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“And Disney princesses,” Marge corrected.
I shook my head laughing, then I let out a sigh and settled back into the hot tub water. A herd of elephants strode across the sunset just within my eyesight, and I sighed at the sight of them. That urge to feel wild and free had left me, and now all I wanted to do was enjoy this next part of my life with my best friends and the man I loved more than life itself. Now that I’d said goodbye to the old me, the wild me, I could spend some time getting to know the new me. My wish had been anything but what I’d envisioned, and yet it was exactly what I had needed.
DORIS
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Oh, wow!” I pressedmy face to the window of our taxi and gawked at the beautiful castle towering off in the distance. The lush Scottish greenery spread everywhere around it, making it look like the scene of a movie rather than a real place we were driving through. “Look! I can see the castle over there! Is that it? Is that our castle?”
“Not that one,” Grant, the driver, answered. The burly older man with a tweed cap pointed in the opposite direction. “Your castle is only a few more miles that way.”
Your castle.
Just hearing those words made me titter with anticipation. We were going to sleep in a castle tonight.
“Are you excited?” Sylvie asked from her spot beside me in the back seat.
I practically squealed out my answer. “Yes! Oh, yes! I can’t believe you found us a castle in Scotland to stay in! It’s just too much!”
“Good. I’m so glad you’re happy. I did a bunch of research, and this place sounds amazing. We got so lucky they had openings for us this week.”
My heart fluttered away inside my chest as I thought about stepping inside arealcastle. Sleeping in it. Eating it in. Living like they had centuries ago. I’d fantasized about it since I was a little girl. As a child, I’d read fairytales a hundred times over, each time dreaming about what it would be like to live in a castle like the heroine or the beautiful princess. And now, thanks to my most cherished friends, I would get to do it.
Alice narrowed her eyes at Sylvie. “I can’t believe you picked one without indoor plumbing. I’m filing an official Wilder Widows grievance about this wish. All wishes should include basic indoor plumbing. That should be a rule. I mean, offering indoor plumbing is just basic manners. I vote that we find a different castle to stay in. One with updated plumbing.”
Marge scoffed. “Such a wuss. Worried about crapping in an outhouse? Don’t be. There aren’t any big predators in Scotland. Nothing is gonna jump up and bite your ass in the night.”
“It’s not the predators I’m worried about, Marge. It’s the fact that I don’t do outhouses. You know my feelings about the quality of restrooms I expect.”
“What, that bucket in the Mexican detention center wasn’t up to your standards? We can put one in your room if you’d prefer it to the outhouse,” Sylvie teased.
“We don’t talk about that.” Alice stiffened. “And no. It was not, and neither is some rickety old outhouse people have been pissing in for hundreds of years. I’m not doing it. I’m not going in that thing. I insist we pick a different place with toilets.”
My face started to fall at her lack of enthusiasm over my wish. “Even though I would have preferred running water and toilets, I kind of like the idea of living exactly like they did back in the day.”
“I protest.” Alice crossed her arms.
