Page 69 of Fall of a Kingdom

“Why can’t Betty sleep with me tonight?”

“Because we have enough pandemonium going on and I don’t want a sheep roaming the hallways. Someone will think this house is haunted.”

His eyes widened with eagerness. “Haunted? Like with ghosts? How do you find ghosts? Do they find you? Can you talk to them?”

I held in a sigh. It was my own fault for stirring his curiosity. “I’m sure most houses in Scotland have ghosts because of all the history here. Ghosts generally find you, if you’re open to them, and yes, you can talk to them.”

“Are they friendly?”

“Some of them.”

“How do you get rid of them? The mean ones?”

“You tell them to go to the other side. You tell them that you release them, and that they should move on from this world to the one they are supposed to be in and be happy.”

Hawk’s brow furrowed like he was seriously pondering what I was telling him. He wasn’t a kid you could distract with another topic until he was satisfied with the answers he received. He was relentless in his pursuit of knowledge. Perhaps he’d follow in my footsteps and become a historian, I mused.

“Do you want to hear a story tonight?” I asked him, hoping like hell he took the bait.

“Aye.”

“What kind of story do you want to hear?”

“How did you meet Da?”

I smiled, looking into my son’s earnest blue eyes. I knew he was delaying going to sleep, but I was helpless to resist his charm. And maybe I was feeling nostalgic.

“How did I meet your father,” I repeated. “I worked for him in New York. You know the hotel we stay in when we’re in New York?”

Hawk nodded.

“I was a waitress in the restaurant.” I wasn’t very well going to tell my seven-year-old son that I’d been a cocktail waitress in a burlesque club and that my deceased brother had owed Flynn a debt and had made a shady introduction between us.

I never wanted Hawk to know the truth, even when he was older.

“Did he take you out to nice dinners? I’m going to take my wife out to nice dinners,” Hawk informed me.

“Yes, he took me to nice dinners. I think you’ll make a very good husband one day if you’ve already got that on your mind.”

“There’s a girl in my class. Her name is Lennox. Can I have her over and show her my fort?”

My heart twinged. He was already discovering the opposite sex. The teenage years were going to be hell.

“I’ll call her mother,” I promised.

Hawk’s eyes began to close. “I love you, Mam.”

“I love you, too.” Tears pricked my eyes as I ran my hand across his hair. I got up off the bed and turned off the bedside lamp before padding to the door past Igor’s solemn form.

I hated that Igor’s ghost dogged my heels, and that he’d witnessed such a special moment between me and my son. But I ignored him and refused to address him as I passed. He’d get the hint sooner or later that he wasn’t welcome, and he’d leave.

Unfortunately, he slipped into the twins’ room behind me. He went to the wall with all the black and white photos of me and the twins when they were newborns. Lacey had taken them, and she’d captured the true essence of motherhood.

“Beautiful,” he said gruffly.

A part of me wanted to throw myself in front of them so he couldn’t see me in such a vulnerable state. The pictures were far too personal.

Turning away from Igor, I went to Iain first, who was already asleep. I brushed my lips across his forehead, but he didn’t stir.