Chapter 3 #4
“I won’t gossip,” she promised, relaxing a little as she regarded the laird and his wife. “Heya, McKerans. What’s up?”
“We think you may have something to do with the spell trap’s enchantment stabilizing,” Ava said in the bland tone she always used to mask displeasure. “All the improvements in our situation here coincide with your arrival. Did Beaumont do anything to you just before you came in the castle?”
“Yeah, he couldn’t wait to get out of there.
He didn’t touch me or mess with my equipment.
” She pulled out of her bag a large black device with many small buttons and marks on it.
She flipped out a tiny door, which glowed with light after she pressed one of the buttons beside it.
“Want to see the footage I got before that ghost girl pulled me into your dimension?”
The laird’s wife rushed over, peering at the small display screen before she regarded Rory. “Her equipment is still working. What does that mean?”
“For now ’twould seem that the enchantment, ’tis ignoring the devices from your world.” His blue eyes shifted to the gadget, and to Harper, he said, “Please, my lady, permit us see the images you captured.”
“You make everything sound so medieval, Blue Eyes,” Harper told him as she fiddled with the device.
Rory saw the narrow look that Ava gave her, and then jumped a little as a tinny version of Harper’s voice came from within the gadget.
Welcome to the latest edition of Fear-Faire, my pals. I’m your ghost-hunting myth-debunking always curious never nervous tour guide to the paranormal, Harper Ensley.
Ava looked over at her husband. “You might want to come watch this too, honey.”
I contacted the owner of McKeran’s Castle, who kindly allowed me to take a tour of the premises. This is where Esme Martinez, a journalist from Monterey Today, went missing last month.
Harper held the device steady but watched Rory and the others as if gauging their reactions. The laird’s wife appeared entirely focused on the images being displayed on the inside of the little door, her expression deeply concerned. Tasgall seemed to be paying more attention to the audio.
“Am I violating any of the clan’s superstitions or taboos?” she whispered to Rory, and he shook his head. “So okay, then, you can watch it. It won’t steal your soul or anything.”
She thought he feared the device. The notion nearly made him smile.
By the way, if I go missing and someone recovers this vid, I want all my stuff including my house to go to Athena Makris, my personal assistant. It’s in my will, but I figure I should say it on a vid in case no one can find it. Love you, A.
The image and sounds coming from the gadget abruptly stopped, and Harper frowned at the display, where a strange cylindrical symbol was flashing.
“Sorry, folks, but unless you’ve got a camera battery or a charger, that’s the end of the show.” She closed the device’s tiny door and tucked it back into her bag. “There wasn’t much more after that. I don’t think I got Torra’s ghost on camera.”
Ava folded her arms around her waist. “Did you use any other equipment inside the castle?”
“I took a couple stills.” She offered her a smaller gadget, which the other woman examined. “If you want to see those shots, press the little rectangle with the triangle inside it.”
The laird’s wife handed it back to her. “Would you try and take a photograph of me and my man?”
“Sure.” She stepped away and focused on them. “Say cheese.”
Harper pressed something on the device, which made a snapping sound.
She then repeated the action. Rory noticed the tension in her shoulders and back, and the peculiar easiness of her expression, which didn’t match that of her body.
Why was she fearful now, when she had shown only anger after being repelled from leaving by the spell trap’s enchantment?
Her big eyes shifted to Rory, and for a moment it seemed as if she wished to speak by thought alone to him.
She then checked something on the device before walking over to show it to Ava and Tasgall.
Rory joined them, startled by the miniature portrait of the laird and his wife on the gadget’s tiny door.
The laird peered at the display as if fascinated. “’Tis as if the thing contains two wee poppets made exact to us.”
“Images, not poppets,” Ava told him. Instead of looking relieved she appeared even more worried now. “None of the phones or other devices that have been brought into the spell trap from our world have ever functioned. At dawn they’ve been flung out through the entry, too.”
“Do you think that’ll happen to my stuff?” Harper asked, frowning.
“It’s the fact that it hasn’t yet that concerns me.
” She looked at her husband. “Tas, we should go and talk about this to Alec and the watch captains.” Her gaze shifted to the windows, which were lightening as the dawn arrived, and said to Rory, “Would you show Miz Ensley to the kitchens? She’s likely hungry by now, and Doon will have some food already prepared for the men ending their duty. ”
After Tasgall and his wife left, Harper tucked away her device and gave Rory a rueful look. “You don’t have to play tour guide anymore if you have something better to do. Just point me in the right direction, and I’ll find my way there.”
She always seemed in a hurry to rid herself of him, which Rory shouldn’t have resented.
Even if his size didn’t trouble her, his silence and his strangeness often made mortals uneasy.
At the same time it disappointed him that she so readily rejected his company. Did she have no interest in him at all?
“I shall go with you,” he murmured to her.
Along the way to the kitchens Harper remained silent, sometimes stopping to greet the clan’s dogs that wandered out to sniff them.
She also smiled at everyone they passed, which caught the attention of more than one guard.
He noted Sawney, one of the McKeran restored to life by the damaged enchantment, seemed particularly interested in the lady.
So did every other big man they passed, often with a definite carnal look in their eyes.
She’s no’ a wee lass they’d fear harming in passion, Rory realized. Was Harper’s fate to be openly pursued by every male in the clan? How could he hold back and watch this woman being romanced by the likes of Sawney and their other brothers?
“I get that you have to be quiet because of your wrecking ball voice,” Harper said, stopping in the passage outside the kitchens. “But glaring at everyone who says hi to me is not helping.”
“Forgive me.” That he had to whisper the words made his frustration grow.
It also reminded him that he had no claim to this woman, and would only endanger her if he tried to become closer.
His heart would ever and always belong to Inga.
“The kitchens, they’re just there ahead.
I must return to the forge. Fair day, my lady. ”