A Spinster's Awakening (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite Book 2)

by Rebecca King

  Charity opened her mouth to reply but then remembered Angus’s warning and closed it again. Her lack of response prompted Edwina to peer into the room. Charity knew what her theatrical searching was all about. Edwina was looking for an introduction to the men as well.

  “Please-” she began only for Edwina to ignore her and walk into the sitting room. Once inside, she stopped and brazenly eyed the men as though they were prime horseflesh. “You didn’t tell me they were such fine specimens, dear, or I would have come sooner,” she called back to Charity.

  “They can hear you, you know,” Agatha Renton chided.

  Angus shifted uncomfortably and struggled to contain the urge to tug on his collar at the overly appreciative look on one of the women’s faces as she circled around him, looking him up and down.

  “Ladies,” Aaron murmured warily.

  He looked how Angus felt, as though he wanted to throw himself out of the window whether it was closed or not. Angus knew the ladies were a handful, even the somewhat shy middle-aged lady who sidled into the room behind the two rambunctious matrons who were bold if not unruly.

  “Mrs Edith Brownlow, and this here is Mrs Agatha Renton,” Edith announced. Without waiting to be offered, she grabbed at Angus’s hand and began vigorously shaking it. Seconds later, she released him and moved on to Aaron. “Then we have Miss Edwina Trogley. The lady out in the hallway with our Charity is Miss Gertrude Utterton, but don’t mind her, she doesn’t say much.”

  “Well, Charity, you do like to keep your secrets, don’t you?” Agatha chided but without any hint of malice.

  “This is Monika DeHaviland,” Charity introduced by way of an answer.

  When she eventually entered the room, Charity was followed closely by an elegant middle-aged lady of indeterminable age. She tipped a perfectly coiffed head at the gentlemen and lifted a brow at Charity.

  “Shame on you for not telling us such fine examples of masculinity were under your roof,” she informed Charity pertly.

  “They only arrived today,” Charity replied.

  While the ladies made their introductions, Charity swept the ladies’ cloaks off the back of the chaise and carried them out of the room. Once out in the hallway, however, she realised she had nowhere to put them. With a sigh, she carried them into the kitchen and promptly dropped them onto one of the chairs at her kitchen table.

  While she set about putting a pot of water on to boil, she kept one ear tuned to the continuing flow of conversation in the sitting room.

  “Miss Gertrude Utterton.”

  Angus jumped when a rather robust lady appeared as if by magic beside him and thrust a hand under his nose. Cautiously, he took it and found himself shaking from head to foot as his arm was wrenched enthusiastically. Mercifully, Miss Utterton released him without too much damage, and promptly moved onto a somewhat bemused Aaron, who also found himself being shaken violently by the enthusiastic spinster.

  “Good to meet you all,” Angus murmured.

  “Do we have the pleasure of finding out your names as well?” The tall, rather practical Mrs DeHaviland asked as she leaned forward, her brows arched above piercing eyes that warned both men neither of them were going anywhere until she had all the pertinent facts.

  “More importantly, do we have the pleasure of finding out what connection you have to our Charity? I must say, she has kept her connection to you quiet,” Agatha murmured with a suspicious glint in her eye. “I am sure I have never seen you in the village before.”

  Monika nodded. “Nothing gets past us,” she declared with absolute certainty. “So, who are you?”

  She waved the gentleman to the vacant seats. The ladies, whose number exceeded the number of seats in the room, disappeared for a moment or two only to reappear seconds later with additional kitchen chairs.

  “Do you know, Charity, you really must arrange seating for everyone,” Edwina Trogley chided as she plonked her ample frame into a high-backed chair. Being seated did little to minimise her presence in the room as she placed her chunky fingers on her lap and turned an expectant stare on the gentlemen in the room.

  Gentlemen who still stood in shock in the middle of the room.

  How could it all go wrong so fast? Angus moaned to himself.

