The Lady Is Innocent (The Star Elite Series) (9 page)

Suddenly
, a loud explosion broke the air. She gasped as something whizzed past her head and she spun around in alarm. Another explosion was accompanied by strong arms that swept her off her feet and unceremoniously dragged her to the ground. Chaos seemed to explode around her. Loud curses were accompanied by heavy sounds of something she couldn’t decipher. A scream locked in her throat as she was half-carried, half-dragged across the churchyard. She squirmed and wriggled in a desperate attempt to get away from the man who had a strong hold on her, but froze at the sound of Pie’s low growl from somewhere above her head.

“Stop it, I am trying to get you out of here,” Pie gasped, shoving her roughly against the bottom of
the stone wall that ran around the church. He pushed her against the rough stonework and lay against her, protecting her with his body.

“Are you hu
rt?” He gasped, trying to break his thoughts away from their intimate position. He mentally prayed that she would answer him and that he hadn’t caused her injury by throwing her to the ground as roughly as he had.

“What was it?”
Florrie gasped, aware of loud curses and the heavy thump of footfall from the other side of the wall.

“Keep quiet,” Pie breathed into her ear. He was trained enough to know to remain still for the time being. His h
ead rested lightly on hers as they lay on the ground and he could feel the reassuring moisture of her warm breath as it brushed across his neck. She wasn’t moaning or complaining of pain and he could only take that as a good sign.

Luckily
, he had tackled her while she was still in the churchyard. They had the wall as protection from the gunman who had been standing on the edge of the woods on the opposite side of the driveway.

He mentally cursed at the memory of the sound of the bullet whizzing past, and knew that she had been as close to being hit as anybody could have possibly been.
He listened intently to the scuffles and thumps coming from nearby and waited with as much patience as he could muster.

It
was the second time in two days that she had come too damned close to having her life brutally ended, and he was damned determined that there wouldn’t be a third time, Hugo’s orders or not. The woman in his arms was going to be kept safely confined to the secure walls of Crompton and nothing, and nobody, could persuade him otherwise.

He sucked in a deep breath and smelled the faint scent of honeysuckle. Without thinking
, he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head and hugged her just a little bit closer.

A low owl hoot accompanied by a long, low whistle was the signal
he had been waiting for. Puffing out his cheeks, Pie leaned back and stared down into Florrie’s pale face.

“Are you alright?”

Florrie stared up at him. Something sharp was stabbing into her back and she had landed on her bottom when Pie dragged her over to the wall but, other than that she was blissfully alive. The reality of her situation began to dawn on her and she suddenly felt blessed. She tentatively took a hold of the hand Pie held out to her, and gasped at the speed in which he hauled her to her feet.

She turned and stared over the wall
at the noise. There, lying in the middle of the main driveway was a man who was cursing and spitting in anger. Archie was bent over, his hands braced on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Hugo was tying something around the man’s hands to secure him. She watched as Hugo hauled the gunman, still kicking and cursing, to his feet and dragged him into the church.

“Let’s get you back to Crompton,” Pie sighed, watching as Hugo shoved the man roughly into the church. He wanted to go in and question the man himself but desperately needed to get
Florrie out of the open air, and back to the safety of Crompton.

“Not a chance,”
Florrie bit out. She threw a defiant look at Pie, and ignored his askance look as she yanked her elbow out of his grasp and marched toward the church. After tonight, she wanted a few answers of her own.

Her bravado
wavered a little as she crossed the threshold into the church’s cold interior. She peered through the gloom at the gunman, aware that Pie was standing right behind her.

Jonathan lit a few candles
and stood back to stare at the new arrival who was glaring at them belligerently from his awkward position in one of the pews.

“Who pays you?” Hugo demanded
, his voice lashed like a whip across the empty space.

“I’m saying
nothin’,” the man snarled defiantly.

“You will
tell us what we want to know, or I shall personally see to it that you swing from the gallows.”

“I didn’t hurt her, she is right there.” The man nodded
once toward Florrie.

“You attempted to kill her,” Hugo snapped.

Pie moved Florrie closer to Jonathan and turned toward their captive.

“What’s your business with her?” Pie’s voice was softly menacing. He bent down and placed his hands on his knees so he could maintain direct eye contact with the restrained man.

Silence settled over them for a minute. The man looked from one person to the next before his gaze landed on Florrie. She felt her skin crawl with the coldly calculating look he swept over her. Pie slammed his fist down on the pew beside the man, drawing his attention back to the question with a jolt.

