by Rebecca King
“Where are they going?” Edwina whispered as she eyed the men warily.
“To try to find him. Ladies, it is essential you go home,” Aaron growled, his face stern.
“We can stay with Charity. Do you not understand she is worried sick? She cannot be alone in that house. Not now,” Monika protested. “We can stay with her and keep a watch on the houses.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. He wanted to argue with them, and escort them all home, but his own growing concern for Angus was rife. He knew that if Angus had been injured, every second he wasted arguing futilely with the women could leave Angus a step closer to death.
“I will walk with you to Charity’s house,” he snapped, and ignored any further attempts at conversation.
“Is that really necessary?” Monika murmured when she saw Aaron remove his gun and check it for shot.
“Given we have a kidnapper on the loose and more people running around this village at night than animals at the local farm, I think so, don’t you?” Aaron bit out.
“Its not her fault,” Charity snapped.
Aaron sighed. Thankfully, they were already at her front gate. It prevented him from having to reply.
Charity reluctantly opened her front door and led the group into her house. Strangely, the welcoming warmth that greeted her wasn’t as pleasing as it had been earlier that afternoon. This time, she felt a deep melancholy that brought tears to her eyes. It was all Charity could do to blink them away.
“I need to know where he is,” she whispered.
She jerked when the clock on the mantle struck eleven. She wanted to go upstairs, just to check he wasn’t there for herself, but wasn’t at all sure she could handle the heartbreak if he wasn’t.
“There is no reason to be upset. This is what the man does for his job,” she ground out through gritted teeth.
It was foolish to get so wound up over, well, nothing. They had no proof that he had been injured, or lay dying, or was dead somewhere. Vanishing and remaining hidden was a part of his job. Stealth he had called it. She had to remember that.
Still it said everything that his colleagues were just as concerned about him as she was.
“Wait!” Charity cried when Monika lit a stay and went to light the candles in the sitting room. She raced to the window and edged the shutter to one side a little until she could see the end of the road closest to Mr Horvat’s house.
“What are you doing?” Augusta whispered.
Charity explained what had happened the other night.
“Do you think Angus might be in his house?” Monika murmured as she peered over Charity’s shoulder at the property in question.
Edwina gasped. “Maybe Mr Horvat has kidnapped Angus,” she cried.
Charity rolled her eyes. “Have you seen the size of Angus? I cannot see someone the size of Mr Horvat being strong enough to drag Angus anywhere, can you?”
“Well, no. Your Angus is a rather large man, isn’t he?” Augusta agreed.
“Ooh, look! There is someone moving,” Agatha cried, her eyes wide with alarm.
“Just on time,” Charity groaned.
“Is it Horvat?” Monika demanded impatiently.
“This is the exact same time he left the house yesterday. I think it is safe to assume it is Mr Horvat, don’t you?” Charity replied.
“Well, let’s go after him,” Agatha suggested.
“I say we all go and find out where that blackguard is going. Anybody who ventures out at this time of night is up to no good,” Augusta said.
Charity lifted her brows at her. “Like us, you mean?”
“Well, we are not up to no good. We have brought you home because we are all worried about Angus.”
“Maybe he has Angus?” Edwina gasped. “What do we do if he has Angus stashed somewhere.”
“His colleagues will find him, I am sure,” Monika sighed. “For God’s sake, Edwina, will you get the notion that Angus has been kidnapped out of your head? He is strong, capable, a highly trained professional fighter.”
“And missing,” Agatha interjected crisply.
“Well, we are not going to find out where Horvat is going standing here discussing Angus, are we?” Gertrude snorted, already on her way to the door. “We have to find out where the man is going. Seeing as the men are busy trying to find one of their own, it is down to us, don’t you think? I mean, we have a good enough right to go wherever we want in this village. If we go two or three at a time, what harm can Mr Horvat do to us? We outnumber him.”
“We go armed,” Edwina cried, yanking a poker out of the bucket beside the fireplace.
“You go nowhere,” Charity snapped, snatching it out of her thin fingers and slipping it back into the bucket. “The men are trained to move about in the shadows undetected. They creep, not charge around foolishly like we would. Horvat would hear us chasing after him.”
Sadly, none of them was paying attention to her.
“Wait! Someone has to stay behind in case the men come back, and has to keep watch on the house,” Monika cried.
“I am going after Horvat,” Gertrude declared with a militant glint in her eye.
“I am going to look for Angus,” Charity whispered.
She knew Angus would be mad if he ever found out, but the thought of simply sitting and home and waiting to hear news of him left her ready to pull her own hair out.
“Edwina, you can stay with Augusta and I,” Agatha suggested. “Monika is the same build as Charity and is far more agile than us. Go. Go. Before that Horvat fellow gets too far away, and we lose him.”
“I know where he is going, I just don’t know how to get there without being seen,” Charity sighed.
“Show me,” Monika demanded.
Before Charity could allow logic and common sense to prevail, she stepped out into the night once more.
“He is over there look,” Charity murmured when the women were in the woods. Together, they watched Horvat disappear into the trees. “He knows where he is going and took this same route at the same time last night.”
