“I just wanted to have a look around the castle.”
The door beside the old woman swung open and an elderly man in a black suit appeared.
“What are you grumbling at now, Sandy?” he asked. “Hello, who’s this?” His hand stretched out toward Jessica. “Name’s James MacGregor. How do you do?”
“Jessica Abrahams,” she replied, taking his offered hand.
He shook firmly, not gripping her too tightly before letting go. “What can I do for you, Miss Abrahams?”
“Jessica.”
“Jessica as you wish. How can I help?”
“I was hoping to have a look around the castle.”
“I told her,” the woman snapped. “Not open until tomorrow.”
“Och, it’s not like we’ve got much tae do,” he said with a smile. “Forgive my wife, she’s always crabby before the open days. Lots to prepare. Look, I can give you a guided tour if you like. Gets me out of doing any proper work.”
“James MacGregor, you’re meant to be out pruning them rose bushes.”
“They’ve lasted two hundred years. I’m sure they’ll wait an hour. Come this way, lass.”
He walked back through the door, beckoning for Jessica to follow. She went after him, trying to ignore the death ray coming from his wife’s eyes.
Once she was through the door she found herself in a narrow corridor that came out in the courtyard of the castle. Behind her were the still closed main doors.
On all sides walls loomed upward, towers in each of the four corners of the castle. Narrow windows remained like arrow slits in some places but in others they had been replaced with stained mullioned glass in a variety of colors.
The courtyard was cobbled, trestle tables set up in a horseshoe shape around the edges. “Ready for the stalls,” he said. “We’ve got our own wine to sell, honey too. Now, what would you like to see?”
“I’m not sure. What is there?”
“Well, what do you ken about the clan?”
“Not much.”
“You must ken something. People dinnae just turn up here out of nowhere.”
“I do.”
“Aye, I can see that. Do you ken anything at all about the MacGregors?”
“I know that the castle fell into ruins for a long time after the Laird and Lady’s daughter went missing.”
“Twas an awfa’ case, that one. Eight hundred years ago and still pains us MacGregors. They never found her, do you ken that?”
“What do you think happened to her?”
“I dinnae ken but I can show you where she went missing if you like.”
“I’d like that very much.”
“This way.”
He crossed the courtyard to a set of external stairs that climbed seemingly into the wall. The rooms inside seemed to appear from nowhere. “The castle’s a bit of a maze,” he said by way of explanation. “A lot of collapse and rebuild and collapse again. The back end sticks out over the moat but most of the oldest rooms are in this bit. Up here.”
They went up a spiral staircase and came out into a narrow stone corridor, the floor bare flagstones. It smelled ancient and the flickering bare bulbs above their heads gave out little more light than candles would have done. The windows here were all boarded up.
