A Bewitching Bride (35 page)

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Authors: Elizabeth Thornton

BOOK: A Bewitching Bride
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“What happened, Calley?” he asked weakly. “Where is Kate? Where am I?”
Calley answered the last question first. “You’re in one of the tinkers’ wagons. Alfie and his friends chased the soldiers off with hammers and axes. If you look outside, you’ll see their torches flickering in the darkness. They seem very attached to you.”
“Not to me. To the land. They make their camp here every summer.”
“Because you give them permission. At any rate, the militia took one look at them and took to their heels.”
“They’ll be back,” said Gavin, his voice gaining strength, “and with marksmen who shoot to kill.”
“That’s why we hid you in the tinkers’ caravan. It’s you they want. You look like a tinker, you smell like a tinker. Your own mother wouldn’t know you.”
He was getting a bad feeling about Calley’s evasive-ness. “Where is Kate?” he demanded abruptly.
“How much do you remember?”
This was driving him crazy. He pushed out of the restraining hands and sat up. “Stop fussing! I asked you a simple question. Answer it!”
Calley heaved a sigh. “We think she’s in the cellar.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it?” A heartbeat of silence went by. “Calley?”
“We don’t know,” said Calley somberly. “She may be stunned from the explosion.”
An explosion?
Gavin remembered it vaguely. He had trouble breathing. He wanted to smash something, but he felt as weak as a kitten. He could hardly hold up his head.
“Why is Kate still in the cellar?” he asked.
“Because a ton of masonry is blocking the entrance. It must have come down in the blast.”
The blast
. More fragments of memory were coming back to him. “Tell me about the blast,” he said. “What caused it?”
Calley shook his head. “The last thing I remember was a small ball, rolling across the kitchen floor. You had just shouted, ‘Take cover!’ and that’s what we did. When we came to, there was no sign of Kate and no sign of whoever tried to kill us.”
“A ball?” Gavin said. “A ball caused the explosion?”
“It wasn’t a ball,” Calley went on savagely. “It was a homemade grenade, concocted by an amateur. That’s what saved us. By rights, we should all be dead.”
“Amateur?” Gavin tried to get his mind around the blast, but he kept going in circles. “A homemade grenade?”
“In olden days, it was called a petard. Very unsophisticated, just a ball of gunpowder with a fuse.”
“I know what a petard is!” One thing Gavin was sure of. “We weren’t the target. It was meant for Kate.”
When Calley was silent, Gavin scowled up at him. “Kate is not dead, so you can take that look off your face. If she were, I would feel it in my gut.”
“How can you tell how I look? It’s dark in here.”
“I can feel it.”
He crawled from under the tarpaulin, climbed out, and held on to the side of the wagon to steady himself. Calley threw a blanket over his shoulders to protect him from the rain. A tinker came running up and thrust a torch into his hand.
“To light the way,” he said. “Don’t you worry none, Mr. Hepburn. We’ll soon have her out of there. And we’ll get that bastard who did this, too. Your enemy is our enemy. He made a big mistake when he picked on you.”
Gavin was only half listening. He was scouring the shadows. Fingers of light were beginning to filter through the foliage. “It will soon be dawn,” he said.
No light would filter into the escape route. That shouldn’t matter to Kate. She had cat’s eyes, and she had her revolver. She knew how to take care of herself.
He hung on to that thought as they set out for the house at a loping gait. When the incline became steeper, he observed that Calley was in no better shape than he was. They were both panting as though they were at their last gasp.
He subdued his aches and pains by concentrating on his grandmother’s prophecy. Lady Valeria’s voice came to him as a frail whisper.
“Look to Macbeth. Fail Macbeth, and you will regret it to your dying day
.
”
Had he failed her?
As he neared the house, he was blind and deaf to the tinkers who were on guard duty. He was intent only on Lady Valeria and all the wisdom she had tried to impart to her grandsons over the years. They were seers of Grampian. They had great powers if they chose to use them. They had the power to change the future if only they believed.
I believe.
He let the words revolve in his mind.
I believe.
He expected to be enfolded in a warm cocoon of peace. Instead, he felt driven. He was sent to save Kate, and that’s what he would do, whatever the cost.
As his mind began to clear, he became convinced that the bastard who had tried to kill Kate was closer than they thought, and that he would continue to try until he succeeded.
I’m coming, Kate. Don’t give up. Fight him tooth and nail. If you have to, fight him tooth and nail
.
No quarter asked, for none will be given.
After entering the house, he pushed into the kitchen and stopped dead at the chaos that met his eyes. Half the ceiling lay in chunks on the floor, kitchen furniture was blackened by fire, and broken glass crunched underfoot. Calley or Dalziel had had the foresight to use the broken shutters to block out the light so that outsiders could not pin down their exact position.
Dalziel was on his knees, directing two swarthy tinkers who were using their hammers to dislodge the masonry. He looked up at Gavin’s entrance. “We think we heard something coming from the cellar.”
“You
think
?” Gavin’s voice grated with sarcasm.
Dalziel’s chin lifted, and he squared his shoulders. “What I can tell you is that we’ve made a small opening that Macduff might manage to squeeze through.”
Gavin passed a hand over his eyes. “Forgive me,” he said. “I’m not myself. I know that you’re doing your best for Kate. So, where is Macduff? And where is Danny?”
Calley answered, “They’re together. Danny was first on the scene after the blast. He made sure that we were all right, then went to rally the tinkers who had begun to disperse. We think that Macduff went with him. They’re safe, Gavin.”
Gavin didn’t have the time to reflect on his dog or his stableboy. Wee Alfie’s huge frame filled the doorway. He was out of breath. “I’m sorry it took so long,” he said, “but I have the information you wanted, Mr. Dalziel, sir.”
