by Jane Stain
Kelsey pointed to where the castle yard dropped off the cliffs into the sea and started walking over there quickly, doing her best to be the dignified appraiser and not show too much excitement.
“Let’s go down into the caves.”
Tavish fell in step beside her and gave her a wistful smile.
“We haven’t found the way into most of them, but we have been able to get down to the sea through one, and there was that room with the trinkets you examined today.” He stopped suddenly and grabbed her hand, lending calm support just when she felt herself tripping. “Watch your step. The foundation of an older structure sticks up just enough to trip over, like right there.”
A thrill went through her at the touch of his hand. She held onto it for a moment, in order to catch her balance as she looked down and saw the half-inch which remained of a stone wall, sticking up out of the grass, and then she let go as casually as she could, still tingling from his touch.
“Thanks, I think I will watch my step.”
He smiled with just a pleasant amount of teasing and started walking again.
“Good idea.”
She followed his flapping kilt through a tour of the teetering tower house. It had a surprisingly open floor plan for a structure that was a few hundred years old. It must have been a party house. She didn’t think she would have enjoyed living in it. She preferred a network of small rooms with doors she could close so that she would have quiet to read while people in the other rooms visited or sang or played games and did other loud things.
Ooh, just as she had suspected, there was a cellar in each of the three smaller rooms on the ground floor.
With a ceremonial flourish, Tavish pulled up a modern plastic covering to reveal the first dark hole in the ground.
“When the estate came into Mr. Blair’s hands, these three cellars were hidden. The only reason we found them was because of the rumors of their existence. It took quite a lot of experimentation with fancy acoustic equipment that could detect hollow areas underground.”
Kelsey could see where this first cellar had been opened with brute force by the construction workers. It didn’t have stairs, but Tavish and his crew had installed modern metal ladders, which looked really odd against the stone. Without being asked, he let her go down first, in her skirt. Knowing he had nothing on underneath his kilt, she made herself look away and resisted fanning herself as he came down the ladder next. Everything interesting had already been taken out of the cellar, of course, but exploring was fun. The cellars were irregular, and carved out of the rock cliff.
She and Tavish had climbed out of the second of these three cellars when they heard dogs snarling nearby.
The sound made Kelsey’s knees weak, and she leaned against the outer stone wall of the castle. She didn’t realize Tavish had run off until she turned to where he had been a moment ago and heard him yelling from the nearby bushes.
“Ha! Ha! Git! Ha!”
She then heard a dog crying and another one barking, and she yelled out to Tavish.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll be back in a minute, soon as Tuffy runs off. Go on, Tuffy! Go home! Go home!”
Kelsey’s feet were running over there before she knew it. She rounded the corner and saw something she never would have believed if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.
Tavish was holding a largish dog in his arms almost like a baby, except he had its legs trapped off to his sides and he was hugging it close so that its snarling mouth couldn’t get to his throat. His face was all business, with no hint of fear for himself.
On the ground, a smaller dog was barking at the largish dog while running around in circles and jumping up as if he could attack the bigger dog.
Tavish was talking to the smaller dog, visibly concerned about its welfare.
“Go home, Tuffy!”
Kelsey gasped. Her voice sounded really high when it came out.
“Did you grab that dog while it was snarling at the other one? Are you okay? Did it bite you?”
He turned so that he could see her behind the dog he was hugging.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Will you take Tuffy back where the guys can protect him, Kel?”
She laughed at the little dog, who was still maneuvering around to try and get to the larger dog somehow, he thought he was so tough. She kneeled down.
“Okay, yeah. I will if I can catch him. Come here, Tuffy!”
The little dog ran right into her arms, and she laughed her way back toward the work tent, at how he never stopped telling the bigger dog off or trying to get to him.
One of the construction workers saw her coming and cupped his hands around his mouth, calling out behind him, “Gus, the woman’s got your dog.”
Gus turned out to be a huge older guy. He held out his arms as soon as he saw his dog, and Kelsey had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at how he spoke to his pet.
“There ye are, Tuffy wuffy. Why’d ye hae ta go and run away, eh?” Once he had the dog in his arms, he raised his head up and spoke to her while petting Tuffy.
“I thank ye, lass, from the bottom of my heart. If ever there be aught I can do for ye, let me know right quick, ye ken?”
She’d observed Gus in the group of construction workers with Tavish earlier, good-naturedly laughing and talking with him. Her gut told her she could trust this old highlander, and that he was capable. She smiled at Gus and lingered for a moment to speak with him about how Tavish treated her.
“Well, there is one thing you can do for me…”
When she got back to Tavish, she felt a little guilty for taking so long, because he was still holding the bigger dog. He didn’t look any worse for wear though, and his only concern seemed to be for the little dog.
“Is Tuffy safe?”
“Yeah. Gus has him.”
Tavish let the bigger dog go, and it ran off past the ruins into some bushes.
