by Rebecca King
“What happens then?” Niall asked.
“The solicitor has said that given there is no such condition on the deeds he has, and no stipulation in Thomas’s will to say that it has to go to a male in the family, the will stands as it is, and that everything goes to Elspeth,” Jasper said around a hearty yawn. “He just has to have taken all reasonable steps to ensure there is no historic condition placed upon the title deeds he doesn’t know about before he can transfer the papers to Elspeth and make it legally binding.”
“It all goes to Elspeth,” Aaron murmured with a nod of satisfaction.
Jasper nodded slowly.
“But the solicitor said that possession is nine tenths of the law. If Frederick does manage to bully her out and is adamant that the males can only inherit the property, it is down to Elspeth to prove otherwise. The will states quite clearly that she is to inherit the house, and Thomas’s fortune of approximately three and a half thousand pounds. Unfortunately, the solicitor contacted the bank to arrange for the transfer of the funds only for the bank to make it clear the money was withdrawn only a few days before Thomas’s death,” Jasper replied.
“Elspeth has the property but no funds to live off, so she can stay here but not live,” Oliver ground out.
“What in the Hell possessed the man to do such a thing?” Callum demanded.
“We have to consider that it may not have been Thomas who withdrew that money,” Aaron warned.
“Oh, but it was. You see, I went to the bank myself and spoke to the man who dealt with the withdrawal. He remembers it, you see, because it was such a large sum of money. The manager was called to verify it was Thomas and recognised him. He has said that there was nothing about Thomas that appeared worried or concerned in any way. He asked if Thomas had a problem with the bank because he hoped to persuade the man to leave the money with them, but Thomas was adamant there was no problem. He just wanted the money but wouldn’t say why. Thomas just said it was a personal matter and had nothing to do with anybody because it was his money and he was entitled to do whatever he wanted with it,” Jasper said.
“That sounds like Thomas,” Elspeth sighed. “He is right, isn’t he? I mean, it is – was - his money. Does it really matter what he wanted to do with it? He has every right to clear his account out if he chooses. It isn’t for me to object.”
“It is your business when it is your life he was bargaining with. Why did he not do the honourable thing and leave enough money in the house for you to live off, for a short while at least? A couple of hundred would be enough,” Aaron sighed. “It just doesn’t make sense. The Thomas I knew would never do something so foolish as to put the life of his sister in danger. He adored you, Elspeth. You were the centre of his world. I can’t conceive of him doing anything willingly that would make your life impossible.”
“I just don’t see why he would withdraw that kind of money,” Elspeth murmured.
“Frederick is not going to be allowed to take possession of the property given what is in Thomas’s will. Whatever the man claims, he is not entitled to it, and will not just bully you out of here. One has to ask why he is so determined to move in, so I think that is what we have to look at now,” Oliver warned.
“We also need to try to find out what Thomas has done with three thousand pounds,” Aaron added.
“How?”
“We have to find out where Thomas usually went, and whether he visited there with the money,” Callum suggested. “I can do that.”
“For now, we have to keep searching through these papers and try to find out who Thomas was in contact with up to the time of his death,” Aaron said.
Elspeth had never felt so helpless in her entire life. While she was blessedly relieved that the house would not be taken out from underneath her, she knew she still couldn’t afford to stay in it. With no funds to live off, her situation was just as dire as it had been when she had woken up.
“What do I do now?” she asked.
“We have to find that three thousand pounds,” Jasper said. “For now, search through the papers for any letters to friends you don’t know about, bills from businesses you didn’t know he frequented.”
“We need to look at what kind of things he had been investing in,” Oliver said. “Maybe they failed, and he needed to plug a gap or something?”
Aaron nodded. “It is certainly starting to look that way. There must be investment papers or something in here that will tell us.”
“I will contact all of his other friends to find out if they know of any business contacts Thomas had,” Niall offered.
Aaron nodded his thanks and turned to the woman who, over the course of the last hour, had become paler and paler to the point she was starting to worry him.
“Are you all right?” he murmured gently.
“I don’t like this, Aaron. I don’t like it at all,” Elspeth whispered.
Elspeth looked at him when he didn’t answer. There was something in his eyes that warned her she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say.
Sure enough, she didn’t.
“I think you have to consider that he was in some sort of trouble and might have had to pay someone off. It may have been something he kept from you, so you didn’t worry. Like I said, the man adored you. He might have only been trying to protect you,” Aaron sighed.
The men, one by one, left the room until there was only Elspeth and Aaron. He stood beside her in front of the fireplace. Together, they studied the mess they had yet to sort out.
“I am so angry with him right now that if he was here I would give him a piece of my mind, I don’t mind admitting,” Elspeth hissed.
Aaron grinned at her.
“What?” she demanded.
Aaron continued to smile. “You look so feisty when you are cross. It is good to see some colour back in your cheeks.” Tenderly, he lifted one thumb and caressed the alabaster silk that was her cheek.
