Curious, Phillip stepped toward the tree, and cursed when he looked up into the face of the last man he expected to see. ‘Mother of God,’ he breathed in disbelief.
‘Do you think the other man did it?’
Phillip scowled. ‘I don’t see anybody else in this fog, do you?’
Carlotta backed away from him. He looked incredibly forbidding when shrouded in fog as he was. Sinister and worrying. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘It wasn’t me who did that to him,’ Phillip snapped, affronted that she would think he would. When he saw her doubtful look, he scowled deeper at her. ‘I am the kind of man who would shoot him rather than hang him.’
Carlotta gasped and took another step back.
‘Move again and you will drop off,’ he informed her bluntly. Rather than turn away, Phillip braced himself in preparation to lunge for her before she fell to her death.
Carlotta turned to look behind her only to hurriedly step away when she found herself at the edge of the cliff.
Phillip waited until she was a little closer and dropped his gaze to the bag in her hand. ‘Are you going somewhere?’
Carlotta mentally winced because she had forgotten about her escape. It didn’t seem all that relevant given the dead man she had just found. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I was on my way to Bladley Weeks, but this damned fog came in. Now, I can’t see a damned thing. The only person I have seen out here was you and that man. I doubt you could get Smidgley up there, so the stranger must have filled him. He was looking for you so must think you saw what he has done.’ He mentally cursed because that changed everything. ‘Look, we have to get out of here, preferably before the killer returns. I don’t know which way to run if he does come back and would prefer not to wrestle with him in this fog. Let’s go.’ Phillip turned away but was aware that Carlotta didn’t follow him. ‘What?’
Carlotta pointed to the body. ‘Shouldn’t we cut him down or something? We should go to Bladley Weeks and notify the magistrate.’
‘Do you want to explain to the magistrate why your father wants you back so desperately? What you are doing in the area? Moreover, what you are doing in that house and out in the fog?’ He lifted his brows and waited. He knew her answer even while she tried to find the right words to answer him without revealing too much about what kind of trouble she was in.
‘We have to report a murder,’ she whispered, trying hard not to panic at the thought that the killer might be Phillip. Something deep within was telling her that it couldn’t be him. He wouldn’t be that horrid to another person. But she didn’t know him well enough to be able to confidently say that. He certainly looked dark and dangerous enough to be a murderer. He certainly was angry and had an air of
menace about him that was inherently sinister. But Carlotta also knew that he wouldn’t hurt her.
‘How do we tell the magistrate that we found him without having to explain why either of us are here? I cannot tell him. I cannot have anybody find out where I am,’ Phillip hissed. ‘Can you? Feel free to go by yourself only I am not going to cut him down for you. You do know that the cloaked figure you saw might want us to cut Smidgley down for him. While we have gone to fetch the magistrate, he might just decide to roll him over the cliff and let the sea carry the evidence of his crime away with the tide. Have you thought about that?’
Carlotta stared at him. In all honesty, she hadn’t thought about that. She had turned her back and forced herself not to look at the dead man again. While she had no intention of touching him, or going anywhere near him, she didn’t see why he should just be left hanging there. It seemed cruel.
But then murdering someone by hanging them is cruel.
‘We cannot get involved in this, Carlotta. The man’s name is Claude Smidgley and he is a known criminal who was going to spend his life behind bars. He was a bastard who stole young women’s lives.’ Phillip ran a hand through his hair and willed himself to calm down. ‘Look, we have to get out of here. We don’t know if your father’s thugs are around here, or if Smidgley’s killer is watching us. The fog bank is a problem, but we need to use it to our advantage and get out of here while nobody can see us.’
‘I can’t go back to the house,’ she whispered.
‘We need to leave the area, Carlotta. Neither of us are safe to stay in that house anymore. But, given the bag in your hand, I think you know that already. Might I ask where you think you were going?’
‘I don’t see that it is any of your concern. Nothing about me has anything to do with you,’ she hissed, tipping her chin up and staring hard at him with eyes that defied him.
Phillip shook his head and cursed. ‘You have to come with me.’
‘I have to do no such thing,’ she replied pertly. ‘Now if you will excuse me.’
Carlotta turned to leave. There was little she could see but she had no choice but to try to find a way out of the woods. She half expected him to grab her hand and stop her again, but he didn’t. Instead, Phillip remained perfectly still and was swallowed up by the fog within seconds as she left him behind.
Carlotta kept her gaze trained on the ground at her feet. She walked and walked and sensed that she was all alone. Eventually, she had to stop to try to figure out where she was and which way she had to go. She moved forward to take another step only for one long arm to slide around her waist and yank her off her feet. In that moment, the fog swirled and parted again, and gave her a clear view of a cliff face directly beneath her. Carlotta screamed when she found herself swirling through the air. She clung to the arm around her waist and gasped in disbelief as she was dropped unceremoniously back onto her feet on the edge of the woodland. She stared at the ground for a moment and tried to comprehend just how close she had come to dying. Suddenly, she felt a weight on her shoulder and turned to look at Phillip, who was resting his head against her shoulder. He looked as shaken as she felt.
‘Do you have any idea how close you just came to walking off the cliff again?’ he hissed.
Carlotta swallowed. ‘I didn’t see it.’
Phillip turned her around and gathered her into his arms. Thankfully, he had seen a break in the fog and had caught the edge of the cliff but had only been given a couple of seconds to reach her. At first, he had thought he had missed her. That she had walked off the cliff. The thought was so horrifying that he was stunned by the force of the horrible grief that flooded him. He clung to her without even realising it. Phillip held her tightly against him, as if determined to never let her go. The thought of losing her; of her being dead; was something that disturbed something deep within him that changed him as a man, a person, a member of the Star Elite.
‘I never saw the edge,’ she whispered blankly. ‘How could I miss it?’