by Rebecca King
CHAPTER FIVE
‘Someone is watching,’ she whispered. Clarissa eyed the barn through the trees but rather than feel the jubilation she expected, she felt a growing sense of unease sweep through her. The woods they passed through were still and quiet, as they should be, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling that something wasn’t right.
‘We are going to drive straight into the barn,’ Frederick muttered. ‘I need to put the horses away.’
Clarissa nodded. ‘You will have to stay in the house tonight. You can’t go to your cottage on your own. They might accost you before you get there.’
Frederick’s face was grim as he nodded. ‘I think I will stay up for a while and keep watch, just in case any of them try to break in.’
‘What do you think they want with us?’ Clarissa cried.
‘They haven’t allowed any of their other victims to walk free before. We have seen what they look like,’ Frederick muttered. ‘I don’t want to alarm you unduly, but it might be best if we don’t venture too far away from the house for the next day or so.’
‘But Horace will need his morning ride,’ Clarissa argued. ‘God, this is ridiculous. We are skulking around in woods like we have done something wrong.’
‘They are highwaymen; men who have killed. They may have decided to rob the house once they learnt that your aunt was wealthy,’ Frederick warned, his voice gruffer than usual because of the strength of his worry.
‘This is all so confusing and annoying,’ Clarissa hissed.
‘Well, we will have to report what happened to the magistrate. He should be able to tell us what the Star Elite look like. Just don’t be too upset if you learn that the second group of men were highwaymen as well.’
‘Do you want to tell her or shall I?’ Clarissa asked as Frederick guided the carriage through the open barn doors and hauled it to a stop.
For a moment, nobody moved as they absorbed the fact that their journey was finally over.
‘She is your aunt,’ Frederick muttered eventually.
He quickly closed the barn doors. With the horses breathing heavily, Clarissa set to work cooling them down and unharnessing them. Rosamund climbed down from the carriage and stood helplessly to one side while she watched Clarissa and Frederick work. She looked as pale and shaken as Clarissa felt, but there wasn’t anything anybody could say to her because danger still lurked outside.
‘Keep an eye out for them,’ Clarissa suggested, nodding to the back of the barn.
Rosamund found a small gap in the panelling and peered outside. ‘Shush. I think I see someone,’ she whispered. ‘I thought I saw the shadows shift.’
‘We need to get into the house,’ Frederick growled. He nodded at Clarissa. ‘Get the guns out of the carriage.’
While she went to fetch the weapons, Frederick tugged the horses toward their stables and fetched some hay. Clarissa then found large coachman’s cloaks for both her and Rosamund. Frederick bolted the main doors from the inside before moving several barrels and boxes away from an old, disused side door. It squeaked alarmingly when he tugged it open, but it still had a key which he used to lock the door once they were outside. With the barn now secure, he ushered the silent women toward the house. Frederick was still wearing the cloak Clarissa had given him and looked somewhat sinister with three guns propped on his brawny shoulder, but it was reassuring to have him beside them as they made their way around the gardens.
‘Where do you think they are?’ Rosamund whispered, looking around them worriedly.
‘They aren’t too far away,’ Frederick muttered, studying the gardens with a dark frown. All was still and silent, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were being watched. ‘I will make sure that everywhere is locked up before you ladies go to bed. I am going to stay up for a while.’
‘I’ll help,’ Clarissa offered.
‘You need to go to bed, miss,’ Frederick protested.
‘You can do the back of the house and I will do the front,’ Clarissa argued, ignoring Frederick’s dark glare.
‘I say that we all do it,’ Rosamund interrupted. ‘We have all been on this endless journey together. It stops only when the house is secured, and we are all safe.’
As soon as everyone was inside, they began to walk through the house closing shutters, curtains, and checking the doors were bolted. Frederick dragged chairs over to French doors and made sure that they couldn’t be opened from the outside before waving the women on to the next room. Eventually, the house was as secure as it was possible to be.
