A Spinster's Awakening (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 2)

“Come on,” Charity cried without thinking. “Let’s go after him.”

When Angus didn’t immediately burst into action, Charity, whose thoughts remained locked on finding out where their quarry was heading, stepped around him and raced out of the room.

To his horror, before Angus could do little more than blink, he was left staring at an empty room.

CHAPTER FIVE

Charity suspected Angus was right behind her somewhere. He would follow, if only so he could scold her for being so bold as to race out into the dark all alone.

Well, I am not alone. He will be here in a minute, she assured herself as she yanked open the back door.

With only half an ear cocked to the sound of movement behind her, Charity raced down the narrow garden path and out onto the disreputable cart track that ran along the back of all the houses.

Unsurprisingly, it was empty and dark, but in a strange way it was reassuring to know there was nobody about to see her. She was sure anybody who witnessed what she was doing would think she had lost complete control of her faculties. It still didn’t deter her from lifting her skirts and racing at an unladylike speed down the cart track toward the small road that led out of the village.

“Where are you going at this time of night?” she gasped as she ran after the dark shadow she had just seen leave the house next door to the Lawrences.

It is that Mr Horvat fellow, I am sure of it, she thought as she raced after him.

But while she contemplated the man’s identity, a small voice warned her that she needed to wonder what she would do if it wasn’t Mr Horvat she was chasing. What if it was a stranger? What would she say to them if they stopped and asked her what she was doing? What would she do if the man was dangerous?

To her disbelief, when she reached the end of the cart track, Charity turned right just in time to see the cloaked figure, completely oblivious to the fact they were visible, disappear into the small copse of woods that led to a field, and another larger wood on the outskirts of the village.

Without thinking, she started to follow only to realise that she couldn’t hear anything behind her. Warily, she stopped and looked at the cart track behind her. It was worrying to realise Angus hadn’t followed her. Instead, he had quite clearly chosen to remain inside the house or had gotten lost or something. Whatever had happened to him, he quite clearly wasn’t going to provide her with any protection if she ran into difficulties.

Charity’s stomach immediately coiled into a tight knot of nerves. Suddenly, her gung-ho approach to chasing the kidnapper didn’t seem such a wise idea. It was with renewed wariness that she turned to focus on the woods the man had disappeared into.

Should she go alone? What would she do if he jumped on her, or tried to accost her like he had the other girls who had been kidnapped?

But they were girls. I am six and twenty. That should make a difference, shouldn’t it?

Charity couldn’t be sure. The man was a criminal, and dangerous, and perfectly capable of sweeping a woman out of sight and making her vanish whatever her age. There was nothing to say he couldn’t do the same thing to her if he chose.

Charity contemplated what to do.

“Angus, where are you?” Of course, she received no answer. “Great. A wonderful support you have turned out to be.”

Maybe he hasn’t followed me because he wants me to be scared? Maybe he knows exactly who the man in the cloak is and that is why he has chosen not to follow?

Whatever the case, Charity knew she was going to have to face this all by herself. Should she therefore carry on and take the risk?

“I cannot go back without finding out something,” she whispered. “He may be going to meet with someone. It cannot harm to go and look.”

Charity had never been afraid of the dark before, and usually had no qualms being outside all alone whatever the time of day, or night. Given she was a single woman who lived all alone, in winter she had no choice other than to walk the street at night alone to get home. The alternative was to sit beside the fire every evening and not socialise. That was something she could never do. The tapestry group, as eccentric as it was, was far too important to her. The ladies of the tapestry group were the closest thing to family Charity had. Whatever she had to do, wherever they met, Charity would always meet with her friends.

“Well, I can pretend I am going home after one of our get-togethers, can’t I?” she muttered aloud.

Bolstered by this pretence, Charity set off for the woods.

Angus cursed bitterly. The urge to call out to Charity was so strong that he took to mumbling epithets beneath his breath to stop himself from yelling her name repeatedly at the top of his lungs and waking up the entire street.

“How in the Hell a woman in a skirt can disappear so bloody easily is beyond me,” he grunted, although that very sentiment was enough to send cold shivers down his spine. “It is exactly what the kidnapper does, but given what I have seen Charity do, can now understand how it is so easy for him. When a woman like Charity makes her mind up to do something she damned well does it. Doesn’t give a damn about the consequences, or those left at home to worry about her. Oh, no, as long as she gets to do what she damned well wants.”

“Talking to yourself again?” Jasper drawled with a grin. His teeth flashed white in the darkness so suddenly that while enshrouded in shadows he suddenly looked like a sinister set of teeth.

Angus cursed bitterly and explained, quite succinctly, what Charity had done.

Jasper’s face turned grim. “Well, she has to be around here somewhere.”