by Rebecca King
“No time like the present, I suppose,” she murmured.
“It isn’t too late to change your mind,” Justin muttered from the kitchen doorway.
Briefly, Vanessa had the distinct impression he wasn’t just talking about setting herself up as bait for the kidnapper. Their eyes met. A wealth of understanding flew between them.
“I am not going to change my mind. I have to do this, for my own peace of mind,” she whispered.
Justin slammed out of the house without a backward look. He cursed his stupidity but there was nothing he could do about it now. He cared about her – a lot.
“Damn it all to Hell,” he growled.
Aaron grinned at him.
“I don’t see what is so funny,” Justin snapped. “She could go the same way as her sister.”
Aaron’s smile vanished in an instant. “It isn’t that,” he murmured. “I have never seen you this het up about anybody before. I can see why her, though. She is beautiful, charming, clever, and clearly well thought of in the village.”
“You sound like you are trying to sell her. You don’t have to list her attributes to me. I know how she is,” Justin snarled with no small measure of jealousy. “I didn’t realise you had been checking on her.”
“I have been checking on everyone in the village,” Aaron informed him.
Justin forced himself to relax. There was no reason to be so out of sorts with his colleague. Aaron wasn’t to blame for the foolish predicament he was now in. He couldn’t and wouldn’t change his life for a female, especially one he hardly knew.
“My life is the Star Elite, damn it,” he growled suddenly.
“It is for us all,” Aaron warned. “But it doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice all our lives, does it? We have to be people as well.”
“Not when we don’t know if we can make it home, we don’t,” Justin warned.
“Others have made it work,” Aaron offered. “You could unbend a little, you know.”
“How?” Justin challenged. “Could you live in a quiet little backwater like this?”
Aaron looked around the rolling landscape amidst which the quaint little village stood.
“I don’t know, it isn’t that bad. It is a damned sight better than London’s smelly, rat infested streets, packed with people who will steal your purse and rob your house with a roguish smile for half a shilling and sixpence,” Aaron murmured. “Besides, it isn’t wise to live where you work. If you do you are less inclined to truly take a break from what we do. I don’t know about you, but the last time I took time off I spent my time walking down the street looking at people’s faces, trying to identify people I knew we were after. Its damned difficult to know when to stop. One thing I find difficult to do in a place like this is remember that crime does happen here. It might be on a small scale for the most part, but it can be severe. It just doesn’t happen often.”
Justin sighed because he knew Aaron was right. He couldn’t find any argument, even though he still couldn’t envisage himself living permanently in a place like this.
“Wouldn’t you want to walk the fields with someone on your arm, or just sit out in the garden and enjoy the sunshine every now and then?” Aaron asked quietly. “It doesn’t have to be the main thing you do with your life. But if you get time off there is no reason why you can’t enjoy it. I mean, if you had a wife, and maybe a son or two then you would have plenty to do to fill your time, and it wouldn’t have anything to do with guns, crime, and spending most of your nights on guard.”
“Are you actually selling matrimony to me, Aaron?” Justin demanded. “I don’t see you rushing to find the vicar with a female in tow.”
“And you won’t either,” he retorted flatly with a theatrical shrug. “If anybody is more of a kind to marry it is more you than I.”
Outraged, Justin glared at him. “How so?” he demanded.
“We have all seen how you fell for Vanessa. At that first meeting you barely took your eyes off her. Since then you have been here more often than you have been back at the base,” Aaron teased.
“I have been working with the rest of you,” Justin countered.
“It just happens to be that most of your work incorporates Vanessa,” Aaron retorted.
Justin pulled a face at him as he helped him pull the carriage out of the outbuilding next to the garden.
“I don’t know her,” he declared flatly.
“Well, you have a few days left before we move on. I doubt the kidnapper will risk snatching her the first time we try this. You have time to spend with her to establish if you are compatible enough to weather matrimony. If not, you can leave here and never think of her or this rural life again. If you do find yourself reluctant to leave her then you have a very big decision to make. Courting her is going to be damned near impossible from London given the work we do. If you don’t make an honest woman out of her, or at least state your intentions are honourable toward her and secure a promise from her before you go, you have to leave her behind once and for all.”
“I am not going to offer for someone I barely know,” Justin snarled. “My life is the Star Elite, and that is the way it is going to stay.”
Aaron peered at him over the stays. “Sure?”
Justin shook his head at the doubt in his colleague’s eyes. “Sure,” he grunted.
With that, the conversation was over.
Half an hour later, he was curled up in the back of the carriage Vanessa drove through the village toward town.
“What do I do now?” she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
“Stop talking to me. People will see your lips move and think you have lost your marbles,” Justin snapped.
Vanessa sighed. “You really are an angry man, aren’t you?”
“I am not,” Justin snorted.
