Penmort Castle

Chapter Twenty-Two Abby Tells Cash

At the sound of her voice, Cash threw Suzanne away from him and Abby watched as she flew several steps back, her hands going behind her, she collided with the counter.

Her eyes went to Abby and her expression could only be described as smug.

Then Abby heard Cash ask bitingly, “Where the fuck have you been?”

Abby’s gaze shot to Cash and he was standing, turned to her, hands on hips, staring at Abby, looking angry.

Angry.

At Abby!

Cash was angry at Abby.

Abby’s mouth dropped open.

Her eyes slid back to Suzanne whose smugness had hit the stratosphere.

Mindlessly, Abby turned and ran up the steps taking them two at a time.

She got to the upstairs banister and had her purse in her hands before strong fingers closed around her upper arm in a vicelike grip and she was yanked backwards.

Her eyes flew to Cash’s.

“Let me go!” she shouted, tugging at her arm in his grasp.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, eyes narrowed on her purse, fingers not letting her go.

She stopped struggling and yelled, “I’m leaving!”

“The hell you are,” he snapped, wrenched her purse out of her hands and threw it into the lounge.

Abby watched it sail then land on the floor then she looked back at Cash and screamed, “Would you stop throwing my stuff!”

He ignored her demand and used her arm to pull her close. “You should have been home an hour ago. Or, it would seem, you should have fucking phoned an hour ago to say you’d be home now.”

Abby saw Suzanne join them at the top of the stairs, she was pulling on her coat, flipping her hair over the collar and looking happy as a clam.

Abby’s eyes moved back to Cash and she drawled with saccharine sweetness, “I’m so sorry I didn’t give you plenty of head’s up to get rid of your kissin’ cousin before I got home.”

She watched Cash’s head jerk, his brows shot together and then his lip curled in disgust.

“You think I’m fucking around on you?” he asked, deep voice filled with incredulity then he went on, “with Suzanne?” he uttered her name like it tasted foul.

Abby looked back at Suzanne and she’d lost her smug, happy look.

Abby’s eyes clashed with Cash’s again when she accused, “I just saw you kissing her.”

“No, you just saw her kissing me,” Cash shot back instantly.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Suzanne cut in, moving toward the door and Cash turned, taking Abby with him, his hand still on her arm.

“I’ll deal with you later,” Cash clipped to Suzanne.

“I’ll look forward to that,” came Suzanne’s sultry purr.

Cash’s body went solid and the air in the room, already thick, became suffocating.

“Don’t mistake me, Suzanne,” Cash’s voice was a low, menacing warning and Abby watched as Suzanne paled.

Recovering swiftly, she offered, “I’ll let myself out.”

“You do that,” Cash stated then, dismissing Suzanne completely, he turned back to Abby and started, “As for you –”

At that, with a vicious tug Abby yanked her arm free and vaguely heard the door close behind Suzanne. She was too deep in a tizzy at all she’d experienced that night at the castle, and what she’d just seen, to proceed with caution.

She stomped around Cash and into the lounge, muttering angrily, “I cannot believe after all I went through tonight,” she bent down to pick up her purse and looked up at Cash who had followed her, “for you,” she snapped, rising, “only to come home to see you groping Suzanne.”

“Abby, I’ll repeat, I was not groping Suzanne,” Cash returned.

“Whatever!” Abby shouted, beside herself, experiencing a layering of freak outs that she couldn’t quite overcome. “How would you feel if you came home and saw me in the arms of another man?”

Cash’s eyes narrowed and his hands went to his hips. “I wouldn’t fucking like it but I would also give you the chance to fucking explain.”

“Right,” Abby snorted with disbelief. “You’d freak.”

And he would.

“I would. Then I’d give you the chance to fucking explain,” he fired back.

Abby shook her head and walked to him with the intent to walk right by him and get her coat. “I’m not talking about this. I’m going home.”

Cash’s fingers curled around her upper arm firmly, effectively halting her and when she looked up at him, he stated, “You are home.”

“My home,” she snapped back.

“Yes, darling,” he returned calmly, “your home,” then he jerked her purse out of her hand again and threw it on a chair, making his point.

