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

“We are just going home,” Augusta replied casually.

“Y-yes, that’s right,” Alice gushed, her head bobbing frantically up and down. “In a bit.”

“No, ladies. Now,” Aaron ordered. “We will escort you. It is time for you to go home.”

“Oh, but-” Augusta refused to budge.

She dug her heels in when Aaron grabbed her elbow and tried to propel her out of the yard. Augusta glanced worriedly over her shoulder at the back door of the Horvat’s residence but without confessing to the men what she and her friends were up to, and getting them all put behind bars, she was helpless to do anything but succumb to their demands. All she could do was play for time.

“I demand you unhand me this instant, you brigand,” she commanded in her most matronly voice. When the young man in question refused to relinquish his hold, she swatted at his hand over and over.

“Come on, time to go home,” he bit out as he dodged her flailing hands.

Alice, for her part, was no match for the might of the tall, muscle-bound man named Justin and was practically carried bodily out of the yard and down the street toward home. Once there, she was promptly relieved of her purse, and shoved through the front door of her home. She barely had the time to glance over the angry man’s shoulder, at a still blustering Augusta, before she had a rude finger poked in her face.

“Step out of this house before dawn and I swear you are going to gaol,” the man thundered, his voice dark and raspy.

Alice, who was not so bold now she was all alone, nodded rapidly but had the door slammed in her face. Her mouth opened in dismay when she heard her own front door being locked from the outside. She tried the knob and tugged on the door to open it, but it was locked, and the man still had the key. Alice rattled the knob frantically to try to get out, but to no avail.

“Well, really,” she huffed.

A smirk was already on her lips when she hurried through her house to her back door. It swiftly died, though, when she saw that the key to the back door, which usually rested on the hook beside the door, was no longer there. In its place was a note that had been forced onto the hook: Step outside and you are under arrest for interfering, by order of the War Office.

Deeply worried, and suitably chastised, Alice quietly made her way up to bed.

Charity followed Monika through the house. Her heart pounded. She felt like a criminal as she wandered through the darkness in Mr Horvat’s home.

“This feels so wrong,” she gulped.

“It is but nobody else is going to do it,” Monika replied. “Did you ever come into the house when Mrs Browning was here?”

“Once or twice,” Charity replied. “It is difficult to tell for definite, but I think this is her furniture. The pictures and things have gone.”

“It is all rather sparse, isn’t it?” Monika sighed.

Charity made her way into the kitchen. She slid the dresser open and rummaged through it.

“Where has all the food gone?” she asked moments later when they had finished a very thorough search of the downstairs rooms.

“He must be either very hungry or be giving the food to someone,” Monika sighed.

“I think we have to go,” Charity murmured miserably.

“Do you know something?” Monika interrupted. “I think we have to search the Lawrence house as well. We aren’t likely to come out to do this again. Well I, for one, certainly won’t. At least if we check next door we can be definite that Mr Lawrence has had nothing to do with the disappearances either.”

“What are we looking for?” Charity asked, unsure if she could bring herself to check a second house, even though she knew the owners were miles away.

“Anything untoward. A person tied up. Mrs Vernon, maybe? How should I know? Anything unusual, I suspect,” Monika replied, her voice rife with impatience.

“I am not going to do it. I am not going to go through next door as well. I will go upstairs and check up there, but I am not going into Mr Lawrence’s house,” Charity warned, her tone adamant.

“Fine, I will do it then,” Monika retorted. “The key has to be beside the back door, doesn’t it?”

“Wait! You can’t leave me in here all alone,” Charity cried when Monika began to make her way to the door.

“Mr Horvat is miles away now as well. Just hurry up. When you are done, come next door. Don’t forget the basket.” With that, Monika disappeared out of the back door.

Charity stared after her for a moment. She had never been so scared in her life. She studied the darkened void of the space at the top of the stairs. The last thing she wanted was to go up to explore it. Unfortunately, she knew she wouldn’t settle her own inquisitiveness if she didn’t.