by Rebecca King
Oliver saw movement out on the drive. When he turned to look at who it was, he watched Harry canter back down the driveway. Their time alone together was up already, and they were no closer to finding a solution.
“I cannot leave the team in the middle of an investigation,” he said.
“I have to go home because I have to arrange Caroline’s funeral although I cannot see that many will turn up for it,” Emmeline assured him with a gentle smile.
Her chin wobbled alarmingly but she bravely blinked away her tears and kept that smile on her face. She had to turn to gather up the things on the table just to have something to do with her hands because she wanted to reach out and touch him.
When she was at the wash stand, though, she felt Oliver come to stand behind her. She placed her hands on the edge of the unit and dropped her head, not least because she couldn’t deal with them feelings that coursed through her.
“It is stupid,” she hissed.
“What?” Oliver slid his arms around her.
“This. Us. You leaving. Me being miserable. I don’t know what has happened between us. I am not usually the kind of woman who gets carried away with romance. It just isn’t who I am. I am usually practical, dependable, Emmeline.”
“You have been in very trying circumstances. It is understandable that you want someone to turn to,” Oliver offered.
“It isn’t that,” Emmeline whispered. “I have been worried over Caroline for the last several months and haven’t needed anybody to turn to. I can deal with things that are stressful by myself. But this is different. You are different. I have never experienced anything like this before. I think-”
Oliver placed his hands on her waist and waited. “What?”
Emmeline couldn’t turn to face him. She just couldn’t look at him. “I think this is love.”
Oliver closed his eyes but wasn’t sure what to think. “I hate to say it, purely because it is going to throw both our lives into chaos, but I think it is love – for both of us.”
Emmeline blinked. His words hovered between them for a moment or two until the importance of them hit her. She gasped and whirled to face him.
“You what?” she whispered.
“This is something I have never felt before toward anybody I have ever met. I just cannot walk away. I cannot and will not deliver you to your home home and leave you to deal with anything on your own. It is important that I know you are safe, well, and happy. Aside from my lodgings in London, and my house in Norfolk, I have recently purchased another home, in a small village not all that far away from here. While my house is unfamiliar to you, it is near to the home of a good friend of mine. Angus now works for the local branch of the Star Elite. His wife Charity has recently had a baby. I know she would love to introduce you to the locals.”
“Your house?” Emmeline asked weakly.
Oliver nodded. “It needs turning into a house, but I haven’t had the time to do it. Maybe you could consider moving there? I can introduce you to Angus and Charity before I go after Smidgley’s uncle. It still means you would be on your own while I am away, but you can see how you feel about the village and having people nearby you can be friends with. If, while I am gone, you turn the house into a home like you have here, and really do think we can have a future together, then when this investigation is over, we can marry?”
“I can’t live in your house while you are gone,” Emmeline gasped. Secretly, she was overjoyed that he was thinking along the same lines as her. “Where will you stay when you are finished with your investigation? You will want to go home, won’t you?”
“And I will.” Oliver sighed but began to smile. “My house in St Magdaline is big enough for the both of us. It is more of a family home, but I liked it and it came up for sale at the right time, so I bought it.”
“It is a family home?” Emmeline’s brows shot up. She smiled at him. “You bought a family home.”
Oliver grinned. “Well, I didn’t say I was completely averse to marriage. I just don’t want to leave the Star Elite.”
“Good. Don’t,” she replied firmly. “I am sure I can find something to do to keep myself busy.”
Oliver grinned. “I think you need to meet the villagers first. They are a feisty lot. A little eccentric, but they will keep an eye on you and keep you on your toes. By the time you have been interrogated by them, and forced to join their baking club, sewing club, tapestry group, and church group, you aren’t going to have a moment to spare. I am sure Charity will love having someone in the village around her age, so you are not going to be on you own. When I am finished with the investigation, we can spend some time alone together, away from danger.”
Harry took that moment to burst into the kitchen.
Oliver sighed and glared at him. He knew the second he looked at Harry’s face that something had gone horribly wrong.
“What?” he growled.
“The uncle’s fled the house,” Harry growled. “Niall lost him. He is heading to Nottingham, the last time anyone saw him. We are moving out. Now.”
Oliver nodded. He turned back to Emmeline who looked thoughtful rather than upset like she did a moment ago.
“How about I drop you off at my home in St Magdaline?” he whispered. “We can move you in quickly while the men try to find this uncle. I can catch up with them when we have finished.”
“If you are sure,” Emmeline replied.
“Can you spare me, Harry?” Oliver called.
“Yes. You can gather the things up and move them on.” Harry returned to the room with two guns and a few other things, which he shoved roughly into a pouch. “Close up here. We will send word through Angus where we have gone. See you soon.”
After a courteous bow at Emmeline, and a roguish wink, Harry slammed out of the house again. Oliver grinned and sidled closer to Emmeline.
“Do you know something?”
