Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“Oh, well.”

“What?” Molly got no further before the world suddenly tipped upside down. She was suddenly given a close view of Jasper’s backside as she hung limply over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Put me down!”

“Afraid not,” Jasper muttered, a little appalled at just how light she was. He suspected there wasn’t much difference between Molly and her brother in terms of weight. She was so light he could feel the bones of her hips digging into his shoulder, but he refused to relinquish his hold. He signalled to Phillip, who left his seat and ambled over to them.

“Two behind. Tall with dark hair and that Denzel fellow,” Phillip murmured.

Together, the men ambled down the street in a casual manner that was in contrast the decidedly protesting female over Jasper’s shoulder. Silently, Phillip held out another pie. Jasper shook his head. After another minute or two, he carefully lowered a now flustered Molly to her feet.

When Molly felt the world swirl around her, she clung to Jasper’s broad shoulders.

“Eat,” Jasper ordered softly. He shoved a pie under her nose and waited.

Molly blinked at it. “For me?” she whispered with such reverence she sounded as though he had just handed her the world. The careful way she took it off him, with her eyes wide with wonder before she looked hesitantly at them both made Jasper and Phillip stare in disbelief at each other.

“Jesus, Molly,” Jasper hissed.

But Molly was lost to everything but the sumptuous bounty she had in her hand. Hungrily, she dug in with a gusto that was shocking to the men from the Star Elite who watched her consume the pie in half the time it would have taken them. When she was done, Jasper grabbed her hand and led her down the street.

“We are going to have to take another long route back to the safe house,” he murmured quietly. “When we get there, we are going to have a long talk about things, Molly Egerton, whether you like it or not.”

Phillip stopped off at a trader and purchased three large apples and re-joined them. Together, they ate the juicy fruit and walked down one street after another and another until Molly was thoroughly bemused by the many streets they crossed and then seemed to cross again.

“Do you have any idea where we are going?” she asked in disbelief when she looked up and down the same street that she was sure she had seen at least three times that morning.

“Might do,” Jasper mused. “Just keep walking.”

“This way,” Phillip suddenly announced.

Jasper nudged her into a narrow gap in between two shops that was barely wide enough to walk down. She had to shuffle sideways it was so narrow. Jasper and Phillip had to walk sideways because their shoulders were too broad for them to walk normally. About half-way down the alley, a small, partially open window stopped their journey. Phillip vaulted effortlessly onto the window ledge and hauled himself into the building. Rather than disappear, he held the window up while Jasper lifted Molly off the floor. Together, the men manoeuvred her into the building. By the time Molly had regained her balance in the narrow room, Jasper was with them and the window was closed.

Jasper looked at the street before he disappeared and watched Denzel amble past the gap without any clue where his quarry had vanished to. It was enough to have Jasper smiling when he turned to Molly.

“All right?”

Molly stared at the window and then at Jasper before she shook her head in disbelief. “How do you know where this takes you?”

“We know the area,” Phillip replied. “Do you think we would work these streets without having some contacts?”

“But-” Speechlessly she pointed to the window.

“It’s what we do. We can get out of here now without the oaf your aunt calls her boyfriend knowing. We are going to change and get into disguises and then amble out of here as different people.”

“Pardon?” Molly blinked at him but was led out of the room into the back room of a shop without anybody explaining their plans to her.

Phillip opened the door and whistled. Minutes later, an elderly man appeared with a wide, beaming grin on his face.

“Can you kit us out, Graham?” Phillip asked. He handed the man enough notes to make the man blink and then nod enthusiastically, but he hesitated when he saw Molly. “I don’t have any dresses.”

“A pair of breeches and a shirt will do,” Jasper assured him.

Molly blushed at what he was suggesting. “I could never wear such a thing.”

“Yes, you can. I am not asking you to wear it all the time, just until we get back to the safe house. Then you can put your dress back on,” Jasper assured her.

“Denzel and his associates will be looking for you, and us two. They are going to walk straight past who we become. Watch,” Phillip added with a confidence that was alarming.

Molly was certain that they were going to be discovered just as soon as they stepped out of the building. She was still adamant they would be noticed when she followed Jasper out of the building several minutes later, shockingly wearing a pair of young boy’s breeches, a pair of highly polished riding boots and a flat cap within which was her hair. When she caught sight of herself in the reflection of the shop mirror, she only partially noticed the bemused look of disbelief on Graham’s face as he watched them leave. She was more struck by the sight of someone she didn’t recognise staring back at her.