Chapter Five

I s this how kisses feel when one is in love?

Heather knew she had fallen in love with the Duke of Arran. How could she possibly deny it after that kiss? She knew he hadn't meant to do it, for he drew away with a horrified look. Well, not really horrified.

Confused?

"Miss Alwyn, I don't know what to say. I did not mean for this to happen." He raked a hand through his hair, then sighed and gave her cheek a gentle caress, his knuckles as light as a feather against her skin. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I have just been kissed by a handsome duke. Wouldn't any girl be all right after that?"

"You are not just any girl." His voice was rough and raspy as he spoke. "We had better return to the house before anyone notices us missing. I doubt any of my guests will be awake yet, but their maids or valets might be."

"Yes, I see," she remarked as he led her toward the kitchen entrance where she might slip in unobserved. She expected he would then stride in through the front entrance, for this was his home, after all. Still, caution was required. "One of us should go in first, and then the other can follow after a few minutes."

"You first. I think I shall ride straight over to the village church and inspect their records. Births, deaths, marriages."

"What should I do in the meantime? I want to help."

"My ogre of an aunt will keep you too busy to do more than tend to her whims. But it would be helpful to make note of anything that feels wrong with the house. A door out of place. A secret passage, perhaps?"

"Like the smuggler's tunnel you mentioned?"

"Yes, write all of it down. I prefer to leave nothing to chance."

"I'll make a list for you this very morning. There is a painting…" She shook her head, wanting to shake loose a memory that remained stubbornly out of her grasp. "Never mind. Perhaps I will look at it again while you are gone. Something about it feels important."

He nodded. "I won't be long."

She stood by the kitchen door and watched the duke lead his magnificent stallion from the stable and ride off. As soon as he was out of sight, she left the house, intending to make her way back to the beach, since it was early yet and she would have hours before his aunt awoke to write her list. He would be angry, but she wasn't really disobeying him.

She would keep away from the caves, just as she had promised him.

But the beach was another matter. If she and the ghost were related, would it not be helpful to seek her out there and question her?

The duke was being overly protective. He feared this ghost.

Heather did not.

All was quiet, not even a birdsong to be heard as she hurried past the grove of trees where they had been sitting a short while ago. She arrived at the cliff steps and paused to look up and down the beach. The Singing Caves were hardly visible in the distance. A mist hung over them, stubbornly lingering upon the rocks despite the sun burning down with all its heat and clearing off the rest of the beach and water.

Heather scampered down the stairs and hopped onto the soft sand. The tide was out, but she had not paid close attention to its rhythms and did not know when it would roll back in.

Well, it did not matter. She was not going to stay long, and the beach was safe even at high tide.

"Bella! Where are you?"

She did not wander far from the cliff steps, not only because she wished to keep a safe distance from the caves. Her reason was practical, for she could not afford to ruin her walking boots if caught by an errant wave.

"Bella!"

Silence.

The mist continued to hover over the patchwork of caves. In the next moment, several of its smoky tendrils began to swirl. "Bella? Is that you?"

A girl with golden hair and a plaid frock emerged and began skipping toward her. "Did you come to see me?"

Dear heaven.

Heather stared into green eyes reminiscent of her own. "I would like to talk to you. Will you sit beside me on the sand?"

Bella nodded and did a somersault before settling close. "No one ever plays with me anymore."

"Who were you playing with when you…" Heather did not want to be the one to tell the girl she was dead. "Who was with you when you last went into these caves?"

Bella shrugged. "My sister. But then my head hurt so badly, and I couldn't get up to find her."

It was disconcerting to hear her speak.

"What is your sister's name, Bella?"

"She played a mean trick on me and hurt me," she said, now frowning and breathing heavily as she began to seethe.

Heather said nothing for the stretch of a minute, but shivers ran through her as the girl only seemed to grow angrier. "How exactly did she hurt you, Bella?"

By hitting her over the head? Leaving her to drown? Was this the mean trick Bella spoke of? But who would do such a thing to one's own sister?

"Do you want to see my pretty locket?" Bella said, her anger suddenly disappearing as though it was nothing more than a wisp.

Heather nodded. "Yes, are you wearing it?"

Bella shook her head. "It is my treasure, and I keep it in the Singing Caves."

"Will you bring it out to show me?"

The girl shook her head again. "Give me your hand and I'll take you to it."

"I cannot." Heather drew her hand back when Bella suddenly reached for it.

Perhaps coming here had not been too clever. The girl was getting upset again, this time at her. Heather quickly sought to mollify her before she threw a tantrum. "Bella, please understand. I am not allowed in the caves or anywhere near them."

