A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

door open. When we reached the hall, he
halted. I almost bumped into him. He touched my shoulder to steady me and breathed
in as if to speak, but stopped. Clare appeared from the library, holding two
glasses of wine in her hands. “There you are. I’ve been looking for you.” Her
questioning gaze wandered from Aidan to me.
    “We were outside,” Aidan said.
    “Ah. Blake’s waiting.” Clare raised her
eyebrows and turned to me. Aidan hesitated, then walked away. “Come on, let’s finish
our wine,” Clare said. “I’m glad for the company. Aidan’s business talk always
puts me to sleep.”
    She seemed her usual pleasant self. If she
found it strange that her boyfriend had just spent alone time with me, she didn’t
show it. We retreated to the massive living room. She put the glasses down,
switched on a lamp on the wall and lit several candles on a nearby table. Sinking
into the soft cushions on the sofa, she patted the space next to her. “I assume
you’ve heard theories about what’s going on in the woods,” Clare started. “People
claim to have seen strange lights—”
    “You mean like UFOs and aliens?” I
interrupted, smiling. There it was, the woods topic again. I couldn’t quite
shake off the feeling they kept something from me.
    “No.” Clare shook her head, playing with
the hem of her sleeve. “More like stories of legends and supernatural stuff.
Anyway, people have been disappearing for a while. Mostly visitors, because the
locals know to stay away after dark.”
    I’d known something was going on. The weird
blue light, the strange sounds, the man following me, his threat. People went
hiking all the time and nothing happened. Trust my brother to find the one forest
that came with a deadly warning sign. Suppressing a shudder, I forced my attention
back to the conversation. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”
    “It’s not just that,” Clare said. “Other
things have happened, people coming back and suddenly seeing things.”
    She certainly had my attention now. “I don’t
understand. What things?”
    Clare inched closer and dropped her voice
to a whisper. “Ghosts, souls, or whatever you want to call them.”
    I nodded, a cold shiver running down my
back. Like the woman with the buggy crossing the street. Harry never saw her,
but I knew she was there. Everything snapped into place. Back in London I’d
have laughed at such superstition, but I was in Scotland, the land of mystery.
Here anything seemed possible.
    “Did anything strange happen in the woods?”
Clare regarded me intently, her long fingers with black-painted nails curling around
my wrist. “Because we can help you. You can trust me. It’s not too late.”
    Hadn’t Aidan said something similar last
night? I thought of the blue, flashing light, and then of the man, too dark to
see, his deep voice too low to distinguish. Nothing had happened, but it could
have. I shook my head. “Nope.”
    Clare peered at me, doubtful, but didn’t persevere
for which I was thankful. I didn’t want to keep lying. “How do you like your
new job?” Clare asked.
    “It’s different, but I like it.” I said.
Another lie.
    Clare smiled. “I remember your application.
You were Aidan’s choice straight away. Will you be staying in Scotland after
summer?”
    My heartbeat sped up. He wanted me straight away when I didn’t even have
any experience. Whatever Dallas put on that application helped me beat the
competition. Or Aidan liked me, even if only on a subconscious level. Somehow,
I wanted him to like me. “I’ll be going back to London, I think. My boyfriend
sort of has plans to move in together once I start college.”
    “The one in the picture on your dresser?”
    “That’d be Cameron.” I narrowed my gaze.
Was she spying on me?
    Laughing, Clare raised her hands. “It’s not
what you think. I smelled smoke and had to investigate. Wouldn’t want to burn
the house down, would we? Anyway, I called Harry and he said it was the heating
system. You know these old houses.”
    “It’s okay.” I smiled, realizing I was
overreacting again.
    Clare brushed an imagined stray hair out of
her face. “So, it’s serious between Cameron and you?”
    “I think so.” I blushed, wondering why
Clare seemed so interested in my private life. But then I remembered I was in
Scotland. If I were to live in a house in the middle of the Highlands, where
nothing ever happened, I’d probably be pursuing any piece of gossip I could get
my