Chapter Eighteen #2
They were all curious.
“The owners are giving you full access,” Graham said. “So lead us.”
Yeah, she was ready for this.
“Absolutely,” she said, putting her bag down, and moving toward the direction they’d come at the back of the castle.
As she walked, her fingers were on the wall, and she ran them along the stone as if she was trying to read it.
Like Braille.
In the kitchen, she looked around, like she was trying to find someone, but then headed toward the tower stairs.
All six of them followed, and no one said a word. As she walked past all of the floors with the suites, she made it to the top of the stairs.
There, she pulled on the ring that opened the door.
And it wouldn’t open.
“Something doesn’t want me in there,” she said. “It’s holding the door shut.”
That was bizarre.
The door didn’t lock, but then again, this happened to Gabby weeks ago when the malevolent spirit trapped her in there.
“Let me in,” she said. “You have no power here.”
As soon as she said it, the door swung open with very minimal effort.
Yeah, that was creepy.
As she walked in, she went right for the boarded-up window that Ceit used to end her life, and that Gabby nearly fell out of sleepwalking.
“She was murdered,” she said, staring at the space. Turning around, she held her arms out, and they all stared at her.
“She said that she was going to take her life, but her father came here first. He found her up here, and screamed at her.”
They all listened.
“Then, he tried choking her to death.”
She grabbed her neck.
“He was so angry. He called her all kinds of names, and said that she was a disappointment. That he should have given the knight the better daughter. Not the old one.”
No one said a word.
This was all interesting, but some of it could have been researched.
Sarah touched her face.
“He picked up something heavy, and hit her in the face with it. It was a piece of chain. He hit her in the face, and she fell backward out the window.”
And there it was.
No one would know that.
They would have had to see Ceit’s bones to know she sustained a facial trauma before she fell.
“The whole way down, she screamed. I can hear her screaming.”
That was horrible.
None of them said anything.
When she walked toward the one corner, she pointed.
“Where is the mirror that was here?” she asked.
Well, that was easy.
After Duncan and Ciarán stepped back into it after protecting Gabby, they moved it to the storage room with all the other things that were Duncan’s.
“We moved it,” Graham admitted.
Sarah stared at the corner, for another second, and didn’t move.
“She’s sorry about the curse,” she said. “A witch put it on the family. Only someone from the family can break it. I’m sorry, but I can’t remove it. It’s a blood curse. It will require a Granndach heir to end it.”
Well, that was problematic for so many reasons.
They’d have to find one—being the biggest.
Without a word, Sarah started back toward the door, but said nothing else. Everyone else was staring at each other, and they were all thinking the same thing.
She’d nailed that.
As Sarah walked down the stairs, she kept talking to them.
“The ghosts here are very talkative,” she admitted. “They need to be heard.”
Well, yeah.
Thankfully, this might just work for them.
Sarah continued.
“The Lord of the manor came back. Duncan returned,” she said. “When he got here, the man who killed the woman upstairs was here. He threatened him.”
They listened.
“He was trying to take his son. He was trying to take the knight’s son.”
They didn’t know that.
“Did he kill the man?”
She shook her head.
“He didn’t get the chance. A female killed him. My spirit guide is telling me it was his flesh and blood. Did he have another child?”
Ian nodded.
When they expected her to say more, she didn’t. Instead, she walked out the door in the kitchen, and through the courtyard. As she did, she headed beyond the barn, and toward the lake.
“She’s legit,” Michael whispered to Graham. “She’s following something we can’t see.”
Yeah, that was evident.
She also knew that a witch put the curse on the castle and family. That wasn’t in the history books, and only in the journal letter that they’d found from Ceit.
As she stood at the top of the hill that led down to the lake, she pointed.
“The two men are down there. They are pointing at the lake. She’s in the lake.”
They weren’t surprised.
Just that day, they found the journal where Duncan owned that.
“Duncan killed her. She betrayed them. She let them into the castle to have her child become the heir.”
Yep.
She’d nailed that too.
Now they had confirmation on how Ceit died, and who was absolutely in the lake. She had just verified Duncan’s journal.
“Oh, no,” Sarah said.
They all moved closer, looking down at the lake and seeing nothing but the water.
“Duncan killed the child, too.”
Yeah, this psychic was good. There was no way she was faking it. No one would know that either.
