Page 46 of A Scot on the Rocks

“I made the Dunarraidh ghost.”

“More like three very polite knocks.”

“They’re ominous.”

She scrunched up her nose. “They sound like someone coming to collect the rent.”

Jamie laughed before he could stop himself, and Olivia’s mouth curved in triumph as she pushed herself upright.

“The problem is everything happens in one place.”

“The problem?”

“With the haunting.”

“My haunting has worked perfectly well for years.”

“That doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon.”

Before Jamie could object, she picked up the lantern and lowered it toward the floor, turning it slightly until the shadow altered across the wall. When she moved another pace to one side, the dark shape stretched upward over the uneven stone and widened as it crossed the broken arch.

“The light should move while the cloth moves,” she said, narrowing her eyes at the wall. “If the shape keeps changing, they won’t know what they’re actually looking at.”

“They?”

“Whoever you’re trying to scare.”

“Excisemen.”

That apparently required no further discussion as Olivia handed him the cord, then took the lantern in both hands and planted her boots carefully on the damp stone. “Pull slowly.”

Jamie pulled.

“Slower.”

He let out a sigh.

She rolled her eyes. “You want frightening or not? Again.”

This time he pulled more slowly while she moved the lantern, and the shadow rose across the stone, stretched over the arch, and lengthened into something taller and thinner than any man standing in the room. When a draft caught the linen, the edges of the figure shifted as if it were breathing.

Jamie stopped pulling.

Olivia stepped beside him, near enough that the edge of her soft shirt brushed his sleeve while they watched the shadow move across the wall. “That’s better.”

He looked down at her. “Ye look verra pleased with yourself.”

“I am. Your ghost has improved considerably.”

A violent flutter exploded above them before Jamie could answer, and the rook launched from the rafters directly over Olivia’s head. She ducked with a curse as the bird swept through the broken roof and disappeared into the gray morning.

Olivia stood with both hands on her hips. “That wasn’t part of the haunting.”

“Nay.”

She rolled her eyes, but the smile remained as she returned to the cords.

“The knocking needs to be unpredictable. One sound here, another somewhere else. After a while, people notice patterns.”