Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“I am not marrying her,” Jasper snapped.

“Yet,” Niall teased.

Jasper rolled his eyes.

“You were certainly keen to keep her,” Niall sighed. “I suppose that matrimony has to bite at some point.”

“Look, I just jumped into the river after her. You would have done the same thing if Oliver had been the one to send you to stop that oaf dragging her off. It doesn’t mean I have to marry the damned chit,” Jasper protested.

“But you do like her,” Niall replied.

“She is under our protection. We have protected worse than her,” Jasper argued.

“But you do like her,” Niall repeated knowingly.

Jasper grinned at him. “She is nice.”

“Just – nice.” Niall lifted his brows and waited.

“All right so she is bloody beautiful, and I am already deeply in love with her and we shall name our first son after you. Happy now?”

“That’ll do,” Niall smiled. “As long as you are certain, and don’t call him after Harry, that’s fine by me.”

Jasper rolled his eyes but wasn’t offended by his friend’s teasing. He knew that the matrimonial bug would bite him at some point, not least because he wasn’t anywhere near as averse to marriage as some of his colleagues. However, could he consider being married to someone like Molly? He wasn’t sure. She was young, but he had no idea how young. She was beautiful, but looks fade over time. It was her personality that he had to live with. If she had any annoying habits that he simply couldn’t stand she could be as pretty as she liked but wouldn’t get anywhere near him. Jasper doubted Molly could ever have any annoying habits that would grate on him. He was engaged by her, it was as simple as that.

“Where do you think she might have stashed it?” Jasper murmured.

Even though he had already checked it, Jasper watched Niall stick his head up the chimney to look again. As Niall returned to the room, he shifted to one side and dislodged a tile on the tiny hearth. Brows lifted, he carefully lifted it out of its slot and revealed a square hole no bigger than his fist.

“Do you think she put this here?” Niall whispered as he lifted a small coin pouch out of its hiding place and tossed it at Jasper who deftly caught it.

Jasper eyed its pitifully small contents and knew immediately that it was Molly’s.

“Unless the landlady is ripping her off, there is no way in Hell she would be able to remain here for the winter,” Niall grumbled when he saw just how much Molly had to live off.

Before either man could say anything else, the door to the room was abruptly shoved open and a decidedly disgruntled woman appeared in the doorway, a thin grey shawl wrapped around her ample shoulders.

“What are you doing in ‘ere? I didn’t let you in. I’ll call the magistrate. I ain’t running one of them places. This ‘ere ain’t a bawdy house for the likes of you. Get outta ‘ere,” she snapped.

“Do you own this place?” Niall demanded.

“What’s it to you?”

“Do you own this place?” Niall repeated, his face thunderous.

“No. My son does.”

“Who is he?” Jasper asked, his voice hard and unrelenting.

“Who is it to you? Now get outta here.”

“Who is your son?” Jasper prompted. “You may as well tell us because we shall find out anyway. We want a word with him about the state of his house. You do know that you are ripping people off charging them anything to live here, don’t you? I shall have you arrested for this.”

“What?” The woman’s rotund face turned belligerent.

“Theft.”

“I ain’t stolen nothin’,” the woman growled.