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

Even Angus, because he sighed heavily and waited for the inevitable pounding. He didn’t have to wait long.

“So why do you have him for breakfast?” Agatha demanded.

“I haven’t had him for breakfast,” Charity snapped.

Her cheeks blushed furiously when she realised how that sounded. She sighed when Gertrude began to chortle, and Alice gasped in shocked disbelief.

“I haven’t had him at all,” Charity added pertly.

“But he is here, dear. Now unless he is interested in your – tapestry – he must have a good excuse for being in your house at eight o’clock in the morning,” Edwina murmured silkily. “It is far too early for a gentleman to come calling.”

“I would hate to think that you have ventured out this early to try to prove I am a liar,” Charity frowned. “Or a wanton.”

She ignored Alice’s horrified gasp.

“Why, we should never do such a thing,” Augusta gasped in dismay.

“Good,” Charity snapped.

“On the contrary, my dear, we have turned out so early this morning to find out what is really going on. Gertrude, here, felt certain we were being followed last night when we went home, you see? I know for a fact that once I was inside my home, the man who tailed us through the village waited until Gertrude closed her door and then retraced his steps. I can see the end of this lane from my house and watched him disappear around the back here. If it wasn’t him, it was his friend.” She pointed one long, accusing finger at Angus, who shook his head in disbelief.

“My colleagues and I were making sure you ladies were safe, that’s all,” Angus warned. “There is a kidnapper on the loose, you know?”

“Yes, indeed. So how are we to know that you are not him?” Edwina demanded.

“I am trustworthy, I promise,” Angus growled for want of having to tell them the truth.

Angus had never felt so outnumbered or beleaguered in his life. He would rather be in the middle of a brutal tavern brawl than in a posh sitting room with a gaggle of inquisitive females. The urge to make his excuses and leave was strong. It was professionalism that kept him where he was. Professionalism, and guilt at the thought of leaving Charity to face them all alone. After all, she hadn’t asked for him to touch her the way he had. He hadn’t intended to present the ladies with an idea of something that most certainly wasn’t there.

Yet, a small voice whispered.

No, it cannot be yet. She belongs here. I don’t. Not with this lot, Angus thought churlishly.

“You may as well tell us because we aren’t going anywhere until we know exactly who you are, why you are here, and what it has to do with Charity,” Monika informed him.

“And why you were kissing her when we arrived,” Gertrude added.

“He wasn’t kissing me,” Charity lied. “Far from it.”

“Well, he must have really poor eyesight then because it looked as if he was struggling to see you,” Monika scoffed in her habitual forthright manner. “His nose was practically touching yours and you appeared to have something down your throat he was trying to find.”

“Jesus,” Angus whispered. His sigh was loud but there was little he could do to preserve Charity’s reputation. The promises he knew they were all waiting for, including Charity, he just couldn’t give any of them, especially Charity. That galled him.

Charity shifted and struggled to contain the urge to disappear to the kitchen to give her heated cheeks time to cool down. As it was, she found herself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Angus when he came to stand beside her.

It was with a sense of unity that she faced her friends.

“We are just working on trying to find the kidnapper and need Charity’s help that’s all,” Angus informed them reluctantly. “We are working on an official government investigation. I would ask you to keep everything you are told to yourselves. If you do speak about it, you will face arrest for interfering. Men’s lives are at risk here. If you talk, they could die, it is as simple as that.”

He refused to soften his stance, not even when Alice and Edwina gasped in horror and began to flutter about fretfully.

Agatha’s eyes popped wide. She looked about the room. “Men, you say? Where are they? How many are there?”

“Who are you?”

“Why have you chosen Charity to help you?”

“Are you going to arrest him?”