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

by Rebecca King

  ‘You have told me a lot about yourself.’

  Carlotta sighed. ‘You asked. You never answer my questions, though.’

  ‘Sometimes, it might be better to leave people guessing about you,’ Phillip mused. He leaned forward until they were nose-to-nose. ‘You know nothing about me ergo are a damned fool to trust me with anything whether it is your person, your thoughts, your past, your background, or your whereabouts. People can find a lot out about someone by engaging them in casual conversation. A liar will lie during conversations, even when they have hidden their deceit. An abuser will abuse during a conversation, even when they think the insult has been well hidden. A gossip will prod for deeper, more intimate information than most when they don’t even accept that they are gossips. People will pretend to be nice during conversations, even when they really truly don’t like you. Don’t ever forget that, Carlotta. Look. Watch. Step back, mentally and emotionally, from strangers. All of them, no matter how nice they are. Listen to what they say and how they say it. Watch for the little things that will scream at you what they are really like. Then, and only then, decide if you should trust them. If you see anything that leaves you doubtful, walk away and leave them questioning. It is never good to satisfy someone’s curiosity and leave yourself vulnerable. If anybody leaves you on edge, they aren’t worth your time and it shouldn’t matter if they are disturbed, annoyed at you, or walk away as well.’

  Carlotta shivered. Phillip left her on edge but not for the reasons she could explain to him. She wanted, even after his cautionary words, to lean toward him and narrow the gap so she could step closer, back into his embrace. She wanted him to kiss her again. Instinctively, her gaze started to drop to his lips but at his nose she forced them back up.

  Phillip’s eyes twinkled mischievously, as if he had just read her thoughts. ‘I would just like to point out that I am trustworthy,’ he murmured, keeping his eyes trained on hers.

  Slowly, gently, he lowered his lips toward hers.

  ‘Now, regarding your father. He must understand that forced marriage is illegal in this country and forcing someone, even his own daughter, into it will earn him time behind bars. Secondly, I want to know why your father has sent armed thugs after you and I want the truth, Carlotta. It isn’t a normal thing for any outraged father to do.’ As he spoke, Phillip caught her hand in his and gently tugged her toward the village. ‘What is he like?’

  ‘Who?’ Carlotta didn’t even want to think about Horace much less describe him.

  ‘Horace.’ He hesitated to call the man her father because Phillip suspected that theirs was not a normal father-daughter relationship.

  ‘He was distant,’ Carlotta whispered. ‘Mother and I were accessories not family. We were there for him to provide for but we weren’t close.’

  ‘He isn’t the kind of father who would take your feelings into account when he decided anything,’ Phillip mused.

  Carlotta snorted quite inelegantly. ‘Not at all.’

  ‘Where is your mother?’

  ‘Dead.’

  Phillip’s head snapped around. ‘Recently?’

  ‘About a month ago now,’ she whispered.

  ‘I am sorry.’ All sorts of questions hovered on Phillip’s lips, but he didn’t ask them because Carlotta looked about to cry. Besides, the last thing he needed was to be caught unawares while comforting her in the middle of the village. He needed to keep his eyes and ears open for Smidgley’s thugs, and her father’s. He couldn’t be distracted, not now. But Phillip made a mental promise that he would ask her what he wanted to know just as soon as they were alone together. ‘Let’s keep moving. Keep looking for those thugs, Carlotta. Leave the past to one side for now. I need to ask you some more questions. I have to think of a way to help you, so you don’t have to spend the rest of your life hiding. For now, let’s go.’

  ‘Why are you willing to help me?’

  ‘I have no choice,’ he replied gently. ‘I will explain more but for now we have thugs in this village. Let’s not allow them to creep up on us, eh?’

  Carlotta stared at him, but he was already scanning the street ahead of them.

