Fairytale Beginnings

by Holly Martin

  ‘I think I’ll get a shower somewhere else,’ Milly said.

  She walked to her bedroom, grabbed some clean clothes and went back into the kitchen again.

  ‘Are we not going to talk about this?’ Cameron said.

  ‘There’s not a lot to talk about. As far as you’re concerned, I’ve come here for the sole purpose of deceiving you.’

  Milly walked past Olivia, resisting the urge to slap her stupid, smug face and out into the corridor. She walked down a few doors and went into one of the other staff rooms that Cameron had shown her on her first day.

  Maybe she really would have to get that voodoo doll from Gladys, for Olivia was going to be the thing that broke them, she was sure of it.

  Milly stared out of the study window over the darkening waves at the bright sunset that filled the sky with great big slashes of scarlet and gold. She hadn’t seen Cameron for hours and she was getting hungry. She had hoped he would come after her and apologise but he hadn’t. Then again, he didn’t really have anything to apologise for. He hadn’t accused her of anything, he had just expected some kind of explanation from her which she supposed he was due. But was it too much to ask for him to trust her? She sighed. Was she expecting too much of him? He’d said himself that the kind of trust it would take to marry someone again would take a lot longer than six months. They’d known each other for a week and just because they were somehow weirdly married now didn’t mean that he had known her long enough to put his reservations aside.

  The fact that he had asked Olivia to do research on her was the thing that hurt the most, he’d asked Milly to have faith in him but he hadn’t returned that.

  She turned back to the desk and picked up another book. Although Castle Heritage probably wouldn’t take the castle on, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t interested in the place. There were several books on the desk that Cameron had obviously been looking at over the last few weeks which had to do with the castle. Some of them were handwritten with drawings and diagrams, some had been published hundreds of years before. The one she held in her hand was a published one with a soft worn leather cover. Where the title had once been was now just a faded patch of leather.

  She opened it up and flicked through a few pages. It was written in Latin. If she wanted to, she could probably just about translate what it said but she didn’t have the patience for that at the moment.

  She turned the page and saw a picture of a large house called Cleaver Court. It looked vaguely familiar and she was sure it was one that she had been to or seen pictures of before. She looked at the writing directly underneath and roughly translated it. Cleaver Court had been built on the orders of King Stephen in 1135. She stared at the house again but as she couldn’t place it, she closed the book and opened another.

  Straight away she saw a diagram of the dragon flag that flew over the castle, although it looked slightly different to the one that flew there now. There were some cursive words surrounding the diagram pointing to different elements but she couldn’t make out what language the words were written in, let alone start translating it. One part of the text indicated that this was the design from 1912. She turned the page to see a very different design with the dragon looking more like a giant snake as it curled itself around the heart.

  Trembling, she realised that this was the book that Cameron had spoken about when they had first discussed her dragon tattoo, the book that showed how the dragon and heart emblem had changed over the years. She flicked through the pages. There were over twenty different designs but not one of them resembled her tattoo. She leafed through them more carefully, wondering if there were any that shared any attribute with her tattoo but there was nothing even remotely the same. The tattoo hadn’t been done from memory. In the few pictures she had of her mum, she had been wearing the necklace in almost all of them. Milly had had the picture blown up and copied the necklace exactly. The fact that there was no match with the Heartstone emblem proved that, even if she still had the necklace, it wasn’t the missing family heirloom that would link her with the curse. She stared at the book and unexpectedly felt tears in her eyes. Did that mean she wasn’t Cameron’s soul mate after all? Was there someone else out there who was?

  She shook her head, this was ridiculous. There were no such things as soul mates. Sure, there were people who had wonderful loving relationships, people that were married to the same person their entire lives, but it didn’t mean that their souls were destined to meet each other because they had been together in a previous life. Even for Milly, who loved to read about or watch fairy tales and happy ever afters, the concept of real soul mates was a bit too far-fetched.

