For Love Alone (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 8)

‘Try to get some rest. You will feel better after something to eat and a doze.’

When she still didn’t answer him, Phillip quietly let himself out of the room and closed the door behind him. He wanted to leave. He should be back downstairs, securing the house until the rest of the men could return. Instead, he remained with his shoulders resting against the wall outside her bed chamber door. Tipping his head back, he allowed the silence of the property to settle about him while he contemplated what had happened.

In the space of a day I have survived being shot at and nearly drowned. I have struggled to reach safety, found a woman in hiding, dragged her across the county, believed my friends were dead, searched numerous bodies, found out that my friends are alive, located them, and returned to the safe house with said young woman.

‘Who makes me feel far more than I ought to feel,’ he murmured.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Phillip forced himself to go downstairs before he did something rash like return to the room and say something or do something he would later regret. Right now, he needed some time to himself to contemplate Miss Carlotta Stoneman, and the challenges she had brought to his life. More importantly, he had to think of a way to get her to talk to him again.

Carlotta stood before the window for several minutes and stared blindly outside. She struggled to know what to think. She didn’t doubt that Phillip worked for the Star Elite now. Having seen them together; the almost business-like way they had taken up various positions in the woods and so expertly shot at the thugs, Carlotta had no doubt that fighting criminals was what Phillip and his friends did with their lives.

&nbs

p; ‘I also don’t doubt you have plenty of friends who will help you deal with whatever problems you have,’ Carlotta whispered. ‘Including me.’

What she didn’t know was what they were likely to want to do with her. She couldn’t ignore the fact that the Star Elite were lawmen and would probably want to hand her over to her father because they had thugs to fight; men to shoot at. They wouldn’t want to be burdened by her domestic problems. Her father would be deemed more suitable to deal with her waywardness. As nice as he was, Phillip still worked with the magistrate and as such had to focus on the work the magistrate did.

‘God only knows what lies father would tell them,’ she whispered knowing that she had no way of proving that she hadn’t stolen any money anymore than she could prove her father had stolen her inheritance.

A wave of helpless frustration slammed into her that brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes. Carlotta swiped angrily at them and sniffed miserably. She was cold, had no clothing whatsoever except for what she was wearing. She had no cloak, and no food of her own. She was completely beholden to Phillip.

‘At his mercy,’ she whispered. ‘Why am I always at the mercy of men?’

She wanted to turn around and run but had nowhere to go. Her thoughts turned to Cliff House. ‘I have somewhere to go. I just don’t know if I can get there.’ She knew that Phillip would never let her return to Cliffe House. ‘But I don’t need his permission either. Yes, he has kept me safe, but I am still in danger because of the thugs who threaten him. Phillip cannot matter to me. I cannot allow his feelings to influence what I want. It is best for me if I get away from here; from them. It is best for me if I just keep moving. Now that I know the thugs have been waylaid by the Star Elite, I should make use of their distraction to get as far away from here as I can, preferably before my father appears.’

With that decision made, Carlotta turned to look at the food Phillip had left beside the bed. While it smelt delicious it had no appeal. Her stomach roiled but not with hunger. She felt rather sick because the deep hurt that began to well inside was enough to make her utterly miserable. But she forced herself to sit on the edge of the bed and eat. However, after just a few small bites she tossed it down in disgust. Pacing back to the window, she looked out at the landscape and tried to decide which way she should run. She couldn’t decide, but what she did know was that she had to leave within the next few minutes. Once Phillip’s colleagues returned escape would be impossible. Quietly, Carlotta removed her boots and began to plan.

Downstairs, Phillip slumped into a chair beside the fire and stared down at the apple in his hand. He bit into it but then threw the rest into the fire and watched it hit and spit as the flames consumed the moisture. With a curse, he stood up and helped himself to a liberal dose of brandy before slumping back down again.

‘Thank God you are all right,’ Oliver growled again when he slammed into the house with the rest of the men.

Phillip jerked in surprise and mentally cursed. He hadn’t even heard his colleagues ride into the yard.

A true warning that I must keep my mind on my work and not Carlotta.

‘Where is she?’ Oliver asked with a frown.

Phillip pointed upstairs. ‘She is exhausted.’

‘Are you all right? You have some wounds I see,’ Callum said as he crossed the kitchen and bent down to look through the holes in Phillip’s shirt.

‘They are just cuts. I got them when I was in that warehouse,’ Phillip replied.

‘We thought they had got you,’ Callum murmured. ‘The last I saw of you was when three of Smidgley’s thugs entered the warehouse and started to fire at you. At that point, two gunmen pinned me down. The whole damned place turned into a battlefield. I didn’t see you but knew you wouldn’t have left the warehouse on the harbour side because you would run into the bullets. You didn’t leave from the back because I was there. I thought you had been shot. By the time I shot the two firing at me and got into the warehouse you were nowhere to be found. There was a pool of blood and several bodies, but you had gone.’

‘There was blood leading to the harbour wall that we assumed was yours. Justin and Angus took a rowing boat out and spent the night searching the trawlers, just in case you had climbed aboard one, but you didn’t surface,’ Oliver added.

‘I had to swim out to sea. They saw me dive into the harbour and started to fire at me. When that didn’t work, they got a rowing boat and came after me. I used the darkness and swam far enough out that it was impossible to find me. I then swam along the coast. It was only the tide being out that stopped me from drowning,’ Phillip explained.

‘Where did you find the girl?’ Jasper asked, propping his boots on the kitchen table in a relaxed pose while he munched on a large piece of pie.

‘What is her story?’ Oliver asked quietly.

Phillip told them everything he knew.

‘So, you don’t know if she is telling you the truth, and if these thugs have really been sent by her father?’ Oliver asked.

Phillip shook his head.