Chapter Twelve

CHAPTER TWELVE

“The bad man’s come,” Carlton said, racing into Macrath’s laboratory.

He skidded to a stop in front of the long table where his father and two other men were working.

“The bad man’s come, Papa, and he’s taken Mama.”

“Don’t be foolish, Carlton. Of course your mother hasn’t been taken.”

“But she has,” the boy said.

“Where did this take place?”

“The grotto.” At his raised eyebrow, his son said, “It’s still inside Drumvagen, Papa. I didn’t leave the house, not until I came and got you.”

There was no way to reassure his son he hadn’t seen his mother being abducted. Nor did Carlton believe him when he said he’d left Virginia only minutes earlier. There was only one thing to do—-prove to his son Virginia was fine. He walked Carlton back to the house.

When they entered the kitchen and Carlton saw his mother, he flew at her, gripping her around the waist. She enfolded her arms around him, pressed a kiss to his hair and looked at Macrath in confusion.

“I saw him,” Carlton said, pulling back and looking up at Virginia. “I saw him in the grotto. The bad man took you.”

Virginia cupped her hand around Carlton’s cheek.

“What did you see, my love?”

Carlton looked from Virginia to Macrath and then back to Virginia again.

“What did you see, Carlton?” Macrath asked.

“A big man with black hair and a beard grabbed Mommy. She had something over her head and she was screaming, but he carried her down the beach.”

His eyes sought his father again. “I saw him, Papa. I didn’t make it up.”

“You thought it was me, Carlton?” his mother asked.

He nodded.

“Was the woman wearing a green dress?”

Carlton nodded again.

Virginia looked at Macrath. “He’s taken Ceana.”

“What do you mean, kidnapped?”

Bruce stood in Macrath’s library. He’d made his base of operations a room on the third floor. When a more truculent than usual Brianag had appeared at the door, he’d not bothered to question her why he’d been summoned to the library. The woman wouldn’t say anything, either because she despised Americans or had simply singled him out for her antipathy. From what he’d observed about Brianag, she didn’t like many -people.

He hadn’t expected Macrath to announce that Ceana had been kidnapped.

Virginia looked as if she were going to cry.

“Carlton says he saw who took her.”

She reached behind her and drew her son forward. Ever since Carlton’s last escapade, trying to clamber up the drain pipe to Drumvagen’s roof, the boy regarded him with trepidation. Perhaps Carlton realized his patience was wearing thin.

“What did you see?”

As Carlton related his story, Bruce pulled out a notebook from inside his jacket and began to scribble the details.

“Did you see a carriage or did he walk away from Drumvagen?”

Carlton shrugged. He leveled a look on the boy that had him staring down at the carpet.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I ran for Papa.”

He doubted if the man had simply walked away. “How long ago was this?”

“A quarter hour, no more than that,” Macrath said.

He nodded, pushing back his fear. Fear never worked to his advantage. He needed to be cold and calm in order to rescue Ceana.

“She wasn’t wearing black,” Virginia said. “She wanted to look pretty, so I loaned her one of my dresses.”

He concentrated on his notebook, trying to ignore her words. “What color was it?”

“Light green, with a bouquet of flowers embroidered on the fabric in places. Bouquets of pink and blue and yellow. It has a round collar and tight sleeves.”

Macrath gently touched his wife’s arm. “Bruce is not a fashion reporter, my love.”

She nodded. “Of course. Of course.”

Her smile was tremulous, more a gesture for Macrath than an expression of genuine humor.

Bruce tucked his notebook back in his jacket pocket and nodded at Macrath. “I’ll take the road to Edinburgh,” he said. “I think that’s the way he would have gone.”

“I’ll go toward the village.”

He shook his head. “No, I want you to stay here. This might be a feint, something to draw you away from Drumvagen. I want you here to protect Virginia and the children.”

“Then I’ll send some of my men,” Macrath said.