  The interview with Charity had gone exceedingly well, especially given they had secured her agreement that they could have use of her house. Now, after only a few moments, the ladies had turned the entire household upside down, and had inadvertently put the entire Star Elite investigation in jeopardy. Angus suspected that if he and Aaron weren’t extremely careful, they were going to wrap themselves up in a web of lies these ladies would not miss.

  “I am sorry,” Charity moaned as she hurried into the room. “Please take a seat,” she urged when she realised the men were still standing in the centre of the room.

  “We have to go,” Angus growled.

  “Oh, tosh. You needn’t think you are going to get away that easily,” Alice Brownlow declared with a somewhat affronted air. “What is wrong? Are we not good enough company for you?”

  Angus opened his mouth but then closed it again when he received a warning look from Aaron.

  “It is just that we have outstayed our welcome and need to get a move on if we are to meet with our next appointment,” Angus murmured soothingly.

  “Well, you can stay for a piece of cake, can’t you?” Alice asked, a hint of challenge in her eye. She lifted her brow and waited.

  The occupants of the room went still.

  “I am sure the gentlemen have to be getting on,” Charity began.

  She tried desperately to think of what excuse she could give them that the ladies would accept but failed miserably because nobody paid her the slightest bit of attention.

  “Has that pot boiled yet?” Monika asked, her tone calculating.

  “Not yet,” Charity replied pertly.

  “Well, we have introduced ourselves. What do we call you?” Agatha asked of Angus. “Do we call you Charity’s gentlemen?”

  “I am Charity’s cousin,” Angus declared. “By marriage.”

  “Oh? What’s the name? I cannot remember Charity having ever mentioned you before,” Monika drawled. Again, her seductive gaze slid teasingly over Angus.

  “Come on, come clean now,” Agatha prompted when Angus couldn’t think of a suitable defence.

  “We are here on business, ma’am,” Aaron intoned.

  “Why? Are we under arrest?” Monika mocked. Her smile immediately dimmed. When she realised what she had said she threw a shocked look at Charity. “What have you done?”

  “Nothing,” Charity protested.

  “Miss Kemble is not in any trouble,” Angus assured them.

  “Well, that sounds rather formal, I must say,” Edwina declared with a knowing nod at her friends.

  “The gentlemen are here on a private matter, that’s all,” Charity warned. “Can’t a person have a little privacy around here?”

  She knew her voice vibrated with her growing annoyance but made no apology for it. Her cheeks were flushed with temper as she glared at the women.

  “Don’t be annoyed with us. You must consider how this looks, my dear. This is a small village. You don’t usually get guests except for us. Suddenly, two handsome young men turn up in a wonderful carriage like that. If I were to gossip, I would be apt to consider you are about to be swept off your feet by your knight in shining armour. We are naturally going to be curious about who they are, and what they are doing here. We don’t mean to pry, we just want to make sure you are safe,” Gertrude hastened to reassure her.

  “Miss Kemble is under no threat from us,” Aaron growled, doing his level best to appear nonchalant. In truth he was having to work extremely hard not to lose his temper. The women had a way of letting the silence stretch out until it became decidedly uncomfortable, and when asking their questions, pierced their targets with stares that were downright disconcerting.

  With interrogative skills like they had
we should recruit them and send them to the Tower to question our captives, Angus thought with a heavy sigh.

  He saw the distressed look on Charity’s face and suspected that if the ladies continued to push her as they were, she would break and end up telling them everything once he and Aaron left. Mentally cursing his stupidity for having told her so much without finding out who frequented the house, Angus sighed.

  “We are here to discuss a private matter, that’s all. Like I said, Charity is in no trouble. Now that our business is concluded, we will be on our way,” Angus said firmly. He looked at Charity. “Remember our discussion. It shall, of course, remain private.”

