Utterly mesmerized Chad stared through the dusty windshield of the car.
“Can you stop a minute, please?” he asked the driver.
“But we’re almost there,” the driver protested, looking nervously around them.
“Well, I can see that,” Chad said a bit irritable, but all that vanished when the car pulled over to the side of the road beside the wide, free-flowing river and he stepped out. “I just want to….take it all in. It …it truly is a real castle. I was thinking…..”
He truly couldn’t say what he had been thinking. He pulled the invitation out of his pocket and read it for what must have been the hundredth time.
Chad Henderson,
You have been invited to Wishworth Castle for an all-expenses paid, month-long holiday. Enclosed you will find your airline ticket and all information relevant to the journey to and stay at Wishworth Castle. Here’s hoping you find your heart’s desire at Wishworth Castle. Best wishes.
And that was all she wrote, Chad thought. No signature, no return address, no phone number, no nothing, in fact. And as for the “relevant information”, there was not much of that either. Nothing about the place, not even what country it was in. Even the airline ticket was of no use. It was just another note on the same heavy parchment stating which gate to take a chartered, privately owned jet. And if he had thought someone on board would fill him in about their destination, he was sorely mistaken. He had been the only passenger.
As for the “your heart’s desire” part, he scoffed at that one. Could this mystery castle give him that? He seriously doubted it.
He had no clue what this was all about, nor who could have possibly sent him such a generous offer. It had occurred to him that the invitation was all a joke, that it would be a dump of a resort with hidden and exorbitant costs, that it was a mere ruse or trap and that he would be kidnaped and held for some ludicrous ransom, a huge amount of money. Well, the laugh would be on the kidnaper or resort manager, wouldn’t it? He had nary a penny left to his name and he valued his life not a bit. He had nothing to live for anymore.
Not after this horrible last year. His best friend embezzled from the company Chad had built up from nothing and he left the country with Chad’s supposedly grieving wife. The bank took Chad’s home, his business, the taxman was after his blood and he wasn’t even a dad anymore. At least, he thought so.
He made a mental note not to refer to Henry as his best friend any longer and he most certainly wished never to think of Jenna again….the rotten little….
He sighed and shook his head of such useless, negative thoughts. She had, after all, been the love of his life once and he couldn’t forget that she had given him the greatest gift, Jason. She had also, however, managed to take him away. Again he shook his head. It had been an accident, a misstep, no one’s fault. He mustn’t continue to blame her for Jason’s disappearance. It could just as easily have happened to him. Somehow, though, he doubted it. He always took more care of their child than she ever did.
He gazed up at the castle again. The impressive edifice rose up on a slight hill, all turrets and towers in soft hues of pale blue and slate gray. It looked too perfect to be real in the early dawn light. It was surrounded by a wide, crystalline moat of sorts. Not an actual moat he saw now. The castle stood on an island within the wide gently flowing river. The water reflected the castle in a perfect mirror image with the early morning mist rising seductively around it, slightly obscuring the enclosing mountains in the distance. The sun rising behind him glinted off the tower room windows and cast a golden glow over the entire scene.
He realized he could stand there looking at it forever if allowed. It was that beautiful. “Dear God, is this what heaven is like?” he whispered.
“Mister Henderson?” the driver said several minutes later.
Chad looked around and started. He had forgotten all about the driver. He gave his head a shake and jumped into the compact car. “Sorry, guess you must get that a lot from us Americans. We got no castles like that back home.”
The driver said nothing and pulled into the road which twisted and turned much as the river beside it did. The trees they passed, Chad noticed, had become older, more gnarly and contorted as they drew closer to the castle. Watching them, his mind went back to the last time he and Jason had gone hiking into the woods.
“Uh, Dad, you sure there’s no spiders in there?” Jason had asked in a tiny, quivering voice for the tenth time in as many minutes, his small hand clutching at his father’s for dear life.
