Devin loved Kelly and Seamus—and that was why they were there.
Brendan had called Seamus and asked that he and Kelly come to Ireland after the death of Collum.
He didn’t like the way that Collum had died.
Not that anybody liked it when someone died, but Collum had died strangely, to say the least—in Brendan’s opinion.
In a way, that seemed to make Gary’s stories especially chilling.
They’d heard the banshee wailing at midnight, or so Brendan had told Seamus and Kelly.
And the following day, Collum had been found in the old master’s chambers, sitting in one of the antique, high-backed, crimson chairs—eyes open in what was surely horror—just staring at the hearth.
A heart attack, the doctor had said. No nonsense, a heart attack.
And it might have been.
But Brendan hadn’t thought it was right, not one bit. So Seamus and Kelly had come. What they’d found when they’d arrived and all they’d been told had been enough to set the wheels in motion that had brought she and Rocky to where they were right now.
“We have to find the truth,” Devin said, her voice low but passionate. “Kelly and Seamus are very precious to me. Of course, so far, we’ve not had much chance to see or speak with the living—much less, um, anyone else. All we’ve done is drop off our bags. We haven’t even seen Kelly and Seamus yet. Just Brendan.”
Kelly and her father had been down in the village when they’d arrived, at a dinner with a marketing friend who arranged for the creation and delivery of their special “Karney Castle” soaps and shampoo and conditioner, and all the little amenities that hotel guests liked to take with them.
After arriving in Dublin, going through customs, getting their rental car and making their way to Karney, Devin and Rocky had arrived at the castle just in time to be warmly greeted by Brendan, drop their bags, and head for Gary’s Ghosties and Goblins night tour—at Brendan’s insistence.
Devin had been there before, but Rocky was new to this wondrous part of the Emerald Isle, and the tour was a great way for him to get an intro, so Brendan told them. And Devin had been a “wee” little thing at the time she had been there.
Devin was pretty sure she’d been thirteen or fourteen when the family had come, and she’d been five-five or five-six by then, but to Brendan—a great bear of a man at about six-four—she supposed that was “wee.”
Brendan had seen to it that she and Rocky had a chance for a quick look at the old master’s suite where they’d be staying, time to freshen up and make sure they wouldn’t mind where Kelly had wanted them to stay, and then head out.
Their room in the central tower was called the old master’s suite because there was a new master’s suite—created in the Victorian era with all the niceties that came with the more modern day. Collum—now dead and buried—had lived in the old suite; Brendan was in the new suite. Kelly and her father, Seamus, had rooms in the main tower as well, which was always reserved for family.
Only there wasn’t much family anymore.
Tavish Karney—Kelly’s grandfather—had been one of two boys; Tavish’s brother, Brian, twenty years his junior, had gone on to procreate late in life, leaving Kelly with two Irish second cousins, Aidan and Michael, close to her own age. When the cousins came to stay—they were due in late the next day, always there to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at the family castle—they were also housed in the main tower.
As Brendan had sadly told them, the family was down to himself, Seamus, Kelly, Aidan, and Michael. Not many left of a once great and mighty family. Family needed to be keepers of a great and historic castle. Of course, Ancient City Tourism was forever trying to buy them out, put a nightclub in the old castle, and shake everything up.
Brendan—as Collum before him—meant to keep Karney Castle in the Karney family. Devin knew that Seamus and Kelly felt just as passionately that their heritage must be preserved. Castle Karney deserved the best and while its place on the historic register might save it from destruction, it just might not be enough to keep it from becoming a gimmicky attraction.
“You’re right; we’ve just arrived,” Rocky told Devin softly, his words bringing her back from her thoughts. They were both seated cross-legged on the soft, rich green grass of the lawn area that surrounded the pit and the grating. Rocky took her hands, his eyes on Gary across the rising yellow flames of the fire between them. “And,” he added, lowering his voice still further, “this is an excellent way for me to begin, to understand the lay of the land, so to speak.” He hugged her more tightly to him, as if he was aware of the chill she’d felt earlier when looking up at the walls.