Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(63)

For a moment they all seemed suspended.

When the sensation ended, Fenella whirled toward them and cried, “What was that? Are we having an earthquake?”

Cash looked down to Abby and saw her face was pale. She was still grasping his shirt in her fist, her other hand gripping his bicep tightly.

“Are you okay?” Cash asked Abby.

Her head tipped back to look at him, her hazel eyes wide and frightened as she whispered, “Did you feel that?”

“I felt it,” Cash answered, pulling Abby closer to his body, his head turned to Fenella and he asked, “Has that happened before?”

“No!” Fenella cried and pressed her hand against her stomach. “That was weird.”

“Cash!” Nicola’s voice greeted from straight ahead and Cash lifted his eyes his aunt.

Arriving in the entrance lobby was Nicola Beaumaris and her youngest daughter, Honor.

Nicola was nearly sixty years old but she looked ten years younger. Tonight, as usual, her blonde hair was pulled back into an elegant bun at her nape, her clothing was understated yet stylish and her bearing was graceful but friendly.

Honor was the only one of Nicola’s daughters that Cash could remotely endure. She was not rail-thin like her sisters but curvy to the point of being plump. When she wasn’t being silent, sullen or superior, she could be quite clever and, on rare occasions, displayed a sense of humour.

“Did you feel that?” Fenella asked when her mother and sister entered the hall.

“Feel what?” Honor returned.

“I don’t know what,” Fenella replied, “it felt like an earthquake.”

Nicola came to a dead halt one step down and stared at her oldest daughter. “An earthquake?”

“Yes, the room pitched and –” Fenella started.

Honor interrupted her sister, her voice weary. “Fenella, don’t be dramatic.”

“I felt it!” Fenella cried and then spun toward Cash and Abby. “You felt it too!”

“We did,” Abby’s soft voice confirmed Fenella’s story.

Fenella pointed a finger at Abby and squealed, “See!”

“Fenella, don’t point,” Nicola’s voice was gentle but firm. “And don’t tell tales.” Nicola descended the stairs to come close to them but her kind eyes were on Abby. “You must be Abigail.” At Abby’s nod, Nicola went on, “My eldest has a vivid imagination,” she explained, “she swears Penmort is haunted.”

Cash heard Abby’s indrawn breath and felt her press closer to him.

He had, of course, heard about the Famous Ghost of Penmort Castle. It was the spirit of the raven-haired beauty, supposedly named Vivianna Wainwright, who was also the spurned lover of one of Cash’s ancestors.

Legend told that Vivianna was a practicing witch and once her love was thwarted, she’d put a spell on her soul before hurling herself off the tallest tower of the castle, falling down the side of the tor to a gruesome death.

She’d done this not to kill herself but to live eternally within the castle as a malevolent phantom, wreaking vengeance by causing intermittent havoc and murdering the true loves of Penmort’s male line.

In all the castle’s history, this had allegedly happened only five times. Not generation-to-generation but, the tale dictated each time the victim had been Penmort’s master’s one, true, abiding love.

It was, Cash knew, complete rubbish.

His fingers covered Abby’s on his bicep and he murmured, “It isn’t true, darling.”

“Then what just happened?” Fenella demanded to know.

“I’m sure spooky Vivikums has better things to do than ruin Mummy’s dinner party,” Honor retorted.

Fenella’s face blanched before she whispered, “Don’t call her that. She doesn’t like it.”

“Hogwash,” Honor returned on a sharp hiss.

Nicola’s hand came out to touch Abby lightly. “Abigail, what must you think of us? Let’s take your coat and get you a drink.”

Cash escorted Abby up the steps and into the outer, took her bag and then her coat from her shoulders, motioning with his chin that Abby should follow Nicola.

He saw Nicola take Abby’s arm in her hand and guide her toward the drawing room saying, “I’m Nicola, Cash’s aunt. You’ve met Fenella, this is my youngest, Honor.”

Fenella and Honor trailed them and Cash watched as Abby cast a tremulous grin over her shoulder at Honor.

They disappeared into the drawing room and Cash took off his coat and tossed his and Abby’s belongings over a wide window seat before he traced their steps.

They were gathering in the drawing room, Alistair and Suzanne already there and when Cash entered Abby was greeting Suzanne.

Suzanne was Nicola’s middle child and the only one of the three that Cash actively detested. Far prettier than both her sisters, she knew it. She had the same sultry aura of Abby but where Abby’s was simply a part of her, Suzanne’s was a weapon she used.

And Cash had learned over the last year she used it aggressively.

As pretty and alluring as she was, she was no match for Abby’s striking beauty and casual glamour.

The minute his eyes fell on Suzanne’s face, which was turned to Abby and filled with unconcealed spite, Cash saw that Suzanne knew that too.