Betrayal of Innocence (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 1)

“Geraldine’s,” Vanessa replied quietly.

“Is there a cellar or something?” Justin asked. Even the cupboards on either side of the fireplace were empty. What was tucked away neatly inside was masculine in nature with very little evidence of any feminine involvement.

Vanessa shook her head.

Justin sighed and stared thoughtfully out of the window for a moment. His gaze turned to the out-buildings.

“We need to search those,” he growled.

“Do you believe me now? Don’t you find this a little odd seeing as Geraldine is supposed to have been kidnapped, and could be found?”

Justin hated to say anything without proof to support his theories but was starting to believe Geraldine had left the house of her own accord. Not least because everything that was left was neat and tidy, and not dishevelled, or upended as one would expect if things had been moved about hastily. The house was bare, but tidy. It didn’t point to a fraught husband having removed his wife’s belongings quickly. Something wasn’t right, he just had no idea what. It was damned unusual, though, for there to be none of Geraldine’s possessions in the house, except heavy items of furniture she would be unable to move alone.

It wasn’t unusual for a woman to disappear with a lover and not say anything to her family, not least because of the scandal it might cause. Vanessa had already said that Geraldine was unhappy; was her displeasure with her marriage down to a lover making her happier than her husband?

“Don’t make assumptions,” he warned as he swept past her and began to look around the rest of the house again.

“Well, what do you think happened then?” she demanded, her fists clenched with frustration.

She followed him through the kitchen to the back door. The distance between them seemed to grow and it w

asn’t just physical. She mentally began to back away from him, nudged into greater distance by disappointment. She realised she didn’t know him at all. It had been foolish to allow him the liberty of kissing her. So much so, she began to wish it hadn’t happened at all, but this time for a completely different reason.

CHAPTER NINE

“We need to get out of here,” Justin growled once they were outside.

Vanessa’s stomach sank to her toes when she heard the low rumble of Curtis’s cart over the cobbles of the courtyard.

“He went to fetch his transport,” Justin hissed. “Damn it.”

He glared at the fields around them, wishing they contained something they could use for cover. But there was nothing. The field had been mowed recently, leaving not even tall grass they could hide in.

“We could go back inside,” Vanessa whispered.

Justin was already shaking his head. Not only did he not want any more temptation presented to him in the form of several hours alone with Vanessa in a bed chamber, but Curtis may not leave the house until dawn. They couldn’t take the risk that they might get stuck inside the house, unable to creep out, or worse, get caught inside if the man did a more thorough search of his property. He would have some explaining to do if Curtis called the magistrate.

“Let’s get over this wall. There isn’t anything else we can do. We can then skirt around here, over to the back of the barn.”

To their disbelief, the cart began to move again and promptly left the yard. Minutes later, they watched Curtis drive back down the cart track toward the village.

“I have no idea,” she murmured when Justin looked at her askance.

“Wait!” Justin grabbed her arm when Vanessa tried to walk around the end of the house toward the yard.

Vanessa gasped when, within a heartbeat, she found herself pressed intimately against him once more. A shiver of awareness swept through her when she felt his arms slide around her. It wasn’t just the speed in which he moved that threw her off balance, it was the way he swirled her around until their positions were reversed so he provided a physical barrier to whatever had worried him in the yard. Tentatively, Vanessa stood on tiptoe and peered around the broad width of his shoulder.

“It’s a woman.” Justin described the young woman who had alighted Curtis’s cart, and was now making her way, albeit slowly, toward a long, low barn on the opposite side of the farmyard.

“That’s Lisa, the milk maid,” Vanessa whispered.

Justin lifted his brows at her when he heard the decidedly dispassionate tone of her voice.

“You don’t like her?”

“She has a reputation in the village,” Vanessa murmured distastefully.

Justin bit back a smile. “As what?”