by Rebecca King
“Do you think you need to see a doctor?” Joshua asked not least because the urge to kiss her was getting stronger.
Annalisa looked so pale, so shaken, so smudged and bruised, Joshua didn’t want to do anything that might discomfort her in any way. He was aware of a strange, almost expectant silence which made their conversation stilted, but struggled to find a way to thwart it. He knew neither of them could banish it until they had talked about what really mattered – their love for each other.
“I need to do something,” Annalisa burst out.
To Joshua’s surprise, she began to wriggle and squirm to get down.
“Wait. You are going to fall if you keep doing that. I’ll help you down.” Joshua quickly dismounted and urged her to slide into his arms.
The second her body touched his, Annalisa placed her hands on his shoulders and froze. She looked up into his steady gaze. The world around them receded. With a groan, Joshua gave in to temptation and kissed her with a passion that left Annalisa in no doubt he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. Regardless of who might be watching, Annalisa and Joshua surrendered to the desire neither of them could restrain. Words were impossible. Need overwhelmed them both. It was over quickly. In one minute Joshua was almost devouring her with his lips, and in the next he wrenched his head up and looked down at her with rueful disbelief.
“I should be shot for doing that while you are not well,” he growled.
“I am not ill,” Annalisa retorted. “I might smell like a fire and be a little battered and bruised, but I am alive. I am blessedly alive.”
She had no idea why but she began to smile but it swiftly dimmed and turned solemn because she knew the battle was not over yet.
Joshua knew he wasn’t going to like what she was going to say next. While he was impressed with how swiftly she had rebounded from what had happened, he knew he should be quietly appalled at her somewhat gung-ho attitude toward the dangers that might still surround them.
“What?” he demanded when she scowled at the garden they were in.
“Let’s go and check the house.”
“The men are in there.”
“Not that house. My house. Well, my aunt’s house. She might be in there. What harm can there be? We know Lightfoot is off to gaol.” Annalisa shrugged.
With a determination she struggled to control, Annalisa marched across the garden, stepped awkwardly over the picket-fence into her own garden, and then stomped resolutely toward the back door of the house she used to share with her aunt. Thankfully, when the Star Elite men had raced out of the house none of them had stopped to lock the doors. As a result, Annalisa she was able to walk straight in unhindered.
“Yvette? Aunt Yvette,” she croaked hoarsely. “Hello? Aunt Yvette?”
“Annalisa. Will you please just slow down?” Joshua chided but hurried after her with his gun drawn.
“Whatever for?” Annalisa forced herself to ignore the dizziness that assailed her when she whirled to face him. She held her hands out palm upwards in a beseeching gesture, but carefully ignored the fine tremors in them.
Joshua sighed because when she looked at him that way there was little he could do to refuse her anything she asked of him. He knew when he was beaten and shook his head ruefully at her.
With a somewhat impish look, Annalisa captured his head in her hands and planted a kiss on his lips. She was about to deepen it when she heard a dull thud in the hallway.
Joshua lifted his brows at her. “Stay here,” he murmured lovingly, only to shake his head chidingly again when she turned around and beat him to the door.
“I told you to stay here.”
“I am here already,” she protested. “I am not cowering in the kitchen and leaving you to go alone.”
Joshua threw her a disgruntled look but stopped long enough to plant another kiss on her lips before leading her into the hallway.
“Hello? Yvette?”
They were rewarded by another dull thud.
“It’s upstairs.” Joshua took the stairs two at a time, aware that it was highly unlikely Annalisa was able to run as fast as he could.
By the time he reached the top, she had only taken half a dozen steps.
“Hello? Can you bang again?”
The dull thud that answered was this time louder and led him to a small room at the back of the property.
“It’s the spare room,” Annalisa called up to him.
She moved as fast as she could but her beleaguered lungs were struggling against the exertion after inhaling all the smoke. Annalisa was tired, dizzy, and desperately needed to lie down for a while. It was only her aunt’s safety that compelled her to keep going, that and being with Joshua.
By the time she joined Joshua, he was in the rear bed chamber. “Hello?”
He bent to look under the bed only for another dull thud to come from the cupboard behind him. Whirling around, he yanked the door open only to stare in disbelief at a tightly bound Yvette lying on her side with her booted feet wedged against the wall.
“Aunt Yvette,” Annalisa whispered tearfully when she saw her aunt’s awkward position.
She wanted to cry but was infinitely relieved that Yvette was still alive and well. All she could do was expel a huge sigh of relief.
Joshua hurriedly loosened the bindings on Yvette’s wrists. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
“I should say not. Where is he? If I set eyes on that bounder, I shall cook his goose,” Yvette seethed. “How dare he treat people that way?”
Annalisa shared an amused look with Joshua, who helped Yvette get awkwardly to her feet before releasing the rest of her bindings. When he was done, he moved to stand beside Annalisa, and slid a proprietary arm around her waist with a naturalness that was wonderful. Joshua didn’t stop to think about what he was doing, or the impression his bold display gave Yvette. Yvette was a little pre-occupied with her fury for the fiend who had trussed her up and stuffed her in the cupboard in the back room anyway.
