“Shawna, you were supposed to be in your room or with Skylar in the kitchen,” Hawk said.
“I had to see you,” Shawna explained. “I’ve an idea. About Sabrina.”
“What is that?” Hawk queried.
“We’ve—” She hesitated, glancing at her cousin again. “We’ve got to look through the cemetery. The Douglas crypts are down here, but the cemetery has many vaults belonging to the individual families. Burial has been very important here in the last hundred years or so. Even the poor families vie to have the most beautiful vaults built. There’s a McCloud vault above us, which is exactly where we must start, since it seems that Edwina McCloud and her Wicca practitioners are being blamed for events.”
“Shawna—” Hawk began, frowning.
“Hawk, what better place to hide someone than a vault?”
“Dead or alive,” Alistair murmured.
“All right. Let’s go,” Hawk said. He started back for the corridor, then turned to Shawna. “Keys?”
“There’s a set in the chapel,” she said.
“Let’s get them,” Hawk said.
As they reached the chapel, Skylar was just coming into it, leading Danny Anderson. The boy was clean, well fed, his ink-dark hair groomed. His wide blue eyes were grave, however, and made him look far older than his few tender years.
“Hawk, I must speak with you,” Skylar said.
“Daniel,” Shawna said, stooping down to the child’s level. “You look very well indeed. Tell me, how is the castle? Are you glad to be here? Is everyone being very good to you?”
He nodded gravely. “I like it very much here. Anne-Marie makes good things to eat.”
Shawna laughed. “She does, doesn’t she?” She picked up the boy, smiling as she rose. But the others weren’t smiling at all.
Skylar was concerned as she talked to her husband.
“There was a very strange old man here who calls himself Brother Damian. He suddenly became overwrought with worry about Daniel. He told me I wasn’t to leave the boy for a minute, and then he dashed out of the castle. Hawk, I must admit that my encounter with that unnerving man really frightened me.”
“Brother Damian said to watch the boy?” Hawk asked, frowning.
“Brother Damian was there, in the tavern, just before Sabrina disappeared,” Shawna said worriedly. “I don’t think that the man is what he pretends to be at all. He’s always about when there’s some trouble. We’ve forgotten Sabrina! Please, let’s hurry and look into the McCloud vault.”
“But what about Danny?” Skylar asked.
“Daniel, you don’t mind coming on a bit of a hunt with us, do you?” Shawna asked.
“Shawna,” Alistair said, “we’re going to a mausoleum, and not just that, but how do we know what we’re going to find?”
“You’re right. The boy shouldn’t come,” Shawna said.
“I have to look for my sister!” Skylar whispered, pained.
Hawk took Daniel from Shawna’s arms. “I’ll tell Anne-Marie that she must forget her scones for the evening and take the boy up to her room and lock herself in. Don’t start without me,” he told the others, “But be ready when I get back.”
Hawk took Danny from the chapel, and though he returned quickly, each minute he was gone seemed like an hour.
Alistair slipped a ring of slightly rusting keys from a peg near the altar when he saw Hawk returning. “These should do it,” he said.
“Let’s go then.”
“Wait!” Shawna said.
Hawk, Skylar, and Alistair waited, staring at her expectantly.