He had no objection to that and only nodded. He wished, now, he hadn’t sent his two best operatives to Edinburgh. The third man accompanying him to Scotland had been sent to the station to investigate a recent report.

An American matching Henderson’s description had been seen on an earlier Inverness train, disembarking at a station not far from Kinloch Village. Where he’d gone from there, Bruce didn’t know.

He tried to put himself into Henderson’s shoes. If he were intent on kidnapping Virginia again, he would be concentrating on an escape plan. As wealthy as Henderson had become, he could afford to hire a ship.

Before he left the library, he turned and gestured to Macrath, pulling him aside.

“Have your men interrogate the harbormaster. See if any new ships have recently berthed there.”

“What do you think will happen to Ceana once he realizes his mistake?”

“It might not be a mistake,” he cautioned the other man. “You think he took her deliberately?”

“It’s a thought,” Bruce said. “He might be willing to trade one woman for the other. Or it’s a way to draw you away from Drumvagen.”

“I should’ve gone after the bastard ten years ago,” Macrath said.

“You didn’t have any legal standing to do so. At least now, once he’s back in Scotland, you do.”

Macrath looked a little mollified by that. He nodded curtly and went back to stand beside his wife.

Bruce wanted to warn him that sometimes being protective was not enough. You could shelter your family, live a life serene and isolated from the rest of mankind, but bad things still happened. A crazy man appeared; war broke out.

Life changed just when you thought it was safe.

This time, however, he couldn’t fail. He couldn’t allow something to happen to Ceana. This time would be different.

Before he could reach the door, it flew open, so hard he was surprised the handle wasn’t embedded in the far wall.

Brianag stood there, arms folded, chin rigid and eyes blazing.

“They’re here, then. The Irish.”

He saw a hand reach out and push her gently away. The doorway was suddenly filled with men. To his surprise, two little redheaded girls wound their way through a forest of legs to stand there staring at them.

“I beg your pardon, sir, but is my mommy here?”

One of the three men gently pushed his way between the girls. Taller than the other two, he had brown hair with a hint of red, cut shorter. All of them shared similar features but his were sharper. His nose was longer and narrower, his chin more pointed. His attire was slightly different in that he wore a jacket while the other men were wearing only shirts and trousers and boots that looked as if they’d tromped through a marsh.

Whoever he was, he seemed to be the leader of the three.

“We’ve come for our sister, Macrath.”

Virginia was looking at the two little girls, one of whom appeared to be about Fiona’s age.

“Darina?”

The older girl nodded and curtsied prettily. “Aunt Virginia?”

The tears puddling in Virginia’s eyes finally spilled down her cheeks as she bent down, held out her arms and said, “Come here, the two of you.”

The little girls flew into their aunt’s embrace as Macrath moved to stand beside Bruce. To his surprise, Carlton came and stood behind the two of them.

“Is that how you come into my house, Dennis Mead?” Macrath asked.

“It is when our sister deserted her home and her children. She didn’t tell any of us where she was going. Nor did she answer our letters once she was gone.”

Macrath took a step forward. “She was a member of my family first, Dennis. Would you dispute that?”

“I wouldn’t. But I’d like to know why she came to Scotland and left her children behind.”

“She didn’t leave her children behind,” Virginia said. “She came to see her family. She trusted her children in your care.”

Dennis frowned at her but didn’t speak. Instead, he directed his attention to Bruce.

“This is Ardan,” he said, pointing to the man with the red beard to his left. He glanced toward the man to his right, clean shaven with the brightest orange--red hair Bruce had ever seen. “This is Breandan, and I’m Dennis, the fifth Duke of Lester. And who would you be?”

As an American, he wasn’t impressed by titles, especially if a man only had to be born to get one.

“Bruce Preston. The man who’s going to save her,” he said.

He pushed through the three men, shoving at Ardan, almost wanting the man to take a swing at him. He was a damn good brawler when he had to be, and right at the moment he felt like planting his fist in someone’s face.

The man let him pass, and he dismissed the three of them from his thoughts, intent on finding Ceana.