Chapter Three

A Deal With a Demon

"Captain? Captain?" Carolyn gripped the ship's wheel on Gull Cottage's upper deck, looking all around. "Daniel…?"

There was no answer. The shadows remained utterly silent. The hour was late and the children and Martha were asleep. Dressed for bed, Carolyn found she couldn't rest because she was deeply concerned about the cottage's stubbornly absent ghost.

Her patience finally snapped. "Confound it! I can't stand it when you won't talk to me! Where are you?!"

"I am here, Madam." He slowly materialised behind her, looking very reluctant to be there at all.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Carolyn spun around. "I've been so worried about you! Don't ever frighten me like that again! I thought something must have happened."

"Worried that I might, perhaps, have run away without telling you?"

"Can you?" she asked in confusion.

"Can I what, Madam?"

"Run away?" Carolyn's brow furrowed. "I mean, I thought you were bound to this place."

"I go where I will and do as I please," he replied with a shrug.

"Oh…" Carolyn regarded his blank expression doubtfully. "When you didn't reappear all day, or last night, I was concerned for you. The Gatley on the stairs said your mood is somewhere beyond stormy. I thought it must be broken, but when I tapped it the needle quivered, but it didn't move. What is the matter? Are you unwell?"

"Blast that infernal tattletale! I should have let Claymore steal it." Daniel sighed roughly. "Thank you for your concern, Mrs Muir. But my state of health is a constant. A constant nothingness. I feel neither warmth nor cold. I am never well nor unwell."

And I cannot feel your soft, warm skin beneath my hand nor your lips against mine, no matter how much I wish it could be so…

"Why are you being so distant?" Carolyn demanded to know, stepping closer to him. "Please tell me, what is the matter? I don't have time to play twenty questions that seem to have no answers."

Daniel grimaced as he relaxed his rigid stance a little. "I am sorry, Madam, but more urgent matters have me occupied elsewhere."

"Oh… Well, I missed you. I need to talk to you."

"I know…" Daniel sighed. "What do you wish to discuss with me?"

Your plans for leaving Gull Cottage, and me, behind? He knew he couldn't endure hearing the words laid bare. Not while he was looking directly into her lovely face.

He shook his head as he turned away to walk the deck, his hands clasped in the small of his back. "Your parents have weighed anchor and charted a course for Philadelphia?"

"Yes, they left this morning." Carolyn frowned after him. "At the last minute, they decided to take a Caribbean cruise as a second honeymoon."

"Ah, to be able to sail the Caribbean again in summer…" Daniel turned back, looking sadly wistful. "To sling a hammock up on the deck to catch the breeze and sleep beneath the stars. Swim with dolphins and drop anchor once again in Kingston or Port-au-Prince. To dance with every pretty girl who flirted with you from behind their fans. A true delight for all the senses…"

He shook his head as he stared at Carolyn. "What I wouldn't give…" He drew a long, ragged breath before releasing it roughly.

"For what?" Carolyn prompted when he didn't continue. "What is it that you're finding so hard to say? You're being very cryptic, tonight."

"Am I?"

"Yes, you are and you know it." She approached him. "I need to discuss my plans with you, and all you want to talk about are cruises. We don't have a lot of time."

"I once thought we had nothing but time…" Daniel shook his head regretfully.

"Well, we don't," Carolyn replied quickly. "Now, my parents will be back in two weeks and I—"

"I'm sorry, my dear," Daniel interrupted her abruptly, holding up a denying hand between them. "But I still have a rather more urgent matter to attend to. Can whatever you have to tell me wait until the morrow?"

"I…well, yes, I suppose so…" Carolyn regarded him with confusion.

"Thank you…" He nodded. "I can assure you my critical business will be to our advantage."

"I had hoped to talk with you about my lease for Gull Cottage and what will happen when my parents return. I can't do it alone."

"All in good time, Mrs Muir." Daniel stepped away from her. "You'll see. I promise you will not be disappointed."

He vanished as he spoke, leaving Carolyn standing there, looking dumbfounded. "Well, I'm already disappointed you won't stay and talk to me."

She shook her head at the very spot he'd been standing only a heartbeat ago. "I am trying to tell you that no matter what anyone says or does, now, I could never leave you or Gull Cottage. I know now that I love you too much to ever think of leaving you behind. Wherever you go, I shall go…"

The night wind sighing off the ocean carried ashore the taste and smell of salt to mingle with her tears. "I love you, you incredibly stubborn, contrary, totally unpredictable and very adorable ghost…"

"Blast…" She sniffed, pulling a handkerchief from her dressing gown pocket to wipe her eyes. "If you'd only stand still long enough for me to tell you exactly how I feel…"

※※※※※

Early the next morning, after a fretful night of troubled sleep, Carolyn managed to finish typing her very troublesome article. Finally satisfied with the result, she reached to pick up the telephone receiver and dialled Claymore's office number.

She waited for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time before she was connected. "Claymore? It's Carolyn Muir, again. I need to talk to you urgently."

