“It’s pretty,” I said, wishing I’d gotten a better look at it. “What kind is it?”
“It’s a Pelargonium; they originated in South Africa.” Then he put me to work.
The next day, he gave me a single, long-stemmed yellow rose with red tips. No other comment, even when I asked him what he meant by it all. He only smiled and went about his work.
That night I checked online for the meaning of rose colors since I’d never received one with two colors before. Yellow with red tips meant falling in love. I understood then what his “my lady” comment had meant at the picnic. With the little gifts and flowers, Coop was “courting” me.
***
A few days before the big Fourth of July event, I sat in the library across the table from Coop, holding a photocopy of an original Irish deed. We’d taken to meeting there during our lunch breaks to do research on the castle and Sir Hugh.
“Who wrote these notes?” I pointed to the English words penciled in next to the ones in Gaeilge, the Irish Gaelic language.
“Miles did.” Coop shifted the order of the folders he had. “His grandfather was never much into his ancestry. The old man was the first American-born in his line and wanted nothing to do with the old country.”
“I’m kind of jealous of you.” Even I heard the sadness in my voice.
“Why?” He looked at me, curious.
“Because you knew him, and we didn’t. He sounds like a pretty cool guy.”
I studied a map of the little valley that included the citadel and Wildwood. I knew my parents, at one point, had wondered about expectations. With Miles’ childless situation and having no close relatives, Coop might have thought to inherit the citadel himself.
“Did Miles treat you like a son?” I asked.
“No. He was more a mentor, a tough but fair taskmaster. He made sure I had opportunities, but he worried about all the kids in his care. We’re so isolated out here. The village has a small elementary school, but it’s a long bus ride into Payne for middle and high school.” Coop pulled a face. “That’s why my mother decided to homeschool me instead.”
“You talk about growing up here and how nice Miles was, and it seems so normal. Until it’s not. And the not”—I rolled my eyes—“isreallynot.”
“Itwasnormal growing up here,” he said, defensive at first, then he shrugged. “Well, as normal as it can be growing up around a castle.”
“You know, I’ve wondered about that.”
“About what?”
“How come you never mentioned last summer that you grew up in a castle?” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table.
“When I told my hosts, they kind of wigged out a little.” Coop grimaced. “It’s not like I owned the castle or was royalty or anything. People treat you different.”
“Still.” I remembered how self-conscious he had been at the beginning of the summer. “If I’d grown up in a castle, I think I’d have been telling anyone who would listen. And a haunted castle too.”
“I promise. We didn’t know it was haunted.” Coop looked down at his hands. “I’m not really proud of this, but when it first started happening, I got worried. Mum’s kind of anal about where she puts things, and it’s not like there were a lot of us living here to make messes. I thought she might be coming down with Alzheimer's or something.” Coop ran a hand through his hair.
“I stayed up all night for two nights. Got nothing to show for it except lost sleep. Then my missing keys showed up in a random place, so I went into town and got a silent alarm system. You’ve probably noticed my parents aren’t particularly tech savvy. It wasn’t hard for me to set it up without them knowing about it. When they went to bed, I turned it on. It’d wake me if one of them got up. I slept through the night.”
“Was this before you moved to the gatehouse?” I stood and turned to face the mantel.
“Yeah.” He came to stand beside me.
Coop had surprised me with how hesitant he had been about us touching too much. When I’d asked him about it, he’d mumbled something about not wanting to get caught in an awkward moment by one of our family members. I think he meant my dad, but my brothers might make life miserable if they caught us together. That had better be the reason I hadn’t gotten a real kiss yet. Since it fit the idea of his courting me, I let it slide.
“Don’t misunderstand,” he said. “Stuff going missing or showing up in random places didn’t happen very often. Just enough to make me wonder if something was going on.”
Frustrated at our ineffectiveness, I glared at the picture of Sir Hugh, as though that would tell me the secret. I blinked. Had something moved? A closer examination showed nothing out of the ordinary. It must have just been the lighting.
“I’m getting really sick of this,” I said. “My dad is going to kill Eli and Joel soon, what with all the weird traps they keep setting. We’ve got to find something—anything—about Hugh. Isn’t there something we could look up to help, like ghost lore?”
“What do you mean?” Coop asked.