  She looked up and realised that Cameron had been watching her from the doorway.

  ‘I thought you might be hungry,’ he said. ‘I’ve put together a few things.’

  She didn’t move and Cameron sat down.

  ‘I thought I should tell you a bit more about Eva,’ he said.

  Milly’s breath caught in her throat. Did she really want to know about the only woman Cameron had ever loved?

  ‘You know that love that you had with Tyler, that stupid, crazy, fast love? That’s what I had with Eva. We met, we fell in love and were married after two months.’

  Milly felt her eyebrows shoot up.

  ‘I know, I don’t know what I was thinking. It was her idea and I should have seen right through it then. I literally became famous overnight. As you know the Dream Pirates series became something of a phenomenon. She found me right at the very beginning of my fame, just after it was announced that Dream Pirates was going to be made into a movie. I was such a naïve fool. With you, everything is happening at the same breakneck speed that it did with Eva. I trust you, I really do, but I’m sorry if I seem a bit cautious at times. It was Olivia’s idea to do some research on you and I agreed but purely to prove to her that you didn’t have any skeletons in your cupboard, to put her mind at ease. I’m sorry.’

  Milly watched him carefully and sighed. She was cautious with her heart too although for slightly different reasons. After the ultimate betrayal of his wife she couldn’t blame him for being a bit guarded.

  She wanted to explain everything to him, rid any shadow of doubt from their relationship.

  ‘Jamie was adopted by my aunt Belinda when he was five. A few months before I came to live with them. My aunt adopted me too so we’ve never thought of ourselves as cousins and I suppose technically we weren’t even that. I told him very early on that I’d always wanted a brother and he said that he’d like to be mine. My aunt even referred to us as brother and sister. McAllister is my uncle’s name, my aunt’s husband. He died a few years after they adopted me. I’m surprised Olivia didn’t manage to dig any of this up in her research.’

  Cameron sat staring at her, listening.

  ‘And yes, I’ve sent many Castle Heritage rejects Jamie’s way. Not because I get any kickbacks or because we are trying to screw these property owners out of their money but because I hate rejecting these beautiful places. Many of the owners are desperate like you and are also bound by the rules surrounding listed buildings, the limited renovations you can do to a historic property and the expense of restoring it sympathetically. I give the owners multiple options, just like I did with you. I personally believe Jamie is the best option not because he is my brother but because the renovations he does are always in keeping with the building, he never tries to change the property into something it wasn’t before and the owners get a really good deal out of it. All of his clients are happy with what he has done and I could get testimonials of …’ She trailed off as Cameron stood up and offered her his hand.

  ‘I’m hungry, let’s go eat.’

  ‘I … I wasn’t finished.’

  ‘I don’t need to hear it. I didn’t come up here for an explanation. I came to get you to come and eat. And to apologise if it seemed that I didn’t trust you earlier. You don’t need to justify your actions to me. I thought about what Olivia had said about yo
u passing the rejects to Jamie and I realised there isn’t actually anything wrong with what you are doing.’

  ‘Castle Heritage are so strict and I hate that sometimes. They take on so few properties. When I first started working for them I asked if I could help the ones we couldn’t take on by giving them the details of people that could help and they were more than happy for me to do that. They are well aware that a lot of our rejects get taken on by Jamie.’

  ‘You’ve been completely honest with me from the start, I have no reason to doubt you. I’m sorry. Come on, I’m starving.’

  Milly eyed the leather book she had just been looking at on the desk. She got up and walked round, wrapping her arms round his waist and leaning against him.

  ‘There’s something else you should know. If the whole concept of the curse is true, I don’t think I’m your soul mate.’

  Cameron kissed the top of her head. ‘Why do you think that?’

  She picked up the book from the table and quickly thumbed through the pictures. ‘None of these match my tattoo.’

