HauntedPassion

Title Page

Chapter One

Will Jeni survive All Hallow’s Eve and the day of the dead in an Irish castle filled with haunted passion?

When Jeni makes a trip to Ireland on a whim, she finds the impossible. The two men she’s dreamed about most of her life are nineteenth century ghosts! Despite that, they want her with the same heat that they have displayed in her dreams for the last several years. Will she survive a night in an ancient castle filled with haunted passion?

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Haunted Passion

Copyright © 2012 Tianna Xander

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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Haunted Passion

By

Tianna Xander

Chapter One

Jeni stood in the doorway of the study looking up at the portrait on the wall behind the desk. She knew those faces.

She dreamed of them every night.

Not once since she turned sixteen had she slept a night without dreaming of those men. Both were the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. They were also the unreasonable standard to which she’d held all of her boyfriends throughout the years. No one could hold a candle to either of them. How could they? They had both been in her mind and were fictitious examples of what she expected in a man.

Somewhere, she had gotten a glimpse of a photo of this portrait. Whether it was in a book or some pamphlet of the area, she didn’t know. Her mother had brought her here to Ireland once when she was little to see her father, but they had never found him. Her father had died long before they had arrived.

Had she seen this portrait then?

She moved into the office and looked around. She wasn’t supposed to be here, but the photo of this portrait in the pamphlet had her dodging the tour guide and sneaking past the velvet rope she wasn’t supposed to cross.

Tears filled her eyes as she stood staring at the painting of two men who were long dead. They were both perfect, just as she remembered them. One with his clear green eyes and a smile that looked like it held secrets. The other, always looked somber as though he held the world on his shoulders.

They were brothers, yet not. She didn’t know how she knew that. Until she’d arrived, she hadn’t known much about the men in the portrait other than being the oldest two of the Earl’s three sons., they had both disappeared one night, never to be seen again. The Earl’s brother had inherited the title and no one ever spoke about them again, until someone found this portrait as they cleaned out the castle when it was put up for sale.

“I know you,” she whispered and swiped the tears from her cheeks. “It feels like I’ve known you both forever.”

The portrait wasn’t horribly old. It was from the early to mid nineteenth century. She looked around, wondering just how much trouble she could get into for being here. After all, she was supposed to be on a tour and ditched it. Turning, she headed for the door.

“Excuse me, miss.”

Jeni jumped guiltily at the nasally sounding voice. Looking up, she grimaced at the staid-looking butler who stood frowning down at her.

“This portion of the castle is not a part of the tour, madam.” His voice was polite as he glared down at her, his expression accusing. “If you would be kind enough to follow me, I shall escort you out.”

“Uh, sure. I mean, yes,” Jeni said with a nod. She lowered her head, too embarrassed to meet the man’s censuring gaze.

“Right this way, if you please.”

She had to hand it to the guy. He was awfully polite for a man who’d just caught her snooping around.

Jeni followed the man through the wide corridors, expecting him to take her back to the front door of the castle and give her the boot. Instead, he led her back to the tour group and left her in the back. He didn’t even embarrass her by announcing to the guide about how he’d found her snooping around in the current owner’s study.

“This is why you are a lucky group,” the tour guide said with a wide smile. “The current Earl would like to extend an invitation to any of you to spend the night to see that this is one of the most haunted castles in Ireland.”

She moved to unhook the velvet rope that blocked the way into the rest of the castle, leading them to the very room that Jeni and the butler had just vacated.

The guide smiled as she pointed up at the portrait of the two men that Jeni had just spent several minutes staring at and smiled. “The newest Earl has just discovered that, as we had thought, this
is
the Earl of Wessex, Edward Godwine and his adopted brother, Garrick Godwine. Rumor has it that their younger brother murdered them to inherit the title. Their father has never found peace. He haunts the study. It is said, the two young gentlemen also haunt the castle to this day.”

She turned to an inscription on the wall and pointed. “They say that they were killed by a witch’s spell and will never find rest until the right witch recites the spell on the wall at midnight on the day of the dead. The paint has been refreshed every five years since the year ten sixty-six to preserve the spell in the event that one day they may possibly find rest.”

The group filed into the room, all of them looking at the Old English writing.

Jeni stared up at the spell on the wall. It wasn’t written in modern English, but somehow, she knew what it said.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, she typed the translation into an email and sent it to herself. For reasons she couldn’t fathom, she knew she had to stay here overnight, no matter the cost.

One of the other tourists asked the distasteful question, leaving Jeni to breathe a sigh of relief that she didn’t have to be the one to ask.

“How much will it cost us to stay the night?” an older gentleman asked when his wife elbowed him in the side.

“Nothing,” the tour guide said with a smile. “As I said, the current Earl has extended an invitation to anyone who wishes to stay. There is no fee for this. You will be the Earl’s guest.”

About that time a tall, dark gentleman entered the study from a door on the right. He stood in front of the group, his hands behind his back as he appeared to examine them all.

“Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I wish to extend my invitation to spend one night here in the castle to prove to you all that this is, indeed, one of the most haunted castles in Ireland.”