She looked at her purse and something came over her, something she couldn’t control.

She had an excuse, of course.

Her whole life, within weeks, had been turned on its head. And that included living with an impossibly rich, incredibly handsome, very famous International Hot Guy. And that also included going head-to-head with a ghost.

So, Abby thought, it was really only a matter of time before she lost her mind completely.

Which was exactly what she did.

In slow motion, her eyes moved from their perusal of her bag to Cash.

Then she shrieked, “Stop throwing my stuff!”

Cash pulled her close and his arm started to slide around her as he said, “Abby, you need to calm down.”

“Calm?” she asked. “Calm!” she screeched. “You be calm!” She yanked out of his arms and took two steps back, he came for her but she lifted her hand, pointed a finger at him and he stopped. “You be calm in the face of what I’ve seen, and done, and then seen tonight. A ghost, Cash, I came face-to-face with a fucking ghost!”

Distractedly she noticed his whole body jerked as if he’d been punched in the stomach but she just kept right on ranting.

“And let me tell you ghosts are scary!” she shouted then started pacing. “They scream and you… would not… believe how awful it sounds. They melt through walls. They melt back through walls. They float. And they attack!”

She stopped ranting and glared at him.

Quietly, looking like he was fighting the urge to check her temperature, he said, “Abby, there are no such things as ghosts.”

“I would have said the same thing a few weeks ago, but believe me, there are ghosts. They’re mean and they’re nasty and this one particularly,” Abby returned as if she had any authority on ghosts (although she felt, at that moment, she did).

“Maybe I should get you a drink,” he suggested.

“I don’t want a drink,” she retorted.

“Then maybe I should call Tim,” he replied softly.

“You are not going to call Tim!” Abby shouted.

He took a step toward her, saying, “Abby, you have to calm down.”

“Have you heard of Vivianna Wainwright?” Abby asked suddenly and Cash halted and watched her a moment

Then he murmured, “I see. Fenella has been –”

Abby cut him off. “No, Cash. Fenella has been nothing.”

“Darling –” he started again and Abby interrupted again.

“I didn’t slip in the bathroom,” she announced and watched as his body went still. “Your hand doesn’t slam through a mirror when you slip. It slams through a mirror when you’re shoved.”

Cash stared at her a moment then said softly, “Darling, you’ve been going through a lot lately.”

“Yes,” Abby agreed on a toss of her hair, “I have, including becoming the target of a ghost.”

“Abby –”

“Cash, listen to me!” she yelled. “I’m not crazy. I know what I saw. I know what I felt. I was standing at the sink, looking in the mirror and there she was behind me. She came at me, shoved me between the shoulders and I slammed forward, my hand going up to shield my fall, it went through the mirror. Only then did I slip and hit my head on the basin. And tonight, it was worse.”

His gaze was locked on hers, his jaw clamped and she saw a muscle working in his cheek.

Then his eyes moved over her face then down to her sweater where they stopped and narrowed.

“What happened to your jumper?” he asked and Abby looked down to see there was a burn mark on her sweater, just like the one on Vivianna’s dress, where Cassandra’s amulet had sparked.

She hadn’t noticed it until now.

“Cassandra’s protection amulet,” Abby explained, “it kind of… exploded when Vivianna and I clashed.”

Cash’s eyes jerked to hers and he repeated, “Cassandra’s protection amulet.”

“Yes.”

She watched as something dawned on him and his mouth tightened as his eyes went to the ceiling.

Finally he muttered, “I don’t fucking believe this shit.”

“Believe it,” Abby returned.

He looked at her again. “Abby, no matter what these people are telling you, I promise you, there are no such things as ghosts.”

“There are,” Abby retorted.

“No, there aren’t.”

“You felt it yourself,” she told him.

“I felt what?” he asked.

“The minute we walked into the castle, the entry swayed. You were there, you said you felt it!”

“That wasn’t a ghost,” he said.

“Then what was it?” Abby queried.

His face now held a hint of soft concern. “I don’t know, darling, but it wasn’t a fucking ghost.”

Abby stared at him then she had an idea and asked, “Did you pick up the diaries?”

