“Do you think we should try to convince Ez and my parents?” I asked as Coop handed me the still-warm box. Inhaling the yummy smell, I sighed.
“Wait until you taste it,” he said with a grin and spread the tarp over the ground. “As for imagining your father helping search for the ghost?” He shook his head. “There must be a way to get rid of him though.”
“Maybe find what binds him. Whatever that is.” I helped Coop arrange things and settled on the blanket. “Tell me about this pizza,” I said.
“It’s my variation on one we had once in Portland. Four kinds of cheese.” He handed me a paper plate and opened the box’s lid. “Notice the crust is both thin and thick.”
I bit into it and took my time to savor the interesting combination of flavors and textures. “It’s so good,” I said around the pizza.
We worked our way through the food. The meal only needed something sweet to make it perfect. Maybe if we had a next time, I could bring a dessert.
“It’s time.” Coop pointed to the horizon above the forest where the sky had begun to glow. My breath caught as it turned into a transparent but shifting curtain of variegated-green, the color changing and moving, sometimes white and other times blue.
We watched for a minute before he lay back, using his backpack as a pillow. “We can share, if you don’t mind.” He scooted his head so mine would fit too.
As soon as I lay beside him and settled my position, he laced his fingers with mine and started in on an explanation of the Aurora Borealis phenomenon. I really didn’t catch much of what he said, mesmerized by the colors in the sky and the feel of my hand in his. As the phenomenon faded, he went quiet.
“Like I said the other day about last summer,” he finally said, still staring at the sky. “I wondered then if there could be more between us, but you had plans, and I couldn’t stay. A couple of friends have tried the long-distance thing. I didn’t want to set myself up for that. They went through nothing but hardship, and neither relationship worked anyway.”
My emotions jumbled all over each other, and I didn’t know what to say. Why did his words have to thrill and thrash me all at the same time?
“Then you showed up here.” Coop sat up and pulled me to a sitting position too, keeping my hand in his. “Being with you again makes me wish I’d said something last August.”
“I crushed on you all last summer,” I forced myself to admit. “Finding you again—”
“Isn’t enough,” he interrupted.
“What?”
“Ez told me you’re going back to Sacramento.” His words didn’t quite accuse me.
“I have a life there, you know,” I said, all defensive, feeling again like that rope in a tug-of-war. “I’m working for my dad while Taylor looks for a good location back home.”
Coop let go of my hands and leaned back on his. He tilted back his head, seeming to meditate.
“Have you ever thought about getting a job in Sacramento?” I asked, frustrated. Why was I the one who had to move?
“I did last summer. When I finished that internship, my supervisor said I had a job there any time I wanted one.”
“But that’s perfect.” I sat straighter, unable to keep down my excitement. “You could move to Sacramento.”
“Lia, this is my future.” He pointed to the castle, keeping his words soft but firm. “Miles paid for my entire education and that internship so I’d bring back those skills and use them here.”
“But Miles isn’t here to disappoint,” I insisted.
“It’s kind of funny, but I used to think no one could be as crazy about this place as Miles. Until I met your father. Lia, I’d be a fool to turn down his offer.” For the first time, Coop sounded a little frustrated too, though his expression didn’t change.
“He’s already offered you a job?” I’d heard bits and pieces here and there about my parents wanting to choose a head gardener. Neither had mentioned they wanted Coop.
“Yes, and I accepted. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of,” Coop said, simply.
“Why does this stupid place have to be everyone’s dream fulfillment but mine?” Unable to sit still any longer, I jumped to my feet. “Look, I can’t open a dessert boutique in Wildwood.”
“Why not?” Coop rose, took my hand, and pulled me a little closer. “Better yet, why not open one here at the citadel? It’s only three days since your parents announced the tea, and it’s already sold out. Your mother’s always talking about how much she needs you here.”
“My future is in Sacramento,” I said, my jaw muscles tight.
“I don’t think that I’m imagining that something special’s happening between us.” He put his hand to my cheek, his palm cooling the flush in my skin.
“Coop ….” I relaxed against his hand.
“Don’t decide now. Just give us time to find out.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead before turning to pick up the dinner mess.
***
The next morning, as I brushed my hair, Mellie came skipping into the bathroom. She carried a box with a bow on it and handed it to me with a huge grin.
“What’s this?” I set down my new brush and accepted the box.
“It’s from Coop.” She skipped away.
I pulled off the small card and opened it.
Every artist needs proper tools. You could call your café Tort Reform. ;) Coop
Inside the box rested a palette knife. I tried to think back to the questions he had asked about pastry tools when we’d gone to the store. Not that many. He must have done some research.
Over the next few days, first thing in the morning, Mellie brought me a box. Every one contained some pastry tool and a little slip of paper with a name suggestion. Things like What’s the Batter, Highly Confectious, Let Them Eat Cake, or Pudding on the Ritz. When I opened a box with piping tips and read the name Pie-romaniacs, I burst out laughing.
