Read Online Highlander 04 - Some Like It Kilted (2010) by Allie Mackay - Free Book Online Page B

volatile, livid ghosts if I don’t do what they want.”
     
“But—”
     
“There aren’t any buts.”
     
“You’re making a huge mistake.” Margo adjusted the silk paisley scarf wrapped stylishly around her neck. “We could also call in some of the TV ghost-busting teams. Hollywood might even engage the place for film settings. Or you could lease turret rooms to recluse writers. The possibilities are—”
     
“A moot point.” Mindy remained firm. “And the only mistake I made was helping Hunter with his seat belt.”
     
“Then walk away.” Margo proved she was just as relentless. “Let the castle fall to romantic ruin and take the money he’s left you and run.”
     
Mindy went to make more coffee. She needed caffeine. She wasn’t about to tell Margo that she had tried to leave. Her sister would thrill to hear about how the ghosties had flanked the treelined drive down the castle hill. How they’d shaken their swords at her and, worst of all, how the three gang leaders, Roderick, Geordie, and Silvanus, had waited for her at the bottom of the road. Her car’s headlights had picked them out standing in front of the wrought- iron gateway between the twin entrance lodges.
     
They’d armed themselves with long spears.
     
Deadly, wicked- looking, fourteen- foot-long, steel-headed lances that looked as if they’d come straight off the set of Braveheart .
     
Worst of all, just when she’d thought to plow right through them, the gate’s remote sensor refused to work. She’d been effectively locked inside the property, much to the three ghosts’ amusement.
     
The one called Silvanus had thrown back his head and laughed.
     
Then he’d disappeared into thin air.
     
Only to reappear in the backseat of her car!
     
She’d seen him grinning at her in the rearview mirror, the memory curdling her blood even now.
     
Her car radio had blared bagpipe music all the way back up the castle’s graveled drive.
     
The radio wasn’t turned on.
     
And—Mindy knew—her sister wasn’t going to listen to reason. But she did understand cold, hard facts. Margo might dress like a model out of the pages of English Country Living , but Ye Olde Pagan Times paid her peanuts. Margo’s chic look was pure good taste and a healthy dash of bargain hunting, combined with secondhand thrift.
     
So while Mindy waited for her coffee to brew, she scooped up an armful of papers and scribbled notes and carried them back across the kitchen. She dumped them on the table, then stepped back and wiped her hands.
     
“Here’s why I can’t run anywhere.” She snatched a yellow-lined notepad and handed it to her sister. “I’ve told you how the ghosts threatened to follow me anywhere I go. These figures”—she tapped the top sheet of the notepad, indicating lines of numbers and her own looping script—“will show you exactly how much it’s going to cost to have the Folly dismantled, transported across the Atlantic, and then reassembled on the Hebridean isle of Barra.”
     
Mindy folded her arms, waiting as Margo scanned the jottings.
     
It didn’t take long for the color to drain from Margo’s face. “This is an astronomical sum.”
     
“Uh-huh.” Mindy nodded. “Once all the costs are tallied, not much will remain. Now you see”—she went to pour their coffee—“why I have to go back to flying and why I’ll be moving to Florida and not Hawaii.”
     
“But this is so unfair!” Margo waved aside the coffee Mindy offered her.
     
“Everything happens for a reason.” Mindy took a sip of her own Kona blend. “Maybe it isn’t my karma to be rich and independent and live the good life in Hawaii. Isn’t that what you always say?” She set down her cup and summoned what she hoped was an untroubled smile. “That all our ups and downs are part of the big karmic cycle?”
     
“Yes, but—”
     
Mindy pressed a finger to her sister’s lips. “No buts, remember?”
     
Margo swatted her hand away. “Well,