by Rebecca King
With that, Carlotta turned to look at a stunned Phillip, who blinked at her with wide eyes when she planted a very loving kiss on his lips before sailing toward the door. By the time she reached it, Niall had already opened it and bowed at her with a wink as she strode out of the room with all the grace of Royalty. The silence she left in her wake lasted for several minutes before Phillip snapped to attention and wiped the proud smile off his face. He tried to frown but just couldn’t.
‘I am afraid you have lost her,’ Phillip murmured with a smirk at Horace. ‘Stay away from my wife, do you hear me? She is with me now. I will give her the loving respect and warm and secure home she deserves seeing as you are incapable. Stay away from any children we might have and don’t ever darken our door even if you do find out where we live.’
Horace nodded.
‘We will know where you are,’ Jasper warned. ‘You are under arrest for the murder of your wife, the assault of Rupert, her lover, and theft of Carlotta’s inheritance and the assault on her today and conspiring to kidnap her.’
‘Together with trespass,’ Oliver added.
‘We will be informed when you are released because we arrested you. We will keep an eye on you, just in case. Carlotta is someone from your past, Horace, never forget that,’ Aaron growled. ‘Same for you, Henry. Either of you even think about breaking any laws you will end up back behind bars faster than you can blink.’
‘How much have you taken of her inheritance?’ Phillip demanded. ‘Is there anything left?’
‘I am – was – her guardian. I had every right to use it.’
‘Is it all gone?’ Oliver demanded.
‘Some of it.’
‘How much?’ Phillip pressed.
‘A thousand five hundred pounds has gone. She has about a hundred left,’ Horace muttered.
‘Then the money that has been stolen will be recuperated out of your property and possessions. A confiscation order will be signed by the magistrate allowing us to use anything you own to recompense her, do you understand?’ Oliver growled.
‘You can’t do that,’ Horace boomed.
‘If we have to sell your house and its entire contents to try to get her some of her inheritance back then that is what we shall do,’ Oliver warned. ‘You aren’t going to need your house, are you? That money wasn’t rightly yours to help yourself to. It is only right that you pay back what you have stolen.’
Phillip was stunned because he knew that Oliver wouldn’t say such a thing if he wasn’t prepared to go through with it.
Carlotta stood outside the door and stared blankly at the wall opposite while she listened to Phillip talk to her father. She had expected Horace to warn Phillip of some sort of fictitious character flaw to try to prevent him from helping her, but he didn’t.
Because Phillip told him that I was his wife.
Carlotta closed her eyes and allowed tears to trickle steadily down her cheeks. She still struggled to understand what had happened over the last several days. She had endured so much yet in a way was glad that she had been through it. It had taught her that she was far more capable than she had realised. That she could survive by herself. It was difficult and not at all enjoyable, but she could do it. She had learnt that she didn’t have to put up with anybody’s bullying of her, criticism of who she was, or someone telling her what she should say, think, do or want out of life. She was ready to move away from her father’s house. In fact, she had to wonder how she had managed to live there for as long as she had.
‘Now what?’ she whispered.
For the first time in her life she had absolutely no idea what she wanted to do; what the future had in store for her. What she did know was that with a thousand six hundred pounds she had far more choices than she thought she had.
Suddenly, a burgeoning thought began to build in the back of her mind. She contemplated it before instantly dismissing it, but it refused to budge or be ignored and continued to build into a very real and persistent possibility. So much so, Carlotta almost absently began to climb the stairs to her bed chamber. She didn’t even bother to think about staying beside the door to listen to the rest of the conversation. She had heard enough already. It was time to leave the past behind her and focus on the future, and it was a heck of a lot brighter than she had realised, but it had nothing to do with her inheritance and everything to do with one very special man: Phillip.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘Where did you get the thugs from?’ Phillip asked Horace.
‘Yes, where does a man like you meet hired guns?’ Oliver added.
Horace glared at the floor. ‘I met them in a tavern.’
‘Which one? We are going to go to the tavern to find the thug who escaped. He shot at officers of the War Office and has to be arrested for it.’
‘It was you who killed his friend, wasn’t it?’
‘Well, he did walk straight into the middle of one of our investigations, fully armed and ready to fire. You can hardly expect us not to shoot him, now can you?’ Oliver drawled.
Phillip tipped his head and squinted at Horace while he contemplated what Carlotta had told him. ‘You knew your wife was having an affair, didn’t you? That is why you returned when she was leaving the house? You knew you were going to catch her in the middle of trying to escape you.’
