Penmort Castle (61 page)

Abby moved to
the edge but only caught a glimpse of Mrs. Truman, Jenny, Kieran
and the rest of them standing in the courtyard outside, everyone
illuminated by the blazing lights that customarily lit the castle.
Abby saw all of them were looking up at the tower before Cash
yanked Abby away.

“Don’t go near
the edge,” he warned, his voice sounding a wee bit irritable.

“Cash Fraser!”
Mrs. Truman shouted. “You get Abigail off that parapet
this
instant!
”

“Who’s that?”
Lorna asked and Abby jumped when she saw Cash’s ghostly grandmother
floating at her side close to the edge looking down at the
assemblage.

“Who’s
that?
” Mrs. Truman screeched, obviously catching sight of
Lorna.

“That’s my
friend,” Abby told Lorna then shouted as loud as she could, “It’s
okay Mrs. Truman! Everything’s under control! This is Cash’s
grandma!” Lorna turned amused eyes to Abby and Abby continued in a
normal voice. “Um, sorry for shouting.”

Cash’s arm
still around her ribcage, grew tighter. She didn’t know if this was
amusement or something else. She reckoned it was something else so
she decided not to look at him. She was already freaked out
enough.

“That’s quite
all right,” Lorna said on another sweet smile.

“Well!” Mrs.
Truman shrieked. “She should know better! Cash’s Nan! You get
Abigail and Cash off that parapet! Right now!” When no one
immediately acquiesced to her demand, she finished on a bellow.
“Don’t make me come up there!”

Cash let Abby
go, leaned over the edge and yelled, “Kieran, I don’t care if you
have to stake her to the turf, do
not
let her come up
here.”

“You got it,
gov,” Kieran shouted back.

At Kieran’s
response, Abby glanced at Cash and saw his eyes roll to the
heavens.

“And who’s
that?” Lorna asked, peering over the edge again.

“Kieran, my
best friend’s husband,” Abby replied. “My best friend is the
redhead. Her name is Jenny.”

“Her gown is
lovely,” Lorna commented, narrowing her eyes to look closer.

“I’ll tell her
you said that,” Abby promised on a smile.

Lorna looked at
Abby. “Your gown is lovely too.”

Abby put her
hands out at her sides, tilted her chin down, her eyes skimming her
dress then she glanced back at Lorna. “It’s my
great-grandmother’s.”

“It’s
extraordinary,” Lorna remarked.

“If I can
interrupt your little chat,” Cash bit out and Abby and Lorna looked
at him as he continued, “perhaps, Gran, you can tell us what the
fuck is going on?”

That’s when
they heard another ghostly voice say, “Conner, don’t speak to your
grandmother that way.”

They all turned
to see Cash’s father not hovering but standing on the roof like he
had real feet even though he was see-through.

“Holy crap,”
Abby breathed again, eyes staring at Anthony Beaumaris, “you just
told Cash what to do.”

Anthony looked
at Abby and replied, “He’s my son.”

Abby kept
staring, her night so bizarre, her mouth somewhere along the line
became disconnected from her brain so she blathered on, “I know but
still, he’s a big guy and he’s scary. I’d
never
tell him
what to do.”

Anthony gave
her a look that stated, quite clearly, even in its supernatural
weirdness, that he thought maybe she was a little touched.

Then his gaze
moved to his son. “Bodes well for your future, son.”

“As pleased as
I am to see you both,” Cash clipped, sounding anything but pleased,
shrugging off his dinner jacket and settling its voluminous warmth
on Abby’s shoulders before he continued, “on the top of a tower in
the freezing, fucking cold at midnight when Abby doesn’t have a
coat and her life hangs in the balance, I’d prefer it if someone
would tell me what in
the fuck
is going on,” Cash
clipped.

Abby leaned
toward Lorna and muttered, “He has a short fuse.”

Lorna’s
disembodied voice muttered back, “They all do, dear.”

Abby decided to
explain Cash’s behaviour. “He says the f-word a lot when he’s
angry.” Lorna looked at her. “And other times besides,” Abby
finished, feeling the need to be truthful (it
was
Cash’s
grandma).

At that, Cash
lost what little patience he had left and snapped, “We’re
going.”

“You’re not
going,” Anthony returned.

“We’re going,”
Cash shot back.

“You
can’t
go,” Lorna put in.

