Her father had his own theories about the story. He’d even written a paper about it. In her head Callum was always a real hero, leaping from one battle to another and saving damsels in distress, damsels that coincidentally looked a lot like her. For her father, he was nothing more than a highland fable.
“What do you think happened to Kerry?” she asked him once. “Did she just appear from nowhere like the writer said?”
He smiled at her from his armchair. “You have to remember The Saga was written by a monk who barely knew Callum. It was a story handed down orally no doubt and each teller would have embellished the facts. All we really know for sure is that there was a man named Callum MacCleod. Whether he ever met a woman who led to him calling off his wedding?” He shrugged. “Who knows?”
He tried to turn back to his book but Kerry wasn’t done. “You must have an opinion, you’ve got one on everything else.”
His frown turned into a smile. “All right, you want to know what I think? I think maybe there was a Kerry but I doubt it happened like in the story. I think that was only written to make the ending more powerful.”
“I don’t know. I think he deserves a happy ever after. He went through enough with all those clan wars. I think he deserved to be with the one he loved at the end of it all.”
“Even if that wasn’t his fiancée?”
“He didn’t love her. That was just a marriage his parents arranged for him. He loved Kerry.”
“According to the writer. But unless someone comes up with a time machine any time soon, I guess we’ll never know what really happened.”
Standing in the tower all those years later, Kerry wondered once again. What had really happened? She wanted to continue thinking about Callum but her phone was too distracting.
Accepting the inevitable, she pulled it out and looked down at the screen, wincing as she did so.
She sighed with relief. It wasn’t him.
“Hi, Mom,” she said, pressing the cell to her ear.
“Kerry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Mom? What’s happened?” She felt the old familiar anxiety coming back. He’d done something to her mom, she just knew it. Her hand gripped the cell tighter. “What did he do? Did he hurt you?”
“Me? I’m fine, don’t worry about me but I couldn’t help it, Kerry. He saw.”
“Saw what, mom?”
“He turned up yesterday at the house and I was expecting a parcel so I’d already opened the door before I knew it was him.”
“Mom? What did he see?”
“The brochure for the castle. He’d picked it up out of the recycling. He asked if you were there. Started ranting about the book, how you were obsessed with that piece of…well he wouldn’t stop swearing.”
“Did you tell him I’m here?”
“No, love. I told him I was calling the police as that was theft going through my bins like that and he left.” She paused for a moment to compose herself. “Please be careful up there. I don’t know where he went.”
Kerry’s blood ran cold. What if he was coming for her? Footsteps echoed up from the staircase behind her. She shook her head. It couldn’t be him. He couldn’t have made it so far so quickly. He would have had to drive all night and even then how would he know she was at the castle?
Mom’s car, she suddenly thought. She’d borrowed mom’s car. What if he’d seen it in the parking lot outside? She was suddenly certain it was him coming up the stairs.
“I’ve got to go,” she whispered, hanging up the cellphone and trying to think clearly. The footsteps grew louder.
It can’t be him, she told herself. It was just a tourist wandering around the castle like her. He wouldn’t come this far just to get to her. It was over. She’d told him, her mother had told him, even the police had told him. It was over and he had to stay away from her.
She looked for somewhere to hide. There was nowhere. Just four walls and a window. She leaned out. A sheer drop down to the grassy bank of the dried up moat at least forty feet below. No ledge to cling onto. Nothing.
She turned back to face the staircase. There was no time to do anything else.
A hand appeared in the doorway and then a man emerged from the darkness, stepping into the room. The man she wanted to see least in the world.
“Hello, Kerry. Enjoying your vacation?”
