To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite Book 7)

by Rebecca King

  “The men are all here to make sure nothing happens to you or Sir Hugo. They won’t hurt you,” Callum said as he began to unbridle the horses.

  “I know, but they have things to do, and I just need a few minutes before I go in there. So much has happened, and so quickly, it is difficult to think that this time yesterday I was hanging out washing in the freezing cold wind wondering if I would rather be dead.”

  Mallory clamped her mouth closed when she realised just how much she had just revealed.

  “You are free now. They won’t kidnap you again,” Callum assured her.

  Dusk was falling and began to encase them both in long shadows. Although she usually hated the dark, tonight she welcomed it not least because Callum had a startling capacity to see rather too much. It wasn’t just that, Mallory needed to think, about what had happened, what she wanted from the future, and how she felt about Callum.

  She was so deep in thought she didn’t notice the passage of time as Callum settled the horses. It wasn’t until he extinguished the lantern and came to join her beside the barn door that she snapped out of her musings and turned to look at him.

  Rather than urge her into the house, Callum rested his shoulders against the door and allowed the silence to engulf them both.

  “He isn’t going to be locked up, is he? Melrose, I mean,” Mallory said quietly.

  Callum slowly shook his head but then realised that Mallory probably couldn’t see him. Now that they were alone in the dark, he too felt he could truly be honest with her in a way that he wouldn’t feel inclined to be like should she be able to look him in the eye.

  “No. When men like Melrose resort to such violence they rarely allow themselves to be arrested for their crimes. He is more likely than most to fight to the death, and will probably be killed by one of us,” Callum replied.

  “I am sorry for what happened to Sir Hugo,” Mallory murmured.

  Callum looked sharply at her when he heard the emotion in her voice.

  “That wasn’t your fault. Sir Hugo was probably overwhelmed. You saw how many guards Melrose had at his house. Not even Sir Hugo would stand a chance if he was ambushed by several of them.”

  Callum’s sharp reply was met with silence.

  “Do you know something? I am sorry for what has happened to Sir Hugo but am not surprised. He has always been up to his neck in whatever investigation the men have been involved in. The men, however, have back up. We rarely work alone. Sir Hugo does – a lot. He rarely discusses what he is doing with others. Therefore, nobody knows what in the Hell he gets up to. We are ordered to meet up with our colleagues just so we can prove we are all fine. If we don’t turn up, people come out to find us. Sir Hugo has been going off on his own for a long while now and rarely, if ever, checks in to let anyone know he is all right. Some would say that he has had this coming to him for a long time.”

  “He is lucky we went into that tavern. If that man hadn’t told us to go there, we wouldn’t have found him.”

  Callum nodded. “He probably wouldn’t have been found until someone from the village went in there, but that building has been abandoned for years so the chances of that happening are remote.”

  “He might never have been found,” Mallory murmured with a shudder.

  Callum ran a weary hand down his face. He had not had any sleep last night, or food, and was now tired, hungry, and getting cold. He knew that Mallory must feel the same, but for the life of him couldn’t find the will to suggest they go into the house. It was nice to stand outside with her and have a quiet conversation nobody could overhear or interrupt. Out here there was just him, and her, in a place where they could say what they liked how they liked.

  It was a time for opening thoughts, feelings, and hearts.

  “Why do you think he does it? Does he not have a home life?”

  Callum huffed a laugh. “Sir Hugo is a very happily married man. He has several children whom he adores. However, working for the Star Elite becomes a way of life for all the men. I think it is a life that Sir Hugo is unable to walk away from. It is a part of who he is. He is the man who set it up. He was the first soldier to be recalled from France by the War Office. Once in London, he was tasked with rounding up a group of able fighters to help him capture smugglers in Cornwall who were bringing French spies into the country, and so it began. Over the years, more and more men have joined the group, and local teams have been established. The Star Elite is no less precious to Sir Hugo than his own children.”

  “He cares enough about it to be prepared to die for it?” Mallory looked sceptically at Callum.

  In the gloom, all she could see was the shape of someone who was very tall, and extremely powerful. It was only the knowledge that the sinister presence beside her was Callum that prevented her from running for her life.

  “He probably thought he was perfectly safe. Melrose has a lot of men at his disposal, but they are not well trained. Most of them are local thugs who have little intellect. If they are paid, they don’t question their orders. They just want money. We don’t know what happened in the events before Sir Hugo got caught. No matter how well-trained Sir Hugo is, or what ammunition he has on him, he isn’t able to fight twenty or so men single-handed.” Callum sighed. “You saw how many men we cut down in that street, and how many men chased us across those fields.”

  “We are lucky we managed to escape,” she agreed.

  Callum nodded.

  “Do you think that Melrose is miles away?”

  “He might be, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be hunted down with a vengeance now. Nobody will get away with trying to murder Sir Hugo. Killing him in the middle of a one-to-one battle is one thing, but to beat him half to death while he is tied up like a goose is another matter entirely.”

  “Do you think he was beaten while he was tied?” Mallory had no idea why she asked that question. It seemed terribly ghoulish to want to know, but something compelled her to ask.

