by Rebecca King
But I have hurt her. I have made her cry.
It was enough to make him quite melancholy as he left the silence of the hallway to go downstairs and join his colleagues.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“What in the Hell is wrong with you?” Callum demanded when Oliver entered the room and began to poke fiercely at the fire with sharp, violent motions.
“Woman troubles,” Harry replied dryly.
Callum nodded sagely but threw a worried look at Oliver. “Are you sure?” he asked of Harry without taking his eyes off a very troubled Oliver.
“Well, either he has woman trouble or Miss Emmeline Elkins, our new guest, has something in the back of her throat that he felt he had to search for. At least, I think that was why he was mauling her. Sorry, giving her self-defense lessons,” Harry teased, despite the dark look Oliver threw him.
“Maybe he was showing her how to thwart off unwanted lechery?” Rhys snorted with a grin.
“Must have been a very interesting lesson seeing as she needed some very serious restoration,” Harry coughed.
“Shut up,” Oliver growled although his lips twitched. He shook his head in warning but, unsurprisingly, neither of his colleagues paid him any attention. They merely exchanged a teasing grin and continued their assault.
“I didn’t realise the Star Elite were giving our guests lessons in love now,” Rhys sighed.
“Looks like I will have to brush off my damned wedding outfit again then,” Callum grumbled.
“No. You do not,” Oliver snapped. “I am not marrying the chit.”
“Just dallying with her then?” Harry’s brows shot up in surprise.
All jocularity vanished in that instant because the last thing any of them ever did was dabble with the local ladies and risk ruining anybody’s reputation.
“No.” Oliver refused to explain himself. He couldn’t because he had no idea what the Hell had just happened himself yet and wouldn’t until he had some time to think about it. He almost wished it was nightfall so he could go for another walk alone, but the stark memories of what had happened to him the last time he had ventured out all alone at night teased him with the dangers associated with such a risky adventure, and he knew it wouldn’t bring him the answers he needed. In fact, given what had happened last time, taking another midnight walk would probably bring him yet more problems. “That’s the last thing I need.”
“Then you shouldn’t dabble with her, should you?” Rhys warned.
Oliver looked at him, and only then realised he had just spoken his words allowed. “I wasn’t dabbling with her.”
“What would you call it?” Harry challenged.
“Look, just what in the Hell does my love life have to do with any of you?”
“Is it your love life? God, you have really fallen fast if it is,” Rhys snorted. “If this isn’t your love life then keep your hands off her. She is here to be protected. All you were supposed to do was show her some defensive moves.”
The men grinned suddenly. A few guffawed.
“Oh, he showed her a few moves, all right,” Ronan teased.
Harry threw an apple at him, but it was caught by Daniel who was standing beside him. “You aren’t helping,” Harry warned.
Daniel smirked at Ronan who rolled his eyes at his friend.
Oliver shook his head. In a desperate attempt to get his colleagues’ attention off his relationship with Emmeline, he lifted his brows at the latest arrivals.
“Just what are you lot doing here anyway? Don’t tell me you have come here for some expert advice because you don’t know what to do with yourselves. What’s wrong, is life in the counties boring?” Oliver grumbled.
Daniel threw him a rueful look before he crunched noisily on his apple.
“We have come to bring you up to date with what we know. It might help you city boys understand how us locals manage to get the job done while you are busy romancing the ladies,” Ronan teased.
“Well at least we can get the ladies,” Oliver snorted. “You country boys don’t even know what you are doing.”
“What do you know?” Harry interjected because he knew the teasing was likely to go on for hours if he didn’t interrupt.
“We might know a little something about Smidgley that will help bring this investigation to a suitable conclusion.” Roger buffed his fingernails against his shirt, clearly revelling in being able to get one over on the ‘city boys’.
“Oh? You do know that we are talking about the untouchables, don’t you?” Oliver warned.
“We know, all right, but seeing as we know this area a little better than you, we have been doing a little digging of our own when we have not been working on our own investigation. We have learnt a few things as well,” Peregrine replied.
“Like?”
“Like Ernest Smidgley enjoys going to the Red Lion over in Capsmill on Thursdays. He hires a back room, invites his cronies, and gambles away a small fortune because the fool cannot play to win. He gets blind drunk and has a penchant for trying to sample the ladies, whether they like it or not. The locals hate him being there, and have done everything possible to make Smidgley unwelcome, but he revels in being able to annoy them and make it clear they cannot stop him doing whatever he wants. There is a lot of ill-feeling toward both Smidgley brothers. I am sure that if you have a word in the shell-like of a few of the beefiest locals, they will be more than happy to help you er, collect Smidgley, if you will. It might do that brother of his some good to know what it is like to work alone for a while, don’t you think?”
“Make him vanish is what we had already planned to do. We just don’t seem able to get either one of them out of that damned house of theirs. They are holed up in there tighter than squirrels up a tree in winter,” Oliver growled.
