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

“Who will know immediately that something is wrong?” Angus asked as he stepped into the room.

He looked at the house across the road that Charity was openly studying. It seemed to fill the main sitting room window. His gaze flew to hers. Her face was far too blank to be believed. He knew immediately that she was up to something and didn’t like it one bit.

“Just stay away from there,” he ordered in a voice full of arrogant command.

“You have no right to tell me what to do,” she protested. “How dare you come in here and even try?”

“I dare because this is an official investigation,” Angus snapped. “He is dangerous. Don’t you understand?”

“Mr Lawrence is no more dangerous to me than my tapestry needle,” Charity retorted flatly. “I know you don’t believe me but just wait and see. He is unsteady at best, and certainly struggles to get about.”

“You have to stay away from Mr Lawrence and the man next door, whatever the Hell he is called,” Angus grunted.

He didn’t ask, his pride refused to allow him to. He allowed the silence to fall and hoped Charity would tell him. To his disgust, she didn’t.

“Charity, you have to understand, several young women just like yourself have been snatched off the streets of their villages in broad daylight. Their kidnappings have happened so swiftly, and with such little fanfare, that nobody has seen or heard anything untoward. No screams, no shouts for help, nobody has seen anybody in a struggle, nobody has witnessed any violent altercations. These women have simply vanished. Disappeared without a trace. We have been on this investigation for months now and have apprehended somebody only to find out that they have only been responsible for some of the disappearances related to their village. The kidnappings we are investigating have happened randomly, and on a far wider scale than most people realise. We have reason – strong suspicions – to believe that the man – Mr Lawrence – is the kidnapper. I cannot tell you how but the contact we used would never give us false information. It is therefore vital that you do not get involved in this in any way. Do you understand?”

“I know this village,” Charity replied obstinately. “While I acknowledge that the kidnapper is out and about and poses a very real danger to every woman out on the street, I have no reason to believe I am in any more danger today as I was yesterday when I walked home alone. I wasn’t accosted then, and Mr Lawrence lives just across the street. Nor have I ever been touched or interrupted going on any journey around here on any of the other occasions I have been out of this house after dark, or even in broad daylight for that matter.”

Frustrated, angry and more than a little perturbed at his lack of ability to get through to her, Angus stepped forward. Grabbing her shoulders, he bent down to look her straight in the eye. They were almost nose-to-nose when he began to speak in a voice made husky by the force of his emotion.

“I want you to stay safe,” he ground out.

“I will,” Charity assured him. “Last night taught me what a foolhardy rush into the quest for facts can do.”

She hesitated to tell him about what had happened outside for fear of proving him right. She suspected, however, he already knew. Tipping her head to one side, she carefully studied him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” she whispered in a voice that was confident. “You chased me through those woods.”

Angus neither confessed nor denied it.

He was so close that Charity could feel the delicate flicker of his breath slide across her cheeks as he spoke. She wanted to push, and demand he be honest with her but the answer was written in his silence. He was furious, of that she had little doubt, but she had no intention of sitting idly by while her home was occupied by men like him for a reason she knew was completely wrong.

“Mr Lawrence could not be responsible for those women being snatched,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

“What are you going to do if you are wrong?” Angus demanded. “You cannot come back to tell us how right we were once you have been snatched.”

“What happens to these women when they have been taken? Do you know where they go? Are they murdered? Or are they still alive?” It was even more preposterous to contemplate that Mr Lawrence was a cold bloodied murderer. “If you don’t know what their fate is how can you accuse someone like Mr Lawrence? He is frail. Do you not see that?”

“I know how it can look,” Angus argued. He sighed heavily when he saw the derision in her eye and knew they would forever remain at loggerheads over this. “Believe me, I do my job well enough to know a bit more than you.”

“What happens to them then? The women, I mean?” Charity persisted.

“We don’t know,” Angus hissed, his voice barely audible. “I just have no intention of allowing you to become one of them.”

“Not least because you are using my house to spy on people,” she snorted disparagingly. “It would make you look complete fools if I am taken, wouldn’t it?”

She could do little about the hurt that flooded her, along with the memories of what they had shared last night, and his parting words. They all came rushing forth and brought with them a strength of emotion that she struggled to contain. Her chin wobbled. Tears gathered on her lashes.

Angus’s hold immediately gentled.

“Charity,” Angus murmured. He scolded himself for being so stupid as to touch her again, and wanted to step away, preferably before he did something rash like kiss her once more, but he couldn’t move.

He wished he could warn her off the emotions coursing through him but was already lost to the temptation of her lips.

“Do you realise how much danger you are in?” he murmured, unsure if he meant from himself or the kidnapper.

“Angus.” Her poor attempt at mimicry fell