“He is meeting with someone,” Monika suggested.
“It looks like it, or why stick to a timetable?” Charity replied.
It felt good to give her brain something to think about. The logical facts and credible argument eased her troubled thoughts. Unfortunately, it did little to curb her growing frustration about Angus. The last thing she wanted was to follow Horvat. She wanted to find Angus instead.
“Well, we cannot cross that field tonight without being seen from at least three sides of the field. We need to go and search over there during the daytime. He must be using a path or else he would fall flat on his face. Nobody uses those woods usually,” Monika said.
“What now?” Charity moaned.
“Horvat’s house is now empty,” Monika murmured thoughtfully.
Charity’s gaze whipped around to hers.
“We have to know if Angus is in there,” Monika added when she read Charity’s indecision.
“Horvat is clearly suspicious,” Gertrude murmured as she came to a stop behind them.
Charity whirled to face her.
“What?” Gertrude demanded belligerently. “I said I was going to come with you and I am.”
“None of us are going over to Horvat’s house,” Monika declared firmly.
“We are going to get into awful trouble as it is,” Gertrude said suddenly.
“How? For what? It isn’t illegal to take the night air,” Monika challenged.
“She has a point,” Charity sighed. She wished now she hadn’t agreed to come on this little adventure with Monika. She wanted to be back at the house, in case the men had news about Angus.
When Charity turned around, she stepped into a muddy puddle. It immediately soaked the bottom of her dress.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” she hissed as she stared down at her soiled clothing.
Maybe this is why Angus doesn’t seem able to make his mind up if he is attracted to me or not. One minute I am behav
ing like a lady in a domestic setting, and the next I am charging off into the night without a care in the world being reckless and foolhardy.
She would have turned around and gone home right there and then, if it wasn’t for Monika’s suggestion that Angus might be in Horvat’s house. While she didn’t mention it to the ladies, she contemplated the afternoon’s scenario whereby Mr Horvat had made his curiosity about Angus blatant. Had that been a warning of some kind? Had Horvat been sizing up his opponent before tackling him once darkness had fallen?
Charity shuddered at the thought that someone could be that cold bloodied. It was then that she made the decision to go and search Horvat’s house, no matter what the cost to herself.
“We have to go over there, don’t we?” Monika murmured having accurately read Charity’s thoughts.
“If we end up in gaol, it is your fault,” Charity grumbled.
Together, the ladies set off for Horvat’s house.
When Charity passed the narrow track at the back of her house, she looked down it longingly. To her horror, her gaze immediately landed on a small group of men carrying a large object toward her home. Charity’s heart sank to her toes. Her cry of shock turned into a mew of dismay. She didn’t stop to think about abandoning her friends, or what she was doing displaying such blatantly raw emotion in front of so many people. Charity lifted her skirt and raced down the track toward the men.
“Angus?” She cried as she drew closer.
“He is wounded. Aaron has gone for the doctor,” Oliver informed her grimly. “Go and get the door open. Can we put him on the kitchen table?”
“He has to be put into bed, don’t you think?” Monika suggested as she hurried alongside them.
Gertrude, who had stopped beside Charity’s gate, swung it open and hurried up the path to alert the women in the house.
By the time the men carried their colleague into Charity’s home, a solemn line of women stood waiting for Angus’s arrival. A pot of water began to bubble on the fire, and clean cloths had been draped over the kitchen table in preparation for the fallen man.
“The doctor is on his way did you say?” Augusta asked, her rotund face almost severe.
“Yes,” Oliver replied. He wanted to stop Charity and demand to know what she was doing out of her house at this time of night, but she looked about to fall over. Now wasn’t the time to challenge her over her foolishness.
It would do her good to see what challenging the enemy can do to a person, even a trained fighter like Angus, he thought angrily.
“Right, ladies,” Augusta snapped briskly. “Let’s get to work. We cannot do what the doctor can do, but we can prepare Angus, so he is ready for when the doctor arrives.”
“It is all right,” Charity assured Jasper when he shifted uncomfortably at having his colleague surrounded by the bustling women.
“Charity, you start to wash,” Agatha ordered. She thrust a bowl and cloth at Charity and turned her attention to loosening the laces on Angus’s sodden and blood-stained shirt. “Let’s get this blood off him so the doctor can see what he is doing.”
Charity dutifully placed the bowl next to Angus’s head and began to bathe blood off his beloved face.
“He has been hit twice,” Charity whispered. “Once at the back and once on the side. Look.”
Oliver bent down to look for himself. “He was blindsided by the look of it,” he agreed.
Minutes later, the women had Angus clean, and resting comfortably beneath the warmth of a thick woollen blanket.
“Now, gentlemen, I think it is time you all had something to eat while we wait for the doctor. He only lives on the other side of the village, so shouldn’t be long. Until then, we demand you tell us what you intend to do about that Mr Horvat,” Gertrude demanded in her habitual forthright manner.
“Is that where you were going? After Mr Horvat?” Oliver asked.
