The Honest and The Brave

by Rebecca King

  Danial shook his head. “The men have been ordered to stay in the house. We are keeping watch over Annalisa’s, but the property it isn’t a priority seeing as it is empty and there is nothing there worth stealing now.”

  “Our dear Lightfoot created a smoke screen. Literally.”

  Joshua lifted his brows at his boss and waited for Roger to explain.

  “It might be that Lightfoot wanted to cause some damage to the property so the ladies stayed out of certain rooms or, more importantly, out of the house. If he watched the property from these trees, he would know where the women were and when the workmen left. Moreover, he would know we weren’t in there either.”

  “And was free to go inside himself,” Joshua added.

  “But there isn’t anything there for him to steal. Annalisa and her aunt removed it all, remember?” Daniel said.

  “I know, but the man probably doesn’t intend to steal anything. He needs somewhere to stay. He knew we would check the houses of the deceased. He probably expected us to scour the village for him and enlist the help of the villagers. When he torched the room, he created a room that was uninhabitable. It was damaged, ergo not important. Lightfoot would then be able to get into the house, stay inside overnight, and be confident that we wouldn’t go anywhere near it. Lightfoot could enter and leave the property from the other side of the house as soon as he watched the patrol leave and know we couldn’t see him from Mr Richardson’s property. He would have a good view of where we were outside from one of the upstairs windows.”

  “Do we go in and flush him out?” Daniel squinted at the house.

  “I think we are going to have to, don’t you?” Roger murmured before removing his gun and checking it for shot.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Annalisa paced, fretted, worried, and paced some more. She stalked around and around the sitting room, until Yvette lost her patience.

  “Will you please sit down,” she snapped.

  Annalisa sighed and glared at her. “I am bored.”

  “You are worried about him, that’s what you are,” Yvette snorted with a dour look.

  Annalisa didn’t deny it. She was worried about Joshua. Ever since he had left last night, she hadn’t heard or seen anything of him. Moreover, Peregrine hadn’t either. He was also pacing around but was doing so with a catlike silence that was unnerving. Like a ghoul he appeared out of the shadows, wafted across the room, before vanishing out of another door. As he went his gaze flitted around the room before scouring everything outside.

  Around and around, over and over, it was starting to drive Annalisa out of her mind.

  “I need to get out of here,” she whispered.

  “You have to stay here.”

  “But I need to do some more clearing in the parlour. I cannot just sit here all day.”

  “So do some sewing,” Yvette retorted.

  “I can’t concentrate,” Annalisa sighed.

  Yvette huffed a sigh and dropped her sewing into her lap before she pierced her niece with a knowing look.

  “He will be back as soon as he can.”

  “Can I remind you that it is a killer he has gone chasing after?” Annalisa sniffed.

  “I know,” Yvette murmured. “It is why we are here, remember?”

  Annalisa forced herself to calm down. It would do no good to snap at her aunt. It couldn’t be easy for Yvette to have to sit and wait for, well, something to happen either, but Yvette didn’t have a personal interest in the safety of the men.

  “I don’t want anything to happen to him.”

  “I know. But we have to wait for a while before we can have our lives back.”

  “That’s just it. I don’t think I do want my old life back,” Annalisa bit out. It wasn’t until her aunt went still that Annalisa realised she had just said that aloud, and Yvette had heard her.

  “He has made you want something more.” It wasn’t a question.

  Annalisa felt guilty because it almost made her aunt seem as if she was incapable of providing her with a happy life.

  “I am perfectly content here. I just hate being cooped up all day. Waiting. I mean, what am I supposed to be waiting for?”

  “A suitor who can provide you with a happy home? Security? Warmth? Protection? Love? Children?”

  “But I have all that right now, except for the children of course,” Annalisa replied.

  “It sounds incredibly boring.” Yvette began to smile.

  Annalisa threw her a guilty look. “I sound terribly ungrateful, don’t I?”

  “No. You sound as if you are ready for a new challenge in life, that’s all. I should be surprised if you were content with living half a life. Joshua will make you want to experience a little more in life. His life is packed full of adventures; challenges. He is always going to live life to the best of his ability, and tackle challenges most men would run away from. It is the kind of man he is. It is the kind of men all the Star Elite are. I can understand now why they have garnered the reputation they have. They will get the job done and vanquish any enemy who is foolish enough to cross their paths. However, on a personal front, they aren’t going to accept meek and feeble women in their lives. Any woman who wants to be a part of any of their lives must be strong, capable, and accept that her mate will never completely be tamed.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “No. If you think carefully about it, convention is boring. It is expected, normal, what everyone else does. Being unconventional makes life exciting, a little dangerous because you never know what is going to happen next. It is why people who marry when they are young tend to wander off as they get older. They change, yearn for something more when life becomes mundane. What they have at home has become dull and monotonous, like everyday life, so they create change by meeting other people and often have affairs. I am sorry, but mundane should never creep into a marriage. Take it from me, you would be a fool to turn down a future with a man like Joshua.”

  “I know,” Annalisa sighed. She just had no idea if Joshua wanted a life with her.

