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Ben frowned. “Well, no. Now that I come to think about it, you were the one who prompted me to realise he was gone.”
“Mr Grant didn’t go out much because he was elderly. The neighbours might not suspect anything unusual is going on if they hear noises coming from inside the property.”
“Do you really think he is dead?” Ben asked worriedly.
“If you had a house you had worked all of your life for, would you give it up to strangers without a murmur?”
Ben shook his head.
Marcus couldn’t see any reason to hide the seriousness of the situation Ben was getting himself involved in.
“How do I get them out of this house, Marcus? I can’t have this going on here. What if the villagers ever find out? We would be incriminated even though we haven’t done anything wrong. Not only that, but I cannot have Jess in the middle of such danger. What if they hurt her?”
That thought made Marcus feel a little sick. “They won’t. I will protect her. When she is in my bed, and I am there, nobody will get anywhere near her.”
Marcus’ voice was so cold and ruthless that Ben considered him warily.
“Hopefully, my associates will be here before anything untoward happens. We can take a look inside Mr Grant’s house then,” Marcus continued. “We will corner them at Mr Grant’s house when we are ready to arrest them. They won’t be challenged here because these men will not give up without one heck of a fight.”
“I still want to help you,” Ben assured him.
“I think that your cooperation in this is going to bring you a few surprises,” he said knowingly. “Just keep quiet about everything for now. Watch your back whenever you go out. Don’t go anywhere near Mr Grant’s house without me. My colleague is watching the house and will consider it suspicious if you go there alone.”
“I don’t understand,” Ben murmured. “If they work for them, why are they trying to get in here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they are trying to get something they could plant on you,” Marcus sighed.
He carefully repackaged the items and put them back in their hiding place.
“What do we do now?”
“Well, you need to do your chores. Jess will want to see most of them done by the time she gets back. I have to meet with Joe to tell him what we have found. I will meet with you back here later.”
Jess hummed as she walked back from the town.
Predictably, her thoughts were locked on Marcus. It was wonderful to think he was a part of her life now. If only she could find a way of getting rid of the niggling worries that plagued her she knew she would be considerably happier. Given how open Marcus was with her she knew she should just ask him, but there never seemed to be the right time or opportunity.
Still hadn’t expected someone like Marcus to ever appear in her life in the first place. Now that he was there, for however long he was in the village, she would enjoy every single moment of being with him and damn the consequences.
It still amazed her that someone like him was interested in her. Marcus was a debonair, well spoken, well-travelled man about town. He had an air of sophistication about him that set him apart from everybody else. Together with his impeccable manners, and gentlemanly nature, he was the very epitome of everything she had ever wanted in a mate. It was as though every one of her childish fantasies had come to life.
It was wonderful. It was shocking. It was extremely worrying.
“Odd,” she murmured aloud. “It is odd. I live and work in the back of beyond. I have no qualities, and no discernible skills to earn myself a living. He, meantime, was assured, confident, mysterious, handsome, and urbane. His breeches alone must have cost an absolute fortune. It is odd that our lives have come together like this.”
It didn’t happen quickly. It was more of a slow, yet deliberate heightening of her awareness. But, as Jess ambled along the road to Smothey, the small hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end.
The light dimmed at the same time that the countryside fell still and silent. She glanced up at the darkening skies and shuddered. Several minutes passed. She increased her pace as much as she could, but the disturbed, almost restless feeling she had didn’t diminish. In fact, it increased in severity until she was quite unnerved.
The only sound she could hear was her heartbeat thundering in her ears. There was no birdsong. No wind was rustling the leaves in the trees. Not even a rumble of thunder in the sky. Even her footsteps were muted. She could have been the only person in the world. But she knew she wasn’t. There was someone following her.
Warily glancing at the trees on either side of the road, she tried to judge just how far she had to go to get home. It was a good half a mile at least. It was not very far; but a lifetime away if someone jumped out of the bushes at her, or worse, chased her.
“Don’t be absurd,” she murmured only to gasp when a loud rumble of thunder rattled the skies directly overhead. “See? That’s all it is; a thunderstorm.”
She didn’t feel reassured, and let out a squeak of surprise when a jagged streak of lightning preceded another heavy clatter of the clouds.
“Oh, Lord,” she whispered.
