For Love Alone (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite Book 8)

by Rebecca King

  Phillip shook his head and cursed. ‘You have to come with me.’

  ‘I have to do no such thing,’ she replied pertly. ‘Now if you will excuse me.’

  Carlotta turned to leave. There was little she could see but she had no choice but to try to find a way out of the woods. She half expected him to grab her hand and stop her again, but he didn’t. Instead, Phillip remained perfectly still and was swallowed up by the fog within seconds as she left him behind.

  Carlotta kept her gaze trained on the ground at her feet. She walked and walked and sensed that she was all alone. Eventually, she had to stop to try to figure out where she was and which way she had to go. She moved forward to take another step only for one long arm to slide around her waist and yank her off her feet. In that moment, the fog swirled and parted again, and gave her a clear view of a cliff face directly beneath her. Carlotta screamed when she found herself swirling through the air. She clung to the arm around her waist and gasped in disbelief as she was dropped unceremoniously back onto her feet on the edge of the woodland. She stared at the ground for a moment and tried to comprehend just how close she had come to dying. Suddenly, she felt a weight on her shoulder and turned to look at Phillip, who was resting his head against her shoulder. He looked as shaken as she felt.

  ‘Do you have any idea how close you just came to walking off the cliff again?’ he hissed.

  Carlotta swallowed. ‘I didn’t see it.’

  Phillip turned her around and gathered her into his arms. Thankfully, he had seen a break in the fog and had caught the edge of the cliff but had only been given a couple of seconds to reach her. At first, he had thought he had missed her. That she had walked off the cliff. The thought was so horrifying that he was stunned by the force of the horrible grief that flooded him. He clung to her without even realising it. Phillip held her tightly against him, as if determined to never let her go. The thought of losing her; of her being dead; was something that disturbed something deep within him that changed him as a man, a person, a member of the Star Elite.

  ‘I never saw the edge,’ she whispered blankly. ‘How could I miss it?’

  Phillip leaned back but only so he could look into her eyes. Without thinking about what he was doing he slammed his lips onto hers. The second their lips touched, Phillip felt her shift against him and became aware that he was holding on to her too tightly. Loosening his hold, Phillip allowed his lips to tease hers. They captured, sipped, peppered tiny kisses from one corner of her mouth to another. She gasped and clung to his shoulders when he tried to lift his head. He didn’t object. With any other woman he would have not welcomed her clinging. With Carlotta, he wanted to feel her need for him. He wanted to know that he wasn’t alone in experiencing this wild surge of passion and his battle to contain it. He wanted her to understand that if they battled through this new adventure together they were going to have to change their lives forever. Phillip growled and tugged her closer when a particularly strong breeze billowed around them. Neither noticed its strength as they explored. Hands devoured with as much ferocity as mouths as they stood on the blustery clifftop and surrendered to this special moment.

  ‘We have to stop,’ she whispered breathlessly when Phillip’s hands slid down to cup her derriere and lift her against him. She didn’t object to their intimate stance. It was the fact that they might be seen by someone walking through the woods that made her lean back. When she looked at him she was immediately aware that she could see him more clearly. The fog bank was lifting.

  Phillip buried his face into her neck and sucked in a deep, fortifying breath. ‘I am sorry for that.’

  Carlotta struggled for words. She wanted to dismiss what had just happened but it was so profound she couldn’t. Rather than answer, she stared mutely up at him. Before Phillip could speak, a loud blast of gunfire exploded in the woods beside them.

  Phillip cursed and grabbed Carlotta’s bag and hand. ‘Hurry up.’

  Diving for the retreating sanctuary of the fog, he tugged Carlotta with him but wasn’t fast enough to avoid the gunman who took another shot at them. The bullet buried itself deeply into the tree beside Phillip who cursed again and pushed Carlotta before him so any bullet that was fired at them would hit him not her.

  ‘Go.’

  ‘Which way?’ Carlotta gasped as she ran. Even though the fog had started to lift she still struggled to see properly. Carlotta still ran, but at some point she veered off the path because the undergrowth thickened considerably and slowed their flight.

