No Other Woman (No Other Series) (37 page)

She was the one who had the right to be angry! She had been deceived.

But she smiled graciously at James McGregor, aware that he was the Dr. James McGregor who had helped David survive his captivity. She smiled equally graciously to Sloan Trelawny. "Indeed, it's a pleasure to meet you both. As Hawk has said, your timing is quite impeccable. I assure you, we're most grateful to have you among us."

"The pleasure is mine, Lady MacGinnis," Sloan Trelawny said, bowing his head to her, nodding in acknowledgment to Alistair. He was a very handsome man, white and Indian features combining to create an exceptionally arresting face, his collar-length hair dead straight and almost blue-black, his features especially well shaped and defined. Though it was obvious that he was quite tense and concerned about the situation, his quick smile was charming. His eyes, however, had a sharpness about them, and Shawna was certain that as an enemy, he would be quick and deadly.

"Aye, it's a pleasure to be here, except that we didna catch a one of them black-clad creatures. By God alive, what does go on here?" McGregor demanded, staring at David, then at Shawna.

David's eyes burned into her then as well.

Everyone, she realized, stared at her.

"What does go on? The mystery grows greater by the day," David said. "We've more than one enemy. There seem to be a number of people in those strange black cloaks seeking to commit murder. It's a very strange place, wouldn't you say—Lady MacGinnis?"

"It has become strange lately," she agreed. "In fact..." she began, then broke off, frowning, staring from Alistair to David.

"Alistair, you're not at all surprised to see that David Douglas is alive behind the deceptive brown wool of a friar's garb."

"We met in the mines," Alistair said.

"Oh? Recently?" Shawna inquired, staring at David.

He had chosen not to tell her much at all. Although he'd demanded her complete silence, he'd given nothing in return.

"Aye, recently," David said coldly.

Alistair stepped closer to Shawna and said in a reproachful whisper, "You kept a secret from the closest of your kin."

She ignored him. David was still staring at her coldly.

"Apparently, someone did not want you coming here," David said.

"You came to look for Sabrina. Have you found any trace of her?" Sloan asked, his dark eyes on Shawna.

Shawna gasped. In the midst of the gunfire and her shock regarding David's deception, she had forgotten all about Sabrina.

She spun around swiftly and hurried back into the McCloud vault. Sabrina.

Time could mean so much.

In many ways, the vault was a smaller version of the crypts within the castle, filled with shrouded bones and more modern coffins, and even drawers that were closed over with marble and mortar. Small openings lined the very top of the vault for ventilation for the living who visited the dead. Those openings allowed for just a trickle of fresh air and moonlight.

As she tore into the second room, barely lit by the moonlight, Shawna paused at first, aware only of the death that filled the room. Fear cast a clammy hand upon her. Dust lay heavy on the floor. Spiderwebs met and melded to keep the gray shadows of the vault as eerie as they might be.

Shawna swallowed hard and hurried through a maze of coffins upon the floor. She finally reached the far end of the vault's second room.

She stood dead still and let out a cry.

She had found Sabrina.

Chapter 20

Bound hand and foot and gagged, Sabrina had been left lying on one of the burial shelves. Shawna's cry alerted the others. David was the first to reach her, slipping the gag, and carrying Sabrina quickly out of the mausoleum and into the moonlight. With his burden in his arms, he knelt down just before the steps, the others gathering around him.

"Is she alive?" Sloan demanded hoarsely.

"My poor sister!" Skylar cried, cheeks damp with tears of hope. "Does she live? Is she injured?"

"Does she breathe?" Shawna whispered.

"Aye, she breathes, she lives, I can feel her heartbeat," David said. Sloan slipped a knife from a sheath at his calf to slice through the ropes that bound her hands and feet Though she breathed, Sabrina's eyes remained closed.

"Sabrina? Sabrina, it's Skylar!" her sister said softly. "You're going to be all right now. We have you; no one is going to hurt you."

