Chapter 14 #2
“So, Castle Rock itself should be safe enough?” Hawk queried.
David shrugged. “I’ve access to nearly every room within it.
There are peepholes in the tunnels beyond the walls.
I can see and hear what goes on within the castle, and whatever evil is at play there, I don’t think much goes on within the walls.
Whoever seeks to do away with our family tries hard to do so by natural means—to all appearances.
Sabrina was outside of the castle when she was taken. ”
“You’re certain?”
David hesitated. He hadn’t told Hawk about Shawna’s handkerchief because he hadn’t wanted Skylar to know about it.
He and Hawk had tried to convince Skylar that Sabrina had gone riding and lost track of time and her sense of responsibility.
Now he told his brother, “I found a handkerchief soaked in chloroform—one of Shawna’s— in the chapel.
But I don’t think that she was taken from the chapel.
The handkerchief was all balled up as if it had fallen from a pocket. ”
“Surely, you don’t think that Shawna actually drugged and kidnapped Sabrina?”
“Of course not.”
“Good, since that probably exonerates Shawna from any evil designs upon me in the tunnels, doesn’t it?”
David scowled, then shrugged. “Fine, if Shawna is such an innocent, then what is going on, and who in God’s name is she trying to protect?”
“Perhaps she isn’t protecting anyone.”
“She isn’t telling me everything.”
“Have you told her everything?”
“I don’t talk about the years I lost,” David said bitterly. “They are best forgotten. They—”
He broke off suddenly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at his brother.
They had both heard the sound. A strange, quick sound, a creaking sound. David drew a finger to his lips and made a motion to Hawk.
It looked as if there was nothing more than a break in the rock wall of the tunnel to their left.
As if the cave-in had created a crack. Yet, as David moved around, he could see that the thin break in the rock was complete—and that a man could slip through it.
And seeing how the Highland cliffs here were filled with caverns and tunnels, it seemed likely that they might find another extension of the tunnels through the crack.
They approached the break from opposite sides, David reaching it just before Hawk. As he came to the break, he heard movement and swiftly, if somewhat recklessly, crawled through the opening, expecting to fall under attack at any moment.
But whoever watched them, and listened to them, did not intend to attack.
The watcher sought only to run.
“Hurry!” David cried to his brother, entering into a cavern where he found himself in total darkness, but hearing now the steady thud of footfalls upon the earth as the watcher tried to escape.
Trying to adapt to the blackness, David followed fleetly, trusting the earth beneath his feet since he had heard the footfalls upon it just seconds before.
He heard his brother behind him as he closed in on the runner. He catapulted himself forward, his arms thrust out in the blackness.
Encircling a body.
They plowed to the earth together. David drew his knife from the sheath at his calf just as Hawk struck a match against the wall, illuminating the cave.
“Sweet Jesus, you!” David thundered down at the face below him.
“You are alive!” the watcher said in astonishment, heedless of the blade beneath his nose.
“Aye, and anxious to know what goes on—and where the lass may be!” David said angrily.
“Let me up. I pose no danger to you.”
David glanced at his brother. Hawk’s barely perceptible nod assured him that it would be unlikely that the man could take them both by surprise and escape them.
“All right, MacGinnis,” David said. “Get up. And explain why in God’s name you are spying upon me.”
“Aye, Douglas, I shall do so. If you will promise to explain to me why you wish to make us all think you haunt us when you are a flesh-and-blood man!”
“Let’s make these explanations swift,” Hawk said softly. “Remember, we still seek Sabrina—unless, MacGinnis, you know where she might be.”
“I seek her myself.”
“And I seek the truth,” David said flatly.
“I’ll give you what I have of it.”
By late afternoon, all of Craig Rock had been turned upside down, and no trace of Sabrina had been found.
Constable Clark had come up from the city, but he had been less concerned than the people of Craig Rock, for he was quite convinced that young women frequently disappeared from small villages at whim, since he’d had a daughter himself who had run off to see the world.
He spoke with Shawna, Gawain, Hawk, and Skylar in the great hall at Castle Rock, taking information from Skylar and trying to assure her that Sabrina was most probably quite fine and off on some lark while his own two men continued to search the property and the area beyond with Lowell, Aidan, Alaric, and Alistair.