  “Do you think you could settle to an unconventional life with Joshua?” Yvette asked.

  “I do believe I have to, because the alternative makes me want to crawl out of my own skin with the despair of it all,” Annalisa sighed.

  “You care about him,” Yvette informed her. It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes, I care about him,” Annalisa admitted wryly.

  “Is it love?”

  “I think so,” Annalisa replied, desperately trying to ignore how fiercely her cheeks were burning.

  “Do you want to spend your life with him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you find him attractive?”

  “Yes.”

  “See yourself spending the rest of your life with him?”

  “Yes.” Annalisa sighed.

  “Worry he is all right while he is away?”

  “Yes, you know all of this.”

  “It’s love,” Yvette murmured with a nod. “Just remember that Joshua is a man of action, but sometimes even adventurous men can be incredibly dense when it comes to the emotional aspects of life and relationships. A little pointer in the right direction wouldn’t go amiss, especially if he hasn’t made his intentions clear.”

  “I cannot ask him if he cares about me.” Annalisa looked at her aunt in horror. The thought of being so bold was enough to make her feel slightly queasy. “I couldn’t be that bold.”

  “Well, has he kissed you?” Yvette asked boldly.

  “Aunt Yvette,” Annalisa gasped.

  “Phah! Don’t skirt around the issue with me. I know that starry look in your eye. I might have looked like that once or twice in my own youth, you know. Just because I am old doesn’t mean I don’t understand. If he hasn’t kissed you by now he isn’t interested, so try to put aside what you feel as infatuation. You have, after all, been thrown together in dangerous circumstances.” Yvette returned to her sewing. “However, if he has kissed you and
made you want more then you a need to start to push him a little, preferably before he has to leave.”

  Yvette gave her niece a pointed look before she returned to her sewing. Annalisa stared at her in stunned disbelief. She couldn’t believe her aunt was prepared to play matchmaker like this. However, the advice she had given was sound. Maybe it was time to push Joshua for something more than a few passionate kisses?

  If only I can get him to stop disappearing long enough to have a conversation with him, maybe I would.

  Yes, he had kissed her, a few times as a matter of fact, but that didn’t constitute a relationship. He had never really been around long enough for them to have a proper conversation about, well, about anything. What was she to do if they did talk about themselves only to find he had some horrid character flaw she just couldn’t live with?

  I doubt a man like Joshua could have some horrid habit I couldn’t live with.

  In fact, everything about him seemed perfect. He was brave, strong, tough, capable, dependable, respected, and more importantly honest and forthright. She suspected Joshua had never told a lie or even a half-truth in his entire life, or ever would.

  “He is brave,” she whispered.

  “Yes, but is he honest about his emotions?” Yvette asked.

  That, Annalisa couldn’t answer. What worried her the most was how she could ask him what he wanted from her; how he saw their future. She wanted to ask him if he could ever see a point in his future where they might be married.

  “I cannot be that forward,” she whispered.

  But she knew she must be if she wanted a future with him. She couldn’t be afraid of what the future had in store for her. It was a challenge, and one that she must rise to if she wanted to be the kind of woman who could make a man like Joshua happy. Even so, she was plagued with doubts about all sorts of things, and it left her fretfully stewing in silence.

  Several hours later, Annalisa was still trying to decide what to say to Joshua when she became aware that something was wrong. It was difficult to know what made the small hairs stand on end on the back of her neck. A shiver of warning slithered down her spine but she couldn’t quite place what caused it. It was more a gut feeling rather than anything definite.

  Determined to shake it off, Annalisa set aside all thoughts of Joshua, and went in search of something to do. While Yvette chatted quietly with Hamish, Annalisa wandered aimlessly through the house. Eventually, she realised that what she really wanted to do was get some fresh air. Of course, the men wouldn’t allow her to go outside and sneaking out by herself wasn’t possible. The amount of aggravation she would get from Joshua when he found out wasn’t worth it. Besides, she didn’t want to put herself in any danger. She wasn’t that brave or foolhardy.

  “I need to get some changes of clothing,” Annalisa told Peregrine when she found him in the kitchen.

  He squinted at her but knew that Dean was patrolling the grounds. The house next door was as safe as the house they were in because the men had searched it earlier and found nothing. Wherever Lightfoot was, he wasn’t nearby.

  “All right. Let me summon Dean. He can escort you to the back door and will wait for you.”

  Annalisa opened her mouth to tell him that she could manage the short walk on her own only to close it again with a snap. She suspected that Peregrine would just ignore any objection she made because safety came first. Sure enough, Peregrine yanked open the door and emitted a strange whistle. A couple of minutes later, Dean appeared as if by magic.

  “Thank you,” Annalisa murmured to both men as she stepped out of the house and sucked in a deep breath of the afternoon air.

  It was disturbing to see the heavy gun strapped to Dean’s waist but also reassuring in an odd kind of way. A part of her felt incredibly saddened that life in the village of Bamtree had come to this, but she knew the weaponry was necessary to protect everyone while the Star Elite set about catching Bamtree’s murderer.

