Part 24 (1/2)
”The difference?” Gina said. ”Watch Eban! It's as if they're communicating back to him. Yes, Ryan, you and Toni speak to any mammal you come across, but you don't expect the animals to give you answers back!”
”'E's just a wee bit touched in the head,” Thayer said. ”I feel sorry for the poor old boy.”
”I don't,” Gina said, not even attempting to hide a s.h.i.+ver. ”I feel.. .scared.”
”I'm sure he's harmless,” Toni said, yet she remembered how terrified he had made her, just the day before. But that had been because her imagination had gotten the best of her.
Had last night been her imagination, too? Or insanity. That morning, the door to the crypts had been bolted, just as it had always been. But she knew, if she insisted it be open, that she would find everything below just as she had seen it.
”Eban works very hard. We've seen him work!” she added.
”Thank G.o.d, I'm married,” Gina murmured. ”I think I'd be scared in my castle room if it weren't for Ryan.”
”Great,” Ryan said. ”She keeps me around because she's scared.”
Gina flashed him a warning stare, but Ryan just grinned.
”Eh! If the old man starts giving you too much trouble, la.s.s, remind him I'm around!” Thayer said, winking.
”There you go,” Gina told Ryan.
”Well...if worse came to worst, David and I would let Gina have the old Duncan Phyfe sofa that's in our room,” Kevin said.
Gina shuddered. ”I don't think I could take the activity in your room!”
”All right, all right, the lot of you! Break up the l.u.s.t fest. A few of us--” Thayer paused, glancing at Toni. ”Okay, maybe it's only me these days, but there's no one sleeping in my room, so I'd rather not hear about the writhin' and strainin' going on around me, eh?”
Gina burst out laughing. ”Thayer, you could have your pick of girls! I've seen the way they look at you when we go in pubs and the like.”
He shrugged.
”You're too picky,” she told him.
He was thoughtful for a minute. ”That I am. And I've decided I want an American la.s.s.”
”And why is that?” Toni asked him.
He shrugged. ”I like the American way. Free from the shackles of tradition, and all that rot.”
Gina laughed. ”But you were willing to go in with us on the castle?”
”Well, in truth, that's all changed now, hasn't it? It seems like we're on a borrowed pound at a roulette wheel, eh? Just trying to make back our bet.”
”We'll make it back,” Gina said determinedly.
”Thanks to the largesse of our host,” David murmured, and he stared across the table at Thayer suddenly. ”Hey, did you know that he'd been a cop?” he demanded.
”How could he have known he'd been a cop?” Toni demanded. ”He hadn't even known that he'd existed.”
”Oh, yes, right,” David said.
”You're starting to sound Britis.h.!.+” Kevin told him. ”Righto, cheerio and all that!”
David looked at him and sighed.
”Well, when in Rome, you know,” Ryan offered.
”But Laird MacNiall--a cop!”
”Was a cop,” Gina said. ”I wonder what he does now,” she mused, looking around at all of them.
”Hey, don't ask me!” Kevin said. ”I didn't know that lairds Were...well, anything. I just thought they sat around being.. .lairds!”
”I don't think it works that way anymore, does it?” Toni asked Thayer, smiling.
”Well, these days, anyone who owns enough land collects rents,” he said.
”Does he own a lot of land?” Gina asked.
Thayer shrugged, still looking at Toni. ”The constable said that Laird MacNiall owned half the village, remember?”
”Hmm,” Gina murmured. ”So.. .he's simply rich.”
”Strange, if he has money you'd think there would be servants swarming around the family home,” David murmured.
”And instead, no one,” Ryan mused.
”There's Eban Douglas!” Kevin reminded him.
”And he's weird!” Gina said again.
”So we're back where we started,” Ryan said, standing. ”Gina, we should get those doc.u.ments over to Jonathan's office.”
”We were supposed to see Laird MacNiall's deed today, remember?” Thayer murmured. ”I guess now we just have to accept that it's legit, huh? After all, he wound up not being with us.”
Gina sighed. ”Ryan and I will go to the constable's. I'm sure we have to fill out a police report, as well, but I imagine that, for the time, one of us giving the information and signing the report will be all that's required.”
”Two of us,” Ryan reminded her.
”Two of us. The rest of you can wander. Toni, you said that you wanted to walk around the old kirk and graveyard, right?”
David groaned. ”Don't you want me to take the doc.u.ments to the constable's office?”
Toni stood up. ”David, go shopping. And Kevin and Thayer...you can sop up some more ambience at the pub, if you like. I'm fine on my own.”
”I would like to see if we can't find some.. .cla.s.sier paper products for our tea and scones,” David said.
”They're definitely not into paper plates the way we are in the States,” Kevin agreed. ”But they've lovely shops. Maybe we can find something.”
”I don't mind going with you, Toni,” Thayer said.