Part 26 (1/2)

When they were gone, Toni felt a shudder seize hold of her again. So much for being right off a main road. She couldn't even see anyone on the streets, and the day was darkening early. This was insane. She should catch up with Thayer and the girls, and hurry down to the pub where the beer was warm, but company and hospitality warmer still. After all, here she was in a cemetery, filled with the long dead, and she already thought that a ghost was leading her around a castle.

Then she gave herself a shake. She was fine. She'd wanted to be alone, and she was not going to be afraid. This was the type of place she had always loved, the very old combining with the present, a piece of living history, since the kirk offered Sunday services now just as it had for centuries. So she turned back to look through the graveyard, absolutely determined to put the old woman's strange actions and words behind her.

One monument in particular had caught her eye earlier. Usually she was drawn to the very old, but this one was new, and more ornate--and functional--than most. At the base, it created an arched, marble seat that faced a garden well tended by someone. At the top was a magnificently carved, flying angel. When Toni came closer, she marveled at the detail in the sculpture. The angel's face looked down in sadness. Below it, etched in large letters, were the words Margaret Marie MacMannon, beloved daughter of Rose and Magnus, departed this for a better world far too soon, yet the memory of her goodness remains.

She had died at the tender age of twenty-three, just a bit more than ten years ago, Toni discovered, reading the smaller print. That she had been a teacher and a lover of history, music, dance and mankind was also immortalized.

As she sat and continued to read, Toni was surprised to find, in very small print, that the kirk thanked Laird Bruce MacNiall for the garden and memorial, to be kept in perpetuity.

”So you like old kirks and cemeteries, as well as castles!”

Spinning around, Toni was startled to see none other than Bruce MacNiall coming toward her.

He was wearing a leisure suit that day, and had doffed the jacket, which he carried casually under his arm. He was wearing sungla.s.ses, as well, so his eyes were unfathomable, and his ebony hair was slicked back. He could have just walked off a page of GQ, rather than out of a crumbling stone castle seeped in history and lore.

”Bruce,” she murmured, feeling as if she had been caught looking into someone's private diary. ”Hi. Did.. .did you know I was here?”

He shook his head, joining her on the bench. ”Actually, I didn't. But I'm glad to see you.”

She smiled, still feeling a little shy. Then she decided simply to ask, ”Who was Margaret?”

He didn't seem disturbed by the question. He simply looked up at the angel, as if he could see something that went far beyond it, then shrugged slightly. ”The great love of my youth,” he said softly. He looked at Toni, though she could still see nothing of his eyes beneath the dark shades. ”She was a local girl with a great love for people, life.. .children. We were engaged, but never married.”

”What happened to her?” Toni asked, afraid that she was prying too deeply now, and was about to hear a horrible story.

”Leukemia,” he said. ”I never knew anyone with a greater love for the simplest things in life. The sky, the hills, gra.s.s...trees. Children. She adored children. She wanted a dozen, and always said it would be fine because we were very wee in numbers here, and the world needed more Scots.”

”I'm very sorry,” Toni said. ”It sounds as if she was really a lovely person.”

He nodded and looked away. She thought that he had decided to say no more, but then he looked at her again. ”That's why I rather let the castle go, I'm afraid. She loved it. She wanted to bring life back to it. She had a way of just making you glad that you were alive and breathing and.. .well, it seemed such an irony that her own life should prove to be so fragile.”

”I am so sorry,” Toni repeated.

”Thanks. She's been gone a very long time now. No excuse for me, really, to have let things go the way that I did.” His lips curled into a dry smile. ”Did you visit the rest of the family?” he asked her politely.

”I saw a few MacNialls in the old kirk, yes.”

”And you're here alone?”

”We're all meeting at the pub at the base of the hill at four,” she told him. ”Ryan and Gina took copies of the doc.u.ments to Jonathan. David and Kevin are shopping. And Thayer and I just met two lovely la.s.ses in the cemetery, so the three of them headed on to the pub already.”

”Good. I'm glad there's a bit of excitement for your cousin,” he said. And he smiled broadly at her. ”I've had a bit of my own today.”