  “Have you any idea where he is yet?” she asked of Dean. Annalisa really wanted to ask if he knew where Joshua was but didn’t want to embarrass Joshua in front of his friends.

  Dean shook his head. “He can’t have gone far. That’s where Joshua is now. He is an expert tracker. If anybody can find him, Joshua can. It is going to be arduous going, though, but we will get him.”

  With a smile, Annalisa left Dean at the kitchen doorway and quietly made her way upstairs to her bed chamber. It was odd being inside the quite house all by herself, even with Dean waiting downstairs. Annalisa was hit with the strange feeling that she didn’t belong there anymore.

  While she had been living next door no more than a few days, it felt like a lifetime because so much had happened, and so many changes had taken place, not just environmentally but emotionally. Annalisa knew she was no longer the same person she had been when she had lived in the house with her aunt and that was partly because she had experienced a wealth of emotions toward Joshua she had never felt before in her life. It had given her a completely different view of her future, and a yearning for change.

  As she walked up the stairs, Annalisa was hit with a sense of isolation that was unnerving. She was alone in a property she should have felt safe in, but she didn’t feel safe at all. Instead, Annalisa felt incredibly vulnerable. So much so, about half-way up the stairs she paused while she tried to calm her growing nerves. She was shaking so much she wondered if she would be better leaving it until Joshua or her aunt could be with her.

  “Don’t be such a goose. I am just fetching some clothing, that’s all. There is nothing to be afraid of.” But that quiet feeling that she was not alone continued to grow the higher Annalisa climbed to the top of the stairs.

  Once at the landing, she paused and looked at each closed door which lined the landing. Not a sound could be heard except for her own thundering heartbeat. The upper floor was exactly as the had left it, but Annalisa knew something was different. A quick glance at the hallway downstairs assured her that everything remained undisturbed, yet as she was about to turn away, something creaked. It was short, sharp, but loud enough to be heard and was followed by an absolute stillness that was creepy.

  Cautiously, Annalisa edged toward her bed chamber. She almost dismissed that creak of a floorboard as the house settling or something but was about to open her bed chamber door when she heard what sounded like the rustle of movement followed by a quiet click. Another glance around assured her that all the doors remained closed still, but something was going on, she was sure of it.

  “Dean?” she called, but he didn’t answer.

  Shaking her head at her own skittishness, Annalisa sucked in a deep, fortifying breath, and shoved her bed chamber door open. Once inside, she quietly closed it behind her and locked it for good measure before turning her attention to why she was there. Several minutes later, she paused beside the door and took one last look at the room. It felt as if it belonged to someone else now and gave her a moment to pause and reflect on the life she used to live.

  “It belongs to the old me now,” she sighed.

  But rather than look toward the future with excitement, Annalisa almost dreaded the uncertainty of it. She had no idea whether the next few months would bring her everything she could ever wish for or ruin her dreams forever. She had no idea if Joshua intended to stay or go back to London just as soon as the killer was caught. More importantly, she had no idea what she was going to do about changing her life if Joshua make it clear he didn’t want a relationship with her.

  “I will just have to get on with it, won’t I?” she bit out.

  With a sigh, Annalisa unlocked the door and yanked the door open, and went to step through it only to realise that something was blocking her route. Instinctively, she looked up, and gasped when she found herself staring into the cold, callous eyes of the vicar.

  “What are you doing in the house?” she gasped.

  “I have come for you,” he replied smoothly.

  Annalisa blanched when he reached towar
d her. She stepped back and tried to slam the door closed only for him to lunge toward her. She shoved her weight against the door, but he was already too far into the room to be thwarted. Determined not to be caught in her bed chamber with a killer, Annalisa screamed, as loudly as she could. Over and over, she screamed as she fought to get the killer out of the room, but she was no match for his maniacal strength. She found herself being shoved across the floor until she was left helplessly staring at the open doorway and the man directly blocking her escape.

  “Get away from me. What do you want with me?”

  “You are coming with me,” the vicar replied.

  “I am doing no such thing. You are a killer.” Annalisa snapped. “Dean! Dean!”

  She gasped when pain lanced across her cheek. She clasped her burning flesh and glared angrily at the thug as she waited for her tears to clear her eyes. She stared hatefully at him.

  “You are a fool if you think they aren’t going to hunt you down,” she hissed. “You are going to have to kill me because I shall go nowhere with the likes of you.”

  Before he could reply, Annalisa lunged across the room and snatched the poker out of its bucket. Lightfoot made a grab for her but not quickly enough to stop Annalisa from whirling around and smacking him repeatedly on his back with her new weapon.

  Annalisa used all her strength to hit him over and over with the poker, everywhere she could manage to reach. Lightfoot ducked and tried to find a way around her determined whacks but Annalisa continued to step just out of his reach, and backstepped in a wide circle until he was in the middle of the room, and she was standing in front of the door. Annalisa wasted no time trying to make her escape, and backstepped quickly across the threshold before slamming the door closed on the sight of Lightfoot lunging after her.