Chapter 20

The door swung open fully and Rhisiart stood in the doorway, a smirk on his face.

“What’re you doing here?”

“I came to pack up my things.”

“You need permission from me or Hugh or Sian to be in the castle.”

“Why?”

“Because you gave notice that you’re quitting your job. That makes you a trespasser.”

“Rhisiart, I can assure you there’s nothing I want from this building except the things I brought here with me.”

“I’m busy right now,” he answered. “I’m working on a new book. I think I’ll ask Hugh to come keep an eye on you.” He left and I could hear his footsteps quickly receding down the hallway. It wasn’t long before Hugh arrived, looking smug and angry.

“Rhisiart tells me you’re leaving our employ. How are we supposed to get the bills paid and the filing done and find anything if you’re gone?” he asked.

“I have no idea. You’ll find someone to take my place, I’m sure. In the meantime you may just have to do some of that work yourselves.”

He closed the door behind him. My eyes darted to the lock, which he deftly clicked with a slight movement of his wrist. I was stuck in here with him. My phone lay on the bed and by then I was working on getting my things out of the big desk; it would have been too obvious if I had suddenly lunged for my phone. Besides, I didn’t want him to know I was uncomfortable.

“Is there anything I can tell you now that would help you and the others get organized?” I asked, noting that my voice sounded higher than usual. I wanted to keep him focused on the work of running the castle.

“Not that I can think of. Cadi can figure it all out if necessary. Tell me, what exactly do you know about the other will Annabel made before she died?”

Not this again. “Hugh,” I said with a sigh, “there is no will. Rhisiart had been following me and my cousin one night and I was annoyed with him. I figured that if he wanted to hear something really juicy, I would give him something. So I made up the story about a missing will, drawn up after the one that was in the lawyer’s office.”

He arched his eyebrows at me, clearly not believing a word I said.

“You know I can’t let you leave until we know where that will is hidden, and I think you know exactly where it is,” he said, his voice low and his eyes flashing. This man meant to do me harm, that much was certain.

“Hugh, how many times do I have to tell you the will doesn’t exist?” I asked, my anger rising with my apprehension. I wondered if I could somehow alert Maisie to the danger I was in. I stomped my foot on the floor, hoping she could hear, but I doubted it would do any good. If she heard it at all, she would just assume I had dropped something while I was packing.

“Maisie can’t hear you, if that’s what you’re thinking. She went outside to her car.”

“Hugh, listen to me. I’m telling you the truth. Annabel loved you and your brothers. She wanted nothing more than to see you inherit this castle when she died. Of course she didn’t think she would die as early as she did, but I’m sure she would be happy to know that the castle is under its rightful ownership right now.”

“The problem with lying is that no one ever knows when you’re telling the truth, Eilidh.” Hugh’s voice was calm, low, rational, but there was a malice that lay behind his words, a malice I could see in his eyes.

“And we are forced to assume that you were telling the truth the night you told your cousin about the will. And that you’re lying now because you’re scared. I can see that you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Of course you are. Listen to yourself. Your voice is shaking, you keep wiping your hands on your trousers. You’re terrified. And you should be.”

With that he lunged at me, hatred glittering in his eyes. I dashed around the bed and stood on the other side, away from him, watching him warily. He backed up and stood facing me across the bed, then suddenly he was leaping over the bed, scrambling to get to where I stood. I had no choice but to run away from him, but this couldn’t last long. The room wasn’t huge—he was going to catch me.

I ran headlong into the door. With shaking hands I somehow managed to unlock the door and fling it open. I could feel the rush of air at my back when Hugh grasped my shirt as I ran out of the room, but I wrenched it away from him.

I don’t know what compelled me to run in the opposite direction of the great hall, but before I knew it I was headed toward the crumbling wing of the castle, the place where no one ever dared to go. A heavy wooden door separated me from the stone ruins of the unused wing, but to my shock and immense relief, I found it unlocked. I couldn’t imagine why Annabel hadn’t kept the door locked, but I forced that thought from my mind, grateful that she hadn’t. Hugh was only a step or two behind me, but I thrust the door closed as he reached my location.

That only bought me a second or so of time, but it was enough for me to scramble out of the way of the door and over a pile of mossy stones that lay in my path. I was vaguely aware that there was no roof above me, and rain was falling softly. The old stone floor was wet and slippery. With a cry of rage, Hugh raced through the door behind me; he grabbed my arm and wrenched it behind me as I slid on the floor and cried out in pain.

“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” he seethed between clenched teeth. “You couldn’t just keep on working, minding your own business. No, you had to go around making noise about another will. Now we have to find it and destroy it before the lawyer gets wind of it and we lose the castle. And you realize, of course, that you’re not getting out of here. That stupid coke-sniffing bitch is dead because of you, because you tricked me into thinking you were in the bedroom. I’m not going to make that mistake again. I’ve lost all the income from selling her the coke because of you.” He shook my arm like a jackhammer and shoved my head hard into the floor.

