Everything would be well. She felt it down to her bones. A feeling of warmth and peace flooded through her.
He was healing. She was gradually putting this place together. Maybe, one day, they would have children.
Then it struck her. Children!
Where were the children? She’d entirely forgotten that she was to teach them this morning.
Birdie scrambled up and ran back to the courtyard. That was when she noticed the silence. Where was everyone? Why was the schoolroom empty? Weren’t the women supposed to clean today? Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Ally, either.
“Higgins!” She found the old man polishing wine glasses in the hall. No other person was in sight. “Where is everyone?”
He looked up with watery eyes. “They didn’t come. Cook never came either. Had to eat porridge again.” He looked displeased. “Left you a plate for breakfast.” He pointed at a lone porridge bowl on the table.
She looked at Higgins, shocked, realising only now that she hadn’t eaten all day, and not noticed.
“But why?”
“Because the people here have always had bad blood towards the Dukes of Dunross. It’s a bad place. Haunted by evil.”
Birdie let go of his arm and shook her head. She would go down to the village herself and talk to them.
A strange quiethad settled over the village. The street, usually full with playing children, was empty. No one was working in the gardens. No one came out to greet her.
She knocked on Eilidh’s door and saw the curtain move inside, but no one opened the door.
“Eilidh? Tommy?” she called, and walked around the house, where sometimes the children played in the garden. No one was there. Birdie looked around, confused.
What was happening? Where had everyone gone?
“Psst. Miss. Your Grace,” a little voice whispered from underneath the blueberry bush. It was Eilidh’s youngest, Elsa.
“Elsa. Thank goodness. What is happening? This is so strange. Where has everyone gone?” She pulled the girl behind the trees so no one would see them from the house. “Why haven’t you and the others come to school? Where is your mother?”
“We are not to go to school anymore, Your Grace, miss,” said the little girl. She dropped her eyes. “Father forbade it.”
That Logan McKenna. He was Eilidh’s husband and Tommy and Elsa’s father, and a definite good-for-nothing. Birdie felt fury flash through her. “But there is no sense in it whatsoever! Why object to having his children receive education, for free?” she exclaimed.
“It’s not just my father, Your Grace, miss. The parents of the others as well. They don’t like it. They want us to work.”
“Work!” Birdie ground her teeth.
“Aye, there’s lots of work.”
“And your mother? Why hasn’t she come, with the others?”
Elsa merely looked at her with sad eyes.
“Elsa. You’re a good girl. I need to find a solution to this. Don’t disobey your parents if they’ve told you not to come to the castle. Tell your mother I miss her and Ally, and I hope she changes her mind and continues to work for me. There is much work left, and enough payment for everyone.”
“Aye Your Grace, miss.”
The girl walked back to the house, changed her mind, scampered back to Birdie, pressed her face into her skirt in a fierce hug, and then ran away.
Birdie returned to the castle, her mind in turmoil.
Looking up, she saw a white sheet flutter on the barbican. Someone had put up the makeshift ghost again. This time in the middle of the day.
Fury shot through her. “I will uncover what is behind this all if it’s the last thing I ever do,” she muttered and stomped up the path to the castle.
