"It’s my fault really." she started sarcastically, her voice losing the professional air she had maintained through most of their conversations. She didn't move her gaze from him though, watching him look helplessly at the ground. "I mean, silly me! I really should take that sign off it that says: Please read my private documents."

   Archie raised his head and looked at her apologetically. "Evie..."

   Evie ignored his plea for forgiveness, giving him a shake of the head before turning on her heel and starting back down the hall. Archie at first didn’t move. He had expected confrontation, a large screaming match which would lead to her giving up this job and leaving him without a hope. But, because this situation didn’t arise, he stood stock still, confused.... then he started after her.

   "Evie!"

   She didn’t stop, quickly making her way down the stairs hoping to be gone before he caught her. That didn't happen. His footsteps quickened and he caught her by the arm as they both reached their decent, twirling her around to face him. "I’m really sorry."

   "I don’t need your apology Mr McDonald." She replied, her hazel eyes looking into his sorry brown ones, managing to make him feel even worse. "I don’t need to listen to your guilty conscience. I personally don’t have the time, and neither do you. My priority is helping you get this estate back on its feet, and I would think that would be your priority as well."

   Archie didn’t reply, they just looked at each other. He searched her eyes from something, anything that he could confront her with, but all he felt was more guilt and anger at himself and forgot why he was in there in the first place. Her voice hadn’t quivered. It was strong and hurt. Archie still gripped her small arm firmly when Molly’s voice broke their stare.

   "Archie?"

   He looked down at his mother, dressed in an elegant suit, who looked up at him, puzzled. "Is everything alright dear?"

   His eyes moved quickly to the journalist who he still had in his hand, and she turned and smiled down at Molly, wrenching herself from the Laird’s hold. "Everything’s fine. Archie was just grabbing me for tea."

   Molly raised her eyebrows, not totally convinced. "Well, Lexie assures me that tonight’s dinner is going to be a real treat."

   Evie nodded, walking down the stairs, leaving Archie where he was and smiling widely at Molly. "Lexie doesn’t do things by halves Molly, so I don’t doubt it."

   Molly agreed, watching Evie make her way into the dining room before looking up at her son who stood halfway from the bottom of the stairs. He started down slowly, his mouth pressed in a thin smile. 

   She spoke with affection to her son. "Archie."

   He progressed towards her, his brown eyes sad. "Yes mother?"

   "Is everything alright?"

   Archie nodded and stopped just before her. "Have you ever done something, and as you do it you immediately wish you could take it back?"

   Molly sighed at her youngest, touching her hand to his face and stroking his chin softly. "All the time. It’s called life."

   "It’s called my life." he corrected.

   Molly removed her hand and studied Archie closely. "Is everything alright? You just seem… is Evie’s report not going well?"

   Archie shook his head. "No, everything is fine. She just…" he stopped and looked at the ground, scuffing his shoes on the wood as he talked and he felt like he was ten again. "There’s just something about her that gets me."

   Molly smiled knowingly, giving Archie a small hug. "My poor boy’s got it."

   Archie looked up, confused. "Got what?"

   "Nothing dear." Molly’s eyes sparkled, like they always did when she saw something fascinating. This evening it was her son. She didn’t say anything, instead, she cleared her throat and put her hand comfortingly on Archie’s back as they walked towards the dinning room. "Why don’t you go and sit down, tea is almost ready."

*   *  *

   "Archie McDonald!" Lexie cried, pushing open the door and waltzing into his bedroom once dinner had finished. 

   He lay on his bed, reading through financial spreadsheets for the estate before looking up to find the fiery cook standing in his doorway, her brown hair pushed back off her face, the days makeup removed and standing in a cute pair of blue flannelette PJ’s with bears on them.

   "Lexie." Archie sighed, putting the papers down on the bed and sitting up a tad. "What brings you here at such a late hour?"

   "You are not the man I thought you were, you know that." She stepped further inside, not bothering to close the door. For all she cared the whole building could hear what she had to say.

