by Rebecca King
It was still difficult to believe that Thomas had left her completely penniless, but the latest bank account statement Elspeth had found revealed that just a few days before his death, Thomas had withdrawn a large amount of money from the bank. His entire fortune, in fact. Unfortunately, he hadn’t paid any bills with it. Those remained unpaid and now sat on the desk together with numerous threats and account closure notices. What he had done with the money that had been bequeathed to him by their father remained a mystery.
“If I knew what he had done with it, I would get my hands on it and would at least be able to eat,” Elspeth whispered in misery when her stomach rumbled hungrily.
She contemplated going over to the apple tree in the orchard at the end of the garden, and at least trying to eat one of the apples, but knew they were inedible. They were meant for cooking and were far too sour to eat off the tree. The last time she had tried to eat one they had given her stomach cramps and made her ill for days. Another few days of misery, pain and discomfort were the last thing she needed right now. In fact, she contemplated whether she should just eat several and be done with it. The result would be the same, although it would be a long, slow, lingering death.
“Not like Thomas’s demise,” Elspeth whispered sadly.
She had no idea what had compelled her brother to try to return home in the middle of the night like he had, and in a curricle of all things. The roads around the town of Cromley alone were dangerous not least because of the narrow roads, sharp inclines, steep declines and tight corners. But he had, and nobody had found him until dawn had given a local farmer a view of Thomas’s upturned curricle.
“We never even owned a curricle,” she hissed, wondering if that was what Thomas had spent some of his money on.
Quickly shoving all thoughts of her brother out of her mind, Elspeth buried her head on her arms and listened to the thunder. Step by step, minute by minute, it crept ever closer, its rumbling torment growing louder and louder in the silence of the midnight hour.
Elspeth was so immersed in her misery that she was unaware of the man who wandered around the outside of the house and did his level best to try to see into the property. The thunder boomed and rattled the sky over their heads with such fierce determination that Elspeth didn’t hear him try the back door only feet away from where she sat, or curse virulently when his determined attempts to get into the house were thwarted by the locks she had thrown when she had left.
Aaron stomped around the outside of the house and returned to pounding on the front door. He wanted to kick the damned thing down such was the force of his frustration.
“The upstairs window is slightly open,” Jasper murmured.
Aaron stepped back to look up. He smirked with relief when he saw the inch or so of space at the bottom of the window. He knew he could climb up there, but it would be difficult.
“Give me a hand?” he asked of Oliver.
“I will go up,” Callum offered.
Aaron opened his mouth to object only for Callum to grin at him and rub his hands together. It appeared he relished the challenge.
Oliver interlaced his fingers and cupped his hands in readiness for Callum’s boot.
“Stand back, old man. I am younger and lighter than you. Watch how an expert does it,” Callum drawled with a cocky grin.
Seconds later, he disappeared into the depths of the large house as silently as a wraith in the moonlight.
Aaron bit out a curse but shook his head in admiration despite his doubts about allowing his colleague – a stranger to Elspeth – into the darkened house she called home. If she was in that bed chamber sound asleep she would have a conniption at finding Callum climbing through the window. Thankfully, there were no loud screams to shatter the night air. Instead, the slight rattle of the front door made both Aaron and Oliver turn around in time to watch Callum bow and wave a long arm toward the interior of the house behind him.
“Would you like to come in, sir?” he intoned in the best imitation of a butler he could manage.
Aaron slowly entered the house. He knew instantly that Elspeth was not there. Not only was the house cold and damp, it had a decidedly empty feel that was distinctly uncomfortable. He looked all around as he walked deeper into each room that lined the main passage. As expected, each room was neat and tidy, and worryingly unoccupied.
He crept slowly up the stairs. There was nothing visually wrong, but he sensed that something was desperately amiss within the house. It was almost too cold, too empty, but also not as dank as one would expect if nobody had lived in the home for a month at least.
“I don’t like this,” Oliver breathed in his ear.
Aaron shook his head. Together, the men made their way through the upper floor of the house, and as Callum, Jasper and Niall searched each room downstairs for signs of life.
Minutes later, they all converged in the kitchen.
“Damn, I can hardly see,” Oliver grunted as he stumbled into the back of a chair. He rubbed his knee and scowled at the feeble candle on the kitchen table.
Aaron, with what little light he had, knelt before the fire and touched the ash.
“There are clothes in the cupboards upstairs,” Callum reported as he stumbled into the kitchen, fell down the step, and came to land on the kitchen table.
“Watch your step,” Jasper smirked.
“Are there no candles anywhere in this place?” Oliver grumbled.
“If someone has moved out, why have they left their clothing here?” Niall murmured with a thoughtful frown.
“Damn, this is damned stupid,” Callum grunted when he righted himself and began to fumble around for a chair. He scowled at the shutters beside him and yanked them open. Although it was dark outside, at least the occasional flicker of lightening worked with the feeble candle to give them all some idea of which pieces of furniture they needed to avoid.
