Chapter Fourteen
Monday Afternoon
The Castle
Stalling…
Yeah, it wasn’t easy to pull this distraction off. Gabby knew that she had to look like a lunatic every time Graham, who was fully dressed in his kilt, tried to leave the kitchen to do something.
She practically had to jump him, and steer him back to the kitchen so that he didn’t get wind of what was going on behind the castle.
First, it was the goats alerting to someone there.
Then, it was him wanting to check on the horses.
Finally, she pointed and told him to sit, or he was going to get his kilt dirty.
The look on his face…
Yeah, he thought she was nuts, and maybe she was, but if he went to a window, or out the kitchen door, he was going to see Finn’s family decorating the courtyard.
Then, the jig was up.
So, with Gryphen’s help, they got the man caged in, and knew they needed to distract him.
So she gave him a laptop and told him to research Catherine the best he could.
Would he find anything?
No.
But it would keep him out of trouble.
She hoped.
“I’m not finding much,” Graham finally admitted. “I’m not really an investigator, and I’m thinking more about my wedding than this mystery.”
Oh, no one doubted that. Only, they were worried about the wedding too.
She reassured him.
As did Ian as he helped her wrangle the groom-to-be.
“You’re doing a good job,” she stated, smiling at him as her fingers moved over the keyboard of her own tablet.
She was in the archives, and looking for something to figure out what was going on.
Like who killed Ceit?
Who was in the lake?
And where was Ciarán’s bones?
There was no doubt this castle was going to stay haunted until they figured that out. While Ceit was not roaming around, they didn’t know if it was because she was satisfied that they’d told the truth about her being murdered, or she just didn’t like the dark energy lurking, and wanted to be safe.
Time would tell.
“This is a waste of time,” Graham said. “We should get going. I’m supposed to get married,” he began, but was cut off.
Gabby was fighting the good fight.
“Finn hasn’t called. The kilt must be taking more time than they thought. How about we go through the journal we found in the corridor? It’s in Scottish and you’re the only one here who can read it.”
He sighed.
“Okay,” he said, finally relenting.
Only, deep down, he was freaked out thinking that D’Artangnan…Michael had run, and they were just not telling him.
That would kill him.
He’d never survive that.
So, to distract himself, he took the old journal that Gabby handed him, and focused on that task.
Ian reassured him.
“He’ll call. I know why you’re worked up. Michael isn’t going to run,” he offered.
Well, he’d nailed that.
“I just fear that all over again.”
The man stopped him in his tracks.
“Michael is the most honorable of Marines. He’s kind, sweet, and he wouldn’t hurt someone intentionally. You need to believe that.”
He was right.
“I do. I just lost him once. That is what has me rattled.”
Gryphen was in his kilt too, since he was going to be at a wedding.
Well, he was in it because his fiancé got off on it, and that meant they got…off.
A lot.
If anything, he was easy when it came to wanting to have sex with his man.
“Do I look okay?” Graham asked, knowing they’d not lead him astray.
This was his family, of sorts.
Gabby giggled.
“He’s going to be smitten even more than he is. You look absolutely handsome in your kilt and whatever the rest of that stuff is.”
He laughed.
“Gabby, we’re going to have to teach you what it is. You’re marrying a Scottish man, and if you have a son, you’ll have to help him learn.”
Honestly, she wasn’t feeling well.
Her stomach hurt, and she was feeling crampy. That scared the hell out of her, but this wasn’t the time to say anything.
She didn’t want to rain on Graham and Michael’s moment or freak out Finn while he was working so hard to make the wedding happen.
Was something wrong?
She wasn’t sure.
Maybe it was just the stress and running around. Only, if she said something, her fiancé would put her in bed, lock her down, and hover.
That would only freak her out even more. She was worried about this pregnancy and with good reason.
“I’ll learn. I love your brooch,” she said, pointing at the fabric draped over his shoulder and pinned there.
On it, there was his Victoria Cross.
The one he’d eared for valor after he’d lost D’Artangnan.
Err…Michael.
Remembering his new name was not as easy as he’d believed it would be.
“Thank you,” he said, saying nothing else.
At first.
“You guys really wouldn’t lie to me, right? Everything is okay, and I’m still getting married? He’s not currently racing to the airport to run, and you’re stalling me, so he gets away?”
Gryphen knew that the man was suspicious. So, he was honest.