“Where’s the will?” he asked, low and deadly.

“There is no other will!” I grunted, trying to free myself from his grasp, my head spinning from the force of the blow against the stone.

“I should have known you’d be trouble from the minute I arrived at the castle,” Hugh said, yanking me into a standing position. His arms closed around my chest from behind, squeezing, making it hard for me to breathe. “I should have killed you instead of Annabel—it would have been easier to convince her to destroy the new will.”

I let out a groan. “Why did you kill her? Your own mother?” I managed to ask.

“Because she never loved us! She didn’t care about us! All those times she let our father beat us senseless… It should have been her. She had a duty to protect us and she failed!”

“She loved you, Hugh. She was scared to death of your father. And she was young and made mistakes. But she loved you more than you realize. She wanted to make amends.”

“Ha!” Hugh shouted, his voice ugly and ragged. I was struggling to get away from him and it was just making him angrier. Someone was pounding on the wooden door leading to the ruined wing of the castle. I glanced in that direction and saw that Hugh had wedged a stone under the door so no one could follow us.

“Help!” I cried, but my voice came out as more of a croak.

“Eilidh?” I had never been so happy to hear Griff’s voice. “Eilidh, are you in there?” He rattled the door handle again. “Open the door!”

“Shh,” Hugh whispered savagely in my ear. “Maybe he’ll go away.”

In reply, I made a noise with my throat that I hoped would be loud enough for Griff to hear on the other side of the heavy door. Hugh immediately let go of me and struck out at my face with his closed fist. I saw stars. There was a loud ringing in my ears that wouldn’t stop. I stumbled back toward the door and slammed into it with my shoulder. Then I was on all fours on the floor, shaking my head and trying to get the ringing to stop when Hugh rushed over to me. Bending down, he held me in place with his arm while he kicked my abdomen repeatedly. I curled up into a ball as best I could to stop the blows, still making sure to hit the door with my feet so Griff would know I was inside.

I couldn’t stand up. Hugh had tired himself out—he was bent over, his hands on his knees, taking a few deep breaths. I knew I wasn’t getting back into the castle without serious injury, or worse, if I couldn’t get help. I could dimly hear shouts coming from the hallway, and just a moment later Griff burst through the door, splintering the wood and heaving a heavy crow bar onto the stone floor as soon as the door opened. He took one look at what was happening and advanced toward Hugh. Hugh stood up straight, flexing his hands to let his fists fly at Griff. But Griff wasn’t tired like Hugh was. He picked up a stone and hurled it at Hugh’s head.

Hugh hit the floor with a sickening thud and suddenly my ordeal was over. Hugh lay unconscious amid the crumbling old walls of the castle ruins and I stood trembling by the door, crying my thanks and trying to keep my arms around my chest, protecting the bones I was sure Hugh had broken with his vicious kicks.

Griff sank to the floor next to me. I cried like a baby as he held me in his arms, waiting for the police and an ambulance to arrive.

“Could you hear what Hugh told me?” I asked between gulps of air and wrenching sobs.

“I could hear most of it. He killed Annabel, didn’t he?”

I nodded, unable to speak until I could catch my breath. He helped me shift my position so I could breathe more easily.

By the time I could relate the full conversation between Hugh and me, the police had arrived at the castle. In all their visits to the castle they had never been in the ruined wing and Rhisiart showed them where to go. Two ambulance attendants wheeled a stretcher down the hallway behind the police, but they weren’t able to enter the ruins with it. They waited for me in the corridor.

Not long afterward, Sylvie ran up to the rest of us, clamoring to know where I was and what had happened to me. Sylvie broke down and cried with relief when she saw me.

Griff rode with me to the hospital in the back of the ambulance. Once I had been examined, prodded, X-rayed, and given a room, the police came in to ask questions. Griff stepped out when they first arrived, but a nurse came in just a moment later to ask the police to keep their questioning to a minimum, as I had to rest. I was thankful to have Griff looking out for me.

I told them everything Hugh had told me—that he killed Annabel, that he believed there was another will, that he had attacked Brenda thinking it was me. The officers took notes furiously while I spoke, then the nurse ducked her head in again to ask if they could come back another time to continue questioning me.

They left, but it was several minutes before Griff returned. He told me they had questioned him too, in the hallway right outside my room, and he gave them the same information I had shared with them. He was holding my hand and stroking my good arm, helping me to fall asleep, when Sylvie arrived. She started crying all over again when she saw me. The emotions across her face told me everything.