  “From the marks on his wrists, I think it is entirely possible.”

  A lengthy silence settled between them. It was eventually broken by Callum who, for some reason he had yet to understand, sidled closer to her. Even blinded by the night, his hand was inherently able to find hers, as if guided by some invisible force.

  “Do you know something, Mallory? For the first time in my entire life I have been struck by the reality of my own mortality. We all faced fear when we entered the battlefields but didn’t have the time to stop and think about how easily we could draw our last breath. We were too engrossed in fighting for our right to life. When that war ended, though, we faced another battle back at home. For most, that battle was readjusting to ordinary life again. For the men from the Star Elite, me, the new battle I faced included going to Cornwall to deal with Cornish smugglers and French spies. In this country, it is difficult to believe that we are truly in danger. In comparison to the dangers we faced in the battlefields men like Melrose are nothing more than ignorant petty criminals. It is only our stubborn resistance that stops the criminals from succeeding. Now, I have to wonder if it is all worth it.”

  “Don’t say that,” Mallory cried. “How could you say that? Do you have any idea what it has been like for me? For those other women? Are you saying that Sir Hugo has wasted his life for nothing?”

  Callum looked at his boots. “No, of course not.”

  “Well, that’s how it sounded. You are saving people’s lives.”

  “People we don’t know.”

  “Yes, people you don’t know, but they are people, nonetheless. Innocent, ordinary people who are going about their lives and don’t deserve for a criminal to steal their belongings or attack them and all because the criminal refuses to believe they are just like everyone else. Nobody has the right to abuse someone or steal from someone. Nobody has the right to take another person’s life. Has it not occurred to you that the man who beat Sir Hugo so badly is showing you just how much danger he poses to people like you and me? If he is prepared
to do something so heinous to someone in authority like Sir Hugo, he has nothing but utter contempt for you and me and that is why he thinks he can steal lives. His victims mean nothing to him. Our lives would not be worth living if men like him could get away with what they do to people. Melrose deserves to be locked up. I hope they keep him alive because he deserves to rot away behind bars for the rest of his life.”

  “The problem is, Mallory, that when Melrose has been defeated, the entire Star Elite will move their attention to other thugs. There will always be someone else we have to catch, another gang, another town. It is endless.”

  Mallory didn’t doubt it. While she knew he was a strong man, there was a hint of defeat in Callum’s tone that was worrying. It was so alarming that Mallory planted herself directly in front of him and stared hard at him. She didn’t want to expound the virtues of his job because he was putting his life at risk, but she didn’t want him questioning the importance of the work he did either.

  “Nobody can force you to do this. You should do it if it is something you want to do. If you have worked for this Star Elite for a long time, you must be good at what you do. Don’t allow what happened to Sir Hugo to make you bitter or feel defeated. That is what Melrose wants you to think and feel. He wants you to feel overwhelmed by him, or else why would he employ so many men?”

  Callum stared at her. In that moment, he knew that she truly understood the kind of man he was. If he was honest, he wouldn’t be able to live with his own conscience if he allowed his colleagues to try to capture Melrose alone, especially if any of them got hurt.

  “You are stunning, do you know that?” he whispered.

  Mallory was very glad that it was dark, and he couldn’t see the fierce blush on her cheeks. Before she could answer, Callum asked her the question she most definitely didn’t want to answer.

  “What happened to you?”

  Mallory immediately stepped away. It was a physical withdrawal from having to face a subject she didn’t want to discuss.

  Callum knew that she was physically shying away from what she had endured, but he also knew that it was important that Mallory began to talk about it now, while they were alone, in the dark.

  “I was kidnapped,” she replied with a shrug.

  “I know,” he breathed. “But what happened exactly.”

  Mallory stared at him. She had gone over and over in her mind the exact details of that fateful day until she had become too distressed to think about it anymore. At no point since she had been taken had she ever told anybody what had happened. Even Callum. But he knew what had happened to her anyway. She didn’t see the need to tell him herself and therefore couldn’t understand why he asked.

  “Tell me, Mallory.”

  “Why? Why do you want to know what street I was walking down, or what they did?”

  “It is important because people have habits. Gangs like the kidnappers who snatched you will work in certain ways. Each man usually has his part to play, and there are set routines. For instance, one woman in Leicestershire was snatched while she was walking down a country lane. The lane was an ordinary lane just like any other in rural England. There was nothing sinister or unusual about it. However, this lane had high hedges. The carriage, a large black one, rumbled down the lane toward her. It wasn’t any unusual carriage. It was one that could blend into the crowd. Anyway, this carriage rumbled down the lane. Without stopping, the door opened, hands reached out and grabbed the young woman who was walking home. Nobody saw her alive again. More importantly, nobody saw who snatched her or when. She didn’t get the chance to scream. She was simply lifted bodily into the carriage, which increased in speed and went about its journey just as soon as she was aboard. Only someone who was watching her would have noticed her vanishing the instant the carriage passed her. Nobody was watching her except the occupants of the carriage.”