”Oh?”

”I've been at the M.E.'s,” he told her. ”And we think we've made a discovery that will vindicate my ancestor.”

”Really?” Toni said.

He nodded. ”Looks like she was strangled with a scarf that belonged to his archenemy, a man named Grayson Davis. The fellow hailed from around here, but he wasn't the kind of man to fight for a losing side for long. It wasn't really such a terrible thing for men to be on opposite sides--throughout our history, Scots have fought Scots almost as much as they've fought the English. The thing with Grayson Davis was that he turned coat, and turned in many a man he had once called his friend. He was the one who brought down Bruce MacNiall, catching up with him in the forest and giving him a mock trial then and there. And well, you know the rest.”

Toni looked at him with surprise and murmured, ”I wonder...”

”You wonder what?”

”Nothing!” she said quickly, shaking her head.

He took her hand, his thumb ma.s.saging the palm with an absent tenderness that stole around her heart. ”You've done the family a great service, you know, finding Annalise. I've been telling you this all along, you know, but.. .I really do owe you.”

”I'm delighted,” she said, a little afraid of being so close to him and not sure why. ”We really need to tell all this to an old woman who was through here a while ago. Apparently, everyone in town knows that Annalise was found. This lady was very upset, certain that your ancestor was running around, going off to the cities to abduct other women and strangle them in the forest, as well.”

He frowned sharply. ”What?”

She shook her head, startled to have gotten such an intense response from him.

”It was nothing to take seriously,” she said quickly. ”This old woman knew we were at the castle, and apparently, she's deeply distraught that Annalise was found in the forest. She wanted to believe that your ancestor was a hero, not a wife killer. Apparently she believes that Bruce MacNiall still roams the land.”

He let out an impatient and irritated sound. ”Elwyn MacHenry!” he said.

”Yes. She was with her son and daughter-in-law. They seemed like very nice people.”

”They are, but Elwyn is more than 'touched,' as they call it here. She's been raving about Bruce MacNiall roaming the countryside for years.” He looked at her with a trace of amus.e.m.e.nt. ”However, he just used to ride in the moonlight. She never accused him before of going from town to town to strangle others, as he had supposedly strangled his wife.”

”Elwyn will be happy then to learn the truth,” Toni said.

He rose suddenly, drawing her up. ”I love this place, but enough is enough. Let's go join the living, eh?”

The afternoon spanned into the evening. Bruce remained in an exceptionally good mood, and Thayer was riding high as well, enjoying the company of Lizzie and Irish. Gina reported that Jonathan had been cordial, and he had told them it was good that they had given the original doc.u.ments to Robert Chamberlain, since his resources were so great. In fact, they'd saved him the trouble of having to do it. And he was pleased to tell them that the locals were cheerful about the tours. The buses had stopped in the village both nights, and the tourists had bought all manner of T-s.h.i.+rts, stuffed draft horses, jams, jellies, jewelry, tartans, cashmere, ties, brooches, snow globes and miniatures of the castle.

Kevin and David had spent their hours in the shops looking for plates and plastic ware, and they were delighted with all their little purchases.

Gina decided that they had to have haggis, since it was the national dish, but Bruce begged out of it being the meal for the entire table.

”Hate the stuff,” he told her.

”But it's the national dis.h.!.+” she protested.

”Aye, it's the national dish, and do you know why?” he asked her, eyes sparkling. ”It's made from the cheapest pieces of meat--”

”Body parts,” David put in.

”Aye, body parts, because we were too broke here most of the time to be using the best cuts ourselves. But, by all means, Gina, have the haggis. They actually do an excellent sirloin here, and the lamb chops are phenomenal, especially considering that we're in a local pub,” Bruce finished.

Toni opted for the salmon, while Thayer, David, Ryan and Kevin went along with Bruce, ordering the sirloin. Lizzie and Irish decided to try the lamb chops.

”Sure you want haggis, Gina?” Ryan asked. ”I'm not trading my meal with yours!” he told her.

She made a face at him, but when it came her turn to order, she asked their waitress, ”What do you think of the haggis?”