No Other Woman (No Other Series) (24 page)

"I wasn't—"

"What?" he asked.

"I wasn't worried for myself."

He arched a brow to her. "I have handled myself well against the U.S. Cavalry, Rebs, Crows, and others. Would you have me run from a tapping in a mine shaft?"

Shawna nodded strenuously. He laughed softly, pulling her close for just a moment to set a brotherly kiss upon her forehead.

"We have to find out what's going on."

"It's probably David, preparing his morning tea," Shawna murmured dryly.

"Shush!" he warned her.

"Oh, aye. We don't know who might be listening!"

He proceeded forward again, amazingly silent though he wore boots. She crept quietly behind him with a deep sense of dread. She was afraid. Not just for herself. For them both.

Ahead of her, Hawk paused. Listened.

The tapping came again. More persistent. As if whoever was tapping had become annoyed because the noise wasn't causing them to react swiftly enough.

Hawk turned, lifting a hand to stop her.

Even as he did so, a curious gust of air suddenly burst into the tunnel.

And Shawna's lantern was extinguished.

Total darkness instantly fell upon the tunnel shaft.

For a moment, there was silence.

The tapping began again.

"Shawna!" Hawk said softly.

"I'm here."

"Don't move. Don't move, do you hear me?"

"I won't move. I can't move. I can't see anything at all. Hawk? Don't you move—"

"I have matches," Hawk said. "I've got to reach you to relight the lantern." A small burst of flame appeared against his cupped hands and he called out irritably, "I told you to stay still!"

"I am still!" Shawna said indignantly.

"I can see your shadow. Shawna, dammit, get back here!"

The match went out. Shawna heard footsteps, his, moving hard and boldly in the darkness toward the natural curve of the shaft.

But she hadn't moved a muscle. She was still grasping her extinguished lantern, her back now against the wall as she stared blindly around her.

"Hawk!" she cried, ascertaining with panic that they were not alone, that he was being lured forward by more than just the tapping noise.
Someone
was with them. Someone who had misled Hawk into thinking that
she
was the shadow moving forward.

"Hawk! stop—" she began.

Too late. She suddenly heard the sound of breaking, splintering wood beams, and she heard him cursing as he fell. Screaming, and moving blindly then herself, she started inching forward in the darkness.

"Hawk—"

"Shawna, stay still!" he thundered back to her. "Stay still, or you'll wind up down here."

"Where are you?"

"A few levels below. I can't see a thing down here. And naturally," he said, then paused in embarrassment, "I've dropped my matches."

"I'll get help."

"I can hear the water."

"Is there a way out?"

"Not that I can see. Well, if there was, I'm not so sure that even I could see it." He suddenly swore with a vengeance. "The water is rising in here. There didn't seem to be water when I first fell. Now it's over my ankles."

"Oh, God!" Shawna breathed. "It's the tide."

"The tide?" Hawk repeated. "From the loch? Oh, God yes, from the loch!"

Shawna knew that he'd forgotten the peculiar phenomena of Craig Loch. It was connected with the Irish Sea through several underground rivers, and they were close enough to the open water for the tides to cause great changes in water levels in the caves that rose at the edge of the loch.

"Oh, my God! I'll get help."

"You can't get help, you'll kill yourself trying to maneuver in the mine in the darkness."

"No, I won't! I can see better now..." she began, but her voice trailed away as she frowned and turned desperately to try to see around herself.

Then she screamed in wild panic as she suddenly felt hands roughly upon her, settling upon her shoulders, spinning her around.

She dropped the lantern, wildly trying to free herself, gasping and screaming again in protest, fighting to no avail. She suddenly felt herself being shaken hard, and the voice grating out to her finally penetrated through her panic.

"M'lady, cease and desist, now!"

It was David. David—whose voice was less than reassuring at that moment.

"Get the lantern!" he ordered.

She was shaking, and found it nearly impossible to locate the lantern she had dropped. She heard him striking a match against the stone of the tunnel wall, saw it blaze. She had managed to get the lantern; he managed to light it. She was vaguely aware of green fire in his eyes as they briefly met hers, then he was moving past her.

