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

“We have to go, Angus,” Aaron warned. “Time is ticking. We can’t let them get too far away.”

Angus nodded. For the first time since he had woken up that morning, his smile dimmed to the point that his face was almost grim as he pushed away from the table.

“I will be out in a minute,” Angus murmured.

Thankfully, his colleagues quietly left.

Once they were alone, Angus tugged Charity tenderly into his arms and simply held her. He dreaded the moment he had to walk out of the house.

“I will be back just as soon as I can,” he said quietly. “I promise.”

“You cannot promise things like that,” she whispered. “You don’t know where this investigation is going to take you.”

Charity offered him a brave smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Don’t go out at night, Charity. Promise me. I don’t want you venturing into any of the neighbour’s houses unless it is to share some cake,” he urged in a voice that was nothing short of fierce.

Charity nodded. “After last night, I have had enough adventure for the time being.”

Angus lifted his brows at her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Her cheeks blushed. “I didn’t mean that. I could have gotten you into awful trouble last night in Mr Horvat’s house. It was wrong of me. I am sorry.”

Angus nodded. “I am just glad I was there to get you back out again. Hopefully, we can find the Lawrences and Horvat before they manage to hide. Once they are behind bars they must prove their innocence before they can ever be set free again. Right now, they need to be held under suspicion of Mrs Vernon’s murder, and several kidnappings. Until we can get them off the streets, though, please, please, please, I beg you, don’t destroy my life by doing something rash and getting yourself killed.”

Charity’s heart flipped. She was certain it skipped several beats entirely.

“Would it?” she choked, wishing with all her heart that they were still upstairs, tucked up safely in bed, and neither of them had decided to answer the door.

“I don’t know what I would do,” he whispered, his voice thick with the force of the emotion he couldn’t put a name to. He had never experienced it before. It was part fear, part worry but, more importantly, love. He knew it with every fibre of his being that he now truly, completely, loved Charity Kemble.

“It is you who is going out there to chase kidnappers and murderers. It is you who must stay safe. I will wait for you and promise not to do anything stupid that would put my life in danger,” she assured him.

Boldly, she stood on tip-toe and placed a kiss onto his lips that contained all the emotions words couldn’t convey. Nothing she was able to say seemed strong enough to express the way she truly felt about the tall, proud man standing before her.

“I love you,” Charity whispered tearfully. “Now, go.”

Stepping back, she awkwardly offered him a shaken smile. Thankfully, she was prevented from making any more of a fool of herself by someone knocking on the front door. She suspected she knew who it was.

“Now go. If you are still here when the ladies arrive, they won’t let you escape until they know all the facts about where you are going, and what you intend to do. You have work to do,” she whispered, not giving a clearly stunned Angus the chance to speak.

Her eyes silently begged him not to break her heart by staying or challenging her about her declaration. When the knocking became more persistent, Charity took one last, longing, incredibly loving look at Angus then hurried out of the room.

Angus wanted to go after her, but Charity was already answering the front door. He had no choice but to quietly let himself out of the back door before she let the ladies into the house. He knew she was right. The ladies of the tapestry group, her friends, were nothing if not determined, and could interrogate a person better than his boss in London, Sir Hugo.

Once outside, Angus sighed miserably, and stood looking longingly at the house he had to leave behind.

“Come on, friend, the sooner we get this over with the faster you can come back to her,” Oliver murmured in commiseration.

Reluctantly, Angus took one last longing look at the house, and slowly turned around. He daren’t look back. If he did, he knew he would be back inside doing something rash like asking Charity to marry him.

“Later,” he promised Charity quietly, and meant it.

Charity felt the emptiness of the back room when she returned to it more keenly than she had ever felt anything before. She stared at the spot where Angus had been standing only moments ago and wished she hadn’t been so determined to push him out of the back door. It was difficult to reassure herself that he would be able to return to her. He had said he would, but she truly didn’t believe it, and wouldn’t until he re-entered her life.

For now, Charity knew that all she could do was sit and wait for the day she could be with Angus once more. It was going to be a very long wait.

“I am going to go out of my mind,” she whispered.