“You are always snapping at someone,” she declared firmly. “You were sharp with Aaron earlier.”
“Aaron now, is it?” He demanded sarcastically, hating the renewed surge of jealousy that didn’t seem to leave him whenever he thought about Vanessa and any one of his colleagues. It pricked at his conscience, urging him to do something rash to get rid of it. But he couldn’t, wouldn’t, succumb to it. There was no need to be possessive of her. His colleagues posed no risk to her. So why did he wanted to make it clear to everyone that she was his?
“I call all of your friends by their first names. They told me to,” she replied briskly, daring him to deny it.
Justin sighed.
“Why are you so angry all of a sudden?” she asked when she couldn’t stand the silence a moment longer. She could feel his presence behind her, and it was unnerving.
“I am not angry,” Justin bit out.
“Yes, you are. I can feel it. You are angry,” she informed him.
“I am annoyed you keep talking,” he whispered. “Now will you shut up!”
Vanessa sighed. “You don’t have to be so rude about it.”
This time, Justin didn’t speak. He bit his lip. He sighed. He mentally cursed. He wriggled around to ease the aching in his hip, but nothing would ease the discontent that had settled deep in his chest and refused to relinquish its tightening grip around his heart. He was annoyed, damn it. It was galling that she had seen it, well, not seen it exactly because she had her back turned, but had felt it.
“How in the Hell can you feel someone is mad?” he demanded suddenly.
“I just can,” Vanessa replied with a shrug. She glanced around the empty fields and felt herself start to relax. There was nobody around for miles, so she felt able to talk freely seeing as there was only Justin to hear her. “You are causing tension.”
“I am causing tension. You should be back here. This place is more suited to a five year old than someone six feet three inches,” he grumbled.
Vanessa grinned. “Would you like to drive?”
“That defeats the object of all of this, don’t you think?” he asked sarcastically.
“There you go, you
are cross again.”
“Look, I am not cross, all right?” he snapped.
“Yes, you are. You are snapping again,” she countered.
“Are you always this argumentative?” Justin demanded.
Inwardly, he was pleased she stood up for herself and argued with him if she truly disagreed with something he did or intended to do. The last thing he wanted was a dutiful, biddable wife.
Wait a minute! Who said I want a wife?
“I don’t want a wife,” he growled.
Vanessa blinked at the road ahead. She wasn’t sure how to answer that.
“I didn’t suggest you did,” she murmured eventually.
“Good,” he snapped.
“I don’t want to move to London,” she snapped, suddenly feeling annoyed herself.
“I never said you should,” he retorted.
“Good,” she replied crisply, in much the same way he had.
To his dismay, several miles passed without either of them saying anything else. At first, he was happy to let the silence settle. Then he waited for her to break it. Then he found himself trying to think of something to say to break the ice between them. In the end, he wriggled around until he was in a more comfortable position, then he sighed – heavily – again.
“Tell me something about yourself,” he urged in the end.
“Why? What do you want to know?” she asked with a frown.
“Why? Because I need something to keep my mind off the pain in my a – ankle -, and just tell me anything to get my mind off the misery of this journey,” he pleaded.
“God, you really are miserable to take anywhere, do you know that?” she chided. “You are worse than a toddler.”
“Do you have much experience with toddlers?” he asked sarcastically.
“Yes, I do as a matter of fact,” she replied placidly. “I help out at the orphanage every week. I am due there tomorrow as a matter of fact.”
Justin frowned at the back of her seat. “What do you do there?”
“I read to the children mainly, or help them do their lessons or cook their dinners, or sometimes just play games with them. They are glad to see anybody who will play with them. They are always willing to play.”
Justin quickly closed out the mental image of Vanessa holding a young boy who looked just like her. He stared blankly at the sky for a moment while he contemplated just what it meant when the image kept returning and wouldn’t be defeated.
“I am going to be needed to help out there now more than ever given Jemima has gone,” Vanessa added sadly.
“Jemima used to help out there too,” he murmured thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Vanessa replied as though he had just asked her.
“Did your sister?”
Vanessa nodded but then realised he wouldn’t be able to see her from behind.
“Yes. She came with me every Friday,” Vanessa replied.
Justin’s mind raced. “Did any of the other kidnap victims work at the orphanage?”
“Marilyn did, but not as often as Geraldine,” Vanessa replied. “Why?”
When Justin didn’t answer, she glanced over her shoulder at him. It was a shock to find him staring blankly at the sky, as though he was miles away.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he replied swiftly. “Just turn around. Keep your eyes on the road, but keep a look out at the surrounding area, just in case someone decides to jump out at you.”
He didn’t think anybody would today, especially given the suspicions that had started to form in the back of his mind. Suspicions he knew he was going to have to think about more closely when he was able to study the goblets on the make-shift map back at base.
“Are we nearly there yet?” he grumbled when he couldn’t stand the pain in his legs a moment longer.
