Chapter 14
Fourteen
We drive under a rocky archway, on which are emblazoned the words Caisteal An Drumman.
I lean closer to the window, anxiety creeping up, making my heart beat fast. The Castle itself is set on a hilltop with smaller, pine-tree forested peaks surrounding it.
As we climb the hill, I can see the dark top of a big structure, rising black against the robin’s egg blue sky. As it comes fully into view, I can’t help but gasp.
Made out of light gray stone, the castle has four large turrets and a rather large keep. It’s set back into a hill and it looks very intimidating even in the mid-morning light. As we pull around the circular driveway, I stare at the castle, slack-jawed.
The estate is a small castle. Most of the walls are the same granite rock that I’ve seen in the rocky outcroppings and the stony archway on the drive here.
But there are two additions on either end of the castle that are made of what looks like rich teak wood.
If I had to guess, I would say that they are newer additions.
At least, they were new… The end of the castle that is closest to me is charred so badly that only the burned husk of a building remains. Everything else is intact except for what looks like several rooms.
I gape, realizing that I can see through a chink in the warped, scorched teak into what was perhaps a library or a large study.
“What…” I say, looking at Keir with wide eyes. “What happened to your house?”
He doesn’t make eye contact with me. Instead, he carefully navigates a broad path around the fire-scarred end of the building, swinging the car around the castle grounds.
“Keir!” I exclaim. I swivel my head around, unable to take my eyes off the scorched castle. “Seriously? I’m going to need to be filled in here!”
Keir throws the little sports car into park. I lurch forward, putting my hands out to stop myself from hitting the dashboard.
“What the hell?” I ask.
I glance at him and he’s gone white, his expression angrier than I’ve ever seen it before.
“That damage pre-dates the decision that I should live in the castle.” He opens his door and starts climbing out of the car. “It’s fine. We have walled the damage portion off. No one goes over there. And we are too far off the grid for anybody to care that much.”
“Everyone?” I echo.
Keir is already striding toward the main entrance of the castle. It’s a large, arched doorway roughly hewn from the granite, coupled with a massive teak door that must be a thousand pounds or more.
I scramble to catch up with Keir as he pulls the door open.
It swings open to reveal a small staff, dressed in starched black and white uniforms. They stand clumped together in a throng; beside them is what looks like a very expensive and very large abstract painting, a gold and blue swirl of dots.
The foyer is decked out in teak, pale blue, and gold, whether to match the painting or vice versa I can’t say.
Keir clears his throat, casting a scowl over his shoulder at me. He motions me forward, impatient.
“Ella Washington? Meet my staff.”
Introductions are almost too fast for me to keep up.
There is Mrs. Wolf, the petite red-headed chef.
Her son, Toby, is next to her, a well-dressed and studious type that apparently works as a bookkeeper and handyman.
Next is Henri duBois, a very stern-looking butler wearing edges that have been pressed to an unbelievable crispness.
“Lord Grayrose,” he says, sweeping a bow. “Welcome home.”
“Things are well, I assume.” Keir begins to stride down the hall, leaving everyone else to hurry after him.
“Yes, sir,” Henri says. He hastens to follow Keir through the grand foyer and into a long, straight hallway dotted with doors here and there.
I can’t help but look around with a slightly bemused expression on my face. This place is incredible, with high ceilings, sleek teak walls, and heavy, sumptuous chairs and mirrors every few feet.
“Where is everyone?”
He keeps marching onward. I realize that the rest of the staff has vanished, leaving just the three of us.
We reach a stone staircase and the men trot ahead, heading upstairs.
I look toward where I imagine the fire damage is as we enter the second floor, where the stairs empty out into another hallway just like the one we just left.
My brow furrows as I try to puzzle out the mystery of the scorched part of the castle. The damage doesn’t seem particularly new… But why has it not been fixed?
“Henri, are our bedrooms ready?”
Henri gives a small bow. “Of course, monsieur. I have prepared your usual chamber on the top floor. The young lady will sleep in the final room on the right, just here.”