  Charity nodded her understanding of his warning. She wasn’t to tell her friend’s anything. It would have been easy, if she had had a few moments to herself to strengthen her resolve. As it was, beneath the scrutiny of her friends, she felt guilty, ashamed for having kept secrets from them, flustered and worried all at the same time. She wanted to squirm such was the intensity of their regard.

  “You are not a relation,” Monika declared suddenly.

  “I beg your pardon?” Aaron stopped and looked at her.

  “Those boots are very expensive and finely cut. They must have cost a small fortune. There are very few rural craftsmen who could make such fine things. They were purchased in London,” Monika mused. “I know. I used to live there.”

  Aaron sighed. “They did indeed come from London,” he confirmed but didn’t expand even when Monika kept her gaze trained on his boots, quietly demanding information on who made them.

  Aaron suspected that if he buckled and told her what she wanted to know an entire ocean of questions would flood the room within seconds and he would be doomed to drown in a whirlpool of lies of his own making.

  “We need to move,” he warned Angus, who nodded and used his lengthy stride to get out of the room.

  When out in the hallway, though, Aaron went to open the door only to see a man standing at the front gate of the house they were there to watch. Instinctively, he edged the door closed, but not before the man looked in his direction. Aaron suspected the elderly gent was talking to Jasper given the dull murmur of voices audible through the door. What was being said was impossible to hear, though, given the noise the ladies were making behind him.

  He sighed and looked at Angus who was surrounded by a bevy of females, all of whom appeared reluctant to allow him to leave.

  Suddenly, the lady whom everybody called Agatha planted herself firmly in front of the door, effectively blocking Aaron’s escape from the house.

  “But you cannot go yet. I have some wonderful fruit cake you simply must try before you go anywhere. It is important, is it not, for you to embark upon your journey back to London with enough sustenance to keep you going?” she asked, her wrinkled face wreathed in a delighted smile.

  “We are not going back to London,” Aaron bit out.

  He edged sideways and threw a longing look at the door knob, partially obscured by the woman’s ample waist, but he suspected he wasn’t going to use it yet.

  “I am afraid we have another appointment to get to,” Angus declared with false reluctance.

  “Oh, but you must stay. We have a nice plain cake that is Edwina’s speciality if you don’t like fruit cake. You simply must stay and tell us which one you prefer,” Agatha insisted.

  With an adroit determination that was astounding to Aaron, she began to move forward, invading his personal space to the point that if he didn’t move he would be uncomfortably close to the unfamiliar woman, and would cause a scandal if he remained where he was. Reluctantly, he conceded defeat, and backstepped, but only a little – enough so he could throw a pleading look at Angus, who was having enough trouble of his own extracting himself from the woman blocking his progress into the hallway.

  “Ladies, while your offer is wonderful, and at any other time we would be delighted to accept, I am afraid we simply cannot stay,” Angus declared loudly enough to be heard over the women who were all vying for his attention at the same time.

  He sighed heavily when Monika stepped far too close. Tipping his head back, Angus peered down at her and gave her his best, darkest and most threatening look, silently warning her not to venture any closer.

  It didn’t work. Monika stepped toward him, her dark eyes silently challenging him to defy her and stand his ground. In desperation, Angus looked around for Charity, but she was blockaded by the ample girth of Mrs Augusta Applebottom whose somewhat military stance left nobody in any doubt she wasn’t going to allow Charity to help. The way she had placed herself, somewhat sentry-like and facing the door, was enough warning to Angus that the Star Elite had indeed chosen the wrong home to keep watch on the house opposite.

  “You may as well surrender, gentlemen. You need to understand, here and now, that we always get what we want,” Edwina reported smoothly, with an air of arrogant smugness that rippled around the group.

  “You may as well give in,” Agatha prompted.

  “Good, so cake it is,” Monika declared with a certain air of satisfaction that transferred itself into the smug smirk on her face. She linked arms with Angus, even though he made no attempt to accommodate her by bending his elbow in a gentlemanly fashion. Despite his reluctance, she began to tug and shove him back into the sitting room.