   "Ah, I’m guessing Evie told you about tonight’s events."

   "Oh, you mean her finding the Laird in her own private room, going through her private files?" Lexie exclaimed loudly, hands on her hips. "Yeah, she did tell me there was a slight problem like that."

   "I told her I was sorry."

   "Sorry?" Lexie exclaimed. "You told her you were sorry? She’s here to do you a favour. She doesn’t have to be here, but she’s willing to help you get this place up and running again."

   "No!" he shouted back, pointing a finger at the brunette. "She’s here because of you! Finding that old school friend because of whatever she’s running away from. And she is not going to drag Glenbogle down with her."

   "Is that it? You think she’s not legit?"

   "No! I think she works for them, I just don’t think she has her mind on the job."

   "Well, neither do you by the looks of things." Lexie fired back. She was not going to be intimidated by the Laird. She had known Archie for some years and his stubbornness always came through in whatever project he was interested in. But he had never gone this far. Snooping was not Archies thing. But he had sunk to new lows, and for the first time in Lexie’s life she hated him. "You should be grateful that someone with her expertise and business management skills has come to your rescue. And so what if she’s running away. Arch, you should feel proud that you live in such a safe environment, a place that makes others feel welcome. Believe me, Glenbogle is the one place you’d want to run too, and so long as she’s doing her job, does it really matter?"

   Archie was silent. He knew of Lexie’s past. How she had run and Glenbogle was the place she ended up. She was right, she was lucky she made it here because the odds are usually very slim out there in the big bad world.

   Lexie continued her rave when the Laird didn’t respond. "Blame me, I don’t care! But you disappoint me Archie McDonald! I don’t know what has gotten into you since she arrived, but it’s just not like you."

    Archie nodded, finally looking up at Lexie. The anger had gone from his face, and now he looked sad. "I know." He bit his lip, thinking a little before letting the thoughts roll off his tongue. "But there is something that gets me about her."

   "What? That she’s better at your job than you would be?"

   "Lex..." Archie moaned. "No. But I just can’t grab hold of it."

   "Maybe it’s a simple case of the Duncans?"

   Archie frowned. "What?"

   "Plain and simple. You fancy her. And if that’s the case, I think you should just snog her and get it over with so we can all get on with our jobs and try and get Glenbogle functioning again." She looked down at him as he shook his head. He didn’t object, but he didn’t agree, his gaze instead looked down at the bedspread.

   Lexie sighed. She had never been more disappointed. "Goodnight Archie McDonald."

*   *   *

   Lexie looked up as she heard the kitchen door creep open. The face of her friend peeped around the corner, a smile crossing her face before her body joined her inside, closing the door behind her and drifting over to the bench where Lexie beat her eggs noisily. She didn't speak, just watched her friend as she sat down in front of her and twirled her brown curls in her fingers, her eyes focusing i the yellow mixture that swished inside the bowl. 

   "You're up early." Lexie commented at last, watching Evie's eyes dart up to meet hers.

   Evie smiled thinly, letting out a sigh. "Thought I might actually get some work done today, before the others get up."

  "And you were hoping for some breakfast?"

  "Can’t I just come down and see my friend who works in the kitchen without having some secret agenda?"

   Lexie shook her head, grinning profusely, her dark hair pulled back off her face in a high ponytail. "Not if I remember you correctly. You always had some secret agenda."

   Evie feigned mock shock. "Me? Never!"

   "You remember old Tommy McClarence?" Lexie asked, stopping her beating to remember.

   Evie's face glowed pink as her friend continued, pointing the egg-coated whisk at her face. "He was madly in love with you."

   "Oh come on," Evie replied, her eyebrows raised behind her glasses. "I wouldn't say that..."

   "I would." The cook assured. "It was fun for you, taking him for a ride, but I had never, ever seen a boy turn to mush like he did when he was around you. It was disgusting."

   "He needed to be taught a lesson Lex." she explained from across the table. "Girls were turning to mush for him and he just toyed with them. It was either you or me who was going to play with that boys head, and I guess I got to be the lucky one."