“Nearly. What do I do when I get there because it is too late to go shopping?” Vanessa whispered.
“Just turn the carriage around somewhere and head back.”
“Don’t you want to stop off to stretch your legs a bit?” she asked.
Justin knew it wasn’t wise to spend any time in the town alone with Vanessa.
“No, just keep this carriage moving,” he grunted.
Vanessa sighed when she heard the discontent in his voice.
“I am not grumpy,” he declared flatly before she could speak.
“Tell me something about yourself,” she asked quietly. She doubted he would and waited for his rejection. To her amazement, he began to talk.
“I spent my time in the army. When the time came for me to decide if I wanted to progress up the ranks I decided to do something different.”
“Are your family not affluent?” she asked without thinking.
“Not really. I have made my money myself, from my work with the Star Elite. I have enough to live off and don’t need to worry about money now, which is good.”
Unfortunately, I don’t have much else to show for my life except for a group of criminals behind bars, he mused a little worryingly.
“Who are the Star Elite? Are you all ex-soldiers?” Vanessa asked quietly.
“Some are, some aren’t. We are part of the War Office and have jurisdiction over magistrates and the like. We are called in on investigations like this where magistrates don’t have the time, or manpower, or wherewithal to investigate themselves. Our work is dangerous and involves many weeks away from home. I haven’t been back to my house for at least two months now. Most of our investigations involves undercover work trying to capture criminals in the act,” he informed her.
“Yes, I can see that,” she mused wryly.
“Not usually scrunched up like this, I will grant you,” he admitted.
“Your family must miss you,” she murmured, desperately wishing she had the confidence to ask him what she truly wanted to know.
“I see them when I can. My mother worries, of course, but my father understands that I need to do this kind of work. It is who I am. He would get on well with your father because he too served in the army. I am sure they would have many experiences and stories to discuss,” Justin said, but then winced when he realised how that sounded.
“Father struggles with his memories, Justin. He saw things he refuses to speak about and it sends him into a melancholy that is so dark sometimes he struggles to leave the house,” she said quietly.
“My father used to be like that,” Justin murmured. “It took him a long time to function normally again when he returned home, and still hasn’t returned back to the man he was before he left for war. I don’t think he will be right again. He is at least able to talk about his experiences now, which helps.”
“He must worry about you given your line of work,” she said quietly.
“He understands I need to do this in much the same way that he felt he needed to go to war,” Justin replied honestly. “While he does worry, and so does my mother, they are proud of what I do.”
“So they should be,” Vanessa replied.
Justin smiled even though she couldn’t see him.
“See? We aren’t arguing for once, and I am not grumpy,” he murmured.
“You are really struggling to get over this grumpy business, aren’t you?” she countered, her voice rich with amusement.
Justin grinned, pleased that he could banter with her, and she could give as good as she got.
“I am just aware that we still need to get to know each other, that’s all,” he whispered.
Suddenly, the humour vanished and was replaced with a solemnity that wiped the smiles from their faces and forced them each to retreat to the relative safety of silence.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Several days later, Vanessa drove through the village for what felt like the hundredth time. She was tired, bored, and desperately wanted to change the route. Today, a sharp wind had blown in and stole all trace of warmth and happiness from her soul.
“Are you all right back there?” she whispered when she had reached
the point that if someone didn’t say something she was going to scream.
“Fine,” Justin grumbled, sounding less than all right.
“We won’t be long,” she murmured half-heartedly.
“You sound as fed up of this as I am,” he grunted.
Indeed, after that first journey with Justin, Vanessa had rapidly grown tired of the daily trip she had taken to a town she didn’t need anything from, carting Justin along with her. While they had now broken the awkwardness between them and were able to speak freely about themselves, their past, their likes and dislikes, it was difficult to have a proper conversation when one of them was bent at an uncomfortable angle which prevented even eye contact. Indeed, whenever they had alighted from the carriage at the end of their journey, a growing distance had started to emerge neither of them knew how to break.
That’s because I don’t think either of us is prepared to break it.
“What do you think has happened to them?” she asked not for the first time. “Why do you think he hasn’t targeted me yet?”
Vanessa knew she was the only woman out on the roads and had been for the past week. It was worrying that nothing untoward had happened.
“He may not be from around here. The others are working on speaking to the families of the missing, and have a few leads to follow,” Justin replied carefully. “It is going to take time to get all of the leads wrapped up.”
“How long?” she whispered, dreading the day when she would have to say goodbye to the man behind her. While the journeys had become tedious, her time with Justin was anything but.
“It depends on whether the kidnapper strikes soon or not. If he doesn’t do anything within the next three days we are going to try something else,” Justin informed her. “We can’t keep doing this.”
Vanessa closed her eyes as she contemplated the hidden meaning in his statement.
“I know,” she whispered.