  ‘You are free, Carlotta. Let’s keep it that way,’ Phillip urged when he sensed her hesitation. ‘No, the inheritance is not yours. I mean, it was given to you but left in the care of someone who isn’t honest enough to hand it over. You cannot have it if your father refuses to hand over the paperwork. Horace knows that he can keep it just to spite you because without the money you cannot afford to pay for a solicitor to help you legally recover the paperwork. Even with legal help, you will have to prove that Horace has the relevant papers still, and then get a solicitor to force him to hand it over. It is going to cost money you don’t have.’

  ‘I know,’ Carlotta whispered. She hated him for spelling it out in those terms because when Phillip said it, the horrid truth of it became far too real. It was something she knew she just couldn’t fight and that brought her a deep feeling of frustration she couldn’t quell. ‘I am stuck. I will have to find a way of surviving by myself, that’s all. I would rather live out on the streets than return to him.’

  ‘I take it you have never had an amicable relationship with him,’ Phillip murmured. He hated to ask but had to know if grief had caused arguments between the two of them, and that was why she had run. But Phillip sensed that Carlotta’s troubles with her father went far deeper for far longer than that.

  ‘No. We have never had a warm or loving relationship. I have always been kept out of sight in the nursery. I was only rolled out when he has wanted to show off that he is a family man. Otherwise, I wasn’t allowed to remind him that I was even in the house. He never wanted to know anything about me because I am not the son he wanted.’

  Phillip shook his head because there was a ring of bitterness in her voice that warned him the family difficulties ran deep. They had left a permanent scar on her that wasn’t ever likely to be shaken off. It was a shame, but he knew that his own wonderful relationship with his parents wasn’t the same for everyone.

  ‘The damned man is a fool. You are still his child,’ Phillip growled.

  ‘He wishes I wasn’t,’ Carlotta whispered.

  ‘He said that, did he?’ Phillip was starting to dislike the man more and more.

  Again, the image of the thugs flew into his mind, and he knew she wasn’t lying. He struggled to know what to say because he had no experience of what life might have been like for her.

  Because I am a man with choices.

  ‘He made it perfectly clear that he regretted the fact that I was a daughter in everything he said and did,’ Carlotta informed him.

  Phillip’s thoughts turned to her mother. He wondered if Carlotta’s relationship had been any better with her, but now was not the time to ask her questions that would upset her.

  ‘Where did you leave the horses?’ Carlotta asked as she studied the empty street before them.

  ‘Let’s go this way.’ With a hand in the middle of her back, Phillip guided Carlotta around to the churchyard to the rear of the main street.

  Carlotta’s feet ached, her back was sore, and her shoulders hurt with the tension thrumming through them, but that wasn’t what caused her unease. Something else did.

  ‘I have a horrible feeling that something is wrong,’ she whispered suddenly. She waited for Phillip to sneer at her and dismiss it. To her amazement, he lifted his brows and turned to study the area.

  ‘Then let’s get out of here,’ he growled. Without hesitation, he tugged her into movement again and led her down a small alley between two houses.

  ‘Who are these colleagues of yours? What do they look like?’ Carlotta asked.

  ‘I will tell you later,’ Phillip whispered.

  ‘Tell me now,’ Carlotta challenged. ‘Why do you ask me questions and expect me to answer them yet refuse to answer any of my questions?’

  ‘Because I am not going to discuss things about me out here.’

  ‘What
about the men?’

  ‘The dead man?’

  ‘Both him and the gunman who shot at us,’ Carlotta said. ‘Can you tell me about them?’