‘I will say goodnight,’ Frederick muttered. ‘I am going to be keeping watch for a while so don’t fret if you hear someone walking about. While I don’t expect the blighters to try to rob us tonight, they have followed us home for a reason. Try to get some sleep both of you, eh?’
‘Good night,’ Rosamund called softly before scurrying off to her room.
Clarissa nodded and whispered a soft goodnight before retreating to her bed chamber. For the first time since she had moved in, Clarissa didn’t feel safe in her bed chamber. It had until now, always been her sanctuary. Tonight, it was anything but despite it being just as she had left it.
‘You have had far too much excitement for one evening. It is time to get to bed,’ she muttered to herself in disgust.
Before she changed into her night gown, Clarissa opened one of the shutters and peered outside. Nothing stirred. She shuddered at the thought of someone being out there but was too tired to care. Changing out of her undergarments didn’t take long because she needed the warmth her nightgown could offer. She was still shaking out the folds in the voluminous material when she emerged from behind the retiring screen and casually glanced up.
‘What-’ Her gaze flew to the now open bed chamber window. Instinctively, she stepped backward, away from him, and opened her mouth to scream only for her shocked gaze to fall to the gun in the intruder’s hand.
‘You cannot shake off the Star Elite,’ he murmured smoothly.
‘You are not Star Elite,’ she spat. ‘The Star Elite don’t break into people’s houses in the dead of night.’
‘Prove it.’ His tone was hard and challenging.
Clarissa stared at him. She tried to think of something to say but all she could think about was how tall he was. This was the rider who had spoken to her earlier, the mysterious man. He was considerably taller than she expected him to be. His broad shoulders seemed broader up close and his physique more powerful. With one broad shoulder propped negligently against the post of her bed he looked completely relaxed and at ease in a lady’s bed chamber. He looked raw, masculine, but there was a watchfulness in his gaze that was alarming. Clarissa didn’t doubt now that her opinion of him earlier hadn’t been wrong. He was a predator.
And he has been hunting me.
‘What do you want?’ Clarissa tried to sound unconcerned about his presence in her bed chamber, but she was shaking so violently she wished she were closer to the chair beside the fireplace. She wasn’t at all sure her knees were going to hold her up for much longer. ‘You break into people’s houses yet claim to be with the Star Elite. If you do not have anything to hide, why do you not answer my questions?’
‘I don’t claim to be Star Elite. I am Star Elite,’ Zach corrected. ‘And I never claimed to not have anything to hide.’
‘Like I have asked you several times before, what do you want with me? I haven’t committed any crimes,’ Clarissa snapped coldly. ‘Only a highwayman would break into my house like this if he wanted to steal something.’
‘I am not a highwayman,’ Zach assured her firmly. ‘And the Star Elite can do whatever they want. We are lawmen and have full authority to keep people under our protection if we feel it is necessary.’
‘I don’t need your protection,’ Clarissa protested.
‘Really?’ Zach lifted his brows and did his best to avoid having to look at her. Each time he did she had a devastating impact on his mind and his body. He struggled
to think much less get his words out without stumbling over them or sounding like a bumbling idiot. From the few brief glances that he had taken of her, he had a mental image of her that just wouldn’t leave him. Each time he closed his eyes, she seemed to be there, waiting for him in the back of his mind.
Waiting to drive me out of my mind more like. God, she is annoying.
But even as he thought that, Zach knew he was being unfair and that she wasn’t irritating at all. In fact, she had taken what had happened to her that evening with an alacrity that was alarming. She was wilful, headstrong, just as he had suspected, but also infinitely feminine. He tried not to stare at the voluminous nightgown which seemed to engulf her. Despite its shapeless bulk she looked dainty, fragile. Her softer appearance was softened even more by her long auburn hair, which sat in wilful abandon over one shoulder. It was delicately scented with lavender, or maybe that was her. Whichever it was didn’t really matter. The delicate scent wafted toward him and teased him with things that he knew he shouldn’t be tempted by. The urge to step closer and see if it was her hair that smelt so divine was strong. So strong that he rocked on the balls of his feet, but at the last moment, Zach forced himself to step away from temptation.
