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“As soon as you’ve finished your breakfast,” announced William, “we’ll be off to the castle. We’ve two large sledges to accommodate us. That’s a sleigh to you, Tara.”

“I can hardly wait!” said Nick’s wife.

A half-hour later, Nash had donned his hat, gloves and greatcoat and assisted Ailie into the sledge carrying Emily, Muriel and Angus. William took the seat next to the driver as he did the day they had gone in search of the Yule log.

With a nod to Nash, Robbie climbed into the second sledge with their two older brothers, their wives, and the Ormonds.

It was much like their earlier trip into the woods near Arbroath, the runners on the large vehicles easily traversing the road leading south to Dunnottar.

The brisk air chilled their faces even though the sun was shining. Only a few white clouds drifted in the blue sky. The inn had supplied them with lap blankets and beneath the one Nash shared with Ailie, he took her hand. Their gloves did not allow him the warm touch of her skin, but he was encouraged she did not resist the gesture.

In no time at all, they arrived at the approach to the castle and the sledges came to an abrupt halt, the horses snorting after their run. At this point, they were level with the top of the rocky snow-covered precipice on which the castle ruins stood, defying time. Behind the immense rock, the vast expanse of the blue sea stretched to the horizon.

Nash tried to envision Dunnottar as the castle it might have been, its battlements bright with colorful banners, the walls bristling with cannon and weapons, its practice yard crowded with men-at-arms, not the unroofed and untenanted sepulcher it had become. “It must have been magnificent.”

“Aye,” said Angus on a sigh. “She were a braw stronghold once.” Nash wondered if the old Scot longed for the former times when the castles of Scotland were the bastions of powerful lairds.

“What happened to the roofs?” Nash asked.

“When the castle was forfeited after the rising in 1715,” said Ailie, “the roofs were removed and sold. A travesty, as some might have survived to this day.”

William shouted, “Hold on, everyone!”

At the driver’s command, the horses plunged down the snow-covered slope. Nash gripped Ailie’s hand and braced himself against the side of the sledge as the horses, seemingly unafraid, lunged forward and then veered to the left bringing them to the bottom of a valley in front of the castle’s rocky foundation.

Ailie laughed. “A much wilder ride than in the summer when we walk.”

“Indeed,” said Muriel, hand over her heart. “But I quite enjoyed it.”

Angus gave her a huge grin. “Ye’re a grand lady, Countess.”

“Nonsense.”

William turned to Emily. “Are you all right, Leannan?”

“I am fine,” she said. “It’s the ghosts that have me worried.”

Nash tilted his head back to look up at the formidable mound of rock looming hundreds of feet in the air. He could no longer see the ruins atop the massive rock. Looking behind him, he glimpsed the second sledge, smiles on everyone’s faces.

“Your brother has a sense of the dramatic,” he said to Ailie.

“He does. I suspect he wanted you to be surprised.”

“When do we get to set our feet on the ground?” asked Muriel turning in her seat to look up at William who sat above her with the driver. “I’m anxious to see the castle.”

“You can alight here,” he replied. “The path leading up to the castle’s entrance is too narrow to take the sledges farther. They will remain here until we are ready to return. If some of you want to go back early, just let the drivers know. They will take you to the inn and return for the rest of us.”

They climbed down and trudged up the long steep path. At the top, stood a tall opening, carved into the rock, as if beckoning them to enter.

Beside him, Ailie stared at the entrance.

“You don’t fear the ghosts, do you?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s just that I’ve not seen Dunnottar in winter. ’Tis different with all the snow, colder and more forbidding than in summer.”

They entered an arched stone passage, musty with age. Nash had the sense the tunnel slanting upward was taking them to another time. At the end of the passage, they encountered another gate that opened to the castle area where a dozen stone buildings, or parts of them, still remained.

At that point, the group broke apart, heading in different directions.