“Sarah! Sarah!”
Sarah could here a voice calling her from what seemed a long way away.
“Sarah! Sarah!”
The voice got louder and louder.  Sarah opened her eyes and looked around her. Memories started flooding back to her as she sat in the seat of a car. She recognized the maroon leather upholstery in the evening light.  It was Hugh St. Owen’s Morris Minor, and he was sitting opposite her in the driver’s seat. She had a throbbing headache and her body ached all over.
Sarah frowned inwardly. This was getting really ridiculous. Every time she lost consciousness she was waking up in yet another place, battered and bruised.  First the Stranger, then her father, then the Stranger again…
Hugh St. Owen turned to her. They were still parked near the old Abbey ruins.
“Sarah, are you all right?”
Sarah turned towards him awkwardly.
“What do you think, Hugh? Do I look all right?” She looked out at the pounding Irish Sea and the late setting April sun.  “Was it you in the cavern who tried to…who tried to….” Sarah couldn’t say it. Her beautiful green eyes filled with tears.
Hugh St. Owen leaned forward and grasped the young woman’s hand.
“No, no Sarah.  It wasn’t me.” His soft, brown stare burned into Sarah’s eyes as he looked at her with an almost incendiary concern.  “Whatever happened to you, it wasn’t me.  I’ve only just returned from Scotland. You can ask my father. His business demanded that I join him. I had only just returned to Perris-on-Sea just an hour ago.  The phone rang and some man – he wouldn’t reveal himself to me – told me to pick you up at the Abbey. He said you needed help.  I didn’t know whether it was a joke call or not, but I didn’t want to take the chance.”  The handsome man paused for a moment.  He looked away at the sunset and then looked back at the young woman. “I saw you there alone, staggering among the ruins. I walked towards you and just caught you as you fainted right in front of me. You looked so afraid of me, Sarah. So afraid.” The young man’s voice trembled with shock and worry as he relived those last few minutes.
He sighed a jerky, confused sort of sigh, it seemed to Sarah, and continued.
“I was going to take you home, but I didn’t know if that was what you wanted.  You really look as if you should go to the hospital for a check up.”
Sarah looked at him.  She reached up and flipped down the passenger vanity mirror with the automatic light.  She did not recognize the woman that looked back at her in the mirror. She looked very ill.
“Are you warm enough?” the young man asked. “I have a car blanket if you — ”
“No, no Hugh, I’m all right.” Sarah realized that her tone was harsh and cutting. She turned her aching body towards him. He was so handsome…so manly.  She forced a weak smile. “A car blanket won’t be necessary.”
There was a long silence, only broken by the relentless sound of the pounding waves below.
Sarah pushed the vanity mirror away and sat back in the car seat. She decided to tell Hugh St. Owen everything that had happened to her.  The sexy young man’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as Sarah retold how her vicious stepmother had threatened both the lives of Hugh St. Owen and her own, her father’s attempted rape in Vivien’s strange bedroom quarters, her father’s denial of any untoward behavior on his part, the attempted rape by the Stranger in the cavern and Hugh’s grandfather saving her and calling for his grandson.
“It had to be him Hugh, even though your father says he is dead.”
Hugh St. Owen shook his head.
“It just couldn’t be him, Sarah.”
“But it was, Hugh. I am certain of it,” said Sarah, “Besides, he introduced himself to me that way.”
“And that man, that …Stranger…that’s what you call him?” said Hugh St. Owen, “What is going on there?”
Sarah sighed deeply.
“I don’t know, Hugh. But I am sure that there is some connection between him and you. You both look so alike…”
The young man turned his head sharply and stared straight ahead.
“You may be right, Sarah,” he said in a slow, thoughtful tone. “I do know that there is some mystery surrounding my birth. I wonder if…”
Hugh St. Owen turned around to face the young woman again. Sarah had fallen into a deep sleep.
“We better get you to a hospital quick,” he muttered to himself.
Hugh put the car into gear and headed away from the Abbey directly to the little nursing home that served as the main hospital in Perris-on-Sea during the 1950s.  After a hasty admittance ? it wasn’t too difficult, as the staff immediately recognized the daughter of the well-respected local doctor ? Sarah was taken to a private room where she was allowed the peace and quiet necessary for someone suffering from complete exhaustion. Hugh St. Owen then left the nursing home. He was determined to visit the next day and check on the health of his dearest concern.
