Beyond Time (Highland Secret Series) (3 page)

His brow was arched, just as it had been in the pub. Questions screamed from his face. His wide jaw appeared to tense and a muscle to the side of his high cheekbone twitched.

Grace covered her face with the palms of her hands and sighed deeply to calm her rising panic. She had to be losing her mind. This just couldn’t be happening, not now, surely not.

In sleep she heard the echo of his voice whispering her name. Slowly it drew nearer and louder, until she knew for sure it was him. He stood facing her, legs slightly apart and arms loose by his side. His dark eyes shone in the light of the fire.

“You are beautiful,” he said.

She stared at him, her eyes fixed on the broad expanse of his chest as he moved slowly toward her.

“Come here,” he said, as his hands encircled her waist.

She felt the muscles in his arms ripple against her as she relaxed in his embrace. Her head rested heavily against his chest. The crackle of a fire was the only sound save for the racing of his heart in her ears.

Her mind swirled with a mixture of realities as she awoke and lay motionless in the bed. She stared up at the beamed ceiling. Had she noticed it before? She couldn’t be certain but it had been there in her dream, the same beams, only lighter. The ceiling had been wooden too, but now it was covered with plasterboard and only the edges of the beams were visible. She moved her head to the side and looked at the walls. They were smoothly plastered, but in her dream they had been uneven, rough and whitewashed. The carpeted floor hadn’t been there either. Just the bare boards with sweet smelling straw and lavender scattered over them. The glass of the windows was thick and blurred, not the crystal clear it was now. There had been a large curve-topped chest, a fireplace and above the fireplace hung the portrait. Her stomach cramped and a ghostly chill ran down her spine as she tried to make sense of it all.

Grace swung herself out of bed and ran to the desk, tapping furiously on the wall behind it. A hollow sound told her she had found what she was looking for. The fireplace in her dream was now covered over with plasterboard. Clutching the edge of the desk she met the eyes of Robert Hamilton.

“Whoever you are and whatever is going on, it’s not funny at all and I want it to stop.”

Once again Grace beat Kate to the door of their office. She had not wanted to hang around in the hotel room, so had followed her routine from the day before; McDonalds for coffee and a half eaten bacon roll, followed by a leisurely stroll through the quiet city streets to work.

“Morning Grace. So glad you came back. I was worried you might not after I left you in such a hurry yesterday. Sorry about that, slightly panicked by deadlines. Come on, let’s get this door open and the kettle on. I’m freezing.”

Grace followed her chatty boss into the warmth of the office and headed for her desk, first checking the polished surface for obscure reflections before opening the laptop.

“Grace your contract is on my desk. Do you want to fill it in whilst I make us a coffee.”

“OK, thanks Kate, will do.”

The questions were relatively straightforward. Having typed up a good dozen of them the day before, Grace had the contract completed and signed before Kate reappeared with the coffee.

“All done Kate,” Grace said, taking the cup from her boss.

Kate lifted the document off the desk and smiled.

“That was quick! There are a mountain of these things still to type,” she said, nodding in the direction of a neat pile of forms on the edge of the desk.

“No problem, I’ll get on them right away,” replied Grace, unsuccessfully attempting to stifle a yawn.

“Bad night?”

“Sorry. I’m not sleeping too well. It’s just being in a new bed. Takes a bit of adjusting to.”

“Where are you staying?” she asked, glancing down at the contract. “Oh my God, Grace you are never staying there? That place is haunted to hell and back. My friends and I won’t even walk past it. No wonder you aren’t sleeping. Have you seen him yet then?”

“Seen who?” asked Grace, feigning ignorance.

“The ghost! Robert Hamilton. He used to own the place sometime back in the days of Charles II. Didn’t marry till he was in his forties. They say he haunts the house looking for his wife. Tell me you aren’t in room twenty three?”

“Well, actually I am.”

“Oh, you’ll never get a moments peace in there. That was his room, you know, his and his wife’s. It’s the most haunted room in the whole house.”

“He must have loved his wife very much then?” Grace replied hoping to extract as much information from Kate as she could.

“Hell yeah! He fought for Charles I, and then he followed the Prince to the continent. Lived like a pauper for years but still he remained loyal to the Stuarts. He met a woman here in York and fell hopelessly in love with her. It’s such a romantic tale. Actually, that desk you are sitting at now was his. Cost me an arm and a leg to buy but the story behind it was just so beautiful I couldn’t resist. His wife was an academic, a bit of an odd sort, but Robert had that desk made for her so that she had somewhere to read and write. It turned up in the cellar of the hotel you are staying at. The current owners found a letter to a local carpenter commissioning the work. In it Robert stated it was to be of the finest quality with exact dimensions to ensure the absolute comfort of his dearest wife. I used it myself for a while but it just didn’t suit me. Too low, it gave me backache.”

Grace felt the panic rising inside her as her boss talked, seemingly without taking a breath.

“Kate, what happened to Robert and his wife?”

“Well, as far as I can make out they disappeared for a good many years, but they are both buried here in York.”

“Did they have any children?”

“Not so far as anyone seems to know. There is a story about his wife delivering a baby shortly after they were married. Some say the child was snatched, others say it died. Thing is no one ever found a grave for it. There weren’t any other children that we know of. I think his wife was a bit past it when they married. She wasn’t a young bride, but then he wasn’t a fledgling himself. The story goes that she was a widow but there don’t seem to be any records of her life prior to her meeting Robert so perhaps she wasn’t from York.”

