Highlander's Charm (Highlander Heat #3)

“Mingary awaits. How about a race?” Grinning, Zayn took off.

“Hey, you cheat. Wait up.” Flying downhill, she rode hard in pursuit. Ahead, Mingary’s ruins perched on a massive ridge of rock overlooking the sea. The castle’s thick walls stood three stories high and exactly as her grandmother had described in her tales. Nanna had spent time here in her younger years and adored this place.

Zayn slowed. “Are you up for a little bit of history on the homeward straight?”

“Absolutely.” She’d absorbed what she could at the museum, but Zayn had lived here all his life. He’d be a treasure trove of information.

“John MacIan was the last MacIan to hold Mingary before the Campbell of Argyll took possession.”

“I read about that in the archives. MacIan lost his first wife in childbirth, and when he could have wed a woman young enough to bear him children in his later years, he instead married Janet Campbell, his enemy’s mother from Mull.”

“Yes. Supposedly to bring some calm to the feud that raged through these isles at the time, and usually those kinds of alliances saw success, but in this case it didn’t. At the time Lachlan MacLean was the chief across the way, and he was a warrior well known for using any unlawful means to achieve what he wanted. Dad’s always talking about that time in history. It’s one of his favorite eras.”

“I should have brought the book I picked up about the MacIan clan with me. It covered that period. Your father recommended it, but I left it in my hotel room.” The wind whipped her hair across her face.

“Watch the dip. It’s a bit rough here, Lila.”

“Thanks.” She lifted off her seat and missed the jarring impact of the bump. “They need to fix this trail.”

“The constant rain messes with it, but from here on to Mingary it evens out.”

They rode along the final lowland stretch to the bluff.

“We have nothing like this back home. I mean castles and all.”

“I’ve always wanted to visit Australia. Does it feel like you’re walking around on your head down there?”

“No.” She laughed, something she hadn’t done since the day Nanna had gone missing. “I wish Nanna was here. She’d like you.”

“Have you got any other family?”

“It’s just me and her.” The castle loomed. She pulled to a stop alongside the entrance and propped her bike against the stone wall. The castle’s land-gate appeared no more than a darkened doorway leading into its gloomy recesses. “I was expecting a gatehouse and all the trappings. Where is it all?”

“It used to have gate and a drawbridge, but they were lost over time.” Zayn butted his bike against hers. “This entrance leads straight into the inner courtyard. Let me show you around.”

“Do you come here a lot? It’s so close to the village.” She crept inside then swept away the cobwebs stretching the width of stone passageway.

“I lived here most of last summer. Dad’s on the finance team for Mingary’s restoration, and we began the cleanup back then.”

“What cleanup?” Moss grew in clumps along sections of the walls. Keeping clear of the muddy rubble littering the path, she jumped from stone to stone. “Sorry, that was rude. You’ve clearly done a bang-up job. The place looks nice and cozy.” She barely hid her grin.

“Funny, but I meant outside. No one’s allowed to touch the inside until the experienced crew arrives.”

“I see.” She rounded the corner, and the sun shone down into Mingary’s inner courtyard. The surrounding curtain walls, several feet thick, gave evidence of the castle’s initial strength and how it had managed to stand strong for so long. A shame it had been left to go to ruin. “This place must have looked incredible in its heyday. In one museum display, it showed this place had pinkish-white stones.”

“They lost their color over time. Plain old gray now.”

“Though so much is still intact.” She wandered around the open base of a well flooded with water and spilling its excess over the stone floor.

“Careful. Fairly intact, but slippery.”

“I’ll be—” Her vision hazed, and she grasped the wall. An image materialized in her mind, showing the well’s sides rising to waist height with ivy trailing over them. Someone stood next to it in a beautiful olive gown, but as she tried to focus, the image shimmered away.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, my imagination is playing tricks with me.” She was seeing things she shouldn’t and it was likely stress. She hadn’t exactly been sleeping well since Nanna’s disappearance. “Is there anything else I need to watch out for?”

Zayn motioned toward the seaside wall. “There’s a small patch there in danger of collapse, but since that tremor we had earlier didn’t knock it over, I’m sure we’ll be fine.”