Penmort Castle (59 page)

“This isn’t
funny,” he clipped.

“I wasn’t
joking,” she replied.

His eyes rolled
to the ceiling, his hand dropped from her jaw and he muttered,
“Fucking hell.”

Abby got up on
tiptoes, put her hand on his shoulder, his gaze came back to her
and she advised softly, “You really shouldn’t say the f-word so
much.”

“Darling,” he
retorted, “
you
really should learn not to be cute when I’m
annoyed.”

She dropped
back on her heels saying, “I’ll make a note of that.”

His other arm
slid around her. “I think that’s smart.”

“Um, sorry to
interrupt your, um, whatever,” Cash and Abby’s heads turned to see
Fenella at their side, “but, Abby, don’t you think you should do
something?”

Cash released
his firm hold on her, not entirely but enough for her to move a
modest distance away but his arm along her shoulders kept her at
his side.

“Pardon?” she
asked Fenella.

“You know,
something,
” she urged, “to upset Vivianna.”

Cash tensed and
Abby queried, “Like what?”

“I don’t know,”
Fenella answered. “Last time, you nearly touched Anthony
Beaumaris’s portrait. I don’t think she wanted you to do that.
Maybe –”

“Snog Cash,”
Suzanne all of a sudden was there.

Abby’s eyes
moved to Suzanne and she breathed, “
What?
”

Suzanne looked
at Cash then to Abby and repeated, “Snog Cash.” When they just
stared at her Suzanne went on. “Listen, she thinks of the Beaumaris
heirs as hers and she thinks, in some twisted way, she’s looking
after them. Even so she doesn’t appear before them unless they’re
in harm’s way, which isn’t often.” Her gaze went back to Cash and
she commented, “You’re a healthy lot, don’t put up with much
either, never did.”

“How do you
know this?” Honor asked. Abby hadn’t noticed her getting close but
she saw now that Honor was studying her sister, unable to hide her
curiosity.

Suzanne looked
at Honor and shrugged. “She talks to me.”

“Talks to you?”
Fenella squeaked.

“Yes,” Suzanne
answered, “ever since I was eight years old. We’d moved in, we were
here a few months, Alistair said something nasty, it was the first
time he did. I remember it like yesterday. I was crying in my room.
She came and talked to me.”

Abby, Cash,
Fenella and Honor were all staring at her.

Finally Honor
spoke. “You think you might have wanted to mention this to us? You
know, sometime in the last
twenty-five years,
” she ended on
a near shout.

“At first I
thought you all would think I was crazy,” Suzanne returned,
blithely ignoring her sister’s raised voice. “Then, even when I
knew you saw her too, I kept it to myself.”

“Why?” Fenella
asked.

Something
shifted across her face, something that looked like pain, before
she hid it.

“I just did,”
she answered and her eyes went back to Abby. “She’s exposed herself
now in front of Cash so I’d guess she won’t hesitate to do it
again. She probably knows you’ve set a trap. She also probably
figures she’ll win. She always has. You aren’t the first one to try
to get rid of her, you know.” Abby didn’t know but didn’t say
anything as Suzanne kept talking. “I don’t know what Anthony is up
to but if she’s given him the slip, to draw her out you’ll have to
make a claim to what she considers hers.”

“She’s been
holding my hand or in my arms all night,” Cash reminded her.

“Obviously,
that isn’t enough.” She grinned wickedly but it wasn’t her usual
unpleasant wickedness, this grin was actually kind of endearing
and, Abby thought distractedly, she should do it more often.
“You’ll have to go for the gusto.”

“It’s my
understanding she can be anywhere, hear anything,” Cash replied.
“She’s probably listening to you right now.”

Suzanne shook
her head. “No. Over the years I’ve learned to sense her. She’s not
here.”

“So how is she
going to know Abby’s kissing me?” Cash enquired.

“You, if you’re
in this house, she’s tuned into. Completely,” Suzanne replied
softly, her words freaking Abby out but not as much as her next
words would do. “Not what you’re saying, not what you’re doing,
what you’re
feeling
.”

“Oh my,”
Fenella breathed.