As the day had passed, Shawna felt a greater and greater sense of dismay.
David had assured her that he would cover Castle Rock with his own search—slipping through all those secret corridors and stairways that were unknown to the others.
He had apparently found nothing. While she and Aidan had searched Castle MacGinnis, the others had scoured the village, the mines, the fields, the stables, and more.
“You mustn’t fret so, for lasses do these things, Lady Douglas. Perhaps there was a man involved,” the heavy-set, florid constable suggested with a wink as he accepted a whiskey against the brisk cool turn of the day in the great hall at Castle Rock.
“There was no man involved,” Shawna assured him, glancing at Skylar, who was exhausted and frightened. “And we’ve had search parties out all day—the miners combed the tunnels, my cousins have gone door to door in the village, we have searched the castles—and we remain quite concerned.”
“Ach, now, m’lady, ’tis fitting that all are concerned. But I’ll warrant the lovely young American lass appears soon enough.”
“We cannot let up on the search for my sister for a single moment,” Skylar said. “Edwina McCloud, in the village, has a special sight, I am told. And she has warned me of extreme danger.”
“The sight now, is it?” The constable obviously did not believe in the sight.
“Constable Clark, this is a serious matter, and if you don’t care to handle it in such a fashion, I’ll have to request special assistance from your superiors,” Hawk Douglas said.
The constable hemmed and hawed uncomfortably, his cheeks growing very pink.
“My report is filled out right and proper, Laird Douglas, and we will do everything in our power to get information out regarding your sister-in-law as far as we can. Now, again, Laird Douglas, you being an American and all, it’s quite understandable that ye’re not aware of rumor and suchlike of the goings-on up here, but ’tis known across the country that Craig Rock harbors all manners of strange thought and custom.
I believe it’s true that this Miss Edwina McCloud you speak about considers herself a witch? ”
Startled, Shawna stared at him. “Apparently, sir, you don’t understand the original meaning of the term ‘witch!’”
“Ah, ’tis true, the lady dabbles in the black arts!”
“She dabbles in no black art!”
“I’m afraid I need no further answer, m’lady. I shall have Edwina McCloud questioned. Perhaps the witches of Craig Rock are seeking out a sacrifice or the like?”
“How dare you, Constable Clark, how dare you!” Shawna said, infuriated.
Gawain was before the constable like a bulldog.
“You’re quite correct, constable, in that Laird Douglas is an American, but he’s come here oft enough in his life and the blood of Craig Rock runs through his veins.
He knows, as we do, that the ancient Wicca practiced here is gentle and good, a difference of religious opinion, protected now by law, just as Catholicism, Buddhism, Judaism, and more! ”
Constable Clark drew his cumbersome body very straight.
“I merely say that if some evil is afoot, you will recognize it here far more quickly than any outsider might manage. Craig Rock has always managed well on its own, the only difficulty I remember is the tragedy at the stables, and that now some five years or so past. You must look to your own. I’ll leave two men at the tavern to keep up the search with you for the next two days, but well pray, Laird Douglas, that Sabrina Connor is about on a lark exploring our magnificent countryside and will come home in her own good time.
If not, perhaps she will be found in a nearby village.
I’ve been constable for twenty years, and I can tell you that young lasses oft surprise their kin, and that is a fact, ’tis the way God made women. ”
“My sister is a responsible woman,” Skylar stated firmly. “No flighty young girl.”
The constable arched a brow. “Well, now, I’ve not implied that she is a fey thing or the like, have I, just that the very best of us can be seduced by various evils.”
“She won’t be found in a nearby village,” Skylar said. “She is here. Somewhere.”
“Perhaps she is in hiding then,” the constable suggested with aggravation.
“And will appear when she is ready to do so. My dear Lady Douglas, you are an American, but I am an outsider here as well, and as an outsider, I’ve done what I can for the time.
’Tis you who know your sister, and ’tis you and the villagers and Laird Douglas and the MacGinneses who know the area and where a young woman might be wont to wander.
Has anything strange been going on in the last few days?
Did Edwina McCloud offer you an explanation of why she is so certain you need be concerned for Sabrina? ”