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

“She was found wrapped in a rug. It appears she was strangled.”

“Where was she?” Angus asked. He crossed the room and placed a comforting hand on Charity’s shoulder.

“Just on the outskirts of the village, about a mile away. The local farmer found her when he was checking his ditches yesterday and sent for the magistrate. He tried to contact us, but we were all out rounding up locals.” Oliver’s rueful gaze fell to Charity who winced because she now knew how much trouble her meddling had caused.

“Sorry,” she mouthed to him.

Angus winked at her. He couldn’t prevent a soft smile from creeping on his lips despite the sad news.

“I don’t understand why he would want to kill her,” Charity whispered.

“You said yourself she was a gossip who always watched what the people in the street were doing. Maybe the assailant thought she saw something he didn’t want her to see?” Angus suggested.

Charity nodded. “I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead, but she was a busybody. Even so, I don’t think anybody would wish her dead. She didn’t have enemies. Nobody would want to hurt her. She had to have seen something.”

Angus nodded and lifted a troubled gaze to his friends. They too realised that if someone had seen him and his friends coming and going from the house then Charity was in just as much danger as Mrs Vernon had inadvertently been in.

“Go on,” Angus growled when he realised neither of his colleagues had taken a seat ergo had no intention of staying.

“Horvat has disappeared,” Oliver warned. “He left just before dawn and took a bag with him. Rather than using his usual route, he left the village down the main road, right past the spot where Mrs Vernon was found. It appears that he has jumped ship. Jasper and Phillip are on his tail as we speak. Justin has gone to find the Lawrences.”

“Do you think they are working together?” Charity asked.

Angus lifted his brows at her. “What makes you think that?”

“It just seems odd that they have left at the same time. Not only that but the Lawrences, whom you have suspected all along, have left just as Mrs Vernon vanished. Maybe they killed her and dumped her body on the way out of town?” Charity suggested.

Angus grinned at her with a quiet sense of pride. His smile, which he didn’t seem able to remove from his face, widened considerably when Aaron rolled his eyes.

“Now you are starting to sound like us,” Aaron muttered ruefully.

“We have to watch both of the Lawrence men and Horvat now, I am afraid,” Oliver warned. His gaze turned to Angus as he spoke.

Charity knew Oliver was trying to tell Angus that his help was needed and that they had to leave – quickly.

“You have to stop this, Angus,” Charity whispered, her heart breaking just a little. “Go and find him.”

“You have to be safe,” he warned.

“I am. The only suspicious people we have had in this village have all left now, but they are out there somewhere. Surely that means I am safer staying here?” Charity argued.

“I know,” Angus sighed. He still didn’t want to leave her. It was far too soon after last night.

When his gaze lifted to hers there was a hint of plea in his eye that made her

smile gently at him. He needed her understanding.

“It is all right, I don’t mind,” she assured him. “I think we will all sleep more soundly in our beds at night if we know that anybody who poses a danger to us is locked away. That’s your job. I know that now.”

Angus sighed. He gently picked her hand up and clasped it in his. There was so much he wanted to say but no time in which to say it.

“You have to go with them. They need your help, Angus,” Charity murmured, battling tears.

A dull ache began to form in the centre of her chest because she wanted to ask how long he would be gone and secure a promise from him that he would return, but Charity couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to expect Angus to give her false hope.

He won’t know how long this will take. It could be a few days, several weeks, or a year or more.

Charity quickly closed that thought out and fought to paste a brave smile on her face.