Sabrina shivered. By day, she had thought the cemetery magnificent. By night…
If a child had awakened in the night and lost his way here, he would quite naturally be terrified.
The sound came again. It seemed to be originating from just beyond a large, full-winged angel about a hundred feet from the castle wall.
“Hello! Let me help you!” Sabrina called out. She started to pick her way through the cemetery toward the angel, her robe and hair flowing behind her in the rising wind.
As she hurried across the dew-damp ground, she thought she heard footsteps following in her wake. The wind picked up, and the moon was suddenly covered by a dark cloud.
Sabrina spun around.
Too late.
She never screamed, for a foul-smelling cloth was clamped over her face far too quickly.
CHAPTER 13
“It’s the shaft to the northwest of here which is supposed to be haunted, is that right?” Hawk was posing the question, and though Shawna was aware that he was speaking, she didn’t immediately respond. A huge yawn prevented her from doing so…
“Shawna?” he repeated, frowning. “Shawna, this is the shaft which is supposed to be haunted, right?”
She couldn’t believe it, but she had actually been nearly asleep. Nearly asleep and standing. Deep in one of the tunnels of the coal mine.
But then, she hadn’t had much sleep in what was beginning to seem like a very long time, this morning less than usual. It was just barely dawn. She couldn’t have closed her eyes for more than a few moments after David had left before she had heard a pounding at her door—his brother, determined on touring the mines before the workers started for the day.
“Aye,” she said quickly, “this is where the trouble has been, where we’ve had the accidents, though I believe it is your brother who has done the ‘haunting.’”
“Perhaps. But this is where the cave-in took place?”
Shawna lifted the kerosene lamp she carried to shed more light around them. “You can see where they have worked to shore up the walls here.” She pointed out where carpentry had been done with solid columns of sturdy wood to prevent any more rocks from falling from above. “We’re not far from the loch now, of course, and many of the tunnels beneath are waterways. So far, we’ve had no problems with the tunnels getting flooded. You’ve already heard that we nearly lost a child in the cave-in, but luckily, your brother was nearby ‘haunting,’ and he rescued the boy.”
“The lad who works at the castle now?” Hawk queried.
Shawna shrugged.
“He’s the look of a MacGinnis about him,” Hawk commented.
Shawna felt a rush of warmth sweep through her. “So do many hereabouts. Just as we’ve a plentiful group of green-eyed, auburn-haired children among us.”
Hawk didn’t reply. He frowned suddenly, pressing a finger to his lips. “Perhaps we should cease to discuss matters pertinent to either the Douglases or the MacGinnises,” he murmured. Then they both heard a tapping. It seemed to be coming from the north, where the shaft made a natural, curving turn.
“Do you hear it?” He barely mouthed the words.
She nodded.
He started forward, and she quickly followed him. They had come here alone. Skylar was waiting at the entrance to the mines, ready to warn them when the workers began to arrive for the day, but within the mine itself, they should have been completely alone.
He paused after a few steps, listening again.
There came a tap, then another.
Hawk moved his booted feet over the ground, moving in a circle. He stopped. The sound came again.
He watched her, a curious smile curving into his features.
“We’re being lured!” Shawna murmured.
Hawk nodded.