Emmeline, considerably more relaxed and content with her lot in life now that she knew she didn’t have to say goodbye to him, nestled closer. She revelled in just how instinctively he slid his arms around her, as if he didn’t even realise he was doing it.
“God, I love you, Emmeline,” he growled suddenly.
She blinked at him but before she could reply, he continued.
“Forget what we have just discussed. It is a load of rubbish. We cannot ignore this. I have no idea where it came from, but I must have been thinking of finding a wife seeing as I watched Angus get married and then bought a huge family house in the same village that he lives in. I just never acknowledged it because I thought falling in love would mean I had to leave my life with the Star Elite. Now, I know I don’t have to give up all that I know just to be with someone. I can have my work and parts of my life as I know it. The parts I have to get rid of are the parts I really don’t like very much anyway. It has been wonderful to come back here and have a home, and you in it to return to. The house, even a temporary one like this, has been a home to me because it has you in it. I cannot conceive of coming home to a cold and empty house again. Not now. Without you in my life, it will be cold and empty just like my life was before. I don’t want that. What we cannot do right now, purely because we don’t have the time, is marry. However, we can quickly move you to my house so you can settle in. I am not going too far away, I hope. But if I am, I know my friends will look after you. If you get stuck, or worried, they will be there. It is the best I can do I am afraid.”
Emmeline laughed and brushed her tears from the corner of her eyes. “It sounds wonderful. I cannot think of anything I should like more than to meet your friends and the eccentric villagers. I cannot conceive of going back to my old life. It was so cold and empty that I didn’t really live my life. I want this. What we have shared has changed everything I thought I knew about myself, what I thought I wanted from my life, and what I believed I could have. I know now I can have it all. I love you, Oliver.”
“I know I shouldn’t do this so early on in our acquaintance, Emmeline
,” Oliver growled. “But, I love you. Will you marry me?”
Emmeline was too choked to speak, so nodded. Her head jerked up and down more than nod, but Oliver knew and understood. Surprisingly, a wonderful warmth began to spread out from the centre of his chest and brought a joyous relief to him that reassured him he was doing exactly the right thing. There was no doubt. No regret. No second-thoughts, or qualms in any way. This was what he wanted. She was what he wanted: Emmeline.
“Of course I will marry you. I love you. So much, I would be miserable if I lost you,” she murmured lovingly.
“Good,” Oliver nodded firmly. “I want you to miserable without me.”
“You do?” She grinned at him. “And are you going to be miserable without me?”
“Definitely,” he promised. “For every second of every day until we can be together again.”
“That is fine by me,” she grinned.
“Together forever?” he asked quietly, sweeping her off her feet with a gentle plea in his eyes that he made no attempt to hide. Even now, having had a promise of a future that was full of hope, love and happiness, Oliver needed reassurance from her that she meant what she was saying. They could have it all, and more besides.
“Together forever,” she promised, happy to give him anything he asked of her. Oliver had brought her danger, tension worry and fear, but had fought valiantly to sweep it all aside and replace it with love, hope, and a wonderful happy future together, forever.
The End.
UNREQUITED LOVE
RELEASED MAY 2019
He loves her but has never managed to persuade her to see him as a man.
She adores him but cannot get him to notice her.
Throw in one pesky family who are always facing one crises or another and you have a seemingly insurmountable problem neither one can overcome.
This could be a match made in Heaven, if only their families and Fate help bring them together.
When an unexpected suitor and more catastrophe push Ryan into making a concerted effort to get her to notice him. Unfortunately, he finds his path to true happiness blocked by a meddling relation who does everything possible to stop them from being together. What Ryan doesn’t understand is why. More importantly, will Sian accept another’s hand in marriage before he can get to the root of the problems that threaten to keep him and Sian apart forever?
Will it be love and roses, or relative nightmares?
MISS FLORENTINE’S SCHOOL FOR INVESTIGATORS
SNOWDROPS IN SPRINGTIME
Book One
RELEASED JUNE 2019
After inheriting a fortune to add to her already comfortable lifestyle, Miss Florentine has everything she could want in life. However, her life as a lady of circumstance is boring. Thanks to the benevolence of a distant relation, though, Florentine has an opportunity to change her life for the better and thus, Miss Florentine’s School for Investigators is born - much to Bertrand’s disgust.
As a lawman with a fine reputation for getting results the last thing Bertrand Hartington-Myers needs is a meddling female, sorry, investigator getting herself involved in his work. Doesn’t she know that crime-fighting is dangerous work? Apparently not seeing as she gets her friends helping her, oh, and a few irritating, nosy, and meddlesome villagers. Together, they seem determined to involve themselves in everything he does, but are no more distracting than the beautiful, wilful Miss Florentine, who seems determined to drive him nuts.
Miss Florentine is determined - to make Bertrand see her School for Investigators as a credible crime-fighting organisation. What she is less thrilled about is having to battle her attraction toward the handsome lawman who sees her as nothing more than a meddlesome female. Can she persuade him that she considerably more than an addle-brained chit with more money than sense? It is harder than she imagined when a killer in their midst focuses his attentions on one of her investigators and everyone’s lives are thrown into chaos.
