by Holly Martin
‘Actually, it was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had.’
Cameron smiled and blushed and Jamie looked between them, pennies dropping into place.
‘Oh. Erm … right.’
Milly’s eyes widened at the way that Jamie’s mind was clearly working. ‘Um … we had a medieval banquet and there was dancing afterwards. That’s all.’
Jamie’s eyes were still flicking between them, but he seemed slightly mollified.
‘Well, here’s your present.’
Milly took it and gave it a little shake and Jamie laughed.
‘Open it.’
Cameron moved off to clear away their breakfast things, leaving them alone for a moment.
She tore at the paper keenly and a beautiful pink scarf fell out, embroidered with a multitude of different coloured sequins and beads.
‘Oh J, I love it, thank you.’
‘And I saw this at an antique shop yesterday and just thought of you,’ Jamie lifted a small black velvet box from the wrapping paper and passed it to her.
Jamie was always so thoughtful with his presents, he never bought anything for the sake of it.
Milly opened it up. Inside was a pale blue cameo brooch, entwined within a gem encrusted frame. She ran her fingers over the pale girl, her hair was tangled with leaves and berries. It was stunning.
‘J, it’s beautiful, thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’ He turned to Cameron. ‘Why don’t you show me round and then we can talk about what I can offer you. I really like what I’ve seen so far, so I’m sure I can help you.’
Cameron stood up and walked towards the door. Jamie went to follow him and Cameron automatically held out a hand for Milly, which he immediately dropped before Jamie saw.
‘You boys go ahead, I need to get a shower anyway whilst you two talk business.’
Cameron seemed a little disappointed that she wasn’t coming with them but he quickly recovered. He opened the door and a few moments later they were both gone, their voices fading down the corridor.
She felt a little bad that she wasn’t going to go with them, but she didn’t want to influence either of their decisions, especially Cameron, the decision to work with Jamie or not had to come from him.
Milly smiled down at the beautiful gifts that Jamie had brought her, closed the lid on the cameo and wandered off to the bathroom.
She turned on the shower and pulled her top off. Waiting for it to heat up, she saw a movement in the reflection of the mirror.
She turned round and came face to face with the Grey Lady.
Milly let out a little scream and backed up into the glass of the shower cubicle.
Silently, the ghost stared at Milly. She was clutching her throat as if she was in pain.
Milly looked around for her towel, feeling very vulnerable standing there half naked, but the towel was on the other side of the room and she would have to walk through the Grey Lady to get to it. Luckily she still had her bra and jeans on, but that still didn’t lessen the embarrassment.
The ghost continued to stare and hold her throat, then to Milly’s embarrassment her eyes scanned down over Milly’s body. The Grey Lady’s eyes fastened on her dragon tattoo. For a second, just a brief second, the ghost seemed to smile before she faded into nothing, the last remnants of her swirling with the steam that was slowly filling the bathroom.
What was that about? She had never seen the ghost outside of the dungeons before. Why had she been clutching her throat? Why did she like her tattoo? And why didn’t she speak?
Milly shook her head in frustration and got in the shower, hoping that she didn’t suddenly have any more unwelcome visitors coming to see her whilst she washed.
Chapter Twelve
Cameron studied Jamie as he took some photos of the exterior of the castle. He looked nothing like Milly at all. Where Milly was blonde, Jamie was dark, with greeny grey eyes instead of Milly’s startling blue. He was tall and thin, where Milly was short and had those gorgeous curves. It also hadn’t escaped his notice that Jamie had introduced himself as Jamie McAllister, not Jamie Rose.
He liked Jamie a lot. He was relaxed, honest and obviously very good at what he did. He liked that their meeting hadn’t been conducted in a formal boardroom or even across the kitchen table, but as Cameron had showed him round. Jamie had talked at length about his company, what they had done in the past for other properties, what he could do for Cameron, how he would make it work. Cameron felt excited just listening to Jamie speak about his plans for the castle, he was a very passionate person. He shared that with Milly, though Cameron was beginning to realise that might be the only thing he shared with her.
Jamie put his camera back in his bag and started walking round towards the kitchen entrance again.
‘I really like this place. It has so much potential,’ Jamie said.
‘I think so too.’
‘So I’ll get my assistant to draw up an offer, detailing everything we’ve discussed. I want you to take as long as you need to think about it, get some legal advice if you want, research into my company, research other companies. There is no time limit on the offer. If you come back to me in six months, the offer still stands. I totally understand your concerns but I really do think we can make this into a profitable venture for you, on your terms.’
‘Well, thank you for coming out here today. You’ve given me a lot to think about.’
Jamie stowed his stuff in the back of his car, a small black Peugeot, not anything big or flashy.
He closed the boot and turned to face Cameron. ‘Now, about my sister.’
Cameron felt his smile fall from his face.
‘I’m not going to ask if there is something going on between you two because it’s none of my business and, quite frankly, it’s obvious there is. Don’t play with her, she’s not a game. She has a big heart which has been bruised one too many times.’
‘I know.’
Jamie looked surprised at this. ‘She told you about her ex-boyfriends?’
