As they pulled in the drive, Cate couldn’t believe this was her
life. Mr. Smythe drove on toward the house as Cate gaped from the backseat.
Riley, sensing Cate’s excitement, was darting from window to window to peer
out, wagging his tail and eyeing Cate as if to confirm that his reaction was
appropriate.
As they approached the castle, Cate could see a few people
standing near the front entrance. “Ah, good,” Mr. Smythe said, eyeing them, “I
asked the staff to meet us, they’ve timed it well.”
“Probably got the warning call from the village,” Gayle joked.
“Staff?” Cate mumbled to herself, her brow furrowing.
She said it a bit too loudly as Mr. Smythe overheard her and
replied, “Yes, Charlie and Emily Fraser. Mr. Fraser oversees most of the handiwork,
landscaping and the external landscaping company, Mrs. Fraser provides light
cooking and house cleaning. A hired company does most of the other house
cleaning. Finally, Jack Reid, the estate manager, a new addition who will also
take over most of the handiwork and landscaping from Mr. Fraser soon. Lady
MacKenzie hired him just before passing away.”
Cate was impressed. She hadn’t given much thought to the upkeep of
the castle, it was good to know someone else had.
Mr. Smythe interrupted her thoughts. “Can I assume that you will
keep the staff on?” he questioned.
“Ah, yes assuming they would like to stay on.”
“I think they very much would, Cate,” Gayle answered. “I think
they may have been on edge that the new owner would do a clean sweep and bring
in her own people. They will be relieved to find out that you are keeping them
on.”
“Oh, yes, no, I mean to say, I’d never do that to anyone!”
As the conversation came to a close, Mr. Smythe eased the car
parallel to the front entrance. The youngest of the three staff, Jack,
approached the car to open doors and begin unloading luggage. Cate scooped
Riley into her arms and stepped out of the car. Kissing him on the top of his
head, she looked up at the castle and said, “We’re home, Riley, we’re home.”
“Emergency?” Mrs. Fraser looked up from her work, not
understanding what Cate was talking about.
“Yes, didn’t the other girl tell you? I thought I lost Riley, but
I found him, thankfully.”
“Other girl?” Mrs. Fraser asked, perplexed.
“The other girl. I saw her in the entry hall. I told her to come
and get you to help find Riley. She ran down the hall, did she not tell you?”
“I’m the only one in the place, Lady Cate. No cleaning service
here today and both men are outside.”
Cate was dumbfounded. She struggled to get the word “what” out to
Mrs. Fraser. Clearing her throat she followed up with, “I thought…” she
stammered, “I thought maybe you hired your replacement and were training her?”
“Nay, I haven’t hired a replacement to train, Lady Cate. As far as
I know, we are the only ones here.”
“Mrs. Fraser, I saw a woman standing right at the bottom of the
stairs. She was wearing a long black dress and a white apron.”
“Long black dress and white apron?” Mrs. Fraser said,
puzzled.
“Yes, I SAW her, no mistaking it. She stood right there in front
of me, I spoke to her!”
“Did she speak to you?”
“Well, no.” Cate said after some thought. “But I didn’t imagine
her.”
Mrs.
Fraser went back to her work without a word. Cate pursed her lips. “I can’t
believe I’m actually going to say this but… do you think she could have been a…
a ghost?”
After a moment, she pulled her hand back, too nervous to continue.
Her mind ran through various scenarios in which her hand found something she’d
rather it didn’t. She would return in the morning with a flashlight. Dusting
off her hands, she placed them on her thighs to stand. A moment of impulsivity
struck her, and she reached under the wardrobe one last time before leaving.
Her hand struck something. She instinctively pulled her hand back,
afraid of what she might have touched. She pressed herself against the floor,
squinting into the shadows but to no avail.
She stretched her arm under again, feeling for the object. Her
hand found it again. She touched the object in several places. It was cold and
felt metallic. She grasped it and pulled. It was wedged against the back leg.
She tugged with all her strength. After some work, the object moved. She grabbed
hold of it and pulled it out from under the wardrobe.
