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

‘He was given his marching orders. I won’t have him coming around here telling me who to serve while he roughs up my customers,’ the man grumbled.

‘Did he threaten you?’

The man smirked. ‘He tried to get me to keep Albert out of here, but I told him where to get off. He was the one I banned, not Albert. I am not that desperate for custom that I am prepared to put up with the likes of any young whipper snapper. Nobody around here likes him on account of his stealing Albert’s pitch. It isn’t a free for all in the harbour, I can tell you. There are rules around here and he has broken every one of them. He has put everyone’s backs up I can tell you. The sooner he leaves the safer we will all sleep in our beds at night.’

‘Do you think he might have had something to do with the battle that raged at Bladley Weeks the other week?’

The inn keeper froze. When the Star Elite expected him to immediately deny the possibility, the inn keeper seriously contemplated the possibility.

‘Let me just say this; if there is anybody in this village likely to get involved with something like that it would be him. What I do know is that nobody in this village has lost any loved ones. Everyone is present and accounted for, so we haven’t had anything to do with it. I don’t know what is going on over there. What I do know is that it has left everyone in this village unsettled on account of Bladley Weeks being right on our doorstep. We don’t want no trouble around here. We are a peaceable lot and want it to stay that way.’

‘Have you seen anybody else new around here?’ Phillip asked.

‘Aye, there is a young woman who has started to appear, but she hasn’t done anybody any harm. She hasn’t ever been in here and I haven’t seen anybody with her before you ask. The only time anybody has ever seen her is when she has been shopping. People are curious about her, but she is always polite even if she does disappear before anyone can engage her in conversation. People are saying that she is staying in Cliff House. Roger Horley said he saw her going up the path that leads to it the other day.’

‘But nobody has been up there to check on her or introduce themselves,’ Oliver asked.

‘Why would we need to find out where she is living? She seems friendly enough,’ the inn keeper challenged.

The men from the Star Elite thanked the man. They were on their way out of the door when the inn keeper’s question stopped them. ‘Should we be worried about the young woman?’

‘No. God, no,’ Phillip replied with a laugh. ‘The villagers are very good judges of character. Can you tell me, have you had anybody asking about her?’

‘Aye, there have been two men asking about her, but nobody trusts strangers since that thug turned up with his boat. People are keeping quiet about what they know if you know what I mean.’ The man tapped the side of his nose.

‘She hasn’t done anything wrong. The thugs are the ones who are in the wrong. If you see either of them again, please tell the magistrate. The thugs are armed because they are dangerous. Remember what happened in Bladley Weeks.’

‘There are too many people running around this village with guns lately,’ the inn keeper grumbled.

‘That is why we are here. We are staying at the house on the cliff. If you hear of anything, send word to us if you would but try not to go there afte

r dark.’

The tavern owner nodded and remained thoughtful as he watched the tall, powerful men amble out of his tavern. He continued to watch them through the window as they made their way down the street. He wouldn’t dare risk throwing any of them out on the street and it had nothing to do with them being heavily armed. There was something about them that was more menacing than the thug on the fishing boat and for that he could only be grateful because he suspected that the problems that had blighted the village of late were soon to end.

Back on the harbour side, Phillip ran an idle gaze over the boats. He nudged Oliver when he saw The Starling. ‘We have our man.’

Oliver watched the man on deck and checked his gun. ‘He looks as if he is getting ready to sail.’

By the time the Star Elite reached the end of the road, the man had seen them. He froze for a moment before jumping onto the dockside. He began to untie the ropes. Oliver and Phillip started to run toward him. Jasper pointed his gun at the young man and bellowed: ‘Stand still or you will be shot.’

The young man ignored him. Jasper fired a warning shot over the man’s head but had to keep the bullet high, so he didn’t hit the man on the boat next to him. The young thug ducked and hurriedly yanked at the rope securing his boat to the dock. He looked up and swore when he saw the Star Elite at the bow of his ship. Stepping away from the rope, he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender and took several steps backward.

Before any of the Star Elite could jump aboard, the young thug threw himself over the side of the boat and landed in the water with a loud splash.

Phillip dropped his gun on the dockside and jumped into the water after him. When the thug didn’t resurface, he dived down only to be met with cruel hands that tried to slam his head into the side of the boat. Phillip forced the thug’s hands off his throat when the man grabbed him. It was impossible to punch him. All either of them could do was wrestle and slosh around in the water. It was hard work to fight the resistance of the water and the thug, who quickly latched onto his throat again and this time refused to release him, but Phillip continued to push against the thug’s face. His lungs hurt. Phillip held his breath for what felt like an age. The urgent need to open his mouth and suck in a huge breath became impossible to ignore but he forced himself to ignore it. The thug was struggling just as much but seemed more intent on trying to drag Phillip down to his death. The thug was prepared to die because he knew that his days of freedom were over. Phillip had more to live for.

Despite his determined efforts to get the thug off his throat, Phillip was propelled downward into the darkness. The thug became a ghostly figure as he was engulfed by the shadowy water, despite being only an arm’s length away. Phillip knew that he had only seconds to find freedom before the need to draw breath overwhelmed him. As the watery world around him started to fade, Phillip was struck with all the things he wanted to experience, and the woman who could bring them to him. With renewed determination, he tore at the hand but, before he could break free, extra hands appeared out of the darkness. They grabbed his shoulders and hauled him upright with such fierce speed Phillip didn’t have time to do much of anything except be propelled through the water.

Within seconds, he was being shoved free of the watery grave. Tossing his head back, he sucked in a huge breath of air. Before he could take another, those cruel hands grabbed his ankles. Phillip tried to kick them away but was tugged back under water. Aaron cursed and dived back under the surface but only to kick the thug in the head. Phillip looked down and watched the thug float away. The thug’s eyes were wide as he stared back at them. As they watched, he held his arms aloft and quite purposefully opened his mouth. A huge air bubble immediately escaped him. Instantly, he began to writhe as the sea dragged him relentlessly down into its oceanic depths. Within seconds he had gone.

Phillip broke free of the surface once more and swam toward the harbour wall, to the hands that were waiting to drag him ashore. He was more shaken by what he had just witnessed than by anything he had experienced in life thus far. In just a few seconds, he had been drawn so closely to death’s waiting arms that he knew that one breath would have been all it would have taken and he would have lost his life.

‘Thank you,’ he murmured fervently to his colleagues, who weren’t done saving his life yet.

Together, Aaron and Oliver pushed and shoved Phillip’s weary body out of the water and waited until the fishermen who had seen him enter the water hauled him onto the dockside. There he lay like a gasping fish, desperately trying to fill his starving lungs of the rich nectar called air.

Phillip’s blank stare at the sky overhead was broken by Oliver, whose concerned face appeared before him. Before he could speak, Phillip rolled over and lost the contents of his beleaguered stomach. He would have fallen into the water again had it not been for the concerned fishermen who held him on the dockside until he was finished. When he was flat on his back again, Phillip allowed himself to contemplate what had just happened. What he found was that he couldn’t think of anything except Carlotta. His sluggish mind refused to think of the watery deathbed, the thug who now lay within it, or the terror of drowning. All he could think about was that he had survived and had to make the most of the life he had with her.