  ‘To the left,’ Phillip hissed.

  Carlotta jumped over a log and stumbled when her feet were immediately captured by the dense shrubbery.

  Phillip landed next to her. He ducked when another bullet settled into a tree several feet to their right. ‘He doesn’t know where we are.’

  Carlotta glared at him. ‘How can you say that?’

  Another bullet landed in a tree several feet to their left.

  ‘Well he is either randomly firing into the woods after us in the hope that he can hit us if we are hiding or he is a really, really lousy shot.’ Phillip nudged her into a walk. ‘Take the route to the right.’

  Dutifully, Carlotta began to pick a path that took them to the right.

  ‘Wait.’

  Carlotta stopped. She had no choice. Her chest hurt from the exertion of the last few moments. She bent over and tried to get her breath.

  Phillip stepped closer and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. ‘Stand up. If you bend over you will fall. If you stand upright it will make you less dizzy,’ he whispered.

  They both winced when another bullet was fired.

  ‘How do you know that man isn’t after you?’

  ‘I don’t,’ Phillip replied honestly.

  ‘What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?’ she whispered.

  Phillip ran a hand through his hair. ‘We have to talk about that later. For now, let’s keep moving.’ He was aware that until he could get a good look at the gunman he had no idea if it was Haugham chasing them, one of the thugs from last night who accosted the Star Elite in Bladley Weeks, or the thugs who were after Carlotta. ‘Be honest, Carlotta. Might those thugs who called for you earlier want you dead?’

  Carlotta wanted to say that they wouldn’t, but she really couldn’t be that hasty because she couldn’t forget the guns the thugs had carried. ‘I am not sure,’ she replied.

  Phillip mentally cursed. ‘You must stay with me. If we stay together you will be safe.’

  ‘There really isn’t any option, is there? You have saved my life twice now,’ she whispered.

  Phillip stepped closer and cupped her face in his hands. ‘Then trust me.’

  Despite the danger that swirled around them, her questions about him, and the dishonesty that lay between them as thickly as the fog, Carlotta did. With a curt nod, she smiled at him only to have his lips settle over hers once more. This kiss was brief. It was over as soon as it began but its impact was devastating because Carlotta knew she was never going to be the same again. It was wildly reckless of her to allow him to kiss her at all, but she couldn’t find the strength to deny him.

  With a wink, Phillip caught her hand in his and tugged her back onto the path. Together, they began to find their way to Bladley Weeks.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘What do we do now?’ Carlotta asked him when they reached Bladley Weeks several hours later. They both eyed the small village before them but made no attempt to enter it.

  ‘My colleagues may still be in the area,’ Phillip said, quickly blanking out the memories of what he had witnessed last night. ‘There is a safe house that we were using but it is several miles away. Last night, we left our horses in the village before we were accosted by Smidgley. I need to find out if they are still there.’ Phillip didn’t explain that if the horses hadn’t moved the chances were that his colleagues had all been killed.

  ‘What will you do if they have gone?’ Carlotta asked quietly.

/>   ‘Then we will have to walk to the safe house,’ he replied bluntly. ‘For now, let’s keep moving. You can tell me what connection you have to those thugs who called at the house earlier.’

  Carlotta threw him a sharp look. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because whatever trouble you are in involves me now.’

  ‘How can you say that? My problems with my father have nothing to do with you.’

  ‘Those thugs have been sent by your father?’ Phillip stared at her while he waited for her to confirm what the thugs had told him.

  Carlotta nodded.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Of course I am sure,’ Carlotta snapped. ‘What I want to know is what connection you have to them.’

  ‘I was the one who got rid of those thugs for you, if you remember?’ Phillip argued.

  ‘I saw you talking to them.’ Carlotta squinted suspiciously at him. ‘What did you talk about?’

  ‘Ah, so you think I am working with them.’ Phillip nodded thoughtfully. He supposed that anybody who looked at them from within the house would have seen them deep in conversation. ‘I was telling them to get out of the house.’ He stopped and lifted his brows at her. ‘Why are you with me if you don’t trust me?’

