Penmort Castle (64 page)

Nicola laughed
softly while giving his hand another squeeze before dropping
it.

“Well,
that
doesn’t surprise me,” she commented then said sagely,
“however I figure you’ll decide you can, even if you don’t like
it.”

He hated to
admit it but he knew she was not wrong.

He grinned down
at her as he lifted his hand to her face, his thumb sliding across
her still smooth cheek. It was a gesture twenty-four hours ago he
would never have made and likely she would not have accepted.

Now, however,
she turned her face into his hand and smiled.

Witnessing her
unguarded beauty Cash thought not for the first time that his uncle
was the greatest of fools.

He dropped his
hand and muttered, “Do you want me to go down and order you some
coffee?”

She shook her
head. “I’ll do it in a minute.”

Cash nodded and
moved away, glancing back at the door to see her resume her seat.
She pulled her feet back up on its edge, a position he
instinctively knew she’d taken thousands of times in the past and
she would have the opportunity to assume thousands more times in
the future.

Yes
, he
thought,
justice
.

He continued
down the hall and was passing Suzanne’s door when it was yanked
open, Cash’s hand was caught and he was pulled roughly into the
room.

Cash’s body
froze, it turned, he gritted his teeth and his eyes sliced to
Suzanne.

She’d closed
the door and was standing in front of it wearing nothing but a
short, revealing peach nightgown edged with beige lace and a
matching short dressing gown which was hanging open widely, leaving
very little to the imagination.

He was
disappointed her brief demonstration of humanity last night didn’t
last long. He also had every intention of removing her bodily from
the door if he had to.

“Suzanne, move
out of my way,” he demanded.

“Five minutes,
Cash,” she requested softly and his eyes drilled into hers.

He saw with
vague surprise there was no malice or spitefulness nor any
deviousness. Her blue eyes were open, warm and entreating and he
thought she’d never looked prettier.

“Five minutes,”
she repeated on a whispered plea.

Cash planted
his feet and crossed his arms on his chest.

“Five minutes,”
he agreed on an unhappy growl.

She opened her
mouth then closed it. She opened it again then closed it.

She looked away
and lifted her hand, fingers sifting through her hair at her
forehead, pulling it away from her face in an uncertain and even
endearing way that reminded him of Abby.

Her eyes came
back to his. “This isn’t easy for me to say.”

“Whatever it is
you have four minutes and thirty seconds to say it.”

She grabbed the
edges of her dressing gown and wrapped them tightly around her
body.

She sucked in
her lips and then spoke so quickly it was as if she didn’t get it
all out as fast as she could, she would lose the ability to speak
for the rest of her life.

“When I was a
kid, I thought Vivianna was my friend. She liked me. She talked to
me. She was always there when Alistair was mean to me. She always
made me feel better.” Her arms wrapped tighter around her body as
she kept going. “She’d tell me stories about the Beaumaris men,
their beauty, their virility, their honour, pride, stubbornness,
confidence, arrogance. Cash, she had hundreds of stories about the
masters of this castle, hundreds of
romantic
stories about
generation after generation of men she loved.”

Cash misread
her meaning and stated, “Vivianna is gone, Suzanne.”

“I know and I
won’t miss her,” Suzanne replied swiftly. “What I’m saying is a
little girl who lost her father finds herself in a big, creepy
castle with a stepdad who’s a git. To a girl like that, those
stories were…” she hesitated and continued on a whisper, “those
stories meant the world to me.” Cash remained silent and Suzanne
carried on in a voice so soft he almost couldn’t hear her. “Then
you came to visit.”

The realisation
of what she was saying was so profound Cash’s body jerked with it.
His tone was gentle when he murmured, “Suzanne.

She cut him
off. “I’ve been in love with you since I was nine years old.”

Cash sighed.
This he did not need.

“It’s okay,”
Suzanne said hurriedly. “All this, all I’ve done these past months
wasn’t because I loved you. Well, not entirely or at least not the
way you’d think.”

“Suzanne –”
Cash started again but she was back to speaking swiftly.