   Lexie smiled. "I wasn’t like that at all. It was all you."

   "All me?" Evie exclaimed, shaking her head. "You're the one who led me astray!"

   "Just keep thinking that missy." Lexie sighed, recommencing her beating. "So what are your plans for today? Are you just going to sit here with me all day, reminiscing about all those broken hearts you left behind?"

   "We. That we left behind." Evie corrected. "And no, I was actually thinking of checking out the tour that Mr McDonald wants to take these tourists on."

   "You do know that Archie won’t be up for at least another two hours."

   The journalist nodded, pushing up her glasses and looking at the cook seriously. "I know."

*   *   *

   Amazingly, his office wasn’t shut up. Evie knocked once and when no one replied, she quickly ducked inside. It smelt dusty inside, with wooden walls and its matching furniture - it looked more like a nineteenth century hut than where the Laird did his accounts. Dark mahogany wood seemed to be the theme, with a large filing cabinet on one side of the room, under a large dusty window that filtered the light so badly that gave the place a feeling of constant coolness. Right in the centre of the room was Archie's large, mahogany desk. His leather chair sat behind it while mountains of paper and files were piled upon it's surface. Promptly, she strode over to the desk, sinking into the chair before studying the contents. Three draws lined the side of the piece of furniture. Gripping the small clasp tightly, she pulled. The draw didn't budge. 

   Swearing quietly to herself, she got up and walked over to the safe that sat directly opposite the desk on a large wooden box of a thing. It was just a square piece of metal with a dial on the front. Paper surrounded the object, and that was where she made her start. Around the safe, even under the table where some files had been placed in piles of 'not so important'. That was where she found what she had been looking for: a small set of keys shoved behind a table leg, amongst accounting papers of some sort, she wondered how on earth Archie had survived so far if this was how he kept his books. Placing one of the gold keys in the lock of the draw, she twisted and smiled as it clicked. Opening the draw, she pushed past the money vouchers, receipts and data entries and pulled out the large map that Archie had produced yesterday.

"Bingo."




   Duncan stopped when he saw the journalist emerge from Archie’s office early that morning. She looked wonderful, and for a moment he didn't know whether he should go and say hello. Shaking that thought from his head, he put on a smile and started after her. Calling her name, she didn't turn to face him, so he quickened his pace, kilt flying up his knees before he reached her and tapped her firmly on the shoulder. 

   She jumped at his touch, turning quickly, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw it was the boyish ranger smiling sheepishly and looking her up and down. "Sorry," he started in his Scottish twang. "I didn’t mean to scare you."

   Evie placed her hand to her chest and managed a smile. "No, that's alright. I just didn’t hear you that’s all. In my own world."

   Duncan nodded. "Aye, I know what that’s like." he stopped when he saw a large piece of paper clutched in Evie's grasp behind her. She shrugged as he pointed to the rolled up map. "What you got there?"

  Evie pulled the map from behind her and gave a small laugh, trying to smother her guilt. "Just a map of the tour Archie’s setting up." she waited to see the Ranger's reaction, but when he just nodded, she continued on, relief flooding her. "I wanted to go have a look."

   "Good idea." Duncan replied. "Check it out first hand."

   "That’s what I thought."

   "Well, you know…" Duncan started, his eyes falling to his feet. "If you need a guide I’d be more than happy to…"

   "Duncan!"

   Duncan turned quickly at the sound of Golly’s voice. He sighed, annoyed and screamed out after him.

   "What!"

   "Come on boy! No time to chat up the visitors!" 

   Duncan smiled at Evie, embarrassed before shaking his head at Golly. "I was just offering…"

   "Your services?" Golly called back, gun slung over his shoulder, baseball cap covering his eyes. "Maybe later! Right now we got work to do!"

   Duncan sighed, turning around to smile at Evie. He looked disappointed. "I’m sorry. I can’t right now. Work."

   Evie nodded. "That’s ok Duncan. Maybe later?"

