manor. “What do you think is going to happen when he sees us?” Meg asked.
“He had plenty of notice by now that we’re here. I’m wondering why he didn’t stop by some time today,” Charlie mused.
“I wish we could just snatch him out of there.”
“He’s a big boy now. We’ll have to be very careful how we handle him. If he’s in love with this...whatever she is...it may not be so easy to rescue him if he doesn’t want to be rescued,” Charlie told her with a grim smile. “I’ve been through this before with him and, believe me, there’s another side to his sunny disposition!”
Meg’s little blue dress hugged her in all the right places, but she was eying Charlie, wistfully, as she slipped on her black sling back stiletto heels that were perfect with her deceptively simple black dress. It had looked great on their sister Rayne, but even better on Charlie with her long silver blonde hair that she had twisted into an elegant coil at the base of her neck.
Meg sighed. She hated to admit it because it made her sound ...well...petty, but she envied her sister many things. She envied her confidence...her hair that always hung like silk while hers was a riot of curls that turned to frizz at every opportunity...which, thankfully, wasn’t now. Most of all she envied her slim litheness...her grace, while she felt like she had been born with two left feet...maybe even three...and a couple of extra thumbs to boot. She sighed again. “You know you are pushing six feet in those heels, which is taller than any man we’ve met so far with the exception of our host tonight.”
“I stopped being self-conscious about my height in the eighth grade, when I was teased by every male shrimp in my class,” Charlie told her with a grin.
“Don’t mind me. I’m just feeling vertically challenged as usual and.a bit envious. You look gorgeous. Really gorgeous! I want to ask you something and I have no one else to ask...or I would... and I don’t want to put you on the spot and have you lie so as not to hurt my feelings.”
“What is it, Meg?” she asked, giving her sister her complete attention, knowing that whatever Meg was about to ask was very important to her.
“Well, Mr. Marley called me ‘lovely’, but he was just being whatever he was being, and he didn’t mean it and that worm at the pub spent the whole time figuring out my cup size and.....”
“And?”
“Am I...you know...am I, well...pretty?”
Charlie grabbed her arm, spun her around and pointed her at the mirror. “Haven’t we been through this before? Just look at yourself! You’re beautiful, Meg! Really beautiful! Inside and out!”
“That’s just big sister talk. I want the truth,” she said in little more than a whisper.
Charlie laughed and tilted Meg’s chin up till they were eye to eye. “What will it take to convince you that I’m telling the truth?”
Meg thought for a moment and then said, “What I’m going to ask will make you seem really silly.”
“And when has that ever stopped me?”
“Okay. Remember when we were kids and we were lying if we couldn’t say ‘cabbage’ ten times without laughing or smiling? Do it, Charlie. Say cabbage ten times and I’ll believe you.”
Since Charlie was already laughing, Meg’s challenge wasn’t as easy as it used to be. “Okay, Meg, here goes.” Taking a deep breath and pinching herself really hard she managed the ten ‘cabbages’ without even a smile.
Meg waited till she was finished then grinned widely. “Thanks. You looked utterly ridiculous by the way. Besides, if you were lying your nose would grow and it’s not exactly pert now.”
Which earned her a pillow thunk. Their scrimmage was brief and required extensive repairs to both hair and makeup, but both were ready when the vintage Rolls Royce pulled up at the front door, where Tilda just happened to be sweeping. She muttered something neither sister wanted to hear as a uniformed chauffeur opened the car door and bowed them inside, then climbed into the front.
Settling back in the deep leather seats Meg smiled. “I feel like Cinderella on her way to the guillotine, since neither of us knows what we’re getting into tonight. About your nose,” she said with a sideways glance at her sister.
Charlie smiled and asked, “The one that’s too long to be pert?”
“That’s the one. It looks good on you.”
Charlie laughed and squeezed her sister’s hand. “And I was so worried,” she replied dryly.
***
The butler led them across the entry hall, where their heels clicked loudly on the black and white marble floor. “Not our best stealth mode,” Meg whispered.
“I have
a feeling that Mr. Marley would be a hard man to sneak up on,” Charlie whispered back, as they continued on past the twin staircases that swept, gracefully, upward to a long gallery at the top. A large vase of purple gladiolas sat on an antique table beneath an Empire mirror, where they each, surreptitiously, glanced at their reflection as they passed. The butler led them down a side hall, where a Persian runner muted their footsteps, then opened a paneled door at the far end and intoned, “Your guests have arrived, your lordship.” With that, he moved to one side and they stepped into the manor’s library, where floor to ceiling bookcases covered the walls. It could easily have swallowed the library at Hensley Hall whole and still have room for dessert. They found their host pouring over a map he had spread over the top of a large mahogany desk. He looked up when they entered and smiled. His green eyes swept over them both, as he rose and crossed the room.
Meg sucked in her breath. He really was a gorgeous man! Dressed in Highland black tie attire, he was resplendent in short black jacket with matching waistcoat, white shirt and black tie. He wore a kilt with matching plaid slung over his left shoulder and pinned with the amethyst and silver brooch they had seen earlier. His shoes had silver buckles and a silver chain supported the fur sporran he wore around his waist. A jeweled dirk hung against his thigh. “He’s prettier than we are, ” Meg muttered sotto voce. Charlie smiled her reply.
“It is a pleasure to see you both,” he told them, taking their hands in turn and holding Charlie’s just a tetch longer than she thought necessary. “You grace my simple home. Please have a seat.”
Charlie smiled what she hoped was a friendly smile and said, “Thank you for inviting us. Now tell me that Allyn will be here tonight. We have yet to hear from him.”
He lifted one brow and returned her smile. “He and Orianna will join us for dinner. I thought we could share a drink and perhaps get better acquainted before then. What is your pleasure, ladies? A glass of wine perhaps? I keep and excellent cellar.”
“Perhaps a glass of Chablis,” Meg said, as she settled into an antique chair she strongly suspected was an original Chippendale.
The Vampire Laird (A Ravynne Sisters Paranormal Mystery/Romance) Page 5