To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 7)

Callum felt a sinking feeling in his stomach and suspected he knew then why Sir Hugo had sent for him directly. It had been a bit of a shock when he had returned to the safe house to find a mysterious note waiting for him. Nobody had any idea how or when it had arrived. Even the men on guard hadn’t seen anything. Curious to know what it contained Callum had read it. It had only been Oliver who had recognised Sir Hugo’s handwriting and agreed that it was a legitimate message from him. The contents had been enough for Callum and his colleagues to defy orders somewhat so that when Callum left the safe house just an hour later, he took several of his colleagues with him.

I wish they were out here with me now, and not waiting in the nearby town for God’s sake. It is bloody freezing and I am going to need them to get Mallory to town alive.

“I need you to find a way into that house, Callum.”

Callum sighed but Sir Hugo was too busy plotting to notice.

“From what I can gather, Mallory’s room is in the basement, directly beneath the kitchen. To get to it you need to get to the servant’s stairs to the left of the main fireplace. Go down one flight and you will find a long corridor that is as black as Hades. It is lined with doors, each of which open to small chamber-like rooms the lowliest o

f the staff sleep in, namely Jemima and Mallory. Now there is just Mallory down there. There is nothing in the way of wall sconces or fireplaces. It is dank, cold, and like the deepest pit of Hell.”

“No wonder she is ill,” Callum whispered.

“It is positively inhumane to keep anybody in such a place. Prisoners have better conditions,” Sir Hugo snorted.

“Are the other employees being held captive as well?”

“No. The employees all help Melrose keep her captive. They don’t allow any mercy and are even more cruel and spiteful than their master. They are to have no mercy, Callum.”

Callum nodded. If any of them posed a threat to the mission, they would be cut down.

“They don’t treat the victims like people, do they?” Callum shook his head in disbelief and stared at the house. “What happens if something goes wrong?”

“Then you die. Then you both die.”

Callum pursed his lips. He sensed Sir Hugo watching him and knew there was more. Lifting his brows, he waited.

“She doesn’t trust anybody.”

“Can you blame her?”

“She knows that Jemima was murdered, slowly and painfully. Everybody could hear her screams, even out here,” Sir Hugo whispered. “It was a warning to everyone in Melrose’s employ not to defy him or think of escape. He will make you suffer a slow and violent death. I have seen and heard my share of brutality and cruelty in my time, and have heard things that I would rather forget, but for the life of me I shall never ever forget her screams that night. What was galling was that I couldn’t do a damned thing do to stop her murder. They would have cut me down where I stood if I had tried. I will provide back-up so you can get her away from the area, but I cannot promise you won’t be seen or unchallenged. The best route out of here is alongside the driveway but that is going to be the first place they will look. I am afraid you are going to have to take the more difficult, much longer route that is less obvious.”

“We cannot crawl out of here,” Callum snapped, pointing to the low stone walls surrounding practically all the fields on the estate.

“She will need to if she gets any sicker,” Sir Hugo warned. “The woman is going to die, Callum, either by sickness or murder. I cannot – will not – allow that to happen. In all the time we have been investigating the kidnaps of the women from Leicestershire and Derbyshire, this is the first victim we have found alive. Yes, there was that woman in London, but she became one of them. Mallory isn’t one of them. She never could be.”

“Who goes there?”

Both men froze.

Sir Hugo slowly and silently slid a knife out of his pocket. Callum remained frozen in place and listened carefully to the steady crunch of boots working their way across the forest floor toward them. He wasn’t worried because he knew both he and Sir Hugo were a ruthless force. However, he also knew that they were heavily outnumbered should the rest of the men on patrol be alerted to their presence.

The footsteps stopped.

Neither Sir Hugo nor Callum dare breathe while they waited for the inevitable shout. When none came, they waited for the crunch of boots to recede, assuring them that they were alone again.

“We must move tonight,” Sir Hugo announced flatly. “I don’t care where you take her, just get her away from here. Where is your horse?”

“Through those fields about a mile to the north of here.”

“Can you use it if you head that way?”

“If we can reach it, yes. But only if I don’t have to wrestle with an argumentative female,” Callum replied.

He turned when he saw Sir Hugo studying something over his shoulder. Callum knew it was the night patrol stalking closer again.

“We are going to have to out-run the dogs as well, aren’t we?” Again, that wasn’t a question.