Elspeth’s heart flipped and instantly began to warm. She turned to look at him. A part of her, deep inside, began to unfurl from its dark and solitary place, and absorb a hint of promise of something that was far brighter than she had ever expected when she saw the intent look in his eyes. She was mesmerised by the gentleness of his touch but also the sensual need evident on his face.
Elspeth wanted to say something, but no words seemed fitting. To her astonishment, Aaron slowly leaned toward her. Her heart hammered in her ears as she watched and waited. When his lips swept gently across hers, Elspeth froze. She couldn’t move, wouldn’t break this special moment. Nothing mattered but Aaron, and what he was doing. She had never experienced anything so intimate in her life. Elspeth knew she should be shocked, horrified, appalled at what he was doing. It was inconceivable that he should be this close to her, but he was, and she didn’t regret a single moment of what he was doing. Slowly, gently, his lips settled over hers. The hand that cupped her cheek slid into the soft curls at the nape of her neck to hold her steady as his lips swept gently from side to side before they settled more fully over hers.
Within minutes, the kiss deepened and became more insistent. Elspeth jerked a little when his hand slid across her waist, but it was only to tug her gently toward him until he held her in his arms. She placed a staying hand on his chest but could find no will or strength to push him away. That staying hand held her steady against the tumultuous emotions that coursed through her, all brought about by the gentle persuasion of her first kiss.
Elspeth knew she would never forget this moment. It would always be indelibly stamped on her soul. She had no desire to forget it. It was something she had only ever dreamed of in all her girlish fantasies. Aaron had always been her special kind of ‘hero’. But while she had inwardly yearned for him to see her as a person, not a friend’s pesky younger sibling, she had never really believed that it was at all possible for him to see her as a woman. Yet he had, because he was now kissing her with a tenderness that brought tears to her eyes.
Over the next se
veral moments, the kiss became more demanding than she had ever thought possible and nudged the last of her resistance out of the way. With a bold daring she never knew she possessed, Elspeth copied Aaron’s movements and slid a hand across his shoulders. When he deepened the kiss and began to increase the pressure of his embrace, Elspeth clung tightly to him. The rawness of the desire that sprang to life within her quickly began to rage out of control, to the point that Elspeth couldn’t resist the need to assuage the thirst that drove her. When Aaron moved sideways and tugged her even closer, Elspeth willingly followed. With one hand still clutching his neck, she pressed scandalously against him as she allowed her other hand to stray down his side to settle on his hip.
The slamming of the front door shattered the fragile bond Aaron had started to weave around the woman in his arms. He cursed virulently when Elspeth jerked and stared up at him with wide, horrified eyes.
“Oh, God,” she cried.
“Elspeth,” he protested. He tried to keep her still, but she struggled and pushed at him with such determination that he had no choice but to release her.
Immediately, Elspeth raced out of the door and ran as fast as she could all the way through the house. Once out in the garden, she continued to run as though the Hounds from Hell were on her heels. The only sounds she could hear were the howling of the ferocious wind that continued to batter the county, and the pounding of her own desperate heart. She was completely oblivious to everything including where she was going. She didn’t even realise Aaron was right behind her until he grabbed her arm and yanked her around to face him so swiftly that she was almost swung off her feet.
“Stop,” he pleaded.
“I can’t do this,” Elspeth cried. “We can’t do this.”
“Why? Elspeth, it isn’t wrong,” Aaron protested.
“It is. It is wrong,” Elspeth argued. She was shouting but the winds carried her words away until they were nothing more than a faint echo of the tortured emotion she struggled with. “I am grieving for my brother. I should not feel – that.”
She pointed a shaking hand at the house.
“Why not?” Aaron countered. “Why shouldn’t you embrace life? It was Thomas you buried, not yourself. You have to live, Elspeth.”
“I can’t,” Elspeth protested. “I have nothing.”
“For now. I will help you,” Aaron told her.
He captured her shoulders and held her before him because she looked as though she was about to run away again. He knew they were in full view of his colleagues, who were all busy saddling their horses ready for their various journeys, but Aaron daren’t release her because he knew it would be impossible to raise this with her again. He doubted that Elspeth would even let him near her if he didn’t find out what made her want to deny their attraction.
“I don’t need you to pay my way in life,” Elspeth argued. She carefully ignored the stubborn voice that warned her pride cometh before the fall.
“I am helping you to find out what happened to Thomas’s fortune,” Aaron informed her briskly. “I am not going to apologise for finding you attractive. I always have, Elspeth.”
Elspeth stared at him. Some of the fight went out of her.
“You have?” she asked in a voice that was uncertain, and a little wary.
Her heart began to ache such was the misery his words brought her. She should be overjoyed and delighted that someone like Aaron found her attractive. Instead, she was perplexed and fearful that allowing Aaron into her life would bring her yet more pain when the time came for him to leave.
“Always,” Aaron said firmly.
“You never said,” Elspeth sniffed tearfully. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from the sincerity in his eyes.
“I just didn’t think you would ever see me as anything more than your brother’s friend. I didn’t want to make my friendship with Thomas difficult by making my interest in you known. Besides, my work with the Star Elite has hardly left me with the time to form a proper relationship with you, the kind a woman like you deserves,” Aaron sighed.
