The Lady Is Innocent (The Star Elite Series) (6 page)

Whatever happened tomorrow, she could only hope that more of the truth will be revealed and
Tabatha would be shown in her true colours to everyone. If not, then Florrie’s future had suddenly become very dire indeed.

Pie left the study later that night with a yawn and a sigh of relief. He said goodnight to the others and nodded to the night watchman as he ambled past.

He
was grateful for the willingness of his friends to become involved in Florrie’s meeting with the creditor tomorrow. They had all been eager to discuss the finer details more minutely, and had gone over the possibilities again and again until they had covered all eventualities.

The men who would be keeping watch would leave before dawn and take up their positions around the village green. Rupert and Hugo would remain on horseback and go after the man who collected the funds. They had no doubt that the creditor himself wouldn’t turn up, instead some lackey would appear and act as a courier. Still, he would have to deliver the money somewhere
and Rupert and Hugo would find out where and when.

Pie
was satisfied that tomorrow would bring about some answers. This was something the Star Elite excelled at, and he knew that they had left no stone unturned in their planning. The creditor would be confronted, the true identity of the gambler identified and the debt dealt with, either by Hugo, or by Tabatha. Either way, Pie had made it clear to Hugo that Florrie wasn’t able to pay and, as such, had to be protected. For some strange reason Pie chose not to look into, Hugo had agreed to ensure that Florrie wouldn’t be pursued for the debt when she left Melvedere.

It was agreed by everyone that they should
take the opportunity of questioning the creditor as to his potential involvement with the body in the churchyard. They would also try to uncover the identity of the corpse still lying in the church crypt.

None of them were ignorant of the fact that the
y still had no idea who the man was. Luckily, the church was on the Melvedere estate and they could restrict access to locals and ensure that nobody accidentally stumbled upon the bloodied corpse. The staff who had cleaned the church directly after the wedding had been told to stay away from the area until they were given permission to open the church back up for Portia and Archie’s wedding in ten days’ time. The body was secure for now, but they had to dispose of it somehow, and they were reluctant to just send it to a pauper’s grave if there was a relative sitting somewhere who was anxiously waiting for news of someone who had been the victim of a random act of murder.

It wasn’t lost on any of them that the clock was now ticking. They had to uncover the identity of the body
so they knew how best to move it on. To do that they had to find out what significance the man had had, if any, on their spy smugglers’ operation. They also need to uncover the truth about Florrie’s involvement in his death while gathering as much information as they could on the depth and scale of the gambling debts, along with the true identity of the debtor.

Shaking his head in disgust
at the growing list of tasks they had to undertake, Pie ruefully made his way into his room and closed the door with a sigh of relief. He almost envied Jamie, safely ensconced up at Melvedere, oblivious to the latest investigation the Star Elite had been dragged into.

Although they had agreed that Jamie needed to know
what was happening at some point in the next few days. However, for now he needed to spend some time with his new wife and, until they had a few more details to convey to him, there was really no point in disturbing his honeymoon.

With the prospect of an early start looming, Pie
yawned widely and climbed into bed. Whatever surprises tomorrow had in store, he would get to the truth if he had to dig it out with his bare hands, and woe betide Florrie if she had told him a pack of lies.

Everyone was in position. Pie stood in the shadows of an alleyway
between two houses in Melvedere village, with the village green in sight. He knew that Hugo and Rupert were waiting on horseback at either end of the village. None of them had any idea if the courier was collecting the money on horseback or on foot, but they were prepared for either eventuality.

Stephen was hiding just across the green, while Simon was keeping guard back at
Crompton, just in case this was a ruse and the real intent of the creditor was to get the men out of the house.

Florrie
was standing trembling beside him. Although she was wrapped in a long cloak, she was pale and visibly shaking.

“Do you have the pouch of coins?”

She nodded jerkily. Her fingers tightened on the heavy weight in her cloak pocket. She felt sick, and turned frantic eyes on Pie. “I can’t do it,” she whispered. “What do I do if he talks to me?”

“Just tell him that you are
Florrie but you haven’t run the debts up, Tabatha has. Give him her direction and her full name and leave. Don’t converse with him any more than that. Don’t answer any questions, don’t give him any other information, and don’t go near him or allow him to approach you.”

Pie studied her blank face and wondered if she was taking any of his instructions in; he doubted it. She looked absolutely petrified. He wonde
red if she would have the strength to go through with the meeting. He had intended to give her his gun but given her current state, knew that she would either forget to use it, or shoot her own foot. He couldn’t take the risk that she would do something stupid with it. Shaking his head, he mentally cursed and wondered if they had made the right decision in allowing Florrie to do this. Tabatha should be the one going through this debacle instead of Florrie. Pie stared down at Florrie’s dark eyes and wondered what was going through her mind. She looked almost ready to run, and that was something that he couldn’t allow to happen. If she went to meet the man full of blind panic, she could do something or say something that would reveal the presence of the Star Elite, and that would ruin all of their careful planning, as well as put all of their lives at risk.

