CHAPTER ONE
Luke sighed impatiently as he sauntered as casually as he could into the park. He was eager to get this particular part of the Star Elite’s latest mission over and done with because a cold and deserted park was the very last place he wanted to be at the crack of dawn, but he had no choice in the matter. The Star Elite needed to identify who was responsible for a recent spate of pick-pocketing in the area and because of the brutality of some of the attacks, capturing the person or persons responsible as fast as possible was essential, primarily because his colleagues suspected that the gang has connections to one of London’s most notorious gangsters: Terrence Sayers. Unfortunately, to get close enough to the gang to capture one of them someone had to put themselves in harm’s way, and be tempting enough to warrant mugging. On this occasion, Luke was the only man the Star Elite had available in the area, so he was now dressed as a wealthy gentleman ostensibly with nothing better to do with his morning than wander aimlessly around empty pathways right in the centre of the gang’s ‘patch’. The fact that he had a visible gold chain and fob watch hanging from his vest was purely a ruse; a temptation he suspected no pick-pocket would be able to resist. He hoped so in any case because he was cold, tired and hungry, and really wanted to go home.
“Come on, come on, where are you?” he murmured as he scoured the trees on either side of the path for signs of movement.
Unfortunately, the only other person out and about on this cold and dreary morning was, surprisingly, a young lady who appeared to be out walking all alone. If that wasn’t suspicious enough, the rather too nonchalant to be believed way she was studying her surroundings raised his suspicions tenfold.
“What are you doing out here alone then?” he murmured.
He tried not to stare at her, but it was damned difficult given the delightfully intriguing picture she made against the backdrop of the tired looking trees and barren pathways. Even from a distance the young, twenty-something woman was really quite beautiful. The bright lemon and lace of her walking dress stood out in contrast against the murky greens and browns that surrounded her. She was a captivating sight indeed. From the cut of her clothing he suspected that she was a lower middle-class lady off to work somewhere rather than aristocracy from one of the posh houses that lined the park. That theory was supported by the fact that he rather doubted any upper-class lady would be seen outside at all this early in a morning, and certainly would never be out all alone.
“You are not ton,” he murmured thoughtfully as he studied the chestnut hair that he could see, even from a distance, was wildly curly and barely contained within the bun at the back of her head. His gaze dropped to the bag in her hand, and he absently touched the fob watch on his waistcoat while he contemplated what to do. No pick-pocket would give him a second glance with her about.
“Damn it,” he growled with a sigh. If he was a pick-pocket, he would target a single woman all alone in a secluded area of a park rather than a tall, fit, even dapperly dressed gentleman about town.
He had no choice but to follow her, but was only partly driven by the prospect of her potential mugging. On a deeper level, he was curious to know what she was all about; why she was there, and what on earth she thought she was doing taking such a risk with her life. Did she not realise just how dangerous London was?
“Damned foolish female,” he muttered aloud, not caring one bit if his voice travelled in the silence of the morning.
With one quick glance around him, Luke set off after her, careful to remain close enough to watch her but far enough away that she wouldn’t realise he was there. He eyed the woman’s dainty boots intermittently poking out from beneath the skirts of her long dress and was so engrossed in observing her that he didn’t notice he had drawn closer than he should have until he was able to see the finer details of the wear and tear of her well-worn dress. It quickly became evident that looks were deceiving. At a distance, this young woman looked to be relatively well off but close up her dress and boots were extremely worn. He understood then just what was niggling him about the intriguing picture she made. Her clothing was wrong. Her dress was summery; bright yellow and white lace and made of some kind of thin material. The thin woollen shawl she wore should have been a cloak. They were rapidly approaching autumn; a time of year when something more substantial needed to be worn. Her dress should have been thicker, and she should be wearing a cloak. His breath was already fogging out in front of his face, and he was cold even with a shirt, waistcoat and jacket on. The shawl the woman wore was barely fit for purpose even in summer. It almost certainly provided her with nothing more than the briefest of coverings against the chilly autumn winds.
“She must be absolutely freezing,” he breathed, studying the bare flesh of her arms.
