The Haunted (18 page)

He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged, and kept my focus on the drawing. “Just curious…I mean you do live in a castle,” I said, using the words Madison had thrown at me.

“
Do
you
believe in ghosts?”

“
No fair, I asked you first.”

Taking a deep breath, he released it. “Fair enough…I guess I do then. I’ve heard noises in the castle that can’t be explained, and people who have visited have seen shadows and mists. I mean, if someone dies in a place, then it makes sense that maybe that person’s spirit hangs around there.”

“
When I had dinner at your house, your mom mentioned one of your ancestors being murdered.”

“
Ian MacKinnon,” he said matter-of-factly. “He was poisoned by a female servant who fell in love with him. He wasn’t much older than I am now.”

My heart was hammering so loud, I was surprised he didn’t hear it.

“
So did you ever feel his spirit in the castle?”

He shook his head. “I hear noises every once in a while. I think everyone has the sensation of being watched from time to time, and I’m no different. Does that mean my house is full of ghosts? Maybe, but I can’t say for sure if it’s Ian or not.”

What I wouldn’t give to be a hundred percent honest with him, and tell him that I had hung out with Ian for weeks. That I felt he was Ian, reincarnated.

“
So…is the inn haunted?” he asked.

Actually, I’m the one who is haunted.
“Definitely,” I said under my breath.

“
Really?” he asked, sitting forward. “What have you seen?”

“
You don’t want to know.”

He stared at me for a few seconds, and then the corners of his mouth lifted. “I’ll just have to protect you from these ghosts then.”

Chapter
21

Kade had left and I was getting ready for bed when Dad walked into my room. “I wanted to let you know that there is a company party in Edinburgh this weekend.”

So he was leaving again. Honestly, I was relieved, especially since I was going to Tom’s party with Kade. Maybe I could convince Miss A to let me stay up there overnight…

“
And you and Shane are coming with me.”

My stomach dropped to my toes. I wanted to hang out with Kade and my friends, not sit through a company party with my dad. “But I already have plans.”

“
Sorry, but you’ll have to break those plans. Everyone in the company is bringing their families, and therefore, I am bringing my family. I’ve asked Miss Akin along as well,” he said, like bringing Miss A would make all the difference in the world.

“
Dad, please, I don’t want to go.”

“
I’m sure you like hanging out with your boyfriend, but this is important to me.” His voice was stern. “I don’t want to hear another word about it. We leave at noon.”

***

Edinburgh was an interesting city. Old, creepy, and yet hauntingly beautiful all at the same time. I felt spirits around me, and although I didn’t try to connect, my pulse skittered when I saw the ghost of a young girl, doll in hand, walking up the middle of the Royal Mile. I focused in on her and I got a vision of a mother crying over her, and then covering the girl’s face with a pillow.

I flinched. The family had been starving, living in squalor beneath the streets of Edinburgh. A crowded, overrun subterranean apartment that smelled like death.

I pushed away the visions, and followed my family into the hotel. Thank goodness we were staying in the same hotel as the company party. That way we could leave when we wanted, and hopefully my dad wouldn’t bitch too much.

Shane and I shared a room, and I watched him closely. He’d gone quiet on me for about an hour, saying very little, but I didn’t feel creeped out. No doubt, like me, he was hating his life right now and wishing he was at Tom’s party.

Dad dropped by our room at ten minutes to six dressed in a charcoal gray suit. Shane wore a black dress shirt and jeans. He refused to wear slacks, and dad seemed to be content, because he gave us both a once-over and smiled. I wore the sundress I had worn at Milo’s birthday party, along with a navy shrug sweater and wedge heels.

The ballroom was full of about two hundred people, and as we ate dinner my dad excused himself, saying he had to use the restroom. He stopped by the table of a lady he’d been eyeing all night. I’d caught a few flirtatious glances between them, but I’d assumed the man sitting beside her was her husband.

That man was now completely turned in his chair, speaking to another woman, their body language familiar.

“
This fucking sucks,” Shane said under his breath, sliding a little further down into his chair, and pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. Miss A had stayed behind in her room, saying she just wanted to relax and enjoy a movie that was on the History channel. Dad didn’t argue, especially since it had been a rough week for her.

I made small talk with the lady to my right, the wife of the Chief Financial Officer of the company. She was sweet, but had horrible breath, and I struggled with trying to keep from inhaling.

Dad walked back toward the table…with the lady he’d been talking to in tow. The man at the table didn’t even blink as she left, giving me confirmation that I had been wrong. I elbowed Shane and he sat up, looked at Dad and the woman, and shoved his cell phone back in his jeans pocket.

“
Riley, Shane, I’d like you to meet Cheryl Fleming,” Dad said, huge grin on his face. I hadn’t seen him smile like that since before Mom died. “Cheryl, this is my daughter Riley, and my son Shane.”

She had strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, and her forehead had the waxy, kind of startled expression that people who did Botox had. Her tailored suit fit her slim body, and I could tell she was nervous as she reached out and shook Shane’s hand and then mine.

My heart sank to my toes. Dad liked her. I could see it in his eyes as he looked at her and smiled reassuringly.

I thought I might puke. My mind started racing, going in a not-so-good direction. Shane had alluded to the fact he thought dad was messing around with someone. Now he glanced at me, his brows lifted as though to say, ‘See, I was right.’

My nails bit into my palms.

Shane, looking bored to death, glanced at Dad. “Can I go back to my room now?”

Dad’s smile thinned. “The night is young, Shane.”

“
Dinner is over, though.”

Clearing his throat, Dad said, “I’d like for you stay for the CEO’s speech.”

