Chapter 14 #3
They all looked at one another. Shawna wondered if David had told Hawk about her handkerchief and, if so, why Hawk wasn’t presenting the evidence to the constable.
But if Hawk knew about it, he wasn’t saying anything, and she thought that he might not do so in defense of her.
She was deeply glad of his faith in her.
Shawna looked at the constable. “Edwina had been dreaming about David Douglas coming back to life.”
“What rubbish!” Gawain said irritably. He shook his head, shuddering, his aging features taut.
“We saw him. All of us in this room saw him dead. Thankfully, my great-niece here apparently stumbled from the flames before she met a like fate. Sweet Jesus, must we keep talking about this? With the poor man’s brother here, it is cruelty itself to suggest that the man might have lived. ”
“I thank you, Gawain, but we must discuss whatever will help find Sabrina.”
“How curious,” the constable murmured. “Perhaps we will have to exhume David Douglas if something is not discovered in time. Is there anything else at all that I should know?”
There was, Shawna thought. He should know that David was alive, that a man had died and was sunk to the bottom of the loch, that their mines were supposedly haunted, that she had been drugged senseless that morning, and that a handkerchief bearing her initials had been found in the chapel that morning.
But the constable was right. He didn’t know or understand much about Craig Rock or the Highlanders living there.
“Well, then, I shall return to the village, and see what can be done there,” Constable Clark said. “Then I shall strive for a good night’s sleep so that I may be of some help in the morning. Good day to you all.”
The constable left, Gawain seeing him out.
Shawna approached Skylar, whose fear and pain for her sister were heartbreakingly obvious as she sat before the fire.
Myer, tall and straight and completely dignified but with stark sympathy in his eyes, brought brandy, and while Hawk watched pensively, leaning upon the ancient stone mantel, Shawna tried to get some brandy into Skylar.
Hawk came to hunch down before Skylar, gently reaching for her hands. “You have to get some rest, my love. Sabrina will be found, and it may well be that when she is, we will all need our strength and energy to help her.”
“Yes,” Skylar said listlessly. But then she smiled and touched his bronze features. “I love you. I know that you will find Sabrina.”
He smiled, caught her hand, and kissed it. Shawna felt a surge of longing. Dear God, that was what she longed to have from David. And Hawk was so much like his older brother that Shawna found that she had to turn away.
Hawk stood. “Skylar, you must get some rest.”
Skylar nodded but didn’t move. “Whatever that foolish man says, Sabrina did not run away with a man, she is not in hiding. I know her. I’m so very afraid. And my god, Hawk! I brought her here.”
“She wanted to come, remember? She didn’t want to stay in the Dakota Territory without us. Perhaps she is being held for some reason, and we’ve time yet to find her, but we must all have our wits about us to do so,” Hawk said, looking at his wife.
“And we must have some faith in Sabrina,” Gawain said, returning to the great hall from the entry. “She is an intelligent young woman, a fighter.”
“Yes, yes, she is!” Skylar agreed. Shawna was glad that her great-uncle’s words had seemed to offer Skylar so much comfort.
Mary Jane came into the great hall then, her eyes full of sympathy for Skylar. She came in very quietly, pausing beside Shawna to whisper softly. “I’ve a hot bath prepared for Lady Douglas in the master’s chambers. And there’s a large bottle of brandy by her bedside.”
Shawna squeezed her maid’s hand. “Thank you, Mary Jane,” she said softly.
Mary Jane nodded, departing the hall as quietly as she had come.
“Mary Jane says that she has a steaming tub all ready for you, Skylar. Please go up. A long bath and rest can’t help but make you better able to keep searching yourself once we have daylight to work with again,” Shawna said.
“I’ll take you up, Skylar,” Hawk said.
Shawna stopped him to whisper that Myer kept laudanum, if it seemed that Skylar would need more than brandy.
Hawk nodded and walked Skylar slowly up the stairs.
Gawain looked at Shawna, shaking his head sadly.
“Sabrina must be found. Quickly!” he announced.
He came to Shawna and squeezed her shoulders.
“I’m going to Edwina’s. God knows, the constable is useless.
Maybe Edwina will ‘see’ something useful in another dream. ”
Shawna nodded. She poured herself a brandy and stood staring into the fire as she sipped it. A while later, Hawk came back down the stairs.
He poured himself a brandy and swallowed it all in a single gulp.
“Skylar?” Shawna asked.
“Sleeping at last. The laudanum,” he said.
“You found nothing today in your search?”
“I wouldn’t say that we found nothing,” Hawk said, “but I’m afraid we found no trace of Sabrina.”
“But what of David’s search—”
“Shh!” he warned, bringing his finger to his lips. “The walls do have ears.”
“Aye!” Shawna said very softly, staring straight into his green Douglas eyes. “Your brother’s!”
“Whatever, we did not find Sabrina. Shawna, you must go up yourself and get some sleep. There’s nothing else we can do until morning.”
