Chapter 17 #2
“I—” Alistair began and paused, then arched a brow. “I hadn’t thought you so religious. In fact, don’t you people—” He hesitated again, smiling ruefully. “Sorry. Don’t the Sioux have a rather different religion?”
“Aye, gods and goddesses, the power of wind, the rain, the earth,” Hawk said, taking no offense.
Alistair thought it uncanny that in his height and build, and even in some of his movements and mannerisms, Hawk could so resemble his brother, while still having the look of his mother’s people about him as well.
He was dressed very much like the American today, in a light blue denim work shirt, darker breeches, and American-made boots.
Hawk grinned at Alistair. “I’m still quite convinced that there is one great power—and it’s all the same, no matter what we call our religious choices. ”
“So, you have come to the chapel to commune with this ‘great power?’ If so, I shall leave you in peace—”
“I’ve not come to commune with anything—I’m passing through.”
“To—?”
“The crypts.”
“The crypts?”
“I understand that you heard something coming from the chapel last night but found nothing.”
“Aye,” Alistair said. He shrugged. “You know how these ancient places creak and groan.”
“I know—and so do you. Far better than I, since you’ve been living here. If you heard something, I’m sure there was something to hear.”
“I found nothing—”
“But you didn’t look down in the crypts.”
Alistair shrugged.
“Well, I want to investigate there. Come with me. I’ll appreciate the company.”
Hawk Douglas started for the gateway, lighting a match to set flame to a lantern hanging from a hook on the wall. “Are you coming?” he queried politely. He turned, pushed open the iron gate, and started down the steps to the crypts.
Alistair felt a trickle of sweat slipping down his neck.
He followed Hawk Douglas.
Despite her exhaustion, Shawna hadn’t imagined that she’d be able to sleep that day, especially since dawn had nearly broken when they had reached the castle, and David had departed.
But it felt as if she had barely been in her room long enough to shed David’s tartan, wash enthusiastically with soap despite the small amount of water in her ewer and washbowl, and lie down to close her eyes before there came a tapping on her door.
She awoke in something of a panic, froze, then quickly called out, “Who is it?”
“Mary Jane.”
“One minute!”
She leaped out of bed, saw to it that David’s tartan was kicked firmly behind the dressing screen, and hurried to the door.
Mary Jane smiled, but she looked quite tired. “Good day, Shawna. Laird Hawk has sent me to see if you’d be so good as to join the family for a late breakfast, before everyone sets off to search for Miss Sabrina again.”
“Aye, certainly. I’ll be down.”
“Good. You look so tired.”
“You look exhausted.”
“Well now, we’ve all been up, worrying about poor Miss Connor, so it seems. Though, of course, perhaps the constable was right—we none of us quite know what will happen if the right man comes along, now, do we?”
Shawna glanced at Mary Jane, arching a brow. “Not Sabrina Connor,” she said.
“Ah, but why would Sabrina Connor be different from any other lass?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say that she knew Sabrina had been kidnapped, but as close as she and Mary Jane had been throughout the years, she remembered that David had chosen to hide the body of the man he had killed in the crypt. He didn’t want others knowing what they had discovered.
“Look at you, m’lady, begging your pardon!” Mary Jane said softly. “You were willing to risk much for the late young Master David Douglas. Aye, and for the MacGinnises as well. But look at all you endured—for want of a man.”
“Mary Jane!” Shawna said uncomfortably. “That was all quite long ago.”
“Well, shall I lay out your clothing for you?”
“No, no…I’ll be fine on my own,” Shawna said. She was determined to hide David’s tartan before anyone in the household could come upon it and ponder its presence in her room. “Please tell Laird Douglas I’ll be right down. What—what of Lady Douglas? How is she faring?”
“She is tired but well and quite determined. Thankfully, she is convinced that her sister is alive, and she is determined to find her.”
“Good,” Shawna said. David, she was certain, had seen his brother and sister-in-law and told them of the events last night in the crypts. “I shall be right along.”
