‘I’m sure you could,’ Marcia agreed. She’d abandoned her cell phone and had joined in the conversation with enthusiasm. She and Lachlan spoke the same language.
‘I really would like to speak to Mrs Douglas,’ Lachlan said regretfully. ‘Are you sure there’s no way?’
‘There’s no way.’ Hamish rose. ‘Marcia, would you like to show Lachlan the grounds? If he’s seen all there is here…’
‘I’ve seen enough of the inside,’ Lachlan said. ‘It’s a great interior.’ They passed into the hall and he poked at Ernst with his gold-embellished fountain pen. ‘Though these guys will have to go. I know where we can get some real ones.’
‘Ernst and Eric are coming home with me.’
It was Susie, entering unannounced. Her face was pale and there were the ravages where tears had been, but there were no tears left now. She was dignified and in control, and she introduced herself and took Marcia’s place by Lachlan’s side as if it was her right.
‘I’ll show you the garden,’ she told him. ‘I’m sure Marcia and Hamish have business to attend to.’
‘I should go back online,’ Marcia agreed, and Susie gave her a bright and brittle smile.
‘Of course.’
‘I’ll go back to the search,’ Hamish said softly, but the look she directed at him had no trace of a smile left in it.
‘It’s no use,’ she told him. ‘Taffy’s dead. She’s been out all night. If the nocturnal owls didn’t kill her, the wedge-tail eagles will have by now.’ She turned to Lachlan. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here to greet you. Marcia says you’ll be thinking about converting the conservatory to a swimming pool before any sale is made. You need to see it. I’ll take you.’
‘Susie, you don’t need to think about that,’ Hamish said uneasily, and received a flash of anger for his pains.
‘I know I don’t need to think about it, Lord Douglas,’ she snapped, emphasising his title with a short, harsh syllable. ‘My plane leaves tomorrow afternoon and after that this is all your business. This castle is in the hands of the heir. That’s you. And you’re going to sell it and put the money in the bank.’
‘Which is the only sensible place for it,’ Marcia interspersed.
‘It is,’ Susie agreed dully. ‘Of course it is. So, shall we see the possible site for your luxury swimming pool, Mr Glendinning?’
‘Susie, go look for your puppy,’ Hamish said desperately, and she looked like she wanted to slap him.
‘My puppy is dead.’
Then why wasn’t she crying? Hamish thought. She should be crying. He’d know what to do if she cried.
What was he saying? He wanted a woman to cry?
‘We’ll show Mr Glendinning the conservatory together,’ he said, gently now, but her anger was increasing.
‘We’ll do nothing together.’
‘Susie…’
‘Let her go,’ Marcia said. ‘She’s got the time, Hamish. Surely you have better things to be doing.’
What? he thought blankly. What?
‘I’ll go back to the beach.’
‘Give it up,’ Marcia said wearily. ‘Didn’t you hear Susie? The creature’s dead.’
He was supposed to be marrying this woman.
He thought of Taffy last night, sitting plump on her bottom and howling her displeasure.
‘We have no proof she’s dead,’ he said, to the room in general. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll keep looking until we’re sure.’
And he walked away and left them to it.
Why hadn’t she cried?
All that long day Hamish watched Susie move like an automaton. She spent a long time with Lachlan, detailing the castle to his satisfaction. She worked in the kitchen, feeding the searchers. She did a bit more searching herself but her back was obviously paining her. She was limping badly and when Kirsty decreed she should stop, she stopped. She went back to packing, the pile of stuff she was discarding growing higher and higher.
‘I’ll ship Ernst and Eric over to you,’ Hamish said at one stage, and if looks could kill, he’d have been dead right then.
‘I’ve changed my mind. They’d never be at home with me in America. They belong at the foot of the stairs and if you want to shift them…well, that’s your business and I don’t want to know about it.’
‘Susie, stay a little longer,’ he urged.
‘Why?’
‘We don’t know about Taffy.’
‘We do know about Taffy. Cut it out, Hamish. I’m leaving.’
She wouldn’t budge.
At dusk Marcia came to find Hamish. She met him on the way upstairs to change. He’d been bashing through thick bushland in an increasingly hopeless search for Taffy, and he was filthy.
‘We need to take Lachlan out to dinner,’ she said. ‘He’s spent the day photographing the castle from every angle-not that you’d have noticed. Honestly, Hamish, your behaviour has been less than civil. He’s staying at the pub tonight. It’d be better if we could put him up here, but I dare say you won’t ask the widow to do that.’
‘Do you have to call her the widow?’
‘You know who I mean.’
‘I won’t ask Susie to have another guest on her last night,’ Hamish snapped, wondering again how he’d never noticed how insensitive Marcia was. ‘It’s bad enough that we’re here. Jake and Kirsty are bringing dinner. Susie needs her family and no one else.’
‘Then you and I should at least take him out to dinner. You’re not Susie’s family.’
He wasn’t. Hamish hesitated. Marcia was right. He should give Lachlan dinner. And…would Susie want him to be around tonight?
But Kirsty came through the front door then, carrying a casserole.
‘Hi,’ she told them. ‘Dinner in thirty minutes?’
‘We’re going out to dinner,’ Marcia said, sounding efficient.
‘Oh?’ Kirsty raised her eyebrows. ‘You, too?’ she asked Hamish.
‘Um…’
‘I shouldn’t put pressure on you,’ Kirsty told him. ‘But it would be better if you were here tonight.’
‘Why?’ Marcia demanded. ‘Why should Hamish stay?’
Kirsty looked a bit taken aback at that, as if she hadn’t actually expected an argument.
‘To leaven the loaf,’ she said at last. ‘Susie’s miserable. We’ve searched a two-mile radius and Taffy’s nowhere. Taffy was supposed to be the little bit of Dolphin Bay she was taking away with her. Now there’s just Susie and Rose.’
Not even Ernst and Eric, Hamish thought, leaning back on a suit of armour. Welcoming the sharp dig of a halberd in the small of his back.
‘Susie will be better off without a pup,’ Marcia said sharply. ‘The fewer encumbrances, the better.’
Kirsty looked at her thoughtfully. Appraisingly. Then glanced sideways at Hamish, leaning wearily on his halberd.
‘You’re taking the assessor, Lachlan, out to dinner?’ she asked Marcia.
‘That’s right.’
‘Then can I ask that you, Marcia, take Lachlan out to dinner, and you, Hamish, stay here and see if you can cheer Susie up. Wear your kilt or something.’
‘I suspect there’s not a lot that’ll cheer Susie up,’ Hamish said.
‘No,’ she admitted. ‘But we can try.’
Hamish hesitated.
