Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(167)

Cash did not have a good feeling about Cassandra’s arrival.

“Abby,” he muttered warningly but his wife either didn’t hear him or she ignored him.

He was guessing the latter.

Cassandra shook her head and approached Abby.

Cash stood, dropped his glasses on the chair he’d vacated and walked to his wife.

“Someone came up to me, mate. Asked me what I was doing. I had to abort the mission,” Cassandra said.

“What mission?” Cash asked a question to which he, to his intense frustration, already knew the answer.

Abby looked up at Cash. “I called Cassandra and asked her to come, make her way to the delivery room and send some pixie dust Jenny’s way.”

Yes, he was correct, he knew the answer.

“You asked Cassandra to send some pixie dust Jenny’s way,” Cash repeated with no small amount of consternation at his wife’s antics.

Abby looked up at him and jerked her head, shaking back her hair in a now-familiar act that announced her defiance.

“Yes,” she declared.

“Fucking hell,” Cash muttered.

“I hope you stop saying the f-word after our baby comes along,” Abby snapped.

“I hope you stop doing wild and ridiculous things so I won’t feel the need to curse after our baby comes along,” Cash returned.

Nicola emitted a stifled giggle. Cassandra grinned.

“I am who I am,” Abby shot back and at her words, Cash relaxed.

Then he smiled.

“Yes, you are,” he murmured and he watched his wife’s face take on a look of surprise at his easy capitulation.

Then she smiled back.

He pulled her in his arms, she melted into his body and he felt the usual sense of peace having her in his arms gave him.

After all this time, nearly two years together, he’d never gotten used to the ease she brought to his life. He also hoped he never did. If he did, he’d lose the understanding of just what a precious gift it was.

There was a commotion at the door and Angus stormed in, his kilt awhirl.

“What’d I miss?” he shouted.

“Nothing, McPherson. We don’t have any news. Sit down and don’t be so loud!” Mrs. Truman demanded tartly (as well as loudly).

“How many times do I have to tell you, woman, stop ordering me about!” Angus retorted.

“You keep behaving like a man with a dozen screws loose, I’ll stop telling you what to do when they’re shovelling dirt on my coffin,” Mrs. Truman replied.

They entered a glaring contest. Unsurprisingly Mrs. Truman won.

Angus stomped to Cash and Abby’s circle and Cash dropped one arm, holding Abby to him with the other.

Angus’s face had gentled when he looked at Abby. “How’re things, lass?”

“Not good,” Abby replied softly and Angus’s worried eyes moved to Cash.

Angus was not exactly a fixture in their lives. He’d come and he’d go. He was, he explained to them, quite busy with expunging the vast number of malevolent spirits that infected the British Isles. Nevertheless his visits, although not common, were regular.

Fortunately for Abby and Jenny who, at that present time, needed their friends close, Angus was working “a job” in the vicinity and using Penmort as what he referred to as his “headquarters”.

He’d told them over dinner the night before, the job was proving difficult.

“Well, I’ll give you something else to think about.” Angus moved close to Abby and his voice had grown quietly conspiratorial. “See, my new wee ghosty has a thing against blondes. She doesn’t like anyone particularly but she really doesn’t like blondes. I thought you could –”

Cash, his voice firm and inflexible, cut in with one word.

“No.”

Angus’s gaze came to him. “She’ll no’ be in any danger.”

“No,” Cash repeated.

“You know I know what I’m doing,” Angus kept trying.

Cash clenched his jaw then repeated yet again but even more firm and far more inflexible, “No.”

“Fraser –” Angus started but Cash interrupted.

“First, Abby’s pregnant. Second, even if she wasn’t, there is no f**king way in hell I’d allow her to get caught up in another of your hunts.”

“Cash,” Abby murmured soothingly but it was Cash’s turn to ignore her.

Angus took a step back, muttering, “No harm asking.”

“Except for the fact you sent my blood pressure through the roof. I’d rather not suffer a stroke five months before my child is born,” Cash clipped.

Abby went rigid at his side and Cash realised his mistake instantly.

His head tilted down to her. “Darling –”

She curled into him and her hand came to his stomach. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. It’s the circumstances. I’m just being stupid.”

“Don’t apologise,” Cash bit out with irritation at himself. “What I said was thoughtless.”

“What you said was in anger,” she told him, leaned in, tipped her head back and gave him a small smile. “Cash, you can’t guard against everything you say just because I’m an overly-sensitive idiot.”

“I can try,” Cash returned and she gave it to him, the look he saw often, the look he had mistaken as awe the first time he saw it.