Emmeline smiled. She knew she should feel bad but, given the misery the Smidgley brothers had caused other people, especially the poor women they had kidnapped, she truly couldn’t find it within herself to feel even a faint hint of regret. She hoped they suffered.
“They are having their lives snatched as well,” Oliver murmured, sensing her thoughts.
“How do you do that?”
Gently, he traced a finger down the deep ‘v’ of her brow. “Because I think the same. It isn’t fair that they should not face the same stress and worry as their victims. However, their torment will begin when they wake up and find themselves in prison. Their torment will continue because they will then have no contact with the outside world, no control over what they do with their day, no idea of what is going to happen to them, no help from anyone, and no way out of the mess they are in. Moreover, they will not be able to talk to their loved ones, explain to anyone what has happened to them, and they will most definitely not be getting any sympathy. They will have enough rations to keep alive and that is about all they will have in the way of luxury. Given the misery they have caused their innocent victims, I think their sufferance is fair, don’t you?”
Emmeline nodded. “Most definitely.”
“Don’t ever feel bad about them. They have brought this upon themselves. Nobody has the right to steal someone else’s life. They will have a trial; will have a chance to put their voice forward, but given it is the Star Elite who have arrested them and put them behind bars in the first place, there is little likelihood of them ever being found not-guilty. Tonight is the first night of a very long period of confinement none of them will be able to escape.”
There was such rich satisfaction in his voice that it made Emmeline look thoughtfully at him. “Do you know something? For the first time ever, I think I understand why you do the job you do,” she murmured. “It must be satisfying to be able to put someone behind bars and know they are no longer in a position to hurt anyone.”
“It is. It doesn’t always go to plan, but the Star Elite never give up. We always succeed, one way or another, and always will do because we work together as a team. We give as much as we take, and we protect each other. There is nobody on the team I wouldn’t trust with my life, and who I wouldn’t fight for. It is what we do. Our lives depend on each man doing their job to the best of their ability and having the same ethos. I cannot conceive of doing anything else.”
“Nor should you,” Emmeline replied fiercely. “It is who you are. I know that now.”
Oliver pursed his lips at her. When he looked down at her, though, there was a gentleness in his gaze that belied the fierceness of his stringent declaration.
“We are going to get through this,” he growled suddenly.
Emmeline wasn’t sure if he meant the investigation or their romantic entanglement. She had no idea what she could say, but then words weren’t necessary because Oliver captured her lips with his and gave in to the raw need that neither of them could deny now that they were alone.
Time passed in a blur as they rode through the night. Neither of them had any awareness of their surroundings despite Oliver knowing it was a dangerous thing to do. He was incapable of putting Emmeline back onto her horse. He needed her next to him. While he wouldn’t admit it to another soul, while he had been inside the tavern, keeping his mind off her had been damned impossible. It had been his need to return to her as swiftly as he could that had compelled him to be as quick as he could be and that, in turn, had brought the capture of Ernest Smidgley and his thuggish friends to fruition far faster than it usually would. Now that he had Emmeline in his arms at last, Oliver didn’t want to let her go. Thankfully, though, he didn’t have to – at least until they reached the gaol.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The following month was the strangest yet most wonderful of Emmeline’s life. While she missed home terribly, she did adapt to the new life the Star Elite afforded her with far more ease than she had expected. Living with the Star Elite gave her everything she could ever want, and more besides. She never had to light the fire, shop, or do any of the heavy chores. The men shared them between them as they came and went at all hours of the day and night. Given she was the one at home, but had the least to do, Emmeline undertook the task of providing the men with meals they could eat when the did appear at the safe house which, thus far at least, still hadn’t been located by Smidgley.
“He is still asking,” Rhys informed the men at the table as he slid into a kitchen chair and began to pile his plate high with food.
“How many times has he been back to that tavern now?” Harry murmured with a smirk.
“I don’t know but the inn keeper is getting mighty annoyed with his persistence, but he is sticking true to his word and telling Smidgley the same story. So are the staff and patrons who were there that night as well,” Oliver grinned.
His appreciative gaze slid across the room to Emmeline. While he talked, he watched her moving about the kitchen preparing yet another pie for the men to eat. The entire house had undergone a transformation while she had been in residence and was now adorned with little feminine touches here and there. A small jar of roses sat on the dresser. An old bucket that had been filled with soil and several plants rested in the corner of the room. The dresser top was littered with freshly baked pies, cakes, and bread, all of which had been baked in a way that all anybody had to do was cut a piece off as they went about their day. The house even smelled wonderful, full of the homely scents of fresh baking and lemons, which Emmeline used to clean everything down.
Oliver shook his head when Harry held out a cake plate to him. “I am stuffed.”
Harry grinned and helped himself to a large chunk of luxurious fruit cake. For a few moments, a considerably more contented silence settled over everyone than Oliver knew there would have been had Emmeline not prepared such wonderful food for them. Not only that, but another batch of freshly washed laundry fluttered gaily on the make-shift washing line strung across the garden out front. Life for the men was considerably more luxurious with Emmeline around, of that there could be no doubt.
Privately, Oliver wondered if this was what married life was like. This domestic tranquillity brought about a peace that made him want to linger. It brought him a contentment that put a smile on his face, and a warm anticipation for nightfall. It was something else that he had never expected to feel. Oliver wondered what it would be like to know that when his day was ended, he would be able to follow his wife up to bed and show her how much he cared.
As far as he could see, married life wouldn’t be all that bad. It would certainly have more benefits than drawbacks. Emmeline certainly seemed content enough and was humming quietly as she washed yet more pots in the bowl next to the dresser.
Suddenly, Oliver’s quiet musings were rudely interrupted by the arrival of a clearly disgruntled Niall, who slammed the kitchen door behind him with enough force to make the freshly washed windows rattle.
“Sorry,” he muttered to Emmeline before hurriedly backstepping and yanking his boots off.
Oliver’s lips quirked again because he didn’t need to look beneath the table to know that nobody wore their boots inside the house anymore. Everyone’s feet were bare and tucked away neatly where they would cause nobody any bother, or Emmeline yet more work.
“Have you got anywhere?” Rhys asked, not stopping in the process of shoving another mouthful of beef pie past his lips.
“No. I don’t think any of us are going to get anywhere without Sir Hugo. Where in the Hell is he anyway?” Niall grumbled, sliding into a seat next to Oliver.
“He isn’t going to resurface for now. He is working on our traitor,” Oliver informed him. “That is all we need to know.”
“Well, we need his interrogative skills. Everyone is trying but Smidgley is not telling anyone anything,” Niall informed them all crisply.