“Why the hell
not?” Cash retorted.

“You have to
save Abby and you’re the only one who can do it.”

They all turned
at the new voice drifting through the air.

Ben’s
voice.

Abby saw he
stood in the opposite corner, also see-through, his phantom feet on
the roof’s floor. Zee was sitting by Ben’s feet, his tail sweeping
casually from side-to-side as if he stood beside his dead master a
thousand times.

“Ben,” Abby
whispered, her heart leaping into her throat making her voice sound
suffocated.

“Not now,
Abby,” Ben returned tersely, his eyes on the door in the floor and
at that moment, it flew open.

Abby jumped,
Cash positioned himself in front of her and took two steps back,
guiding Abby to the middle of the tower, his hands behind him,
fingers curled into Abby’s sides.

Angus emerged
from the door, grunting and straining, pulling the golden rope.

He came fully
into view and kept tugging. Vivianna came after him, still fighting
frantically against the rope at her waist. Cassandra was last
through, her wand pointed at Vivianna, a pale, slim thread of
gossamer gold coming from the wand and hitting Vivianna in the
back, its purpose, Abby suspected, aiding in binding the ghost.

“Jesus,” Cash
murmured.

“We got her,
laddie,” Angus proclaimed stoutly.

“Jesus,” Cash
repeated.

Abby wasn’t
paying attention.

She was
watching Ben, Anthony and Lorna position themselves in a circle
around Angus, Cassandra and Vivianna. Zee had started prowling the
edges of the roof, his yellow cat eyes turned to the restrained
ghost.

“Not gon’ get
away now, are you beastie?” Angus taunted.

Abby examined
Vivianna who had stopped fighting against the rope and her head was
whipping this way and that taking in her fellow phantoms, Cash and
Zee.

It dawned on
Abby that the spectre actually looked scared.

“If you’d paid
attention this morning, son, not only would Abby not have wrecked
your car but I would have guided you to Vivianna’s Book of
Shadows,” Anthony noted mysteriously, his words causing Cash’s body
to grow still, his eyes never leaving Vivianna.

“It’s hidden
behind a secret panel in one of the bookshelves of the library,”
Lorna put in. She, too, didn’t take her eyes from Vivianna and
stayed close to the bound ghost.

“Vivianna’s
invincible… almost,” Anthony noted. “Only her Book of Shadows holds
the secret to her demise.”

“And that would
be?” Cash, his eyes also locked on Vivianna, asked.

“Her death has
to be re-enacted,” Ben answered.

Cash replied
instantly, “She committed suicide.”

Cash and Abby
were moving round in a slow half-circle watching as Angus and
Cassandra positioned Vivianna to the edge of the tower closest to
the tor. Once there the three other ghosts and Zee moved in.

“She didn’t
commit suicide,” Lorna said quietly.

“She didn’t?”
Abby whispered.

“She poisoned
her ex-lover’s wife. Killed her,” Anthony picked up the story. “In
order to commence her plan to rain terror on Penmort throughout
eternity, she drew him up here and confessed to the crime. In a
rage, he threw her over the side,” Anthony told them and Abby
gasped.

Then Abby
gasped again as Angus whipped the lasso over Vivianna’s head,
freeing her, and Cassandra dropped her wand, the gossamer thread
disappearing.

They both
stepped away.

“Cash!” Abby
cried even as she felt and saw Cash’s body get tense.

But Vivianna
was going nowhere. She was pinned to the spot, hovering several
feet off the ground with Ben, Anthony and Lorna’s hands extended to
her somehow, though Abby had no clue how, they were imprisoning
her.

“You’re safe,
love,” Anthony’s voice was gentle and it reminded her exactly of
Cash’s (except, of course, with an English accent rather than a
Scottish one) as it slid through the air all around her. Anthony
went on. “There’s a reason Vivianna didn’t appear before any of the
masters of this castle.”

“Because they
can touch her,” Abby guessed.

“Yes, dear,”
Lorna affirmed, “they can touch her. She’s only vulnerable to a
master of Penmort.”

“You have to
push her over the side,” Ben informed Cash and Abby’s hands came up
to clutch Cash’s waist.

Ben’s eyes
dropped to her hands and she pulled them quickly away.

Then Abby
heard, “She doesn’t love you.”