Before her mind
kicked in, Abby turned to Cash in embarrassed horror and muttered,
“Oh my Lord, Cash, if that’s true, we shouldn’t have had sex on the
desk in the study. She probably
watched
or at least she
felt
.
Bloody hell
, I hadn’t thought of that.”

Slowly, Cash’s
head turned to the side, his chin dipped down, his eyes locked with
Abby’s and for the first time since he left to talk to James, his
mouth formed a delicious grin.

“Oh my,”
Fenella breathed again.

“You had sex on
Alistair’s desk!” Honor hooted loudly and everyone in the room
turned to look at them as Abby felt the heat come up in her cheeks
and she mentally kicked herself for being stupid, stupid,
stupid.
“That’s
hilarious!
” Honor shouted.

Abby ducked her
head, praying for a miracle (or a little, teensy bit of Angus’s
mojo) that would make her a real invisible woman.

When this
unsurprisingly didn’t happen, she turned into Cash’s body and
buried her face in his chest begging, “Please, kill me.”

Cash’s arms
went around her as Abby heard Mrs. Truman yell, “Abigail Butler,
what did I tell you about hanky panky? And on a desk! My goodness,
your
grandmother
is probably
spinning
in her
grave
.”

Abby tilted her
head back, looked up at Cash and whispered, “Are you going to kill
me? If you are, now’s a good time.”

His face
descended, his captivating grin firmly in place and against her
lips, he murmured, “No, darling, I’m not going to kill you.”

“Damn,” she
whispered right before his mouth took hers in a kiss.

It wasn’t a
brush-on-the-lips kiss.

It was an
open-mouths, tongues-engaged, knees-weakening, stomach-dipping,
body-melting
kiss.
Abby leaned into Cash, his head slanted,
deepening the already-deep kiss and she felt his arms tighten
around her as her hands slid up his arms, along his shoulders, one
gliding up his neck and into his hair.

She absorbed
his low groan, a delectable tremor shuddering through her moments
before they heard the spine-chilling scream.

Showdown Part
Two

Cash’s mouth
broke from Abby’s, both their heads jerked to the side and they saw
Vivianna only feet away and hovering before she shot forward.

Abby’s body
tensed for flight but they had no time, Vivianna was almost upon
them.

Cash’s arm came
up to fend Vivianna off, something Abby knew wouldn’t work because,
well, she was a ghost.

Then it
did.

Worked that
was.

Vivianna
slammed into Cash’s upturned hand as if her body was corporeal, the
scream stilled and she flew back.

Abby heard
gasps around her but all she could do was stare.

“What on –” she
breathed but she heard a whisper in her ear.

“Draw her to
the circle,” Angus ordered and belatedly Abby’s brain kicked
in.

She pulled out
of Cash’s arm and took a step back. His eyes sliced to her, she
gave him a short jerk of the head and watched his jaw grow
tight.

She started
edging toward the corner of the gallery where she knew the circle
had been drawn, according to Cassandra not only magical but also
invisible.

Unfortunately
the room was huge and the circle was far away, a distance to Abby
at that exact time that felt like a million miles.

Regardless Abby
kept creeping and saw that Vivianna’s eyes were on Cash, not filled
with malice but instead with pain and longing.

This was a
problem considering she wasn’t paying a lick of attention to
Abby.

Normally that
would be a good thing. At that moment it was not.

Abby kept
backing toward the corner, giving Vivianna’s floating form a wide
berth and trying to be obvious but not
too
obvious.

Cash, eyes on
Vivianna, started to move slowly toward Abby.

Vivianna’s
head, just as slowly, turned to Abby.

When Vivianna’s
malice-filled eyes hit her, Abby’s mind disengaged, fear shot
through her and she stopped moving.

“Abby, come
here,” Cash commanded, lifting his hand to her.

Abby’s gaze
darted between Cash and Vivianna and she whispered, “Cash.”

“Darling,
you’ll be all right. Come here,” Cash said softly, still advancing
and Abby started backing up again.

Abby had no
idea what he was on about because the only way she’d be all right
was to get the damned ghost in the circle. He knew that. Hell,
practically everyone in the room knew that.

“Cash, I have
to –”

“Come
here.”

“Cash –”

Then it
happened.

Vivianna
twirled toward Abby and advanced at the same time Cash bolted
forward.