Cate stared at the unearthed object. A thick layer of dust
obscured every surface of the object. Cate blew on it, sending a cloud of dust
billowing into the surrounding air. After a few sneezes, she wiped more dust
away and beheld the object she had recovered.
It was a brass globe
atop a rectangular stand, she surmised it was a paperweight. It was heavy. Cate
studied the object, turning it over in her hands. She turned the object over,
exposing the bottom. The object nearly slipped from her hands as she viewed the
bottom. A thick smear of rust-colored material covered the bottom. Cate’s heart
skipped a beat. Was she holding the murder weapon from a centuries old murder
in her hands?
Excerpt 2:
Making her way back up to the tower, she went straight to the wardrobe. Using extreme caution, she wedged the letter opener into the crack and pried. After some effort, the block of wood moved. She was encouraged, at least the block was removable, not just a crack in the wardrobe. However, it was still difficult and slow-going. The workmanship on the block was precise, it fit tight to the surrounding wood, making it hard for her to get any leverage. She was also careful not to damage the wood that surrounded it.
After almost forty-five minutes of delicate prying, pulling,
teasing, tugging, and wrenching, she grabbed hold of the block and pulled it
free. Careful not to drop it back into the hole, Cate extracted it, holding it
in her hand as she took a moment to be proud of her hard work. Eager to see if
there were any fruits for all of her labor, she switched on her cell phone’s
flashlight. She leaned forward to shine it into the cavity she had just opened.
She expected to see a hole, but, much to her surprise and delight,
she saw a few pieces of paper at the bottom. A smile crossed her face, and she
reached in and removed them with care. One of the small papers was blank. The
second one was a charcoal drawing of a man’s face. It was good; someone was a
talented artist. Cate recognized Randolph MacKenzie’s likeness in the unsigned
sketch. The third piece of paper had writing on it. Cate skimmed it, setting
the sketch aside. Her eyes grew wide as she read the short note.
R –
I am sorry, but I must go. Your family has
already paid too heavy a cost. I will never forget what you have done.
– S
Cate drew in a sharp breath. This note must have been for Randolph. The drawing was the likeness of Randolph and the note was addressed to “R,” it had to be him! To Cate, this offered irrefutable proof that someone had lived in this tower room, someone who had known Randolph. Part of the rumor must be true. What didn’t seem to pass muster was that the person writing it was being held against his or her will. The writer was apologetic and indicated it was Randolph bearing some burden on their behalf, this had to have meant that they were not a prisoner, Cate surmised.
“Good
morning, Lady Cate. Would you mind doing me a great favor, lassie?”
“Not
at all,” Cate answered. “What do you need?”
“Tell
me, does this tree grouping look acceptable? I don’t want any mistakes before
the party czar shows up tomorrow.”
Cate
giggled at his new name for Mrs. Campbell. She stepped back to inspect the tree
placement from all angles. “It looks acceptable to me,” she answered.
Jack
climbed from the floor. “No doubt, she’ll still find something wrong about it,”
he lamented.
Cate
chuckled. “Now that you’ve got your tree placement worked out, could I have a
moment of your time?”
“Sure,
lassie, what is it?” Jack questioned.
Cate
held up a folder. Before she could speak, Jack said, “Oh, no. No, no. If this
is about that bloody snow machine the party czar wants, the answer is no. I
will not have a snow machine dragged onto these grounds…” he began.
Cate
shook her head, waving her hands in the air to stop him. “No, no, it’s not. Although
you may prefer it was,” she admitted.
“Oh,
no. Worse than the snow machine?”
Cate
crinkled her nose. “Not to me but…”
“The
only thing worse than dragging a snow machine through the gardens of Dunhaven
Castle is time travel.”
“You’re
such a stick in the mud,” Cate complained. “Just take a peek at these
articles.”
He
waved his hands at her, dismissing her comment, but accepted the folder. He
flipped it open, glancing through the articles. He snapped it shut, handing it
back to her. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Well?” she asked.