Aaron began to rummage around in the cupboards for supplies.
“What strikes me is that there are personal effects still here, just no person,” Oliver said after several moments of carefully manoeuvring their way around the dark house.
“There are papers all over the study,” Niall informed them. “Bills, accounts papers, that kind of thing. She can’t have moved out of here.”
“Her clothing is upstairs,” Callum added. “She has to still be living here.”
“But how?” Aaron demanded as he slammed a kitchen cupboard closed. “There are no candles, there is no wood to light the fires and no food in the cupboards. How in the Hell has she been living here?”
“Will she have had her own stipend, or a trust or something she could live off until the solicitor is able to sort out the legalities of Thomas’s will? Will Thomas have seen to her financial welfare, or would he have just assumed that she has a trust somewhere that would provide for her?” Oliver asked.
Aaron sighed. “Thomas covered the bills out of his allowance. He didn’t mind because he adored his sister. I don’t know the terms of his will, but I doubt he would have left her destitute like this.”
“If she is living here, Aaron, she has to be moved before she starves to death. She won’t survive winter living like this,” Jasper warned.
Aaron nodded. He was bombarded by a complex mix of consternation, anger, frustration, and downright fear. The thought of anybody, especially someone as gentle and loving as Elspeth, living in such poverty was awful. It only heightened the anger he felt toward the Star Elite, particularly Sir Hugo, for not having gotten the urgent letter to him when he was supposed to.
“This is ridiculous,” he bit out. “Where could she be?”
“Did she have any friends or acquaintances she would have gone to?” Callum asked. He studied the cupboard he held open and thumped the door closed. “Nothing in that one either.”
Oliver appeared in the doorway with an empty candle box in his hand. Silently, he tipped it upside down over the table to show them all the solitary candle was the last one.
“I hate to say it but if someone has to live like this they may as well be dead. This house is nothing short of a box,” Niall grunted in disgust.
“She will have acquaintances in the village, but I don’t know who they might be. Thomas never really said much about her life other than Elspeth likes to cook and has run the house while he has been dealing with his investments,” Aaron informed them.
“What did he invest in? Who is his business contact?” Oliver asked.
“It will be in those papers on his desk, I don’t doubt,” Aaron sighed.
“How in the Hell are we going to read them if there isn’t any damned light to see anything?” Niall snapped in disgust.
“I think we have to consider that she is not here but is likely to come back. None of us are much use right now because we can’t see anything. If she does come back she can tell us what in the Hell has been going on around here. First thing in the morning, we all need to go and get some wood for the fire, some bloody candles so we can see, and food before we all starve to death. Then we can set about searching the papers in the office for clues to find out what in the Hell went so wrong for Thomas that it would leave him in such dire circumstances,” Aaron sighed.
“Wait.”
Everyone fell quiet while Jasper turned to study the trees lining the garden.
“What?” Aaron bit out when he saw Jasper’s scowl.
“I thought I saw something,” Jasper murmured absently.
“There is someone out there,” Oliver whispered.
The men immediately moved to either side of the large window in the kitchen so that they weren’t visible to the shadowy figure moving stealthily around the garden. Aaron edged backward and into the darkness but left the candle where it was. As silent as ghosts in the night, Niall and Callum disappeared deeper into the house. They would keep watch from the conservatory and the front of the property so that nobody was able to creep up on them.
The men stood and waited.
The figure cloaked in black moved around the perimeter of the garden with a confidence that was shocking. Either the person lived at the property and had nothing to hide, or the intruder was confident of not being seen. Whatever the reason the person wandered freely around the garden, they had taken strides to ensure their face was covered. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell if the figure was male or female such was the depth of the hood that engulfed the features of the phantom-like figure which almost glided through the shadows.
“Damn,” Oliver breathed.
“That isn’t someone who lives here,” Callum whispered. “They are too furtive.”
Everyone watched the figure make its way to the conservatory where a gloved hand tried the door. Aaron slowly clicked the lock on the back door but didn’t have the time to slide the bolt across before the latch lifted silently upward. The rattle of the door told them all everything they needed to know. Surprisingly, the figure had the gall to peer through the kitchen window even though the candle was alight to warn them someone was still up. Still, Aaron couldn’t see anything of the intruder’s features.
“Don’t bother to knock then,” Oliver breathed sarcastically.
Silently, the figure made its way around the house and checked each door and window to try to gain access to the property. The men followed and watched from the shadows until the figure, having checked the property for easy access, returned to the conservatory door and began to scratch at the lock.
Oliver motioned to Aaron to ask what he wanted to do.
“Get him,” Aaron ordered.
The intruder didn’t even have the chance to emit anything more than a gasp of surprise before the door he was trying to force open suddenly opened on its own. He looked up in time to catch sight of a stranger surging toward him. His backstep slammed him into the tall, unrelenting presence of a towering man who had been standing behind him and stopped him from running anywhere.
