Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

Molly opened her mouth to argue when Jasper’s promise when they were in the carriage earlier rattled around in the back of her mind.

“Did Denzel lure you to London with a promise of getting out of Edith’s house once and for all? Did you come with him willingly, Oscar?” Molly asked quietly.

“No,” Oscar sighed. “I did tell him that I didn’t like him. I just had to leave, and was thinking about it, but then I got brought here instead.”

“Has Denzel seen you in that house?”

“No. I stayed out of the way while he was there.”

“So, he knows them then?”

“Yes. I don’t think Edith knows he has been lying to her either,” Oscar replied.

“Lying to her? How? Because he has said he doesn’t know anybody in London or where you might have gone?”

“No.” Oscar looked at her blankly. “Because he is married already.”

“Really?” Molly stared at him in stunned disbelief. “To who?”

“I don’t know, but he kept saying to the boss in there that the missus doesn’t know about his bit in Leicestershire. He made it clear that he would get rid of the old hag when he was done with her. I think he meant Edith,” Oscar replied with a frown.

Molly sighed. “Well, I am not going back to Leicestershire to tell her. I doubt she would believe me anyway.”

“We have to get out of here somehow,” Oscar whispered. “I don’t like how many questions they keep asking me.”

“But there is no reason why you shouldn’t answer them if you don’t have anything to hide,” Molly informed him.

“I don’t have anything to hide but they keep asking me as though they are trying to work out if I am lying. I am not going to get end up behind bars because of what Denzel and those people made me do. That is why this lot want to keep me here, isn’t it? So they can put me away for thieving.” Oscar looked positively terrified when he looked at her.

Molly wanted to argue, but deep in her heart had to wonder if that was indeed why Jasper and his colleagues wanted them to remain at the safe house. After all, they had told the men from the Star Elite everything they knew, and still weren’t allowed to go on their way. While Jasper had said the Star Elite would house them and provide them with an income when this was all over, he didn’t say how long that would be in place for, or what they would have to do when their support ended. Nor did he make it clear whether the bountiful accommodation would be gaol.

“It might be better if we leave sooner rather than later,” Molly mused. She only realised she had said that aloud when Oscar jumped up and threw his arms around her.

“I have missed you,” he murmured fervently as his thin arms tightened around her.

“Don’t you ever go running away from me again, do you hear? If we have any chance of surviving, we have to work together on this, and if you have lied to me then I suggest you tell me about it now before we leave here,” Molly urged.

“I didn’t lie,” Oscar protested.

When she leaned back to look at him, she read nothing but honesty in his eyes. She could only put the troubled expression that flooded his eyes whenever he talked about his life on the street down to the fact that Oscar knew right from wrong. He knew that what he had done, whether willingly or forced, would get him into serious trouble.

“Can we leave?” Oscar pleaded.

“Yes, I think we should,” Molly murmured. “But we have to do this properly and plan what we are going to do. We need to decide where we are going, and what we are going to do about getting money to get there.”

“Where?” Oscar demanded instantly.

“Anywhere. Name it.”

Oscar squinted at the ceiling. “I want to live beside the seaside.”

Molly began to smile at the resurgence of his childlike enthusiasm. The last time she had seen it had been when their parents had been alive. That felt like many moons ago, another lifetime in fact. They had both changed considerably since then, and it wasn’t altogether for the better.

“Tomorrow?” Oscar prompted.

“Tomorrow, and to the seaside it is – somehow,” Molly mused.

“I will get us some money,” Oscar promised with a knowing smile.