“
Florrie? Listen to me,” Pie murmured, tipping his head down until she met steady gaze. “Remain calm, there is nothing to fear. You are giving him money, nothing else.” His voice dipped to a whisper. He bit back the curse of frustration at the panic that lingered in her depths of her dark eyes. He glanced down and sighed at the sight of her small hands clutching the folds of his shirt.

“I am being silly, aren’t I?”

“You aren’t. Your nerves are perfectly understandable, but this man isn’t going to hurt you. As far as he is concerned, you owe him money. It will go against his own purposes if he hurts you because then you won’t be able to pay him back what he is owed.”

The logic was there in Pie’s voice
, but it still didn’t quell the nerves in Florrie’s stomach. She wondered for a moment if the light breakfast she had choked down was going to come back up again.

“God, I hate
Tabatha for doing this to me,” she whispered, her voice quivering with nerves and anger.

“Then use that to straighten your shoulders, my lady. You have done nothing wrong. Drop the money off and move away.”

“Do I wait?”

“
No, turn around and walk away if nobody turns up. We are nearly at noon now.”

Melvedere
wasn’t very big. It was a relief to see that the small village was almost deserted: it would make keeping an eye on Florrie considerably easier if they weren’t interrupted by passing villagers.

“Relax, everything will be alright.” Pie wished he could go in her place
.

She turned to look at him. He was tall and solid, but the gentle reassurance in his eyes began to calm her scattered nerves.

“How much longer?” she whispered when silence settled between them and an unknown tension began to rise.

“A few minutes,” Pie replied gently. He lifted a finger and trailed it down her cheek. Thanks to the winds, she had more colour in them today
, in spite of her nerves. She really was beautiful.

Florrie
knew that she should back away. Pie had already told her that the men from the Star Elite would be on watch, and ready to follow the creditor. Hugo was prepared to have a word with the man and set the record straight as to who owed the money and they had all given her reassurances that nothing would go wrong if she did as they told her to. She glanced down at her fingers clutching his shirt, but couldn’t bring herself to let go. Luckily, Pie made no attempt to move away.

Instead he edged ever closer.

She watched his head lower to hers until their noses were only inches apart. He stopped and looked at her. His gaze studied and assessed her before he finally made a decision about something. She sighed as his head dipped.

Her eyes closed at the first brush of his lips against hers. Her fingers tightened on the fine wool of his cloak and she drew herself up on
to her tiptoes to meet his kiss. She felt strangely wanton in accepting his kisses as readily as she did, but she couldn’t stop him. She had no idea what she was doing but made no protest as he angled his head slightly and pressed his lips more firmly against hers.

She gasped as the hot sweep of his tongue touched her bottom lip.
The slight opening of her mouth was all Pie needed to deepen the kiss. He placed one hand on the back of her head. He struggled with the urge to slide his fingers into her hair and scatter pins everywhere. They didn’t have the time. He felt rather than heard her soft sigh of supplication, and was somewhat triumphant when she melted against him. Sweeping her into his arms, he pulled her flush against his hardness and took a moment to wrap her in his arms while his lips captured and commanded hers.

Florrie
had no idea how long they stood locked in the intimate embrace but, all too soon, Pie eased slowly backward. Her cheeks flushed at her wanton behaviour but she couldn’t regret a single moment of what had just happened. She felt slightly dazed and stared up at him blankly for a moment. She watched a slow smile of satisfaction soften his face and knew then that he had intended for it to calm her nerves. He had wanted to distract her and had succeeded admirably. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and wasn’t sure whether to be alarmed, relieved or frustrated.

“That was unnecessary,” she said chidingly.

Pie’s grin was unrepentant. “It worked though.”
On more than she realised
, he mused silently and shifted against the uncomfortable ache in his nether regions that didn’t seem to want to go away. Although he had released her, his arms felt strangely bereft. He had never felt such feelings before and wasn’t altogether comfortable with how easily this woman brought about the unfamiliar warmth to his heart. All trace of mirth suddenly vanished and he glanced down at his fob watch.

Twelve noon.

He glanced up at her, his gaze steadily reassuring. “Time to go.”

“There isn’t anyone there yet,”
Florrie whispered, peeking out of the passage to look at the green. She still trembled, but wasn’t sure if it was through nerves or the flurry of sensation that Pie’s kisses had brought forth. She struggled to block out the tingling of her lips, and focus on the reason they were there in the first place.