He points to the end of the hall, the very last door on the right. I drift towards it, deeply interested in seeing what one of the bedrooms looks like. Henri looks at his watch, clearly aggrieved.
“Ah. If you will excuse me for a moment, my lord. I should attend to matters downstairs.” He pauses. “Will you and the lady be dining together tonight?”
“Yes.” Keir dismisses the man with a flick of a hand. “We’ll be just fine until then.”
Henri trots downstairs, looking preoccupied.
I turn to Keir, full of questions. “So… how rich are you, exactly?”
He snorts. “Every woman I meet is the same. All of you have dollar signs in your eyes and start spending my money in your heads, thinking of how big of a diamond you can wear after we fuck more than once. It’s tiresome.”
My jaw drops. My eyes harden and I lift my chin. “I certainly do not want to be lumped in with anyone else. I don’t want you.”
“First off, you’ve already proven to me that you do.” Keir's eyes shine with blatant distrust and he gives me a knowing smirk. “Everyone wants me, sweetheart.”
A woman clears her throat. Keir and I both spin around, as if we have just been caught doing something naughty. An attractive brunette dressed in a simple white tee shirt and a pleated, tea-length olive skirt stands behind us, her expression unamused.
“Keir.” Her voice is light and lovely, her accent Scottish. “You said you would be here in the morning. I have to be back at uni soon.”
Keir shrugs. “Our connecting flight was delayed.”
She moves aside and a little girl wearing a dirt-splattered white shift dress comes flying toward Keir.
“Dadddddyyyyy!” the girls squeals.
He kneels and catches her around the waist, lifting her high into the air. She glances at me with blue eyes that are just the shade of Keir’s.
I know those eyes all too well.
My eyebrows raise. This can only be Keir's child.
“Hello, bumblebee,” he says, kissing her on the cheek. He smiles, a joyful expression I haven’t really seen on his face before. “Have you been good for Saffron?”
“Yes.” She pulls back, brushing her tumble of bright red curls from her face. “Saffron took me to the planetarium again.”
Keir jiggles her small body on his hip. “Again? That’s the third time this month!”
A smile splits her face and she bursts into giggles. “I know! Saffron said that maybe I’d be a—” She pauses, turning her head toward the woman. “How do you say it?”
“Astronomer.”
Keir nods. The little girl squirms and he puts her down as carefully as you would lay down a nuclear warhead. She doesn’t seem to notice at all, pushing her curls out of her face and turning to me.
“Who are you?” she demands.
“I’m Ella.” I stick out my hand to her.
Her eyes widen. “You’re American.”
“I am,” I affirm.
She starts shouting. “I love America! Do you know Justin Bieber?”
Isla shakes my hand as vigorously as if she’s shaking hands with the Biebs himself.
I tense and pull back, a little shocked by her shift in tone. “Uh… no.”
Saffron laughs a little and pulls Isla away from me. Isla has immediately gone into a full sulk, sticking out her bottom lip and glaring at me.
“Then what good are you?” she challenges.
“America is a big place, darling. Not everyone can know Justin Bieber,” Saffron corrects Isla.
“Nor should you be asking every American you meet that question,” Keir adds.
“Hm.” Saffron strokes the little girl’s head and smirks at Keir. “You missed Isla’s class trip to the zoo.”
A flash of guilt flits across Keir's face. Then he rolls his neck, his fists bunching.
“I will make it up to her,” he says. “Right, Isla?”
She grows excited again, waving her hands in exclamation. “I want to throw a huge party. I want everyone from school to come, even Sean P. And I want there to be music and dancing and karaoke and Thai food. And—”
“Okay, okay. We’ll talk about that in a bit, eh?” Keir says, trying to calm her.
He turns to me, gesturing. “Saffron, meet Ella. Ella, meet my daughter Isla and my sister Saffron.”
“Nice to meet you,” I say. I feel unusually shy for some reason.