   Duncan nodded. "For sure."

   She smiled as he politely nodded at her before running down the road to Golly, where he immediately started complaining to his elder as they disappeared behind the shed.

   Evie sighed. Now she could start searching on her own. Opening up the folded paper, she studied it as she walked along the pebbled road. The map said that they would start in the dungeon and travel through a tunnel that took them to a small clearing in the brush. This was, apparently, used for criminals to escape from. Taken many years to build. Archie was right about one thing, the school children would love this.

   The dungeon was exactly how she’d pictured: dark. There were a few to many cobwebs for her liking, but obviously Archie hadn’t even started cleaning this place up for the tour yet. She made her way down a flight of narrow steps from the cellar, her only light being a small oil lamp she had found while rummaging around in what she guessed was a tool shed. It gave out a spectacular orange glow that bounced off the various chains and old machines that lived down here, untouched for what she guessed could have been at least fifty years. It smelt of mould and dust that she was unsettling by just being here. It was a time capsule. Time hadn't shifty for at least fifty years, giving you that strange feeling that you always get when you step into working historic villages or living museums. History, right at your fingertips. Fresh.

   Getting to the bottom of the stairs she looked peered at the dimly lit map. One path and one path only. She had to duck through two separate cells before crawling through small door to where the tunnel was. Already she was spooked, though this was extremely impressive. Tourists would flock here from all over the world. How he had kept this thing a secret for this long she did not know.

   Ducking under cobwebs and chains she moved forward to a cell which was separated from the main end of the dungeon by a large lattice of metal. The door to the cell stood in the centre of the lattice, laced with spiders and their webs, sturdy. Pushing hard on the door with her free hand it rattled but did not budge. 

   "Damn." The low curse echoed throughout the underground hiding spot.

   Waiting till her voice stopped, she placed her belongings onto the dirt floor, taking a step back from the door and sucking in a breath of musty, thick air. Looking around, she found a large shovel towards the back of the dungeon, half it's spade rusted away, cobwebs hanging from it. With one swift movement, she sent the shovel towards the door, the metals clanging together, and sending a large rumble through the place. Daring the place to fall down, she smashed them together again, this time the shovel hitting the rusted lock and sending the door open with a 'clang'.

   "Hmm." she smiled to herself, feeling satisfied, picked up her belongings and walked into the cage. It was a cage that probably housed many POW criminals in the times when clans wared and land was precious. Those who threatened this great castle, fought for their family and their rights. It made history seem mildly interesting.

   The second cell was much like the first except the back was joined to a brick wall, and not to another cell. The door to this one was bolted shut, easy enough to open as she reached through the bars and unclicked it, pulling the door open and walking through. Now the question was, where was the next door that gave way to the tunnel? Holding up her lantern, she searched: a crack, a button, anything. There was not a single sign of a door or a passage as she rubbed her hand up along the wall, its cement crumbling off with her touch. The map was a fraud - there was no passageway at all.

   "Morning Arch." Lexie greeted when he walked into the dining room, sitting himself down in the large chair, waiting for breakfast. He looked refreshed this morning, clean shaven, his dark hair wet from just getting out of the shower.

   Archie nodded in greeting. "Morning Lexie."

   "Sleep well?" Lexie asked, walking over and pouring him an orange juice.

   "I did actually." He replied. "Very well. Indeed. Yourself?"

   Lexie scowled, turning away and speaking with her back turned to him as she arranged the meal tray. "I'm amazed you care Archie McDonald."

   "What?"

   "You heard me."

   "Lex, if this is about last night?"

   "What about last night?" Lexie asked innocently, turning around to face him.

   "Listen..." Archie started, picking up his knife and fork and digging into the bacon and eggs that Lexie had prepared. "I was wondering if you knew where Evelyn was? I need to speak to her."

   Lexie rolled her eyebrows and joined him at the table. "Damn right you do."

   "Lex, just stop being mad at me. I can’t take it. Just listen to what I have to say." Archie took a bite and chewed as he talked. "You were right."