"Hawk!"

"Here!"

Following him, Shawna saw where the cave flooring had given way to a break, and where that break had been covered over by a thin plank of wood—one that had cracked easily beneath Hawk's weight.

David didn't follow his brother into the breech; he flattened himself to the ground before it, waving the lantern over the gaping hole until he saw his brother.

The water was now up to Hawk's knees.

"What the hell are you doing down there?" David demanded.

"Wading?" Hawk suggested pleasantly.

"Indians are supposed to be able to see in the dark," David reminded hawk.

"I did see in the dark. I followed Shawn—" He broke off, apparently aware before Shawna realized herself just how angry David was. Why?

Because he had assumed that she had led Hawk here, that she had known about the break in the flooring within the cave?

She wanted to shout at David, to tear into him. But the water was rising, and Hawk remained trapped below.

David set the lantern by the hole, pushing himself quickly to his feet. He spun around suddenly, grasping Shawna's wrists. "Get rope; there's sure to be some in the front tunnels. Get back here as fast as you can or I shall take you apart piece by piece myself, I swear it."

She wrenched free from him with an energy born of pure fury, somehow maintaining complete dignity as she did so. "I'll get rope, because I'd do anything in my power to save Hawk."

She squared her shoulders, plucking up the lantern and hurrying down the tunnel as fast as she could go. As she hurried along she heard David say, "I'll have her yet, I swear it! She'd best get back—"

"I can swim," Hawk reminded his brother. "If the currents don't sweep me from the opening."

He probably could rescue himself, Shawna thought, hurrying down the mine shaft. He was strong, and resourceful, and now, David was with him. Whether she did or didn't find rope, Hawk would escape. But she remembered passing a heavy coil of rope when they had entered the outer tunnel, and as she ran through the shafts, she could picture it exactly in her mind's eye.

She paused at a fork in the tunnel. The main entrance to the mine was just to her left, yet she had to pause to catch her breath. She leaned a hand against the stone wall of the tunnel, inhaling deeply. Skylar was at the entrance to the main shaft and Shawna wondered if she should tell her quickly what was happening.

But as she paused, she heard a tap.

Tap.

Then, in a deep, low, unearthly tone...

Her name.

"Shawna..."

A whisper she might have imagined. She started to spin around.

But she smelled something before she could turn. Before she could look.

Something cold and wet and clammy landed over her face before she could see anything.

A sickly, sweet smell seemed to overpower everything else and she felt herself falling, and falling, and falling...

And once again, the darkness was absolute.

* * *

A knife flashed in lantern light in the tunnel. But before it could touch Shawna's flesh, the hand that wielded it was drawn back.

"Fool! What are you doing?"

"She is to die—"

"Not here, not now! Take her."

Arms reached out for Shawna, but the tunnel shaft was suddenly flooded with light from the entrance to the main shaft. "Hawk, Shawna! Hawk, Shawna!"

"Someone is coming! Hurry!"

"Leave her!"

"We must have—"

"We'll find another opportunity. Come on, we
cannot
be caught! We've got the other lass, but
he
wanted M'lady MacGinnis very especially. We'll take her when the opportunity is better! We must not be found here!"

The two figures hurried down the shaft of the tunnel.

Just outside the main entrance, Skylar anxiously played her lantern around in circles.

She prayed that her husband and Shawna would quickly emerge.

* * *

"What in God's name can be taking her so long?" David demanded irritably. He had come to know the mine shafts very well. He was very familiar with the tunnels that led from the caves by the loch, bordering the cliffs where the miners dug; he'd been in them often enough, and still, with the lantern gone, the darkness was almost overpowering.

And he could hear the water as the tide filled the tunnels. Hear it rising.

As if reading his mind in the darkness, Hawk spoke from the void at his side.

"She didn't lead me here. I was the one determined to get into the shafts before day broke."

David leaned against the wall of the cave. "You said you saw her moving."

"I thought I saw her moving."

"If we both die, this property all reverts to the MacGinnises."

"But you're alive, and Shawna knows it."

