by Rebecca King
She looked so peaceful and at ease with the world, despite the heavy growl of the thunder rolling overhead, that he dreaded having to check to see if she was breathing.
Elspeth jerked awake when she felt something cold touch the warmth of her skin beneath the shoulder of her sodden dress. She blinked wearily at the darkness only to then realise she was not alone. Throwing her arms out to ward off her assailant, she tried to scramble away only to be caught in the folds of Thomas’s old cloak.
“Wait! Elspeth.” Aaron caught her before she could disappear. “It’s me. Aaron.”
Elspeth whirled to face him. For a moment, all she could do was stare while she tried to understand the emotions that coursed through her. The anger she thought she felt was no longer there. In its place was relief, hope, and such utter misery all she could do was stare miserably at him as her chin wobbled.
“Aaron?” she trembled.
“Come here,” he whispered.
Before Elspeth could say anything else, Aaron hauled her against his chest and held her tightly while she wept quietly into his shoulder. Aaron was oblivious to the rain that fell quietly about the empty garden and even forgot about the man still tied-up in the house. All he could focus on was the woman in his arms, where he desperately needed her to be. For the life of him he couldn’t have forced himself to release her. Not when she needed him as she quite obviously did.
“How long have you been out here?” he asked when the sodden material of her clothing soaked him through to the skin.
“I don’t know,” Elspeth whispered. “I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do,” Aaron countered swiftly. “You have to.”
“I don’t,” Elspeth argued. “I can’t.”
“Come on,” Aaron bit out.
When she didn’t move, he hauled her high into his arms and hurried into the house.
Thankfully, Callum was already holding the door open and stood back while Aaron swept through the door with his precious burden. He hurried straight over to the cold and empty fireplace.
“Elspeth. Where is the wood around here?” Aaron shivered.
Elspeth shook her head. When Aaron continued to watch her, she looked up at him miserably. “There is none.”
“None at all? What have you been using to light the fires?” Aaron persisted when the wind rattled the door.
“I don’t need them really,” Elspeth mumbled.
“It’s freezing in here,” Aaron countered. “Where is your wood usually kept?”
“In the store out back but it is empty. Thomas was going to arrange for the farmer to deliver some but didn’t get around to it before he-”
Aaron nodded.
“I will go and see what I can find,” Jasper offered.
“I’ll come with you. There should be enough out there to get us through the night. Even wet, it is better than nothing,” Callum added.
Together the men headed out of the door.
“Is there a tavern around here?” Oliver asked.
“At the far end of the village,” Elspeth replied with a nod to the far wall of the kitchen. “It is just around the corner from the church.”
“I will go and see what they have in the way of food for us,” Oliver informed them.
“But it has gone midnight,” Elspeth gasped. “It will be closed.”
Oliver grinned cockily at her. “I am sure the inn keeper won’t mind helping us if he is suitably furnished with a little monetary reward.”
With that, Oliver grabbed his cloak and left.
Aaron watched Niall disappear into the front of the house and knew he had gone to check their captive to make sure he was all right, and still attached to the chair.
Now that he was alone with her, Aaron dragged a chair across the room and took a seat before Elspeth. Once there, he rested his elbows on his knees and leaned toward her.
“We need to get you dry. Can you make it up the stairs?” he murmured. “You need to get out of those wet clothes. Let us deal with the fire and food. Do you have any more candles anywhere?”
Elspeth shook her head. “I don’t know what Thomas was doing but he didn’t purchase any supplies. There is no money,” she whispered.
“None at all?”
Elspeth looked at him solemnly. “There is something odd going on.”
“Well, let’s get you dry first and then we can talk about it. Once you have had something to eat and are warm you can tell me what has been happening. Meantime, I need to ask you a very important question, and I want you to be completely honest with me.”
Elspeth nodded.
“Are you married?”
Elspeth blinked at him. “What makes you ask that?”
Aaron shifted uncomfortably. “Do you have a gentleman friend who might call upon you at this time of night?”
He wanted to look at his pocket watch but knew he wouldn’t be able to see the time because it was so dark inside the house.
“A gentleman friend?” Elspeth gulped. “What kind of woman do you think I am?”
“A pretty one who is young, single and highly eligible,” Aaron replied in a perfunctory manner he truly didn’t feel. Everything within him was focused firmly on her, and how delicately fragile she looked sitting in soaking wet clothing, positively shrouded in the voluminous material that engulfed her slender frame.
“No, I am not expecting any gentleman callers,” Elspeth reported firmly. “Even you. It is nice of you to grace me with your presence by the way. Did you not know Thomas is dead?”
Aaron winced. “I am sorry I wasn’t here for his funeral. I only found out about his demise three days ago. When I did learn of it I came here straight away, but sadly far too late to attend his funeral. I am so sorry, Elspeth. Please believe me when I tell you that I would have been here if I had received the news in time. I just didn’t know.”
Elspeth stared at him. Suddenly, with a heavy sigh, all her discontent with him vanished, not least because she knew she needed his assistance to help her through this difficult time.
