Chapter Fifteen #4
Then, he dropped it onto the bones that were lying on the ground amid the broken lid and the discarded needles from the Scots pines that surrounded them.
And they burned.
“Holy shit,” Ethan said, getting his wife back against his body. Never in his life had he seen anything quite like that.
EVER.
Hopefully, he’d never see it again.
As they stood there, Elizabeth was staring at Duncan, and he was staring at her.
They all heard it.
‘Ceit, Lass.’
Oh, not even close.
Still, Elizabeth tried to communicate with him.
“Duncan, I need to put her to rest. How do I put her to rest so she’s at peace like you both are?”
And were they?
She didn’t know, but she hoped they were.
Ciarán moved closer to her, and his eyes were green like grass, and his features very handsome.
Elizabeth held her ground.
Why?
Because her daddy had a saying.
‘It wasn’t the dead that could hurt you. It was the living.’
“My child,” Duncan said, and then, he was gone as quickly as they arrived.
In fact, they were all gone as if they’d never been there with them.
Oh, boy.
This place was crazy.
It appeared that Ceit, Duncan, Ciarán, and Oison had cleared out after that little battle over the bones.
“Holy fuck. What the hell?” Michael said, moving toward Ethan and Elizabeth. “Are you two okay?” he asked, checking them out.
If they weren’t, how would he explain this one to Ivan and Gene?
Because she was, Elizabeth nodded.
Physically, yes, but mentally?
NOPE.
She couldn’t believe what had just gone down there, and what had happened. A ghost tried to drag her away. She’d felt the fingers around her ankle, as the tug-o-war had gone down. Had it not been for Ethan, she was sure she would have slid across the ground, too.
How was she supposed to come to grips with that little humdinger of a truth?
Ghosts existed, and this place was filthy with them.
Clearly, she couldn’t.
Burying her face in Ethan’s neck, she held onto him for dear life—still.
“I’m okay. Ethan saved me.”
He held his wife.
“It was trying to pull her away.”
Gabby moved closer.
“He did NOT want you having that necklace,” she stated. “He must think you’re Ceit. I mean, you look just like her.”
Yeah, that’s what she thought.
They were safe, so she could open the pouch to see what was in there.
As the bones burned on the estate’s forest floor, she checked out the necklace she’d kept safe.
And there it was.
Ceit’s heart.
It was old, but it had survived time, likely because it had been in Oison’s crate, where it was kept dry in that cave.
Flipping it over, she saw there was an inscription.
Only, half was worn away.
“It says Cathal C. I can’t read the rest,” she said, trying to rub the dirt away to see the inscription on the back. It was crudely etched there.
When she couldn’t, she passed it to Gabby.
“Can you read it?”
As she tried, Graham was looking over her shoulder to see if he could.
All the while, Michael stood guard with a shovel.
Not that it would help.
“I can’t,” she admitted. “It’s too faint. It’s like time tried to erase that part of the mystery.”
Well, shit.
They couldn’t let that happen. Her coming there had stirred it up, and now, she had to fix this.
She had to make it right.
It had to be done before she could go home after Halloween.
Lordy, but she didn’t want to see this place haunted during Halloween. That would be a freaking nightmare for her. With the veil between worlds the thinnest, or so her mother-in-law said, this place would be a ghost-a-palooza.
And no one needed that.
“Maybe we can get it back to the castle, clean it up, and go from there,” Ethan offered. “It’s not that bright in the trees.”
Michael pointed.
“What do we do with that?” he asked, meaning the pile of bones on the ground that were smoldering in the burning pine needles.
What else could they do?
“Bury him,” Elizabeth said. “No box. Let’s just shovel him into the hole. He’s not a good ghostie. Daphne does NOT like the vibe on him, and after nearly being dragged away, my give-a-damn is beyond broken when it comes to wayward bones showing up.”
Yeah, no one argued there.
As the women stayed side-by-side, the men took care of business. They scooped up the man’s bones, and the ash around it so the fire didn’t spread.
Then, they shoved all the dirt back on top of him.
The fire was out.
And so was the ghost.
Hopefully.
When they finished, it was time to get out of there. While the air had cleared, thanks to Duncan and Ciarán for showing up to protect them, they needed to get as far from this part of the estate as possible.
“May I suggest we take Ceit’s heart and hightail it the hell out of here?” Ethan asked, as he was white knuckling Elizabeth’s hand in his.
Just.
In.
Case.
Well, about that.
Graham had bad news.
“I hope you’re all nice and warm,” he said.
Gabby looked over.
“Why?” she asked.
He pointed out the obvious.
“They scared the horses away. By now, at that run, they are halfway back to the barn. We’re walking the entire way back.”
Gabby sighed.
“I hate cardio.”
Despite it all, that made Elizabeth laugh.
Know what she hated more than a cold jaunt a few miles back to a castle?
GHOSTS.
And this place was filthy with them.