"Aye, but since no one else is aware that I do live, my death a second time around would not be much of a bother."

"She's innocent; I swear it."

"Knowing full well that she duped me the night that I did 'die'?"

"Ah, well, now, there's the crux of the matter, eh? Lady MacGinnis duped you—so perhaps forgiveness is difficult? David, do you really believe that Shawna intended to lure me to injury or death now?" Hawk queried his brother.

"Sweet Jesu! I don't want to believe such a thing. My God, every time I see her..." He paused, inhaling harshly. "She was involved, Hawk. She was involved in what happened. And until I know exactly who else was involved and how, I have to keep up a certain guard against her."

"She is a part of you, David. You can't deny it."

"Aye, she is a part of me," he said softly, but then added with angry passion, "Yet, I will deny it if I discover that she is lying to me now in any way, or keeping any secret from me whatsoever regarding her kin." David frowned and leaned over the hole, ready to argue with his brother. But in the darkness, he could see shadows, and the shadow of the water rising was not pleasant.

"I'm going to reach down for you," David told Hawk.

"Wait 'til it rises a bit more," Hawk said quietly. "I'll have a better chance of reaching you."

"In a few minutes, the current may be too strong."

"All right. One minute then."

"One minute..."

David twisted around, bracing his legs around the rocky edge of the gap, then falling forward with his length, reaching out his arms like an acrobat. He could barely make out his brother's form, but he trusted that Hawk could see shadow the same as he did himself. He could hear the water now, for the strength of the tide was causing it to rush by in bubbles and whispers. He heard movement as Hawk jumped within the water, using it to make himself as light and buoyant as possible, then jumping with all his strength and energy.

At his first attempt, their fingers met and slipped. He heard Hawk swearing as the force of the water carried him northward, and out of reach.

"Hawk!"

"Coming back, coming back..."

"Hawk!"

"Ready."

Again, David heard the sloshing movement, saw the shadow of his brother beneath him. Again, Hawk leapt.

Their hands met, grasped. Their palms were slick from the water. He swore. Grasped harder.

Their grip became firmer. With all his strength, he lifted. Gritting his teeth, he inched back against the stone, levering his brother's body upward. As soon as humanly possible, Hawk released his grasp on David, caught hold of the stone ledge, and propelled himself upward and out of the void. He landed beside David. For a moment, they lay together, panting, breathing.

"Son of a bitch!" Hawk muttered, then said in the darkness, "Brother, you are one competent white man."

David smiled to himself with vast relief. "Thank you. You're quite an acceptable American heathen yourself."

"Which part is worse, the American or the heathen?"

"I shouldn't have had you come here," David said.

"Because of this?" Hawk queried.

"Someone is determined to rid the world—or Craig Rock, at the very least—of Douglases."

"Umm," Hawk mused. "I should have stayed home in the middle of the Sioux conflict."

"You'll go back to it anyway, and you know it."

"Maybe it will all work itself out while I'm here abroad."

"Aye, and maybe the Scots will awaken one day and love all things English." He sat up suddenly, realizing that Shawna had not come back.

"Lady MacGinnis left us."

Hawk leapt to his feet, reaching for his brother's hand. "Something has happened to her," he said worriedly.

"Aye, the greed of her kin," David said, but he was up as well. He was glad of the darkness then, hiding the worry that surely played upon his features. She had come here with Hawk and he had nearly been killed. She had gone for the rope to save him; she had never returned.

"No, David, I don't believe that—" Hawk began, then broke off with a shrug.

David was condemning her for what had happened here today. But it didn't matter. He was already hurrying along through the tunnel, moving swiftly and easily despite the darkness.

* * *

"Get up."

Shawna blinked, aware of the voice nearby, and overwhelmingly aware of feeling ill. She swallowed, praying that she wasn't going to vomit.

"Shawna, get up."

"I can't."

Her head was spinning. The more it spun, the more afraid she was that she was going to be sick.

"Shawna—"

Light flooded into her eyes. She blinked and cringed against it. Who had come, who was talking to her? Someone who intended to kill her?