"Oh, sorry, Mrs Muir, but this is Deke Tuttle speaking to you again. Claymore said to say—" He broke off and there was the sound of an urgent, but muffled, conversation before Deke came on the line. "Sorry, I mean, that is… Well, he's out of the office right now. Urgent meeting. Don't know when he'll be back. He said I was to take any messages…"

He paused significantly. "Um, you got a message for him, Mrs Muir?"

"Yes. Please tell him I wish to discuss my lease urgently. I telephoned him yesterday but he wasn't in then, either. I don't have any more time to waste."

"Of course, of course. But Claymore's a very busy man, very busy," Deke replied regretfully. "I'll be sure and tell him right away, Mrs Muir. I—" Again, there was the sounds of another muffled conversation. "Um, when I see him, that is, of course. Very busy man, very busy… Bye, Mrs Muir…"

"Goodbye…" Carolyn replied slowly, hanging up the receiver before she sat staring at it in bemusement.

"You look like someone who's just been given some really bad news," Martha observed, as she entered the bedroom carrying an armload of freshly ironed clothing. She frowned worriedly. "No one's died, I hope."

"No, everyone's fine." Carolyn shook her head. "It's Claymore. I really need to discuss the extension of my lease with him, but he keeps ducking my calls. Something very funny is going on. And not in a good way."

"Maybe he wants to raise the already outrageous rent you're paying him and he's too scared to face you," Martha replied, putting the washing away in the drawers. "Remember, he tried that trick last year. Perhaps you'd better send the Captain to deal with him. Shake him up a bit."

"Yes, he is more scared of the Captain than of me…" Carolyn picked up her stack of typed paperwork and knocked them together neatly before inserting them into a large brown envelope ready for posting.

"But, speaking of the Captain," she continued. "There's another Gregg who's being all mysterious and secretive. I've hardly seen him since my parents left. If I didn't know better, I would say he's avoiding me, as well."

She sealed the envelope and added a stamp. "Last night, he appeared for five minutes to say he's got some more urgent business to attend to rather than staying to talk to me. He vanished again before I could tell him anything."

"Men…" Martha shrugged, spreading her hands wide. "Sometimes, I could swear they really are a different species. Dead or alive, you can't really rely on any of them."

She walked to the desk to pick up the envelope. "But it looks like your time hasn't been wasted. All done?"

"All done." Carolyn sighed with relief. "I decided to go with the premise that love conquers all and if you're truly meant to be together then love will find a way to make that happen. The ending came together very nicely, after that."

"Great point. I'm glad you made it work." Martha approved, tucking the envelope under her arm. "I'll post it for you when I go to town this afternoon."

She frowned at her employer. "Now all you need to do is get Claymore to renew the lease before you tell your parents that you're not moving back to Philadelphia. Nothing big."

"Thanks, Martha…" Carolyn's lips twisted with chagrin. "If it were only that easy."

The housekeeper sighed as she looked around the room. "You know, after two years of living here, I've really gotten quite used to the old place…" She shook her head. "And all its ghostly quirks. I sure would hate to leave."

"Yes…" Carolyn's frustrated gaze strayed to the windows behind her and the ship's wheel visible through the open curtains. "Now if I could only get that same troublesome ghost to reappear so I can finally tell him about my long-term plans. We can't afford any mistakes, not when my parents return. They will do everything on their power to get me and the children out of here. I don't need—"

She froze, frowning in confusion. A chill frisson of awareness shivered up her spine as she felt something insubstantial brush past her.

"What is it, Mrs Muir?" Martha asked in concern.

"I don't know…" Carolyn shook her head, putting a questioning hand to her cheek. "I could almost swear someone touched me, just then. It was a very cold feeling."

"The Captain?" Martha looked around the room.

"No…" Carolyn replied slowly. "I would know if it was him. This was something, or someone, else. I felt a kind of evil…a blackness…"

She wrinkled her nose at the odd smell that seemed to accompany the cold touch on her skin. It carried a whiff of sulphur. "How strange…"

"Surely it's just your overworked imagination. You've been through a lot lately, what with the wedding and your deadline and all. How about I bring you up a nice, hot cup of coffee and a big slice of my cherry cake?" Martha offered bracingly.

"Thank you, Martha…" Carolyn replied absently. "Maybe you're right. I haven't been sleeping well, lately."

"There you are then. I'll be right back." The housekeeper bustled out.

Carolyn frowned as she watched her leave the room. She knew it wasn't the late nights or her recent deadline that made her imagine that icy touch or the strange smell. She could have sworn she'd also heard an echo of derisive masculine laughter.

Someone, or something, had passed through the room, touching her cheek on the way. And whatever it was, it had malignant intentions, of that she was very sure.

"Daniel…what's going on? Blast it, where are you?" she demanded to know, not really anticipating an answer. "I need you…"

※※※※※

Beyond the headland, Daniel sat on a large, flat rock in a small, secluded cove. He watched the tide washing in and out, whispering across the sand as it reached toward his boots, but never quite touched them.

He sighed his frustration. He'd sat there all night, thinking and debating his options. But he'd always returned to the same answer to his thorny question. It was the only way.

