Betrayal of Innocence (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite Book 1)

by Rebecca King

  “It’s a woman.” Justin described the young woman who had alighted Curtis’s cart, and was now making her way, albeit slowly, toward a long, low barn on the opposite side of the farmyard.

  “That’s Lisa, the milk maid,” Vanessa whispered.

  Justin lifted his brows at her when he heard the decidedly dispassionate tone of her voice.

  “You don’t like her?”

  “She has a reputation in the village,” Vanessa murmured distastefully.

  Justin bit back a smile. “As what?”

  Vanessa’s cheeks flamed. There was a teasing light in his eye that made her lips twitch in return.

  “A rather less than reputable person, shall we say?” she replied. “Her morals are questionable. She has a yen for married men. It caused discord between Curtis and Geraldine when he gave Lisa the job here after the other milk maid left, I can tell you.”

  “Is there any truth in the rumours about her, or is it just villagers not liking a particular person who has upset someone at some point?” Justin asked curiously.

  “She was caught in a compromising position with the Vicar’s son two summers ago, and was then seen cavorting scandalously with two, and I repeat two, married men whose wives were less than pleased. Her family are hard off and have been known to help themselves to things they cannot otherwise afford. She is brash, rude, and flaunts herself in ways that no reputable person would.”

  Justin nodded and decided to let the matter drop for now. He could go to the tavern to see the doxy herself if he needed to. At the moment, he didn’t think prodding Vanessa’s dislike of the woman was a good idea.

  Deciding to try to keep the women apart, he studied the yard and tried to plot a route over to the barn that avoided the milk-maid altogether. Before either of them could move, though, the maid appeared in the doorway of the milking barn and began to stalk toward them. Her brows slammed down when she saw Vanessa.

  “What are you doing here?” she demanded without preamble.

  Vanessa sidled around Justin to face the maid.

  “I don’t see that has anything to do with you,” she snapped dismissively. “Why are you not at work like you are paid to do?”

  “Curtis told you to stay away from here,” Lisa replied.

  “That has nothing to do with you. This property isn’t Curtis’s. He is in no position to order me out,” Vanessa said.

  To her disgust, she watched Lisa, a small, buxom young woman slide a somewhat lecherous gaze over Justin. It wasn’t just the wanton look she threw him, or the teasing moue that curved her lips, it was the brash way she leaned toward him as she stepped closer that gave him a full view of her ample cleavage and left him in no doubt she wouldn’t object should he decide to take up what was on offer.

  Justin wouldn’t, of course, not least because he suspected the young woman was trouble he would be best to avoid.

  “Don’t let us keep you,” he murmured, stepping closer to Vanessa. He watched the somewhat spoilt young woman glance acidly at Vanessa when he slid a proprietorial arm around her.

  “I am sure you have work to do,” Vanessa snapped.

  “Shall we?” he asked Vanessa tenderly.

  Vanessa looked at him, a little shocked that he was so unaffected by Lisa’s behaviour. The milk maid was pretty, and knew it, and invariably wasted no time taking advantage of it at every opportunity.

  It was clear she didn’t like being rebuffed by someone like Justin. She threw a thinly veiled look of menace at Vanessa, then whirled around and stomped away. Before she disappeared completely, she turned back to face them.

  “I shall tell him you were here,” she snapped.

  “Good. Do that,” Vanessa called after her. “I want to know what he has done with my sister.”

  Lisa stopped in the doorway of the milking barn. She looked over her shoulder, but this time, with secrets in her eyes. Vanessa opened her mouth to ask her what she knew only for Justin to stop her.

  “Leave it for now,” he said quietly. “We can get Weeks to question her should we need to.”

  “But she knows something,” Vanessa protested. “She is just not saying anything because she is spiteful.”

  “Are you sure?” Justin challenged suddenly.

  “You don’t know her,” Vanessa replied.

  “Have you spent any time with her?” He demanded.