Abby’s head
shot up and she stared at Vivianna. The spirit’s eyes were pained
and afraid and they were staring beseechingly at Cash.

“She’ll never
love you,” Vivianna’s voice, strangely pleasant and warm, filled
the air. Even so, Abby felt a cold chill slide across her skin that
had nothing to do with the frosty night. “She’ll always love him.”
Her head moved to motion to Ben and Abby felt her chest grow
tight.

“Push her,” Ben
urged.

“
I
love
you. I’ve
always
loved you,” Vivianna told Cash and Abby bit
her lip, feeling her body tremble, knowing this reaction too had
nothing to do with the bitter night. “I’ll always love you.”

“Damn it, man,
push her!
” Ben demanded, eyes on Abby.

Cash took a
step forward and Vivianna quailed.

“You deserve
better!” she cried desperately and Cash stopped.

Abby’s eyes
slid to Cash’s face and she saw he was listening, he didn’t like
what he was hearing and worst of all, it was penetrating.

Abby felt her
pulse start beating wildly in her throat and blood started rushing
to her ears because of course this would penetrate. Cash knew how
she felt about Ben. He’d thrown it in her face during their first,
colossal fight.

He just didn’t
know how she felt
now
.

Vivianna
carried on. “You deserve someone who loves you, who’ll take care of
you, who wants no one but you, who
longs
for no one but
you!
”

“Shut it,
ghosty,” Angus growled but Vivianna ignored him.

“Her heart
belongs to another man. It always will. She’ll never feel that way
for you, my love, my dearest heart.
Never
!” Vivianna
wailed.

Abby could take
no more, putting her hands over her ears and stomping her foot, she
shouted, “Stop it!”

Vivianna’s eyes
moved to Abby and she spat, “You’ll never be good enough for
him!”

Abby took her
hands from her ears, planted them on her hips, stepped clear of
Cash and leaned forward, shouting, “I know! That doesn’t mean I
don’t love him!”

The air and all
of the beings on the roof went deathly still.

Abby, beside
herself and definitely not in control of her own actions (most
specifically her mouth), turned to Cash. “I love you, all right?”
She was still shouting, not the least bit romantically, not that it
mattered. She was in the iron jaws of the freak out to end all
freak outs and she didn’t notice Cash’s body jolt at her words but
instead jabbered on, “I know it sounds stupid, we’ve only known
each other a short time and blah, blah, blah.” Abby circled her
hand in the air like an idiot and kept rattling away. “Doesn’t
matter, I know what I feel. I knew it with Ben the minute I saw
him, I knew it with you.” Abby turned to Vivianna. “So,
you
can go straight to hell, okay? You don’t know what you’re talking
about. You’re just mean and nasty and a poor loser! Haunting a
castle for centuries and killing people because your boyfriend
broke up with you. Who does that?”

“Abby,” Cash
called, interrupting Abby’s rant and her eyes cut to him.

“What?” she
snapped.

“Come here,
darling,” he demanded quietly.

“I don’t want
to. I’m freaking out. All right? And I’m cold. And I need a drink.
Tequila. Stat.” she turned back to Vivianna and threatened, “And if
one, single bugle bead on these shoes is missing after tonight’s
fiasco I’m holding
you
responsible.” She finished while
jabbing her finger in Vivianna’s direction.

“Abby,” Cash
called again and Abby’s eyes sliced back to him.

“
What?
”
she shrieked.

“I said, come
here.”

Abby rolled her
eyes heavenward, sighed heavily and stomped the two feet to
Cash.

His hand came
up and his fingers curled around her neck as his chin tipped down
to look at her.

“You’re in love
with me?” he asked softly.

“Yes, like, no
duh,” she retorted sharply then she called as if he was a block
away, “Hello! Cash! I totally freaked out when I thought you were
in an accident.” Abby turned her head to Anthony. “Your son is very
clever but it would seem he can be a bit –”

She didn’t
finish, Cash’s fingers tightened at her neck and jerked her
forward, making her body slam into his.

She tilted her
head back and her breath caught at the intensity in his eyes right
before his nose touched hers.

“You love me,”
he stated in that low, deep, rough voice which was one of the many
things she loved most about him.

Abby realised
what she was about at the same time she realised that in all her
many years of stupid, stupid,
stupid
behaviour, this was, by
far and away, the stupidest.

Still, she
couldn’t stop herself from whispering, “Yes.”