“He is on his way to gaol,” Annalisa informed her aunt quietly.
Yvette paused and only then seemed to realise that Annalisa had battled an ordeal of her own.
“What happened to you?” Yvette demanded.
Annalisa sucked in a deep breath.
“I think we are going to have to tell you that when we have returned next door,” Joshua interrupted, not liking how pale Annalisa was getting. “We have to go back to the safe house for now, at least until the rest of the men have returned from taking Lightfoot to gaol. Before life can return to normal, and we can let you return here for good, we have to make sure that Lightfoot worked alone and that Garmead was his only accomplice.”
“How do you do that?” Annalisa whispered.
“The magistrate has been making enquiries in town. We are going to speak with him about Lightfoot’s connections. We have the stolen goods, and found the old vicar, I am afraid. For now, we need to secure this house and then will wait for Roger to tell you ladies that it is all right for you to come home,” Joshua informed them quietly.
Annalisa turned solemn again. “I don’t know if I am ever going to feel safe in this house again.”
“Well, I am not going to be scared out of my own home by a thug,” Yvette snapped. “I have lived here all my life and I am not going to change now.”
Annalisa nodded because she knew Yvette was right. It wasn’t fair that she had to move home just to find the security that should have remained untouched in the house she called home. However, defiant thoughts didn’t banish the ghosts that lurked in the middle of the night. It wouldn’t help her when the time came for her to be alone in the house, even for a little while.
I will just have to face that when it happens, Annalisa promised herself.
She looked at Joshua when she felt him watching her. There was something almost cautious in his eyes, as if he was trying to, reluctantly at least, tell her something.
“You are going to be moving on once this investigation is over, a
ren’t you?”
Joshua pursed his lips. “I have to go back to London to see my boss. I have requested a transfer to join the Leicestershire team, but don’t know how long it is going to take. Hopefully, I can be back in a matter of weeks, but I don’t know. It all depends on what investigations the men are having to deal with, and if they need all the help they can get or can cope on their own. Only the boss can decide that.”
Annalisa nodded. “You will come back, though, if only to say ‘hello’?”
She knew she shouldn’t push but couldn’t help herself. She wanted some sort of reassurance from him that this successful end of the spate of crimes to hit Bamtree didn’t mark the end of her connection with him.
“I will be back just as soon as I can,” Joshua murmured.
It was all he could say because he was reluctant to make her any promises he wasn’t at all sure either of them could keep. While he wanted to stay and offer her the world and was more than willing to do everything in his power to move to Leicestershire and be closer to her, Joshua also knew that Annalisa had turned to him in her hour of need. She had been threatened, worried, harassed, scared out of her home, beaten, and had fought for her life. The last thing he wanted was for her to mistake her affection as love when all she really felt was a need for his protection.
Face it, I want her to love me like I love her.
Yes, she had told him she loved him in the woods, but there had been a panic in her eye at the time that bothered him. Joshua knew that distance was supposed to make the heart grow fonder. If Annalisa still felt as strongly for him as she believed she did now then he had no qualms about making the move to Leicestershire permanent when he did return. For now, he had to allow everything to settle down and hope that it would all turn out all right in the end.
“Let’s go, shall we? The men are still looking for you, Yvette. They will be delighted that you are safe and well,” Joshua murmured before ushering the women out of the house and across the gardens to the safe house.
Later that night, Annalisa stopped at the back door of the house she called home when it became clear that Joshua wasn’t going to enter the property with her.
“Try to put everything out of your mind. Lightfoot is in gaol now and can no longer hurt anybody. The men are going to stay and clear up the church and will notify the Bishop that he can have his church back again,” Joshua murmured.
“Are all of you moving on tonight? Can’t you wait until morning?”
Joshua smiled gently. “The men have work to do. They will be around so if there is anything go and speak to them. Like Roger said, they will keep an eye on the area and will keep using Mr Richardson’s house for the next day or so. Don’t be surprised if you wake up one morning to find the entire place quiet, and no sign of anybody. It is just the way they are. They arrive quietly, do their job, and leave just as silently, and hopefully leave very little trace of where they have been. You can consider that the official end of the investigation.”
“Where will you be?” Annalisa asked him not least because Joshua sounded so stiff, so formal that he was almost a veritable stranger to her. She struggled to know how to reach him but knew it was a stark reminder of just how little she knew him. “We haven’t spent much time alone together.”
“It would only ruin your reputation. Besides, we have been a little busy catching a murderer,” Joshua replied with a rueful quirk of his lips.
Annalisa nodded. “I don’t know if I can return to my old life. It was all rather terribly boring.”
“You need time to come to terms with what happened,” he warned her. “You might feel all right, but there will be times when you need to stop and think about what happened and contemplate how you feel about it. You came so close to dying that what happened is going to make you reconsider life, and what you thought you wanted from it.”
Joshua had to pause when his voice thickened.
“What about you?”
“I have to go to London, like I said earlier. I will be back, but it all depends on what everyone else is doing. The Star Elite has been such a large part of my life for a long time now, I am not sure I can ever contemplate doing anything else. It is who I have become. While I don’t mind making changes for it, I can never give it up completely.”