“Your fiancé has something planned for you that he wanted you to have on your wedding day. If you don’t listen to us, it’ll ruin it. That’s the truth.”
The second he said it, Ian slapped him across the chest with his arm.
“GRYPH!”
He pointed.
“My dude, he was Black Watch. He’s about as paranoid as a Marine. He knows something is up. We have to give him a little so he doesn’t have a breakdown. Then, Michael will be bitch-slappy.”
Graham laughed and calmed down immediately. He felt a million times better now that he knew it wasn’t his imagination, but that they were detaining him here.
Ian sighed.
That’s when Graham let them off the hook.
“In Gryphen’s defense, I could tell something was off. Gabby nearly jumped me when I said I needed to see what had worked up the goats.”
She smiled sweetly.
“Just read the journal, Graham. Trust the people who love and wouldn’t hurt you.”
Yeah, he had already been given a great gift on his wedding day.
A family.
So, he did what he said.
As he turned the very fragile pages, he found the last page, and coincidentally, the ONLY page other than the two he’d read that he could decipher.
Time had not been kind to the pages.
Four hundred years in a damp corridor had been brutal on the journal.
Focusing on the words, he tried to decipher them.
“Bear with me. They are tough with the ink being smeared from water.”
They didn’t mind.
Not.
At.
All.
Getting the gist of the first sentence, Graham read it to them so they could keep working while they waited for the call to go to the village.
‘The betrayer was left in the lake to rot and never be seen again. May the devil himself hold those bones in his hands. For it is done. My retribution is done, and now, Ciarán shall have his peace.’
When Graham looked up they were all thinking the same thing.
“Well, it’s definitely not his lover. It would be nice if he told us who is in the lake,” Gabby admitted.
There was more to read, so she might get what she asked for yet.
“There’s more.”
They let Graham keep going.
“I think this is a few days later, but I can’t tell since where the date was is decimated.
That was fine.
They just wanted information. The dates didn’t matter to them. They had a basic timeline.
He continued.
‘It is done. I have found out who has betrayed me, and on this day they have been punished for taking the one thing from me that mattered.
Love.
I took no pleasure in killing but it needed to be done.’
When he looked up, he clarified.
“The next line is smudged and destroyed. I’ll continue from where I can read again.”
They let him do just that.
‘After destroying the person who instigated this witch hunt on me and my one and only true love, they have been vanquished.’
He glanced up.
“It looks like a name, but again, time and water were not our friend, and we know it’s the body in the lake.”
No one spoke.
‘I wish I knew of their cold heart earlier, for it might have saved my true love, Ciarán. Now, I am forced to walk alone without him. In all honesty, I wish for the Gods to smite me down, and end me from my misery. For I hurt every day without Ciarán.’
Graham was silently reading, trying to decipher the mess that was the final page of Duncan’s journal.
That’s when he gasped.
“What?” Gabby asked, excitedly. “What did you find?” she asked.
He looked up.
“I know who is in the lake. I know who betrayed them both, and why.”
They all leaned forward, hanging on each word that had come from him.
This was vital information, and now, they’d be able to put this at rest.
“Well?” Ian asked, impatient to know.
Instead of telling them, he read the last part of the journal entry to them.
‘The betrayal cut deep. Even though I allowed her to leave to follow her heart, and offered to let her come back when her new husband was not what she wanted, Catherine still wanted more.’
They all gasped, and couldn’t believe it.
“Oison’s daughter betrayed them?” Gabby asked. “Ceit’s sister?”
He nodded.
“It looks like. There’s more.”
Everyone stayed silent while Graham read them what Duncan had written over four hundred years ago.
‘I lost my mate because I wouldn’t give her money, since she was not mine to worry about anymore.
Catherine went to the church and told them of my lying in bed with a man.
She betrayed me, knowing they would come for me and Ciarán.
To make matters worse, she showed them the secret way into the castle, and that is how they reached us.
When we slept, they entered through the hills, down the tunnel, and into my stronghold.
She murdered my beloved Ciarán, a man who protected her, and raised her like his own child. Her plan was to have me die, and claim my castle and money. She was willing to pay off the church leader to say that there was never an annulment, and she was still legally married to me in the eyes of God.”
Ian gasped.
“Oh, no. That’s horrible. Elizabeth was right. Money is the number one reason people kill each other because that wasn’t love or honor.”
No, it wasn’t.
All around them, the castle got chilly, and things rattled. All of the delicate teacups on the shelf shook.