Before the intruder could even turn around he had men on either side of him. As one, the men lifted the intruder clean off his feet. He vanished into the house in one smooth, silent motion that was over so swiftly it might never have happened at all. Any noise that was made by the closing of the door behind them was immediately snatched by the raging of the wind and carried off to join the haunting wail of the continuing storm. Nobody who looked would have known the intruder had even been there. Nobody who cared would have had the slightest clue where he had gone, or what happened to him when he was inside the house.
The Star Elite did.
Once inside, the intruder found himself wrapped in his own hood, so he couldn’t see anything to make an escape. His hands were restrained behind him by tight bindings, which threatened to cut off the circulation to his hands if he struggled too much. He knew he couldn’t escape, not least because every time he moved the wooden chair beneath him creaked loudly into the heavy silence that fell all about him.
“Hello?” he called only to squeak with shock when someone began to fumble with his ankles. The intruder began to shake with the strength of the fear that pummelled him. “What are you doing? Let go of me.”
He tried to straighten his legs only to find them secured tightly to a chair as well.
“Let go of me at once,” he tried to command only for his voice to come out no louder than a pitiful wail.
Silently, the men from the Star Elite left the room and closed their captive in isolation to think through his situation.
Aaron took a moment before leaving the room to empty the man’s pockets. He dropped everything onto the kitchen table for them all to study moments later.
“Well, there is one thing for damned sure, that ain’t Elspeth in there,” Jasper huffed.
“Yes, but what I want to know is where in the Hell is she?” Aaron listened to the silence. For once, it was something he found no solace in. In fact, it heightened his fear for Elspeth’s safety to such a degree that he knew the seemingly innocent situation he had come to deal with for an old family friend had, within hours of arrival, turned sinister.
CHAPTER TWO
“Any ideas?” Callum whispered.
Aaron shook his head. “This doesn’t look like an ordinary burglar’s paraphernalia. A pair of gloves but not on his hands. A handkerchief, neatly pressed and folded. A few coins but not enough to purchase a ticket out of town, and what looks like half a chewed apple core.”
“Great, I am sure he is going to go far on that,” Callum snorted in disgust.
“His cloak is expensive,” Oliver mused aloud.
“So, we have a toff who likes to break into houses?” Niall asked. “Something is wrong.”
“I wonder-” Jasper paused but then looked cautiously at Oliver.
Nobody said anything but they all knew they were thinking the same thing. Aaron looked up at them when a distinctly wary silence settled over everyone.
“What?” he demanded.
“How long has it been since you spoke to Elspeth or Thomas for that matter?” Callum murmured.
“About six or seven weeks,” Aaron replied.
“Did Elspeth have any suitors, or someone who might have offered for her while you have been away?” Oliver whispered reluctantly.
Aaron’s stomach dropped to his toes. He pointed a finger at the kitchen door that led deeper into the house where their new captive sat. He wanted to protest that Elspeth wasn’t married, but he had his doubts. Elspeth was beautiful. It was only to be expected that she should have her fair share of suitors, and that at some point one of them would catch her attention and engage her affections.
“You don’t think that is her husband, do you?” he ground out.
All Aaron’s dreams for the future teetered worryingly on the edge of complete destruction. The thought of Elspeth being married to someone made Aaron want to find her, scoop her up and run all the way home with her. He wanted to rage against the thunderous sky, and shout at the Heavens for cheating him.
“He might be,” Jasper suggested carefully.
/> Aaron shook his head. “Thomas would have said something,” he protested.
“Not if he was dead,” Oliver snorted. “If she has faced dire straits, and he has come along at the right time with the right promises, it is not inconceivable he is now her husband.”
Aaron nodded. “There is no time like the present to find out, is there?”
Without waiting for his colleagues, Aaron turned to the door.
“Wait!”
Aaron sighed when he heard Jasper’s hushed tones. He lifted his brows and looked out of the window but from his position, the garden looked empty.
“There is someone else out there,” Callum whispered with a frown.
“Not again,” Aaron grumbled.
“Under the trees,” Jasper warned.
When another streak of lightning lifted the gloom, everyone studied the trees. The brief flash Aaron had of the garden highlighted a small bundle of black hidden beneath the bottom of a huge oak tree. It was small, but it was there.
“God in Hell,” Aaron whispered. “What now?”
Without thinking about what he was doing, Aaron pelted out of the back door of the house, vaulted over the low stone wall at the edge of the patio and raced across the garden. The closer he got to the bundle, and the more he realised just how small it was, the more he knew, deep in his soul, that it was Elspeth.
All sorts of scenarios ran through his mind of what could have happened to her to leave her in such a place in the middle of a storm, but he swiftly closed them all out for fear that he might not be able to find the strength to see for himself if she was alive or not.
Once at the tree, Aaron was painfully aware of the heavy pounding of his already battered heart as he cautiously lifted the hood of the cloak off her head. His hand shook with the strength of emotion that surged through him. Everything within him remained frozen in time as he slowly and carefully lifted the hood upward to reveal her face.
“It’s her,” he said when he saw her pale features in the gloom.