Runaway (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 4)

“What were you planning the other night then?” Sir Hugo asked.

“What we are going to do when this is all over. I don’t want to stay in London. It isn’t the place I want Oscar to be either. While he has survived life here, he is going to be inclined to use the dubious skills he has attained while he has been here in the future and that will get him put behind bars, I don’t doubt.”

“It will get you both put behind bars should you try it,” Sir Hugo warned.

“I don’t steal,” Molly bit out.

“So, how did you come to have this in your room then?”

Molly’s eyes widened when Sir Hugo lifted a hand out of his pocket. A long, heavily ornate bracelet hung from his fingers.

“That’s not mine,” Molly protested. “I don’t know how that got there. I wouldn’t steal anything like that.”

“What’s wrong? Is it not to your taste? Maybe you know someone who will pay a pretty price for it though, eh?” Jasper argued.

“I didn’t steal it.” Molly glared at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

Jasper rounded on her. “So, how did it come to be in your room then?”

“I don’t know,” Molly whispered.

Her thoughts flew in several different directions at once. She was unable to come up with an adequate explanation. Molly wondered if Oscar was behind it but couldn’t lay the blame on him to the men. He was in enough trouble already.

“Marilyn put it in here,” she offered.

“Now, why would she want to accuse you or Oscar of theft?” Jasper sighed.

He had no idea what he should be thinking. It was damned difficult to think of anything past the wild rage and hurt that was thrumming through the centre of his chest. Jasper never wanted to feel like this at the best of times, less so when it was about Molly, who had the propensity to turn him inside out every time she looked at him. He wanted to believe her, not least because he liked her and didn’t trust Marilyn, but it was difficult given how she seemed determined to run away.

“Tell me the truth, Molly,” he demanded, his tone imperious.

Molly’s heart began to ache.

He thinks I am nothing more than a common criminal.

“You have clearly made your minds up,” Molly whispered. Even though these men could throw her behind bars if they had a mind to, she defiantly refused to argue with them. “I didn’t take that bracelet either for myself or anybody else, nor did Oscar. I have no idea why Marilyn would want to make us look like thieves, but we aren’t. I am sure that whatever Oscar did when he was in Rigley Row, he was forced to do it. He was never brought up to be a thief or a liar. Neither was I. If you are willing to believe Marilyn rather than me then that is what you will have to do.”

“Why would she want to set you up?” Jasper challenged.

When Molly turned to leave the room, Jasper grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her around to face him.

“Tell me you weren’t planning on sneaking out again,” he demanded. He shook her when she merely looked blankly at him. “You were, weren’t you? You were planning on running away again.”

Molly tipped her chin up. “We aren’t criminals but you blame us without evidence. Finding that in here doesn’t make me a thief. You need to ask Marilyn why, out of everyone in this house, she wanted to accuse me of stealing something like that. Why me? Why not you, or one of the other men, or even Oscar?”

“She has a point,” Sir Hugo murmured.

He fingered the bracelet in his fingers and studied it for several moments before he dropped it into his pocket.

“Its real, all right, and worth a pretty penny. I need to do some work to find out if anybody has reported anything like it being stolen to the magistrate,” he sighed. He lifted his brows and looked pointedly at Molly. “While we don’t have enough evidence to arrest you for this, I would strongly advise you against running. It will make you look guilty for stealing it, even if you are innocent.”

He left the room and closed the door behind him. Neither Molly nor Jasper moved until the quiet within the room was broken by the gentle click of the door being shut. Molly’s shoulders burned where Jasper still held her. Rather than shrug him off, she tried to step back only to find his hold unrelenting. Their eyes met. The room around them faded until there was just him and her. A wealth of hidden meaning began to thicken the tension. Jasper hated it. He hated the way her gaze slid away, as though she didn’t want him reading her thoughts.

“Why don’t you trust me? Have I not helped you?”

“You have a job to do, though, don’t you? I am just a part of that job.” Everything within Molly wanted, ached, yearned for him to deny it.

“Did you steal the bracelet?” Jasper whispered.