“Ella is here to fill in for the au pair,” Keir says. “Right, Ella?”
My cheeks burn and I wring my hands. “Uhh… right.”
Keir shoots me a glare. Saffron leans out, offering me her hand. I reach out and shake it briefly, my heart fluttering in my chest.
It would’ve been nice for Keir to introduce me without the lie about me being his nanny. But maybe there’s more than what I can see. I decide to keep my own confidence until I know more. I tuck my hands behind my back.
“Nice to meet you. I wish I had heard about you, but my brother is tight lipped about every single thing in his life, to the point of frustration.”
I just nod, uncertain what to say.
“Well, I, for one, am glad to have you here.” Saffron straightens, touching her waist-length red hair. “I’m more than just a nanny, you know. I’m supposed to be studying on the weekends, not watching Isla.”
Keir’s eyes narrow to slits. “That’s enough, Saffron.”
Her mouth twists bitterly. She looks at me and runs her hand through Isla’s curls.
“So you’ve found someone new to watch your daughter? Not just someone you think is pretty, right?” she asks Keir.
My cheeks heat. “No, we’re not… I’m definitely not—”
Keir cuts me off with a grimace, his fists bunching. “That is enough, Saffron.”
“Nice to meet you, Ella.” She looks at me, giving me a cool smile. “I hope you have better luck than the last eight nannies have had.”
She bends down to pick Isla up. Isla apparently doesn’t like it, because she lets out a screech.
“No! Let me go!”
Saffron stops and takes a step back, her eyes widening. “Sorry.”
Isla isn’t done, though. Her face is red and angry, her little fists balled up as she takes a step toward Saffron. “Don’t pick me up! You’re not my mother!”
She whips out a fist at Saffron. I lunge between the little girl and the young woman, pushing Saffron back a few steps. Then I turn on Isla with a frown.
“Hey! Hitting people is never, never okay. Saffron said she was sorry.”
Isla scrunches up her face at me, her mouth opening wide.
“You’re not my mother either. You’re a nobody!” she screams.
Keir twitches, his expression black.
“Isla!” He grabs her by the hand and yanks her over to his side. “Apologize, now.”
“No!” She starts wailing and goes into a full-blown meltdown, sagging to the floor and flailing her limbs. “I want Mommy! You said she would be here this summer!”
She doesn’t seem to be aware that she’s exhibiting behavior that would only be tolerable in someone years younger than her. I glance to Keir, the person most responsible for her in that moment. He glances at me and I swear, I see a sudden flash of guilt.
What is that about?
“All right, all right.” Keir steps over, scoops Isla up, and flings her over his shoulder. “Let’s go upstairs, darling.”
“I don’t want to!” Isla screams. “I want to see my mommy!”
Keir heads off toward the stairs, ignoring his daughter’s tantrum.
“Whoa.” I look at Saffron, my eyebrows raised. “Is she normally like that?”
Saffron looks after them for a long moment, until Keir’s head vanishes down the stairs. She doesn’t say anything for a moment, her expression tense.
“Unfortunately, that’s a regular occurrence.”
“Wow. I mean… ”
“Yeah.” She looks at me flatly and purses her lips. “I’m not sure what Keir told you that you were signing up for, but she is a handful. I love my niece, but I’m worried that if we don’t curb her behavior now, she could be acting like that as an adult. I mean, can you even imagine?”
I slowly shake my head. “I honestly can’t.”
Saffron reaches out, squeezing my arm, and gives me a sad smile.
“Welcome to Drumman Castle.” She looks at her phone and sighs. “I have to get back to uni. But I’m sure we will spend a lot more time together, seeing as how my brother is usually too busy to parent his own daughter.”
My brows rise. But before I can say anything else, she heads out the front door, leaving me standing alone in the foyer. My mind is churning at full speed.
Who is Isla’s mother?
Where is she?
And what about the ruined, scorched part of this castle? Does that have something to do with Isla’s missing mother?
I can only hope to find out more in the coming days.