‘Yes, really. I am perfectly capable of protecting myself, thank you very much,’ Clarissa snapped.
‘You have seen him then,’ Zach murmured casually.
Clarissa blinked at him. ‘Seen who?’
Everything within Zach was screaming at him not to do it, but he stepped forward and caught her slender wrist in a gentle grip. When he tried to tug her toward the window, he found that she wouldn’t move. ‘I am not going to hurt you. I am just going to take you over here.’ Zach pointed to a closed window in case she thought he was going to try to drag her outside and make off with her. His suspicions were confirmed when she immediately began to move. But when they reached the window, he had to step far closer than he knew was wise.
Clarissa was aware of how much she had to tip her head back to look up at him. When their eyes met, she saw something shining at her from his avid gaze that was hard, challenging, but strangely sensual. A shiver of something warm slithered down her spine and held her captive when it should have warned her to run while she had the chance.
‘Turn around,’ Zach murmured quietly. ‘Quickly, before he disappears.’
‘He?’
Clarissa found her shoulders held in a firm grip and she was turned around until she faced outside. She skimmed a disinterested gaze over the garden and shrugged. ‘What am I looking at?’
Zach stepped closer to her back and peered at the woods. He carefully avoided thinking about how his body, his senses, even his heart, reacted to her nearness. He felt as if every nerve was standing on end, tuned to her. His heart pounded with such rapid force he wondered if it was going to beat out of his chest. It had nothing to do with the hard race through the countryside he had just endured to find her but everything to do with her, the stunning young woman before him, and the growing attraction he felt toward her that had blossomed out of nowhere.
‘Do you see over there in those trees? Watch the trees, especially this side, at ground level,’ Zach murmured into her ear. He breathed in the delicate scent of lavender in her hair and smiled because it reminded him of warm summer sunshine.
‘My friends, the Star Elite, are all at the back of the stable block. If you wait for a moment, you should see one of them appear.’ He pointed to the side of the stable block in question.
Clarissa, doing her best to ignore the warm sensations his closeness caused her, forced herself to appear interested and dutifully looked at the stable block. She couldn’t see anything but as the minutes ticked by, the figure of a man emerged from the back of the building, ambled down the side of the barn, and studied the gardens for a few moments before slowly and steadily retracing his steps.
‘The rest of the men are in the barn,’ Zach explained.
‘But Frederick locked it,’ Clarissa replied without thinking.
‘Not very well,’ Zach replied. ‘You really are going to have to replace the locks on the doors around this place. That thing was aged and broke easily.’
‘You broke the lock on the barn door?’ Clarissa cried.
Zach lifted his brows but didn’t answer.
With a sigh, Clarissa turned an angry gaze outside. ‘What else am I looking at?’
‘Over by the trees.’ Zach pointed to the spot.
The trees swayed as a breeze teased them from left to right but nothing else stirred. She glanced over her shoulder at him, wondering if he was doing something behind her back that she should be wary of. His gaze fell to hers and immediately robbed her of all thoughts.
‘Watch,’ Zach urged softly.
Clarissa sighed heavily because she suspected he was up to something and trying to distract her by getting her to look outside. But when she turned to look out of the window she gasped when she saw a rider race along the horizon. The outline of a dark figure was racing toward Simmerton.
‘Who is that?’ Clarissa gasped.
‘One of the highwaymen,’ Zach said. ‘Some of my colleagues are in the barn, the others are in the woods. We were half-way across the fields you led us to when we realised that the highwaymen were following you too. The highwaymen didn’t look into the ploughed fields because I suppose they thought we wouldn’t use them so didn’t notice us watching them.’