Lack of appropriate clothing aside, he couldn’t help but suspect that the way she was glancing around her as she walked along had nothing to do with looking for somewhere she could get warm. From the tense set of her shoulders, and the almost furtive way she kept studying her surroundings, she appeared to be anxiously looking for something – or someone.
He glanced around.
Was she going to meet a secret assignation? Was her lover lying in wait for her?
“Lucky chap,” he mumbled as he eyed the gentle curve of a feminine jaw beneath the most wonderful amber eyes he had ever seen.
Her step suddenly faltered; as though she was having second thoughts about what she was doing, or suspected he was following. Luke paused and watched, and heaved a sigh of relief when, after that brief hesitation, she sighed and resumed her slow and steady pace. He wondered if she had any idea where she was going because she meandered from one path into another, and then circled back again for the next half hour without pause, and seemingly with absolutely no sense of direction.
Was she waiting for the pick-pockets too?
“She keeps going like this she is going to find them,” he groused on a breath.
He heaved another sigh when she turned into yet another path he knew they had walked down twice already. There was nobody about at all apart from him and the mystery lady, and she didn’t appear to even realise he was there. Although his instincts assured him that she had nothing to do with the pick-pockets he was after, he just couldn’t walk away until he knew what she was all about. It would lie heavily on his conscience if he left her, and she was mugged before she left the park, or she got injured as badly as some of the other victims. He felt duty-bound, as a member of the Star Elite, to protect the public. She was public so in his book that meant he had a duty to defend her honour if the time came. Besides, he had nothing else to do.
As the minutes ticked by, and one path turned into another, his curiosity and concern grew. He couldn’t just leave her to her Fate, so he tucked his chin into the cravat at his neck and, with one eye on the trees he kept watch for signs of an imminent attack, and followed her meandering path toward the middle of the park.
Poppy glanced furtively around the woods and struggled to contain the sickness that threatened to overwhelm her. She was physically trembling with fear and had to will her shaking knees to hold her up and keep walking. She had never felt so nervous in her entire life.
Not for the first time since she had left the house she had to wonder just what on earth she had let herself in for. The early morning breeze, although gentle, still nipped at her cheeks but she knew the deep, stomach clenching shivers that cascaded through her had nothing to do with the weather. It had everything to do with the reason she was there in the first place.
“Not one of your best decisions, Poppy,” she muttered beneath her breath.
She couldn’t help but wonder if she would die of frostbite before she returned to the hovel Clarence, her father, insisted they call home now. It was so cold that her breath fogged out before her, her nose ran, and the cold morning breeze stung her cheeks to the point that it had started to become painful. She puffed a breath over her fingers as she rubbed them together in a desperate attempt to get some warmth back into them, but all she succeeded in doing was eliciting another shiver that was so strong it felt as though it came from her soul.
“I could go home,” she mused, but then immediately dismissed the idea. She doubted that Clarence had even bothered to get up, much less deigned to light the fires himself so it was unlikely to be any warmer back at the hovel, even if she did forget all about her orders and left.
“Best to stay and see what happens,” she whispered with a sniff. “Then you can go back to the hovel, throw up, and be thankful this is all over and you made it out alive.”
She quickly closed that unhelpful thought out and turned her attention to more alarming matters like what she was doing there in the first place. The hovel was her new nick-name for the ramshackle abode Clarence had brought them to several days ago. As far as she was concerned it was an apt name for the barely there husk of a house which contained very little in the way of furnishings or fripperies to make it even habitable. It was the very last place she wanted to be but had yet to be successful in persuading Clarence that they should return to Cumbria, and at least try to sort out the problems they had so swiftly left behind.
“You should be here, Clarence,” she whispered aloud. She silently cursed her sire for his weakness. He was the one who should be out in the cold at the crack of dawn but, rather than take on the burden of his responsibilities as any decent man would, he had bullied and hassled Poppy into handing the bag over for him. He hadn’t even attempted to make this assignation himself. Still, her own desperate hope that Clarence might see her as a person if she did this had left her agreeing to something she knew was stupid and reckless. If she was now cold and afraid then she had nobody but herself to blame really. It was too late to back out now. If she went back with the bag, Clarence would never let her hear the last of it and would undoubtedly bully her into another clandestine attempt at solving his problems, and that was something she knew she couldn’t bring herself to do a second time. Not after this morning. She was a bundle of nerves already, and that was before anyone turned up to meet her.