Shawna was dismayed by the rise of hysteria that seemed to sweep through her. She was so worried about Sabrina. “Sleep! I’ve not had real sleep in a very long time—Laird Douglas.”
“Go up. You’ll not be troubled tonight.”
“Why not?” she demanded suspiciously.
Hawk was instantly aware that she was anxious to determine just where David would be. “I’m sorry,” he teased, running his fingers through his hair. Despite the gravity of the situation, he offered her a smile. “Did you wish to be disturbed tonight?”
Shawna groaned. “Sweet Jesus! You, too. David torments me well enough on his own, I assure you!”
Hawk quickly put a finger to his lips again. The main door opened ,and she heard the commotion there as her great-uncle Lowell and her cousins returned to the castle, exhausted from their search for Sabrina.
“The lass has quite cleanly disappeared,” Alistair said, wearily rubbing his chin. “Hawk, I’m so sorry, we’ve learned nothing as yet. Oh, thank God and Myer! Sustenance!” he said as Myer came to the room, bearing whiskey, brandy, hot tea, and a plate of scones.
Aidan stretched his hands before the fire, staring at Shawna as if she had somehow brought it all about. “Shawna, you two seemed to be growing quite close. Was she upset, is there any reason she might have just gone off?”
“No,” Shawna said firmly. “She has met with some kind of foul play.”
“I pray not, and I do believe there’s hope—” He paused, glancing unhappily at Hawk. “We’ve not found Sabrina’s—body,” he finished quietly.
“I’d not have you speak so openly before my wife,” Hawk said, “but I fear terribly that Sabrina has been harmed.”
“Perhaps—her body has been hidden,” Alaric said, his countenance as weary as his brother’s.
“We’ve been through the mines, through the village, through the castles, through the fields. We’ve looked among the cattle, horses, goats—both the animals and the old-timers in the village—and we’ve not found her,” Lowell said.
“There’s—” Alistair began but broke off.
“Aye?” Hawk demanded firmly.
“The bottom of the loch,” Alistair finished reluctantly.
“Oh god!” Shawna cried. “You mustn’t suggest such a thing!”
“Alas,” Lowell said, shaking his head sadly, “the loch has welcomed many a murdered man—and surely a woman or two—throughout the centuries. ’Tis said the Douglases—and the MacGinnises, mind y’—have rid themselves of an erring wife that way now and then.”
“Father, I think it might be far kinder simply to say good night and depart for the evening, rather than remind us of all of the bodies that are now little but bones in the water. Well, at any rate, I am for home,” Aidan said. “I am quite exhausted.”
“Aye, that we all are,” Lowell said. He finished the scone he was eating and swallowed down the whiskey-laced tea he had taken. “’Tis nearly the Night of the Moon Maiden. Like as not, we will have found Sabrina by then,” he said reassuringly to Hawk.
“Good night,” Aidan said. “Father?”
Lowell sniffed his dissatisfaction and irritation once again, then left the great hall with Aidan’s hand set supportingly upon his shoulder.
“What worries me,” Alaric said, “is the mines. Those tunnels are endless. You know how we missed the wee Anderson lad, Shawna? He was swept into the water beneath. Perhaps Sabrina was afraid of something or someone. With all the talk going around that David Douglas has risen from his ashen grave, she might have become afraid of something or someone. If she ran into the mines, hoping to hide, she could venture into a shaft where no one would ever find her. Even if she went by way of the tunnels by the cliffs off the loch—”
“Unless the tide is just right, y’have to swim into those tunnels, brother,” Alistair said, interrupting him. “I cannot imagine Sabrina running out of the castle to go swimming her way into a tunnel.”
“I suppose not. Still, the mine worries me. I think we should continue to search there tomorrow.”
“Aye, that sounds like a fair idea,” Hawk said.
Alistair, seated at the table, laid his head down upon his arms there. “We have searched so very hard.”
“Yet one could search forever here,” Alaric said.
“One could search forever, indeed, and never find what one is seeking,” Shawna said, looking at Hawk.
“I don’t believe that,” Hawk said firmly, returning her stare. “We have to look very carefully at all the facts and leave no stone unturned in all the mysteries that surround the place. Then, the truth will be known—and what one searches for can indeed be found.”
Shawna suddenly found herself assailed with icy chills, sweeping in a fury along her spine. Hawk wasn’t referring just to the disappearance of his sister-in-law. He referred to her—and the house of MacGinnis.
“What scares me,” Alistair admitted, his mind still firmly upon Sabrina, “is that we can search forever now—and then, a decade hence, perhaps—oh god, I keep doing this, Hawk! But we could search forever now and find her bones a decade from now in some small place we missed in our search.”
“That won’t happen,” Alaric said.
“Pray God you’re right, but why not?” Shawna asked.
Alaric stared at her. “I do believe that she will appear—dead or alive—by the Night of the Moon Maiden.”