‘Well yes, but I meant about her mum too.’
Jamie leaned back against the car as if all the wind had been knocked out of him.
‘She told you about Emma? She never talks about her mum. Not to me or her aunt or anyone.’
This threw Cameron completely, Milly had told him easily enough.
‘It just sort of came up in conversation.’
‘Trust me, that sort of thing never comes up in conversation.’ Jamie shuddered and then looked at Cameron with some sort of renewed respect. ‘She never told any of her exes either. She obviously trusts you. I did a bit of research into you before I came here, before I knew you were involved with my sister and there are pictures of you on the arm of hundreds of different women.’
Cameron blushed. He had never felt embarrassed about the life he led before and he hated that he suddenly felt the need to prove he was worthy of Milly.
‘It’s been a long time since I was involved in a serious relationship, but I really like Milly. I can’t promise this is going to last forever, but I can promise I’m going to do my utmost not to do anything to hurt her.’
Jamie nodded his approval. ‘That’s all I can ask for. Now I have another meeting this afternoon so I’ll say goodbye to my sister and leave you two to it. I’ll be in touch soon.’
Jamie strode off to the kitchen and left Cameron standing on the driveway.
Was it right to get involved with Milly, given his history of bad relationships and one night stands?
He watched her open the kitchen door for Jamie; her blonde hair was blowing in the wind and seeing her enormous smile, he felt his heart fill with her. Nothing was ever going to feel more right than being with this woman.
‘You won’t stop for lunch?’ Milly pleaded, as Jamie swigged back a glass of orange juice.
‘No, I have a meeting at three so I really need to get going. Will you come for dinner next week?’
‘No, I’ll still be here but I could do the
first weekend in July.’
‘Perfect, we’ll make it a date. I need to catch up with mum anyway so we’ll do dinner round her house. But aren’t you on holiday next week?’
Milly blushed and Jamie laughed. He came over to give her a hug. ‘Please be careful, Tigs. Don’t go falling in love with him, not yet anyway.’
What had Cameron said to him? Or had he guessed there was something between them in the few minutes he had seen them together?
Jamie kissed her on the head and walked out. Milly followed him to his car where Cameron was still standing waiting. Jamie shook his hand and waved at her.
‘Bye, Tigs.’
‘Where does Tigs come from?’ Cameron asked as Jamie moved round to the driver’s side and Jamie laughed.
‘Erm … because I’m like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, always full of energy.’
‘Milly!’ Jamie admonished. ‘You’ve told him every part of your life but you haven’t told him that?’
Milly blushed as Jamie got in the car and drove away. She waved at him, hoping his departure would be enough to distract Cameron from pursuing it further.
She turned back and he was looking at her expectantly. She sighed. ‘My birth name was Mildred Tiggywinkle.’
Cameron tried to suppress the laughter but failed. ‘Mildred Tiggywinkle?’
‘Stop it, I hate it,’ Milly laughed. ‘Plus Tiggywinkle was my Dad’s name, a man I never knew so I changed it legally as soon as I could to Rose, which is my mum’s and aunt’s maiden name. Jamie has never let me forget it, though. And now you can tease me mercilessly as well.’
‘Of course I wouldn’t,’ Cameron said, innocently, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
‘So what did he say? He likes the place, I know that. Did he give you an offer?’ Milly said, trying to change the subject.
Cameron escorted her inside, with his hand on her back. She loved that he did that.
‘He did, he made me a very generous offer. He won’t buy me out completely, his offer was for equal ownership of the castle, a fifty-fifty share between me and him. He would pay for all renovations and repairs and organise all aspects of the hotel side of things, including staff and insurance, but all profits would be split two ways. I can still live here, if I want. The money he is offering me for half the castle would be enough to pay off all the debts, too.’
‘That’s fantastic. We can get an estate agent up here to just give you a market value figure to see if Jamie’s offer is fair but if Jamie is only going to buy half the castle, his offer won’t be near what it’s worth.’
‘No, he discussed that with me, he thinks the castle is worth between eight or nine million, so he’s offered me four and half, but it means that I still have a share of the profits going forward and I still have a say about how some things are run.’
‘Yay! That’s a brilliant offer, I’m so pleased! And you’re going to be rich, you can buy a big house in the Caribbean with that.’
He laughed. ‘I’m thinking I’m going to stay here.’
Milly couldn’t help smiling. ‘You are?’
‘Yes, for a while anyway. The hotel might start to piss me off after a bit but I think the castle has something special about it, something that is calling me to stay.’
He stared at her as he said this and Milly wondered if he was referring to her, but that was unlikely, as she wasn’t part of the castle.
‘So, are you going to accept?’
‘I think so.’
‘Well, don’t rush into any decisions. Think about it carefully, we can always get a few other hotel chains up here to discuss what they could offer.’
‘And I’m still waiting on the report from Castle Heritage,’ he smiled at her.
‘Yes, but a lot of that is going to be dependent on the test results from the lab. And whatever my tests prove, I do think Jamie will suit your needs better.’
‘I think so, too. I told him all your wonderful ideas about holding parties and banquets here, doing ghosts tours and utilizing the secret passages and the maze and he loved all that.’