She ran her eyes up and down Tavish. His previously bare chest and arms were covered with a linen shirt and a plaid woolen cloak now, but his hands and face were still bare. There wasn’t a scratch nor a mark on any of it.
But just as she relaxed in the knowledge that he hadn’t been harmed, a weird feeling of unfamiliarity took hold of her. Now that she looked at him in the sunlight that peeked through the clouds, he looked about five years older than her. Wrinkles were forming around his eyes and mouth. Not smile lines, either.
“Wow, Tav. Construction work must have you out in the sun a lot, huh?”
Ignoring her question, he just smiled and rushed back toward the third cellar, calling to her over his shoulder.
“Come on!”
Once they were down inside this last cellar—which was more elaborately lined with stonework and had clearly been used as a root cellar—Kelsey saw the secret door right away. It was in the corner, clearly labeled with intricate lacy Celtic runes carved into the stone. She went over to get a better look.
Tavish frowned at her oddly.
“Yeah,” he said, “that’s right where the secret doorway is, to the sea passage. How did you know?”
Oh, so the man did not know everything after all. Feeling a little guilty about how much that pleased her, she refrained from gloating when she pointed out the runes. They were gorgeous, and their style suggested they were at least a thousand years old, maybe even two thousand.
“These right here give it away.”
He wrinkled his brow at her in a question.
“They’re like a door sign that says ‘Passage to the sea.’”
Good. He looked impressed. He raised his brows then and turned to look at them and follow one of the curlicues with his finger.
“Do they tell you how to open it? Because it took four of us a good month to figure that out, after it taking another month just for us to notice it.”
She looked all around the old stone portal. Yep. There were arrows carved into the pattern, and a kind of series of movements…
Stone again
st stone made for a really odd sliding sound, but once she had the correct direction—at a weird angle indicated by the arrows—the section of stone in front of her slid a few feet easily with her push, revealing a dark passageway that opened to her right, bringing with it a cold breeze that made her shiver a little and zip up her parka.
She turned to Tavish with a triumphant smile.
He gave her a congratulatory one in return, and they stood there grinning at each other for a moment as if they were fifteen again, about to sneak off on another adventure away from their parents.
On the verge of going into the darkness with Tavish, it occurred to her there might be a very logical reason for him to basically ignore her whenever he saw her—when he wasn’t finding fault with her, anyway. On impulse, she asked about it.
“Tavish?”
“Yeah?”
“I only see a ring on your right hand, but um, that doesn’t mean anything for guys these days. Um, are you married?”
And there he was again, the old Tavish. His eyes got that twinkle in them. It was an amused look, but not one that was laughing at her. He was laughing with her as they used to do, laughing at the strange but wonderful circumstances they found themselves in.
“No. No, I’m still single.”
On hearing this, a dizzy dancing feeling filled her. It started at her heart and radiated out to her extremities—and she grew warm. Her body was telling her to grab him and kissed him and hold tight to him and never let go.
But just in time, her brain served up a memory of how rude he’d been not an hour ago. She took a deep breath and let it out audibly, blocking those irrational desires from her mind.
But the fact that he was single was good news. There wouldn’t be some wife getting upset if rumors started about the two of them being alone down here. That would be terrible for business, especially if it made it into the paper or something. Yeah, it was really good news. For that reason.
No time at all had passed. Tavish was just now getting over the laugh they had shared.
She was liking this lighter mood.
“Oh,” was all she said before turning into the passage and opening up her leather daypack to rummage around for her flashlight.
He took his own flashlight out of a loop on his construction-worker’s utility belt, and they were ready to go.
“After you,” he said again, gesturing gallantly but with a sincere look on his face. “Later, it gets a little rough, but right at first here you don’t need to watch your step yet.”
She wasn’t going to argue. She took him up on his offer and rushed through the doorway, for once not worrying about how eager she looked or how it would let him know this was her first big adventure as a professional Celtic ruins appraiser.
“Thanks.”
She was impressed at first that it didn’t smell musty down here, but she remembered that the passageways opened up to the sea. And then she shined her flashlight down the cave and gasped.
Down here, the walls were carved out of solid stone. Ancient carvings. But it wasn’t ugly at all. It was wondrous. This wasn’t a cave. It was an underground palace.
After every few feet she walked, she couldn’t help looking over at Tavish and pointing out to him how smooth the stone was, how gracefully the ceiling arched, how beautiful the Celtic interlace carvings were that graced the walls here and there.
He smiled back at her and nodded each time, and then she went back to exploring.
They came to a three-way fork, and Tavish indicated the right branch.
“Down that way is the dead end we think has hidden doorways to the underground castle. Do you want to go down there and check it out, or go to the left down toward the sea?”
“You know me,” she reminded him. “Which way would I find more interesting?”
He pointedly looked at her Celtic University ring.
“I’m not really sure I do know you well anymore, but the Kelsey I remember, the adventurous one, she would have insisted on checking out the passage down to the secret doors.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” she said to him.
Wow. He gave her a soft look that she never thought she’d see again. It made her want to hug him…
“I’m listening,” he said.
