Fallen Hero (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 3)

“Have they done it before; tried to frighten someone out of their home?” Jasper asked in astonishment.

Sir Hugo nodded. “I have heard that Voss likes the high life. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any direct source of income. It appears that he has been living way beyond his means but has been getting his money from somewhere. Given Thomas had been visited on several occasions by Frederick, who had made it clear he is determined to get his hands on this house no matter what it takes, it stands to reason that Frederick is willing to commit crimes to get what he wants.”

“But Frederick doesn’t need the money, surely?” Elspeth replied.

“I am afraid Frederick also has expensive tastes, and has been living with a distant relation, an elderly lady he has an acquaintance with. Whether he is there willingly or has forced his way in, though, is unknown at present. What I do know is that his bank account is empty. I have sent word to the local group who works this area to keep an eye on the pair of them but have yet to meet with them to find out what they have uncovered.”

“Where is Thomas?” Elspeth whispered.

“I don’t know,” Sir Hugo replied sadly. “I am sorry, my dear. I strongly suspect that he isn’t in that grave, though.”

“What is in that grave then?” Niall demanded. “I mean, Elspeth went to the funeral, did she not? What the Hell did she bury?”

“Three thousand pounds,” Sir Hugo announced into the silence of the room. “I have no idea where Thomas is now. He made it clear to me that he was going to have to take drastic measures if Aaron couldn’t be found in time to help. He was distinctly worried because he had found a dead fox carcass on the doorstep with another death threat against Elspeth.”

“Fox?” Elspeth gulped.

“Wily, a predator, someone who has a fierce reputation but can still be ripped to shreds by the hunting hounds,” Sir Hugo murmured.

Elspeth clutched at Aaron’s hands as she battled a wave of sickness that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Thomas should have told me what was going on,” she whispered. “Why did he not tell me? Why did he let me go about my life without a care in the world? Anything could have happened to me.”

“You said yourself you don’t go into the village much. You were content to stay here and bake and look after the house,” Aaron murmured.

“When I did go into the village Thomas insisted on walking with me. He said he wanted exercise,” Elspeth whispered. “I didn’t stop to think there might be another, more sinister, reason for his company.”

“He was staying close. It is quite understandable that he grew worried for your safety in the last few weeks given the contents of these notes,” Aaron murmured.

“You all seem so calm and matter-of-fact about this,” Elspeth whispered. “How could he let me believe he was dead? I mean, I grieved for him. Does it not matter how much devastation that has brought me? There are people in this village that think he is dead. We held a funeral service for him, for God’s sake.”

The more Elspeth spoke, the more her fury began to burn. She was livid, not just with Thomas, but with Frederick and Voss for creating this mess. She was angry with Sir Hugo for not being willing to contact Aaron with Thomas’s concerns. She was angry with herself for not having had the slightest suspicion that something was so seriously wrong in the hous

e she had been living in. It had been going on right under her nose and she hadn’t had a single clue.

“God, you wait until I get my hands on him,” she hissed.

“Frederick?” Aaron asked, leaning back in his chair, at a safer distance from the bundle of feminine fury beside him.

“Thomas. I am going to give him a piece of my mind, I can tell you,” she ground out.

Aaron’s lips twitched as he fought a smile. He struggled to contain it. While he could understand her anger, to see her with her pale cheeks flushed with colour, a defiantly furious sparkle in her eye, and a positive vibration of disgusted temper reverberating through her, she looked so vibrantly full of life that in that moment, if he hadn’t been already, he would have fallen deeply in love with her. The reaction he had expected was for her to cry, wail and moan about how much grief she had been through. What she was instead, was coldly furious at the people who brought her so much misery. She wasn’t cowed by it either. Aaron had no doubt Elspeth would give Thomas a lambasting when he eventually did make an appearance, but he could find no sympathy for Thomas for any discomfort he faced.

God only knows what she will do with Voss and Frederick if they do happen to show their faces again. Aaron almost relished the chance of being nearby when that happened.

“Get in line,” Jasper grunted.

Sir Hugo looked at each of them. “I warned Thomas against doing anything illegal, but he refused to listen. He said someone had to do something because if the War Office and the Star Elite weren’t prepared to help he had to capture the fraudsters himself. He left in a temper, I can tell you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then that he had been?” Aaron demanded.

“You were in St Magdaline. I went to see the regional group to get them to start to investigate Voss and Frederick because that was considerably more important than trying to find you. You must understand, men, that trying to find you when you are undercover is damned near impossible even for me. It is a testament to just how good you are at what you do if even I can’t find you, damn it. When you did resurface there was the dire situation with Charity and Angus that had to take precedence because Charity was fighting for her life. There was, however, no physical threat toward Elspeth at that time, except for the letters.”

“Letters that threatened her life,” Jasper muttered.

“But she was still alive and well,” Sir Hugo argued.

“Nobody had actually tried to kill her,” Aaron admitted with a heavy sigh.