At her swift change of subject, Cash’s head cocked to the side. “Diaries?”

“Your grandmother’s diaries,” Abby prompted.

He watched her a moment then said, “Emma went to get them today.”

Immediately Abby enquired, “Do you have them here at the house?”

“They’re in the study,” he answered and Abby was on the move.

Walking around him, she went to his study, flipped on the light and saw his briefcase opened on his desk. A stack of several, slim, elegant, leather-bound books sat beside it.

Abby walked up to the desk, grabbed the first one off the stack and started sifting through it, randomly picking pages and skimming. She found nothing so she threw that diary down and picked up the next, doing the same.

“Abby, what the fuck?” Cash muttered but then Abby saw it.

She immediately started reading, “My favourite brooch is missing. The one Richard gave me. I can’t find it anywhere and Richard is asking where it is. I know she took it, she knows how much I love it. It’s just the kind of thing she’d do. Especially since Richard is getting annoyed that I haven’t been wearing it. I was searching for it on my hands and knees beside the bed when I heard Vivianna laugh.”

Abby looked at Cash and saw his eyes were on the diary and his jaw was again clenched but he didn’t say anything so Abby persevered.

Using her thumb against the edges, Abby flipped pages ahead skimming quickly then she found another passage and started reading, “I’m frightened. She’s watching all the time. Everywhere I turn, if I’m alone, she’s there. Hovering. And anytime Richard is out of the house, she screams. And screams and screams and screams. We’ve lost three servants this week alone. They can’t bear it. I don’t know how long I can bear it either. I keep telling Richard about Vivianna but he just won’t listen. He thinks I’m being silly, he finds me amusing. He tells me it’s a legend, a myth, that I shouldn’t believe the servants’ gossip and let them make me anxious. I can’t get him to understand that she’s real. It’s getting worse, it feels different now. I think she means to harm me.”

Abby’s eyes went to Cash’s face again and Cash remarked, “My grandmother Lorna died of a stroke when I was seven years old. She wasn’t murdered by a ghost.”

“She stopped being a target,” Abby told him.

“And why is that?” Cash asked.

Abby stared at him, not wanting to get into the “love of their lives” business, not again and definitely not with Cash.

Therefore, she said, “She just did.”

Cash looked into her eyes and stated quietly, “Darling, do you have any idea how preposterous this sounds? Vivianna Wainwright is a ghost story handed down generation to generation. She isn’t real.”

Abby stared at him all of a sudden wondering why she’d told him. Of course he wouldn’t believe her. If she was him, she wouldn’t believe her either. It did sound preposterous, even though it was true.

Abby closed the diary and set it on his desk. She looked to the side to avoid his eyes then lifted her hand to pull her hair off her face. Bunching it at the back of her head for a moment, she decided to give up and maybe lie and say she got a little crazy when she was on her period. Men bought that kind of excuse all the time.

She sighed, looked back at him, dropped her hand and he watched it fall as she said, “You’re right, I –”

But Cash interrupted her. “What’s happened to your hand?”

Abby’s chin dipped, she lifted her hands, palms up and studied them. They were dirty, smudged with black and there were angry red scrapes along the heels of her palms. She hadn’t noticed it before, considering her Layering of Freak Outs, but she knew how it happened. She’d fallen hard on the stairs, landed on her hands then she’d used them to crawl back up.

Her head lifted.

“Cash –” she began but his eyes were doing a sweep of her body and landed on her legs.

He went on. “And your knees.”

Abby looked down at her legs and saw her jeans from knees to ankles were covered in dust likely gathered from scrambling up the stairs.

She tilted her head to look at him and went back to deciding to tell him the truth.

Therefore, she whispered, “I was running away from her. She formed in front of me and we collided on the stairs. I fell back on my hands. Then she attacked and I was scrambling on my hands and feet back up the stairs –”

“Stop,” he demanded and Abby stopped.

He kept staring at her legs then his eyes moved to her sweater and he took a step forward, getting close. His hand came up and he touched the dark purple-black burn mark on her sweater.

His hand dropped but his fingers wrapped around her wrists and he lifted her hands, palms up, between them. He looked down at them and his thumbs slid gently along the angry red marks and smudges.