Jeni didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t really like the man. He didn’t look the type to own a castle and he definitely didn’t look like an Earl. She frowned at the lack of resemblance to the man in the portrait. There was something about his eyes she just didn’t like.

Needing to know if what she thought was indeed true, Jeni stepped forward and cleared her throat. “I would like to stay, if you’ll have me.”

After that, the entire group stepped forward, each of them wanting to accept the invite. That is, all except one.

A short woman of advanced years looked up at the Earl and shook her head. “No thank you, sir. I know what this night is and I’ll not be staying in a haunted castle. Tonight the veil is thin. Tomorrow is the day of the dead and I will not be a part of helping any ghost, good or bad, back into this world. Let them rest, I say.”

Jeni bit her lip wondering if she should listen to the old woman’s advice and stay away from the castle. As much as she felt as though she should take the old woman’s warning to heart, she couldn’t. There was just something about the offer that she simply couldn’t refuse.

After a huge, seven course meal, Jeni made her way to the room where she would spend the night. It was a huge room, with large windows overlooking the garden. Earlier, she had watched as the darkness crept over the lawn and cast the castle in shadow before she’d showered and changed for dinner.

For a moment, she stared out into the darkness. The scent of roses and lavender wafted up to the room and she inhaled deeply. Even the smell here was familiar. If she didn’t know better, she would have insisted that she’d been here before.

Sitting on the bed, she picked up her cell phone from the nightstand and checked her email, looking for the spell she’d sent herself. It didn’t surprise her to see that was the only email in her inbox.

What did surprise her though, was the filmy-looking apparition to her left. It was them! They stood looking at her as though she were a figment of
their
imagination. With a swallow, she glanced at the spell, wondering if she should recite it aloud.

After all, this
was
Halloween and at precisely midnight, the veil would thin. She could communicate with those who had passed before her. If she did, she would have twenty-four hours to spend with any spirits she conjured up.

She glanced down at her phone again and closed her eyes. It was just too tempting not to try. Looking down at the email she sent herself, Jeni recited the spell.

“Sea foam and castle stone, candlelight and smoke. Come to me and stay with me and give my night some hope. I call to thee my heart and soul I see thee in my dreams. Come to me this night and bring love to me on moonbeams.”

She couldn’t bear to see them disappear. Just in case the spell didn’t work as she hoped, she wanted to remember them just as they were. Taking a deep breath, Jeni closed her eyes and said the rest of the spell aloud as well. “Forever together my heart will soar forever in night we shall be. Holding each other forever more, loving each other forever are we.”

Jeni didn’t know why she recited the spell. She wasn’t a witch. To hear her mother talk, her grandmother had been a wise woman, but her mother refused to practice. As a matter of fact, Jeni’s mother always called it woo-woo garbage.

“You have freed us, my lady,” the one she thought was Garrick stepped forward and bowed.

Tears filled Jeni’s eyes when she opened them to see the two men standing before her. They were no longer made of mist, but what appeared to be flesh and blood.

“We have dreamed of you, these many days and nights, praying to God that you would come to us.” This was from Edward, she believed. He was taller than the other man and leaner, but no less attractive. Dark hair framed his face and his coat hugged wide shoulders. The embroidered brocade vest he wore hugged his torso like a second skin revealing his broad chest that tapered down to his slim hips and well-formed thighs.

“You’ve—” Jeni cleared her throat. “You’ve dreamed of me?”

“Forever.” The taller of the two stepped forward. “Please forgive us. I am Edward and this is Garrick Godwine. We are…brothers.”

Jeni heard the slight pause and figured he did that because they weren’t really brothers. If memory served, Garrick was adopted. He was the illegitimate son of their father’s second wife. Not that something like that meant anything at all these days.

Jeni tried not to stare at them both. Edward with his tall, slim good looks and Garrick with his thicker bulk was enough to make her want to fan herself.

“I don’t know what to say.” She brought her hand to her throat. What did it mean? Did it mean that she was the one who could give these two gorgeous ghosts rest?

More tears slid down her face. Was she ready to lose the dreams of these two? She’d fallen more than a little in love with them throughout the years and they had done things to her in her dreams that no corporeal man ever had.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” She felt her face heat. Good grief! Did they dream about the same things she did? If so, it was embarrassing!

“Uncomfortable. That is the farthest thing from our minds. You have given us peace. The only time that we have been able to feel is when we were with you.”

“How could you both have the same dreams?” They were confusing her. How did ghosts dream?

The two of them grinned. “We do not literally dream. We imagine and we have been imagining you for the last one hundred and fifty years.”

“How could you?” Jeni shook her head. “I’m only thirty years old.”

“We knew you were coming. We prayed for you and God delivered.” Garrick moved to her side and took a deep breath. “You smell as delicious in real life as you did in our musings.”

Jeni shivered when his breath brushed her neck. It felt just as it had in her dreams. She rubbed her arms, feeling goose bumps. She didn’t know what it was about these two men but she felt as though she’d known them forever. That she had loved them forever.