‘The stupid woman couldn’t lie worth a damn,’ Horace growled. ‘Of course I knew she was having an affair. She refused to visit my bed and wouldn’t even let me touch her. I had heard rumours. People had seen her in the town. She was careful to keep her assignations away from the village and use the guise of visiting her cousin. I only realised she was lying when I knew that damned fool of a cousin of hers had gone to London for a few weeks, yet my betraying wife told me that she was going to visit her cousin.’
‘How did you know she was going to leave you?’ Oliver prompted.
‘Because I had heard them whispering on several occasions, but they stopped as soon as I entered the room. My wife always locked her door whenever she wasn’t in her bed chamber. When I demanded the key from her, she claimed she hadn’t got it on her, or she had put it somewhere but couldn’t remember where. So, I went into Carlotta’s bed chamber and had a look around. At first glance it all looked as it should be but when I searched the drawers, I found them empty. Everything had been packed into a single bag which had been stored in the cupboard beside the fireplace. She was ready to leave. I suspected that was what they had been whispering about and knew that if they were going to leave it would be when I planned to go away. I left as I usually did, but only went to the tavern in the village and had a few ales. An hour or so later, I returned to the house and watched it from the end of the garden. It didn’t take him, that lover of Regina’s, long to turn up with his carriage. They were in the process of loading the bags onto it when I turned up. That’s when I lost my temper.’
‘So you beat the lover half to death and then turned on your wife because she dared defy you,’ Phillip whispered.
‘I didn’t plan to do it. It wasn’t murder. I didn’t mean to kill her,’ Horace growled.
It wasn’t a mournful plea like any innocent person would make. Horace’s protest was an outraged snarl of contempt that did little to convince any of the Star Elite of his innocence.
‘Did you push her?’ Oliver demanded.
Horace didn’t answer.
‘We will take your silence as confirmation that you did,’ Phillip warned. ‘You pushed her. According to the star witness, in this case Carlotta, you pushed your wife, who stumbled backward and caught her heel on the stone steps leading up to your front door. Because she fell backward, she couldn’t stop herself from falling and slammed her head onto the stone steps with all the force you pushed her, and it killed her instantly.’
‘She wouldn’t wake up,’ Horace whispered. ‘At first, she was breathing. I tried to help her but what could I do? She was breathing, but then she just - stopped.’
‘But you pushed her and ma
de her hit her head. If you hadn’t attacked her, she wouldn’t have fallen, wouldn’t have hit her head, and wouldn’t be dead today. That is murder, Horace. Because of you, she lost her life and it was through no accident, no freak of bad luck. It was a shove – your shove – that killed her.’ Phillip sighed heavily and didn’t hesitate to step back when Jasper and Aaron stepped forward to restrain Horace.
‘Are you really married?’ Horace asked with a suspicious glint in his eye.
‘Yes,’ Phillip lied, having no qualms about lying to a killer. ‘She is my wife.’
‘Let me see the certificate. You don’t have my permission to marry her,’ Horace growled.
‘She is three and twenty,’ Phillip replied calmly yet firmly. When Horace didn’t deny it, Phillip heaved a mental sigh of relief. ‘Then she is old enough not to need your permission to marry in a legal sense. Yes, it would socially and morally be the right thing to do to ask for your permission to marry but seeing as you are a killer, I don’t think I have to give a damn about your opinion. I mean, what individual would go to a murderer to ask their permission to do anything in their lives?’
‘I demand to see the certificate,’ Horace persisted.
‘You don’t get to demand anything. Phillip works for the Star Elite ergo all his life, his home, his relationships, his position with us, the work he does, all remains highly confidential, and that includes information pertaining to his wife, children, and family. You, Horace, are a criminal. We get to find out everything there is to know about you, and we don’t need your permission to look for it.’
Horace glared maliciously at him but didn’t object as he was hauled to his feet. Niall and Oliver hauled Henry to his feet. Nobody moved as they waited for Justin to fetch the chains from Oliver’s saddle bag. Once the prisoners had been chained, they were led out of the house but were made to stand in the driveway.
‘Before you go you two can come with me. There is something I want you both to have a look at,’ Phillip began. With that, he began to lead them to the tree where Claude Smidgley’s body still hung.
‘What in the Hell’s name?’ Horace growled before turning to glare at Henry.
‘Do either of you recognise him?’ All the men watched the prisoners carefully.
Both Horace and Henry looked truly shocked and immediately shook their heads. Oliver pursed his lips.
‘You cannot arrest us. You have to prove that I pushed her,’ Horace blustered.
‘I don’t need to prove anything. We will get Rupert’s statement that will tell us exactly what he saw. I do believe from Carlotta that she watched you push your wife to her death. Carlotta’s statement is valid on account of us not being married when your wife died,’ Phillip replied.
