The Presence Part 12

"Are you getting up, Toni?"

He was hovering over her, a hand extended. She accepted it, coming to her feet.

Gina came running out from the hallway, practically cras.h.i.+ng into Bruce. "You were incredible! Magnificent. My lord, just phenomenal!"

"Thank you." He inclined his head, accepting the compliment.

"We didn't even rehea.r.s.e anything," she continued with awe.

"Well, walking up the stairs and pretending to strangle someone is really not so hard," Bruce said with a shrug.

"But you came up with lines! Hey, my own heart was beating, and I know the story. Well, Toni's story...anyway, it was just amazing."

"Toni?" Bruce inquired politely. "Was everything all right with you?"

She didn't get to answer.

David, apparently having escaped tea and scone duty, came running up the stairs. Excitedly taking hold of Toni, he gave her a hug, then told Bruce, "Wow! You had me shaking in my boots down there. I almost ran up here to tell you that you couldn't really do it! What a fabulous laird you make!"

"He is a laird," Toni reminded him. Meeting Bruce's eyes, gray as slate, unfathomable, she added, "And I don't think the concept of strangling any of us is a big stretch." She offered him a rueful smile, thinking her words a joke. Yet, for a moment, as he stared back at her, she felt anger emitting from him.

"The concept of strangling anyone should not come easy to any man," he said. "Well, madam manager," he said, addressing Gina, "did last evening help?"

"Oh, certainly... Of course, we'd need to work this a long time to begin to recoup our investment, but you have saved us--really!" Gina told him. "I know that you're a busy man, and that we certainly can't count on you every night, but is there a possibility that..." She paused, unsure of her words, then plunged right in. "I'm rambling here. Actually, what I'm doing is begging. Bruce, would you consider giving us a little run? We had nothing booked tomorrow or Monday, but our people in Stirling and Edinburgh were taking reservations for the rest of the week."

Bruce was dead still. Then he sighed.

"I would love to accommodate you, really, I would."

"Then do!" Gina pleaded prettily.

Bruce shook his head. "There's a situation going on here," he said. "I really think it would be safer if you all weren't here."

"What situation?" Ryan asked, joining them.

"There's a serial killer in Scotland, or so they believe," Bruce said.

Gina shook her head. "Yes, I read in the paper that a couple of girls had disappeared, and that their bodies had been discovered later in the woods. But I'm not sure I understand what that has to do with us and our performances."

"I agree with Gina," Toni said, looking at Bruce. "This is very serious, of course, but it's not as if we're a hotel and it's our guests who are becoming victims."

Brace's slate eyes fixed on her.

"I think there's a bit of this story you're all missing," Bruce said.

"And what's that?" Gina asked.

"There's another girl missing right now," he said.

"But she wasn't from here, right?" Toni said. "I've seen the newspapers. He's attacking prost.i.tutes, right?"

Bruce sighed. "You aren't understanding my point. There's a serial murderer at work. He's been taking his time, and he's been careful enough that, once the victims have been found, the police have gotten almost nothing from clues left on the remains to help them capture the man. And yes, he's been attacking prost.i.tutes, but there's no guarantee this man won't change his choice of victim. Besides, even if you two young ladies are not in personal danger, don't you think it's rather in bad taste to stage this event when women have so recently been murdered?" he demanded.

"Were they strangled?" Ryan asked.

Bruce shook his head impatiently. "They don't know. The bodies were in such a severe state of decomposition when they were found that the medical examiners couldn't pin down the cause of death."

They stood awkwardly on the stairway. Voices began to rise from below.

"You and your friend could have been minstrels, you were adorable," a young woman was telling Kevin as he led the group back through the great hall to exit the main doors.

"Aw, shucks!" Kevin said. "Thanks!"

David turned to hurry down the stairs and help.

"We've got to go bid them all goodnight," Gina murmured. "Even if it is our last performance, we should play it out properly." She linked arms with Toni and they started down, followed by the others.

A tall, elderly fellow walked up to Toni. He spoke with an English accent, from somewhere far to the south. "Young lady, we were laughing away, enjoying it tremendously. But when you died! My poor heart just broke."

"Well, thank you."

A younger man stepped up. "Pete and me were about to race up the stairs and save you!" he told her, indicating his friend.

Pete, a blond fellow about the same age, grinned. "Yeah, but the concept of an encounter with the Bruce kind of quelled the idea," he said, causing a rise of laughter among the entire group now traipsing out.

"How could you, man?" the first fellow said, looking over Toni's head.

She was startled when Bruce set an arm around her. "Ah, well, the la.s.s was not doing as she ought, and I'm afraid that back then.. .well, that particular Bruce was known to be loyal to a fault, good to those who supported him, lethal to those who betrayed him."

"Is the story real?" Pete asked.

"Laird Bruce MacNiall was real," Bruce a.s.sured him. "As to the disposal of his wife, no one knows. She simply fell from the pages of history, so anything about her is just local lore. Poor Bruce did meet a sad end. Since his Annalise perished tonight, we didn't include the part about him castrated, hanged until half dead, disemboweled and beheaded."

"Ugh!" someone said from the crowd.

"Luckily, that was several hundred years ago," Bruce said.

"Luckily!" the older man said. "Honey, I couldn't strangle you, no matter what you did!"

"Thank you," Toni told him.

"I think poor Annalise was innocent. I mean, why cheat on a fellow like that?" a young woman said with awe, smiling at Bruce. A little too wistfully, Toni thought, surprised by her own annoyance. "So...does the great Laird MacNiall sweep up his wife and carry her off to the master's chambers?"

A quick no came to Toni's throat. But as she'd noted earlier, Bruce knew how to play to a crowd.

