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

“We are going after Rupert as well?” Harry asked.

“Yes. We are going after Rupert too, but only when we have made Ernest vanish. He likes to gamble, and drink. The next time he goes to the Red Lion, I am going to be there to make sure that he is going to wake up with one Hell of a sore hangover that he will have to nurse in a cold, damp cell somewhere.”

Oliver sighed heavily not least because the news about Sir Hugo was both good and bad. While it warned him that Sir Hugo was now deep undercover and doing his bit to ensure that those in positions of power in the War Office were being investigated, it also meant that Oliver was now required to take the lead in the investigation and capture of the Smidgley brothers by himself. If that wasn’t bad enough, because it was a position he had most definitely not wanted, he now had to do so while fighting the irresistible lure of a delightful young woman upstairs who made him want things that were far too distracting for his peace of mind and everyone’s safety.

Moreover, I must do this while making sure Emmeline is safe. The last thing I could ever allow is for her to get hurt.

Oliver knew he had to pull off a miracle to get everyone through this investigation alive. For the first time in his entire Star Elite career, he began to doubt the capabilities of his men. They were, after all, human beings first and investigators second.

“I think we have to reconsider using Emmeline to lure Smidgley out of hiding. Look at how easily they got to her the last time. We don’t have time to babysit her, and don’t have anyone to support us if anything goes wrong. She has to go home, or to visit a relation or something. She has to go somewhere far away from us.” Rhys’s voice rang out stringently across the kitchen.

“She isn’t going to lure Smidgley out of his house now,” Oliver confirmed. “You are right, Rhys. Rupert Smidgley must be the one we go after once we get Ernest off the streets. It is about time we took the reins of control very firmly out of their slippery hands and went on the attack.”

“Yes, but what do we do about Emmeline? We cannot just abandon her in a safe house, especially somewhere we don’t know,” Harry argued.

Oliver sighed and ran a weary hand down his face. “Ronan wouldn’t give us this address to use if he wasn’t confident it would be safe. We just don’t have the men to look after her so we have to take a chance she will be all right. If we move base first, we can make sure it is as safe as Ronan promises and then go after Smidgley. I have shown Emmeline enough for her to know what to do if anything does happen while I have gone, but I am sure it won’t. We just don’t have any choice gentlemen. We must make the best of a bad situation and make do with the resources we have at our disposal. Because we don’t have the manpower, we cannot provide her with protection, can we? What we cannot do is simply abandon her.”

“Then we have to take her to the tavern with us. If she is in disguise, you and she can have a drink while-”

“No!” Oliver glared at Rhys. “While she has to stay with us now, Emmeline is not going to get involved in our investigation, and that is the end of it.”

Rhys slid a look at Harry, who shook his head. Although his movement was slight, Oliver caught their look and heaved a sigh.

“I am not too deeply involved. I am just erring on the side of common sense. Look at it this way, we must get Smidgley out of the tavern as fast as possible once we take out his guards, and friends. We can make sure they are all drugged and rendered unconscious, but we will have to move quickly to get them to gaol before the drugs wear off. We cannot do that if we take Emmeline because she isn’t used to moving at our speed. She might hesitate when we need her to act quickly, and it could get one of us killed. We cannot take the risk. We know what we need to do. If we stick to the plan we can get in there, drug the drinks, get Smidgley and leave again before even the tavern owner knows anything is wrong. By the time anybody wakes up, Smidgley will be in gaol and will have simply vanished.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Harry sighed, rolling his shoulders which had started to ache under the tension. “What drug are we using?”

Oliver smirked at him. “Leave that to me. You just think about which route we are going to take that avoids Smidgley Hall but that is easy enough to traverse with an unconscious prisoner. We have to be quick when we have him because if we are followed we need an escape route.”

While the men began to plan their operation, Emmeline stared blankly at the wall opposite.

The men from the Star Elite are observant all right. I was able to creep up on them and hear every word they said and none of them noticed I was here.

She heaved a sigh and glared at the partially closed kitchen door. It was difficult to know what to think but she felt more than a little hurt that the men considered her a burden; someone they felt driven to look after. It was odd to hear them talk about her as if she was more of a commodity, something of use to them than a person with thoughts and feelings of her own. She had wanted to storm in there and rage at them to stop treating her as if she was useless, but when they began to plan their mission, she knew she was useless. She had no knowledge of the area that would give them a suitable escape route because she had never needed to race off across the country with an unconscious man. Moreover, she had no idea who the Smidgley brothers were beyond their rather cruel reputation. She didn’t know which establishment they frequented, who their connections were, or what on earth they wanted with her, or Caroline for that matter.

“I need to leave here,” she whispered, suddenly wishing she had not even answered the door to Oliver when he had called to see her the other day.

That had happened only the other morning. It already feels as if it happened several months ago.

So much had changed in a very short space of time that Emmeline almost dreaded tomorrow and the further changes it was going to bring.

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nbsp; CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“What’s that?” Emmeline asked the following morning when she reluctantly entered the kitchen to find a commotion by the doorway.

Several of the men were standing over something on the doorstep, blocking her view of what had caught their attention. They were so engrossed in what they were looking at they barely noticed her.

“It is nothing,” Oliver warned when she approached.

Emmeline studied him and knew he was lying. There was most definitely something going on. She found out what it was when Harry bent down and an arm flopped lifelessly across the threshold. Emmeline’s gasp was loud in the rather grim silence that had settled over everyone.

“It’s another body, isn’t it?” she whispered.

Oliver nodded. “Stay here. There is no reason for you to see her.”

“Its another victim?” Emmeline cried. “Where did you find her? What is she doing here?”