“A woman like me?” Elspeth almost hated to ask but felt compelled to.
“You are gentle, kind, and stunningly captivating.” He grinned when she blushed. Gently, he tipped her chin up until she was looking at him. His smile slowly died. “Thomas had always said you showed no interest in finding a husband and were content with your lot in life. He had no interest in marrying either. He always joked that you would still be sharing the same house when you were old and grey because you were both set in your ways. I stupidly – arrogantly – was of the assumption that when I grew tired of my work with the Star Elite, I could come and find you and we could maybe get to know each other properly.”
Aaron had no idea why he was telling her this now. This was hardly the most convenient time or place for a conversation of such magnitude.
“I think we have to get back inside,” he murmured quietly when he noticed Elspeth shiver.
Elspeth sighed and made her way into the house on leaden feet. She didn’t want to continue the conversation. Right now, she wanted to avoid the emotions that had started to make her feel again. Ever since Thomas’s funeral she had been blessedly numb, and it had gotten her through the turmoil of the last several weeks. Now that she had started to feel again, the emotions she experienced were completely unexpected, and totally unwelcome.
There was, however, nothing she could do about the one distinct emotion that made its presence known to her, took root deep in the back of her mind, settled within the softer regions of her heart, and refused to be ignored: love. She quickly tried to deny it was possible. Aaron was, after all, someone who was her brother’s friend. While she had known him for just as long as Thomas, she hadn’t spent as much time with Aaron as her brother. As such, she knew of Aaron, but didn’t know him personally.
Where did that leave her? She had absolutely no idea. What she could be sure of was that she couldn’t allow Aaron to kiss her again until she was certain she wanted the emotions he drew forth within her and was strong enough to deal with them.
“I can’t stand the heartbreak,” she whispered, more to herself than to Aaron.
Unfortunately, Aaron heard her, and frowned at her back as she let herself back into the house.
CHAPTER SIX
Later that night, Aaron stared absently into the fire. A sheaf of papers rested in his lap, but he had little interest in them. What he had seen so far had confirmed what Elspeth had said in that Thomas had been in debt to a lot of people at the time of his death. Elspeth was, therefore, likely to lose her home if she couldn’t raise the money to pay the debts off.
Aaron knew if he paid the bills for her, when she found out, he was likely to lose her. However, Aaron also knew he couldn’t sit back and do nothing.
After the kiss they had shared he was now more convinced than ever that they had to have a future together. Unfortunately, what he didn’t want was for her to have no alternative but to be with him. He wanted her to want him, the man, not him, the Star Elite operative, or the only person she could turn to. While he would protect her with his life if he needed to, he didn’t want her to see him only as her protector.
“Damn,” he growled.
Given her horror at letting him kiss her, though, he knew it was going to be a fine miracle indeed if she allowed him near again to even discuss what they were going to do. That made his time at the house incredibly difficult, not least because he suspected she was doing her best to avoid him. Since their return to the house earlier, Elspeth had not ventured anywhere near him. She was in the kitchen, still fumbling around with the dinner plates given the clanking and banging of pots he could hear, doing her level best to avoid having to join him in the study.
Unfortunately, even listening to the sounds of domestic tranquillity that came from the kitchen reminded him of the kind of life he had always wanted – with her. He just wished the circumstance around it was a little better, and more befitting for a happy home life.<
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“You look thoughtful,” Oliver murmured as he came to sit opposite.
Aaron sighed and shook his head. “I know Thomas. He would never willingly let debts mount like this. There is something odd about all of this, Oliver, I don’t mind admitting it, and it has nothing to do with Voss and Frederick. I just wish I knew what it was.”
“Do you think we need to go and have a word with this Rollo person, or Frederick anyway? I mean, they both seem very keen to get a foot through the door here. I know Elspeth is beautiful, and eligible, but they both suspect she is destitute. Why would they believe that unless someone who might know told them? I don’t believe they have just heard gossip. Even if they think they are right, why would they take her to wife just to get the house from her? I have seen Rollo’s house. It is the largest in the village. The man is affluent and considers himself above everybody else because of it. This house is nice, but it is a little run down, and nowhere near as large as his. Why would Rollo wish to give up his bachelorhood for a property like this?” Oliver whispered.
“I don’t know,” Aaron sighed.
“We all know why Frederick wants the house. He has made his greed evident to all of us,” Oliver added.
“Why would he be so determined to marry Elspeth, though?”
“Because he knows he is talking rubbish when he says he is to inherit the property because he is the closest living male to Thomas,” Aaron muttered. “If he does marry Elspeth, he will get his hands on the paperwork before she sees it, and nobody will be any wiser to the fact there is no stipulation in it about male heirs.”
Oliver nodded. “We can deal with him and send him on his merry way.”
“I don’t understand why Thomas wouldn’t pay the bills. At the time he had over three thousand in the bank. Why would he leave these?” Aaron picked up the pile of papers in his lap and dropped them onto the table at his elbow.
