Beneath THE BLEEDING SKY

Episode 3-chaos

CHAPTER TWO

Before Elizabeth could react, Davin had brushed her aside and swept Marietta up into his arms. For a bewildering moment, Elizabeth was convinced that he was going to flee from the room with the limp girl clutched to his breast. Such a dramatic fantasy seemed ridiculous when he spun on his heels and laid Marietta gently on a nearby sofa. He moved back as Mrs. Tompkin bent over Marietta.

His dark eyes were hooded as he turned to Elizabeth. The black eyebrow that touched his scar raised.

"What did she call me?"

"Hawksley."

His absorbing gaze held hers for a long moment. "Someone who frightens young women, I presume?"

"Local superstition has it that a murdered pirate, Captain Hawksley, and his men rise from their graves during a storm. Marietta saw the roots of a tree tear up the earth where the bodies of pirates are said to be buried and she swears she saw spirits escaping from the graves."

"So she believes that Captain Hawksley is wandering about looking for a young woman to carry back to the grave with him?"

"Exactly."

"And what do you think?"

"The dark tale gives Pirate Island a bit of local color, that's all. It's all nonsense, including the bit about that small knoll being a graveyard for dead pirates." Elizabeth gave a dismissing laugh. "I've spent some lovely moments sitting under those very trees. If there are any spirits there, they have only made me feel less lonely."

He reached out to touch a wisp of hair dangling on her forehead. "Aren't you afraid that the avaricious sea captain may choose you? He could be enchanted by the sea green flecks in your eyes. And the shimmer of your golden hair."

The poetic compliment took Elizabeth by surprise. She felt color sweeping up into her face even as she dismissed his remarks as out of line. This wasn't the time or the place for flirtatious foolishness.

His fingertip slipped down her cheek and cupped her chin. "There is danger, you know," he said solemnly as his eyes narrowed.

She pulled away from his touch. "Yes, I know. We have to make some decisions," she said in a brisk tone that she hoped hid the sudden warmth sluicing through her. "What's the situation in the rest of the building?"

All softness in his eyes disappeared. His expression hardened and his voice was laced with anger. "Bad. The outside walls are crumbling under the pressure of the winds. No one should have been left in this building!" Fury blazed in his eyes. "Especially the children."

"I told you. Arrangements had been made for another vehicle but it didn't show.

"All the children should have been evacuated first! The annexes are taking a beating. This wing is especially vulnerable."

"I...I didn't know," stammered Elizabeth. "It seemed the best place for the children to wait." Two wings of the bracket-shaped clinic bordered a center courtyard, the children's ward on one side and adult patients on the other. All of the other facilities were located in the main section.

"The center of the building would provide more protection. There's a room off the hall-"

At that moment a blast like a charging locomotive accompanied the sound of shattering glass and splintering timbers. It sounded as if that end of the clinic was being swept away.

Elizabeth stifled a scream. Davin headed for the door. She ran after him. "Where are you going?"

"To see what's left."

Her irrational impulse was to bolt from the room and run out of the building as fast as she could. She was convinced that the roof and walls were about to fall in. They would all be buried. The panic must have shown in her eyes for he quickly put his hands on her shoulders. "Easy...easy."

The contact was like a live current, snapping every sensory cell in her body. The wild clamor of the hurricane faded and a silence descended upon her. "I want to stay with you," she heard herself saying.

His startling blue eyes lost their shine. "It's not possible," he said.

"You can't leave me!"

A flash of pain crossed his face, his eyes dark and tormented. "I came for the children. I mustn't fail them again."

What was he talking about? His haunted expression frightened her. What horrible demons made his voice so tortured? She wanted to retreat from the darkness that seemed to engulf him. Why was she drawn by an indefinable psychic force and yet repelled by it?

His hands moved down her arms, holding her steady as he looked down into her face. "I'll come back for you."

She moistened her dry lips. "And if you don't?"

A muscle in his bronze cheek flickered. "I won't leave you until you're safe."

Her bewildered gaze searched his face, unspoken questions in her eyes.

"I came because you needed me," he said simply.

"But how did you know? We've never seen each other before today."

His mouth softened in a rueful smile. "That's only half true." A blast of air came in the room as he slipped into the hall and slammed the door behind him.

Elizabeth took a deep breath. The three children were still sitting passively where the nurse had left them and Marietta was beginning to stir on the sofa.

"She's coming round," Mrs. Tompkin said, not bothering to hide her irritation. "Just what we need in this situation. Someone blabbing about dead pirates and evil spirits."

Marietta's eyelids began to lift. A frightened cry broke from her throat. She cowered back against the cushions. "I saw him." She pointed to the door. "Standing there."