Approaching Coop in the garden one morning, I couldn’t help a grin. Over the last few days, he’d managed to chip away at the resentment I’d been fighting since the picnic. I’d especially resented the awkwardness that had grown up between us.
“Hang on,” he said when I reached for a shovel. Coop bent over and picked up a pretty bloom of vibrant pink and burgundy. He brushed back my hair and slid the flower over my left ear.
“It’s pretty,” I said, wishing I’d gotten a better look at it. “What kind is it?”
“It’s a Pelargonium; they originated in South Africa.” Then he put me to work.
The next day, he gave me a single, long-stemmed yellow rose with red tips. No other comment, even when I asked him what he meant by it all. He only smiled and went about his work.
That night I checked online for the meaning of rose colors since I’d never received one with two colors before. Yellow with red tips meant falling in love. I understood then what his “my lady” comment had meant at the picnic. With the little gifts and flowers, Coop was “courting” me.
***
A few days before the big Fourth of July event, I sat in the library across the table from Coop, holding a photocopy of an original Irish deed. We’d taken to meeting there during our lunch breaks to do research on the castle and Sir Hugh.
“Who wrote these notes?” I pointed to the English words penciled in next to the ones in Gaeilge, the Irish Gaelic language.
“Miles did.” Coop shifted the order of the folders he had. “His grandfather was never much into his ancestry. The old man was the first American-born in his line and wanted nothing to do with the old country.”
“I’m kind of jealous of you.” Even I heard the sadness in my voice.
“Why?” He looked at me, curious.
“Because you knew him, and we didn’t. He sounds like a pretty cool guy.”
I studied a map of the little valley that included the citadel and Wildwood. I knew my parents, at one point, had wondered about expectations. With Miles’ childless situation and having no close relatives, Coop might
have thought to inherit the citadel himself.
“Did Miles treat you like a son?” I asked.
“No. He was more a mentor, a tough but fair taskmaster. He made sure I had opportunities, but he worried about all the kids in his care. We’re so isolated out here. The village has a small elementary school, but it’s a long bus ride into Payne for middle and high school.” Coop pulled a face. “That’s why my mother decided to homeschool me instead.”
“You talk about growing up here and how nice Miles was, and it seems so normal. Until it’s not. And the not”—I rolled my eyes—“is really not.”
“It was normal growing up here,” he said, defensive at first, then he shrugged. “Well, as normal as it can be growing up around a castle.”
“You know, I’ve wondered about that.”
“About what?”
“How come you never mentioned last summer that you grew up in a castle?” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table.
“When I told my hosts, they kind of wigged out a little.” Coop grimaced. “It’s not like I owned the castle or was royalty or anything. People treat you different.”
“Still.” I remembered how self-conscious he had been at the beginning of the summer. “If I’d grown up in a castle, I think I’d have been telling anyone who would listen. And a haunted castle too.”
“I promise. We didn’t know it was haunted.” Coop looked down at his hands. “I’m not really proud of this, but when it first started happening, I got worried. Mum’s kind of anal about where she puts things, and it’s not like there were a lot of us living here to make messes. I thought she might be coming down with Alzheimer's or something.” Coop ran a hand through his hair.
“I stayed up all night for two nights. Got nothing to show for it except lost sleep. Then my missing keys showed up in a random place, so I went into town and got a silent alarm system. You’ve probably noticed my parents aren’t particularly tech savvy. It wasn’t hard for me to set it up without them knowing about it. When they went to bed, I turned it on. It’d wake me if one of them got up. I slept through the night.”
“Was this before you moved to the gatehouse?” I stood and turned to face the mantel.
“Yeah.” He came to stand beside me.
Coop had surprised me with how hesitant he had been about us touching too much. When I’d asked him about it, he’d mumbled something about not wanting to get caught in an awkward moment by one of our family members. I think he meant my dad, but my brothers might make life miserable if they caught us together. That had better be the reason I hadn’t gotten a real kiss yet. Since it fit the idea of his courting me, I let it slide.
“Don’t misunderstand,” he said. “Stuff going missing or showing up in random places didn’t happen very often. Just enough to make me wonder if something was going on.”
Frustrated at our ineffectiveness, I glared at the picture of Sir Hugh, as though that would tell me the secret. I blinked. Had something moved? A closer examination showed nothing out of the ordinary. It must have just been the lighting.
“I’m getting really sick of this,” I said. “My dad is going to kill Eli and Joel soon, what with all the weird traps they keep setting. We’ve got to find something—anything—about Hugh. Isn’t there something we could look up to help, like ghost lore?”
“What do you mean?” Coop asked.
“Well, in all the movies I’ve seen, the ghost needs to go into the light. But is that what we’re supposed to do with a real ghost?” I started to pace. “I wonder if we’ve been taking the wrong approach. Why do ghosts haunt a place anyway? Is it the old school stuff where the ghost is tied to the place by a curse or something? Is it like in the movies where the ghost doesn’t know he’s dead?”
“I’m not sure where you’re going with this.” Coop considered me, his hands shoved in his pockets.