 

*****************************************************
 

The bright late-April sunlight streamed into the small hospital room.  Sarah stretched luxuriously as she opened her eyes to greet the morning. She sat up in the hospital bed and looked around. It was definitely a beautiful day. One of those rare jewels that occasionally graced the North Welsh coast.  Sarah felt refreshed and relaxed. Her father had thankfully stayed out of the way during her stay at the nursing home, allowing her full rest and recovery.  The woman’s beautiful green eyes flashed once again with the precious health and vitality that only the young can possess.
Just at that moment there was a knock at the door.  A young nurse appeared.
“Oh, Miss,” she exclaimed, “You’re up and about at last. We have been quite worried about you the last few days.”
Sarah’s jaw dropped as she looked at the young woman.
“Last few days?” Sarah had assumed she had been there just overnight. “Just how long have I been sleeping?” she asked.
“Why, Miss, you have been here nearly three days,” replied the nurse.
Sarah’s beautiful eyes grew wide with surprise.  But the young woman did not get a chance to ponder this news any further.
“Miss, you have a visitor waiting outside. Do you feel well enough to receive a visitor?”
Hugh! It must be Hugh St. Owen, Sarah thought.
“Yes, yes,” she said, “I feel fine.”
The young nurse nodded her head and left the room.
Sarah sat bolt upright. Her eyes danced with anticipation to see the man who made her heart beat so wildly.
In less than a minute the door opened again. The visitor entered preceded by a black-gloved hand extending a lighted cigarette issuing the most acrid smelling smoke. Shrouded in a black veil and a ridiculously tall looking hat, Vivien swept into the room.  Sarah recoiled with anger, disgust and disappointment. She loathed the smell of cigarettes, and to her, French cigarettes were the worst. Her stepmother looked even more like a witch than usual. Sarah had a mental flash of Gloria Swanson in the famous 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard.” However, this lady was far from ready for a close up, Mr. DeMille, thought Sarah with grim amusement.
Suddenly the gay sunlight seemed to be instantly sucked from the room, leaving a harsh, gray pallor in the atmosphere.
Vivien paused dramatically in the center of the small room.
“Well,” she said at last, “Snow White has finally awoken from her slumber.”
Sarah looked angrily at the older woman.
“And you look every inch ready to play the part of the wicked stepmother, Vivien,” she said. “Put that cigarette out right now. You know that hospital rules don’t allow smoking in private rooms.”
Her stepmother looked down at her stepdaughter and ignored the admonishment. Vivien lifted the long cigarette holder to her mouth and defiantly blew another cloud of smoke into the room.
“This isn’t just a personal visit, my dear,” she drawled in what seemed a most exasperatingly affected way.  Sarah clenched her teeth. She prepared herself for the punch line.
“What do you want Vivien?”
Vivien advanced towards the bed, but remained standing.
“You little fool,” she began, “Did you really think your rescuers could protect you from the power of the Abbey Guardians?”  The woman blew yet another cloud of smoke into the room. Sarah’s eyes began to tear. Her stepmother continued.
“What you have experienced is just a taste of what will follow if you do not leave things well alone.”
Sarah looked up at her stepmother through the haze of smoke. She stifled the urge to cough.
“Is that a threat, Vivien?” Her eyes narrowed with dislike and irritation.
“What do you think, Sarah?” Vivien raised a black-gloved hand and threw back the veil, uncovering her face.  Sarah started. Her stepmother looked even worse than usual. Lipstick was smeared all over her mouth and even extended down her chin.  What a mess! It was Vivien who needed a hospital bed, not herself, Sarah thought. The woman looked absolutely deranged and repugnant to her.
“I think you’d better leave,” said Sarah.
The older woman abruptly reached down and grasped Sarah’s wrist in an almost bone-crushing grip. Sarah winced at the force and surprising strength of this woman.
“Listen to me, my girl,” said Vivien. Her eyes blazed with ill-concealed fury and malevolence.  “You are on a fool’s errand. Stay out of it, do you hear? Stay away from the Abbey. Otherwise, you will receive the same fate that lies in store for Hugh St. Owen.”