“It was because
Vivianna told me about Alistair. It was because she knew you were
the real master of this castle, that she knew he’d murdered Anthony
and she knew he’d try to murder you. I behaved the way I behaved to
you, and then Abby, to drive you away.”

Cash’s body
froze at learning this knowledge but Suzanne didn’t notice and she
carried on.

“I wanted to
make it so unpleasant for you that you’d give up whatever it was
you were doing all of a sudden reconciled with Alistair.” She
started to take a step closer to Cash but thought better of it and
stopped. “She was in the room, Cash. Vivianna was, when Abby walked
in that first time. You weren’t there, she wasn’t allowing herself
to be seen but I felt it the minute Abby walked in. I saw Abby, I
felt Vivianna’s wrath and I knew, I absolutely knew Vivianna meant
her harm. Before dinner I did what I could both to make you angry
and Abby uncomfortable enough to go but you didn’t. After dinner I
got out of there the first chance I could, went to my room and
acted out a crying rage which was when she normally would visit me.
I hoped she’d come to me instead of doing anything to Abby.” She
paused, took in a breath, and went on. “She didn’t come. She hurt
Abby instead.”

Cash watched as
Suzanne closed her eyes and then opened them.

They focused on
Cash and he saw the pain there before she whispered, “I know you
don’t like me and I know the reason you don’t like me is because of
the way I behaved but I had to do something, didn’t I?”

Her tone was so
uncertain, so un-Suzanne, Cash didn’t know what to make of her.
He’d known the woman in front of him for a year (twenty-four of
them, if you counted when he’d visited in his teens) but he’d never
met her.

“You should
have said something,” Cash told her brusquely.

She shook her
head and looked away. “Right,” she muttered and turned to him again
talking now in a high, sarcastic voice. “Um, Cash, you know, your
uncle killed your Dad and I’m guessing you’re next. Oh, and by the
way, I know that because a ghost told me and she’s a nasty piece of
work who wants to do harm to your girlfriend.” She paused before
asking irritably, “Is that what I should have said?”

“Suzanne –”
Cash began but her expression changed to one with which he was far
more familiar.

She moved
toward him but not to him. She began to walk right by him
muttering, “I knew I shouldn’t have bothered.”

But Cash’s hand
came up and grasped her arm, stopping her.

She looked up
at him, eyes narrowed and cruel, and he warned, “Don’t go back to
the bitch, Suzanne.”

“The bitch
works for me, Cash,” she spat. “Trust me, I know, I’ve had
twenty-five years of perfecting her.”

His voice
softened and he watched her head jerk as her face paled when he
said, “I’m sorry about that,” Cash let her go but got closer,
tipping his chin down to look at her, he finished, “but you don’t
need her anymore. Let her go.”

He could tell
she was holding onto the bitch but only barely when she replied
sharply, “It’s not that easy.”

“No,” Cash
agreed, “probably not. But the woman who helped Abby and me last
night, and the one I saw a few minutes ago, is someone I’d like to
get to know. The one standing in front of me right now is one I
never want to see again.”

She stared and
he watched her force a painful swallow.

She didn’t
speak.

So Cash
did.

“Thank you for
trying to protect me,” he said quietly and with feeling.

Her mouth
dropped open then she snapped it shut then she stammered, “I… um,
you’re welcome.”

“You’re a
bright woman, Suzanne,” he muttered. “You’ll find your way.”

She stared up
at him, silent.

He decided
their conversation was finished and moved toward the door.

He halted and
turned back when she called his name.

She had her
dressing gown wrapped tight around her again and Cash thought she
looked very young and very scared but even so, she had the courage
to say, “I’m glad you’re safe.” He nodded and moved to open the
door but he turned back when she kept talking. “And I hope you’ll
be happy.” She hesitated then said, “With Abby. I like her. She’s a
bit mad but she’s tough and very sweet.”

She ended on a
whisper and Cash watched as pink stained her cheeks when he smiled
at her, something he wasn’t certain he’d ever done.

Without another
word he exited her room, closing the door softly. He moved down the
hall hoping that he could make it to his and Abby’s rooms without
Fenella, Honor, Jenny, Kieran, Cassandra, Angus or, God forbid,
Mrs. Truman (all of whom spent the night) waylaying him.

