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

Angus gently tipped her chin up and placed a loving kiss upon her lips. It wasn’t sexual or driven by desire. It was a tender confirmation that they would be all right. Whatever the future lay in store for them both as individuals and as a couple, Angus now had little doubt that he would forever be a part of Charity’s life and knew, with absolute certainty, that she felt the same way.

Charity settled against him when Angus lay back down. She listened to the rhythmic thud of his heart for so long that she felt certain it echoed the heady thump of her own. It seemed to confirm that their hearts, which beat as one, were meant to be together.

CHAPTER TWELVE

It was disconcerting to Charity to wake up the following morning and find herself all alone. She sighed and stretched lazily before the silence within the room reminded her that she should be hearing the steady thump of Angus’s heart.

When she realised he had left, Charity slowly sat up but was unsure what to think of his absence. Had something happened while she had been asleep? Had he taken ill again?

“Don’t tell me he has alrea

dy gone back to work,” she muttered.

Charity angrily threw the covers back on the bed and stood up only to realise she had not had anything to eat for a long time. She was hungry, and thirsty.

Decidedly out of sorts, she hurried into the back bedroom and quickly saw to her ablutions, changed her clothing and then reluctantly made her way downstairs.

“Hello?” she called when she reached the kitchen table only to find the room completely empty.

A frown marred her brow as she searched the entire downstairs floor of her house only to find herself alone. The deathly silence was unnerving. Edging close to the stairs, she peered up it. Rather than call out, she climbed the stairs and made her way to her bed chamber at the front of the house.

“Hello? Aaron? Angus?” When nobody answered, Charity nudged the door open. To her shock, the room was completely empty. “Where has everybody gone?”

Curious, Charity crossed the room and took up a hidden position behind one of the shutters, so she could study the road outside undetected. All was just as still and quiet as her house. There was nothing odd or unusual on this slightly cloudy day. But Charity knew that something had gone wrong. It had to have done for the men from the Star Elite to simply abandon her house like they had.

Her stomach dropped at the thought that they might not come back. It was disconcerting to find no trace that the men had even been in her home at all.

“I know I haven’t imagined them,” she whispered as she made her way back downstairs.

Her worry and confusion grew as she wandered into her kitchen only to find it spotlessly clean. When she had gone to bed last night the kitchen had been in chaos. The ladies had left before the plates had been cleared away, but someone had tidied up and made sure the house was clean. Not only that, but they had lit the fires before they had left as well.

Immediately, Charity’s thoughts turned to her conversation with Monika last night. Once furnished with a thick slice of meat pie, Charity munched and wandered through the house to the front room window. She studied the Horvat house just across the road and down a bit. Should she go over there? It seemed wrong to offer Mr Horvat a cake of any kind given he might have been the man responsible for attacking Angus. She couldn’t bring herself to be that generous, not even out of curiosity and a quest for the truth of his guilt.

“We have to search that property,” she whispered.

She knew she didn’t have the confidence to go alone, but with Monika beside her, though, Charity knew she could indeed find out what was going on inside that house.

Armed with the knowledge that she had a very important job to do, Charity gathered her cloak and shawl and left the house. She looked at Mrs Vernon’s home as she passed but couldn’t see anything untoward other than the familiar face of Mrs Vernon was no longer in the window. Now that was most disconcerting because it was so uncharacteristic of the elderly lady that Charity knew she had to ask her friends if they had heard something. She also hoped that one of the ladies would be able to tell her what happened to the men from the Star Elite as well.

“I do hope people stop disappearing. I am getting really tired of this,” she muttered. Determined to get some answers, Charity set out for Mrs Applebottom’s house.

Angus watched Charity leave her house and cursed bitterly.

“What’s the matter? Head hurting again?” Oliver murmured from behind him.

He slid the drawer he had just been searching closed and turned to face his friend. Angus was paler than usual, with dark eyes and tension evident on his handsome features. Whether that tension was because of the unusual shape of the back of his swollen head or his discontent with the situation with the stunning young woman next door Oliver didn’t know but didn’t really want to ask. It was personal and private to Angus, but only so long as it didn’t involve the work Angus did for the Star Elite.

“The head is fine,” Angus bit out. He paused and heaved a sigh. “She is going out.”

“Charity?” Oliver moved to the window to get a better look.

Angus shoved away from the window and stalked toward the door of Mrs Vernon’s somewhat basic bed chamber. It was a far cry from the distinctly feminine room he had spent the last several days in at Charity’s house. Not only did Mrs Vernon’s room not smell of roses the way Charity’s did, but it had none of the feminine touches Charity used to make her house feel like home. Mrs Vernon’s abode could only be described as utilitarian.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Angus raced down the stairs and slammed out of the house. He vaulted over the gate at the end of Mrs Vernon’s garden and stalked angrily down the narrow cart track toward the village. He was annoyed that Charity, the woman he strongly suspected he was starting to love, had expressly gone against his wishes and left the house. He had believed the women when they had said they were going to return to Charity’s house this morning to speak with Oliver. Clearly, they had had a change of heart, and had no intention of meeting with the men from the Star Elite for another telling-off.

Well, Charity is going to listen even if the other ladies don’t, damn it, he muttered to himself as he turned out of the cart track and began to follow Charity through the village.

“What’s wrong?” Jasper asked when he fell into step beside him.