Chad knew his son was thinking of the giant spiders Harry Potter and his friend Ron had encountered on their own excursion into the forbidden forest. He rather regretted reading Jason that story for it scared him silly. But even with the ever more frightening tales, Jason couldn’t get enough of them and nor could Chad. He just enjoyed reading with the boy, whose light brown eyes would widen as the story progressed until you thought his whole face was only his eyes.
Chad laughed and gave him a reassuring squeeze of the hand before saying, “Now, what have I told you about those giant spiders, Jason?”
“They’re not real, but what if…”
“Exactly. Not real, as in they do not exist. Only in JK Rowling’s imagination do spiders talk and grow to be as big as cart horses,” Chad interrupted.
“And mine too,” Jason muttered under his breath. Chad laughed and scooped him up onto his shoulders. He then took another trail which hugged the edge of the tiny stream and led away from the disturbing wooded area that so frightened his boy.
Thinking of that time brought unexpected tears to his eyes and he had to blink them back. How he missed that boy! And not knowing if he were alive or dead made it that much worse.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught some movement and he turned in time to catch a glimpse of a blond haired boy of about six running through the trees. His heart jumped into his throat and he almost shouted for Jason. The boy had looked just like him. But then sanity returned. It couldn’t possibly be Jason, he told himself. But for the next mile he couldn’t help but look into the trees hoping for another sighting.
His heart was still pounding hard when the car took a sharp turn to the right. They were now on the narrow drive leading to the castle drawbridge. Ten yards in, the car stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Chad asked the driver who put the car into park and swiftly jumped out opening the trunk and extracting Chad’s suitcase. Chad followed looking confused.
“End of road,” the driver said dispassionately, handing him the bag and dashing back into the car.
“Hey, I didn’t even…..”Chad was saying just as the car spun around, spewing tiny pebbles everywhere and tore back down the road.
“Give you a tip,” Chad finished too late, for the car was already around the bend and out of sight. “What the hell was that about?”
With no one there to give him a proper answer, he turned toward the castle and walked across the drawbridge, all the while wondering about the odd behavior of the driver. But all thought of the silly man vanished as soon as he approached the castle in all its splendor. It was even more impressive up close.
He climbed the granite steps and entered a magnificent foyer. Several minutes he stood slowing turning, taking it all in, until he realized he should sign in. He frowned when he found nothing like a counter or even a desk and there appeared to be not a soul in sight. What he did see, however, was his name neatly written on a note card made of the same heavy parchment as the invitation sitting on a low table. An old fashioned brass key lay on top. He picked them up and read.
Chad Henderson, Your bedchamber is at the top of south tower. Best wishes.
“That’s it?” Chad said out loud, turning the card over to see if there was more on the backside, his voice echoing off the rough stone walls. “And how am I to find this south tower?”
As if in answer to his query, a slip of paper fell out of the note he still held. He bent to retrieve it and found a map of sorts telling him precisely how to get to his room.
“Alrighty then,” he muttered and bounded up the wide curving marble stairs. He’d lost count of the floors he passed when he finally reached the top. But there were two doors here. The first he tried wouldn’t open with his key but the second did without a glitch and he entered his room. And what a room it was!
“Holy fricken cripes,” he mumbled. He gaped at the huge four poster bed complete with midnight blue velvet hangings. Two matching step stools sat on the floor on either side of the bed. As tall as he was he’d still need them to get on the high mattress. Opposite this stood an intricately carved dark walnut wardrobe. Fabulous tapestries covered the walls and a large mirror stood sentinel in the corner.
“Jenna would love this,” he muttered.
The only thing that boded ill was the small stand on which stood an old fashioned porcelain basin and pitcher, just like you’d expect to find in old places without a proper bathroom. He looked around almost fearful to find a chamber pot, but then he spotted an adjoining door and he lunged for it hoping against hope for a real bathroom.
“Yes!” he shouted, triumphant, and started ripping off his clothes. It had been, after all, a very long travelling day.
Once revived with a long hot shower, Chad dressed in khaki shorts and a polo shirt. Staring out the window he knew he should be tired and ought to take a nap but he didn’t want to be inside on such a glorious day. He was wired up and he felt his .....read more.
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