“So how come you know so much about this man?” Grace asked.

“Because since I started this business he has done nothing but haunt me.”

“Haunt you? Are you serious?”

“Yes, of course I’m damn serious. He hangs around this office like a lovesick puppy. It’s like he’s watching the place, day in and day out. He stands where you are now, by that bloody desk, just staring at it. I would get shot of the thing if it hadn’t cost me so much money. I’ve tried to find a buyer for it but no one is prepared to pay the price.”

“So you believe in ghosts then?”

“Don’t you?”

“Well no, not really. But I guess there is something odd about all this. Why do you think he keeps coming here?”

“I don’t have the foggiest. It’s like he can’t let go of the damn desk. I just wish someone would take it off my hands, but I can’t afford to lose the money on it. Tell you what, Grace, you should go and have a word with the landlord of the Olde Starre Inne off Stonegate. Hear what he has to say and then see if you still don’t believe in ghosts.”

Grace couldn’t face the pub that night. All she wanted to do was go back to the hotel and sleep. Unwrapping the sandwich she had bought from a bakery she sank heavily onto the mattress of her bed and looked up at the portrait.

“Right, Mr. Hamilton, I now know that I am not the only one you torment. Pray tell me dear sir what it is you want, because tonight I intend to sleep.”

The portrait didn’t answer. She hadn’t expected it to, only it had felt good to acknowledge out loud that she wasn’t deranged. At least she figured that if she was, then a number of other people probably were too. It wasn’t that she had totally come to terms with the idea of being haunted. It was more like she had accepted that whatever was going on was happening to other people as well. She wondered if there was any point in changing hotels or asking to be moved to another room. It was an option she had considered but somehow she wasn’t frightened anymore and besides which she was growing rather fond of the face in the picture.

Having showered and climbed into bed, Grace attempted to read a few lines of her book, an historical romance, called ‘Forever Amber’. She had fallen absolutely and utterly in love with the main characters. A dreamer by nature, Grace read to escape the harsh reality that had been her life with Jack. In books she could be whoever she wanted to be and go wherever she wanted to go. Fantasy, romance, thriller, it didn’t much matter as long as it took her away from Jack. Her eyes shut and the book fell softly onto the bed.

Again her mind filled with swirling dreams of contorted reality. She could smell the sweet perfume of the lavender and the earthy tones of the straw. A fire crackled and popped as the burning heat caused moisture to bubble out of the wood. A fierce wind howled and rain pounded against the thick glass of the windows. A man moved to close the shutters against the storm. She could see his strong shoulders silhouetted in the dim light of the room.

A single candle stood on a small wooden table beside her bed, its flame casting a gentle glow on the whitewashed wall behind it. Grace hadn’t needed light to know every taut and toned muscle on this man’s body. He wore a loose cotton shirt, but she knew intimately what lay beneath. She rested her hand on her chest and sighed as tiny butterflies danced in her stomach. Her heart raced and her body ached for his touch and she was happy, happier than she had ever been.

As the hours passed and night became day, Grace’s mind fought to cling on to the dream, but as the dawn broke the magic died and she awoke alone in the empty room.

******

CHAPTER 2

“There’s a karaoke night on at the Olde Starre Inne tonight. You wanna come?”

“Kate, I would love to but I’m not much of a pub goer to be honest. It’s never really been my scene.”

“Don’t be such a bore; you’ll love it, besides it will give you a chance to talk to Harry about his ghost.”

“Oh…OK, I’ll come but I’m not talking to any guy about ghosts. If you want me to believe in this ghost, then fine, I believe you, but please can we just leave it at that?”

“What’s got you so edgy? Yesterday you were all ears when I was talking about it, now you’re as tight as a clam.”

“It’s nothing, Kate, really. I’m just not a big ghost fan. I was curious yesterday, that was all.”

“OK, hun, consider the subject closed. But you will come with us tonight, won’t you?”

“Yes, I’ll come with you but be warned, I don’t sing.”

“You’ll love it, let your hair down, and have a good laugh. Just don’t pay too much attention to Lisa, she’s having a bit of a tough time with her husband and she moans a lot, but the rest of them are usually good for a laugh. You’ll love Rose. She’s bringing a mate along too. Actually her mate’s pregnant, not far from due. She’s from Scotland, a real love.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Grace lied.

Just at that moment, Grace couldn’t really think of anything worse than spending an evening in a pub with a load of drunken women and a karaoke machine. Jack had never allowed her out on her own. He considered women that drank without their husbands to be the scourge of society, the root cause of all social problems and second only to the devil in their intentions. Grace’s stomach churned at the thought of what she was about to do but reasoned that to decline Kate’s offer would be rude and ungracious. Besides which, she couldn’t help but feel some empathy for this girl, Lisa, and looked forward to meeting her.

“Kate, tell me about Lisa?”

“Why do you ask?”

“No reason really, only you mentioned her name earlier and I’d like to know something about your friends before I meet them.”

“Well there’s not much to tell. Lisa is older than the rest of us but she went to the same school. Her brother was actually in our year so we got to know her through him. She left school early, married a druggie and he knocks her around. She’s got a teenager and a small kiddy and won’t leave the brute because she doesn’t think she can cope on her own.”