I felt sick when Dad pulled out a chair beside him and offered it to Cheryl. She held his gaze for a moment, and then with a slight nod, sat down. She immediately started asking questions. Did we like Scotland? How was school? What subjects were we learning? Had we made new friends? Shane answered with one syllable answers, where I tried to be a little more polite. It was tough though…because I knew what this meant. I could tell that my dad wanted us to like her. I could almost feel his desperation.

She said she was divorced, and had an eight-year-old son who went to boarding school in France.

“
Lucky him,” Shane said under his breath and I smiled inwardly. Personally, I was suspect of anyone who sent their kid to boarding school. My mom had always used boarding school as a threat when we didn’t behave. She told us she’d be calling 1-800-boarding school. Little did I realize at the time that the word boarding school had far too many digits to be a phone number. Her threat had worked like a charm, though.

The CEO walked onto the platform and tapped the side of a wine glass with a knife. “Good evening…”

I was actually grateful for the interruption, ready to be out of here and back in my room. I wanted to talk to Kade. How lucky he was that he had both parents, and a great home life.

Shane slid his earbuds in, ignoring Dad’s stern look. At least the music wasn’t blaring loud enough for the table to hear.

The CEO of Langstrom’s Software Services gave one of the most self-inflated speeches I’d ever heard. My mind had wandered and I couldn’t help but watch my dad from the corner of my eye. Once I saw him touch Cheryl’s hand, and she didn’t pull away. He brushed his pinky along her thumb and she glanced up at him with a shy smile.

Bile rose in my throat. So this is why he’d dragged us four thousand miles away from Portland. Another woman. Maybe he was grateful when Mom had been killed in the car wreck. He could play the poor widower to the hilt, and turn around and see his mistress halfway across the world.

I focused on Cheryl, trying to tap into her, but I couldn’t focus. My thoughts were all over the place. I was getting more pissed off by the second, and by the time the long-winded speech was over, I stood so fast my chair nearly tipped over. Shane caught it, and righted it before it hit the ground. “I’m heading back to my room. Cheryl, it was nice to meet you.” I forced the words past my lips.

“
I’ll go with you,” Shane said. “Nice to meet you, Sandra.”

Cheryl opened her mouth to correct him, but Shane was already walking for the double doors. Yep, my brother had returned in force. Thank God.

“
Good night,” Cheryl replied with a tight smile.

Hotel staff was busy cleaning off tables, and Shane grabbed two glasses of champagne off the back table while the server was preoccupied talking to a guest. He handed me one. I glanced back at the table to see if Dad was watching, but he was talking to Cheryl, and now they were holding hands.

We immediately took a right, toward the stairs and walked the four flights to our room. I tossed back the champagne and left the empty glass on one of the steps.

“
Look at you,” Shane said, lips quirked. “I’m impressed.”

Pulling the room key out of his back pocket, Shane stopped in front of our room and handed me his glass. “Hey, don’t drink it.”

I was tempted. My heart pounded a mile a minute. I was furious, sad, and disappointed, and all I wanted to do was cry.

The minute the door shut behind us, I turned to Shane. “They’re together. I mean, together-together.”

“
I know.” Unbuttoning the dress shirt, he slid it off and put on a T-shirt. “I read Dad’s emails to her on his computer.”

“
How come you didn’t say anything?”

He shrugged.

I knew the reason. He didn’t want to give me any reason to cut, and he knew Dad dating someone a year after our mom’s death was definitely going to upset me. And I was upset. Actually, I was furious. “Do you think they were dating before we moved here?”

“
Dad loved Mom, Riley.”

“
That’s not what I asked,” I said, sitting on one of the double beds.

“
He was probably lonely, and let’s face it—he’s had business in Edinburgh before. I just choose to believe he wouldn’t have screwed around with anyone else while Mom was alive.”

“
He flew to Edinburgh a few times though.” I tried to think back on those times, how Mom acted when he was gone. She never seemed concerned about an affair but then again, some women were completely in the dark about their husband’s infidelity.

“
Yeah, but I really don’t think so. The tone of the emails were more the flirty, new kind of relationship emails. You know what I mean?”

I suppose I did. It still didn’t help though. I felt like it was way too early for him to move on.

“
Hey, look at the bright side.” He flashed a grin. “This means he’ll be gone even more now.”

“
I can’t believe you just said that.”

“
I’m not trying to be an insensitive dick, but what can we do, Ri? He’s lonely, and now he’s found someone. He can spend his weeks and weekends in Edinburgh, and Miss A can keep an eye on us. She’s a lot easier to deal with than Dad.”

So true. Thank God for Miss A. She was our salvation. “Do you think he brought Miss A along as a buffer?”

“
Definitely.” He chewed his thumbnail. “He probably figured this was the easiest way to let us know about her. Whatever the case—he’s moving on. We have to accept it.”

The problem was…I didn’t want to accept it.

I went into the bathroom, washed my face, and changed into my pajamas. Shane was slumped against the headboard, feet crossed at the ankles, scrolling through the channels. The hotel only had basic cable. Aside from an old movie that wasn’t good the first time we’d watched it, we were stuck with watching reality television, Scottish style.

“
This fucking sucks,” Shane said around ten. “We’re missing one hell of a party.”

I nodded in agreement, and sent yet another text message to Megan. No one was responding—not Kade, not Cait, not Cassandra or Megan.

“
You have any luck getting your friends?” I asked Shane.

He shook his head. “Milo forewarned me there’s little to no mobile reception, so I’m not surprised.”

We spent the next hour in silence. I had hoped my phone would ring and I’d get an update from Megan, or at least hear from Kade…but nothing.

Shane went to the bathroom and turned on the fan. I heard the click of his lighter. “I thought you quit that,” I said, figuring he couldn’t hear me over the fan when he didn’t respond.