When Mary Jane had gone, Shawna dressed quickly. She folded David’s tartan and hastily slid it into the one drawer in the tower room’s eighteenth-century wardrobe.
When she exited her room, Gawain was waiting there. “Uncle!” she said in surprise.
“I’ll escort y’down, lass,” he said.
He slipped his arm into hers, seeming both very worried and far older today than usual. “No clues, no hints of anything regarding Sabrina, nothing?” she asked him.
“None. And we’ve the celebration coming up so quickly now.
It means so much to so many. Everyone is worried about Sabrina, but Lady Douglas has just come here for the first time, and she and her sister are foreigners, and the people are restless because, although they care, they don’t want to be cheated out of their feast and a day’s rest. We must use most of our manpower to continue to search for Sabrina, but the castle staff must make preparations for the Night of the Moon Maiden. ”
They were the last to enter the great hall.
Hawk and Skylar Douglas were already seated, he at one end of the table with her beside him to the right.
Skylar looked drawn, but as Mary Jane had said, she looked very determined as well as composed.
Alistair and Aidan were seated to the side of Skylar, Lowell and Alaric were across from them.
The place at the other head of the table awaited Shawna, and Gawain seated her there while taking the empty chair next to Lowell at her side.
“Good morning, Shawna,” Hawk said, watching her with his sharp green eyes. She was convinced then that he had spoken with his brother. David would have gone to Hawk before leaving the castle to carry out his plans for the day. “Poor thing, she looks exhausted, don’t you think, Skylar?”
“Simply exhausted.” Skylar managed something of a smile. “Aye, quite exhausted.”
“We are an exhausted group!” Gawain said.
“It’ll be a harder day today, mark me,” Lowell said. “Eat up now, all of you.”
“Aye, it will be a busy day, searching for Sabrina while the preparations go forth,” Alaric said, glancing down at Laird Douglas. “It will be the first time you rule as laird at the Night of the Moon Maiden, Hawk. Will you and your lady come in costume?”
Shawna cleared her throat. “I don’t think that Skylar wants to be bothered with the Night of the Moon Maiden right now—” she murmured, but Skylar interrupted.
“Thank you, Shawna, but I like to have my mind occupied, and I don’t mind hearing more. Hawk will not let me go searching again until I’ve eaten, so please, I’d like to hear about the local customs.”
“Well, then,” Shawna said, “aye, people come costumed. We’ve trunks filled with old clothing in one of the tower rooms. Mary Jane can help you find something later if you wish. Hawk, what would you come as to rule over the night with your lady wife?”
“Do I rule?” Skylar queried. “I thought the Moon Maiden had to be a young village girl. A lass, a—”
“A virgin?” Alistair suggested. “Remember, they quit sacrificing a Moon Maiden centuries ago!” he said impatiently.
There was an uncomfortable silence at the table. Shawna felt Hawk staring at her, and she knew he was worried that someone might well intend for Sabrina to be a sacrifice. She spoke quickly.
“The laird and lady—when there exist both a laird and a lady—have special chairs placed on a dais from which they open and guide the festivities. The laird chooses his lady, of course, to rule with him, but then the people choose a lass for Moon Maiden, and the laird and lady give her a crown of flowers—and a horse from the Douglas stables.”
“A horse?” Skylar said.
“Aye, a fine horse, so that she can ride throughout the year and observe her domain,” Aidan said.
“I crowned Gena Anderson Moon Maiden last year,” Shawna said.
Gawain sniffed. “Ah, and thank God, for it seems she was no sacrifice. She walks around alive and well. She does, doesn’t she, Alistair,” he said, staring at his son.
Alistair arched a brow. “Indeed, Father. To the best of my knowledge.” He lifted his hands in a defensive gesture. “Father, Danny is not my child.”
Gawain grunted.
There was another moment of uncomfortable silence. Forks could be heard scraping against plates as everyone suddenly pretended to be greatly interested in the food.
But then Hawk set his napkin upon the table. “Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me, we’ve all got a busy day ahead of us. Shawna, may I have a word before we get started?”
