Cold Comfort (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 5)

“Why, yes, I am sure,” Emmeline replied, wondering why he was asking. “What does that matter?”

“We don’t want them making a great hullabaloo with the locals about your disappearing,” Jasper growled.

“Well, I am off,” Harry announced suddenly, shoving back from the table and striding across the kitchen to the door. “I will replace Callum and be back later.”

“I am off to replace Will,” Rhys declared before he followed him.

One by one, the men left the room until Oliver and Emmeline were left alone.

“Now what?” Emmeline asked.

“Now, I will show you to your room and then we are going to go through a few manoeuvres you could use should anybody try to accost you.” Oliver shoved away from the table and watched his colleagues ride out of the yard. For a moment, he wished he had the authority to order one of them back to show Miss Elkins everything she needed to do to thwart a physical attack, but he knew it wouldn’t do him any good even if he tried. His colleagues had made it perfectly clear that he was on his own with the delightful Emmeline Elkins, and that was undoubtedly going to lead to trouble.

“Damn,” Oliver hissed.

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.” Oliver sighed and turned toward her. “Let me show you to your room and then I will meet you outside in the yard.”

Everything that happened in the next half hour went by in a blur. Emmeline was shown to a room at the rear of the property which overlooked a large stable block. She barely had the chance to unpack her belongings before Oliver slammed out of the house. She watched through the window as he hurried across the yard and slid open two huge barn doors before disappearing inside. Taking this as her cue that he was ready to show her what she needed to know, Emmeline hurried out of the room.

“Oliver?” she called seconds later when she appeared in the barn doorway. She stopped and peered into the gloom but there was no sign of him. It was so dark inside, that she couldn’t see a blessed thing. More importantly, she couldn’t hear him either. “Hello?”

Wondering if she had missed him, Emmeline turned to look at the yard behind her. She didn’t get the chance to utter a squeak before a hand slammed over her mouth and she was lifted off her feet. Within seconds, she found herself standing in the middle of the darkened barn.

“Do you see how easy that was for me?” Oliver growled.

If he was honest, even he was a little shaken by how swiftly he had managed to snatch her. Although he had only taken her a couple of feet, she was still somewhere she hadn’t wanted to be, and she hadn’t made any noise.

“Jesus. Don’t do that,” Emmeline hissed. “That scared me.”

“It was meant to,” Oliver replied. “Do you now understand how Caroline and all those other women came to be snatched so readily? If you were walking down the street, and there weren’t all that many people nearby, nobody would notice you had gone.”

Emmeline felt sick. “But how did they get those poor women out of the area?”

“How do you think they intended to get you out of the area?” Oliver countered. “Think about those two thugs who turned up this morning at your house. They would have been seen if they had carried you screaming and kicking down the road. However, if you had been walking down a narrow country lane, with nobody nearby, that carriage could have pulled up, those men could have reached out and snatched you just as easily as I have just now, and you would have been dragged inside the carriage and carted off within seconds. You would vanish almost instantly. There are thousands of carriages like theirs up and down this country. Nobody would think anything of seeing something like that rumbling through their village.”

“It’s horrifying,” she whispered.

“I don’t mean to scare you, but I want you to be aware that you cannot stop them if two of those thugs arrive to fetch you in a carriage like theirs again. There are, however, certain things you can do to make any attacker’s life difficult,” Oliver assured her with a grin. “Besides use your skillet.”

“Like what?” Emmeline almost dreaded to ask but was curious. She wanted to know what she could do because the possibility of being snatched by a real kidnapper was horrifying. Oliver had done it with such silent precision that she hadn’t stood a chance, and it was terrifying to think that someone – anyone – could do it again.

“I need to know, Oliver,” she prompted when he continued to stare at her as if doubting the wisdom of showing her.

“I know, but I just don’t want to worry you unduly. You are going to be safe with us,” he murmured.

Emmeline offered him a sad smile. “But you are not going to be around forever. I have to be able to look after myself when you are gone.”

Something began to tighten in the centre of her chest and made her eyes water. It took a few moments for that wild stinging in her eyes to disappear. She knew what caused her tears. The thought of the men riding off to continue their investigation and leaving her alone in her house was something she dreaded. Until now, Emmeline hadn’t realised just how much of her life had been taken up worrying about her sister. Now that Caroline was no longer around, Emmeline had no idea what she was going to do. It was a sobering thought because she knew the prospect of finding a more fulfilling life was dire, not least because to fill it with anything meant she had to find someone to share it with. That was going to be impossible now that she had met Oliver because she really didn’t see anybody ever matching up to a man like him.

Oliver was strong, capable, dependable, of that there could be little doubt. But he had a dangerous lifestyle and a yen for adventure that had, over the course of time, given him an aversion to the burden of marriage. That, as far as Emmeline was concerned, put them worlds apart, even though it did little to stop the attraction she felt for him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

An hour later, Emmeline was struggling to prise Oliver’s hand off her wrist. She huffed and puffed and bent over so his arm was stretched across her while she tugged and pulled. He grinned and held her firmly seemingly with little effort while she struggled to get him to loosen his grip. Eventually, as he held her, she studied the tightness of his fingers on her wrist and tried to think about her situation logically.

“Logic is the answer to everything,” he murmured, as if reading her thoughts.