To his astonishment, he was pushed into a chair and furnished with a large slice of cake without even having realised he had moved. He opened his mouth to object, but the scent of the cake was heavily, and he was too hungry to resist.
“Mr Horvat left his house and took the same route he took through the woods last night,” Charity informed them. “We were just watching because you were all busy.”
“He has to be meeting with someone, but who?” Monika asked. “And why would he want to kill Angus for possibly seeing him?”
“Because he has something to hide,” Gertrude retorted before any of the Star Elite could speak.
Suddenly, Oliver found himself pierced with the steady stare of a lady he suspected was called Augusta.
“You are not from the War Office, are you?” she declared suddenly, a hint of determination in her eye.
All the women froze.
Oliver sighed. He contemplated whether to brush them off, and refuse to give them any information, but given they had taken such good care of Angus, and he already appeared to have surrendered his bachelorhood to the stunning young woman who clearly adored him, Oliver could see no reason to lie to them.
“We are from the War Office. We are not in the habit of going about lying to people,” he warned darkly. “However, we are from a special part of the War Office called the Star Elite. We work mostly undercover, and on large scale crime; criminal gangs, people smuggling, that kind of thing. Now, I am not saying that the young girls who have been kidnapped have been smuggled, but because several have gone missing, and have yet to be found either dead or alive, we have been called in to investigate. It is our job to work undercover, around the local magistrate who is going about his normal duties, to find out who is responsible, and get them off the streets before they can damage any other innocent lives.”
“Are there just the three of you?” Edwina blinked.
Oliver smiled. “No. There are a lot, but we mostly work in London. There are several smaller pockets of Star Elite men who live in various counties up and down the country with their families. Mostly, though, we are based in London.”
Oliver motioned to his colleagues. “Unfortunately, the men who usually work this area are already involved in a large investigation that they cannot leave right now. We were the only ones available to deal with this, so we were sent here to try to find out what we could.”
“What has led you to this small village?” Augusta demanded. “Nothing goes on in St Magdaline.”
“That isn’t true. While it is true to say that in most villages like this, nothing untoward usually happens, people always have their secrets. Crime can visit anywhere, when you least expect it oftentimes. There is nothing you can do, except hope the culprit is captured sooner rather than later and that nobody loses their life because of the crime spree,” Jasper said.
“Unfortunately, we have no idea if any of the girls who have been kidnapped have lost their lives. Because of the severity and strange nature of the disappearances, we have been called in. Magistrates are used to dealing with poachers, petty criminals and family disputes. Crimes like this are more the kind of thing one would hear of in the city streets of London. It is highly unusual for such crime to take place in villages like St Magdaline purely because people live closely amongst each other,” Oliver sighed.
“But someone must have pointed you in this direction,” Augusta persisted. “Why?”
“Someone noticed a man behaving oddly and reported it. It was Mr Lawrence, or so we believe. He was watching a young woman who noticed he was following her. She grew scared and alerted the magistrate. Thankfully, she was able to describe her stalker exactly. The magistrate identified Mr Lawrence.” Oliver stopped when several women shook their heads. “I know what you are going to say but you have to understand that until we can have Mr Lawrence’s mobility issues checked, we are not prepared to just accept he is too frail.”
“How do you intend to check?” Charity asked. She was starting to unwind a little now that she had Angus before her, and she could feel the deep rise and fall of his rhythmic breathing benea
th her hand. It was the connective reassurance she needed right now.
“We have to try to see him moving around inside his house. If he passes a window without even a shuffle or a bent back when he thinks he isn’t being watched it is enough for us to suspect we are right,” Jasper said. “Which is why we need to watch the house.”
“And have you seen anything untoward?” Agatha asked, clearly expecting the answer to be ‘no’.
“I am afraid we have,” Jasper whispered. “Unfortunately, Angus is the one who has been on watch in this house the most. If he has seen something without realising it, he is just as much a target in this village as the young women the kidnapper usually snatches.”
“So being here has put Angus in danger,” Charity murmured.
“Being here has put you both in danger,” Aaron replied frankly.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Angus sat bolt upright on the table with such unexpected swiftness that several of the ladies screamed. He winced when the sound ricocheted around his head. The hand he lifted to his left temple shook far more than he would have liked, but that wasn’t the sole focus of his concern.
“Charity?”
Charity stepped forward. “How do you feel?” she asked softly.
Before she could do anything more than look into his eyes, Angus emitted a low growl, slid one hard arm around her waist and hauled her bodily against him. She landed against the broad expanse of his muscled chest with a small squeak of surprise but barely managed little more than a gasp before her lips were captured by the warmth of his.
Charity moaned. The feel of his lips against hers was delightful, or would have been, if it weren’t for the dozen or so pairs of eyes riveted on their every movement.
Cheeks fiery with embarrassment, Charity pushed against him and lifted her head. Her eyes were wide as they met his.
“You have hit your head,” she said by way of explanation for his boldness in the presence of so many witnesses.
“I know who hit me, or I think I do,” Angus murmured, making no apology for his behaviour. Tenderly, he lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. “How are you? I never made it back to fetch you.”