Right. They were just talking. What was she saying, again? Oh yeah. The deal.
“I’ll be the Kelsey you remember, if you’ll be the Tavish I remember.”
Oops. What had made her say that?
The soft look left his eyes, replaced by wariness.
“You know what—” he started.
But she cut him off.
“Not for always, Tavish, just for this tour of the passageways, okay?”
He sighed heavily, and sadness filled his face while his posture relaxed as if he’d been ready for a big something and then just given up.
“Okay, but Kelsey, when this tour is done, promise me you’ll go into Mr. Blair’s trailer and stay in there until the sun comes up. Please, promise me.”
Taken aback by just how desperately worried for her he seemed, she agreed to his terms without any negotiation.
“I promise.”
He visibly relaxed.
“Thanks, Kelsey.”
And then his eyes were looking far away, and he started to reach out to her, and then let his hands drop.
She stomped her foot to get his attention, to make him look her in the eye. Okay, and maybe she was trying to get him to laugh a little, too. She’d always found foot stomping ridiculous.
“What’s wrong, Tavish?”
But it didn’t work. He looked away.
“I can’t tell you.”
Now it was she who relaxed her posture and sighed heavily and kind of gave up.
“So that’s how it’s going to be?”
For a moment, his eyes met hers and his mouth opened and he was standing up straight again, and she thought he would say no. That he would change back into the Tavish she had known and loved. The one she knew had loved her. But it didn’t last. She saw the exact moment when he closed down and shut her out.
“Yeah, that’s how it has to be.”
Tears tried to come again, but she marched on down the right corridor, put on her professional demeanor, and let the wonder of the old stonework push aside her hurt feelings.
She’d come to see the ruins, not Tavish.
And these worn underground stone hallways were amazing. The Celts had obviously occupied this site before ‘civilized’ people had built the stone tower house up above—no, much longer ago than that. Even before whoever it was had built the older structure up above, the one that was just a half-inch of stone above the grass now.
She rushed on ahead of Tavish, following a path the interlace carvings promised would lead to a storage room. Dimly aware of him following her but no longer pointing out her discoveries to him, she pushed through two more secret doors and went down a narrow cut-stone stairway.
Trì
Tavish trailed his hand along the rough stone wall to slow himself as he followed Kelsey down the narrow stone staircase.
On the one hand, he had to get her out of here. They had expressly told him to keep her away from the ruins at night. They were ruthlessly territorial, and despite what a court had said about this being Mr. Blair’s property, they claimed first dibs on any artifacts. They were always looking for certain ones, and now was no different. He’d been told to keep his eye out for one item in particular.
On the other hand, it was a few hours until sunset, and whoa. He and the crew had spent months digging out this first passageway, and then Kelsey wanders in and finds another two secret doors after just a few hours? Part of him didn’t want to stop her until she’d discovered all the other secret entrances hidden in these ruins. This second part of him was winning, so far. He would just quietly follow her, observe—and make sure she didn’t do anything that would make them too mad.
Kelsey had reached the bottom of the stairs and was inside a smal
l room that had been cut out of the natural rock, gazing all around with wide eyes.
“Oh, look at this place.”
When he caught up to her and leaned into the tiny room, he saw what made her marvel so.
“I expected everything to be covered in dust,” he told her, taking in all the odd shapes in the room almost as much as the pretty sight of her.
“I did too,” she said without looking away from all the items carefully stored here, “but look how advanced the ancient architecture is.” She pointed while she spoke. “See how these tiny windows are cut precisely opposite one another?”
“I wondered where the wind was coming from.” He nudged away from the wall with his shoulder and leaned forward slightly, toward where she was pointing.
“Come stand here,” she said, impatiently gesturing for him to join her in the middle.
He balked, because it was really close quarters.
She reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him in, as if he were a disobedient child.
He felt himself smiling despite his need to keep her safe from them—which meant uninvolved with him—and he fought to make his face serious.
“There,” she said, “now don’t you feel the wind hitting you from all sides?”
Mostly, he just felt the bottom of her long soft skirt rubbing against his bare calves and the tug of his kilt against the front of him, where it had caught against her parka. But he couldn’t say that.
He concentrated on making his voice businesslike.
“So you think the wind is clearing the dust away?”
“Yep,” she said. “Cool, huh?”
“Not as cool as how you just waltzed right down here as if someone had drawn you a map. How did you know where those secret doors were, let alone how to open them?”
That did it. Kelsey finally looked him in the eye. She was scowling, but it didn’t ruin her pretty features. And then she rolled her eyes, held up her hand with the Celtic University ring on it, and pointed at the ring with her other hand.
His throat was suddenly dry, and he swallowed. Other than that, he just stood there waiting for her to answer him. It was weird, seeing this mature businesswoman in front of him, wearing a suit and speaking of architecture. In his mind, Kelsey was still the one friend he’d had in his teen years, the only one who kept in touch with him between the times his parents’ traveling Renaissance faire came to her town.