  Phillip sighed. ‘The dead man might have been murdered and I say might because there is every chance that he committed suicide. He was a known criminal who was involved in a large kidnapping gang. I don’t know if you read the newspapers but there was a gang of men who kidnapped young women off the streets in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire in broad daylight. There have never been any witnesses who have seen the young women get snatched. We know from one of the victims we have since rescued that the women walk down the street, a large black carriage rumbles up to them and gets quite close, a door opens and men inside the carriage literally yank the poor victim inside. The door is then closed, and the carriage speeds up. Once the victim is aboard, she is tied up and drugged and only wakes up when she is an oubliette. That is a small dungeon where there is only one entrance and exit; a small hole in the ceiling. Historically, victims who were confined in oubliettes were dropped through a hole in the ceiling and left to fall onto the floor several feet below. They were then left to starve to death or die from the broken bones they sustained when they fell. Anyway, the kidnap victims were left in an oubliette for several days. When they were fetched out they were suitably terrified, and knew their situation was dire. They were then taken to the country houses of several aristocrats where they were put to work as servants. The country houses were in the middle of nowhere, so escape was impossible. The women weren’t paid for their work, and they were made to slave from morning through to night with little rest and virtually no food. They were treated as slaves. If they objected they were beaten. If they tried to escape they were murdered. As soon as the young women’s spirits were broken they were moved to London, introduced to drugs, and then sent to brothels and forced into prostitution.

  ‘Who are you? How do you know all this?’ Carlotta whispered feeling sicker than she had ever felt before.

  ‘I am someone who has been trying to bring this kidnapping group to justice,’ Phillip replied. ‘We have succeeded as well. The man you saw hanging from the tree was one of two of the leaders we have been after.’

  ‘Where is the other one?’ She almost dreaded asking.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Phillip replied.

  Carlotta stared at him. It flicked through her mind that he might be one of the kidnappers and she was the next chosen target, but Phillip was too solid, too strong to be involved in something so heinous. Something deep within her rejected all possibility of it the second she thought of it. There was something about him that was a calm, matter-of-fact practicality, a stern authority that she had only ever seen in magistrate’s men.

  ‘Have you found them all? The victims I mean?’

  Phillip nodded. He had no idea why he was telling her this now. It was probably because he wanted her to know just how damned foolish it was for her to be going anywhere around the countryside with a stranger. It annoyed him that she had no idea who he was, whether he was trustworthy, yet he already knew a lot about her and had already been close enough to ruin her, yet she kept looking at his lips. There was something hidden in her eyes that resembled how he felt: needful. It was annoying because it was damned difficult to try to ignore how he felt. He didn’t need his task made any harder by having to ignore her yearnings as well.

  ‘We have found two alive so far. Some of the young women were murdered when we ventured near the houses they were being held captive in. One of the women we found alive had been persuaded by one of the leaders of the gang to take him as a lover. Consequently, when we found her she was less than happy to be found and tried to kill us. She is now dead.’

  ‘What about the other woman?’ Carlotta almost dreaded to ask but had to know.

  Phillip suddenly grinned. ‘My friend married her. Her name is Mallory. She married the man who rescued her from the house she was held captive in. They had to make a break for freedom and fell in love.’

  Carlotta stared at him. ‘Really?’ A small sigh escaped her.

  Phillip heard it and rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t tell me that you think it is sweet. They fought kidnappers and were nearly killed several times.’

  ‘They married?’

  ‘Yes, they married. When it came for Callum to let her go he just couldn’t. She saved his life too.’

  Carlotta contemplated that. ‘So, again, who are you?’

  Phillip mentally winced. He wanted to object to her questioning but in her situation would have asked the same kind of questions. It was understandable, her curiosity. He knew she was just trying to understand if she was right to trust him. However, he also knew it was far too late for her to have doubts about him now. He was there and not going to leave her alone now.

  A little like Callum, I refuse to just leave Carlotta behind even though I know it is safest for her if I do.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘I work for the War Office,’ Phillip said quietly, stepping closer and taking another look around to make sure they were truly alone.

  ‘The War Office?’ A small voice warned her that she already knew what he was going to say but she had to ask: ‘The Star Elite?’