  Angus, aware that he had been deftly outsmarted, dutifully followed.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Charity yawned and tried to pretend she was interested in the conversation still flowing between the women in her sitting room. She surreptitiously glanced at the clock on the mantle and mentally groaned at the time. She was beyond exhausted and so desperately wanted to go to bed that she almost cried at the thought of the nice warm bed that awaited her, but she was unable to reach. In truth, she was starting to worry that if she didn’t get the ladies to go home soon she would never get them to leave before the men from the War Office arrived to begin their watch at ten o’clock.

  The thought of having the Star Elite in the house was unnerving. So much so, Charity still couldn’t be sure she had done the right thing by allowing them to use her room. It was only her sense of community responsibility that had compelled her to agree to their request.

  That, and outright nosiness, she mused with a heavy sigh. I confess that a little adventure wouldn’t go amiss, but this isn’t what I had in mind.

  “Charity, what is the matter dear?” Edwina suddenly asked.

  She patted the back of Charity’s hand to capture her attention when her words didn’t seem to register on the young woman. Charity had spent most of the evening alternating between sighing, half-heartedly engaging in the rather desultory conversation flowing between the group and staring out at the street at the exact spot where the men had climbed into the carriage several hours ago.

  “He is rather handsome, isn’t he?” Edwina murmured, accurately sensing the direction of Charity’s thoughts.

  Charity’s brows rose. Her cheeks flushed with colour. She dropped her gaze to the tapestry she had forgotten still rested in her lap. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do. They are both handsome men,” Agatha replied. “What we want to know is why they were here? Why, I cannot ever remember you saying that you had cousins in London.”

  “I don’t,” Charity replied honestly.

  She hated to be evasive with her friends. The urge to tell them everything just so they could contentedly go home was so strong that Charity found herself contemplating what she could tell them that the men from the War Office would be happy with. The fact of the matter was that she couldn’t tell them anything because she had been sworn to secrecy.

  “Are you in some sort of trouble?” Monika murmured quietly.

  Charity went still. “No. Why do you ask?”

  Monika dropped her tapestry onto the table before her. “Maybe because the man, the taller one with the brown hair, had a gun under his cloak.”

  Gertrude gasped. Her eyes were wide as
she looked from Monika to Charity and back again. “Did you see it?” she asked Monika in a horrified whisper.

  “I am afraid they have heard about the kidnappings,” Charity said. “They came around to check I was all right, that’s all.”

  “I say, you have not received any kind of threat, have you?” Alice cried. “You are more than welcome to stay with me if you have.”

  Augusta Applebottom nodded emphatically. “I think you should come home with me, dear.”

  Charity mentally groaned. “No, I have not been threatened. They were just worried, that’s all. I say, you haven’t seen anything untoward going on in the area, have you?”

  Alice Brownlow’s small grey eyes widened. “Is there something we should know?”

  She placed a shaking hand on her pearls around her neck as if to protect them from thieving hands.

  “No,” Charity hastened to assure them. “I just read in the broadsheet that women had been snatched.”

  “Oh, but they were young women, not old like us,” Alice gushed with a heady sigh of relief.

  “Speak for yourself,” Monika chided, tipping her pert nose high into the air. “I am not old, I am matured.”

  “Matured? Don’t you mean mature?” Edwina prompted.

  “No, I am like a fine wine. I have matured with age and continue to mellow and grow ripe,” Monika announced with a severity that belied the twinkle in her eye.

  “More like a stinky cheese,” Gertrude muttered around a rueful look.

  Monika rolled her eyes. “I prefer wine,” she replied. Suddenly, she levelled a look on Charity that was hard. “If anybody should try anything I shall just land my tapestry bag on their heads. That should cook their goose.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “I think we should take our tapestries with us wherever we go from now on,” Alice suggested.

  “How about if we meet daily while the brigand is a threat to us?” Edwina cried, her face wreathed in a delighted smile.