  “No,” Vanessa snorted. “She prefers to spend her time with men, preferably married ones, or don’t you believe me about that either? If you don’t, feel free to speak with Mr Frenchay, or Mr Williams. They were both caught with her. I am sure they won’t want to discuss their shenanigans with you, but it will at least prove I know what I am talking about.”

  Justin didn’t doubt it. “It won’t help you get to the truth if you antagonise people like her. People like that are more inclined to withhold information just to get at certain people. It won’t matter to her that your sister’s safety depends on her telling the truth. It is someone else’s problem. For now, just leave her alone, that’s all I ask.”

  Vanessa smarted from the warning. It sounded to her that he felt she was the one causing trouble, and that was hardly the case.

  “Are you actually protecting her?” she demanded, more hurt than she wanted to be.

  “No,” Justin sighed.

  “You are,” Vanessa accused. “You are protecting her because you think I am a trouble-maker.”

  Justin sighed heavily when Vanessa looked at him with such disappointment he wanted to apologise.

  Vanessa, too angry to speak, remained silent as she stormed across the yard to the rear of the old barn. Once there, she didn’t follow the path to the trees that would take her home. Instead, she made her way to the back of the barn.

  “Now where are you going?” Justin asked from behind her.

  “I do not believe my whereabouts are anything to do with you. I have committed no crime and am a free person. I can do whatever I want,” she replied pertly. “This is private property. My father’s private property, not yours and not Curtis’s, no matter what he thinks.”

  “But you can’t go snooping around other people’s belongings,” Justin snorted.

  “I am just going to look. There can be no harm in it. If you don’t like it, or want to help, feel free to leave me to it,” she replied crisply. “But you are not in any position to stop me.”

  If Curtis had been around she wouldn’t have risked checking the barn. With only Lisa at the farm, she had little to fear, and so didn’t waste another moment arguing with Justin. She made her way around the side of the barn and watched the door to the milk parlour for a moment. When Lisa passed the window and headed toward the back of the building where the cows stood in neat rows waiting to be milked, Vanessa slid through the partially open barn door.

  “You really don’t think someone who has something serious to hide, like his wife’s corpse, would be so stupid as to store it in the barn, do you?” Justin asked as he followed her.

  “Do you have to make so much noise?” Vanessa snapped, carefully ignoring his suggestion that Geraldine might be dead. She didn’t relish the prospect of finding her sister’s body but if it gave her the answers she needed, she had to keep looking and risk it.

  “What are you looking for?” he asked curiously as he wandered around the huge building and studied the various pieces of farming equipment lying haphazardly across the floor. It was evident a lot of it hadn’t been moved for a very long time but that didn’t stop Vanessa from checking under every item and scouring every dark corner.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he ordered.

  “Why?” Vanessa demanded.

  “Because you are going to leave traces that you have been here if you do,” he replied.

  Vanessa scowled at him and followed his line of vision. At first, she didn’t see what he meant, but then watched him silently reach around her and stroke a cobweb. It released a shower of dust about them which tickled her nose and made her want to sneeze
.

  “There isn’t going to be anything in here,” he assured her.

  “How can you say that?”

  “Look, I have been doing this job for a very long time. Believe me when I tell you that you are not going to find anything in such an obvious place like this. Besides, nothing has been touched in here for a long time. Look at the dust. Look at the floor. There isn’t the space to drag a body anywhere. Even if he carried it in here, and I am not, for one second, suggesting she has died, but if she has been killed, he wouldn’t be able to walk through this equipment without falling over something, especially carrying a body. Besides, where would he put it? There is nothing in here to hide it behind. You have searched every corner. What do you expect to find?”

  Utterly defeated, Vanessa sighed. “I just need to rule it out,” she replied solemnly. “At least if I know I have been in here and checked it, I know she isn’t here. I wouldn’t want to search everywhere else and not find her only for her to be here.”

