“What?” Hawk said.
Aidan shrugged. “I realize you’ve just arrived, after a very long absence. And you know that the people can easily be swayed. But the mines themselves seem to come alive at times with tapping—some of the men claim they hear singing. A lot of people believe that the witches are up to evil deeds.”
“Ah, ’tis the wind in the rock!” Lowell said impatiently.
“Then Sabrina was taken,” Alaric said.
“And found in the graveyard last night,” Gawain reminded them all.
“And that strange Brother Damian has been about,” Aidan commented. Smiling, he shivered. “He rather unnerved me.” He hesitated. “Perhaps he has something to do with it.”
“Brother, my arse! He’s probably one with the witches!” Lowell commented.
“Uncle Lowell!” Shawna protested.
Lowell snorted his impatience.
“Then,” Aidan continued, “there’s also the nasty matter of a rotted corpse placed on the Druid Stone.”
“Ah, surely that was some prank by the village lads,” Alistair murmured. “The sacrifice on the stone, and the like of it.”
“It was hardly a prank,” Hawk said. He cast a barely perceptible glance his brother’s way, and Shawna found herself irritated to see how easily they communicated. They were manipulating the conversation, throwing out information now to see what might fall back their way. “Hardly a prank. Unless the village lads find it humorous to dress up in dark cloaks and shoot at people.”
“Shoot at people!” Gawain exploded. “Nothing of this was said to me last night.”
“Nothing of anything has been said to me,” Lowell added, shaking his head sorrowfully.
“Would you mind explaining just what did happen when Sabrina was found?” Gawain demanded.
Hawk shrugged. “Shawna thought that we had searched everywhere—except for the vaults in the cemetery. The McCloud vault seemed an obvious place to Shawna to start, as she has said. But when we went to search for Sabrina, the place suddenly seemed alive with black-cloaked and cowled figures—firing at us.”
“But no one was hit?” Aidan ascertained gravely. He stared at Shawna. “No one was hit? No one was hurt?”
“No,” Shawna said.
“They were firing at my wife, Shawna, Sloan, and me. I hardly find that a prank.”
“Creatures in cloaks and cowls!” Lowell muttered. He eyed his brother sternly. “Witches!”
“How convenient that Mr. McGregor and Mr. Trelawny and that Brother Damian were so close,” Gawain said, ignoring his brother. He frowned then. “Laird Douglas—where were you?”
“Quite close behind them, actually,” David said. He was giving a lot of explanations, Shawna thought, but apparently, an explanation for Brother Damian was not forthcoming.
Alistair, of course, knew that David himself dressed up as Brother Damian.
Could it be true that he had kept secrets as completely as she?
“Well, we’ve sent for the constable again,” Gawain said, sounding tired. Then he smiled suddenly. “David, Laird Douglas! The fine thing about your being alive is that the responsibility for our troubles now lies with you!”
“Aye, that it does,” David agreed.
“We need to announce to the village that David is alive and returned and will rule over the festivities for the Night of the Moon Maiden,” Alaric said.
“I think that the villagers will know this morning that I have returned,” David said.
“How is that?” Gawain asked.
“I paid a visit to Fergus Anderson last night.”