Page 13 of Once Upon a Haunted Horn and Hoof

“Och, hell. She saw the ghost.” Callum picked straw out of his long hair and sat up.

“It’s all right. I already kent about him,” Lorna admitted.

“Ye told her, Keithen? How could ye?” growled Callum as Keithen helped him to stand.

“Nay, it wasna him. It was the child, Avianca, who told me, but please dinna punish her or her mathair.” Lorna didn’t want the woman and girl to get in trouble, but neither did she want Keithen being blamed for something he had not done.

“Is nothin’ sacred anymore?” growled Callum. “I like my privacy. Why are the two of ye even here? No one is allowed at my still, and only the guards are allowed outside the barn.”

Lorna looked at Keithen, realizing he must have hidden here trying to get the information of how to make Mountain Magic to give to the ghost. This wouldn’t sit well with Callum at all, so she had to act fast.

“We’re sorry. We wanted to get away together. Alone. To get to ken each other before the weddin’.” She purposely reached out and caressed Keithen’s cheek for show. Keithen caught on to what she was doing and bent over and kissed her on the mouth once more.

“I am just glad to have been here to be able to help ye, Callum,” said Keithen.

“Aye. If he hadna been here, ye might be dead under all those barrels of whisky right now,” Lorna added, not sure if it was true, but saying it for emphasis.

“Callum, what are we goin’ to do?” asked Keithen. “Lennox wants yer secret recipe, and we’re never goin’ to get him to leave until ye tell him.”

“He’s a ghost. Why does he even care?” asked Lorna. “I mean, can ghosts drink whisky?”

“It’s his longin’ to ken my secret that has kept him trapped here in the land of the livin’ so long,” said Callum.

“So long?” asked Lorna. “The ghost has been here before now?”

Callum nodded. “Lennox has been plaguin’ me ever since the day he died.”

“What do ye mean?” asked Lorna.

“Most people think I’m mad,” said Callum. “But the reason I am this way is because I’ve had to take the blame for lots of mishaps that the damned ghost caused. The only way to keep him a secret, and to keep my customers from leavin’, was to take the blame and allow people to think I’m mad.”

“Ye should have told the MacKeefes before now, and mayhap they could have helped ye,” suggested Keithen.

“Aye, I suppose so,” Callum answered with a sigh. “But the damned thing usually stays here in the barn. That is another reason why no one but me is allowed near my still. I set up the betrothal between ye and Lorna because I thought peace between the MacKeefes and the MacNeils would satisfy Lennox, and he’d finally leave.”

“But instead, it only made things worse,” said Keithen, getting a nod from Callum.

“Why dinna ye just tell the ghost yer secret to makin’ the Mountain Magic?” asked Lorna. “After all, he’s a ghost, so he’s never goin’ to really use it.”

“Haud yer wheesht, child!” snarled Callum. “I’ve never given in to the fool’s demands when he was alive, and I am certainly no’ goin’ to do so now that he’s dead. It is out of the question.”

“Then how are we ever goin’ to get rid of the ghost?” asked Lorna.

“I have an idea,” said Keithen. “However, it’s risky.”

“I’ll do anythin’ to get Lennox out of my life once and for all,” said Callum. “What is it?”

“All right, if ye say so,” said Keithen with a nod. “However, I am more than sure that ye are goin’ to hate what I am about to propose.”