She could only hope that her boldness and daring would bring her the rewards she hoped it would; her father’s respect at the very least, maybe his kindness as well? If not then as far as she was concerned there was only one last course of action she could take. She had to leave both London and Clarence and get on with her life.
“Best to get it over with now and then there is no reason to remain in London,” she reasoned aloud.
A gasp escaped her when the faint crackle of twigs from within the woods beside her suddenly shattered the silence and made her jump. The shadows beneath the large branches were too deep to reveal anyone hiding in the leafy depths, but she was no fool. That noise had to come from someone – or something. In spite of her best efforts not to let it worry her, her wild imagination flew into a panic and she began to envisage all sorts of sinister creatures lurking within.
Could an animal, a small woodland creature, cause a twig to pop that loudly? If so, what size of animal was it? Had that been a footstep she had heard? Was it a man in there? If old twigs had been stood on by a hare, or a squirrel, would they crack at all?
“Keep calm,” she murmured. She had no idea if anything was in there, but if she was honest she really didn’t want to know. “Ignorance is bliss and all that,” she declared with a shudder.
Was it him? The man she was here to meet?
“Get a hold of yourself,” she whispered.
There really was no reason to worry. You have done nothing wrong, she reminded herself with somewhat false bravado. Deep inside she knew there was no reason for her to be fearful of anything. She was merely there to do a favour for her father that was all. There was no reason for her to consider herself at risk of, well, anything. She was out in the park, albeit at the crack of dawn. If she happened to stumble across someone whom she knew needed the bag she carried then she could hand it over and walk away. Simple.
“If they have any issues to discuss they can raise them with Clarence,” she whispered, watching her breath fog out before her.
She stared around at the empty paths that disappeared in all directions and contemplated whether she should keep walking. In the far distance she could hear the general sounds of the city so completely unfamiliar to her but had lost her bearings a long time ago. The faint clink of a horse’s harness rattled somewhere off in the distance, and she heaved a sigh of regret. The sound of life close by went some way toward easing her concerns, yet in other ways made her feel more isolated and vulnerable than ever. Surrounded by trees as she was she felt blanketed by an almost deafening silence that seemed to enshrine her. It was so calm, so serene in the park, that she felt in some respects as though she was the only person in the world, and the real world was a long way away.
Determined to keep her mind off that horrible feeling of isolation she stopped in the middle of the path and dug around in her pocket for the small note that had arrived at the hovel for Clarence yesterday.
Meet me by the river in the park at seven o’clock in the morning. Bring the package. Don’t be late.
“Well, this is the park,” she muttered beneath her breath. She hadn’t thought to bring Clarence’s timepiece with her so was unable to check what the time really was. Having slept little last night, she had been awake when dawn had started to break over the rooftops. Determined to get this over with while she still had the nerve, she had left the hovel early enough to give herself time to reach the meeting place even if she took the long route to get there. As a result, she suspected she had arrived early, and the person she had yet to meet was not
even there yet.
“Where is the river?”
She had never been to this particular park before and had no idea whether it actually ran through the park at all. The paths to the left and the right of her all looked the same and seemed to disappear into trees that led to nothing but more trees and yet more paths. She couldn’t hear the telltale trickle of water, but there must be a river around somewhere because the note said ‘the river in the park’. Although the name of the park wasn’t mentioned on the note, this was the only park for miles around so it had to be the right one.
“Well,” she whispered with a glance from the left path to the right. “If I go to the right and don’t find it then I will have to turn around and take the path to the left.” She studied the paths and tried to memorise the layout of the trees in case she got lost. Unfortunately, one row of trees was starting to look very much like another, and she doubted it would be of any use to her when she needed to find the way home. “Everything looks the same,” she groused, aware that it was going to take a miracle if she could even find her way out of the park at all assuming she managed to find the man she needed to give the bag to.