The Lauderhill Legacy

Chapter 18 - THE ISLAND

As ancient as it looked, the boat was sturdy and most seaworthy as Walter discovered, bouncing and crashing through the waves, and he particularly enjoyed holding tight to Marcee who was not quite as comfortable with the ride. The island loomed ahead, its rocky face almost daring visitors to land.

Donald steered with ease into a shallow harbour and glided up to a weary looking dock where he cut the motor, tossed a line around the sole wooden post for that purpose and set out the plank again.

"Do you know Lauderhill Castle?" Marcee asked as she stepped onto the dock, teetering as it shifted with her weight.

Donald looked up as if the answer might be scrawled across the sky and took out his pipe. "Ye dinna wanna be hiking to that place, lassie."

"Why?" Walter stepped onto the dock beside her, again lugging all the gear.

"Tis taken with the spirits, and I gie ye a warning. The curse of McTeig." He nodded sagely and began shoving the plank back on to the boat.

"Wait a minute. What curse?"

"Ye'll soon be havin' a tell." He jumped spryly onto the boat and hit the engine. "Call me when yer done, lassie." The boat seemed to back up and then tilt dangerously as Donald yanked the throttle and sped off in a wave whacking spray.

"Di 'e get that, lassie?" Walter aped, shaking his head as he looked about at the hilly, treed surroundings.

"It might have helped if he told us where to go for this curse." She complained.

"Don't we have a map or something?"

"I have a very rough indication from the letter we found in the book but first I have to know where we are exactly." She yanked out the copies she'd made, leaving the original in the safe at the hotel, and began reading as she strode carefully and quickly down the dock to the shore.

"I don't suppose you'd like to carry your own stuff," he called, deciding after no reply that she probably wouldn't. Walter soon discovered why; the old dock seemed to wander in the opposite direction of each step he took and when he reached shore he was still weaving side to side.

"According to the book, Lauderhill Castle was situated on a high bluff overlooking the firth to the north." Marcee held up her compass and waited for the arrow to settle.

"I doubt it meant true north, more likely a general direction in those days." She pointed roughly where they would head.

"This is a lot bigger than I thought it would be." Walter stood pivoting his head around at the landscape. "We could be days clumping through this and still not find it."

"A high bluff shouldn't be too difficult to spot, Walter. Here, take these." She handed him a pair of binoculars. "Scan that direction and do it carefully. The vegetation will have grown considerably since the castle went up."

"You think?"

He made a face and began a slow canvass of the horizon. Whether by luck or design, he spotted a rough stone peak just poking up beyond a line of trees to the northwest. "Hey! Hey, look at this!" Marcee took the binoculars and followed his finger to the structure.

"That's it. It has to be. That should take about an hour to reach I would guess. Do you want to start right away or wait a bit and have something to eat?"

"We have food?"

"I brought some power bars and a couple of bottles of water."

Walter looked at her, impressed. "A regular girl scout, eh? Maybe we should save them just in case. I'm okay to go now. You?"

In answer, Marcee shouldered her pack and set off toward the castle.

*****

Donald wasn't pleased at having to make the trip to Jura twice, particularly under duress of threat. The man made no pretense of what he would do if Donald didn't oblige so discretion won. Donald dropped the man off at the same dock as Marcee and Walter and told the him that they were hiking inland but he didn't know where and before further confrontation could take place, Donald made a wild, water-slapping getaway.

When he reached the marina he went to the pub and dialed the number Marcee had given him for her cell phone.

*****

Walter was wildly impressed. Lauderhill Castle really was a castle, just like in the movies, with stone turrets and fortified embattlements. The fact that it was crumbling and not a little unsafe didn't take away from the romance of the site. And with the view across the water on such a spectacular day, he felt almost giddy.

The climb had been rough but not unbearable and he'd actually found himself enjoying the demand on his muscles; not something that the college required. When Marcee climbed up to where he was standing, with a face creased in worry, he felt some of the glow diminish.

"What's up?"

"That was Donald."

"Oh, our intrepid skipper?"

"He says a man forced him to bring him to the island after us. He says he wanted to know where we were."

"A man? What does he mean, a man, what kind?"

"What kind? One with two arms and legs, Walter." She gave him a disgusted look. "Not a man we want to meet I think. Donald said he was carrying a gun."

"A gun." Walter looked around at the ruined castle and suddenly it wasn't romantic any more, it was an eroding pile of ancient stone, covered in weeds and years of dirt and salt from the sea and a poor place to be trapped by a man with a gun. "Do we have a plan?"

"I'm going to look for the cameo." She opened the map that had accompanied the letter and began orienting herself.

"Marcee, is this a good time?"

"There won't be another, Walter so how about some help."

He blew out a frustrated breath and joined her to study the map. Where was the tender city woman he'd become enraptured with earlier? When did she become this Saturday afternoon serial heroine that tramped through ruins seeking treasure with gun wielding baddies in pursuit?

"That looks something like that configuration there," he pointed. "Some of the floor is missing but it might be a start."

"I think we're in the right end of the place anyway."

She grabbed her things and started carefully down the rotting wooden stairs to the rocky floor of the central courtyard. The map showed several items marked as doors and small rooms off the main space but most of the stone lay in heaps of broken rubble and what might have been a door was little more than ragged holes in the remaining walls.

Marcee went to the side indicated and studied the wall. "I bet it was here." She kicked aside a few stones and sighed. "It could be underneath all this stuff."

Walter went to one of the windows and stared down into the land below the castle, straining to see any movement or sign of their visitor. Something caught his eye a fair distance away and he quickly dug out the binoculars and searched the area again.