Chapter Three
The Castle
Minutes After
The Surprise
Oh, she stood there gawking at the face looking back at her, and still, she didn’t know what the hell was going on there. There was no freaking way she’d ever want the men to do this kind of bullshittery. Hanging her up there…
NO.
Only, she heard him tell the story of the painting under the painting, and now, this made no sense.
In the antique gilded frame, there was a painting of a woman in all black.
Around her neck there was a necklace. The antique jewelry was an icy-blue color, matching the woman’s eyes. It glowed with the way it had been painted.
And it caught her off guard.
Behind the woman, in the misty shadows there was a castle—another familiar sight. It was the one they were standing in at that very moment.
It was Ravensmire.
More insanely, IT WAS HER.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “How am I in that painting?” she asked. “How the hell did I get put up on that mantle?”
That was just it. For the first part, Michael didn’t know. For the second part, that would be his and Graham’s decision. Now, he was hoping they didn’t regret it.
“Honestly, Mom, it’s the mystery. That’s Ceit. That’s Duncan’s first wife, the woman who was shoved out of the tower, and who haunted this castle.”
That hung there.
Literally over the fireplace.
Now, she was questioning everything she’d seen and done since arriving there.
Was this all a dream?
Was she dreaming this?
Was this a joke?
“Did Callen and Chris put everyone up to this? Because when I married Callen, he bought a house on the Puget Sound, and staged a ‘Clue-like’ murder mystery to keep me busy. I can assure you that this isn’t amusing if that’s the case.
I don’t like playing games,” she said, her voice hitching and getting emotional.
Yeah, this was exactly what he thought would happen. The meltdown was beginning.
He touched her shoulder.
“Hey,” he said, getting her to turn. “I swear to you that they don’t even know about it.
We had it repaired, and that is legitimately what was under it.
Elizabeth, it was sent out in Graham’s name.
No one would know about you being here, or being tied to this castle.
We are just as shocked and dumbfounded. We didn’t tell anyone because we didn’t know how to tell them. ”
She stared at him.
“Legit?”
He nodded.
“I swear on my family,” he said.
She knew he wouldn’t do that lightly.
Michael wasn’t done.
“There aren’t many pictures of her left.
Duncan either had them destroyed or time took them out.
The only reason that one was protected is there was a full layer of paint over it.
We think that he painted over paintings when she died, or they wanted to forget about her.
For all I know, her sister, who married Duncan, next had it done since she was the new lady of the manor. ”
She turned back around, and as she did, the room was cold all around them.
The hair on the back of his neck stood, and he didn’t like that shift in energy.
“Ceit and I look alike?” she asked.
Michael moved closer so they could both look at the painting. He’d get it down for her, except it was on a rail, and it was a bitch to remove without a ladder. That wasn’t an easy reach by any means.
It was pretty high up there.
“Yeah, you do. She was young, but you’re her doppelg?nger. We can’t explain it. That’s the last mystery we have. We put it all to bed, but that. We just didn’t know what to do about it.”
She didn’t know what to say.
As she stared at the painting, one thing occurred to her.
“She looks…sad.”
Oh, and she knew how that felt.
“Yeah, she does. She had a hard life. Her father sold her to a man for a dowery to get rich and pay off debts, likely against her will, and then murdered her when she wanted to go home.”
She let him talk.
“In his letters to his lover, he never cared about her, and that was painfully obvious. He said he loved her, but not like that. Her letters to him painted a different story. At first, she hated him, and then, the switch was flipped. It had to be when she got pregnant. She believed it was a girl. It wasn’t.
Duncan’s bloodline never produced a female heir. ”
Elizabeth listened to the abridged version of the tale. Honestly, she didn’t have time to research this.
He kept going.
“When she got the letter from Duncan, she was told about him loving Ciarán Begbie. She felt betrayal, and rage. Honestly, it pissed her off more than you’d think it would. Back then, I’m sure arranged marriages were common. She flipped her lid, and cursed him.”
Oh, well, yeah.
If she was carrying her husband’s child, and he broke her heart like that…then again, her husbands all slept together, so…
But still, as a woman, who had been betrayed and lied to, once by Chris, and then once by her partner in the FBI, she got it.
It sucked.
Michael kept going.
“She got a witch to curse his bloodline.”
She stopped him.
“So, she was pregnant with his child, and then decided to curse his bloodline, including her child?” she asked.
He paused.
“Yeah, I guess.”