"Of course," he said simply. And turning, he swept Toni off her feet as effortlessly as if she were a rag doll and started for the stairs.

Gripping his shoulders, Toni quickly queried in a whisper, "What are you doing?" Her words were a little desperate.

His eyes were lighter, amused, as they met hers. "Trying to get them all out of here. Say goodnight, my love."

He turned at that, clearing his throat loudly. "A little privacy in the castle, please!"

His words were followed by laughter--and an exit.

On the landing, Bruce set Toni down perfunctorily and turned, immediately retracing his steps. Their guests were out the doors. Kevin remained in the hall.

"There's still food in the kitchen?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, certainly. And we can whip up anything you want, really quickly," Kevin a.s.sured him.

"Great, I'm starving. Get the group together when the buses are gone. We'll discuss the morning, and where we go from here."

Toni bit back her sense of extreme aggravation and followed him down the stairs to the kitchen. The "great laird" was apparently not in the mood for something as simple as scones, and quite capable of taking care of himself. He headed straight for the refrigerator, grabbing all kinds of sandwich makings, while the others jumped around to wash lettuce and slice tomatoes. The circ.u.mstances were very bad, Toni admitted, but she hated the fact that they were so obliged to Bruce MacNiall.

"So, Bruce, what do you think?" Gina asked anxiously.

"I think that you went through a lot of work, and that it looks like your papers--license, permits--are in order. And now the insurance has been dealt with...." He shrugged.

"If you have to leave again, I swear, we will be so good to this place!" Ryan said. "And you won't have to stable Shaunessy anywhere else. You know that I'd just about lie down and die for that horse."

"So?" Gina persisted.

Toni was surprised when Bruce stared at her. He seemed reflective and worried.

"We began a conversation on the stairs. Women have been killed." He directed his gaze upon Thayer. "You must have known about it."

Thayer made a choking sound. "Well, yes, but..." He lifted his hands. "Sadly, these things happen often enough. People don't stop living because of it. We've had much worse situations, every country has. I never saw it as something that really concerned our efforts here."

Bruce shook his head, looking downward for a minute.

Gina said, "Bruce, people in the village don't seem to be concerned.. .for their own safety, I mean."

"No, I guess they don't," he murmured.

Ryan cleared his throat. "Terrible things have happened in almost every major city, and naturally, they can happen in the countryside, as well. Please...we'd never let ourselves be victimized." He winced, realizing that they had been victimized. "Gina and Toni are too smart to set themselves up for a dangerous situation. We're always together."

"The women have disappeared from the big cities," Thayer reminded quietly.

Bruce looked hard at Thayer. "So they have."

"Please! We're adults, and we're less naive than before," Toni added. "We'll be careful. Please, give us a chance?"

They were all staring at the man. Again he shrugged. "Let me say a tentative yes, we can give it a go. For the next few weeks, at least. There are problems that will arise. Aye, there's the fact that your 'guests' are usually from far away, and I don't know how the local population is going to take to this. The story Toni invented is too d.a.m.ned close to truth. There are those who think that I have an ancestor out there, running around in the forest, possibly capable of doing ill will. There are the other, very real problems--the situation at present. But we'll see. First thing Monday, we will go to the courthouse. I'll prove my owners.h.i.+p, and we'll get Jonathan going on finding out just who is behind the scam that took you people in."

"We would gratefully appreciate it!" Gina said.

He shrugged. "I do admit, you've done a lot for the place."

"Thank you," Thayer said, looking at him curiously. "I don't mean to be rude, but.. .but when we got here, the place didn't look very.. .lived in," he murmured.

Bruce looked at Thayer. "You are from Glasgow, right?"

"Aye, that I am."

"As the crow flies, not so far," Bruce said.

"Not so far, yet Glasgow is a world unto itself. Edinburgh, too, as a matter of fact. It may be a wee country, Laird MacNiall, but we both know that it's still very regional."

Bruce nodded. "Regional, aye. I'm just surprised that you didn't know that there was a real Bruce MacNiall."

Thayer grinned ruefully. "Maybe I owe you an apology then. But, I'm sorry to admit, I've never been to more than half my country. I made it to the Orkney Islands last year for the first time, though I've never been to the Isle of Skye."

"I see," Bruce murmured.

"Hey, I've never been to California," Kevin said.

"And I've never been to--Utah," David offered.

"Who can cover a whole country?" Ryan asked cheerfully.

"Ah," Bruce murmured. "It's just that news regarding the killings certainly reached the major newspapers. Murder may be something that happens everywhere, but in Scotland, such crimes do bear note."

Thayer appeared a bit tense, as if he'd been accused of lying.

"I knew about the murders. Everyone has seen something about them in the paper," Thayer said, looking confused.

"But you didn't notice any specific references?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Thayer said.

"References to the area?" Toni asked.

Bruce ignored her. "Thayer?"

"I swear, if there was mention regarding this place in the newspapers or on the telly, I didn't see it," Thayer said. "I live and work in Glasgow, and as you must know, with our size and certain factors, we do have our own crime rate."

"I'm aware of the city. I've actually been there," Bruce said.

Toni was oddly uncomfortable, feeling, as Thayer apparently did, that he was somehow under attack. "In the old U.S. A., most farm boys have been to the big city. Doesn't mean all the city folk have made it out to the farm," she said lightly.

Bruce's eyes shot to hers. "I see. So we're yokels out here, are we, Toni?"

"It's small, that's all I'm saying," she told him with exasperation.

"Perhaps we should talk about this in the morning," Gina said softly. "Tempers seem to be rising a bit."

"My temper isn't rising," Toni said, staring at Bruce. "If s just that Thayer is my cousin, and I understand completely how he might not have heard of the great and almighty Bruce MacNiall."