“Who?”
His voice was harsh and loud in the night air.

“Look, I was told not to hurt her, just scare her,” the man stammered
, clearly aware that he was outnumbered and not going anywhere until he had told them what they wanted to know. The threat of violence shimmered in the tense atmosphere and made the gunman shiver in alarm.

“Scare her?” Pie’s
gaze was mercilessly direct.

“I was told to scare her, that’s all.”

“You damned well nearly killed her man!” Pie bellowed, his face inches from the man’s. “You actually ran over her with the bloody carriage you idiot.”

“What?” The man turned to look at
Florrie in confusion. “I didn’t run over her.”

“What?”

“Whoever ran over her, it wasn’t me,” the man protested, casting a frantic glance around the church in hopes of absolution.

“You were told to scare her, so you shot at her.”

“I was told to shoot at her, but not hit her.”

“What about running her over with a carriage? I suppose that was supposed to be a near-miss that went wrong.” Pie’s voice was derisory.

“Look, I didn’t drive any carriage. It wasn’t me.” The man threw a wild glance around him before his frantic gaze landed on Hugo. “I didn’t. It wasn’t me.”

“Who is your boss?” Hugo rapped out.

The man clammed up and returned to being belligerent.

“Who?”
Pie bellowed.

Florrie’s
head turned this way and that. Hugo and Pie were relentless, and the man was clearly panicked at the intensity of the questions being fired at him. She was amazed with what was happening before her very eyes. She daren’t move; daren’t say anything in case they realised she was there and told her to leave. She wanted, no needed. to know who was trying to kill her, or frighten her at least.

“I just know him as Dexter,” the man replied in a quiet voice. “I don’t know nothing about him so don’t ask and that’s the honest truth. I was in the tavern in
Brockington when he appeared and started asking the bar keep if anyone wanted a little work. I said yes. He told me that under no circumstances was I to hurt you but he wanted you scaring. He told me to come here tonight and shoot the gun around you but make sure I didn’t hit you.”

“Have you been paid yet?”

The man shook his head. “I had a bit of it but was told I would get paid the rest when the job was done.”

Pie’s ga
ze flickered to Hugo.

“Were you to take him the money when the job was done?”

The man looked puzzled. It was such an instinctive action that Pie knew it was an honest emotion. The man had no idea about the coins Florrie was told to deliver.

“You weren’t told to pick up a pouch?”

The gunman shook his head. “No. The man, Dexter, said that I was to shoot at her and wait until she had left. I am to meet him tomorrow at the tavern in Brockington for the rest of my money. He is staying at the tavern.”

Pie sighed and seemed to realise for the first time that
Florrie was still there.

Florrie
hesitantly stepped forward. “Did he, erm, Dexter, give you the name of your target?” Her voice was soft and quivered with nerves. She wasn’t sure if the man was going to spit or throw a volley of curses at her, but instead he merely stared at her and shook his head.

“He just said someone in a cloak, a woman, was going to be in the
churchyard and I was to shoot at her and scare her away. When she had got back to the house, I was free to go and would earn myself a pretty penny for the work.”

“You weren’t ordered to run her over?”

The man looked dubious and shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that anyway. I don’t mind doing a bit of questionable work for anyone, but I am not going to swing for it.” His eyes flew to Hugo’s. “Am I?” His eyes grew wide and he waited nervously for his answer.

“I think you made a big mistake when you accepted this
‘work’ as you call it. You are going to stay with us tonight and tomorrow we are going to pay a visit to this tavern to meet your man Dexter. Once we have met him, if he corroborates your story, then, and only then, you will be free to leave.” Hugo drawled and moved closer to the man, leaning over him menacingly. “Only I will warn you here and now that if I ever hear of you doing anything illegal again, I will build the bloody scaffold tower myself. Do you understand?” He watched the man nod jerkily.

“Why would Dexter want to scare me?” Florrie asked. She stood back and watched Pie close the church door behind them encasing them in darkness so thick that she could barely see her hand in front of her face.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense,” Pie scowled. She looked like an avenging angel wrapped in a huge cloak with the hood pulled up. The dark curls that surrounded her face made her complexion seemed almost ghostlike, yet there was still a feminine grace about her that captivated him. He wanted to touch her just to see if she was real. Once again, when she had faced personal trauma
, she had taken it in her stride rather than wilting and wailing like most females would do. It left him feeling immensely proud of her.