“I don’t think anybody should ever ask you to. I know more than most just how important your job is. Why, if you and your friends hadn’t been here, Heaven only knows how many more innocent people would have lost their lives,” Annalisa whispered. “Including me.”
Rather than bid her ‘goodnight’ and walk away, Joshua stepped closer. He drew her gently into his arms and kissed her a gentle goodnight. Passion immediately flared to life the second his lips touched hers. While everything screamed at him to walk away, he knew he just couldn’t. Instead, he held her tighter.
“Miss me while I have gone?” he mused when he finally lifted his head.
“Just a little,” she teased. “Maybe a bit more than that. Will you miss Bamtree?”
“It’s a village,” he replied wrinkling his nose up. “I will miss you, though.”
Annalisa felt tears loom but daren’t let them fall. She would cry her heart out, just as soon as she was alone in her bed chamber. She would cry over everything that had turned her world on its head. She would cry for the aching in her heart. She would cry about being separated from Joshua, the man who was the love of her life. But she would dry her tears and get on with each day, which she would count slowly until they could be together again.
“Don’t go out alone, don’t go out after dark, and don’t trust the vicar,” Joshua ordered.
Annalisa shook her head chidingly. “I knew there was a good reason why I never went to church.”
“Never?” Joshua leaned back to look askance at her.
“Well, not as often as I should,” Annalisa corrected looking sheepish.
Joshua let it drop. Instead, he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand and stepped away not least because if he stayed any longer he wasn’t going to be able to leave at all. As if to prove that his time was up, Dean trotted up the driveway at the side of the house with Joshua’s horse in tow.
“I have to go,” Joshua edged.
“Stay safe,” Annalisa urged in a voice that was more of a plea.
Joshua grinned at her, placed one last lingering kiss on her lips, and hurried down the step and across the lawn.
Minutes later, Annalisa watched him ride out of her life. Only then did she allow her tears to fall.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Several weeks later.
Annalisa sighed and dropped her sewing into her basket. She sighed again and wandered over to the window.
“You do that a lot now, you know,” Yvette murmured. She paused and looked at her distracted niece. “Have you not heard from him?”
“He is most probably busy with another investigation,” Annalisa replied. “He said he would be back just as soon as he could be freed from London but it depends on what they are doing there.”
“Well, Joshua is an honest man. I doubt he has ever let anybody down in his life. At least we know why he can’t come back. Saying he is involved in an investigation seems such an innocuous statement when in truth it is complex, dangerous, dirty work, and involves solving some of the most heinous crimes imaginable.”
“The villagers are still reeling from everything that has happened,” Annalisa replied quietly.
“How are you coping with everything?”
“Oh, I am fine. I cried, as you know, but I am more resolved to just getting on with my lot now. There is no point dwelling over what happened. Of course, it is easier for me to put it aside because we survived and have a home to return to. It has been easy for us to pick up the pieces. It isn’t the same for the relations of those who have lost their lives,” Annalisa murmured.
“I heard today that the Bishop isn’t putting another vicar in the church. The vicarage is going up for sale, apparently. Old Reverend Inma
n is going to conduct the services in the village, so there will be some changes. Everyone is reassured, although worried about what he is going to do in the winter. He isn’t getting any younger.”
“Maybe everyone needs that familiarity, though? Maybe they will trust the church again because they know it is in the hands of someone who has been in this area for years and can be trusted. This place still needs to heal.”
“Do you think it can?” Yvette asked. “I mean, what has happened will never be forgotten. It is always going to be a blight on Bamtree’s otherwise ordinary history. Nobody will ever forget what has happened because everybody was affected by it in one way or another.”
“I know. We won’t forget either. Nobody could ever forget those honest and brave men of the Star Elite. Joshua is honest and brave,” Annalisa mused. “He is incredibly handsome, clever, strong.”
“And I think you have a little bit of hero worship going on there, my dear.”
“I love him,” Annalisa declared boldly. “So there. I don’t care who hears me say that. It is true. I mean every word. He is my hero next door.”
When Yvette didn’t answer, Annalisa turned to look at her aunt, half-expecting her to object to her affection for the handsome investigator. Instead, Yvette was studying her hands as if trying to decide what she should say.
“What?”
“It’s nothing.”
“No. What? There is something.”
“It’s nothing, dear.”
“Aunt Yvette. I have known you for years, remember? I know there is something you aren’t telling me. What is it?” Annalisa persisted.
“It is just that I also heard that Mr Richardson has sold the house next door,” Yvette burst out. “I don’t know who to before you say anything, but it was sold last week, apparently.”
“So, he won’t be back then.” Annalisa sucked in a breath and felt something in her chest start to hurt. She blinked away the sharp sting of tears and tried to reassure herself that it wasn’t really the Star Elite’s house. Mr Richardson’s property was just borrowed to give the men somewhere to stay while they investigated the murders. Even so, to hear of it being sold felt like a betrayal, a final declaration that put an end to all her pipe dreams of a happy ever after with Joshua.