“Well,
it appears due to a very unfortunate turn of events, some of your inheritance
was stolen, Lady Cate. I dare say you’ll do all right without it. I’ve seen the
estate’s financials. You should be able to get by.” He winked at her.
She
rolled her eyes at him, sighing. “You know very well my interest in this has
little to do with recovering my lost inheritance.”
“Yes,
yes,” Jack replied. “Righting wrongs and experiencing the past by living in it
and all that, I know.”
“Oh,
come on, you had to have noticed the interesting bit about the missing items at
least.”
Jack
raised his eyebrows at her. “Interesting bit?”
“Yes,
they describe the missing pieces of jewelry in the first article. And the third
article has a picture of the items. Notice anything?” Cate asked, calling his
attention to both articles.
“They’re
very pretty, Lady Cate.”
“No,
not that. Look closer!” Cate shoved the picture to his face.
“I’m
still not getting it,” Jack said, staring at it.
Cate
frowned at him. “Jack, that’s the necklace I wore to the Halloween Ball
Randolph and Victoria held when we investigated the murder!”
“Ohhhhh,”
Jack responded. “Oh, yes, I remember it. It was quite a necklace.”
Cate
nodded. “Yes, it was. I recognized it right away when I saw it. It was
Victoria’s. It appears the other stolen piece was also hers. It’s the necklace
she wore that night.”
“Whoever
stole those made off with a fortune,” Jack admitted.
“Yes,
and it would have broken Victoria’s heart to realize someone stole her
jewelry,” Cate answered.
“Yes,
it would have,” Jack agreed. “It’s a terrible shame.”
“You
know this year is one of the ones we can travel to. Well, the year when they
discovered the jewelry was missing. It appears to have been stolen on New
Year’s Day. While everyone was sleeping after ringing in the New Year, someone else
was busy helping themselves to the family jewels. I wonder…”
“Nay,
Lady Cate,” Jack interrupted her. “I don’t like when you wonder. Your wondering
gets us in trouble most times.”
Cate
shook her head at him. “That’s not true.”
“It
is! The last time you wondered, we went back to 1856, we became embroiled in a
murder investigation, we were almost killed and…”
“And
solved a murder and saved my ancestor’s life and reputation. Along with the
life of a young woman!” Cate finished.
Jack
scowled at her. “That’s not exactly where I was going with that.”
“But
it’s true,” Cate added. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to solve another mystery? Stop
a theft, help the family again?”
Cate
shook her head, shutting her eyes. When she opened them, the words on the page
appeared to be moving. Disgusted, she shoved the papers away from her,
realizing the movement was not words but bugs. The insects scattered in all
directions, hiding from the light in any dark corner they found on the desk.
Cate
pushed back from the desk, standing and retreating a few steps away. While she
contemplated what to do, a breeze rustled her hair. Cate snapped her head in
the wind's direction, surprised to find an open black hole in place of one of
the bookshelves in the room. Cate’s pulse quickened as she stared at the hole. Despite
her better judgement, Cate approached the opening, trying to make out anything
within. She spotted nothing except blackness.
Cate
stood at the edge of the opening. Cool air drifted from the space hidden by the
bookcase. She peered into the darkness. A musty smell filled the air inside. “Hello?”
she called. A roaring sound barreled toward her. It filled the air around her,
sounding like a train barreling ahead of rushing waters. Cate retreated a step
as a new sound filled the air. Light and fluttering, Cate barely detected it
after the barrage of noise moments earlier.
She
shrieked and held her arms to cover her face as papers flew out of the space
like bats from a cave at dusk. The black hole continued to spit papers into the
library at a terrifying rate until the room’s floor was no longer visible.
Cate
swallowed hard as the last few pages drifted through the air before settling in
a lazy dance to the floor below. One paper wafted near Cate as it sailed
through the air, landing at her feet. Black lettering, bold and thick, appeared
on the upside-down page. Cate reached for it, turning it over to read it.
As
she turned the page, the black letters turned scarlet red and dripped from the
page. In horror, Cate threw it down, realizing the letters were written in
blood. A chill shuddered through her body as the image of the single, blood-red
word burned in her mind: BEWARE.
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