“Fucking hell, it’s true,” he muttered and relief shot through her that he believed her.

“Yes,” she replied softly.

His fingers closed around her hands, pressing them together and he pulled them against his chest, also pulling Abby closer.

His eyes locked on hers and he ordered, “Tell me everything.”

Abby drew a breath in through her nose. Then she bit the side of her lip.

Then she told him everything.

Vivianna and the bathroom. Telling Jenny and Mrs. Truman. Fenella, Cassandra and the séance. Angus, the kilt-wearing, Scottish ghost hunter. Details about Vivianna’s spell, her abilities and her targeting Abby. Abby going to Penmort to be bait. Vivianna forming in the gallery, then attacking. The amulet that rocked. The mad dash to town surrounded by the protective purple mist.

Everything.

Everything except the true love part that was.

When she was finished, she realised Cash got stuck on an earlier point when he said in a dangerous voice with equally dangerous eyes, “You went to Penmort to be bait?”

“I had to draw her out,” Abby explained.

“You had to draw her out,” Cash repeated but he was looking like he was only just stopping himself from shaking some sense into her.

“Yes,” Abby said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Pardon?” Abby asked in return.

“Why did you have to draw her out?” Cash enquired.

Abby looked at him, confused. “So Angus could take her down, of course.”

“What does this have to do with you?” he pressed.

Abby was even more confused.

“It doesn’t have to do with me. It has to do with you.” She watched Cash’s face change but she misinterpreted it as puzzlement and carried on. “At first, Jenny and Mrs. Truman and I started this whole thing because I knew I’d have to go to the castle during the anniversary celebration. I couldn’t not go. I mean, obviously, for whatever reason, you wanted me there so I had to go. Since I didn’t want to, you know, die while I was there, I had to do something.” Cash kept staring at her with that strange look on his face so Abby persevered. “Then I got to know Fenella and she’s really nice. She’s a bit strange but she’s nice. And she’s lived with Vivianna her whole life and Vivianna scares her, so then I was kind of doing it for Fenella as well. Then I got to know Honor so I’m doing it for her too. And now I know Penmort’s yours so, well, as you can see, something has to be done. And I’m kind of the only person who can do it. With Angus and Cassandra, of course.”

Cash kept staring at her with his hands holding hers against his chest, the heat of his body close.

Abby thought maybe he wasn’t taking it all in. It was, she knew, a lot to wrap your head around.

She continued. “Anyway, it’s all good. Angus got a good look at her tonight so he knows what he’s up against and Cassandra says she’s got more stuff she can throw at her. So next time, it’ll go better.”

Cash’s hands tightened on hers before he asked, “Next time?”

“Yes,” Abby said, “probably tomorrow night.”

Cash moved forward very slightly but enough to bring him closer to Abby.

“Abby, there isn’t going to be a next time. You aren’t going back there.”

Abby blinked then reminded him, “Yes I am. We’re spending the weekend there.”

“No. We’re not. Our weekend plans have changed. I’m going to the party Saturday night only. You’re staying home.”

Abby felt her eyes grow wide and she said, “But we have to go. Nicola is expecting us and something has to be done about Vivianna.”

“We’re not going,” Cash replied firmly.

“We have to go,” Abby returned.

One of Cash’s hands released hers, the other curled around her palm and he turned, pulling her from the room saying, “We’re not discussing this.”

He flicked off the light switch and kept walking to the stairs and down to the garden level while Abby babbled, “You can’t be serious. We have to discuss it. You don’t understand. Angus and Cassandra know what they’re doing. I’m not kidding. They seriously know what they’re doing. You should have seen them. Things didn’t go great tonight but no one got hurt.”

Cash let her go at the bottom of the stairs and walked to the light switch, flipping off the dimmer lights that illuminated the kitchen area.

Then his eyes came to Abby. “We’re not discussing it. You aren’t going.”

Abby watched as he walked back across the room to the light by the couch that was lit. She saw his laptop open and some papers spread on the coffee table, a tumbler with a finger of whisky still in it sat next to his work.

