Cash had made it to Abby and his arm curved around her shoulders, curling her front to his side even as his eyes were on Honor.
Softly, he murmured, “Honor, don’t.”
But Honor kept going and announced flatly, “Your mother was raped by a gardener. You’re the product of that rape.”
As if struck, Alistair reeled back several paces at her words.
Nicola whispered, “Oh my God.”
Suzanne watched Alistair, a startled look on her face but it shifted quickly and triumphantly to a satisfied smirk.
Honor was relentless. “She wrote all about it in her diaries. I found them and Cash has them now. They’re evidence enough but if you push him and he demands a DNA test, the whole world will know you for what you are.”
“I kind of hope he does,” Mrs. Truman muttered loudly to Kieran and Abby pressed her lips together to stop from smiling.
Instead she turned to the older woman and whispered, “Mrs. Truman, please.”
Mrs. Truman widened her eyes in faux innocence and asked, “What? Everyone can see he’s not a very nice man,” then she declared as a finale, “comeuppance.”
Abby heard Jenny’s half-amused, half-embarrassed giggle and opened her mouth to speak but Alistair got there before her.
“I fail to see,” he started quietly, “what’s funny about my mother being raped.”
“Nothing,” Mrs. Truman returned tartly. “I’m sure everyone in this room agrees it’s very sad about your poor mother. Tragic. What’s more tragic is that you carried on your father’s legacy of cruelty rather than fighting whatever wicked impulse you have that makes you behave the way you behave and, instead, being a good husband and father to a widowed family as it is abundantly clear you have not been.” She leaned forward at the hips and declared, “You reap, good man, what you sow.”
“That’ll be enough, Mrs. Truman,” Cash murmured firmly.
Mrs. Truman looked at Kieran and announced, “I was done anyway.”
Finally everyone fell silent and Abby watched as Alistair visibly battled with his new knowledge and she almost, but not quite, felt sorry for him.
Cash’s fingers squeezed her shoulder. Her eyes moved from Alistair and her head tilted back to look at Cash.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
“Yes,” she lied. “Are you?”
He ignored her question, his fingers tensed again at her shoulder and his voice still soft, he warned, “Don’t lie to me Abby.”
She sighed and replied, “Okay, well, I was just attacked again by a ghosty she-bitch, so of course I’m a little –”
Cash cut her off. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
Abby blinked at him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about walking into the hall earlier and seeing you looking like your whole world had come to an end.”
Abby felt her heart start racing and she kicked herself for being, yet again, so very, annoyingly, transparent.
She searched her brain for a plausible story.
Luckily she didn’t have to search far. “Cash, someone made an attempt on your life today but I got in the way. Tonight we’re at war with a ghost. You’ve just thrown your uncle out of his home. This is all going to wear on me.”
He pushed in at the same time his arm tightened around her shoulders bringing her even closer.
When they were front-to-front, his hand lifted to her neck and he accused quietly, “You’re lying again.”
“I am not.”
“You are.”
“Am not!”
“When I came back to the hall, you weren’t where I left you. You were standing with Jenny in an out-of-the-way place. The kind of place you’d engage in a private conversation,” Cash informed her and Abby wished he wasn’t so damned clever because at times it was pretty annoying. Then he pressed, “What did she say?”
“We were getting ready for the toast,” Abby lied again.
Cash’s mouth grew tight before he demanded, “Stop lying.”
“Cash.”
“Abby.”
They held a brief staring contest before Abby looked away and muttered, “I’m not talking about this now.”
Cash’s arm gave her a shake and as he intended, her gaze went back to his.
His hand at her neck moved to cup her jaw. “I hope to God whatever she told you, you’re smart enough to come to me before you jump to any ridiculous conclusions.”
“Cash –” Abby began but he cut her off.
His brogue was rough and dangerous when he finished. “Because, darling, if you don’t and you go off half-cocked, it’s going to piss me right, the fuck, off.”
All right then.