   Lexie raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me? is this the same Archie McDonald I’ve had the pleasure of living with for the past couple of years?"

   Archie smiled sarcastically with his mouth full of egg. "Funny." he swallowed before continuing. "I should make the most of it. My main priority is getting Glenbogle up and running and out of debt. And Evelyn is here to help with that. It doesn’t matter if I don’t like her personally. It’s professionally that matters."

   Lexie frowned. "Why don’t you like her Arch?"

   He shrugged, pushing egg and toast onto his fork. "Lexie, that’s not important now, is it?"

   "It is to me."

  "Well, it’s really none of your business. It’s between myself and Evelyn. In the mean time, you could help me out by telling me where this friend of yours has got too."

   "Only if you apologise to her."

   "I already did."

   "Well you’ll have to do it again."

   Archie sighed and nodded. "Alright."

   Lexie smiled, leaning her chin in her hand and blue eyes sparkling at the Laird in victory. "Ok then."




   Evie stretched her legs out as she sat on the ground in the dungeon. She didn’t want to give up on her mission, but sometimes you couldn’t help it. She would just have to wait till Duncan, or even Archie decided to show her around. Running her hands over the dirt covered cement, she stopped when she felt something different. Looking down at ground, she ran her hand over the same spot, feeling it dip slightly. Pushing away the dirt, and pulling the lamp closer, she realised that this piece of cement was broken away from the main ground. Rising to her knees she swept away the dirt quickly, revealing a large square of cement cut away from the rest. But how to open it? There was no handle to pull it up with.    

   Grabbing the lamp, she pulled herself to her feet and looked around. towards the front of the dungeon where had come from sat numerous tools, pieces of metal and wood that might help her if she could cram it underneath and wrench it up in a see-saw like fashion. Making her way back through the cells, she retrieved a large metal bar, thin enough at the ends to be able to fit in the small crack between the two pieces of cement. Carrying it back, much heavier than she first expected it to be, she carefully placed it in the crack before pushing down all her weight on the top of the bar. The cement crumbled a little, and maybe even groaned at her, but other than that she couldn’t move it. Rolling up her shirt sleeves and wiping her sweaty hands on her black pants, she tried again, laying her whole body on the bar, and this time is budged more, lifting a touch out of the ground. Moving towards it she quickly got her hands underneath it and pushed it open, letting it fall with a bang on the ground.

    She peered inside the hole - you couldn't see much, it being nothing more than a thin tunnel which trailed off to the right, towards the back of the house and ultimately the woods. She had found it, and even if it was only by luck, that didn’t change a thing. Grabbing her map, she sat into the hole, swinging her legs down before letting herself drop a short way to the bottom. Looking up she could see nothing but darkness, as was the case ahead. The tunnel was just tall enough to let a human stand straight, but was fairly narrow, single file was the only way a group could travel. The walls, floor and ceiling were tightly compacted dirt, held up by wooden beams.

   Shaking her hair free of dirt, she took a deep breath to prepare her for the adventure ahead. "Well…" she sighed, holding the lamp up high. "Here we go."

   After Archie had searched the whole main building and surrounding grounds, including the loch and the waterfall that Duncan had shown her when she first arrived, he had come up barehanded, unable to find any trace of the strong willed journalist that had turned his last few days upside down. The last place he could look was his office, and in reality, if he found her in there this time there would be trouble. It was private and he knew for a fact she hadn’t asked permission from anyone.

   Walking in, he found it the same as it was when he left. The cloudy day was visible from the window to the side of his desk, and when he checked the safe was still locked. Turning around to his desk, he sat down in his recliner and ran his hands over his face. It had ended up to bigger mess than it had needed too.

   Slowly, he stopped, his eyes catching the bottom dram of his desk. His hands slid down his face, his eyes not moving from the key that was still settled in the lock. Raising his eyebrows he removed it, looking at it briefly before diving into his draw. All his papers were still there, as well as the money vouchers and whatnot. But, when he got to the bottom of the draw he realised what was missing. Putting the keys in his pocket and clapping the draw shut, he dashed out his office door.

