Page 6 of Harrowing Hall
“Hmm.” Rather than seem frightened, she appeared perplexed. “Come, then.” She pulled him after her. “Perhaps you just need to get a little closer.”
“Perhaps.” Charmed, as usual, he followed her to Harrowing Hall’s door.
“How odd.” Maude frowned. “I could have sworn….”
He perked his brows, wondering just how much Jane had decided to share. Frustrated that she had taken it upon herself to share anything at all. “You thought the pipes came from behind this door?”
“Why, yes.” Maude glanced from him to the door and wrung her hands. “Because theydid. I heard them right up until I arrived here, then they faded away.” Her brows puckered. “Dear Lord, you must think me foolish.”
“Not at all.” While some might think her fanciful, he thought anything but. So he held out his elbow and gestured at the door. “Would you like to see what’s behind it? The fabled Harrowing Hall?”
“Very much so.” She smiled in relief and slipped her arm into his. “Jane told me quite the tale.” Before he could respond, she rambled on. “Not a tall tale, mind you. Well, perhaps to most but not to me, for I think there is a grain of truth to everything.” Maude being Maude, she whipped out her fan. “I also think Lady Jane is trying her best to be smitten with you.” She arched a brow and fanned herself. “Have you addressed that? Because although she is certainly fond of you, I am sorry to report, she’s not half as in love with you as she wants me to think.” She shrugged. The fan went a little faster “Not as much as you may wish.”
Always a bit of question mixed in with his Maude’s curiosity.
“I wish naught, and well you know it.” He opened the door, grabbed a candle, and ushered her through, glad to be back to solving a mystery or two with hisleannanbecause that was precisely what this was. One that had her worked up just enough that her cheeks had gone rosy, and her face needed constant cooling.
“I am aware that Lady Jane is up to something.” He shut the door behind them and linked arms with her again. “Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out what that is.”
Maude cast him a sidelong look, gauging his response. “You have no inkling?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“All right then.” She nodded once. “We shall think on it and try to figure out what you have missed. What I may have missed. We shall…”
Her voice trailed off the further they walked down a hall not unlike most halls in this castle.
“What is it, Maude?”
“I am not sure.” She ran her fingers along a side table in passing. “You keep things clean here. Dusted. Cared for.”
“Naturally.”
“Why?”
“Because we Scots respect the dead,” he replied bluntly, cursing that he had not just been honest from the start. That Jane had been the one to tell her. He would not make that mistake again if for no other reason than he did not want that sort of relationship with Maude. He wanted honesty always. “And because many believe Lady Annabel MacLauchlin still haunts this hall, waiting for her beloved son to return.”
While tempted not to tell her about the pipes rumored to have played at Lady Annabel’s request in the distant past, he thought it best to share that now as well. Could Maude be hearing them as so many had heard other things coming from Harrowing Hall over the centuries? If so, why only her?
“Would that not be something?” she marveled, not afraid in the least. “While sad they might still play for someone who will never come home, I am glad somebody can at least hear them now.”
“As am I.”
“And Lady Annabel,” she whispered, clearly enchanted. “So that was her name? How beautiful.”
“Aye, it was a bonnie name to be sure.”
Her tender gaze went from the hallway to him. “Itisa beautiful name.” She shook her head. “Such a shame that she shunned her husband. The poor man.”
“I do not think she did.” He shook his head as well. “Her tale has been embellished many times over to make for more riveting storytelling, but according to our family records, she did no such thing. Instead, he moved into this wing with her, and they waited together.”
“Even though he had the clarity of mind that their son was gone? Perished in battle?”
“Even so.”
“That would have been very considerate of him. Very understanding.” She released a breathy sigh, obviously a romantic at heart. “Very loving, if I were to be frank.”
“We MacLauchlins tend to love our lasses thoroughly.”