Abby scratched a chat with Cash on her mental to-do list.
After she helped take down a centuries old spirit from beyond the grave that was.
She decided to give up. “Can we just focus on the matter at hand?”
“We can, after you promise you’ll be in bed with me at the night’s end,” Cash returned and Abby’s body gave a small jerk.
“Of course,” she whispered and watched as the intensity faded from his eyes before she went on, “if I’m not in a hospital bed wearing a full body cast, that is.” And she watched as the intensity shot right back.
“This isn’t funny,” he clipped.
“I wasn’t joking,” she replied.
His eyes rolled to the ceiling, his hand dropped from her jaw and he muttered, “Fucking hell.”
Abby got up on tiptoes, put her hand on his shoulder, his gaze came back to her and she advised softly, “You really shouldn’t say the f-word so much.”
“Darling,” he retorted, “you really should learn not to be cute when I’m annoyed.”
She dropped back on her heels saying, “I’ll make a note of that.”
His other arm slid around her. “I think that’s smart.”
“Um, sorry to interrupt your, um, whatever,” Cash and Abby’s heads turned to see Fenella at their side, “but, Abby, don’t you think you should do something?”
Cash released his firm hold on her, not entirely but enough for her to move a modest distance away but his arm along her shoulders kept her at his side.
“Pardon?” she asked Fenella.
“You know, something,” she urged, “to upset Vivianna.”
Cash tensed and Abby queried, “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Fenella answered. “Last time, you nearly touched Anthony Beaumaris’s portrait. I don’t think she wanted you to do that. Maybe –”
“Snog Cash,” Suzanne all of a sudden was there.
Abby’s eyes moved to Suzanne and she breathed, “What?”
Suzanne looked at Cash then to Abby and repeated, “Snog Cash.” When they just stared at her Suzanne went on. “Listen, she thinks of the Beaumaris heirs as hers and she thinks, in some twisted way, she’s looking after them. Even so she doesn’t appear before them unless they’re in harm’s way, which isn’t often.” Her gaze went back to Cash and she commented, “You’re a healthy lot, don’t put up with much either, never did.”
“How do you know this?” Honor asked. Abby hadn’t noticed her getting close but she saw now that Honor was studying her sister, unable to hide her curiosity.
Suzanne looked at Honor and shrugged. “She talks to me.”
“Talks to you?” Fenella squeaked.
“Yes,” Suzanne answered, “ever since I was eight years old. We’d moved in, we were here a few months, Alistair said something nasty, it was the first time he did. I remember it like yesterday. I was crying in my room. She came and talked to me.”
Abby, Cash, Fenella and Honor were all staring at her.
Finally Honor spoke. “You think you might have wanted to mention this to us? You know, sometime in the last twenty-five years,” she ended on a near shout.
“At first I thought you all would think I was crazy,” Suzanne returned, blithely ignoring her sister??
?s raised voice. “Then, even when I knew you saw her too, I kept it to myself.”
“Why?” Fenella asked.
Something shifted across her face, something that looked like pain, before she hid it.
“I just did,” she answered and her eyes went back to Abby. “She’s exposed herself now in front of Cash so I’d guess she won’t hesitate to do it again. She probably knows you’ve set a trap. She also probably figures she’ll win. She always has. You aren’t the first one to try to get rid of her, you know.” Abby didn’t know but didn’t say anything as Suzanne kept talking. “I don’t know what Anthony is up to but if she’s given him the slip, to draw her out you’ll have to make a claim to what she considers hers.”
“She’s been holding my hand or in my arms all night,” Cash reminded her.
“Obviously, that isn’t enough.” She grinned wickedly but it wasn’t her usual unpleasant wickedness, this grin was actually kind of endearing and, Abby thought distractedly, she should do it more often. “You’ll have to go for the gusto.”
“It’s my understanding she can be anywhere, hear anything,” Cash replied. “She’s probably listening to you right now.”