“Well, one thing Ernest has been doing, even as recent as last week as a matter of fact, is stick to his weekly jaunts to the Red Lion. Word has it he has already rented the back room for the next couple of months, so he expects to keep going to the tavern,” Peregrine added.
“Where will you all be?”
A fine shiver of tension hung over the local men who shifted and looked at each other. “We have other things on our hands right now and it is going to take our time and energy. Besides, from what I hear, it is best if you all disappear again, if you know what I mean? I hear from the locals that Smidgley’s lot have been sniffing around asking about you, and it has made the villagers wary.”
Ronan shifted from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to suggest. Without saying a word, he dug around in his pocket and slid a small piece of parchment across the table toward Oliver, who picked it up and read it.
“Go. Stay there. We will get to you when we can, but it is time for you to disappear, gentlemen.”
“What about Sir Hugo?” Oliver whispered.
“Gone. He has vanished. From all accounts, he had some sort of altercation with Argent, walked out of the War Office about a week ago, and hasn’t been seen since. Nobody knows where he is. This time, even his wife is asking where he is. Nobody has a clue where to even start to look. Even his old haunts haven’t seen him.” Daniel sighed. “He will re-surface, I don’t doubt, but there are rumblings he isn’t in office any longer. Moreover, Argent has vanished as well.”
“Argent has gone?”
Ronan nodded. “I doubt he is with Sir Hugo.”
Oliver dropped his head in his hands and knew this was what Sir Hugo had expected and would be least surprised about.
“It’s time for us to vanish too then,” Oliver growled.
“Are you here to move us?” Harry asked.
Peregrine shook his head. “It would only draw attention to our connection. We should go because time is short for us. It is important that we finish our investigation so we can help you bring yours to a close. I won’t ask what the Hell is going on in London. We will catch up with you when we are done with our investigations. If you do finish your mission bef
ore we conclude ours, make sure one of you lets us know. Meantime, we know where to find you if there is a problem but for now, well, you are on your own.”
This truly felt to Oliver and his colleagues as if they were being cast adrift on a storm-tossed sea the currents of which could drag them out to God knows where. None of them truly had any control of the situation they now faced. They were led by the events of others around them. As a result, they would now be fighting; defending themselves so they could continue their investigation. This was no longer a Star Elite-led investigation. This was a fight for survival.
“God’s speed, gentlemen. Go to that house. You will be safe there,” Ronan said. With that, he doffed his imaginary cap and sauntered out of the door.
Peregrine and Daniel lingered for a little while longer before they too, one by one, took their leave and disappeared in different directions.
Harry sighed and looked at his friends. “I never thought I would see the day that Sir Hugo would leave his position.”
“He hasn’t,” Oliver countered. “What Sir Hugo did was send a very clear message to us. By being so visible, and disappearing so, well, openly, he is sending us a message, relayed by the local lads, that we are to go deep undercover.” He fingered the small piece of parchment Ronan, Daniel, and Peregrine had just given him, which contained the address of their new safe house. “That is what this is all about. For now, we are on our own because Sir Hugo will not resurface until Smidgley is cornered, or he has dealt with the threat from the heirarchy.”
“What about Emmeline?” Harry whispered. “What do we do with her? We cannot take her with us. We need all the manpower we can get. If the local lads cannot help us, we must make sure that nothing distracts us. Every minute counts, and it doesn’t include spending time babysitting her. We have to send her home.”
“What, to be snatched just like the others?” Oliver snapped. “We may as well sodding deliver her to their door because they will bloody well fetch her within the hour just to lure us out of hiding. You know they will. I am not going to have her death on my conscience. She is not expendable. Besides, we may need her to lure Smidgley out of his lair.”
“We are going after Rupert as well?” Harry asked.
“Yes. We are going after Rupert too, but only when we have made Ernest vanish. He likes to gamble, and drink. The next time he goes to the Red Lion, I am going to be there to make sure that he is going to wake up with one Hell of a sore hangover that he will have to nurse in a cold, damp cell somewhere.”
Oliver sighed heavily not least because the news about Sir Hugo was both good and bad. While it warned him that Sir Hugo was now deep undercover and doing his bit to ensure that those in positions of power in the War Office were being investigated, it also meant that Oliver was now required to take the lead in the investigation and capture of the Smidgley brothers by himself. If that wasn’t bad enough, because it was a position he had most definitely not wanted, he now had to do so while fighting the irresistible lure of a delightful young woman upstairs who made him want things that were far too distracting for his peace of mind and everyone’s safety.
Moreover, I must do this while making sure Emmeline is safe. The last thing I could ever allow is for her to get hurt.
Oliver knew he had to pull off a miracle to get everyone through this investigation alive. For the first time in his entire Star Elite career, he began to doubt the capabilities of his men. They were, after all, human beings first and investigators second.