Abby started
running to the circle. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to
see if Vivianna was following and saw the spirit collide with Cash.
Cash’s arm went around her waist and he hurled her bodily
toward
Abby then tore in their direction.

Abby stopped
and ducked, Vivianna sailing over her as Cash caught Abby at the
hips, whirled and threw Abby back from whence she came. She reeled
and would have landed right on her ass if Kieran hadn’t caught her
in his arms.

Cash wasted no
time and shot forward in Vivianna’s direction.

Abby watched in
shock as Cash caught Vivianna’s skirts in a fist and pulled her
down into his arms. Subduing her wild struggles quickly, he carried
her kicking and punching to where the circle was supposed to be.
Once there, he let go and jogged out toward Abby, Vivianna zooming
after him so fast she was nearly a blur.

When it looked
like Vivianna would make it to Cash, Abby heard Fenella scream
right before Vivianna slammed against an invisible barrier.

Bright sparks
of white lights like sparkler dust exploded up and down, in and
out, in a wide circle, so thick and riotous you could barely see
through them.

Vivianna flew
back into the circle.

Cash made it to
Abby’s side and with an arm hooked around her waist, he pulled her
out of Kieran’s arms and against his body.

Vivianna came
tearing toward them again.

And she again
slammed into the circle, more blazing lights burst and she sailed
back.

They watched,
everyone inching slightly nearer to the circle as she did this
again.

And again.

And again.

Then she
stopped, suspended in the air in the middle of the circle.

Eyes on Cash
then on Abby, she opened her mouth and screamed.

This scream was
different, still eerie but filled with frustration.

“That’s it, wee
ghosty. Scream all you want. We’ve got you now,” Angus’s voice came
from a now visible body. He was standing at the edge of the circle,
in full kilt, hands on hips, grinning like the lunatic he was at
Vivianna.

Vivianna
stopped screaming and glared at Angus.

“Angus!” they
heard shouted and everyone turned to see Cassandra at the door. She
was in top-to-toe, full-on, Rock ‘n’ Roll Gypsy gear, wearing
enough silver and scarves to outfit a five member rock band. She
had a big, battered, brown leather case with her. She put it on the
floor and gave it a hefty shove with the bottom of her booted foot.
It went sailing across the room and Angus, also with his foot,
stopped it.

Angus’s head
turned to Vivianna. “You’re going on a road trip, lass.”

Vivianna’s eyes
went from the case to Angus, her body still hovering.

Instead of
looking worried however, she crossed her arms as if this all was a
mild annoyance.

Abby had the
feeling this was not a good sign.

Cassandra came
to stand beside Angus. She now had what looked like a long,
gnarled, stout twig in her hand about a foot long, maybe longer.
She was pointing it at Vivianna and muttering under her breath.
Abby couldn’t catch all that she was saying but she could tell that
it rhymed.

“Who’s she?”
Nicola breathed from the other side of Kieran.

“A witch,”
Jenny answered.

With effort
Nicola took in this new utterly inconceivable nugget of information
and then asked, “What’s she doing?”

“Folding her
up,” Honor, at her mother’s side, replied.

At that a
stream of bright pink glitter dust poured forth from Cassandra’s
wand and Nicola, eyes huge and trained on the wand, wisely decided
to stop asking questions.

They watched as
Vivianna did indeed look like she was folding in on herself from
the bottom up.

Feet, skirts,
knees and up.

Thighs, hips,
waist and up.

Regardless of
what would seem dire circumstances for the ghosty she-bitch, she
kept her eyes on Angus, her arms crossed on her chest.

Her face, Abby
saw with a queer curl of fear starting in her belly, now looked
bored.

“Something’s
wrong,” Abby whispered but Cash saw it too.

“Angus,” Cash’s
voice cut through Cassandra’s muttering.

“Not long now,
lad,” Angus replied, still grinning.

Cash pushed
Abby behind him and demanded, “Angus, look at her.”

Peering around
his body, Abby watched Vivianna’s arms uncross and lift toward the
ceiling as her ribcage was folded up.

Then Abby
watched as Vivianna’s eyes moved toward Cash and Abby.

Then she
grinned.

Cash tensed,
Abby took several steps back and then Cash shouted, “Angus!”