He didn’t
succeed.

As he was
passing the third door from his, it opened.

Cash stopped
and turned to see Cassandra standing in the doorway. Her long, dark
hair was down and tousled from sleep. She wore a pair of
drawstring, flannel shorts and a tight camisole likely borrowed
from Honor as Cassandra was far too curvy to fit in anything
Fenella or Suzanne owned.

She leaned a
shoulder against the doorframe, crossed her arms on her chest and
rested her heel against the side of her opposite ankle.

“I’m sorry,
Cash but we did what we had to do,” Cassandra said quietly.

He knew to what
she was referring, bringing back his grandmother, his father and,
mostly, Ben.

Cash crossed
his own arms on his chest. “You knew the circle wasn’t going to
work,” he remarked.

She nodded.
“Both Angus and I had our doubts. Vivianna was strong and she was
smart. She’d know about the circle and she’d know how to defeat
it.”

“You had it
planned all along,” Cash said and watched her nod again.

“We tried the
circle because we didn’t want to use Ben if we didn’t have to. But
we knew we’d need to be prepared to throw everything at her. Abby
didn’t want her cat involved but we brought Zee along too, just in
case. Angus came up with the spell and I activated it, pulling back
the veil and recruiting the trinity, one Vivianna had wronged, your
grandmother; a past master, your father; and a protector of the
innocent, Ben. All of them together, as well as Zee, who’s a
powerful little thing, worked. They sucked her power, kept her
visible so she couldn’t dematerialise and their presence rooted her
so she couldn’t move.”

It was Cash’s
turn to nod and Cassandra continued.

“You should
know there was another way. A potion Abby could take to fight her.
We could have waited six months and gone after her.”

Cash’s body got
tight and he declared, “I wouldn’t have allowed that.”

She grinned and
replied, “I figured that.” Then her voice dropped low.
“Furthermore, as much as Abby was prepared to do it, I reckon
Vivianna would have made mincemeat of her. When Angus found out I’d
even mentioned the potion to Abby, he went off on one. Of course,
we didn’t know at the time that you had any power over her.”

This surprised
Cash. Angus had not seemed hesitant to put Abby in the line of
fire. Apparently he was only happy to do so if he had Abby’s back
and felt in control of the situation, something he would not be if
Abby had been in the position of going head-to-head with
Vivianna.

Cassandra kept
talking, again in her low quiet voice, her eyes had grown intense
as they studied Cash’s face. “You should also know, when we made
contact with your father, he wanted to come early. He wanted to
spend time with you in the castle.” Her arms came uncrossed, she
took a step forward, put her hand on Cash’s bicep and informed him,
“It was a grave risk, Cash. The longer he was away from the other
plane, the less likely it was we could return him there. If we
didn’t get him back in time, he’d be stuck here for eternity. Says
a lot about him, that he’d take that risk and why he took it, also
says a lot about how he feels about you.”

Cash clenched
his teeth against the feelings this statement sent surging through
him, not wishing to share them with Cassandra, who he liked well
enough, but not enough to engage in an intensely private
moment.

Instead he felt
an overwhelmingly strong desire to get to Abby.

Cassandra took
pity and finished, dropping her hand from his arm. “As for Vivianna
never appearing in front of Nicola, we don’t know why. Lorna nor
Anthony understood it either. I suppose that will just have to
remain a mystery.”

Cash nodded
again as she took a step back, his voice was deeper than normal
when he said, “Thank you.”

She awarded him
with a bright smile, suggesting she’d enjoyed every minute of her
endeavours because in the end, they’d been successful. “My
pleasure.”

Then she took
another step back and closed the door.

Cash turned to
his room. When he made it safely to the end of the corridor Jane,
the cook, was bustling down the hall balancing a silver tray.

“I’ll get
that,” Cash said, divesting her of the tray and he put his other
hand to the knob. “Mrs. Fitzhugh is in the sewing room, she’ll be
needing coffee.”

Jane blinked at
him and asked, “Which Ms. Fitzhugh?” When Cash didn’t immediately
reply, she hurried on. “I only ask because Suzanne is kind of funny
about her coffee.”