  Carlotta blinked when Phillip nodded. Her heart flipped. She had heard of the Star Elite. Everyone had. They had been all over the newspapers of late and were the country’s heroes. She had never expected to meet one. Nobody really knew much about them except that they had earned a reputation for being the men who got results. They had destroyed several murderous criminal gangs over the last few years, and left most of the country in awe of them.

  ‘You don’t seem surprised,’ he drawled as he studied her thoughtful look.

  ‘That is because I am still mulling it over. I know that the Star Elite were involved in the rescue of those young women. It was all over the newspapers that a few of the bodies had been found,’ she replied. ‘I just don’t understand how Claude Smidgley could find his way here.’

  ‘He was trying to leave the country. He wanted to go to Europe to start again and avoid gaol.’

  ‘From Bladley Weeks?’

  Phillip nodded. ‘A small, nondescript fishing village like this is perfect for him. Nobody would think to look at all the fishing boats leaving the harbour. It isn’t a large seaport most of the magistrate’s men would expect Smidgley to appear in. Bladley Weeks is not all that far away from France. Any fishing trawler docked here could be make it across the English Channel. Smidgley arranged for the use of a fishing boat, the owner of which was waiting for Smidgley and his friend, Connor Haugham, in the harbour last night. We had a tip-off from a connection who lives near here who saw Smidgley heading this way. What we didn’t expect was for that informant to betray us as well. It appears that he also tipped off Smidgley to our presence in the area. Smidgley arranged for armed thugs to intercept us. We found ourselves in the middle of a gunfight. We were so heavily outnumbered we didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know if my colleagues survived.’

  Carlotta nodded sadly. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on his arm and looked around the village. ‘The villagers in Windwidger were talking about it this morning. They were staying that there were bodies everywhere this morning. Everyone is unsettled, and angry because nobody could find the magistrate. Do you think they hurt him?’

  ‘No. He is away with our boss, Sir Hugo, trying to find the last kidnap victim. Sir Hugo thinks she is nearby.’ Phillip replied.

  ‘It isn’t me,’ she whispered.

  ‘I know,’ Phillip replied. ‘However, because you have got two thugs after you who are armed and prepared to kidnap you, I have to look after you. I cannot let you go.’

  ‘But my situation is different,’ Carlotta argued.

  ‘My boss won’t see it that way. We are the Star Elite. We have been working to stop young women being snatched off the streets. What kind of organisation would we be if we allowed a young woman to be snatched while with one of us,
even if it was by her own father? You are three and twenty and old enough to make your own decisions. Forced marriage is illegal in this country. Nobody should be made to enter a marriage if they don’t want to whether their father thinks it should happen or not. That includes you. Because you are facing a similar set of circumstances to the kidnap victims we have been working to recover you have to be put under our protection. If your father does try to kidnap you, he will be arrested and so will those thugs he has sent after you.’ Phillip gave her a moment to think about that.

  Carlotta lifted her brows at him. ‘You would arrest Horace?’

  ‘If he tries to kidnap you, I have no choice,’ Phillip replied. He smiled and closed her open mouth.

  ‘He would be furious,’ she whispered.

  ‘I hope he is. He will realise that nobody is above the law in this country,’ Phillip replied.

  ‘What were you doing in Cliff House?.’

  Phillip stopped walking and turned to face her. ‘I was involved in the gun battle. I was pinned down and had men coming at me from all directions. If I had stayed where I was I would have died. The only route out of the place I was hiding in was via the sea. I ran for my life but was scratched by a bullet or two before I jumped in. I swam to safety. Thankfully, the tide didn’t carry me out to sea. I was lucky enough to make it to the beach just down from Windwidger. At the time, I had no idea that Smidgley had somehow fallen or jumped into the sea as well and had ended up on the same beach. I had no idea that he had even survived the gunfight. More importantly, I don’t know if any of my colleagues survived. The last I saw of them they were being over-run by Smidgley’s men. It was brutal; by far the worst gunfight I have been in since the war. What I do know is that when I left that harbour last night I left seven very good men, good friends, behind me.’