Sabrina's lashes fluttered. Her eyes, which looked unfocused, finally settled upon Shawna and opened wide with incredulity. "Shawna, you all have found me. Oh, thank God! I've been tied up in that wretched vault forever. I tried kicking the walls, shifting along the floor, screaming through that horrible gag... no one heard me! I'm so mad, I could scratch the eyes out of those terrible people. Oh, Shawna, now you will be in so much danger! They will come for you, they will come for you."

"Sabrina, who will come for me?" Shawna demanded.

Sabrina saw David then in his Brother Damian attire. She started to recoil from him, alarmed at the sight of the man who held her. "My God—"

"Sabrina, it's me, David."

"David!" she repeated, dazed. She seemed to lose her train of thought then. "They will come..."

"Sabrina, how did you get here? Who did this to you?" David demanded.

"I could really use some water!" she said. And her lashes fluttered and fell.

"Oh, my God!" Skylar breathed, but Sloan was holding Sabrina's wrist, feeling her pulse. His eyes were focused very intently upon Sabrina, but he spoke reassuringly to Skylar, whom he seemed to regard with affection.

"She's all right, Skylar," he said. "As she said, she just needs some water and some food. You know your sister; she's going to be tearing mad and ready to fight as soon as she's moved her muscles a bit. She's going to be fine."

Shawna's gaze fell from Sloan as she became acutely aware of David staring at her again, for as she knelt by his side as he held Sabrina, she was but inches from his face. She met his eyes again, and nearly recoiled at the searing emotion within them. She rose quickly to her feet, shaking both from Sabrina's strange graveyard warning and the look David had cast upon her.

David was rising. "We need to get her back to the castle. Hawk, I think it will be best if one of you bring her on a horse, as I intend to remain Brother Damian a while longer."

"Alistair," Shawna asked, "can you go to the village, and bring Edwina?"

"We don't need Edwina," David said. "James—"

"Please! I want Edwina to see her," Shawna insisted. In his present mood, she was afraid he would refuse her.

"Fine, Alistair, if you will go for Edwina. Edwina," he explained for the benefit of the newcomers, hesitating only a minute, "is a healer. She'll have something to make Sabrina feel better right away."

"Aye, I can go for her right away," Alistair said.

Hawk was already mounted and reaching down to David. "I'll take Sabrina."

David gently handed Sabrina to him. "Skylar, come up behind me. She'll need you." Skylar did as directed.

James McGregor mounted his horse to follow behind Hawk. They rode quickly out of the cemetery toward the front entrance of the castle.

"I'll get going too, then," Alistair said.

"Take my horse," Sloan told Alistair.

Alistair nodded his agreement and mounted Sloan's horse. Sloan approached Alistair once he was mounted and said, "Perhaps you should take my gun as well."

"Perhaps I should," Alistair agreed, sliding the revolver offered to him into the saddle holster. "Thanks," Alistair said, nodding briefly, and nudging his horse into flight.

Sloan stared at the castle, then looked at David. "Naturally, David, I've quite a clear idea of what occurred in the past, since James McGregor had the whole of an ocean voyage to tell me about your days as convicts together. He worships the ground you walk on, by the by. Says you saved his life when a sadistic guard was about to beat him to death."

David shrugged. "Few men could watch such an injustice without becoming involved," he said.

"By God, David, it's indeed good to see you alive, but what is going on here? How did Sabrina end up in such trouble?"

"Perhaps M'lady MacGinnis could best answer that question."

Shawna stared at David, wondering what could have caused his furious mood toward her. She looked at Sloan. "Sabrina seems to have got caught up in whatever evil scheme is being carried out here. People dressed in hooded black cloaks are trying to kill other people, and that is all that I know. Perhaps David is much more aware of what is happening than I am. Especially since he himself is so very good at deceiving people."