“Look, let’s get changed so we are both dry. The men will be back soon. We can all get comfortable, and then you can tell me who the man is,” Aaron murmured. He stood and returned his chair to the table only to turn around and find her staring blankly at him.
“Man?” she asked quietly.
Aaron sighed because he realised then that he had yet to tell her about the intruder.
“In a while, I will tell you all about him,” he replied hesitantly.
“There is someone else here?” Elspeth looked at the darkened corners of the room as though half-expecting someone to jump out at her.
Her thoughts immediately flew to the figure dressed in black she had seen standing in the corner of the garden about half an hour ago. She knew immediately that the man had gotten into the house somehow.
“Has someone broken in?” Elspeth asked, her eyes wide and fearful.
“Not exactly, no. He was trying, though. However, he is no threat to you, not now anyway. For now, let’s get you dry before you catch influenza. It really will do you no good at all to fall ill,” Aaron frowned. Or himself for that matter. He was used to a life outside, whatever the weather, but even he was bloody freezing, the house was that cold.
Disturbingly, Elspeth seemed oblivious to the dark tinge to her lips, and the icy chill of her frigid flesh.
“Come on,” he urged.
Elspeth stood and slowly made her way through the house to the bottom of the stairs. She paused and looked up at the still and silent upper floor.
“What is it?” Aaron whispered from directly behind her.
“The men?” Elspeth queried. “Who are they?”
Just how many people were in her house? She couldn’t be certain. The place certainly felt empty enough for her to suspect there was just the two of them – alone – together.
“They are men I work with. They are friendly, I can assure you. I will introduce you to them when they get back. For now, let�
��s get changed,” Aaron urged. He followed the trail of water she left behind as she traversed the stairs to the upper hallway.
“Thomas’s room is down the hall,” she said quietly.
“Can we use the rest of the rooms? There are six of us, but we can double-up,” Aaron asked.
“Of course,” Elspeth replied. “I will make the beds up once I have changed.”
“We can sort all of that out. The men are used to fending for themselves. We don’t expect you to look after us. In fact, the men aren’t used to luxuries like houses such as this.” Aaron’s straight white teeth flashed in the darkness as he offered her a cheeky smile.
Elspeth gasped at the changes his smile wrought upon his already handsome face. Aaron’s eyes sparkled, albeit briefly, in a teasing way that was infinitely intriguing. She was compelled to stop and stare at him while she quietly willed her wayward heart to resume its normal pace.
“I will meet you back downstairs in a while,” Aaron murmured.
When she continued to stare at him as though expecting him to say something, Aaron slowly made his way to the door at the end of the corridor. Inside the room, he waited until Elspeth closed her bed chamber door then quietly made his way back downstairs to fetch his belongings. Hurriedly, he raced back upstairs to get changed, all the while hoping Elspeth didn’t venture into her sitting room before he could forestall her in the kitchen.
Elspeth reluctantly let herself into her bed chamber. There were so many things she wanted to ask Aaron that she didn’t know where to start. It was tempting to ignore her shivers, and go after him, not least because she didn’t want to be alone. However, she had to get changed because she was leaving puddles everywhere each time she stood still.
It took her considerably longer than usual to remove her dress because her fingers shook so badly she struggled to work the laces with her usual dexterity. Eventually, Elspeth managed to change into dry clothing, but didn’t feel any better, especially given how sodden her hair still was. She eyed the fireplace longingly, and wished she could light it, if only so she could dry the wet strands which clung damply to her face like sodden rat tails. With a sniff, Elspeth found her thickest shawl instead, and tugged it around her shoulders before she swept out of the room.
Hugging it against her, she quietly made her way downstairs. It was difficult to know what to do once she was there, though. There was no food to eat, no fire to sit beside and no light with which to see much of anything. If she had been on her own she would have slid into bed and spent the long and empty night staring blindly at the ceiling.
But I am not alone now. Aaron is here, she mused with no small measure of relief.
It was difficult to understand the changes she now faced given only a few hours ago she had considered herself all alone in the world. Now, Elspeth not only had Aaron, but a mysterious ‘gentleman friend’ apparently, and Aaron’s friends in her life.
“Come and have something to eat,” Aaron urged quietly with a gentle smile when he saw her hovering uncertainly in the doorway. “I am pleased to say that the tavern owner was happy to oblige Oliver’s request, and has furnished us with enough food to last us several days.”
He waved to a chair and heaped a huge array of food onto a plate which he held out to her. Elspeth took it with shaking hands and stared down at it blankly for a moment. It was more than she had eaten since Thomas had passed away. Her stomach rumbled hungrily as her nose was teased by the delicious scent of pie, freshly baked bread, ham, beef, and a whole chicken leg all of which sat upon the plate surrounded by a banquet of vegetables.
“Thank you,” Elspeth whispered with such heartfelt gratitude Aaron paused and looked sharply at her.
Unbeknown to her, his face hardened as he helped himself to a mound of food and sat beside her at the table. The reverence on her face when she saw the food made him angry because it warned him she had seen precious little sustenance over the last few days.
“Coming through,” Callum called as he surged through the back door carrying a large bundle of wood. He dumped the lot onto the hearth with a heavy thud and retraced his steps. At the door, he paused to let Jasper into the room with his burden. Two trips later, there was enough wood in the house for all the fires to be lit.
