“So have you been possessed by the spirit of Thomas Seymour your entire life?”
Aggie felt the lift of Jace's shoulders as he shrugged. “Never met him before that last visit. I think he's using me as some sort of guide. He can't find this place unless I'm here.”
“But why you?”
“Hell if I know. It isn't as if he tells me his plans or how these things work.”
“And you see her too?”
“Sometimes,” he said, “when I look at you. And I'll be honest, it freaks me the fuck out.”
“I still think maybe we should just leave. It isn't as if Thomas bothers you when we aren't here, and our chandeliers at home are brand new.”
“You don't think we should try to help them? They want to be together, but they suck at communication.”
Aggie laughed and gave Jace a squeeze. “We used to struggle with that.”
“Are you guys out here?” Eric yelled from the steps of a side entrance.
“Yeah,” Jace called.
“Is she still breathing? We banished the evil chandelier from the dance floor. You can come back now.”
“We’re sort of busy at that moment,” Jace returned.
“Are you two having sex out there?” he asked. “Can I watch? It's been a while since I’ve watched anyone but myself and Reb.”
“No and no,” Aggie yelled.
“Dammit,” he muttered before turning away. “You should come back inside soon. It's cold.”
Aggie covered Jace's chilled ears with her hands. “I hardly noticed,” she whispered. “I'm kind of afraid to go back to the ball. People must think I’m crazy for running out like that.”
“I’m sure they just think you were rattled from a chandelier attempting to kill you.”
“Well, I guess that’s better than what really has me rattled,” she said.
“Let’s walk the gardens for a bit. I’m not ready to face the crowd or the questions.”
He was staring at her with a rare intensity. If she wasn’t mistaken, his eyes were misty.
“What’s wrong, baby?” she asked.
“When that chandelier came crashing down, I thought…” He swallowed. “I thought I might lose you.”
“The night before our wedding?” Aggie said. “You should be so lucky.”
Aggie moved away from Jace and took his hand. She could definitely feel the cold now that he wasn't pressed firmly against her. She couldn’t believe he’d been suffering with this in silence. Actually, she could believe it. And she suddenly felt like a complete jerk for intentionally messing with him earlier.
“Jace, I have a confession. And an apology.” She squeezed his fingers. “I’m sorry I tried to scare you. If I’d known that you really were hearing things and seeing ghosts, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Scare me? When did you scare me?” he asked.
“I wrote that message on the mirror. A kind of Halloween practical joke. I figured we’d get a good laugh out of it tomorrow, but I don’t think it’s funny anymore.”
Jace kissed her soundly on the lips. “Thank God it was you. I was starting to think these ghosts could do real damage. Maybe that chandelier falling right after I said I didn’t love Katherine was just a coincidence.”
“Maybe,” she said, but she kind of doubted it.
“But we need to make sure,” he said, drawing her to a halt at the steps of the chapel.
“Why are we here?”
“We’re going inside. To visit Katherine’s tomb.”
Aggie stopped in midstride. “Oh no, we’re not,” she said, shaking her head vehemently. “I’m not going in there on Halloween night.”
“Why not? You don’t believe there are really ghosts in there, do you?”
“Maybe. I’d love to say we could explain all this away, but if they’re talking to you and you’re seeing things…” She patted his shoulder. “Let me put it this way, I’d rather believe in ghosts than believe you’re crazy.”
“Good. Because I need to deal with this, this haunting or whatever it is,” he said. “Now that you know what’s been happening to me and you haven’t called the loony wagon yet, I feel like I can face the problem head on. I want to face it. With you. Does that make sense?”
She squeezed his chilled fingers and smiled. “Yeah and it makes me happy that you feel that way.”
Well, happy in a I don’t really want to do this but can’t refuse the man anything because he asks so little kind of way. Jace was the type who didn’t put his whole heart into many things—with the exception of his band and their music, his woman, his cat, and apparently the troubled romance of a couple who’d been dead for nearly five hundred years—so Aggie supposed she had no choice but to follow him to Queen Katherine’s tomb. On Halloween night. When the woman’s jealous spirit was pissed as hell at her.
Chapter Eleven
Jace entered the dimly lit tomb alone. Aggie hung back in the corridor, peering around with wide eyes. Now that Jace had come to terms with what was going on, he and Aggie had shifted roles. It was common for that to happen in their relationship, so he didn’t waste time pondering why Aggie was afraid of things that probably couldn’t hurt her and he was paralyzed by the things that could. The sight of that chandelier on the floor where Aggie had been standing split seconds before—and the very thought of losing her—had immediately put everything into perspective for him. Jace refused to let a pair of wayward souls endanger his woman or encroach upon what would be the happiest day of his life, so he was going to put an end to this nonsense right now. At least that’s what he told himself until a breeze swept into the room, causing the few lit candles around the perimeter of the tomb to sputter. He wondered if they burned candles in the tomb every night or if Halloween was a special occasion.