"Perhaps we'd best hurry back to the castle," David said, "and learn what we can from Sabrina. Shawna, keep ahead of us, so we can watch your back."

Shawna stepped ahead of the men, walking quickly. Fog still misted near the ground, but the moon rode very high and clear as they made their way from the cemetery, stepping around old and new stones, tall ones, broken ones, and all manner of funerary art. The brick entry loomed before them, and just around the corner from it, the chapel entry into the castle, closed and gated unless the chapel was in use. The main gates remained far around the curve of the stone edifice.

"How is it that you've managed to come here?" David asked Sloan as they walked just slightly behind Shawna. "I understand that the situation in the Dakota Territory is far more grave than ever."

"Yes, it is that, and it grows worse, more and more of the whites determining that 'the only good Indian is a dead one.' And many of the commanders who favored crushing tactics during the war are making decisions in the West."

"Sherman?"

"Alive and well and ruthless as ever."

"But you remain in the cavalry?"

"I've taken a leave. I served through the war, and I've kept my commission since, and I've done what I can no matter what hotheaded politicians around me do, or decree as policy. But now I believe I fight a losing battle. I have until January to return."

"Again, I say it's good to see you. I'm grateful, Sloan, that you have come. I think our numbers might matter greatly in this strange battle we're fighting here."

"A blood brother is a brother among the Sioux," Sloan said. "And if I recall, you were with us often enough against the Crow—and before that, during the war."

David nodded, moving closer to Shawna and brusquely slipping his arm around her waist. "We should move more quickly; we've no cover beyond the tombstones in the cemetery, and these cloaked figures seem to rise from sheer earth." His pace was brisk as he urged them along.

"Who are they? What are they, David?" Sloan asked.

"The villagers suggest the mysterious happenings here are caused by the witches of Craig Rock," David said quietly.

"The villagers are wrong; Edwina would never have hurt Sabrina in any way," Shawna insisted. "I would trust Edwina with my life far more quickly than I would trust your tavern drunks!" She met David's eyes in the moonlight. They remained so sharp, cold, and distant! His hold upon her felt like a grip of steel fingers. What had happened? She felt lost, and betrayed. He had said that he'd loved her.

But he'd never really trusted her.

And now...

Something had happened that had made him angry with her all over again.
What?

They reached the main entry to the castle and entered the great hall. Hawk awaited them near the door. "I've taken Sabrina to her room. Skylar is with her."

"Good," David said quietly. "Let's join them there."

Sabrina lay on the bed, her muddied gown replaced by a soft, angelic-looking nightdress. Her face had been bathed, her hair brushed. Skylar sat by Sabrina's side, and Sabrina was sipping warm soup from an oversize cup.

Shawna came around to the other side of the bed.

"Sabrina, how are you?" Shawna asked her.

"Incredibly angry—with those awful people and myself! I let them get me. I'm quite fine, Skylar needn't be fussing over me the way she is—I do have one hell of a headache. My bones ache. I'm in pain and—" she broke off, seeing Sloan where he stood next to Hawk and David. All the color that had come back into her face deserted her.

"Sloan!" she gasped.

"Yes, it's me," Sloan said.

Sabrina struggled for composure. "Major Trelawny, how in God's name are you here?"

"Ocean voyage," Sloan said briefly. "Which doesn't matter at all now. Sabrina, you need to tell us what happened."

She didn't seem to hear him. She kept staring at him, remaining very pale.

"Sabrina?" Skylar said worriedly.

Sabrina forced her gaze from Sloan and looked at her sister. "They attacked me." She looked back to Sloan nervously. "I don't understand! How can you be here?"

After he explained, he added softly, "Sabrina, we need to know what happened to you."

She still stared at him, as if he were a ghost.

"Sabrina!" Shawna said. "Please, we need your help. People in those cloaks have attacked us several times now. They were shooting at us in the cemetery when we were searching for you. We need to see that 'they' don't come back for anyone. Who are 'they,' Sabrina?"