‘Did he see the ghost?’
‘No, sadly not.’
‘That’s because she came to see me when I was getting undressed for a shower.’
Cameron eyes widened. ‘She came in to our bathroom?’
Our! Milly’s heart galloped at that inadvertent sign of togetherness and then she chastised herself for being so silly.
‘Yes, she was clutching her throat and then she got very interested in my tattoo.’
‘The dragon?’
Milly nodded.
Cameron shook his head in confusion. ‘What was she doing here? She’s never come down here before. The Heartstone flag has a dragon on it, so I guess that might have something to do with her appreciation for your tattoo.’
‘The flag that flies from the middle of the castle?’
‘Yes, although it’s changed quite a bit over the years, I have a book somewhere that shows the different designs over the last few centuries but it’s always been a dragon and a heart.’
‘Do you know why?’
Cameron opened the fridge and started pulling out ingredients for what looked like a salad.
‘It’s a silly story and I’m not sure if any of it has any historical accuracy, especially as the dragon plays such a big part.’ He started chopping tomatoes and cucumber, throwing them all into a colander. ‘There was a man called Matthew, supposedly my ancestor, though I can find no trace of a Matthew in my family line. He regularly took advice and counsel from a witch who lived here in the village of Clover’s Rest. She was beautiful, with long black hair. They would meet for dinner every night and the witch would advise him and make potions for him. She did everything in her power to make him happy, for she had fallen in love with Matthew. Do you want mushrooms with your salad?’
Milly blinked. ‘Cameron! You can’t interrupt the story with questions about mushrooms.’
He laughed. ‘Sorry. Where was I? The witch was in love with Matthew, the kind where you can’t sleep or eat or breathe without every thought being of that person. The sort of love that physically hurt when they were apart.’
Milly sat entranced, listening to the magical story, his soft mysterious tone adding weight and wonder to the legend.
‘She assumed he felt the same – he would often bring her gifts, animals he had hunted, flowers, jewellery. But he did these things as payment for her services. She was his friend. He did not return her feelings. He loved another, a librarian who lived in the village. She was young and pretty with golden hair and had collected and inherited hundreds of books. Often, Matthew would go to her after visiting the witch just to listen to her read. They were very much in love and they were set to marry at the Summer Solstice celebrations.’
He moved to the sink to wash the salad items he had chopped.
‘When the witch found out, she was furious, she felt betrayed. Matthew and the librarian hid in the maze, knowing that if she found them it would almost certainly mean death. They became separated in the maze and couldn’t find each other, no matter how many times they called. The witch found them and dealt a hand far worse than death. She cursed them both. She removed Matthew’s heart and replaced it with one of stone.’
‘That’s where the name Heartstone comes from?’ Milly asked, bringing her knees up to her chest as she listened.
‘Well yes, supposedly. The witch cursed the Heartstone family and said that no man of Heartstone blood would ever find true love. She turned the librarian into a golden dragon, gave her Matthew’s heart and banished her from the kingdom for a thousand years. When one thousand years are over, the dragon will return the heart to the castle. But only if the current lord can see past the scales and the breath of fire to the beautiful girl underneath. Only with true love’s kiss will the dragon turn back into a girl, the stone heart crumble and the curse be broken forever.’
‘True love’s kiss,’ Milly said, sighing happily.
Camer
on smiled at her as he chopped some cooked chicken into cubes. ‘Well, it might go some way to explain why the Heartstone men are always so unlucky in love. But it’s only a story, there are no such things as dragons, after all.’
‘But it’s so romantic, soul mates waiting one thousand years to be reunited.’
‘Yes an evil, bitter witch, a thousand year old curse, two people in love who will never see each other again. Yes, very romantic.’
‘It is, if the lord of the castle spots his soul mate, after all this time, then it really was meant to be.’
‘Well that’s why the flag flies all day and night – so the dragon can find her way home.’
‘I love it. But I’ve heard this story before. Well, a version of it.’
‘I don’t doubt it; it’s probably a combination of several fairy tales.’
Milly rubbed her head, trying to remember. ‘My mum used to tell me something similar, though I can’t remember any of it now. She had this necklace, with a golden dragon wrapped around a red heart. It was beautiful and she wore it every day. She used to tell me that we were guarding the heart until I found my true love, when I found him I was to give it to him and he would cherish it forever.’
Cameron was silent for a moment. ‘What did the necklace look like?’
‘Exactly like my tattoo, that’s why I had it done. Trust me though, it’s nothing like the flag.’
‘Well, as I said, there were very different versions of the flag. Can I see your tattoo?’
‘I’d have to get half undressed for you to see it.’
‘I don’t mind that.’ Cameron waggled his eyebrows playfully.
Milly smiled. ‘You’ll have to wait till Friday when I’m on holiday.’
Cameron stared at her. They hadn’t actually spoken about what would happen; whether as of five o’clock on Friday night she would jump straight into bed with him, or whether they were going to date or do something more traditional first. Now the cards had been dealt and it seemed that the horny, hadn’t-had-sex-in-years side of her had made the decision.