Abby’s voice gentled when she went on. “Cash, I’ll be safe, honestly. They won’t let anything happen to me.”

He’d bent to the lamp but straightened and his eyes pinned her to the spot.

“You aren’t going,” he stated.

“Do you intend to live there?” Abby asked softly and watched Cash’s entire body freeze.

Then he started, “Abby –”

“Do you?” she pushed.

He didn’t answer but she watched his jaw get tight.

“Do you want me with you?” she whispered, heart in her throat, stomach clenched and she stopped breathing.

Their eyes held for a moment and Abby began to feel lightheaded with lack of oxygen.

Finally, he bit off tersely, “Yes.”

Abby went on softly. “Honey, I’m not safe there unless something is done. And, for whatever reason, I’m the only one who can force her out. It has to be me who does it and we both know it has to be done.”

His eyes were so hot on her she could actually feel them scorching into her. His jaw was tight and they stared at each other for long moments.

Then he bent at the waist and she thought he was going to turn off the lamp but his fingers curled around the phone, yanking it out of the charger.

He walked to her and held out the phone.

“Call them, all of them,” he demanded, “every person who’s involved in this fiasco. I want them at my office tomorrow at noon.”

“What?” Abby asked. “Why?”

“Do it,” Cash returned.

Abby’s eyes slid to the digital clock on the microwave then back to Cash. “It’s nearly midnight.”

His hand came out, fingers wrapping around her wrist, he lifted it and put the phone in her palm. “Call them. Now.”

“I don’t know their numbers,” Abby said, watched his brows draw together and hurried on. “I mean, I haven’t memorised them. They’re in my mobile, in my purse, upstairs.”

He lifted his hand and curled it around her neck. “I’ll get your purse.”

He gave her a squeeze, walked up the stairs and got her purse. He came back, scrawled his office address, phone number and directions on a piece of paper and gave it to her.

Then he stood next to Abby while she called everyone, including a seriously cranky, woken-up Mrs. Truman.

When she was done, he took the phone from her, put it back in its charger, turned off the lamp, grabbed her hand and guided her upstairs.

When they were in his bedroom Cash turned on the lamp at her side of the bed. Zee, curled sleeping at the foot of the bed, lifted his head and blinked in annoyance. Then Cash’s hands went to the buttons of his shirt.

Abby stood there watching him and asked, “Can we talk about Suzanne now?”

Cash pulled the shirt off his shoulders and tossed it on the armchair while saying, “No, she’s already had more of my time tonight than she deserves.”

“I’d kind of like an explanation,” Abby requested quietly.

His eyes went to Abby’s as he sat on the armchair and yanked off his shoes and, to her surprise, without any further coaxing Cash explained, “She showed up about fifteen minutes before you. She said she was in Bath having dinner with friends. They’d taken off but her car wasn’t starting. Her mobile had lost its charge and she needed to call AA. I didn’t believe her but I couldn’t leave her out in the cold either. I let her come in, she made her call and she spent ten minutes being supremely annoying. Then she came on strong, as she always does. We heard you come in, she knew it had to be you, I was distracted by your arrival, she moved in for the kill and she kissed me. That’s it.”

Abby couldn’t believe her ears.

Who behaved like that?

“What’s the matter with her?” Abby whispered.

“She’s a bitch,” Cash replied dismissively, standing again, his hands going to the waistband of his trousers.

“I don’t know anyone who acts like that,” Abby muttered, her head tilted down to watch her feet as she flipped off her shoes.

“Darling, come here,” she heard Cash call.

Her head came up, she saw his face had grown warm and immediately she walked to him.

His arms circled her when she got close.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“About Suzanne?” she queried in return.

“I don’t give a fuck about Suzanne. What I don’t like is you scrambling around on a staircase pursued by a ghost,” he told her.

Abby wrinkled her nose and admitted, “It wasn’t fun.”

His eyes had moved to her nose then his lips went there and he kissed her.

Abby held her breath at this tender action, but before she could process its sweetness, his head came up and he murmured, “Let’s get you to bed.”

Then his hands were on the hem of her sweater, he pulled it up, her arms lifted, he yanked it off and threw it to the side.

Shortly after, they went to bed.