Part 30 (1/2)
”I can come right over.”
”What? To Scotland? That's not...necessary,” Toni said. She was ready to groan out loud. What had she done? If she brought anyone else in here--especially some kind of an occultist who claimed to speak to lots of ghosts!--they'd definitely be thrown out. She couldn't begin to imagine Bruce MacNiall standing for such a thing.
”Your situation sounds a bit complex.” Darcy hesitated, then her words spilled out. ”Toni, Adam has talked about you. He's says that you're.. .you're one of the most amazing mediums he's ever encountered.”
”Medium!” Toni said, shocked.
”You see things,” the voice on the other end said.
Toni gripped the phone so tightly it might have snapped. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to breathe. ”I'm sorry,” she said then. ”This was...a mistake. I'm not a medium. I had a few unusual--very unusual--dreams as a child, but I am not a medium. I don't want to be a medium. And please, do not--I repeat--do not come over here. We're in a tenuous situation, at best. I appreciate your time. I'll see to it, somehow, that the woman is buried next to her laird. Thank you for all your help. It's truly appreciated. But do not come here! Thank you and goodbye.”
She hung up the phone, threw it on the bed and stared at it as if it might turn into a serpent and bite her. She waited, half expecting the woman to try to call her back. But the phone lay on the bed, silent.
She turned and hurried out of the room. One of their group had to be somewhere about. She wanted company very desperately. Someone among.. .the living.
*14*
It was time for the buses to come rolling up, and Bruce had not returned.
”You had it all figured out!” Gina said with dismay. ”Now what are we going to do?”
”Someone else will play Bruce's part, that's all,” Toni said.
They were standing in the great hall, dressed for the various roles they were going to play. Everyone stared at Toni.
”What?” she said.
Kevin cleared his throat. ”Really, no one else can play Bruce's part.”
”He's not even an actor!” Toni protested.
”That s just it,” David said. ”He is the great MacNiall.”
Toni shook her head. ”Come on, guys! We never planned on having him to begin with. He's worked with us, but he's not on the payroll.”
”We don't exactly have a payroll, right now, do we?” Thayer inquired.
”Thayer, you can be Bruce,” she said.
”I can't ride that horse.”
”And now,” Ryan said, ”I'm supposed to be the bad guy. I've been practicing my evil sneer all day.”
Toni sighed. ”He isn't here. So we have to do something else.”
”I know!” Ryan said. ”Okay, here's the deal. I'm not so sure I can ride his horse, either--”
”You can ride any horse,” Toni protested.
Ryan shook his head. ”That fellow knows his master. But Wallace is right as rain now. I'll ride him in, then I'll come up the stairs as the very personification of good and evil. You know, a dramatic Jekyll and Hyde number. I fight with Toni, and myself. It will be great.”
Again, they were silent, staring at him.
”Thayer,” Toni said, staring at her kinsman, ”you'll have to be Bruce--without the horse. Burst into the castle on foot, run up the stairs. Ryan will come riding in as the bad guy.”
”We could just do it the way we had originally,” Gina said.
”That's a definite plan,” David said. ”It's actually the most logical.”
”It is,” Kevin agreed.
Toni shook her head stubbornly. ”We can't go back, because now we know that we were maligning someone.”
”Toni, we were never maligning anyone, because we didn't know he had really existed!” Gina protested.
”But now we do,” Toni said. ”And I don't want to play it the way we had it originally. Guys, we know the fellow was innocent.”
”Well, we don't know it,” Kevin said.
”Yes, we do,” Toni insisted stubbornly. ”So, Thayer walks in, and Ryan rides in. Agreed?”
”Sure,” Thayer said.
”I don't know,” Ryan protested, shaking his head. ”I think my Jekyll and Hyde thing could have been really, really good.”
”Alas! We'll never get to know!” Gina said, and winked at Toni.
There was a knock at the door.
Kevin clapped his hands. ”Places, everyone. David and I get to open the doors now!”
”No, no! Not yet,” Thayer protested. ”It's just Lizzie and Trish. They were coming early.”
He went to answer the door. It was indeed the girls. They came in, exited and exuberant, oohing and aahing over the castle alone. ”And you all are living here! How wonderful,” Lizzie said.
”Actually, yes,” David murmured, looking around. ”We should be grateful, for whatever time we get, huh?”
Ryan sighed. ”We thought we'd have it for all of our lives.”
”Or as long as we wanted, anyway,” Gina said.
”Well, it's lovely, truly lovely,” Trish said, catching Thayer's arm and squeezing it. ”You're lucky, for whatever.”
”Yes, I guess we are,” Gina said.
”Buses!” Kevin said. ”I can hear them. Let's move, children. Trish, Lizzie, just follow the crowd around. We can all chat when the last bus leaves.”
Toni disappeared up the stairs, awaiting her cue. Leaning against the wall, listening to activity below, she smiled, pleased to hear the audience reaction as they played out their parts and gave their histories. She didn't know if the fact that Lizzie and Trish were out there, determined to have fun, spurred their tour to greater enthusiasm, or if they were just all getting into it so deeply that they naturally brought their listeners along. But the night was going wonderfully.
When she came out on the landing, clad in her white gown, ready to become the Lady Annalise, she found that she was ”on” that night herself, wound up by the stories the others had told. Her voice rang through the hall. Her pa.s.sion for the heroism of Laird MacNiall was strong. And when she announced his return, she was stunned when Bruce came riding in on Shaunessy, perfectly on cue.