“That’s convenient. Can’t prove it now but I justhave to come back here alone into a dungeon at midnight. Go on, get out of here before I call the police. You’re trespassing.”
He stood up tall, his fists clenching. “I’m trespassing? You are in the castle I have haunted for centuries and you suddenly claim it as your own. You should be careful what you wish for. The MacCallister who owns this castle will pay a pretty price for it soon enough.”
“I don’t own it, I’m just renting for a while. And you’re stalling. I told you to get out of here.”
He shook his head. None of this was going the way he’d planned. “What are you here for?” he asked, trying a smile. “Maybe I can help.”
“Not that it’s any of your business but I’m writing a book.”
“I know that, I saw you.”
“You mean you’ve been spying on me?”
“What’s your book about?”
She scratched her head, looking at him closely. “You’re an odd one, do you know that? Not that it matters but it’s about the MacGregors and the MacCallisters. I’ve been looking into their history.” She sighed. “What I wouldn’t give to go back in time. Why, are you going to tell me you know allabout them? Got a time machine on standby have you?”
“In a manner of speaking. I’d like to make you an offer.”
“Go on, get out of here. There are two skeletons here I need to report to the police. Who knows how long they’ve been here.”
“Seven hundred years,” he said, walking past her and kneeling by his father’s side. He brushed her shoulder as he went by, the sensation strange after so long alone. “This is Jock MacGregor and by his side are my own mortal remains.” He bowed his head in respect.
“Come on,” she scoffed. “What are you supposed to be, a ghost?”
“Aye,” he said, standing once more.
“A ghost?” She prodded his chest. “You seem pretty real to me.”
“I make you this offer,” he said, ignoring her comment, reaching out for the key. “Unlock that door at midnight with that key of yours and I will show you the world of my time.”
“You…you really are barmy, aren’t you? What happens if I don’t? Will you haunt me forever rattling your chains and telling me to repent my sins like Scrooge?” She pulled the key away from him.
He lunged for it, moving faster than her. But as soon as his fingers brushed against the key, he vanished as if he’d never been there at all leaving Natalie alone in the dungeon with only the skeletons for company.
6
Natalie wasn’t sure if she was dreaming or going mad. They seemed the two most reasonable explanations. She was standing in the dungeon of MacCallister Castle with two skeletons for company.
Not only that, but a guy straight out of a Mills and Boon romance had just appeared out of nowhere and then vanished just as quickly. Had it been so long since she’d had anyone in her bed that she was dreaming brawny highlanders up out of nowhere?
She wedged the flashlight in a hole in the crumbling stone wall, illuminating the space well enough to show her what she needed to know.
Kneeling by the skeletons she examined themboth closely. She’d never been so close to dead bodies before, though they were hard to see as corpses when there was so little to them.
She shook her head. It wasn’t her place to examine them and she had probably better not move the bones. Leave that to the police. Or the archaeologists, depending how long they’d been there.
Was it luck or fate that had revealed the silver key to her? Had it brought a ghost out of hiding? Or set her down the path to hallucinating madness?
How long had the silver key been missing anyway? That door had been locked for a long time, the smell of age that hit her when she opened it told her she was the first person to enter in decades, maybe centuries. And all the time the silver key to unlock it was hidden behind the panel in her bedroom wall.
She hadn’t even had to search to find it. It had simply fallen out, landing on the floor with a soft thump while she’d been trying to focus on writing. At once, she knew it was the key for the dungeon though she couldn’t have said why.
She was proved right when she tried it. It was the key that unlocked the dungeon. It was also the key to meeting two skeletons and a madman. Ahandsome madman, sure, but a madman nonetheless.
She stood up and headed up the stairs, calling out as she went. If the man had been there, he was long gone. No doubt he’d sneaked up the stairs without her realizing, not wanting to be around when the police arrived. Good riddance.
She managed a half smile when she reached the top of the staircase. To think, he genuinely expected her to believe he was Wallace MacGregor.
