Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
It was the first Friday in April and more tourists were evident as they meandered around Port Starr, savouring dripping ice creams, which I felt was brave of them in the rainy weather. Others clasped paper bags full of postcards or deliberated over boxes of McKerron Castle fudge.
Even under the gauzy grey skies, the castle never lost its magnetism or historical allure. It rose out of Port Starr, still commanding attention with its turrets and crenelations, carved by hands that had long since passed.
I was sitting in the annexe finishing my breakfast, when there was a boom of ‘Only me!’ and Caleb unlocked the door with his key and barrelled in, with his laptop tucked under his arm.
He opened it and crouched down beside me. ‘Good morning. Well, how is this for you, little sister?’
I gazed down at the screen and was surprised to see the new website he’d been working on for the holiday homes. ‘White Willow Cottages’ was scrolled along the top of the page in swirling bright-blue type, accompanied by a sun-yellow background.
Beside a lovely photograph of the cottages, which Caleb had taken on a day when creamy winter sunshine had been spilling down on their glinting windows, there was a drop-down menu, which he had linked to my and Katie’s individual websites.
There was also a section where we could feature our ‘Guest of the Week’ and details of any competitions we would be holding, as well as headshots of a smiling Katie, Jenny and me, with a short bio of each of us underneath. There was also a page dedicated to our accommodation price list.
Caleb flashed a proud smile. ‘And there’s room in that section for you to add any new members of staff.’
‘It looks fantastic.’ I grinned at him. ‘I didn’t think you would’ve pulled it together so fast.’
My brother let out an exasperated sigh. ‘You can blame my wife. She can be very persuasive.’
‘Thanks so much. It’s great.’
Katie and I lurked by the cottages that lunchtime, as two furniture vans reversed to the edge of the courtyard. We’d ordered a new double bed for each cottage, as well as assorted cushions, fabrics and some jazzy new furniture for the sitting rooms.
While Samuel, the young carpenter, installed picture hooks on the newly decorated walls under the gimlet eyes of Joe, who was very protective about his decorating, Katie and I shuffled from foot to foot outside in the hazy sunshine.
My stomach did a strange flippy sensation, when I noticed Mason and Darwin sauntering up the brow of the hill towards us. What was wrong with me all of a sudden?
‘Sorry to interrupt you when you’re busy’ came his rumble of Australian accent, ‘but I wanted to ask you something.’
Katie whirled around and gave me a playful nudge, which I ignored.
While Mason was talking, Darwin made a lunge for me, his tail wagging like an over-enthusiastic boat rudder.
‘Hello, you,’ I greeted him with a laugh, kneeling down to cup his solid head in my hands. ‘I think you get cuter every time I see you.’
‘Well, that’s very kind of you to say,’ said Mason, straight-faced.
I gave him what I hoped was a withering look.
Katie was grinning.
‘So, enough about me,’ he joked. ‘I wondered what you might know about McKerron Castle?’
‘What do you mean, apart from it being a castle?’ I smiled sweetly, straightening up.
Katie dug me with her elbow again and Mason’s eyes glowed with humour. ‘I had already deduced that.’
‘If I remember correctly from my schooldays,’ I said after a moment’s recollection, ‘McKerron Castle was built sometime in the seventeenth century. A landowner sold the land it’s on to the Earl of Strath Lee and he had it erected for him and his family.’
Katie nodded at my shoulder, admiring Mason in his navy-blue sweater, and spoke next.
‘Rumour goes that one of the earl’s sons fell in love with a local girl, but the earl threatened to have her imprisoned at McKerron Castle if the son didn’t stop seeing her.
’ She released a whimsical sigh. ‘Some locals say they can see their silhouettes dancing together in the moonlight.’
Katie and I swapped dreamy expressions about the romantic tale.
‘Right,’ Mason remarked, making no attempt to conceal his cynicism. ‘I’m sure it’s much more a case of atmospherics, rather than a ghostly couple doing the Argentine tango.’
‘Atmospherics?’ I snorted. ‘Wow. You do have passion in your soul, don’t you?’
‘Oh, I can assure you that I have hidden depths.’
I tilted my chin, surprised that I was actually enjoying our verbal sparring session. ‘I bet even when you were little you had an old, cynical head.’
‘An old, cynical head?’ Mason repeated. ‘Look, I’m not denying it’s a rather charming tale, just like the other one about those tragic lovers calling to one another, but I’m more interested in historical facts.’
Joe, overhearing us, joined us in the courtyard, dusting off his hands. ‘You’re not looking for hidden treasure up there, are you?’
Mason rubbed his jaw. ‘It would be great if I did find anything like that up there, but no.’ Then he turned to me. ‘Would you be free at lunchtime today?’
His question hung suspended in the air, peppered with the scent of painted walls.
‘Thank you, but I’m too busy here,’ I answered quickly, aware that two sets of interested eyes were drilling into me.
‘No, you’re not,’ argued Katie. ‘I can work through our to-do list and double-check on the other furniture deliveries.’
‘And we’re almost done here,’ interrupted young and usually shy Mark, another of Joe’s ‘lads’, sticking his head out of one of the nearby cottage windows.
Typical, I thought. The one time the young lad participates in our conversation, and I don’t want him to. I could have quite happily thumped the smiling Katie, Joe and Mark.
Mason shot a knowing glance at Katie.
‘And you’re known to have good knowledge of your town history,’ she added lightly.
I looked at her, knowing only too well who’d been extolling my virtues to Mason.
‘I thought you liked to work alone,’ I said, scrambling around for an excuse not to meet up with him.
‘I’ll admit that is my preference for obvious reasons…’
Katie tried to conceal a smile.
‘But I’d appreciate your opinion on this, Poppy.’
There was a charged silence. Good grief.
He was so bloody infuriating, with those eyes and that hair.
But if I said no, would he think I was being uncooperative or churlish?
And I did want to find out anything new that I could about The Scarlet Highwayman.
I might regret it if I said no. That was what kept me saying yes to Mason; because this was an opportunity to look into the Highwayman’s past again with someone who did this historical research as a day job.
That was the driving force. It had nothing to do with Mason, I assured myself.
‘All right. That’s fine.’ I cleared my frustrated throat.
‘There’s a sweet little place called the Starr Bar close to the harbour that serves light lunches. ’
Mason nodded. ‘I know it. Okay, I’ll meet you there at one o’clock.’
I pretended not to notice Katie’s triumphant smirk.