That made her sound like a horrible mother. God knew she’d never curse her children—if she believed in shit like that. Then again, here she was playing doppelg?nger in a haunted castle in Scotland, so who was she to talk?
“She had the baby, and then she went to throw herself out the window, but Oison Darragh showed up, and clocked her in the face with a chain. She fell out the window and to her death.”
Again, she stopped him.
“Wait. What?”
He wasn’t sure what he said to confuse her.
“Yeah, she had the baby, and then…”
She held up her hand.
“So, she hates his fucking guts, but births his child, THEN plans to take a jump out the window?”
He nodded.
Yeah, Elizabeth had heard the story from Ian and Gryphen, but seeing her—seeing herself, that made it even more horrifying. It also confused her because it didn’t make sense.
Mothers didn’t often hurt their children. The fact that she’d birthed the baby first, and cursed his bloodline…
“Yeah, she did that. Only, after she put a curse on this place, where all of Duncan’s heirs would walk through blood and devastation. Well, she nailed that because Ciarán was slaughtered in front of him.”
Jesus.
“And her child?”
He wasn’t sure.
“Callum clearly lived on, but there’s no record of him dying. We never found him in this area. We know he had to marry and have a family because around nineteen hundred, the family fractured and half of them went to America. The other half…it died off, and the castle stood empty.”
Maybe it was because she dealt with facts and timelines, but something was bothering her.
She just didn’t know what.
Only, she didn’t get to ask more. When they heard footsteps, Michael turned. Entering the space was his husband. It was clear he had been looking for them.
Once there, Graham came to a stop as if he was gauging the mood in the room.
“I see you showed her. How’s that going, Laddie?” he asked.
Oh, well, Elizabeth was staring at the painting without saying a word, so he was thinking not well.
Not well, at all.
Could he blame her?
To think that her husband bought a place where a woman was killed so many years ago, and she just happened to look just like her?
It wasn’t exactly easy for a seasoned homicide investigator to swallow that pill.
She was suspicious on a good day.
Today wasn’t a good day.
Clearly.
Moving closer, Graham was holding a plate with some freshly baked cookies.
“Carb to bury your feelings?” he asked.
That made her laugh.
How could it not?
“I’m just befuddled. If you guys say this wasn’t a prank, I have to believe you because you wouldn’t hurt me. If this is a prank, it’s not a good one.”
On top of that, it didn’t add up. For her, something was off. Maybe it was that they looked alike. In her world, coincidences weren’t the norm, and that carried over to her personal life.
Graham watched her take a cookie, and he reassured her.
“Elizabeth, we swear it’s not. We would never do anything like this and jeopardize our lives here. We were just as surprised when we took it out of the crate.”
She looked over at him with a scrunched-up brow, and Graham wasn’t quite sure what she was going to say. So, he held his breath.
“Elizabeth?” she asked. “Uh, where did the ‘mom’ go? I hope you find it again, and soon.”
It made him laugh.
“Sorry, Mom. I was gauging the room, and you looked ready to race for the door.”
Instead of saying anything, she else took a bite of the warm cookie, and it was delicious. In fact, she shoved the rest of it in her face.
Why?
She was accustomed to men stealing her food, and she wasn’t losing that cookie to anyone.
As soon as she did that, Graham laughed even more.
“Breathe. There’s about two dozen more in the oven. You’re good, Mom.”
Michael explained.
“We might steal her food a little too much,” he said, entertained by it. “We’ve trained her to inhale as quickly as possible.”
Well, that explained it.
Now, Graham felt like feeding her. The idea that she would give up her food for her ‘children’, meaning his husband…
It touched his heart. To have a mother like that was a true blessing. Now, he’d take care of her like she took care of D’Artangnan.
“If he reaches for these cookies, I’ll slap his hand,” he said, giving her the plate. “He will live without cookies.”
Michael faux-pouted.
“A guy needs a sweet treat, too.”
Elizabeth handed him one, proving she was definitely going to make sure her ‘kids’ were taken care of before herself.
That amused her.
“Thank you,” she said, taking it. “Are you sure this isn’t a prank?”
Both men shook their heads.
Before they could say anything, there was a loud bang behind them, and they all jumped.
When they turned, the picture that had been securely hung above the fireplace fell off the wall, and onto the mantle with a hellish crash.
“Jesus,” Michael said, his heart pounding.
Graham gasped.
“How the hell?” he asked.
Elizabeth shook her head.