“We need to talk to Dexter tomorrow.” He turned a hard glare on
Florrie. “You are going to stay at Crompton.” His tone brooked no argument.

An instinctive protest hovered on
Florrie’s lips before she bit it back. Did she really want to meet Dexter? She wasn’t sure but it irked her that Pie felt he could dictate to her and clearly expect her to meekly comply with his orders.

“This involves me
, and I have every right to be there,” she snapped defiantly, throwing her shoulders back and drawing herself up to her full height.

“You are going to bloody well do as you are told,” Pie
snarled, adamant that in this argument she wasn’t going to get her own way. She had already scraped through two near-death encounters by the skin of her teeth. The third time she may not be so lucky. He wasn’t going to be the one to spend the rest of his life with her blood on his hands because he had sat back and allowed her to go near the man called Dexter for a third, and fatal time.

“I am not going to have you shove me out of this, not after tonight
,” Florrie snapped. She placed her hands on her hips and stared at him, studiously ignoring Hugo and Archie who were carefully sidling around them and pretending they couldn’t see them. “If you won’t let me come with you tomorrow, suit yourself. I will be there already.”

She heard Pie draw a breath to object but didn’t bother to wait to hear what he had to say. With an indignant sniff she stomped out of the
churchyard, slamming the gate forcefully behind her. Sweeping past Hugo and Archie as though they weren’t there, she stomped down the driveway toward Crompton like a general marching into battle.

Pie stomped out of the
churchyard and caught the bag of coins Hugo tossed to him. His gaze was firmly locked on Florrie’s rigid back as she stalked down the driveway.

“She bloody well plans to meet with Dexter.”

Hugo merely nodded but kept quiet.

“Over my dead body,” Pie snarled, and stomped after her.

Hugo and Archie shared a quick grin yet remained silent and watchful.

“
How long do you think it will be before those two are married?” Archie sighed watching Pie stalk ever closer to his quarry.

“
Six weeks?” Hugo replied with a shake of his head.

“
You really think it will be that long?” Archie muttered. He couldn’t help but think that there could very well be a third wedding before the Star Elite headed off in different directions.

The faint echo of distant cries suddenly broke the silence.
Both men froze and stared at each other for one brief moment before they burst into a run.

“What’s that?”
Florrie gasped, staring at the strange lights coming from Crompton’s upper floors.

She glanced at Pie who ran up behind her.

“The house,” he growled. Grabbing Florrie’s hand, he joined Hugo and Archie as they raced down the lane, dragging Florrie behind them. Together they turned onto the main driveway leading to Crompton and cursed loudly at the sight that greeted them.

“Oh my God,”
Florrie cried.

The orange glow of flames at two of the upper widows was shrouded in thick smoke that billowed into the night sky. There was a small group of people standing several feet away, huddled together while they tried to protect the crying babies.

The servants had already raced to fetch buckets, pans; anything they could find to fill with water to extinguish the flames. Florrie could see men inside the dimly lit hallway running up and downstairs alongside the maids and the butler.

“Is everyone out?” Hugo demanded, glaring at Harriett as he raced past.

“Everyone but the servants,” Harriett cried after him.

Florrie
drew to a halt beside Tabatha who was standing several feet away from the main group of people. Although the fire appeared to be in her room, she was unscathed and didn’t even have a hair out of place. She was watching the men working within the hallway with a frown of annoyance on her face. Florrie couldn’t help but wonder why.

“Is the fire in your room?”
Florrie gasped. She watched in horror as Pie raced through the front door and met with Simon, who was already ordering the staff to find more buckets. Everything within her wanted to be able to call him back out and keep him safe but she knew that even if she did, he would just ignore her. Pie wasn’t the kind of man who would quietly stand aside and allow the staff to work to save the house. All of the Star Elite who were there had already disappeared into the house to work alongside those already battling the flames.

Florrie
turned and caught Tabatha staring at her out of the corner of her eye. There was something about the woman’s all-too-calm demeanour that was alarming. Had Tabatha started the fire? But that didn’t make sense. Why would Tabatha want to raise Crompton to the ground? For what purpose would she put herself out into the cold for the night?

T
here was something about Tabatha’s quiet watchfulness that was staring to make Florrie a little unnerved. She ostensibly moved a few inches further away and, with a glance that kept flickering between the house and her aunt, she knew she owed it to everyone busy working inside to try to get to the bottom of her aunt’s strange behaviour.