He rose and awaited her. Shawna rose as well, following him as he headed toward the stairs. “What is it?”
“Come along with me,” he told her.
She was startled when he started up the second flight of stairs to her third-floor tower room.
“Hawk—”
He stopped in front of her door, opening it. “Go in now,” he said.
“You’ve summoned me—to go to my room?” she queried.
He smiled. “I heard you had an exceptionally eventful evening.”
Shawna felt a soft tide of red seeping over her features, and she wondered just what information brothers shared. Was he speaking of events before or after they’d swum to the cavern?
“Aye, that! In the crypts—”
“I’ve been there briefly, but I have to return to search the place more thoroughly.”
“I’ll help you—”
“No, Shawna, I’ve brought you here because I want you to lock yourself in for the time being. I can’t be with you right now.”
“But, Hawk, there’s so much—”
“Shawna, I’ll not leave you locked up in a tower all day, I swear it.
But I have promised my brother to keep you out of trouble, and he seems to think that you have a ready penchant for falling into it.
Please, bear with me for the moment. We need to know you’re safe, and you surely need some sleep. ”
“But I’m not—”
“You are tired. You look like hell!”
“Well, thank you, Laird Douglas.”
“I’m not Laird Douglas, and you know it well. Despite that, Lady MacGinnis, I am giving you an absolute directive—if you’ve any care for my brother or yourself, pay heed to me, I beg you. I’ll send someone in the late afternoon, after you’ve slept. All right?”
He wasn’t really giving her a choice.
“All right.”
She stepped into her room. He closed the door. “Slide the bolt, my lady.”
She did so. She heard him walking away.
She was never going to sleep. Never.
She was wrong. She lay upon her bed, but her clothing felt too constraining.
She changed back into her nightgown and lay down once again.
She stared at the ceiling, telling herself once again that this was torture, she was never going to sleep.
Her mind was filled. With David. With the things he had said. With the way that he had touched her.
With Sabrina, poor Sabrina. Where was she?
What was happening here?
She would never sleep…
But she had lain there for just a few minutes when she realized that she was drifting.
Then she was sleeping.
And dreaming…
This time, she was running, but there were sounds coming from all around her.
Bagpipes…playing a mournful tune upon the air.
Shouts, laughter…
She ran to the high hill, where the Druid Stones lay.
And there was Sabrina, stripped naked, stretched out upon the stone while a cowled creature stood over her, bearing a knife, ready to tear into the girl’s throat.
She started to scream. “Nay, not Sabrina!”
Then the creature saw her. She couldn’t see its face, so she didn’t know how she knew that it was staring at her, but she did. And she was aware that it was smiling with evil intent and beckoning to her.
“It should have been you, you, you, m’lady, it should have been you…but you defiled yourself so long ago! Still, your blood would so well feed the earth!”
Then the creature was suddenly coming after her. She could still hear the bagpipes, the shouts, cries, laughter. All across the hills, men and women were dancing, drinking, laughing…
None of them heard her scream. Then she was running. And running. She turned back. The cowled creature was nearly upon her.
She turned to run faster…
Another creature was coming…
And another, and another.
Cowled creatures, tall figures in their capped black cloaks, were emerging from everywhere.
Chanting her name.
They surrounded her. She cried out, trying to find a different way to run, but in each direction, there was a figure.
And each figure bore a knife. Indeed, as she spun around, she saw them all raised. Huge knives, with razor-honed blades glistening beneath the glow of the full moon.
“Shawna, Shawna, Shawna…”
She cried out, swirling around.
She stood directly beneath one of the cloaked figures. She could see the face.
The face of a burned corpse. The horrible, decaying face of the burned corpse she had awakened beside all those years ago.
“No!” she shrieked.
The cowled creature began to laugh.
In a circle around her, they all began to laugh.
And again, they began to move, closing in on her.
Chanting her name, raising their knives…
Seeking her blood…
“Shawna, Shawna…”