‘I wouldn’t waste your breath arguing with us. It is going to get you nowhere,’ Aaron interrupted. ‘Besides, you have a good ten-mile walk to gaol so will need all of your energy.’
With that, the men dragged the prisoners off but only so Jasper and Callum could fetch their horses.
‘Be back as quick as you can,’ Oliver growled. ‘We have another killer to catch.’ He turned to Phillip. ‘Go and see if your wife is all right.’
He said it with such ease that Phillip immediately turned to do as he was told only to throw his colleague a rueful look over his shoulder. It hadn’t occurred to him to chastise his colleague for his teasing, but from the look on Oliver’s face he wasn’t teasing. He meant it.
‘If you know what is good for you, don’t let her go,’ Oliver warned quietly. ‘She has become a part of your life in a way that will be impossible to put behind you if you do try to leave here without her. You won’t be able to carry on and forget all about her. What you need to ask yourself is if you can live the rest of your life wondering what your life would have been like had you stayed. I don’t regret marrying Emmeline. Some would call me a fool for having married her in haste, but our job isn’t one that brings us certainty. We all know that our lives can be ripped out from underneath us at any given moment. Don’t forget what happened to us, and how close we came to all dying, just a few nights ago. Use that as a warning that you shouldn’t lose a single moment of the time you have with her.’
‘I am not sure where it will lead us. I mean, I don’t have a house to leave her to settle into like you do. I can’t leave her in my lodgings in London, and there isn’t the time to find somewhere else. She can’t stay up here by herself while I go off and chase criminals.’
‘Why not? The villagers know she lives up here. We have learnt that they are curious about her and have engaged her in conversation. Once they realise that she is living here permanently they will accept her into their fold and will keep an eye on the house. I rather get the feeling that they already are. She will be safe here.’
‘Assuming she wants to stay,’ Phillip whispered.
‘There are worse houses you could call your home,’ Oliver warned with a grin. ‘This house is big enough for a family. It has wonderful sea views, and a nice little village nearby so you don’t have to travel too far for food and the like. It is a rather nice place to raise a family, don’t you think?’
‘I haven’t bought it, though,’ Phillip growled.
Oliver’s grin widened. ‘Really? You mean you don’t have a hundred and fifty pounds?’
Phillip contemplated the huge amount of money he had in the bank. He was paid well for what he did but never had the chance to spend any of it. He was really a very rich man.
‘Of course,’ he mused as he stared at the house.
‘As soon as Henry hands the deeds over, and we give him the money, he isn’t going to care who the new owner is. He is going to be busy trying to clear his name anyway, which he cannot do seeing as we are the ones who have arrested him. It doesn’t matter if he does find out you have purchased the place, he won’t risk is coming back here and being accused of trying to accost or kidnap Carlotta again. Besides, I doubt he would want to challenge the War Office.’
‘You really can be rather sneaky sometimes; do you know that?’ Phillip murmured with a grin. He shook his head when Oliver smirked at him.
‘Whatever sympathies you might have, just remember that Horace and Henry are criminals. They thought they could abuse Carlotta for their own personal gain. Don’t you think it is fair that their behaviour should cost them something in return? After all, they were happy to destroy a life,’ Oliver mused.
‘I am not saying it is wrong.’
‘That house is a family home. Henry made it clear he didn’t want it. I am not trying to undercut the man. It is worth about a hundred and fifty pounds. Why do you think he hasn’t argued about its sale? He knows that he would get no more than that even if he went to the time and trouble of putting it up for sale himself. Now, he doesn’t have to. It has been sold. He will hand the deeds over because he will be glad to get rid of any possible stain on his name. Neither you nor Carlotta seem all that worried about Smidgley’s murder in the woods nearby, nor should you be. Nobody else needs know about his death there. As far as we know, only the killer is aware of the place where Smidgley met his end. Let’s leave it at that, eh? The house does, for the time being, need to be a safe house for us because we need somewhere to stay as well. Once we have caught Smidgley’s killer, we can finally draw this investigation to a close and move on. You need to consider whether you are going to go into that house and offer Carlotta a different kind of future, together, or whether you can walk away and forget her. Either way, don’t make the decision lightly. You don’t have to even make it now. You could wait until we have finished this investigation and then spend a few more days with her to make your mind up. Just don’t turn your back on this chance of happiness. Women like Carlotta, who know what you do for a living but are prepared to allow you into their lives anyway, don’t come along very often.’
Phillip studied the house once Oliver had ambled off. The thought of turning around and walking away was so repulsive to him that Phillip was already making
his way toward the front door before he even realised that he was moving.