“I think we have to reconsider using Emmeline to lure Smidgley out of hiding. Look at how easily they got to her the last time. We don’t have time to babysit her, and don’t have anyone to support us if anything goes wrong. She has to go home, or to visit a relation or something. She has to go somewhere far away from us.” Rhys’s voice rang out stringently across the kitchen.
“She isn’t going to lure Smidgley out of his house now,” Oliver confirmed. “You are right, Rhys. Rupert Smidgley must be the one we go after once we get Ernest off the streets. It is about time we took the reins of control very firmly out of their slippery hands and went on the attack.”
“Yes, but what do we do about Emmeline? We cannot just abandon her in a safe house, especially somewhere we don’t know,” Harry argued.
Oliver sighed and ran a weary hand down his face. “Ronan wouldn’t give us this address to use if he wasn’t confident it would be safe. We just don’t have the men to look after her so we have to take a chance she will be all right. If we move base first, we can make sure it is as safe as Ronan promises and then go after Smidgley. I have shown Emmeline enough for her to know what to do if anything does happen while I have gone, but I am sure it won’t. We just don’t have any choice gentlemen. We must make the best of a bad situation and make do with the resources we have at our disposal. Because we don’t have the manpower, we cannot provide her with protection, can we? What we cannot do is simply abandon her.”
“Then we have to take her to the tavern with us. If she is in disguise, you and she can have a drink while-”
“No!” Oliver glared at Rhys. “While she has to stay with us now, Emmeline is not going to get involved in our investigation, and that is the end of it.”
Rhys slid a look at Harry, who shook his head. Although his movement was slight, Oliver caught their look and heaved a sigh.
“I am not too deeply involved. I am just erring on the side of common sense. Look at it this way, we must get Smidgley out of the tavern as fast as possible once we take out his guards, and friends. We can make sure they are all drugged and rendered unconscious, but we will have to move quickly to get them to gaol before the drugs wear off. We cannot do that if we take Emmeline because she isn’t used to moving at our speed. She might hesitate when we need her to act quickly, and it could get one of us killed. We cannot take the risk. We know what we need to do. If we stick to the plan we can get in there, drug the drinks, get Smidgley and leave again before even the tavern owner knows anything is wrong. By the time anybody wakes up, Smidgley will be in gaol and will have simply vanished.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Harry sighed, rolling his shoulders which had started to ache under the tension. “What drug are we using?”
Oliver smirked at him. “Leave that to me. You just think about which route we are going to take that avoids Smidgley Hall but that is easy enough to traverse with an unconscious prisoner. We have to be quick when we have him because if we are followed we need an escape route.”
While the men began to plan their operation, Emmeline stared blankly at the wall opposite.
The men from the Star Elite are observant all right. I was able to creep up on them and hear every word they said and none of them noticed I was here.
She heaved a sigh and glared at the partially closed kitchen door. It was difficult to know what to think but she felt more than a little hurt that the men considered her a burden; someone they felt driven to look after. It was odd to hear them talk about her as if she was more of a commodity, something of use to them than a person with thoughts and feelings of her own. She had wanted to storm in there and rage at them to stop treating her as if she was useless, but when they began to plan their mission, she knew she was useless. She had no knowledge of the area that would give them a suitable escape route because she had never needed to race off across the country with an unconscious man. Moreover, she had no idea who the Smidgley brothers were beyond their rather cruel reputation. She didn’t know which establishment they frequented, who their connections were, or what on earth they wanted with her, or Caroline for that matter.
“I need to leave here,” she whispered, suddenly wishing she had not even answered the door to Oliver when he had called to see her the other day.
That had happened only the other morning. It already feels as if it happened several months ago.
So much had changed in a very short space of time that Emmeline almost dreaded tomorrow and the further changes it was going to bring.
&
nbsp; CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“What’s that?” Emmeline asked the following morning when she reluctantly entered the kitchen to find a commotion by the doorway.
Several of the men were standing over something on the doorstep, blocking her view of what had caught their attention. They were so engrossed in what they were looking at they barely noticed her.
“It is nothing,” Oliver warned when she approached.
Emmeline studied him and knew he was lying. There was most definitely something going on. She found out what it was when Harry bent down and an arm flopped lifelessly across the threshold. Emmeline’s gasp was loud in the rather grim silence that had settled over everyone.
“It’s another body, isn’t it?” she whispered.
Oliver nodded. “Stay here. There is no reason for you to see her.”
“Its another victim?” Emmeline cried. “Where did you find her? What is she doing here?”
“Someone helpfully left her here for us to find. She has been killed recently as well.” Rhys lowered his head respectfully for a moment before he pushed to his feet and entered the room. “I don’t care what you think, Oliver, we need to move on Smidgley as soon as he goes to the Red Lion.”
“At least we have a couple of days to plan,” Harry replied.