  ‘I know. I realised that the first time we made love. Well, probably not the first time as I didn’t get much chance to look at it then, but maybe the second or third time.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means bugger all. It means we’re together for all the right reasons not the wrong ones. It means we carve our own path in the Heartstone legacy for better or worse.’

  Milly smiled.

  He took the book out of her hand and tossed it onto the desk. ‘Doesn’t mean we’re not soul mates though.’

  Milly rolled her eyes and Cameron laughed.

  ‘Come on, let’s eat. It’s a beautiful night,’ he said, leading her to the entrance of the room.

  ‘It really is, it’s so warm.’

  ‘I thought we could eat outside. Here, hold this.’ He reached down and handed her a brass lantern with a candle flickering inside.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘A lantern, what does it look like?’

  Milly laughed. ‘I meant, why are you giving me a lantern?’

  ‘Well you need to ask better questions. You’re a historian, you should be good at asking questions. Hold on to that for two minutes and then come upstairs.’

  Cameron kissed her on the cheek and ran up the stairs.

  Milly stared at the lantern in confusion as the flame danced and twirled inside the glass walls. What on earth did he have planned?

  She peered up the stairs and could see a trail of lanterns curving up the staircase, leaving a path for her to follow.

  Unable to contain her curiosity anymore she followed the lanterns up the stairs. The lights created a flickering gold warm glow and cast long shadows over the walls. The staircase curled up towards the bedrooms but half way up the stairs was another door that led out onto the battlements. There were four lanterns in front of this door and as they didn’t go up any further, she presumed she was supposed to go through there.

  She pushed the door open to see more lanterns lining the walls of the battlements and Cameron, standing at the end waiting for her.

  She walked towards him, looking out over the spectacular view; the inky sea, the stars that were just starting to pepper the night sky, the tiny village sleeping peacefully in the semi darkness, their white walls looking ethereal and ghostly against the night that was drifting over the cliff tops like a charcoal fog. It was stunning and right then it felt like she and Cameron were the only people in the world.

  She approached him and he offered her his hand.

  She took it and he pulled her into his arms.

  ‘I thought we could have a moonlight picnic, the weather is perfect for it.’

  Her breath caught. ‘That’s very romantic.’

  ‘This week is going by so quickly and I just wanted to make it special for you.’

  She smiled. ‘It already is.’

  Behind him there were some blankets with food laid out in the middle. ‘More tomato soup?’

  He laughed. ‘No, I promise.’

  She sat down. ‘Hey, I’m not knocking it.’

  She looked at the baked camembert, bread, grapes and slices of meat. She grabbed a chunk of bread, dipped it into the melted cheese and took a big bite.

  ‘I am sorry about Olivia. Don’t take it personally, I don’t think she would trust any woman with me after my terrible track record. She cares about me, that’s all.’

  ‘It’s more than that, she likes you.’

  ‘Maybe?’ Cameron said, popping a grape into his mouth as he stretched out on his side. ‘Other than that one night when she kissed me and this morning, I’ve not seen evidence of that.’

  ‘I can’t help thinking that she wants to get me out the way so she can make a move herself.’

  ‘I’m not interested in her at all and even if you weren’t here, that wouldn’t change. Anyway, let’s not spend our evening talking about Olivia. I’ve asked her to leave. We can screw this up on our own with my lack of trust and your fear of getting hurt, we don’t need any help from her. She’ll be gone by tomorrow night. Listen, tell me more about what the ladies said about the treasure.’

  She grabbed another piece of bread and dunked it into the camembert again so it was smothered in thick globules of melted cheese. ‘They didn’t say a lot, just that wherever the Grey Lady is, that’s where it’ll be. I think we need to have a really good look around the dungeons tomorrow and that cave that I saw in the sea when I was rescuing Gregory, I think that’s the key. I bet there’s a tunnel that leads from the dungeons out into that cave. Did you know there’s also one from the pub that leads out to the sea? Apparently it was used for smuggling hundreds of years ago.’