  “She disappeared.”

  It wasn’t a question, so Callum didn’t bother to answer.

  “What happened to her?”

  “They killed her.”

  Mallory shivered. The memories that assailed her were as darkly oppressive as the gloom within the darkened interior of the barn.

  “Tell me,” he urged her quietly.

  With a sigh, Mallory stared at the inky blackness and allowed her thoughts to venture into the most horrifying moment of her life.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “It was just like any other day. I went to work at dawn that morning.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I was a seamstress. I used to work at a dress maker’s shop. Mrs Inson was elderly but insisted on keeping the shop open to give herself something to do. She would have been so worried that I didn’t turn up for work that day, and annoyed because we had a very influential client coming for a dress fitting.”

  Mallory huffed a laugh.

  “What?” Callum couldn’t see anything funny in the situation.

  “It is funny just how much your life can be dictated by little things. When there is nothing else to focus on, little things we shouldn’t worry about are built into huge problems. Rushing to work to take measurements for someone of significant wealth was a major event in my life. I would have felt like I had failed if I hadn’t arrived on time. In reality, a few minutes here and there wouldn’t have hurt anybody. I would have turned up, so would the client, and the job would have been done anyway. It was just that my life was dictated by work, and the people in it so much that it was a burden that caused a lot of stress.”

  “You needed the money.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Doesn’t everybody need money?”

  Callum nodded. He had significant wealth he had partly inherited from extremely wealthy relations. Rather than squander it, he hadn’t touched it. Instead, he had added to it while he had been working with the Star Elite. Now, money was never going to be a major problem in his life. He could retire when he saw fit and never contemplate anything more stressful than deciding what he wanted to do with his days, but he understood that not everybody was as blessed as he was. Women like Mallory often worked to survive.

  “Where are your parents?”

  “Dead.”

  “I am sorry.”

  “How can you be? You didn’t know them,” Mallory replied blankly. “My parents both passed away from a wasting disease within three years of each other. I couldn’t afford to pay the rent on the house so had to move. The property was too big for me anyway, so I moved into a smaller lodgings house and took the things I could carry. I worked to be able to pay my rent and eat. The wages weren’t a lot, but it was enough for me.”

  “You got on with your life.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Until I was snatched. One day, I was rushing to work just as I usually did. I didn’t get there.”

  “Did they use a black carriage?”

  “I think so. I was snatched from behind. All I can remember is that I was walking down the street thinking about getting to work before the wealthy client arrived. The next thing I know something appeared at the side of the road next to me. It was big and dark. I tried to move away from it but was lifted off the ground by hands that wouldn’t release me. Within seconds, I was inside the carriage, which increased in speed and was impossible to jump out of. I was held down. Hands covered my face so I couldn’t scream. I was stunned. There wasn’t anything I could do. I think they used some sort of chemical on me because a cloth was put over my face. The world started to swirl and then went blank.”

  “Were you at Melrose House when you woke up?”

  Mallory shook her head. “I was in some sort of dungeon or basement. It was dank, incredibly damp, and musty. There was water running down the walls on the inside. It was so very cold. I felt sick, dizzy, and scared. Even when I screamed as loudly as I could nobody could hear me. Nobody came to help me. I think I was the only person down there.”

  Her voice broke at that.

  Callum gathered her into his arms. He could hear the lingering fea
r in her voice; the helpless desperation.

  “What then?” he pressed.

  “They left me. I didn’t get anything to eat or any cloak to keep warm. There wasn’t even a bed I could lie on, just a cold stone floor. I paced for a while, once my voice had gone hoarse from all the screaming of course, but nobody came. I don’t know how long I was there.”

  “It was meant to make you realise how trapped you were. They wanted to leave you in no doubt that they would come to fetch you when they wanted to. Your needs were not going to be taken into consideration,” Callum murmured.

  He absently kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek on it.

  Mallory didn’t think about what she was doing. She rested her cheek against the steady thud of his heart. Strangely, it helped her gain the strength she needed to probe deeper into her disturbing memories.

  “One day, the door above me suddenly opened. I don’t know if it was a blessing or not. I was just as scared as I was the first moment I woke up and realised where I was. When I say it was a door, it wasn’t really. It was more of a hole in the ceiling. They had to put a ladder down. One of the men climbed down and shoved me up it.”

  Callum scowled. “You were in an oubliette?”

  “A what?”

  “An oubliette. It is an underground chamber; a secret dungeon that can only be accessed through a hole in its ceiling. It was designed to keep prisoners in, although they wouldn’t ever be let out. Historically, prisoners would be dropped through the hole and left to die. Escape from an oubliette is impossible because it is underground.”

  Mallory shivered at the thought of what might have happened to her had nobody ever come back to get her.

  “Thank God they came and got you out,” Callum breathed.

  “When I was at the top, none of them seemed inclined to want to speak to me. I wasn’t a person. I told them I would fetch the magistrate even though I expected them to laugh at me. They didn’t even bother to look at me. Nobody said anything to me. I was just shoved around like a piece of flotsam and jetsam.”