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“We shall be delighted to see you on Friday.”
Before Mabel could begin gossiping again, he held his elbow out and nodded toward the butcher’s shop down the road.
“Let’s get you to the butcher’s shop then.” He looked over the top of her mob cap at Sophia. “I will then escort Miss Carney home.”
Sophia didn’t object and was, in fact, somewhat relieved when they left Mabel in the shop, and made their way toward Delilah’s house on their own.
“How are you this morning, Miss Carney? I hope my unannounced house call yesterday didn’t upset your aunt?”
“Why would it upset her?” she asked cautiously.
“She just seemed a little worried about something,” Jeb replied. “I hope my request that you call me Jeb didn’t put her out.”
“Oh, no. Delilah is quite easy going about such things. She finds the pomp and circumstance of formality tedious, and I have to say that I agree with her.”
“Excellent,” Jeb declared with a smile. “I have to confess that I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments.”
He watched her glance up and down the road with a frown.
“What is it?” he asked softly.
Sophia had to tell him. “I saw someone watching me this morning while I was at the grocer’s shop.”
“Oh? Who was it?” Jeb asked carefully.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him before. I don’t know many people in the village, you understand, because I haven’t been here for very long. But there was something about this man that was a little alarming,” she murmured.
Jeb stiffened and frowned at her. “Alarming? How so? Did he approach you?”
“No, but he was staring rather avidly at me. It wasn’t a cursory glance of someone watching or wa
iting for someone.” Sophia sighed and wondered if she saw things that weren’t there. “I am sorry. It sounds nonsense, I know, but there was just something about this man that was worrying. Maybe I am wrong. I had just heard about Tabitha’s disappearance and it had thrown me. Just ignore me. I am sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Jeb protested. “You did right to tell me.”
He glanced up and down the road but couldn’t see anyone. Mainly because he suspected that nearly everyone was out in the fields searching for Tabitha.
“What did he look like? Do you see him now?”
If there was one person in the village he suspected without a fanciful bone in her body it was Sophia.
“No. He vanished just as quickly as he appeared.” She looked at Jeb. “Forgive me. I am a bit jumpy this morning.”
Jeb shook his head sadly. “It is best for now that you don’t go wandering around by yourself. Take Delilah with you if you have to go anywhere, and make sure you do so in the daytime. Try not to go out at night unless you can help it and especially not on your own. When you go to tea on Friday, go with Delilah. The men are going to escort you ladies home when we are done. I don’t want to scare you unduly but until we can find out what happened to Tabitha, everyone has to be a little more cautious.”
Sophia nodded and frowned at the road ahead.
“What do you think has happened to her? From what I hear, she doesn’t appear to be the wayward type.”
“I have no idea,” Jeb sighed. “Just be warned that from past experience, this is not likely to end happily.”
There was something in his voice that warned her that he was talking from experience.
“That is just what Mabel said,” she replied thoughtfully.
Jeb knew from his work with the Star Elite that Tabitha was not likely to have wandered off unaided. Did her disappearance have anything to do with the stranger Sophia saw? He didn’t know yet, but he had every intention of finding out.
“What did he look like?”