  ‘Well, that’s interesting, did they say anything else?’

  ‘No, we talked about the wedding.’

  ‘How did that go, did everyone congratulate you?’ Cameron said.

  Milly smiled. ‘It’s hilarious, they really do think we are married. It’s ridiculous really. As far as they are concerned the wedding is perfectly legal and they took great offence when I suggested that it wasn’t. Apparently they have a decree from King Stephen.’

  ‘When did we have a King Stephen?’

  ‘1135 to 1154.’ Something jarred in her memory. The picture of that house that was dated 1135. The house that had been built on the orders of King Stephen. Had he been to this village? Had this been the site of the house in the picture? Maybe even parts of the original house were incorporated into the castle. She needed to get those test results back from the lab.

  Cameron was talking and she quickly tuned back into what he was saying and ignored the desire to suddenly go and research everything about the reign of King Stephen.

  ‘Wow, so it must be official,’ Cameron smirked at her, linking hands. ‘We’re married.’

  Milly laughed. ‘Oh, apparently, if we want a divorce we just have to stand up at the Winter Solstice celebrations and declare that we no longer want to be married and that’s it, no lawyers, no forms to fill in, we just declare it underneath the oak tree on the village green.’

  The smile vanished from his face.

  Milly scooted closer to him and he shifted her onto his lap.

  ‘Do you want to get a divorce?’ he asked.

  She pressed a kiss to his neck, not sure how to explain her feelings for him. She wanted to reassure him that she had fallen in love with him but was too scared to put her heart on the line if he didn’t feel the same.

  ‘I have no idea what is in the future for us but I am having way too much fun right now to think about finishing it just yet.’

  He studied her face for a moment then broke into a huge smile. ‘So we’ll just see how it goes after this week.’

  She nodded. ‘I’d like to carry on seeing you if you want.’

  ‘I’d like that too.’

  Milly smiled. Cameron leaned forward to pick up the meat board. He selected a slice of meat and popped it in his mouth. ‘Did th
ey say anything else, any more predictions from Mystic Lavender?’

  She bit her lip. She supposed this would be the true test to see if Cameron was in this for the long haul or just a bit of fun. ‘Well, she said I’m going to be pregnant within a year,’ Milly laughed and Cameron did too.

  ‘Well she was right about us being married.’ He shrugged as he grabbed some bread and camembert.

  Milly looked at him. ‘Are you not freaked out by that?’

  ‘Not really. There’s no point worrying about something we can’t control.’

  She reached up to stroke his face.

  ‘You might be a dad this time next year.’

  He ran a gentle hand over her stomach. ‘I cannot frigging wait.’

  Milly couldn’t help the huge grin from spreading across her face.

  Cameron watched Milly fast asleep next to him on the picnic blanket, the early morning sunlight kissing her pale cheeks. He could watch her sleep forever and not grow tired of it. His very own Sleeping Beauty.

  They had talked and kissed and talked some more and then they had made love under the stars.

  He had never been particularly romantic with women but last night as they lay beneath the moon and the stars, her hair glistening in the silvery glow of the moonlight, the warmth of the summer surrounding them, the scent of the sea mixed with the summer flowers, he couldn’t deny it, it had been magical.

  He brushed her hair from her cheek and her eyes fluttered open. She smiled when she saw him and cuddled into his chest. He pulled the blanket over her shoulders, protecting her from the early morning chill.

  ‘Thank you for last night, it was incredible. The picnic, the stars, the dessert.’ She waggled her eyebrows mischievously.

  ‘Yes that was probably my favourite bit too.’

  She sighed, contentedly. ‘I love this place, the silly turrets and the blue roofs, that amazing view over the sea. If we stay together, I’d love to live here. We could make love under the stars every night.’

  ‘Might get a bit cold in the winter.’

  Milly laughed. ‘There is that.’

  She stretched out and sat up. He stroked her back. ‘Fancy searching for that treasure today?’