Left with no choice, he'd put in the call, now all he could do was wait impatiently for the devilish Mr Turner to make his appearance. He knew he wouldn't be alone for long.

The demon had been trying to secure his eternal soul for more than a hundred years. He would be delighted that Daniel now wanted to trade eternity for an earthly existence.

Daniel turned his face to the rising sun. "I wish I could remember how you feel…"

But as before, the sensation of warmth eluded him. His feelings of being disassociated from his surroundings returned, putting a sharper edge on his already frayed temper. He wished he was far away from this beach, but necessity stayed his departure.

A single loud crack of lightning announced the demon's appearance. Turner walked onto the beach out of a split created in the air just above the waterline, looking as dapper and urbane as usual.

This time he had no need to hide the twin horns protruding from his hairline. Behind his thick-rimmed spectacles, his dark eyes held a gleam of unholy joy. He rubbed his hands together with glee.

"I was exceedingly pleased to receive your message," he said silkily. "You have no idea how long I've waited for you to come to me. This woman you wish to court must be something very special for you to give it all up for a life spent on this dreary plane."

He shook his head as he looked around with distaste. "You know, I was just saying to the boss the other day, what do I have to do to secure your soul? You have always been a frustratingly elusive one. And yet, here you are, handing it to me on a golden platter with barely a whimper. I must say, I'm impressed."

"If there was any other way to achieve the outcome I desire, we would not be having this conversation." Daniel regarded him with dislike.

Unperturbed, Turner sat down on the rock beside him. "You really are going to give up everything for a tedious human existence? Surely you, of all spirits, should be aware that life is truly wasted on the living?"

"I didn't ask for your opinion, you lily-livered scoundrel!" Daniel glared at him. "If I'd had my way you would've been keel-hauled long before now and your carcass fed to the sharks!"

"Oh, tut-tut," Turner purred, not at all offended.

He had the upper hand and he knew it. "Is that any way for two old friends to talk to one another? I thought we had an understanding. You came to me, remember? You don't know how happy that made me. I have never had a finer adversary or a greater prize. I will truly miss our sparring sessions while I'm making you scream for mercy."

"Friends we are not!" Daniel snarled bitterly. "Do your worst, demon! I'm prepared for you. Cease your infernal gloating and get on with it!"

"Very well. I happen to have the contract right here." Turner reached into the inner pocket of his suit coat, drawing out a rolled-up, archaic-looking document compete with blood-red ribbons and black wax seals. "All you need to do is sign on the dotted line."

He unfurled the document, turning to the last page. "Of course, since you don't possess any blood with which to sign this contract, I will accept your solemn word of honour. I know you have never gone back on it, once given. Another annoyingly honest trait in you I shall take great pleasure in erasing from your soul in due time."

"I give you my solemn word for all the good it will do you," Daniel muttered, glaring at his nemesis. "Now get it over and done with. Before I succumb to the urge to throttle you!"

"Temper, temper," Turner chided. "All in good time, all in good time," he chuckled, looking very pleased.

He surveyed the document in his hand before finally nodding with satisfaction. He rolled it up and returned it to the inner pocket of his coat. "Then, for all the good it will do you, my seriously misguided friend, let there be love…" He gestured expansively with one hand.

A strained silence settled between them. The only sound was the wash and retreat of the ocean waves against the shore.

"Is that it?" Daniel finally demanded, waiting to feel different.

But nothing seemed to have changed. He still could not feel the heat of the sun or the taste of salt spray on his tongue.

He frowned as he began to suspect he'd been duped by the cunning entity at his side. He turned, preparing to tell the demon to go back to the hell he'd just risen from and take his blasted contract with him. Their deal was off!

"There is just the matter of one very small rider in the fine print before the contract can come into effect…" Turner sighed, his lips compressing with dissatisfaction. "Under the terms of our signed agreement, I'm obliged to inform you that have a grace period of twenty-four hours within which time you are permitted to change your mind and return to your spirit state without forfeit or penalty."

His expression soured as he shook his head. "Boss's orders. For some devilish reason, he seems to like you, I have no idea why. Maybe you did him a very large favour, once?" His brows arched inquiringly.

"Perhaps it's because I always got on with my business and left the devil to get on with his." Daniel shrugged.

"Perhaps…I was not permitted to ask." Turner's frustrated look changed and he smiled knowingly. "But I think your desire to be with this woman is stronger than your wish to avoid my eternal clutches. I am sure we will arrive at the same end, grace period or not, and your soul will be mine at exactly this time tomorrow."

He pulled a large pocket watch from his waistcoat and peered at it. "Nine minutes and twelve seconds past ten o'clock of the forenoon watch. I shall be here, waiting to claim your soul when you don't show up. Enjoy your lady while you can. Life is short and you will have time enough to regret your impulsive decision when we eventually meet again, down there." He pointed to the sand beneath his feet with a gleeful chuckle.

"I've changed my mind," Daniel replied grimly. "Keel-hauling would have been too good for the likes of you! And you'd only have given the blasted sharks a bad case of indigestion!"

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