Cold Comfort (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 5)

Emmeline had no sympathy for the woman. While she knew Mrs Wattling had a good heart, and was only checking to make sure Emmeline was all right, the woman did have a tendency to gossip – a lot. She would revel in today’s juicy news for several weeks. Emmeline groaned only to jerk in alarm when she realised that she had done so aloud, and had drawn the attention of not only Oliver, but Mrs Wattling as well.

“Emmeline and I have a long-standing acquaintance, don’t we, my dear?” Oliver murmured, his gaze levelling purposefully on Emmeline in such a way that left her rooted to the spot and dutifully nodding.

“Yes, for a long while,” Emmeline mumbled, a little annoyed that she had been forced to lie to her neighbour.

“We are just about to go into town,” Oliver added. “I thought Emmeline might like a nice journey out.”

“Oh, but you cannot do that,” Mrs Wattling gasped hastily. Her startled gaze flew to Emmeline. “You mustn’t, my dear.”

“Why ever not?” Emmeline gasped. Her instinctive objection to having her neighbour even attempt to limit her contact with Oliver was enough to nudge Emmeline’s temper into life. She glared at the older woman and waited.

“Do you mean you haven’t heard?” Mrs Wattling whispered. Her gaze flew somewhat theatrically about the room as if seeking out those attentive ears that shouldn’t be listening.

“What?” Emmeline found herself whispering in response. She tutted and sighed in disgust when she realised what she was doing and glared at Oliver when she saw his lips twitch.

“A body has been found,” Mrs Wattling informed them, her eyes glinting furiously with the magnitude of her news.

This time, Oliver almost groaned.

“I know, Mrs Wattling,” Emmeline replied, looking solemnly at her neighbour. “It was Caroline. Oliver has been asked to come and impart the bad news this morning.”

“Oh, no dear, I wasn’t talking about Caroline. Although, you do have my deepest condolences, of course. I was talking about another one. A young woman one of the magistrate’s men found this morning in the back of the churchyard. Rumour has it she wasn’t there yesterday, so the vicar couldn’t have found her, you see? Anyway, one of the magistrate’s men was passing, the churchyard that is, and noticed her.” Mrs Wattling frowned. “Although, I never did find out what he was doing in the back of the churchyard. Anyways, he has found another body, and there is them that say she was one of the young women who was kidnapped, as well. Now, I am sorry to hear that your Caroline has been killed, my dear. What dreadful news.”

Emmeline struggled to keep up with the gist of Mrs Wattling’s babble because the woman flitted from one description to another and interjected her monologue with her own personal feelings on the matter she was discussing. It was so very confusing to someone who was struggling to absorb the news she had just imparted. Had another body been found aside from Caroline’s that is? Emmeline felt sick.

She looked askance at Oliver only to find him staring thoughtfully at her.

“So, you mustn’t go anywhere alone, my dear. Besides, I am sure you will need some time to yourself to get to grips with your sad news. Oh, please do accept my condolences, won’t you, dear? Of course, if there is anything I can do to help, please just pop round. I don’t mind at all, and I am sure the ladies at the church will be all too pleased to be able to help as well. Of course, they won’t mind my offering their assistance, oh no, they won’t. Now, I must be on my way. Cheerio, my dear.” Mrs Wattling gave Oliver another careful look before she nodded politely and scuttled out of the door.

For the second time that day, Oliver and Emmeline found themselves staring at each other in total silence.

“Do you think that she is another kidnap victim?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Oliver replied honestly. “I need to go and find out. It isn’t Caroline, we know that much. She was found up on the bluff overlooking the village and is with the coroner now. I need to go and see who the new victim is, just in case she isn’t one of the kidnapped women.”

“Can you do that? I mean, tell who it is – if she is one of the kidnap victims?”

Oliver pursed his lips and nodded. “I wish I didn’t have to identify any of the deceased to be honest. But we can tell who it might be by matching their descriptions to whoever has been reported missing. It is highly unusual for any small village like this to have a serial killer and a kidnapper running loose at the same time. Whoever is killing people is most probably the kidnapper.”

Even discussing someone who had the audacity to snatch a young woman out of her life before killing her was enough to make Emmeline’s knees tremble. To think of those poor women, who had already lost so much, then having their lives taken off them completely was enough to make her feel sick again. A part of her felt incredibly bad for not agreeing to help Oliver like he asked. After all, it would only mean a few hours of her time, and if Oliver was true to his word, he would show her how to prevent herself from becoming one of their victims.

I could refuse him and could be snatched purely because I do look like Caroline. I may never be able to venture into town, or anywhere else for that matter, and feel safe again.

“I will help you,” she burst out before second thoughts kept her quiet. She suspected that whatever fear she felt while helping Oliver would be nothing to the fear that she would face should the kidnapper try to snatch her. “On one or two conditions.”

“And they are?” Oliver crossed his arms and waited for a long list of petulant demands.

“That you really do show me how to defend myself should anybody try to snatch me. I want to know what I can do, say, to get someone to release their hold on me, and what to do should anybody try to grab me.”

Oliver nodded. “Agreed.”

“I also want some assurance that you will do everything possible to make sure that I don’t get taken like Caroline. I don’t think I could bear that,” Emmeline’s voice trailed off because she struggled to contain the emotion that crept over her.

She truly hadn’t thought she was all that distressed by the dire news of Caroline’s demise, but now that she had to speak her sister’s name, the emotions she hadn’t known were there all struggled to get to the surface at once. Emmeline’s chin wobbled, her lip quivered, and Oliver suddenly swam in her vision. She sucked in a fortifying breath and willed herself to control herself, at least until Oliver had gone, but two fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked at him in mute appeal, half apology for a moment, because there was nothing she could do.

Oliver sighed and dropped his arms. The sight of those two tears and the somewhat lost look in her eye slammed the rest of his barriers of self-preservation out of the way. He stepped forward and dragged her into a hug before he even realised that he had moved across the kitchen. While he should be elated that she had agreed to help him, he had to wonder what the personal cost to her would be. It wasn’t that he was ever going to allow her to be in any physical danger, but he knew that to help the Star Elite with their investigation would, in effect, be asking her to relive an aspect of Caroline’s life that was always going to bring Emmeline problems, especially now that she knew of Caroline’s death. Besides, it was inevitable she was going to grieve her sister. From the sound of it, Caroline had been Emmeline’s closest living relation. It was inevitable that there had to be a period of mourning. Was it right, therefore, that the Star Elite ask her to do this? Oliver didn’t think there would ever be a right time to ask a beautiful young woman like Emmeline to put her life in danger, but the prospect of rescinding the offer and letting the Star Elite crumble into the dust, dragged there by the callous machinations of the arrogantly wealthy, was too repulsive to ignore. Even though he had no choice but to follow his orders, Oliver could do everything possible to ensure Emmeline didn’t end up like Caroline. To do that he knew he had to stay with her once he started to put her in danger by parading her around town. Right now, that wasn’t altogether a bad thing.

Patiently, he held her and waited for the worst of her tears to fade. Eventually, she subsided, but not until Oliver had become incredibly troubled by just how silent her tears were. She hadn’t wailed like most women would. Those tears had bled quietly into his shirt as she had poured out at least some of her grief, but that steady drip had been as calm and quiet as the grave her sister would be lying in. It was disturbing, unnerving, and yes, more than a little troubling.