Part 26 (2/2)

The woman glanced at Bruce. ”Should I be tellin' her the truth, Laird MacNiall?”

”Indeed, Catherine, aye,” he said gravely.

”I think we keep it on the menu for the tourists,” she said, causing everyone to laugh. Gina switched to the sirloin.

By the end of the evening, Thayer had planned to spend the next Monday driving Lizzie and Irish down to Glasgow to show them some of the sights there. Kevin and David were planning holiday decorations for the castle. Gina was ever so slightly crocked and affectionate in her husband's arms. And the light in Bruce's eyes offered amus.e.m.e.nt and a flicker of intimacy that Toni found both touching and seductive.

Whatever ridiculous doubts and fears she had regarding him--and the ghost of his ancestor--seemed to have dissipated completely. She couldn't wait to be back at the castle, and back in his arms.

But it wasn't to work out that way. When they arrived, Eban was there to meet them. The roan had taken another turn for the worse, and he'd been out with the animal, doing his best to keep him up and walking, but he was wearing himself out. Toni was ready to run out with Ryan, but Bruce stopped her.

”I'll tend to the roan with Ryan,” he said.

”But it sounds as if Wallace is really sick,” she said, upset. ”And I didn't see him at first when I should have--”

”I'll be calling the vet, Toni. It will be all right.”

”How are you going to get a vet at midnight?” she asked.

”The rewards of a small village, where everyone knows everyone,” he told her. ”It's all right. Toni, trust me, I know something about horses.”

”Toni!” David set an arm around her. ”It's best if you let them handle this, you know.”

He was right. She would be emotional, and maybe in the way.

Bruce took her arm, leading her toward the castle. ”Wait for me?” he queried. ”Well, get some sleep, if you can.. .but in my bed?”

She looked into his eyes and nodded. The excitement she'd been feeling was definitely tempered now with worry for the horse, but there was something more that he gave her with his words and the gentle brush of his eyes--comfort and a.s.surance.

”The doc will take care of old Wallace,” he said.

So she went on upstairs and showered, then slipped into a gown and into his bed. Restless, she stood up and looked out the window. The lights remained bright in the stables.

She went back to bed, where she tossed and turned, her mind filled with the events that had occurred since their arrival. An hour pa.s.sed, and she was still staring at the ceiling. Finally her eyes closed, and she slept. Then.. .she felt a touch. She opened her eyes, and he was there--at the foot of the bed.

His sword was not dripping blood this time. Instead, it was sheathed in the belt and holder that sat around his hip, on his plaid.

She sat up, staring at him, wis.h.i.+ng that she could scream, make someone come running, making the apparition disappear. And though his face was Brace's, she no longer thought that he was the Bruce she knew.

Staring into his eyes, she ran her hand over the sheets at her side, praying that maybe Bruce had come up while she was sleeping. But he wasn't there. And with the man at the foot of her bed looking so exactly like him...she began to question her sanity again. And to question the man with whom she was falling in love.

”Don't do this to me!” she whispered.

But he remained, turning and heading for the door.

”No!” she said.

He waited at the door until she rose and followed. Then he headed down the hall to the stairway.

Toni came along, barefoot, s.h.i.+vering in her gown. She didn't understand why she didn't scream then, or call out, waken someone else. If they didn't see him, then she was crazy.

But at least she would know for certain that he wasn't the man she knew, flesh and blood, playing tricks on her.

Yet, if they didn't see him, then she was following a ghost.

He paused at the landing, and a fierce tension suddenly gripped his features, as if he found it painful there. Then he looked back, as if to a.s.sure himself that she was following.

”You know,” she said quietly, ”you have a descendant here. You couldn't just appear before him, huh?”

There was no response. He started down the stairs.

Her heart was pounding. Cry out! she told herself. But still, she didn't.

He came to the great hall and waited again. When she neared the bottom of the stairs, he walked on to the secondary hall, and from there.. .to the door leading to the crypts.

”No, please!” she told him.

Nae, la.s.s, the ”please” be to you.

Did the ghost speak, or did the words just somehow echo in her head?

”I really don't like the crypts!” she whispered.

The door, bolted and rusted by day, was open. He went down the spiral stone stairs, and she followed. Once again, he led her to his grave. And then he was gone.

In the shadows, in the must and darkness of the dead, she spun around, frantically searching for him. ”What do you want? Just what is it that you want? Annalise has been found. And they know.. .they know you didn't do it!”

But there was no answer, and she felt again as if the light began to disappear as soon as she lost him. She was incredibly frightened, and furious, as well. Why did he bring her here, then leave her alone in the shadows and cold, desperate to get back up the stairs?

She ran, nearly tripping in her scramble to regain the level of the hall. Once there, she burst out the door, across the smaller hall and then the great one, and up the stairs. She hesitated on the landing, thinking that David and Kevin would have to screw their s.e.x life or intimacy that night because she was going to burst in on them and tell them that they were getting out of the castle then and there.

But as she stood on the upper landing, she heard someone humming. Looking down, she saw Ryan coming out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hands. He looked up and saw her.

”Toni?” he said, and frowned.

She must have looked wild, she was certain. With him in the living flesh, walking across the hall, her panic subsided.

”I, uh, how is Wallace?” she asked.

”Fine for the night. The vet is convinced he's getting into something that's making him get this colic, though he can't figure out what. But he's good, Toni. Honestly, I wouldn't lie to you. You could have asked Bruce. He's up there now. In fact, he's been in for a while. You can go to sleep, and rest a.s.sured, old Wallace is doing well.”

She smiled, glad to realize that he thought she was standing barefoot and in a nightgown on the landing because she was so worried about the horse.

”Good night, Ryan. And thanks,” she said.

She turned and fled back down the hallway, bursting into Bruce's bedroom. He had showered and was in a towel. He seemed distracted, and when he looked up and saw her, his face was filled with tension.

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