  “What about the rest of the buildings? You can hardly search them with Lisa here, she will tell Curtis. If you instigate a search you have to complete it in one go and not leave any stone unturned. If you miss something, or have to come back, he would have the opportunity to move the body and you would never know about it.”

  Vanessa studied him. “You speak with such authority,” she whispered sadly.

  “It is a sad but necessary part of my job,” he replied carefully. “I am afraid that looking for missing people is part of what I do.”

  Vanessa nodded. “I have to search the rest of the buildings.”

  “He would have to be a very stupid man to bury his wife in the buildings so close to his house, don’t you think?” he retorted. “Especially given there are miles of empty fields around here. Now, unless you are prepared to search every field as well as the buildings, you are going to have to accept that there might be more professional people who are used to dealing with circumstances like these. People who know what they are doing and how to get the necessary information out of Curtis, without him seemingly knowing about it.”

  “How?” she demanded.

  “I am afraid that is confidential,” he replied swiftly.

  Vanessa stared at him when the awful realisation dawned that she might never find out what had happened to her sister.

  Justin saw the look on her face and immediately regretted his harshness. He was used to dealing with situations like this whereas she was not. He should have been more sympathetic to her desperate need for information.

  “Look, I am sorry, all right? I didn’t mean to worry you unduly or try to infer that Geraldine was dead. I just think you need to understand just how insurmountable an obstacle it will be to find your sister if the investigation into her disappearance isn’t handled correctly. You could very easily have removed some clues without even realising by going into the house. If Curtis realises you have gotten too close, he could take steps to make sure your sister is never found.”

  “You think she is dead, don’t you?” she whispered harshly, struggling to fight back her tears. “You refuse to tell me, but you keep talking about her body, her corpse, and her death, as though it is certain she has been killed.”

  “I wouldn’t like to say one way or the other,” he replied. “I am sorry if I inferred she was dead. It wasn’t meant.”

  Vanessa nodded, but was too choked to speak.

  “I am sorry,” he murmured gently when large tears began to trickle steadily down her cheeks.

  Justin sighed when her tears began to flow faster. All he could do was ease her gently into his arms and hold her while she wept. He had no idea what had come over him. He wasn’t usually this sympathetic to a woman’s tears, especially someone he was supposed to be investigating. The more professional thing to do was keep his distance, escort her home and warn her to stay there in the future. The last thing he should be doing is holding her tightly while she wept silent tears of grief. She wasn’t a loud crier either. The only sound he could hear to betray her distress was slightly harsher breathing, but he felt every tear in the heaving of her shoulders and the wet patch on his shirt.

  “We will find out what happened to her,” he promised, then mentally winced because he knew he shouldn’t be saying such things.

  Vanessa worked hard to try to pull herself together. She didn’t want him to think she was some weak-willed female who fell into a fit of the vapours whenever she faced a challenge. If it hadn’t been for the insurmountable odds of ever finding Geraldine that had hit her, she would have been all right.

  “I will be fine,” she whispered tremulously.

  “Just stay safe,” he urged, his voice barely above a whisper.

  Vanessa’s gaze lifted to his lips.

  Justin saw the silent plea in her eyes and knew he should refuse. The last thing he wanted was for her to turn to him in her hour of need, and regret anything they shared later.

  “Vanessa,” he murmured gently, a hint of refusal in his eyes.

  Vanessa sucked in a breath. She was a little stunned at her own waywardness and couldn’t be quite sure what had taken over her. She sucked in a deeply fortifying breath, but when she tried to step out of his arms, found herself held firmly against him.

  She daren’t breathe as she watched his head lower the final few inches to hers. There was something different about this kiss, though. It was considerably more intense than the last one and felt as though he was trying to convey some sort of message he couldn’t say aloud. Vanessa just wished she could understand what it was.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Several luscious moments later, Vanessa leaned back to look up at him. She knew she should step away, especially now her tears had vanished just as quickly as they had appeared, but she couldn’t get her feet to move. She couldn’t put any distance between them. Not when she felt so safe, so warm, so protected in the loving security of his strong embrace.