"You saw Davin Delmar," Elizabeth told her firmly, "He's no sea captain's ghost but someone who is going to help us cope with this emergency."

"It was Hawksley!" Marietta insisted with a hyster-ical sob.

"Stop this nonsense!" snapped Mrs. Tompkin.

"Marietta, I need help with these children. We've got to be ready when transportation gets here." Her eyes met Elizabeth's. "We are going to evacuate, aren't we?"

"I don't know," Elizabeth confessed. "I've called every emergency number several times. Asked for help from all available services. I was told that requests for help have exceeded the State Emergency Preparedness Office's resources. Their representative said he'd try but he made no promises."

"If we're not going to evacuate we'll have to make sure we've got water, food and medicine within reach," Mrs. Tompkin said practically. "I've been in storms before and if the building stays dry, we'll be all right."

As if to mock her words, a gush of water came under the crack in the door and formed a growing puddle on the brown carpet.

Mrs. Tompkin's ruddy complexion turned a sickly color. "If the building floods we'll have no place to go. A tidal wave could wash the whole thing away-and us with it!"

Elizabeth's stomach made a sickening plunge. They could hear the wind shrieking like a monster as it battered the building. The full force of the storm was hours away and the clinic had already begun to collapse. Was there any room in the building that would stay dry?

The older woman's eyes fixed on Elizabeth as if to say You're in charge. What do we do now?

Elizabeth returned her steady stare, trying to look calm and firmly in control while an inner voice shrieked, I don't know what to do. She walked quickly across the room to the nurses' desk and tried the phone. No tone. The telephone was out. How long would the electricity stay on? The radio was already reporting blackouts in some areas. A decision borne of desperation made her announce in a general's crisp tone. "We'll have to transport ourselves."

"What?" gasped Mrs. Tompkin.

"If no vehicle is coming for us, we'll have to provide our own," she told her. Her small coupé could take three people squeezed in the front. "What kind of a car do you drive, Mrs. Tompkin? How many people could you take?"

The nurse shook her head. "I don't drive to work. I ride with one of the waitresses who works at the Sea-haven Hotel. She called me an hour after I got here this morning and told me she was heading back home as fast as possible. She wanted me to leave. I told her that I had to stay with the children."

Marietta said that she lived on the island and walked to work.

Six people plus Davin. He must have a car. Where was he? Why was he chasing off when the building was crumbling around them? They had to leave now! The Clinic wasn't going to survive the brunt of the storm. They had to get off the island to the mainland.

Marietta was obviously relieved to hear they were leaving but the nurse shook her head. "We'd better stay put. You're new to this part of the country, Miss Preston. You don't have storms like this up north."

"No, thank God," breathed Elizabeth.

"A snow storm is nothing like a tropical hurricane," Mrs. Tompkin told her needlessly.

Elizabeth nodded. "I never expected to experience something like this when I left the clinic in Chicago and took this job. I pictured serene summer days and warm tropical nights."

"And romance?" Mrs. Tompkin eyed her with a knowing look. "Lots of young gals come south in search of true love."

"I came because my mother died and I didn't want to go on living in our house all alone," replied Elizabeth with a sudden sadness in her eyes. "I thought new places, new people and a new job would give me a new lease on life."

"And has it?"

"No. I'm afraid I brought my loneliness with me. But I'm glad I made the move. The children help me feel needed."

"You're good with them," Mrs. Tompkin admitted. "Maybe you should have trained to be something else instead of a bookkeeper."

"I didn't have much choice. The fact was that I had to start earning money as quickly as I could out of high school. My mother was working two jobs to support me and my little brother. A business course took only a year. There were expenses-" She broke off. No use going in to all that now. She had no one left in Chicago so she'd come to Charleston, and rented a small apartment on the north side. If the old building withstood the hurricane she'd be surprised, Elizabeth thought as she listened to the havoc being wreaked upon every section of the city. She had little in the way of material possessions to lose if her tiny two rooms were part of the destruction. Anyway, she couldn't worry about that now. "There has to be a way to take care of ourselves," she told the nurse with a stubborn jut of her chin.

"Listen," Mrs. Tompkin ordered as she bent her gray head toward the radio.

"Surging tidal waves have swept ashore on all the islands," the announcer reported. "Boats have been torn loose from docks and moorings. Dwellings along the beach have been leveled by flooding waters and roads have been washed away. All bridges connecting the islands to the mainland are down," he continued.

All bridges down. Cold sweat beaded on Elizabeth's forehead. No help was coming. No chance of leaving.

The island was isolated.