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

“How old is he?” Angus asked.

“About mid-fifties. He is short, wiry, yet looks fit and healthy. He would have no problem dragging young women about,” Monika replied with a firm nod.

“Oh dear, do we have to talk about this? How distressing,” Alice cried.

“It is what is going on around here,” Augusta declared matter-of-factly. “You cannot be oblivious to it. This is happening right in our village. We have to know what is going on, if only so we know to keep ourselves safe.”

“The best way to do that is to not discuss this with anybody,” Angus reiterated, a little fed up at having to keep repeating himself. He knew he was getting nowhere because the ladies were all looking at each other and not paying him the slightest bit of attention.

Monika suddenly pierced him with a knowing stare. “If you want to catch the culprit, you need to keep an eye on Mr Horvat. He is more likely to be responsible. Even more so than Phillip Lawrence in my opinion.”

“I would keep my eye on them both if I were you,” Augusta suggested.

“I think we have to keep an eye on both of the blackguards,” Alice announced.

“I think we have to come up with a reason why our dear Ang

us is coming and going from this house,” Augusta murmured, eyeing Angus as though he was a juicy rump steak.

Angus scowled. He didn’t like being called ‘our dear Angus’ by anyone.

“I say we all have a nice bit of cake and discuss what we are going to do,” Augusta suggested.

“But its only nine o’clock in the morning,” Angus protested, feeling sick at the thought.

“Oh, there is never a bad time to have cake. I have brought a nice fruit cake with me. How about we all have a slice while we discuss how we are going to go about catching this brigand?” Gertrude suggested with a contented smile.

“We aren’t going to go about anything,” Angus growled. “I will have you arrested if you try.”

“But we must come up with a plausible reason for you coming and going from the house and treating it as your own, without your name being romantically linked with our Charity’s. That way, when it is time for you to move on, her reputation will be intact. You can follow Mr Horvat wherever he goes, and nobody will suspect that you two have been - close,” Augusta said carefully.

Edwina nodded. “We know a lot of people in this village who will be curious. If people ask any of us, whom they know are close to Charity, and we all tell the same consistent story, who will doubt us?”

Monika nodded. She threw Angus a false commiserating look that was full of a somewhat malicious glee. “There is no better way to create a cover story and have it stick than get respectable members of the community like us to spread it about a bit.” When Angus opened his mouth to protest, she lifted a hand to stave him off. “Whenever we are asked, of course.”

“Oh, of course. It doesn’t do to gossip too much,” Edwina gushed.

Agatha, who had disappeared off into the kitchen, promptly returned with a stack of plates, and several forks, which landed on the side table beside the door with a clatter.

Seconds later, Angus found himself sitting in a high-backed chair beside the roaring fireplace. He eyed the thick wedge of fruit cake resting on the plate in his hand warily while he listened to the ladies concoct a credible story that would explain his presence in Charity’s home. They did so with an inventiveness that was alarming. He was so bemused by what he witnessed that he jerked guiltily when Agatha asked him if he didn’t like her cake. To appease her, Angus absently took a forkful and began to munch.

He was still eating when Aaron, Oliver and Jasper found him ten minutes later.

“Comfortable?” Oliver asked. His brows lifted incredulously at the sight of his decidedly comfortable colleague lounging negligently amidst a gaggle of females.

Angus slid the now empty plate onto the table at his elbow and leaned forward. “I think you had better come in and listen to what the ladies have to say,” he said carefully.

There was an air of defeat about him that made Jasper cough to hide his laughter. He too became bemused at the deftness in which he was burdened with a plate of cake and ushered into a high-backed chair beside Angus. Oliver, equally stunned, was nudged down into a chair on the other side of him.

“No, really,” Oliver protested when an elderly lady shoved another piece of cake at him. “I have to get to work. It is my turn on watch.” But he was ignored, and swiftly found himself staring blankly down at another piece of cake.

“We all think you should concentrate on Mr Horvat,” Monika declared boldly. “He is more likely to be your culprit, and it has nothing to do with him being foreign. You need to find out what happened to Mrs Browning. It is strange, is it not, that Mr Horvat arrives at the same time that girls go missing?”

“It is far too co-incidental,” Alice agreed.

“Thank you for your suggestion, ladies,” Oliver assured them diplomatically. “We will check it out. Meantime, if you think of anything else, please tell one of us. Please don’t go about blaming Mr Horvat just now, though. None of us have any proof he is guilty of anything.”

“You are not to try to find any proof either,” Angus warned.