“Seamus said he’s sorry he can’t come to the hospital, but he’s too sick,” she said with a hiccup. “He’s mad at you, though, for going over to the castle without him.” She let out a short laugh; the tears started afresh.

“Tell him that’s okay, I won’t need his help after all,” I said, barely able to smile through the pain in my face and jaw.

“I’m so glad you’re all right,” Sylvie cried, bending over to kiss my forehead. One of her tears fell on my cheek and my tears mingled with it.

“I’m fine, Sylvie. Stop crying. I’m going to be as good as new,” I assured her. “I’m just sorry you had to make the trip back here.”

She waved her hand at me to dismiss the thought. “We’re so glad we could be here when you needed us the most,” she said. “What happens next?”

The nurse had come into the room. “What happens next is that you go home,” she said, “and let this poor woman rest.”

Sylvie left with a promise to return later in the day and a few minutes later I was sound asleep. I didn’t sleep long, though, because I got more visitors. Griff whispered in my ear, “Eilidh, Cadi and Rhisiart are here. Do you want to talk to them?”

“If I have to,” I mumbled. The pair walked into my room, Cadi’s hands clenched in front of her and Rhisiart running his hand through his hair. Griff eyed him warily.

“How are you doing?” Rhisiart asked.

“I’ve been better, but I’m going to be all right.”

“I think we owe you an apology for everything that has happened,” he said. Cadi nodded beside him.

“I really thought it was Sian who killed Annabel. Sian really is an avid gardener. What I told you was true. God, how I wish it had been her. I can’t believe it was Hugh,” she said. “I have always known him to have a temper, but not like that. To kill his own mother…” She trailed off, probably thinking about what life would be like for her after Hugh went to prison, which would surely happen. I knew a thing or two about surviving while a spouse was in prison. I knew what anguish was headed her way.

“And to attack Brenda like that, thinking she was you,” Cadi continued after a moment. “I’m so very sorry for all of it.”

I could do nothing but nod. Rhisiart spoke again. “Hugh was frantic when he found out there might be another will. He felt we should find it and destroy it in case Annabel had left her estate to someone else. Like you,” he said, pointing to me.

“Even if she had, I wouldn’t have accepted it,” I said. “I don’t want to live at the castle without Annabel. She was the one who made it a happy place. It’s not a happy place anymore.”

“So the will—do you know where it is?” Rhisiart asked. Would he never stop this line of questioning?

“Rhisiart,” I said with a long sigh, “there is no other will. You can turn that castle upside-down and you’ll never find it because it doesn’t exist. As I told Hugh, I made up that story because I knew you were following me and Sylvie that night out by the garden and I wanted you to go fritter away your time on something other than browbeating the people who worked for Annabel. Please, no more about the will.” I had exhausted myself talking.

It had obviously been a mistake to make up the story about the missing will, and I had learned my lesson well. I would never do such a thing again—the next time I wanted to get somebody to stop doing something, I would confront them myself and tell them the truth. All the pain, the violence, the death, over something that never existed, would haunt me for the rest of my life. And Brenda was dead because of the lie I had told.

I waved my hand at Rhisiart and Cadi in an effort to get them to go away, and Griff understood immediately what I wanted. “It’s time for you two to go,” he said gravely. “And please don’t come back unless you’re invited.”

They nodded their assent and left the room. I opened one eye just long enough to satisfy myself that they were gone and I was asleep again in no time. Griff stayed overnight in my room and was there in the morning when the police returned, this time to deliver the most shocking news of all.

“We wanted to inform you that Maisie Wellingbottham has been arrested and charged with killing Andreas Tucker.”

I gasped and struggled to sit up. Griff put his hand on my arm to keep me from hurting myself.

“You’re kidding,” he said.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Officers at the castle yesterday found her trying to sneak away after you had been taken away in the ambulance, miss. When they stopped her and began asking questions, it was clear that she was afraid of something in addition to what had happened in your bedroom. Upon further questioning, she broke down and admitted that she had been responsible for Mr. Tucker’s death.”

“But how?” I asked, unable to believe what I was hearing.

“When he left the castle the night of his death she was still there working. She heard him leave; she followed him while he took a walk down by the water’s edge. She pushed him into the river,” the officer answered.

“But why? Why did she do it?”

“Apparently to stop him from selling cocaine to her daughter, miss.” And now that daughter was dead.

I didn’t say anything. I was trying to imagine how I would react if I knew the person selling cocaine to my own daughter, trying to get her hooked, ruining her young life. I had to admit to myself that I might do the same thing under the same circumstances. Finally I said softly, “She was just trying to save Brenda.”

“We know that, miss.”

The officers left and Griff held my hand as tears coursed down my cheeks—tears for the pain Maisie had lived with trying to keep her daughter off drugs, pain for her future, and pain for Brenda, for her life snuffed out because of a lie I had told.