Ian shared what they knew.
“You were right. She did betray Duncan by going to the church to turn him and his lover in, but she teamed up with them to try to convince them to annul the annulment of her marriage to him. I know. Ironic. It was for the inheritance.”
She nodded.
“He’s very angry, too. Duncan is there,” she said, pointing, and that’s when they saw the two of them by the trees not far away.
“He said all of this nonsense because he lay with a man,” she began.
“He is glad it’s more accepted now, and he wishes you well with your new marriage.
He wishes he could have married his love. ”
Well, she nailed that, too.
They let her talk.
“So he found out and punished her. He put her child as far from her as possible to make her suffer.”
Yeah, well, no shock there.
As she turned, she headed back toward the castle, and inside. Without a word from them, she headed down the hallway and deeper into the bowels of the castle to the storage area and the crypt.
That’s when she stopped.
“Oh, I can feel the curse here. Until the heir releases the curse, Duncan and his lover, Ciarán, won’t have peace. He’s saying that over and over again.”
Ian was curious.
“And how do we find the heir? They’ve been dead for a long time. Is there an heir?”
She glanced over.
“Yes, but you’ll have to find the bloodline and get them here. Only then, when it shows that the heir hasn’t been tormented by the curse, it will be broken, finally.”
That was going to be difficult—but not impossible. But it would take time—something they didn’t have. This castle might just always carry this curse.
As they reached the crypt, she put her hand on the one stone sarcophagus.
“Ceit isn’t at rest yet. She’s laying low. Her sister hates her because her child lived, and Catherine’s had died.”
They hadn’t told her the name, so they assumed her spirit guide, or whatever was leading her, had.
She pointed.
“That way,” she said, pointing down the corridor and toward the location they found the paintings.
“The key is in the corridor. Follow it, or find the outside entrance, but that’s how you find the key to unlock this all. That will lead you to the bones, and they will be free.”
Uh…
“Can he tell us what the key is? Is it a literal key? Are the bones locked away?” Ian asked. “We need more.”
Sarah paused.
Then, she stared at them.
“I don’t know. All that Duncan is saying is that he gave you the key to find Ciarán.”
Now, they were worried.
The room felt cold.
VERY.
COLD.
“Can we show you what we found?” Ian asked. “Maybe you can get something from it.”
She nodded, and they led her out of the crypt and into the room where the mirror, painting, and anything that pertained to Duncan was held to protect it during renovations.
She stared at the items.
Then, she touched the one painting of Ciarán, Callum, and Duncan.
“This is the key.”
Then, she turned.
“I don’t know what more I can tell you,” she said, suddenly. “Other than that, Duncan needs you to retrieve the bones, and set this curse free. Darkness is here, and the curse will affect everyone until it’s removed.”
That was going to take time.
So much for them thinking this would be easily solved before Elizabeth got here.
“We can research,” Gabby offered. “We know that the family split. The part that stayed here…maybe there’s an heir or maybe in the part that headed to America.”
Sarah apologized.
“I’m sorry. I can’t give you more. I don’t feel so well here. The rage is palpable,” she admitted. “The dead are screaming to be set free. How are you all here and not feeling sick?” she asked. “The energy is horrible.”
Michael was worried.
“Would the energy make someone want to take their life?” he asked, thinking about Graham and what had happened. The last thing he wanted was his husband to succumb to that again.
She blinked.
“Not unless they were already predisposed to it.”
Well, that gave him hope. His husband was not on the cusp anymore.
He.
Hoped.
“I can’t be here any longer,” Sarah admitted. “There are too many dead here, and they aren’t happy. You need to end this curse,” she said, walking past them. “Before it starts to bleed into the current people’s lives!” she added in warning as she left them standing there.
And with that, she walked out, heading toward the castle front door again.
Well, so much for the psychic helping the last stretch. It appeared they needed to put this together.
And fast.
The curse was still there.
“Okay, she homed in on the corridor,” Ian admitted. “So maybe it goes further back, and we just didn’t go far enough.”
That was a good point.
Only, Gabby was staring at the one painting.
“Finn, can you pull out the other family portraits?” she asked.
He did as she suggested, lining them up against the table that Tony had left in there.
As he did, she crouched down, and studied them.
“What’s the same in all of them?” she asked.
Michael knew.
“The family.”