“There probably won’t be.
They may be watching and waiting for you to leave, so don’t worry about it. Go and deliver the pouch to the stone beside the pond. I have no doubt the man is around here somewhere.”

Florrie
cast him a troubled look and drew the coins out of her pocket. She suddenly felt as though she was holding something dirty, and she had to get rid of it as soon as possible.

“Wish me luck,” she muttered
. She threw him a scared look before leaving the shadows.

As she walked across the open space toward the village green
, she felt positive she could feel eyes watching her. She tried to keep her tread sure and steady; her gaze locked on the huge rock sitting beside the pond. She placed one foot in front of the other and fought the urge to glance around her to seek out the presence of the Star Elite, especially Pie. Not having him by her side left her feeling strangely bereft yet she had only known him a short time. He shouldn’t mean that much to her, but he did. His presence beside her shouldn’t be that comforting, but it was. She hardly knew the man yet he had brought about feelings in her that she had never considered possible before and she wasn’t certain whether she was amazed or terrified.

She concentrated on putting one foot before the other
and was about half way there when she became aware of the rumbling of carriage wheels from behind growing louder and louder. She started to move to one side of the road to allow the carriage to pass and frowned as the sudden cracking of a whip broke the silence.

The
loud grinding sound behind her was accompanied by Pie’s shout.

“Look out!”

She spun around. Her eyes met and held Pie’s for a brief instant before she looked with wide, terrified eyes behind her. A scream lodged in her throat as, within the space of a heartbeat, she realised that she was facing certain death. She stumbled backward and stared into a horse’s eyes as it charged toward her. She started to fall backward; her eyes locked onto the huge carriage wheels as they raced toward her.

“
Florrie!” The cry came from somewhere, but her but her mind was blocked to everything except the horrifying sight of the black carriage looming menacingly closer. She couldn’t stop it and couldn’t move quickly enough to get out of the way. Her shoulder was nudged by the heavy beast as it raced past her. She screamed as she started to fall. Her eyes locked on the long columns of the horse’s legs for an instant before she hit the ground. She lay in a heap in the middle of the road and waited for what seemed an eternity for death to claim her. Everything around her suddenly went black. She couldn’t see anything and couldn’t hear anything apart from the horrifically loud rumbling noise that seemed to swallow her up.

She waited for the pain; for the heavy jolt that would bring about
the end.

Nothing
happened.

A
ll she could do was lie there and gasp, and pray. She lay face down on the floor for a second, unable to believe that she had been so close to death and survived. She glanced up to see the back of the speeding carriage as it rapidly left the scene. The horrible rumbling noise slowly disappeared and was replaced by the heavy pounding of booted feet.

“Jesus Christ,
Florrie,” Pie gasped, dropping to his knees beside her. “Get a doctor,” he ordered the shocked villager who had witnessed the incident. Glancing down the road, he caught sight of Hugo as he chased after the murderous carriage. His heart thumped heavily in his chest. The sight of her disappearing beneath the carriage wheels was something that would remain with him forevermore.

With a trembling hand he eased the folds of her cloak back from her
dirt smudged face.

“
Florrie? Can you hear me?” His voice was husky with emotion.

Florrie
lay stunned for a moment and didn’t know whether to laugh with jubilation that she had actually survived being run over, or cry over the fact that she had been so close to death. She blinked and turned her head to look at him.

“Lie still, the doctor is on his way. Where do you hurt the most?”

Florrie’s hip ached but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “I am just a bit shaken,” she whispered. She slowly turned over and sat up.

“You need to sit still and wait for the doctor. Where did the carriage hit you?” Pie ordered, scouring her from head to toe in
a desperate search for injuries.

During his time on the
battlefields he had seen men with limbs missing get up and attempt to walk again. He knew that just after a person was hurt they could do the most incredible things, until the pain kicked in. He wondered now if Florrie had hidden injuries that she hadn’t started to feel yet.

“Talk to me,
Florrie. Where does it hurt?”

“It doesn
’t, not really. The horse brushed my shoulder as it passed and I stumbled, I think.” Tears pooled in her eyes and she turned to Pie in stunned disbelief. “Did someone just try to kill me?”

Pie cursed and hauled her into his arms. He didn’t care if the village, the creditor
, or half of the Star Elite were watching. The sight of her going under the carriage kept replaying in his mind, over and over, until he couldn’t stand it any longer. He felt slightly sick and, with shaking hands, eased the wild tangle of her hair back from her face. His eyes locked with hers for several minutes while he silently pleaded with her for reassurance that she was indeed alright.

“God,
Florrie,” he whispered. He placed one swift, hard kiss on her lips and swept her into the tightest hug that Florrie had ever experienced. It wasn’t painful, it was just incredibly tight and, right at that moment, the most wonderful thing anyone had ever done for her.