   "Duncan!"

  Duncan looked up from his work, nailing a couple of bolts into a fresh fence post he was going to use to replace some of the old ones with. Golly stood on the other side of the field, hammering in the posts with such force that the bang echoed several times out to the distant fields, creating a constant reverberation all the way back to the house.

   Duncan threw down his hammer as the Laird approached him once again, a large sensation of déjà vu coming over him.

   "Duncan, have you seen Evelyn today?" he asked, a hurried look on his face, crossing his arms over his chest as he waited for a reply.

   Duncan scratched his head as he thought, hoping this wasn’t another proposition of spying like the last time. he only got into trouble when he tried to please everyone. It was hard enough pleasing one person. "I saw her early this morning." he answered.

   "Did she tell you where she was going today?"

   "She had a map of the haunted walking trail you were planning for the tourists. I was going to show her where it all lead to but.." he motioned over to Golly who still hammered away. "Got work to do."

   Archie nodded. "Thanks Dunc." he turned and started quickly back down the road, waving over at Golly before Duncan called back after him.

   "Where are you going?"

   "The dungeon most likely!" he called back with turning around. "To find our young explorer."

   

   Some parts of the tunnel got so extremely narrow that Evie had a job squeezing past them sideways. As she pushed herself through another one of these gaps, she had come to realise that the map she held in front of her, trying to peer at it through the soft orange hue of the lamp, was going to be no good to her. She didn’t know how far she had been walking, but now she was starting to get tired of all the tight squeezes, and she could feel the start of claustrophobia was starting to close in, so much so she had started talking out loud to herself, trying to not to think about the amount of earth on top of her, but rather what she would write. All she had to do was follow the tunnel and then she would be ok. She was sure that she had to have come at least half way by now, and there was no point in turning back.

 

   Archie reached the dungeon in record time, amazed that he actually remembered where this place was. He hadn’t been down here since he was a teenager, rummaging around in the old place before being strictly told never to come down here again by his father and a very worried Molly. But that never quelled his curiosity.

    Holding up a lamp, he could see the two cell doors wide open, and confidently he strode through them before he got the the entrance: a hole in the ground. The cement had been pulled up by a large piece of metal, pushed to the side and cracked in half.

   "Very determined." He said to himself as he held his lamp down the hole leaning his top half of his body in and gazing down the dirty corridor.

   "Evie!" he cried, not knowing what it might do. When she didn’t reply, he tried again, this time louder, making the passageway shake. Pulling himself to his knees, he knew there was only one way to go about this: get in the tunnel.

   Swinging his legs over the side, he promptly dropped down into the hole, landing heavily on his backside as the earth slide from underneath him. He looked up: blackness.

   Archie ran his hand through his hair and braced himself for the journey into the darkness. "Here we go then."

   Evie stopped. Turning around quickly, she felt the whole tunnel reverberate. Looking up to the ceiling, clumps of dirt fell onto her and the beams shook before steadying themselves again.

   "Great." She said to herself, turning back to the front. "That’s the last thing I need."

   Starting on the road again she stopped when she heard an echo from behind. Frowning she braced herself. "Hello?!"

   When no one replied, she shrugged it off and continued forward before, again, the place shook, this time a little more firmly than before.

   "Evie!"

   She heard a familiar voice echo down the corridor, bouncing off the dirt walls. It was oh so faint by the time it reached her, but it was enough. It echoed once again, and this time the tunnel reacted, angry at being disturbed. The ceiling started to crumble, the beams sliding out of position, walls slowly bending under the pressure.

   Ignoring the voice behind her, she ran. The dirt fell, and she sprinted forward, trying to find her way ahead as it all came crashing down. Boots slid within the damp mud, and again she heard her name called. She screamed back, losing her concentration for a second, before tripping over, falling headfirst onto some fallen timber, the lamp extinguished as it hit the ground.

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