‘They followed us too?’ Clarissa glared out of the window and gasped again when she saw a second rider race after the first.
‘Not all of them. I suspect the leader went somewhere else with the stolen goods,’ Zach explained. ‘A couple of my colleagues have gone after him.’
‘What are your colleagues doing in our barn?’ Clarissa demanded. ‘We haven’t got anything to do with the highwaymen.’
Zach didn’t explain that his colleagues were taking the wheels off the carriage to stop her coachman from driving the women anywhere else for a while.
‘I am not saying you have, but you saw the highwaymen. You know what they look like.’
‘But I don’t know them. I didn’t recognise any of them,’ Clarissa protested, whirling to face the mystery man.
It felt surreal to have a normal conversation with a stranger in her bed chamber. It was so unusual that Clarissa wasn’t at all sure whether she should run screaming still or not, but the stranger wasn’t threatening her. In fact, he was speaking so gently to her that she was amazed by it. In contrast to his size, he really did have a soft side to him, a considerate side.
But that is even more dangerous because I want to trust him even though I know I shouldn’t.
‘Are you sure they are not locals?’ Zach’s gaze sharpened as he spoke.
‘No. At least I don’t think so. I cannot remember having seen them around these parts before.’
‘But they know the area well enough to know the back roads,’ Zach reasoned.
‘Well, maybe they deliver goods here, or travel around these parts. I don’t know where they come from, nobody does. What I do know is that I would have recognised them if they were from Simmerton. I have grown up around these parts. I would have seen them at some point,’ Clarissa reasoned.
‘You are incredibly lucky,’ Zach mused. ‘They usually kill their victims.’
Clarissa sighed. ‘I don’t know why they spared us.’
Zach stared pointedly at her.
Clarissa glared at him when she saw that look. ‘I don’t.’
‘They should have shot you whether you had any valuables on you or not. What I need to know is why they let you live but then chose to follow you here,’ Zach murmured.
‘I don’t know,’ Clarissa replied. ‘It might not be me they followed. Maybe they followed you because they realised that you shot one of their friends.’
Zach mentally cursed because he knew that was an entirely plausible explanation. ‘It doesn’t explain why they chose to spare your life.’
‘I
don’t know,’ Clarissa replied.
‘And you are sure you don’t know them,’ Zach prompted.
‘I am positive.’
‘Do you think you might be able to sketch their images in the morning?’ Zach asked.
‘Well, I suppose so. I suppose Rosamund could as well,’ Clarissa murmured.
‘The lady in the carriage. Who is she?’ Zach asked.
‘My aunt’s companion,’ Clarissa replied firmly. ‘She came with me to my father’s as a chaperone.’
‘Why were you out tonight? You must have heard about the highwaymen. It is an incredibly foolish risk you took venturing anywhere after dark.’ Zach lifted an arrogant brow and folded his arms as he waited for her to answer. He watched her gaze fall to the bed chamber door behind him and knew she was either contemplating whether to try to order him to leave or was planning to make an escape herself. He eased sideways a little, blocking her view, making it clear that she was going nowhere until she had told him what he wanted to know. Where she was standing, she was effectively pinned beneath the window and him. Escape was not an option unless she wanted to climb out of the window.
‘I went to have dinner with my father,’ Clarissa replied seeing no reason to lie to him. If he was Star Elite she couldn’t risk him considering her as dishonest.
‘And why did he not come to see you seeing as you are in danger even in a carriage?’ Zach asked.
‘He is a vicar in Wimley Marshes,’ Clarissa replied. ‘We always have dinner together on Thursdays.’
‘But like I have said, why has he not come to you?’
Clarissa sighed. ‘He doesn’t like my aunt. They are brother and sister but don’t get on very well.’
‘And you are living with your aunt?’
Clarissa nodded.
‘Is there an uncle in the house?’
‘Why?’ Clarissa baulked at telling him too much.
