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

One by one, the men melted into the trees, and fanned out. In a wide arc they circled around until they converged on the path several feet behind Oliver, and in doing so searched the trees to flush out anyone behind them. Justin could only hope it wasn’t Vanessa.

It wasn’t.

It was Reuben.

“Now what are you doing here?” Justin growled.

Reuben let out a small screech and jumped out from behind a bush when Phillip silently appeared behind him. He looked at the men in panic. Without uttering a word, he spun on his heel and stumbled off. Niall went to grab him only for Justin to lift a hand in warning.

“Just leave him. He is probably curious to know what we are up to. We are the strangers we have told him to keep an eye out for,” he sighed.

“Is everyone in this damned village so odd or have they saved it all for us,” Niall murmured minutes later when they arrived at the bluff overlooking the farm.

From their position they could see down into the farm yard and had a perfect view of three sides of the house. The men watched the milk maid look down the path toward the cart track. Assured she was alone, she removed a key from her pocket and unlocked the front door to the house. Once it had closed behind her, the men looked at each other.

“Now why would an employee have a key to their boss’s house?” Niall growled.

“What is she doing in there?” Justin grunted.

“Well, there is one way of finding out isn’t there?” Oliver led the march down to the farm yard. They moved so swiftly nobody would have seen them from the farm house. The maid certainly didn’t. Not even when they converged on the front and back doors of the property. Thankfully, she hadn’t seen fit to lock the door behind her.

Justin entered first, swiftly followed by Phillip and Aaron. They stood in the doorway to the sitting room and watched the milk maid rifle quickly through a dresser drawer for a moment. Lisa was so intent on what she was doing she didn’t notice she was no longer alone. Rather than interrupt her, Niall went to let Jasper and Callum into the house. They began to search the rooms for Geraldine’s belongings, just in case there was something Justin had missed when he had searched earlier.

Justin kept an eye on the maid. When she had finished searching the last of the drawers, she slammed it closed with a heavy thud and whirled around to look at the other items of furniture in the room. It was then that she looked up and saw the men watching her. She recognised Justin immediately.

“What are you doing in here?” she demanded stoutly.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Justin replied. “Breaking and entering is illegal, you know. So is rifling through your boss’s belongings when you know he is not around. Does he know you are going through his things?”

“Who are you? Get out of here at once,” the maid replied.

“I am afraid that until we can contact the owner of this property and ask her if she has given you permission to be in here alone to rifle through her things, you are going to have to go to the magistrate to explain your behaviour,” Justin warned.

“I haven’t taken anything,” Lisa blustered hastily.

Justin knew from the way her fists clenched that she had intended to. There was an angry glint in her eye that was almost panicked, as though she had something to hide. He suspected he knew what it was, but it had nothing to do with Geraldine.

“Does he know you have been stealing from him?” he asked casually.

At first, he wasn’t sure the maid was going to reply.

“I haven’t taken anything,” she repeated. “You have got nothing on me.”

“But you were going to,” Oliver challenged.

“Prove it,” she snorted.

“We don’t have to,” Justin replied. “You have to prove to the magistrate that you weren’t here to steal anything.”

“You have no authority to make me go to the magistrate,” the maid snapped. “Now get out of this house or I shall have you arrested for trespassing, whoever you are.”

“We are working for the magistrate,” Oliver informed her. “We have permission to go anywhere we please given we are investigating the disappearances around here.”

The maid snorted. “That’s over in Derbyshire.”

“Have you not heard about Jemima?” Justin snapped.

“She was a nincompoop,” the maid retorted flatly.