  Carlotta glared at him. ‘I didn’t have any choice, did I?’

  Now that she came to think about it none of the men in her past or present felt she could make her own decisions. Phillip had swept her choices aside without even asking her.

  And I had been so busy thinking about him I didn’t realise what he was doing.

  It was too late to go back now, though.

  Phillip watched her eye the hills they had just left. The hills amidst which was Cliff House. ‘Maybe I am leading you away from the house you were safe in, straight into their waiting arms, eh? Maybe the thugs are already in Bladley Weeks.’

  Carlotta stopped walking and stared at him. ‘I would hate you forever if you did something like that. I wouldn’t go with them, not even if you handed me over.’

  Phillip shrugged. ‘Why should I care?’

  Carlotta tugged her bag out of his hand. He released it and folded his arms. ‘It is damned foolish of you to trust a stranger you have only just met the way you trust me, especially given you know your father has sent thugs to fetch you. Is it true that you stole twenty pounds off him?’ Phillip said.

  ‘The money I have in my pouch is mine. It was my allowance, or some of it. I used the rest for food. He gave it to me. It wasn’t stolen. Besides, given what he owes me it is a bit hypocritical of him to accuse me of stealing anything.’

  ‘Has he stolen money from you?’ Phillip demanded.

  ‘He has stopped me from getting access to what is rightfully mine,’ Carlotta replied, seeing no reason to lie to him.

  ‘What is rightfully yours?’

  ‘An inheritance,’ Carlotta said.

  Phillip turned to look at the woodland behind them.

  ‘No. Not the house. That has nothing to do with my family.’

  ‘Whose is it?’

  Carlotta sighed. ‘I have not broken in, if that is what you are thinking. The owner does know I was living there. He agreed to allow me to stay for a while.’

  ‘Why?’

  Carlotta looked him squarely in the eye. ‘Because he knows what my father is like.’

  ‘And what is that? What is he like, Carlotta?’

  Carlotta wanted to tell him but knew she couldn’t. Phillip would want some sort of proof to support her claims and she had none. All she had was an overbearing father who was trying to force her to return home so he could make her marry one of his friends.

  Who would undoubtedly keep me isolated so I couldn’t tell anybody what father has done.

  ‘He is the kind of man who sends armed thugs to fetch his daughter who hasn’t run away. I am old enough to decide that I want to live somewhere else. When my father refused to hear of it, I decided to take matters into my own hands, it is that simple,’ Carlotta replied firmly.

  ‘How old are you?’ Phillip asked.

  ‘Three and twenty.’

  He raked her with a look. He had no reason to doubt her. While he was relieved that she was old enough to make her own decisions, he was quietly appalled that she wasn’t married yet. ‘Is that why your father wants you back? He thinks you should be married?’

  Carlotta’s heart skipped a beat. ‘My father has made it perfectly clear that I am not supposed to marry someone I choose. He has chosen a husband for me – someone three times my age and a friend of his. The friend of his is just as draconian as my father.’

  Carlotta was so angry that she marched past him and headed toward the village. Phillip’s continued questioning was unnerving, but not for the reasons she expected.

  He makes me think too much.

  One thing Carlotta had managed to achieve since being at Cliffe House, was learning the skill of not thinking. Thinking made her remember what she had seen. Thinking made her contemplate the problems the future might throw at her. Thinking made her worry and she had enough problems on her hands. Now, thinking made her think about Phillip when she knew it was a foolish thing to do.

  Phillip watched her stomp past him. At first, he didn’t follow her. Instead, he studied the woods they had left far behind. He couldn’t see anyone moving about in them, and was too far away to hear anything, but that didn’t mean the gunmen had given up – any of them. When his gaze landed on Carlotta again, he cursed when he realised how much distance she had managed to put between them while he had been lost in his thoughts. With a curse, Phillip raced to catch up.

  ‘You don’t have any suitors who might be able to marry you just a little earlier than planned, do you?’ Phillip asked when he reached her. He couldn’t understand why he was tense while he waited for her to answer.

