Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(107)

And if she didn’t meet Angus tonight she might not make it to Sunday.

Angus called Jenny’s phone that morning when Jenny and she were on their way to pick up her great-grandmother’s gown. Abby had taken it to the cleaners on Monday to have it cleaned and pressed. Jenny and she were headed there to pick it up as well as do other shopping for the weekend when Angus called.

Jenny, Abby noted, was acting weird.

She was far more quiet than normal, especially when Abby explained all that had happened with Cash that week.

Jenny, who Abby expected to freak out, simply turned to her and said, “That’s nice. He’s a good man, Abby, and I think he wants to make you happy.”

She sounded like she didn’t entirely believe her own words even though she wanted to. Furthermore, she shared no advice, guidance, concerns, warnings or even giggles, smiles or lewd questions about how Cash looked naked.

Definitely weird.

Then Abby had gone on to share her new life philosophy, something to which she was certain Jenny would have a reaction.

She’d come up with it lying in Cash’s bed last night, waiting for the cramps to go away and allowing herself the time, finally, to think of everything that had befallen her and what she was going to do about it.

When she got the call that Cash had an accident (she thought), she was definitely reacting or more to the point, overreacting because of what had happened with Ben. But she hadn’t been reliving losing Ben. She’d been upset because she couldn’t fathom the thought of losing Cash.

Which was something she couldn’t ignore even if she wanted to.

But he’d said himself that they weren’t going to lose one another until one of them wanted to be lost.

Which meant he knew one day he would move on.

Abby didn’t like this idea, it hurt even to contemplate it.

But she lay in his bed asking herself how she would behave if someone had told her that her time would be short with Ben.

In order to avoid the pain, would she have turned away, left him behind and not spent her years of love and laughter with him?

Never.

What she would have done was packed much more love and laughter in those years. She would have treasured every moment, even the bad ones, for the precious memories they would become.

So she had a monumental shift in thinking.

For she knew upon feeling the immense relief that Cash was alive and well that she cared about him. And she had to admit, finally, that what she and Cash had was good. No, it wasn’t good, it was great.

No, it wasn’t even great, it was magical.

She couldn’t kid herself anymore and she didn’t even want to.

But this time, she’d been given a boon. She already knew their time together would be short. That meant she could prepare. And that was exactly what she was going to do.

She was going to pack as much into her time with Cash as she could fit. And she was going to savour it while she had it. She was going to stop living her life in fear.

She was just going to live.

Abby thought Jenny would be thrilled to hear this though she didn’t tell Jenny that Cash had intimated the end at the same time he was initiating the beginning.

Instead, Jenny got a strange look on her face and gave Abby a hug.

Abby leaned back in her friend’s arms and asked, “Are you okay?”

Jenny pulled her lips between her teeth and bit them.

When she released them, she nodded and said, “Just happy for you.”

She didn’t look happy nor did she look okay but Abby let it go.

When Jenny was ready to share what was troubling her, Jenny would share. That had always been the way no matter how much Abby wheedled her.

So she let Jenny have her space.

That’s when Angus called.

Jenny handed Abby the phone and Angus told her he’d been at the castle and “on the job” for the last two nights but the “ghosty she-bitch”, a.k.a. Vivianna wasn’t showing.

“She’s a clever girl but not more clever than A McPherson!” he decreed grandly.

Then, without further ado, he told Abby his scary plan. A plan which consisted of Abby going to the castle and offering herself up as bait to a murderous, vindictive ghost.

Angus had already spoken with Fenella and Cassandra and everything was in place. Alistair and Nicola were out for the evening as was Suzanne, none of them to return until late.

Honor and Fenella would have Abby over to dinner and Abby would draw out Vivianna so Angus could take her down. However, Cassandra would give Abby some protection and Angus would give her some coaching before Abby went in.

Though, Angus assured her, Abby had nothing to fear. Angus would always be a “hairsbreadth” away.

There were a variety of things Abby didn’t like about this plan.

First, she didn’t want to be bait. Vivianna was a spirit-bitch-from-hell and Abby didn’t want to be anywhere near her until she had to be near her.

Second, she didn’t want to be bait (Abby thought that was worth pointing out twice).

Third, dinner with Honor and Fenella to draw out a ghost meant that she’d have to tell Cash she had other plans, plans that didn’t include him, and she didn’t figure he’d like that much.

That morning before he left for work when he, as usual, slid her hair off her neck, she felt it and she woke. Her eyes opened when his lips touched her skin.