Page 36 of Return to Clan Sinclair
“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?”