Can Miss Florentine and Bertrand work together to catch the killer, or will their organisations keep them apart forever?
HIS DEADLY CLEMENTINE
RELEASED JUNE 2019
People around Clementine start to drop dead – literally. To the point that she starts to believe she is cursed. Desperate to find out why, and if it is just sheer dumb luck or something more sinister, Clementine is forced to turn to the one man she knows she should stay away from: Moses Banfield-Moss, Moss for short, not least because Moss hates her. He is and always has been contemptuous of young women of wealth like she is and makes no bones about the fact that he considers her a brainless waste of air.
Moses almost groans when Clementine sails into his life. He wants to throw her out and bolt the door after her to stop her getting back in. The last time their paths had crossed it had nearly gotten him killed. Now, he is certain she hates him because her presence in his life plunges him into danger once more. It is only the promise he made to her brother during one drunken and dangerous night that forces him to agree to help her, especially when the preposterous things she proposes turns out to be truthful.
Is someone killing the people she speaks to? If so, why? Does that mean Clementine will be next? He isn’t sure, but it certainly looks like someone is trying to isolate her for some reason. He must find out what that reason is, and who is killing people randomly without any connection or provocation.
Determined to uncover all of Clementine’s secrets, Moses sets to work but finds his way hindered by the decidedly wilful and foolishly curious Miss Clementine Bridgewater who seems intent on getting in his way whatever he does. To complicate matters further, he begins to like the one woman he is confoundingly drawn to.
It quickly becomes evident to them both that the safest place she can be is by his side, but that brings Moses a completely new set of problems that are more personal than professional.
Neither of them is prepared for the real identity of the murderer when it is revealed. While it confirms what Moses has been saying about Clementine and her world all along, can he really leave her and get on with his life? Can Clementine ever become a part of his world? Is there any happy medium, or will Fate and the killer keep them apart forever?
DUTY OR DISHONOUR
RELEASED JULY 2019
Ryan Carmichael had never heard anything so preposterous in his life as being a guardian to a three and twenty-year-old young woman. Firstly, he knew absolutely nothing about young women except how to get them into bed, and preferably undressed as quickly as possible. Secondly, wasn’t three and twenty too old for a guardian? Finally, he was a single man, alone, supposedly protecting a single young woman while sharing a house with her. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Ryan argues with the solicitors until he is blue in the face, but nothing works. Nobody listens. He must do his duty by her or face dishonour. He will not just ruin the family name, but his good if somewhat battered reputation will be destroyed as well. Nobody seems interested that he is going to lose his life as he knows it, and all for a woman who is too old for a guardian anyway.
Lilias Jones has no need for a guardian, but those are the stipulations of her father’s will. She must remain under the guardianship of Lord Rocherham until she is four and twenty – eight long months away. She can survive with a strange old man for that long, can’t she? From the enquiries she has made, Lord Rocherham is an old, seventy-something harridan who is all bluff and bluster.
Wrong.
Lord Rocherham is a rogue. Handsome, a little less than charming, and far too smooth for his own good. Thankfully, though, he hates Lilias, and makes it clear to her that she is unwelcome in his home. She is there through sufferance not through choice. Given that, Lilias spends as much time out of the house as she can. It is difficult to keep her distance from him, though, when everywhere she goes, he appears and makes his disapproval of her clear no matter what she tries.
When a disreputable rogue starts to make his interest in Lilias clear, Ryan faces a whole realm of emotions th
at don’t sit too well with him, the first and foremost of which is jealousy. However, having already started off on the wrong foot, he finds himself helpless to stop his wayward charge from dabbling with things she would do best to forget. Can Ryan battle his jealousies and allow her to leave when the eight months are over? Or will the disreputable rogue steal her forever?
Whatever happens, Ryan faces a life-changing battle between duty or dishonour, and it is going to change his life forever.
MURDER AT HYNDE HOUSE
RELEASED – JULY 2019
They are invited to attend the reading of a will of an old acquaintance. The only condition is that they spend the weekend at a house nobody wants to visit. When this eclectic group of people gather on the dockside, awkwardness and suspicion abound.
Nobody has any idea what lies in store for them.
Is everybody as innocent as they seem?
When they are greeted by somewhat questionable servants, and a series of worrying situations that leave everyone shaken, the guests begin to grow uneasy. The rather dour persona of the solicitor, whose silence and odd behaviour leave everyone aghast, make everyone question their connection to the recently departed.
Disappearances, murder, the shocking contents of a will, sinister threats and strange warnings abound in this dark murder mystery set along the Cornish coastline.
Does local folklore have a ring of truth to it? Is the island truly cursed?
It quickly becomes evident that the benefactors of this will reading will be lucky if they survive to see the benefits of their inheritance, especially when events turn sinister and it becomes clear someone wants all of them dead.