‘It’s not in very good shape, I’m afraid.’

It was true, parts of the walls had crumbled away and there was no roof, but this was the fabled Stormeil Castle, where a young girl had run away from her betrothed only to be hunted down and murdered.

‘It’s just so strange to be finally seeing it. I’ve grown up hearing the story my whole life, and now, I’m really here.’

Is this how you remembered it, Gran?

Oh yes, she breathed. It’s exactly how I remember it from when I came here with my father.

Opening her door, Elle climbed out of the vehicle and walked towards the ruins.

‘In its day it would have been an impressive sight. It was a fortress, built to withstand sieges and attacks from even the hardest armies. It went up at least four storeys,’ Stuart said from beside her as the two dogs bounded off to explore.

‘It’s such a shame that it was left to fall apart like this.’

‘They built things to last back then, but after eight hundred years they need extensive maintenance to remain intact.’

‘I guess it’s been like this for a long time?’

‘As long as anyone can remember.’

‘There’s an arch the families built, where Isla and Gavan were supposed to have been buried—do you know where that is?’

‘We can drive there on the way back,’ he said as they walked towards the ruins in companionable silence.

Elle tried to imagine how the place must have once looked, filling in the missing walls and adding floors and windows, towers at the front and battlements. They walked through a gap where a huge front door must once have stood and Elle looked around, turning to get her bearings.

‘How do you know that it had four storeys?’ she asked curiously.

‘If you look up at this interior wall,’ he said, pointing, ‘you can see square cuts in the stone at regular intervals. That’s where the beams were once in place to support the floor above. It goes up four levels.’

‘It must have been massive.’

‘It was.’

‘You’ve had your whole life to explore this place. You must know it pretty well.’

‘I was only supposed to come here with an adult,’ he said, his head tipped back as though searching the craggy rock wall, before he looked back down at her with a grin, ‘but occasionally I’d manage to sneak away and come here to explore on my own.’

‘I guess it would be too tempting to have your very own castle in your backyard and not come to play,’ she agreed, though she hated to think of all the dangers a place like this presented to a child up here all alone.