“That was quick!”
“We ran in relays, same as we do at the games.”
By way of explanation, Dalziel said, “I took the liberty of penning a note to Mrs. Cardno. Most of the guests from Aberdeen are staying with her. She would know if anyone slipped away during the night. I thought it was worth a try.”
“Good thinking!” Gavin exclaimed, accepting the note Dalziel held out to him. His smile faded when he noticed something among the broken glass, something that didn’t belong—Kate’s pocket revolver.
Damn and double damn! Couldn’t the woman do anything right? If she’d been standing in front of him, he would have given her a good shaking. He picked up her revolver and slipped it into his pocket.
Kate! Fight him! Fight him tooth and nail. Never give in
.
Gavin tore the envelope in his haste to read the note. It was signed by Mrs. Cardno and gave only two words, a man’s name.
“Gordon Massey!”
he said through clenched teeth. “I thought it would be Cedric Hayes. He, at least, was a military man.”
“So was John Liddel,” Dalziel pointed out. “I don’t think it can be Cedric. He was on the train with us and is, was, settled with Mrs. Cardno when I left. I didn’t see Gordon Massey.”
Gavin slammed his fist against the wall. “If I’d had access to a telephone . . .” He shook his head. “I used her as bait to entrap a murderer. What colossal conceit on my part!” Pacing, he went on savagely, “Where is he now? How did he escape?”
“Who?” asked Dalziel.
“The man who pitched his grenade at us.”
Everyone exchanged glances, but no one said anything. Even the tinkers had stopped their hammering.
“Well? Someone must have seen something.”
Calley’s tone was gentle. “You were there, too, Gavin. What did you see?”
All the misplaced anger burned away, leaving Gavin drained and sick at heart. “You’re right, Calley. All I remember is a flash of brilliant light and a ton of bricks falling on me.”
He tried to soften his voice, but everyone heard the strain behind his words. “Can we at least try to go through those final moments?”
Each person told as much as he remembered, which wasn’t much.
“I was hallucinating,” said Dalziel. “I actually thought that Macduff was playing a cat-and-mouse game with the ball—petard—grenade—thing.” He gave an embarrassed laugh that no one shared.
“We were all dazed after the blast,” Calley said gravely.
“Yes, but . . .”
“But what, Dalziel?” Gavin’s urgency was plain to hear.
Dalziel was beginning to look as though he regretted mentioning Macduff. “It was only a hallucination,” he finished lamely.
“No!” said Gavin. “If Macduff scooped up that grenade, he could be injured or dead. He wouldn’t get far. He’ll be somewhere close to the house. Calley?” he ended, his voice thick with emotion.
“Wait!” said Gavin. “Have you tried to get to Kate through the escape route?”
“What escape route?” Dalziel asked, looking from Calley to Gavin.
Calley used the back of his sleeve to wipe blood that seeped from his nose. “No,” he said. “I think the blast must have addled my brain.”
“No,” said Gavin. “No one could have done as much as you, Calley. We’re all still reeling from the force of that blast. Besides, you were not sent to save her. I was. Just find Macduff and Danny. The rest is in my hands now.”
On that cryptic note, he turned and left them.
As he stumbled through the door, Calley called out, “Arm yourself, man! You’ll need all the help you can get if you come face-to-face with one of those sharpshooters.”
Gavin didn’t hear him. He knew that his brain was still fuzzy, but he also knew that he was on the right track. He didn’t care about details. His knowledge went deeper than that. The killer and Kate were in the escape route together. If it were not for Macduff, they would all be dead.
Kate!
he commanded with all the urgency he could muster.
Fight him tooth and nail! No quarter asked, for none will be given
.
His feet had never moved faster as he half ran, half slithered down the steep incline to the great stone cairn that stood out starkly against the rising dawn.
Twenty-five
It was the stillness that brought her out of her swoon. Her eyes opened to a complete and profound darkness. As she lay there, stunned, the darkness became less impenetrable. She could see shapes and shadows within shadows, but little else. She was curled up in a ball and had somehow found a sort of shelter beneath the cellar stairs.
She had no idea how long she had been there. She knew that she was in the cellar, and that the blast had brought down a ton of masonry, but there was nothing to indicate whether it was morning or night, no windows to guide her.
As her brain cleared and logical thought began to return, she moved each arm and leg. There were no broken bones, but she could taste blood in her mouth and knew that she would be covered in bruises and abrasions in the next little while.
The dust was settling, and she lifted her head to inhale fresh air. She inhaled the cold air and the musty smell that she expected. What she did not expect was a scent that she hated with a passion, something slimy and malevolent and uniquely his.
She was not alone.
He
was here with her, her cousin Avery. She didn’t know what name he was using and wouldn’t recognize him after so many years, but she remembered his smell.
Then why hadn’t she recognized it before now?
She
had
recognized it, but vaguely. It had become her constant companion in the last little while, the prod that sent her intuitive sense of danger to new heights. It didn’t make her want to run. It paralyzed her with fear.
As her thoughts shifted, a shaft of pure terror formed a lump in her breast. Where was Gavin? Calley? Dalziel? She remembered the blast that had sent her reeling down the stairs. She couldn’t believe that the others had died in the blast. She had survived. And Gavin was a wizard, a seer of Grampian. He had been sent to save her. Isn’t that what he kept telling her? Then where was his voice? Gavin—
She gave a start when she heard a noise from upstairs. It took her a moment to grasp that what she was hearing was the pounding of someone trying to break through to her.
What if they were too late?

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