Page 11 of First Light
“What the hell is OMP?”
“Old money problems. Trust me, I’ve dated enough trust fund boys to know. All this shit? The disapproving siblings, the mysterious ‘responsibilities’ back home. The extended travel. All of it sounds like old money problems to me. Besides, who can actually make enoughmoney with a blacksmithing business to randomly fly across the world for months at a time?”
I’m a disgustingly wealthy prince who’s run away from home for a bit to enjoy being unemployed.
“Oh my God, I think you’re right.” Carys closed her eyes, and her temples pounded. She groaned and fell back into bed. “Kiersten, I should just leave now.”
“Absolutely not! Lachlan was happy with you. They were paying him to sing at the pub, you know. He even asked me about how to get work at the mill a couple of weeks before he disappeared.”
“You didn’t tell me that.”
“He told me not to say anything.” She took a deep breath. “He was making a new life in California, and if his family took him away from that with… lies or guilt or some shit like that, he needs you.”
Carys took a deep breath and sat up again. “You’re right. He needs me.”And I need him.“Okay, I’m taking a shower, getting some aspirin, and checking out of the hotel. I’ll try to call you later, but reception around here is hit or miss.”
“Sounds good. Love you, Carys.”
“Love you too.” She turned off her phone and set it on the bedside table. Then she rubbed her face, reached for the bottle of aspirin on the table next to her, and tried to calm her wobbly morning belly.
Whiskey was dangerous.
CHAPTER FOUR
The road to Murrayshall House was even more twisted than the one to Murray Smithworks. It led out of the town and up into the hills of Perthshire where the track dipped and rose over hills, crossing small creeks and winding through forested creases in the landscape.
The lady at the front desk had been disappointed that Carys was checking out early but was happy to give directions to “the auld house” when Carys mentioned Duncan’s address.
She got a cup of coffee from the café down the street, then struck out in her rental car, her belly fluttering from the idea of possibly seeing Lachlan after a month of silence.
If he was really okay, what would she say to him?
What would he say to her?
Was she angry? Confused? Hurt?
She was all those things, but mostly she was worried.
If Lachlan had really decided to just call it quits, why hadn’t he given her a reason? Why had he turned off his phone? He wasn’t on social media, but he could have contacted her. He was a grown man, and she wasn’t in hiding.
Messages could be sent.
The road widened on a turn, then narrowed again over a bridge. The trees grew taller and the shade deeper. The sun had broken through the clouds, so the light under the trees flashed like light on water, the dappled tapestry of green, grey, and black punctuated by occasional flashes of a red roof or a yellow bunch of wildflowers struggling to life.
She came to a large wrought iron gate that was cracked open with a sign hanging off it.
Murrayshall House.
“Okay, this is it.”
The gates and the stone wall on either side of them framed a large cobbled driveway that led into dense woods on either side of the road.
She navigated her rental car through the gate and wound through the trees as the driveway twisted through a forest.
The farther she drove, the more Kiersten seemed right. If this was all part of Lachlan’s family home, the Murrays were sitting on a lot of land in a very small country.
There was a stone archway with another wrought iron gate on either side; then the road widened into a large courtyard with a giant house sitting at one end. It was a massive edifice framed by two round towers that rose on each corner, complete with a steep roof covered in moss-flecked tile. The manor house was built of light brown stone that shone with a pale pink wash in the morning light.
Behind the house in the middle of a lush meadow, a grey stone castle rose in the distance, its narrow towers framing the hill in the distance where another ruin was barely visible through the trees.