  ‘No. I have no wish to marry. No wish to be engaged. No wish to have any suitors.’

  Phillip scowled. ‘Ever?’

  ‘Ever.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes, I am sure,’ she hissed.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why what? Why do I not simper and yearn for marriage and a home to run like silly young women should? Why do I not want to be at my husband’s mercy, at his beck and call at every hour of my day? Why do I not want to whore myself to a husband’s lascivious dictates? I shall tell you why. It is because you are brutes. Stupid, arrogant, boorish, thugs. All of you are armed, and have little concern for women; what we want, who we are. To you, we are all here to be told how we should think, feel, and when we should wed, to whom, and when. We are here to be told how we should live our lives without any choices, all because our fathers or mothers or brothers or cousins, or any other male relation for that matter, say we should. Well, I am not being told what to do. I am not going to be sold off like cattle to the highest bidder, no matter if he is your friend, my father’s friend, or anyone else. Marriage is something I most definitely will never agree to.’ With that, Carlotta spun on her heel and stomped off. Her cheeks were flushed with indignation and temper, her eyes flashed an angry warning to anyone who happened to glance her way.

  To Phillip, the rigid set of her shoulders made her look so fragile he had to wonder if she was going to shatter beneath the tension in them. He suspected he was getting to the reason why she was at the house. Someone with that much revulsion toward marriage would do whatever they felt the need to. What he didn’t know is what had happened to make her reject wedlock. He should have been quietly pleased that she was so averse to the parson’s trap because it meant she wouldn’t ever expect him to marry her. Deep inside, though, Phillip was horrified that someone as beautiful and wilful as Carlotta was so disturbed by the thought of doing something that should bring her comfort, securing, love.

  ‘You sound like me,’ he growled when he caught up with her.

  ‘Well, don’t mention it then. My father wants me to go back. Unfortunately, he has access to my inheritance. He has the paperwork in his safe
in his study and refused to hand it over so I could use some of it. Instead, he wants to sell me off to one of his cronies, probably so I never see the money. When I refused to marry his friend and insisted that I wanted my inheritance. He got mad. Very, very mad, and said I was going to marry whether I wanted to or not and the money would be given to my husband not me.’

  ‘That’s normal, Carlotta,’ Phillip replied quietly.

  ‘Is it normal for my father to spend it? Is it normal to be forced into marriage?’ she snapped. She glared at him but was aware that his reply mattered. His opinion would help her decide if she was going to take one more step with him. If he sided with her father, Carlotta knew that she had to do something to get away from Phillip once they reached the village.

  ‘When he planned for the oaf to visit the house so they could make the wedding arrangements, I refused to have any part in it. I left the next day.’

  ‘So, leaving was your choice,’ Phillip growled. ‘But where did you go? I doubt you walked across the country. Where do you live by the way?’

  ‘Shropshire. I walked some of the way and used some of the allowance father gave me to travel by coach ten miles to my friend, Henrietta. She helped me get here.’ Carlotta didn’t give him the finer details of her journey because she didn’t think that was relevant. What mattered was that she had reached the Cliff House and it had been her refuge. Now, she had to decide if she had been foolish to leave it.

  ‘I just didn’t expect my father to send armed thugs after me,’ she whispered with a frown. She looked up at him. ‘I want it known, here and now, that I do not and will not ever agree to go with them. If they force me, it is kidnap and the magistrate should be informed.’

  Phillip nodded. ‘What’s your father’s name?’

  ‘Horace.’

  ‘Horace what?’

  ‘Horace Stoneman.’

  Phillip studied her. In that moment, beside the village that might relieve his worries or burden him with more, Phillip knew that he had to do everything possible to protect her. Carlotta Stoneman was a proverbial pain in the backside, especially now when he had the pressing matter of having to find his colleagues weighing on him. She was strong, wilful, determined, but also apt to rush off without stopping to think about what she was doing. She didn’t trust him but had trusted him enough to leave the house with him and follow his orders while they were being shot at. It had to be enough for now.