  Loving security? She mentally winced at that and hesitantly took a step back.

  “Who is that?” Justin murmured, watching a stout man hobble toward the milk parlour.

  Vanessa’s forehead touched Justin’s when she tipped her head to peer through a narrow gap in the barn door. She watched the man talk to Lisa for a moment then Lisa step back to allow him into the milking parlour.

  “That’s Reuben. I don’t know what he is doing here, but he is harmless,” she reported.

  “Who is he? Is he a villager? Is he related to Lisa?” Justin demanded.

  Vanessa studied him. Once again, Justin hadn’t been as affected by their kiss as she had. It appeared he had forgotten it the moment it had ended. It was a stark reminder that she had to remain strong, and maintain some distance between them, or try to.

  It was difficult to do, especially when he was wrapped around her so comfortably, and it felt so right.

  “Rueben works, or used to work at the orphanage right next to the church. He isn’t any harm to anybody, although I don’t know what he is doing here.” She sought a way to describe him adequately to Justin without seeming rude or disparaging.

  Justin sensed her hesitation and looked at her. “Tell me,” he urged gently. “I want you to know that there is nothing you can’t tell me. I have practically heard it all anyway.” He smiled to soften his words. “Don’t keep secrets from me.”

  Vanessa smiled, but replied: “Don’t keep secrets from me either.”

  Justin pursed his lips.

  “Fine,” he replied, although mentally crossed his fingers. There were some secrets that would have to remain hidden for the rest of his life, but he wouldn’t tell her that.

  The silence lengthened. Justin tried to think of something to take his mind off the feel of her pressed against him. The memory of the brief, yet tantalising kiss they had shared in the house no more than an hour ago lingered in the back of his mind. The temptation to savour that delectable sweetness again was strong – so strong that Justin found his head lowering toward hers once mor
e.

  This time, Vanessa knew what to expect. It wasn’t any shock to feel his lips brush gently against hers. She remained still when the soft warmth of his breath swept across her mouth. While everything screamed at her not to, she met his tender caress and allowed his lips to settle more fully over hers for a few moments. She was helpless to deny either of them this precious moment of oneness.

  This time, mostly because she knew it would be the last time they would ever share such intimacy, Vanessa decided to take out of the situation what she wanted. For once, she was completely selfish, and took what he so readily offered. He didn’t object when she boldly slid her hands up his chest until they came to rest on the edges of his waistcoat. He didn’t budge an inch when she stood on tiptoe and began to copy the movement of his lips with a boldness that shook them both. When she deepened the kiss in the way he had done in the bedroom earlier, she was rewarded by his low moan. The sound of it rumbled through her, but rather than warn her to stop, it encouraged further exploration. Fuelled with a heady rush of success, she clung tighter and edged just that little bit closer.

  Justin knew he had to stop her. She was exploring, and it was dangerous to his self-control. While he wouldn’t mind indulging her in ordinary circumstances, these were no ordinary circumstances. They were alone, together, in a darkened barn, on a farm they shouldn’t be at, with villagers only a few feet away; villagers who could catch them together and spread gossip which would ruin Vanessa’s reputation in the space of just a few hours.

  Just another minute more, he thought vaguely while his arms tightened about her.

  Suddenly, his hold loosened, and he stepped back.

  “We can’t do this again,” he growled, more to himself than to her.

  Vanessa, scalded, immediately released him and stepped back. What they had just shared felt terribly wanton but something deep within her refused to apologise for it. He hadn’t objected or made any attempt to stop her. She had wanted to know – something, she wasn’t entirely sure what. Now she had explored and reassured herself that what they had shared in the farm house hadn’t been a figment of her imagination, she needed to decide what she as going to do about the attraction she felt toward him, and unless she was very much mistaken, he felt towards her.