Sarah jerked her arm at this news, and attempted to pull her wrist out of her stepmother’s wild grip.
“Let go, Vivien, you’re hurting me!” Sarah struggled and finally managed to disengage herself from Vivien’s manic grasp.
“What have you done with Hugh?” said Sarah. Her voice registered her anxiety and alarm. Vivien retreated from the bedside to the center of the room again, enveloped in clouds of cigarette smoke.
“I have done nothing with Hugh St. Owen, my girl,” she said, “But he is to receive full retribution by the Knights of the Abbey.”
Sarah glared at her stepmother.
“How do you know all this?” she said, “How do I know you aren’t lying? And why should you care?”
The older woman stood perfectly still. Her voice was now little more than a snarl.
“Because, my dear stepdaughter, your friend has been missing for almost three days, and my interest in this turn of events is none of your business. I just came here to ?” Vivien paused, ostensibly looking for a suitable verb, “To acquaint you with the situation.”
Sarah sat there absolutely stunned. Hugh was missing? She couldn’t believe her ears.
“If Hugh is really missing, and if this is the truth, Vivien, I will report you to the police,” said Sarah, “Kidnapping is a serious charge.”
Her stepmother forced a grotesque smile onto her lipstick-smeared face and posed her cigarette lighter at a dramatic angle for full effect.
“And what proof do you have, my dear?”
Sarah looked hard at her stepmother. It was true. She had no proof.
The scene having been carried out to its full extent, Vivien threw the veil back over her face with a flourish and headed for the door. She turned the knob and paused.
“Just remember what I said, Sarah. One false move and you will never see Hugh St. Owen ever again.”
And with that warning, Vivien left the room. She slammed the hospital door loudly behind her.
For a moment, Sarah just sat in bed deep in thought.  Almost immediately, she sprang out of bed and rushed to the window. She threw back the sash and opened the shutter. At once the warm, fresh sea air and sunshine poured back into the room, driving the foul-smelling cigarette fumes and gray atmosphere away. Sarah breathed deeply of the invigorating salt sea air. She then turned back towards the hospital bed.
How could she tell if what her stepmother had told her was true?  Sarah’s eyes darted over to a bedside chair. There was a copy of the Perris-on-Sea Gazette newspaper lying on the seat. Sarah rushed over and picked it up. It was dated yesterday. There it was in screaming headlines on the front page:
“Prominent Real Estate Agent Missing For Two Days In Mysterious Circumstances!”
So Vivien had told her the truth.  What “mysterious circumstances” could account for Hugh’s disappearance? Sarah thought back over the last few days. She shivered as she remembered the terrible ordeal she had experienced in the cave under the old Abbey. There was only one thing to do. Calling the police would be useless. No doubt Hugh’s father had already notified them. There was only one place that Hugh could be taken to in the vicinity where he could never be found. Sarah was sure of that. Even though it would be a horrible torture for her to do so, she was certain that Hugh was there, under the Abbey. A prisoner in that damp, forbidding cave.
Sarah threw off her hospital gown and started to put on her clothes. At least her father had had the forethought to provide her with a fresh set of street clothes sent directly to the hospital from the Llewellyn household.  Her purse and money were intact also.  Sarah rushed to the mirror and hastily brushed her long, curly red hair as well as she could into some semblance of neatness. Even with no makeup she looked good. Three days of rest had revived the natural vitality and beauty of her face. There was no time to waste. She must discharge herself from the hospital immediately. She would get a taxi to the Abbey. Sarah walked to the hospital room door, opened it and marched back out into a world that held both untold danger and adventure for herself and the missing Hugh St. Owen.
 

Would Sarah succeed in her mission to rescue the sexy Hugh St. Owen? What was Sarah’s evil stepmother Vivien Llewellyn’s stake in this dangerous turn of events? What power did she hold over Sarah’s father? What terrible tortures did the mysterious rapist Stranger have in store for the young man who was his doppelganger? Why were the Guardians of the Abbey so angry with Sarah and Hugh, and what terrible secret were they trying to protect? ? See the next exciting installment in Chapter 12 of Sarah Llewellyn and the Druid’s Curse!

Read Chapter 12: The Naked Truth
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