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“I don’t care what you think. I don’t care how you do it. Just get me what I want and I will leave you alone. Don’t get it, and I shall come back, and believe me when I tell you that you don’t want me as your enemy.” The man looked Delilah up and down derisively. “I think you had better understand who is in charge here. I don’t work alone. You won’t want to mess with us. It’s a lovely house you have got there. It would be a shame for anything to happen to it; especially with you inside.”
Delilah looked scared for a moment before she squared her shoulders and glared back at him. “Let me remind you that I am a respected member of the community here. If I smacked you on the head with this branch here and ran to the magistrate to tell him you had tried to break into my house, who do you think he is going to believe? You are a stranger to the area, lurking in woods beside my house. Trust me when I tell you that your threats will get you nowhere with me. I have stopped stealing altogether now because I have a damned family member poking her nose into everything. If you want it taken, then take it yourself. I certainly won’t do it. Whatever you choose to do, consider our acquaintance now at an end.”
The man was still blustering when she sniffed disinterestedly and walked away without a backward look. The curse he threw after her was not physically possible, and blistered Sophia’s ears with its ferocity. Anger positively vibrated off the man and she wondered for a moment whether he would go after her aunt in a fit of temper. However, after several minutes of cursing, he abruptly turned around and stomped away in the opposite direction.
“Stay still for a while,” Jeb murmured into her ear.
When he dipped his head, his lips touched the delicate shell of her ear. A shiver swept down her spine. He withdrew his arms from around her waist so she had the freedom to be able to turn to face him. He debated what to do for a moment then eyed the skirts of her dress.
“I need to follow him to see which way he goes. You go home and stay there until I get back.” He pushed her toward the garden when she hesitated. “It will be alright. Just go. I will come and see you soon.”
He nodded toward the house, anxious to get going before he lost his quarry. As soon as she started walking, he turned around and set off. He didn’t intend to accost the man. He just wanted to know where he was staying so he could pay him a visit later. With that in mind, he refocused his energies off the delightful woman who was now, hopefully, making her way back to her aunt’s house, and onto what he did best: catching the enemy.
Sophia watched him melt into the trees and vanish as silently as a ghost. She moved to one side to try to get a better look at him but couldn’t see anything at all; not even a glimpse of Jeb’s white shirt or the man he was chasing.
“How in the world did you manage that then?” Sophia whispered.
The sudden change in him from being warm and relaxed to a menacing stranger warned her there was a lot to Jeb she had yet to learn.
Would there be time to get to know all of his inner secrets, though, before she was due to leave for home? More importantly, did she really want to know what those secrets were that brought about such a sinister change in him?
Deciding she had better do as she was told before he returned and scolded her, Sophia lifted her skirts and stepped cautiously over the debris on the forest floor. Twigs and branches cracked loudly beneath her weight. As soon as she heard them, she paused and looked down at her feet in consternation.
She had just witnessed Jeb walk through the same wood not but a moment ago but without making a sound. How?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She was still deep in thought when she arrived at the kitchen door. She sauntered inside and dropped the basket onto the table without even bothering to look at her aunt.
“I didn’t realise you were outside,” Delilah stared at the woods Sophia had just come out of, and turned to look at her niece suspiciously. “How long have you been in there?”
“Pardon?” Sophia replied. “Oh, I just used it as a shortcut. I decided to take some lunch down to the stream seeing as it was such a pleasant afternoon.”
Determined to keep her face as blank as possible, and her thoughts off the altercation she had just witnessed, Sophia threw a dark look outside. “It is a shame the weather has turned so bad.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Delilah replied, but still looked doubtful. “Did you see anyone?”
“By the stream? Like who? No, but then I cannot rightly say that I was looking for anyone. Why? Were you expecting someone?”
Sophia looked at her aunt innocently. Their eyes met and held.
At that moment, Delilah seemed to realise her niece had indeed seen her and was less than happy about it. Sophia silently challenged her to confess everything, which was something Delilah was never going to do.
“Sophia,” Delilah sighed. “I do think Hooky must be worried about you by now.”
Sophia nodded in acknowledgement of her aunt’s request for her to leave. “I have written to Hooky but have yet to receive a reply. As soon as he informs me the carriage is on its way, I can pack.”
“Well, I think that if he doesn’t reply in the next day or so, you should return to Buckley to see for yourself what the problem is.”
Delilah’s voice was cold and held a hint of steel in it that didn’t sit too well with Sophia. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she shivered as, for the first time since she arrived at Framley Meadow, she began to feel vulnerable. She thought over the conversation she had overheard in the woods.
Did Delilah want Sophia out of the way so she could steal whatever the man wanted her to get? Or did Delilah just want to start to steal anything again, but knew that Sophia would only return anything she stole? Either way, the message was received loud and clear. Sophia was no longer welcome in Delilah’s house.
“I -” Before she got the chance to say anything else, someone knocked on the front door.
“If that is your man again, I shall send him away with a flea in his ear. This is not a house of ill repute. He shouldn’t keep calling like this,” Delilah grumbled.
“He is a reputable gentleman,” Sophia snapped. “You