"But that is where I always met him ."

"Him? In the cave?" Whom had she met? A sweetheart? Did he have any involvement in her death? "Was he a boy, Bella? Or older? A man? Was he the one with you when you hurt your head?"

"No! James loves me. He gave me the locket. I told you! It was my sister, Millicent."

There, she had accused her sister again.

But it still seemed implausible to Heather that one sibling could ever hurt another. No, she wanted to know more about this secret sweetheart of Bella's. "Dear…tell me more about this boy who gave you the locket. You said his name was James?"

"His father did not want us to be together." Bella smiled slyly and put a finger to her lips as though about to reveal a secret. "Shh, don't tell anyone. Come into my cave and I'll show you. James put his portrait inside my locket so I could look upon him whenever I wished."

"Oh, I would love to see it. But Bella, I've told you I cannot go into the caves. The Duke of Arran has forbidden it, and I dare not disobey him."

"The duke is a mean old ogre!" She tried to take Heather's hand again. "He doesn't want his son to see me."

"You met his son in secret? James is his son and the one who gave you the pretty locket?"

She nodded. "The old duke doesn't have to know. You won't tell him about us, will you?"

"He will never hear it from me," Heather assured her.

"Oh. Oh dear."

"What's wrong, Bella?"

The girl put a hand to her throat and then began to sift through the sand as though looking for something. "It's gone. My locket! She took it."

"Who? Your sister? But you told me you had it in the Singing Caves. You told me it was your treasure."

"It is my treasure! I had it when I went in there. Where did it go?" She let out a keening wail.

Heather's heart shot into her throat. She wanted to run, but dared not lose this chance with Bella. "Describe it to me. Let me help you find it."

"It is silver and in the shape of a heart. His portrait is inside. She took it! She took it away from me and laughed about it!" Bella's eyes began to darken as she stared at Heather. "Did you help her steal it from me?"

"No! I promise, Bella. I would never hurt you."

"Did you help her?"

Her eyes.

They were suddenly as dark as storm clouds, turbulent and unearthly.

"No, Bella. You must believe me." Heather leaped up, realizing she had overstayed her welcome. "The duke will be looking for me. I have to go."

Bella tried to pick up a fistful of sand and throw it in Heather's face, but howled when her hand simply passed through the grains like air. "You are as bad as my sister! You want to hurt me and trick me!"

Heather began to panic. She wanted to run back to the house, but her legs felt as heavy as pillars of granite and she could not move them. What was happening to her? "Bella, are you holding me back? You have to release me."

"I won't!"

Dear heaven.

"Please, Bella. Do not be angry with me. I am trying to help you. Do you know why you are still here? Do not cry. I will help you find your locket. Is this why you cannot move on, because you are missing your locket?"

Bella nodded, and then scampered to her feet and ran toward the caves.

Heather started to chase after her, suddenly finding herself free to move again. But she took only a few steps before she stopped.

Dear heaven, what am I doing?

She needed to run from the Singing Caves, not to them.

They were still surrounded in an eerie mist. She could barely make out Bella standing on the rocks and staring back at her.

Then Bella held out her hand.

Suddenly, Heather felt a jolt course through her body, and it knocked her to the ground. That granite heaviness overtook her again. She no longer had control of her limbs.

She screamed as Bella began to pull her toward the caves, as though she had managed to tie a rope around her waist along with the jolt and was dragging her ever closer.

That rope…that bond…that tie to his house the duke had spoken of.

It was not only to his house but to these caves, as well.

"Bella, stop! I cannot go in there!" She tried to pull back, but how? There was no actual rope to cut in order to break free of Bella's hold. A wave washed onto shore and soaked the hem of her gown.

The tide was coming in.

A drowning tide.

"Bella, please! You must let me go!"

Her cries caught on the wind and were carried out to sea.

The ghost had first appeared to her as a pretty girl of seventeen. But that pretty girl was no longer present, for in her place stood an angry phantasm whose eyes were as black as onyx.

Fool! Heather, you fool!

What had she done?

She stumbled as she was drawn onto the slippery rocks near the caves and scraped her knee. Waves crashed all around her. "Please, stop! Bella, let me go!"

Those jagged rocks also cut her hands as she grabbed at them in desperation.

Her efforts were to no avail. Cold water surrounded her, soaking her gown and boots. Not that any of it mattered now. Bella held a powerful force over her and was about to drag her into one of those caves.

"Bella, please. I will die if you keep me here."

The girl—or ghost, whatever it was—now tossed back her head and laughed. "Why should I care?"