“Thank you,” Elspeth murmured when they immediately set about distributing the wood around the house.
She looked at Aaron, who smiled at her. It was difficult to know what to say. The speed in which the men had turned her house back into a home was shocking, and while blissful, was a stern warning to Elspeth that she was woefully unprepared to face life on her own.
“Thank you all so much for this,” she said once the heat from the roaring flames had started to chase the chill away. “It is more than I could ever expect. I don’t know how to repay you.”
“No repayment is necessary,” Oliver assured her with a smile.
While the fires were making a start on warming them all up, the men gathered around the table and began to eat. A somewhat expectant silence settled over them while they all assuaged the worst of their appetites. Eventually, after several moments of desultory conversation, Aaron broached the topic none of them really wanted to discuss for fear of upsetting Elspeth. However, it had to be done because they all needed answers to several very puzzling issues.
“We need to ask you what happened to Thomas,” Aaron said gently when he had finished his meal.
Elspeth, who was still eating, froze instantly. She swallowed and stared blankly at him. Slowly, she eased a crumpled piece of parchment out of her pocket and straightened it out before she held it out to him.
“I received it from the solicitor about two weeks after Thomas had gone to London. I thought he – Thomas - had come to see you,” she sighed sadly. “When one week passed and he hadn’t sent word when he would be back, I started to worry. A week later, this letter arrived. I asked the solicitor to inform you of his death in time for the funeral.”
“His body was brought back to the village?” Aaron asked once he had read the brief, clinical note detailing Thomas’s demise.
Elspeth nodded. “The solicitor arranged it with the vicar.”
“It says here that he died in a carriage accident?” Aaron handed the note to Callum to read.
Elspeth nodded. “Nobody knows what happened exactly. Thomas was found by the side of the road, in a ditch to be precise.”
“I am sorry,” Aaron murmured.
He didn’t know what else to say. It seemed such a waste of a life that he was lost for words. The last thing he wanted to do was mutter inane platitudes to Elspeth. Given her situation, it was not going to help her. What Elspeth needed was more practical help, the most important of which were now sitting half-eaten in the middle of the table and were roaring away in the fireplace behind them.
“There is something odd, Aaron,” Elspeth murmured eventually.
She studied her empty plate in amazement. She truly struggled to believe she had really eaten so much food, but she had, and her stomach was wonderfully full because of it.
“Are you preparing to move?” Aaron asked when Elspeth appeared lost in thought.
“Not yet, but it is only a matter of time.”
“Why?” The man called Oliver asked. “Have you not been left the property in Thomas’s will?”
“I don’t know. The solicitor hasn’t been in contact with me yet about any reading of Thomas’s last will and testament,” Elspeth replied.
Aaron frowned. “That should have been done already.”
“I know,” Elspeth said. “I have written to him again to ask what is taking so long but he hasn’t responded.”
“How odd,” Oliver murmured.
“It might be because Thomas hadn’t paid the solicitor’s bill,” Elspeth said, her tone reluctant. “I went through Thomas’s papers in the study, Aaron, because I needed to try to get some money to purchase food and provisions. All I found were bills, all of which remain unpaid. What’s worse is that the ba
nk statements I have found show that Thomas removed all of his money prior to his visit to London.”
“All of it?” Aaron asked with a heavy frown.
“Every last penny. The account balance is zero. I checked,” Elspeth whispered.
“What did he want it for?” Callum asked. “Do you know?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that it isn’t in the bank where it is supposed to be. I don’t know if he took it to London with him or spent it on something he didn’t tell me about. Whatever he has done with it, he didn’t pay the bills with it. The grocer won’t allow me to have any more goods until his bill is paid, but I don’t have anything to give him. The housekeeping jar is also empty, which is highly unusual. It looks as though Thomas emptied the bank, the housekeeping, and took all of the money we used to live off and it died with him,” Elspeth wailed.
“Calm yourself,” Aaron urged when she began to weep into her hands. “We will find it.”
“How much did he withdraw?” Callum asked.
“Three thousand pounds,” Elspeth replied. “Together with the housekeeping and various small pouches of money we kept for emergencies, there is just over three thousand one hundred pounds. It’s gone. All of it. But I don’t know where, or why Thomas would do such a thing. I mean, if he has spent it he has spent everything we had to live off.”
“It doesn’t sound like an investment,” Jasper said.
“It sounds to me like there must have been a specific reason, and it has something to do with his journey to London,” Niall added.
“Did Thomas gamble at all?” Oliver asked. “Do you know?”
“I don’t think so,” Elspeth answered.
Aaron was already shaking his head. “Thomas wasn’t the kind of man to risk the family fortune. He was steady, sensible, and an estimable gentleman. If he was backed into a corner by circumstance, or someone was trying to blackmail him or something, he would have come to me.”
His thoughts flickered to his last note from Thomas, which hinted that Thomas was in financial difficulty. Had it been a lie? Aaron suspected it was because Thomas couldn’t have been in trouble if he had three thousand pounds in the bank. Why would he lie, though?
