Book 3. The saga continues. With her mating to Haku rapidly approaching, Chihiro has a number of new problems to face. But these are nothing compared to the plans a new foe has for her. Sequel to Enchantment of the Heart.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Scott sighed and switched off the television. It was raining outside again so going out with the dogs right now was not appealing to him. He had been living at home now for over a year, ever since he left Japan. Or rather, since he was implicated in aiding a criminal and asked to leave the country. He had been glad to come back to his family but he had never bothered returning to university in St Andrews to finish his languages course. He had no interest in study anymore. The castle had not changed at all in his absence.
Linca had often teased him about the fact that his family were landed gentry and he was the son of Laird Mulvey. His father never used the title and Scott was his third son and would inherit nothing. It was not as if the family were rich anyway. The castle had two turrets but was more an ornate manor farmhouse. Some mad ancestor of his had built the place in 1620. The estate that surrounded the monstrosity was very small and all the tied property had been sold off before the Second World War.
That had not mattered to Linca who had constantly introduced him around as "Sir Scott," apart from when she introduced him to Chihiro.
"Chihiro, this is Scott, a very good friend of mine..." Scott had suspected the little Russian rascal was acting as matchmaker again. He had not minded in reality, Chihiro was adorable; shame she had never liked him the way he had her. The image of her lovely face disappearing down a dark hole and the sound of her body hitting the water had haunted his dreams. He must have been insane to let her go but the emerald he had found in his hand still sat by his bed. It reminded him that he had touched something that was not of his world and had given up something precious to it.
On his return, Scott had worked in Glasgow for a while in the tax office. He had had a nice little rebound relationship with a fiery young woman with black hair who left nail marks on his back every night. It had not lasted long, but it had done much to get Chihiro Ogino out of his system. He had returned to the Highlands a few months later and had not left home since.
He sighed and stood up and tossed the remote onto the sofa. It would no doubt disappear down the back of the cushions and his oldest brother Cameron would blame his baby sister Elspeth and Elspeth would storm from the house and go to see her boyfriend in the village which meant Scott could watch whatever he liked on the TV later. Scott grinned at the prospect and shoved the remote down the back of the sofa just to make sure.
He was so bored. Since his return he had not been able to concentrate on anything; his thoughts wondered and a gloomy apathy had settled on him. He had been helping his father and brothers around the estate to pay his way but felt no ambition to try and do something more with is life. Not like he once had.
He walked to the main hallway, the only really formal part of the house, careful to bend his head as he passed through the low doorways. Pictures of his ancestors graced the walls, changing from cracked oils to watercolours to photographs the further he walked up the hallway. At the end of the hall he turned right to a tight stone spiral staircase that was so steep and the steps so worn, that Scott was obliged to use his hands as well as his feet to climb them, a bit like a stone ladder. This was his favourite part of the castle Mulvey. He had played here as a child and when he was a teenager he had spent hours at the top of this turret just watching the world go by or "brooding" as his father had called it.
