No Other Woman (No Other Series)

by Shannon Drake

  "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 we'll 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 wey 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?"

  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 Jesu, 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 agai
n," 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—"

  "Sh!" 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 Jesu! 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."

  Chapter 15

  By two in the morning, Shawna remained wide-awake, pacing her tower room.

  David had not made an appearance, but then, he hadn't planned on making an appearance. Hawk had told her so—he had simply failed to tell her what David would be doing.

  She felt helpless herself, worrying about Sabrina. She assumed that David, most probably with his brother's help, would continue the search for Sabrina throughout the night.

  She had to trust in them, and in God, she told herself.

  She tried sleeping, tried believing that there would be a method and a plan to whatever David was doing. She tried to tell herself that he wasn't staying away from her because of what had happened in the tunnels, because he had decided she was guilty of deceptions so great that he could not bear to be with her, even to protect her life in his pursuit of the truth regarding Craig Rock.

  Sleeping was out of the question.

  Pacing the room did nothing to still the restlessness within her.

  "David, where are you?" she said aloud to the empty room, but he was hidden somewhere in the walls, he did not respond, and an intuitive sense of emptiness led her to believe that he was definitely not within hearing distance.

  In the end, she slipped a white linen robe over her high-necked, smocked nightgown, slippers upon her feet, and exited her bedchamber. She came slowly down the first flight of steps, and held very still on the landing. She stood not far from the master's chambers, near the room where Sabrina Con
nor had slept. And down the hall were the rooms Gawain, Alaric, and Alistair had chosen within the keep. Not a sound, aside from the wind whistling through the turrets, could be heard. Myer, Mary Jane, and some of the other servants kept quarters on the floor above, near her more recent tower abode, yet not a soul seemed to be about at this hour. Naturally. It was the middle of the night. All doors were closed. What went on behind them, no one knew.

  Except, of course, perhaps David. Who roamed the walls at will.

  Shawna hurried silently down to the great hall. Brandy remained upon a tray on the large planked table, and she helped herself to a snifter. Gas lamps remained lit there, and something of a fire remained in the great hearth. She sipped brandy, staring at the flames. She looked around at the walls.

  "If you're here, come out and talk to me!" she demanded aloud.

  She heard footsteps behind her and spun around, her eyes wide.

  But David hadn't appeared.

  It was Alistair, a snifter of his own in his hands.

  "What are you doing here?" Shawna asked.

  "Drinking. And you, cousin?"

  "I've just come for the fire—and the brandy," she said.

  Alistair took one of the high-backed chairs before the fire, watching the flames jump and dance. "It's a curious place we live in, isn't it?"

  Shawna, watching him, shrugged. "Not so curious. It's home. We are what we are."

  "Highlanders!" Alistair lifted his snifter to her. "A breed apart. We think ourselves great chieftains still, when Scotland and England are joined, when technology rules the rest of the world, and we all seek to rule it!"

  She arched a brow to Alistair, convinced that he'd had his share of brandy already.

  "I like what we are, Alistair," she told him. "We are more a part of the world at large than you imagine, yet distinct with our tartans, our pipe tunes, and more."

  "We work like dogs in the mines," he said flatly.

  "We are entrusted with the livelihoods of many."

  He smiled, once again lifting his snifter very high. "The great lady magnanimous. Thank God that you are Lady MacGinnis."