I reminded him of what Eli, Joel, and I had seen the night before. “If the ghost is Sir Hugh,” I pointed to the man in the painting, “I think he’s trying to scare us away. Think about it. It worked with your parents.”
“But why?” Coop scowled. “What would tie him to the castle enough to come all the way from Ireland?”
“Yeah, why not stay there?” I glared at the painting. “Wasn’t land a really big deal back then? Like their power and social standing were all about how much land they owned and what it was worth?”
“It was.”
“So why would the ghost of Sir Hugh not stay with his land?”
“I wonder ….” Coop shot me a dark grin. “Mum said, that time she saw him, that he didn’t seem to realize she was there at first. And she thought he was looking for something.”
“We need to understand Sir Hugh. Maybe all the ghost lore is true. If we can find what binds him to the castle—”
“We can send him to the light?” Coop maintained a straight face, but his eyes twinkled.
“Yeah. Something like that.” I went to the window and looked out over the grounds. The truck my parents had taken into town to get groceries approached the castle. Getting groceries from a store half an hour away had turned shopping into a bit of a production.
“I can’t believe we’ve barely been here a month, and Wildstone’s changed so much already.” My dad had hired people to work on all those village buildings that had been in various states of repair.
“He’s something else, your dad.” Coop came to stand close behind me. “I think Miles would have liked him.”
“It’s exciting to be part of it,” I said.
But not as exciting as the warmth of Coop’s chest against my back. I leaned my head back against his shoulder. He brought his arms around me. The pulse in my ears nearly deafened me. Was this going to be it?
Footsteps rang up the spiral staircase, and we turned toward it, breaking apart. Joel burst into the room. “Dad said to quit lollygagging and come help put the groceries away.” My brother glanced between us and grinned before darting back out the door.
We really did need to install an intercom.
Chapter 6
Hugh focused the tiniest bit more energy into his form to hold it firm. Never, in all his years of haunting, had it been necessary for him to put forth so much effort.
It was these blasted Americans. First, the parents and the oldest son were unbelievers, but the others ... he did not know if it was because they believed too much or if they were too crafty. Either way, none of them feared him enough to depart. Not since he had lost his little Maire had he been around so many people.
Even so, he found them entertaining to watch. As with the couple a few days earlier. Young women of this time were quite forward. Her overtures to the big man had been obvious to Hugh. Had he been the receiver of them, he would have thought it akin to being knocked in the head with a cudgel.
In his time, no daughter of good family would have consorted with the servants. Yet the young man was more than the gardener. He had been to university, and these Americans accepted no titles.
In Hugh’s time, courtship had been so much simpler. All his friends’ wives had been chosen by their parents. But he loved Alana from the first day he had set eyes on her.
His Alana.
She had traded her health to give Maire life. He would never forget kneeling by his beloved’s bed, holding their young daughter so Alana could touch her one last time. Even now, his chest constricted. As though he still had a heart.
Alana’s dying words had evoked his promise. He would keep Maire safe, guide and protect her, see that she lived a long, full life.
Hugh had given his promise, and he had failed them both.
Lia
I DIRECTED THE GUY WITH a stack of plastic chairs over to the canopy where my mom reigned with her notepad. News about the Fourth of July event had spread, and people from as far away as Bellingham had signed up in droves.
Mom and Dad said the event’s novelty drew the people, but Ezra and I agreed the curiosity to see the citadel drove the success.
Only those who’d signed up for the tea, however, would get inside the place, and then only the ballroom, since we could accommodate wheelchairs there. Either way, with hopes to make it an annual event, my parents wanted our guests to have a good experience for next year.
Next year.
Taylor had texted last night that her father might have a lead on a good shop location coming open. Her father had promised to help us set it up, but he wanted us to have enough money saved to stay in business a year without a profit.
I heard my name and turned. In the distance, Coop headed toward me, making his way through the obstacle course of chairs, tables, canopies, and people.
“Lia,” he said, a little breathless when he reached me. He gave me a chaste kiss on the forehead and slid a flower picked from his garden into the bun on top of my head.
“I’d have texted you last night,” he said, “but it was pretty late, and I knew you’d be up early. I found a folder with a bunch of records Miles’s grandfather had filed away. Sir Hugh was his father. Anyway, as I read through the papers last night, I had an idea. I’d like to show you something in the library.”
“Right now?” My head swirled with everything on my mom’s to-do list in the phone in my pocket. And I still had to assemble my cucumber sandwiches and stage the ballroom.
“Later, when you get a break,” Coop said. “Today—before the boys set off another big trap.”
I’d have loved to toss everything aside and go with him right then and there. In the distance, my mother called directions to some workers.
“Lia, listen.” Coop ran a hand through his hair in his now familiar and endearing agitated manner. “I know they’re planning something big.”
“Is it bad?” My dad had threatened them about the pranks but had been juggling too much to come down hard on them. “I’m impressed with how sneaky they’re getting; they’re more discreet.” Unable to help myself, I grinned. “I honestly think their traps have been holding the ghost back.”
A Savage Ghost Page 7
