“Oh, hello,” I said. I stepped into the room, making room for Harry to follow. At a glance, I realized we were in a library. The walls were covered in floor-to-ceiling shelves of books. The large space was filled with rows of shorter shelves, packed with more volumes. The tops of the waist-high bookcases had thick-spined books on display in wooden holders and busts of what I assumed were famous authors. I desperately wanted to examine the books and the busts, but the man in front of me stopped me in my tracks.

“Cheers,” Harry greeted the man. The bearded man’s frown deepened.

“What were you doing in there?” the man demanded. He was dressed in wellies, cargo pants and a well-worn flannel shirt. He spoke in such a thick brogue that it took me a minute to decipher his Scots. He was tall and broad and looked like he’d have no trouble tossing us like a caber. Judging by the look on his face, he was giving it a fair amount of consideration.

Uh-oh.

Chapter 4

“You’re not another bloody ghost hunter, are you?” the man asked.

Harry and I exchanged a look. Ghost hunter?

I gave the stranger my best people-pleasing smile. He remained unmoved. I tried a hair toss to see if that could distract him. Nope.

“I’m sorry, we’re here for the May-Portis wedding and while we were touring the grounds, we got turned around,” I said. “We found the door on the other end of the castle and thought it might be a shortcut, and it was.”

“It is for the staff of castle Waverly only,” the man snapped. He gestured to the door we’d just come through, and I turned to see a Staff Only sign on the front of it.

“Apologies,” Harry said. “There wasn’t a sign on the door at the other end.”

The man pursed his lips and paused to consider that. “Fair enough. I’m Archie Carlton, castle caretaker, and I’d appreciate it if you’d stay out of the staff areas from now on.”

By “appreciate” I figured he meant that he’d be even scarier should we have to have this conversation again. Duly noted.

“Why did you think we were ghost hunters?” I asked. I felt Harry’s gaze on my face, and I was certain he would have preferred that I just let it go. Yeah, not gonna happen.

“Because there’s always someone poking around looking for the McKenna bride where they’re not supposed to,” he said.

“The McKenna bride, is that what the ghost is called?” Harry asked. I glanced at him in surprise. That was going to be my next question, but he scooped me, and here I thought he wasn’t interested.