Suzanne shook her head. “No. Over the years I’ve learned to sense her. She’s not here.”
“So how is she going to know Abby’s kissing me?” Cash enquired.
“You, if you’re in this house, she’s tuned into. Completely,” Suzanne replied softly, her words freaking Abby out but not as much as her next words would do. “Not what you’re saying, not what you’re doing, what you’re feeling.”
“Oh my,” Fenella breathed.
Before her mind kicked in, Abby turned to Cash in embarrassed horror and muttered, “Oh my Lord, Cash, if that’s true, we shouldn’t have had sex on the desk in the study. She probably watched or at least she felt. Bloody hell, I hadn’t thought of that.”
Slowly, Cash’s head turned to the side, his chin dipped down, his eyes locked with Abby’s and for the first time since he left to talk to James, his mouth formed a delicious grin.
“Oh my,” Fenella breathed again.
“You had sex on Alistair’s desk!” Honor hooted loudly and everyone in the room turned to look at them as Abby felt the heat come up in her cheeks and she mentally kicked herself for being stupid, stupid, stupid. “That’s hilarious!” Honor shouted.
Abby ducked her head, praying for a miracle (or a little, teensy bit of Angus’s mojo) that would make her a real invisible woman.
When this unsurprisingly didn’t happen, she turned into Cash’s body and buried her face in his chest begging, “Please, kill me.”
Cash’s arms went around her as Abby heard Mrs. Truman yell, “Abigail Butler, what did I tell you about hanky panky? And on a desk! My goodness, your grandmother is probably spinning in her grave.”
Abby tilted her head back, looked up at Cash and whispered, “Are you going to kill me? If you are, now’s a good time.”
His face descended, his captivating grin firmly in place and against her lips, he murmured, “No, darling, I’m not going to kill you.”
“Damn,” she whispered right before his mouth took hers in a kiss.
It wasn’t a brush-on-the-lips kiss.
It was an open-mouths, tongues-engaged, knees-weakening, stomach-dipping, body-melting kiss. Abby leaned into Cash, his head slanted, deepening the already-deep kiss and she felt his arms tighten around her as her hands slid up his arms, along his shoulders, one gliding up his neck and into his hair.
She absorbed his low groan, a delectable tremor shuddering through her moments before they heard the spine-chilling scream.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Showdown Part Two
Cash’s mouth broke from Abby’s, both their heads jerked to the side and they saw Vivianna only feet away and hovering before she shot forward.
Abby’s body tensed for flight but they had no time, Vivianna was almost upon them.
Cash’s arm came up to fend Vivianna off, something Abby knew wouldn’t work because, well, she was a ghost.
Then it did.
Worked that was.
Vivianna slammed into Cash’s upturned hand as if her body was corporeal, the scream stilled and she flew back.
Abby heard gasps around her but all she could do was stare.
“What on –” she breathed but she heard a whisper in her ear.
“Draw her to the circle,” Angus ordered and belatedly Abby’s brain kicked in.
She pulled out of Cash’s arm and took a step back. His eyes sliced to her, she gave him a short jerk of the head and watched his jaw grow tight.
She started edging toward the corner of the gallery where she knew the circle had been drawn, according to Cassandra not only magical but also invisible.
Unfortunately the room was huge and the circle was far away, a distance to Abby at that exact time that felt like a million miles.
Regardless Abby kept creeping and saw that Vivianna’s eyes were on Cash, not filled with malice but instead with pain and longing.
This was a problem considering she wasn’t paying a lick of attention to Abby.
Normally that would be a good thing. At that moment it was not.
Abby kept backing toward the corner, giving Vivianna’s floating form a wide berth and trying to be obvious but not too obvious.
Cash, eyes on Vivianna, started to move slowly toward Abby.
Vivianna’s head, just as slowly, turned to Abby.
When Vivianna’s malice-filled eyes hit her, Abby’s mind disengaged, fear shot through her and she stopped moving.
“Abby, come here,” Cash commanded, lifting his hand to her.
