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

“Pardon?” Charity eyed the plate on her lap with an acute distaste she struggled to hide. It wasn’t the cake that was the problem. Gingerbread cake was her favourite. It was just that her stomach was already in knots from the traumatic day she had just had. The last thing she needed was to bombard it with food. She wasn’t hungry.

Carefully, she slid the untouched food onto the table beside her only to jerk when Augusta patted her hand in a motherly gesture that was so gentle it brought another wave of tears to Charity’s already sore eyes. Determined not to let them fall – again – Charity focused on what Alice was telling them.

“I saw him leaving the grocery yesterday with an armful of food as well,” Monika nodded.

“So, he is hungry,” Charity sighed. “What does that matter?”

“He has purchased more food than one man could ever eat,” Alice insisted. “What I want to know is who is he feeding?”

Everyone froze and turned to stare at her. A heavy silence fell upon them all. Nobody dared mention Mrs Vernon, but Charity knew they were all thinking the same thing. Did Mr Horvat have Mrs Vernon locked up inside his house for some reason?

“Why would he?” Charity murmured.

“Who knows? But then why would he want to go out for a walk at eleven o’clock at night?” Monika countered.

“Well, there is only one way of finding out who is in that house, isn’t there? Now that the men from the Star Elite aren’t here, there is no reason why we cannot pay the man a neighbourly call,” Augusta suggested robustly.

“At eleven o’clock at night?” Charity questioned.

“We can take him some blackberries,” Monika replied with a nonchalant shrug.

There was no suggestion that they shouldn’t go from any of the ladies.

“You could get in and out while he is gone, can’t you?” Alice asked of Charity and Monika.

Her eyes were alight with an innocent enthusiasm that worried Charity.

“I mean, that house isn’t very big,” Alice reasoned. “It could be searched in half an hour. All you need to do is get in, look in the rooms and make sure nobody is tied up and then you can leave. Now that Mr Lawrence has gone you aren’t going to be noticed. What better time could there be?”

“What do you mean ‘you’ could get in?” Charity countered. “I take it you don’t intend to go yourself, do you?”

“Oh, of course not. A lady would never do such a thing,” Alice countered primly.

Charity squinted at her, unsure if she should be offended or not.

Monika lifted her brows at Charity. “I think she means we are not ladies.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” Alice gasped in horror. “Please. No. I never meant that. I just mean, well, you are younger than I am, aren’t you? I wouldn’t be able to get into that house and would only hinder you.” She turned to Charity. “Your young man was a man of action. You could do what he would have done.”

“He isn’t – wasn’t – my young man,” Charity bit out through clenched teeth.

Alice nodded and offered her a commiserating smile that made it clear she didn’t believe that for one second.

“Well, I don’t mind going,” Monika said firmly. “We can take that basket of blackberries. If he does come back while we are there we can say we were returning home to Charity’s but decided to try to off-load some of the fruit to the neighbours. Seeing as he was up so late, we decided to call upon him to see if he wanted some. It is a perfectly plausible explanation. Besides, he is foreign. I doubt he will know it is terribly rude to call upon anybody not formally socialising at such a late hour.”

Charity shook her head. “Well, we aren’t going to find out sitting here, are we?”

Reluctantly, she pushed to her feet and followed Monika to the front door.

“Wait! We are coming with you,” Augusta cried.

“You can’t all come,” Charity replied in dismay.

“We are going to keep watch,” Gertrude murmured, clutching her trusty reticule.

Charity eyed it warily. “Don’t you think people will find it odd if they happen to look out of the window and see a long line of ladies standing in the street – waiting?”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “We are not going to be on display. God, give us some credit. We have seen the way your – the men from the Star Elite work. If we stick to the shadows like they do, we can keep an eye on you and follow you all the way. We can keep watch outside, and alert you if Mr Horvat comes back unexpectedly. You know, so you are not caught out. We can either intercept Mr Horvat in the street or signal you to tell you he is on the way back, so you can get out in time and he will never know you have been into his house.”