Abby’s gaze darted between Cash and Vivianna and she whispered, “Cash.”
“Darling, you’ll be all right. Come here,” Cash said softly, still advancing and Abby started backing up again.
Abby had no idea what he was on about because the only way she’d be all right was to get the damned ghost in the circle. He knew that. Hell, practically everyone in the room knew that.
“Cash, I have to –”
“Come here.”
“Cash –”
Then it happened.
Vivianna twirled toward Abby and advanced at the same time Cash bolted forward.
Abby started running to the circle. She chanced a glance over her shoulder to see if Vivianna was following and saw the spirit collide with Cash. Cash’s arm went around her waist and he hurled her bodily toward Abby then tore in their direction.
Abby stopped and ducked, Vivianna sailing over her as Cash caught Abby at the hips, whirled and threw Abby back from whence she came. She reeled and would have landed right on her ass if Kieran hadn’t caught her in his arms.
Cash wasted no time and shot forward in Vivianna’s direction.
Abby watched in shock as Cash caught Vivianna’s skirts in a fist and pulled her down into his arms. Subduing her wild struggles quickly, he carried her kicking and punching to where the circle was supposed to be. Once there, he let go and jogged out toward Abby, Vivianna zooming after him so fast she was nearly a blur.
When it looked like Vivianna would make it to Cash, Abby heard Fenella scream right before Vivianna slammed against an invisible barrier.
Bright sparks of white lights like sparkler dust exploded up and down, in and out, in a wide circle, so thick and riotous you could barely see through them.
Vivianna flew back into the circle.
Cash made it to Abby’s side and with an arm hooked around her waist, he pulled her out of Kieran’s arms and against his body.
Vivianna came tearing toward them again.
And she again slammed into the circle, more blazing lights burst and she sailed back.
They watched, everyone inching slightly nearer to the circle as she did this again.
And again.
And again.
Then she stopped, suspended in the air in the middle of the circle.
Eyes on Cash th
en on Abby, she opened her mouth and screamed.
This scream was different, still eerie but filled with frustration.
“That’s it, wee ghosty. Scream all you want. We’ve got you now,” Angus’s voice came from a now visible body. He was standing at the edge of the circle, in full kilt, hands on hips, grinning like the lunatic he was at Vivianna.
Vivianna stopped screaming and glared at Angus.
“Angus!” they heard shouted and everyone turned to see Cassandra at the door. She was in top-to-toe, full-on, Rock ‘n’ Roll Gypsy gear, wearing enough silver and scarves to outfit a five member rock band. She had a big, battered, brown leather case with her. She put it on the floor and gave it a hefty shove with the bottom of her booted foot. It went sailing across the room and Angus, also with his foot, stopped it.
Angus’s head turned to Vivianna. “You’re going on a road trip, lass.”
Vivianna’s eyes went from the case to Angus, her body still hovering.
Instead of looking worried however, she crossed her arms as if this all was a mild annoyance.
Abby had the feeling this was not a good sign.
Cassandra came to stand beside Angus. She now had what looked like a long, gnarled, stout twig in her hand about a foot long, maybe longer. She was pointing it at Vivianna and muttering under her breath. Abby couldn’t catch all that she was saying but she could tell that it rhymed.
“Who’s she?” Nicola breathed from the other side of Kieran.
“A witch,” Jenny answered.
With effort Nicola took in this new utterly inconceivable nugget of information and then asked, “What’s she doing?”
“Folding her up,” Honor, at her mother’s side, replied.
At that a stream of bright pink glitter dust poured forth from Cassandra’s wand and Nicola, eyes huge and trained on the wand, wisely decided to stop asking questions.
They watched as Vivianna did indeed look like she was folding in on herself from the bottom up.
Feet, skirts, knees and up.
Thighs, hips, waist and up.
Regardless of what would seem dire circumstances for the ghosty she-bitch, she kept her eyes on Angus, her arms crossed on her chest.