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“I know,” she replied sadly. “I just need to try to salvage what I can out of the store at the back of the house. Most of what we wanted to keep but didn’t need to use were put in there when the roof of the house started to leak. I can’t just leave it all behind but then I have no way to transport it, even if I do know which way to go.”
“Wait a minute,” Marcus interrupted. “What about me? Us? Don’t I feature in your plans?”
“Well, you have your work with the Star Elite. You will have to go where that takes you.”
“Yes, but I am also a man,” he said. “I deserve a life outside of the Star Elite. It is my work; it is not my entire life. I am not going to spend my whole life traipsing up and down the country after criminals. There are men in the service who have found wives.” He glanced at her and smiled. “In the most unusual of circumstances, and they have beaten insurmountable odds to forge relationships, and have been extremely successful. They have married, and some of them have children now. They live and work within a stone’s throw from home so they can have a life outside of work. I deserve the same. It doesn’t mean I have to stop doing what I am doing. For my own peace of mind, I have to finish what I started with this. I can’t walk away until Sayers, and his network has been broken up. It is going to take a couple of years, but that doesn’t mean my whole life has to be put on hold.”
“I know you need to follow leads, and will inevitably move on. But I cannot traipse around with you. You are sometimes gone in the dead of night for hours on end.”
“I don’t expect you to,” Marcus assured her. “We are going to stay here, in this tavern for now.”
Jess gasped. “Oh, we can’t.”
“Yes, we can,” Marcus assured her.
“What will people think of me?” She wriggled around so she could see him more clearly.
“It doesn’t matter what these people think of you. We are not stopping in the village. Let them talk. They don’t know what
we know. They have no idea that Sayers has been on their doorstep, and that any one of them could have ended up like Mr Grant, or you. It is better they live in ignorance. They will talk about the fact that Lloyd and Carruthers have been arrested. Their crimes will be documented in the broadsheets when they face trial, and will give the villagers more to discuss. I have no doubt the locals will discuss your house burning down, but will blame it on circumstances, or a strange turn of events nobody can explain. That will be the reason why you have left the area. They will discuss Smithers’ death, and Ben’s association with the strange group of men who appeared in the village for a while, and left when the interim magistrate turned up. There will be whispers; there always is in a place like this. But it doesn’t matter what they think. It is what you know that is important.”
“You sound as if you are talking from experience,” she replied.
Marcus smiled at her. “That’s because I am. But, look at it this way. We have rid a small, out-of-the-way village of a crime syndicate, and the ruthless exploits of a corrupt magistrate. We have rid them of a thief in their midst, and a second criminal in the making. Although they have lost a boarding house, they have also gained the ability to go about their business without interference from gangs, death, corruption, or violence. Not only that, but we have given them a heck of a lot to gossip to speculate about for the months and years to come.”
He dropped a loving kiss on her shoulder and placed many tender kisses along her neck until his lips rested teasingly against her ear.
“Ergo, it doesn’t matter how much they gossip, the truth will only be known by a select group of people who will not discuss it once they leave this village. Don’t worry about what the villagers think of you. Don’t worry about where you are going to go next,” he ordered.
“I am worried, Marcus. Where do I go? Can you suggest somewhere?”
Marcus nodded. “You are coming home to Hertfordshire with me. My family are in Barrowby, and will be delighted to meet the woman who has persuaded me to venture into the delights of matrimony.”
Jess froze. Her stomach flipped at the intent look that swept over his features. Gone was the loving softness. In its place was a determination that she had not seen before. The fierce look in his eyes that warned her that he meant what he said, and wouldn’t hear any argument.
“Matrimony?” she whispered. “But we have only known each other for a few weeks. There is so much we need to learn about each other. What if you realise you have made a mistake? What if you regret marrying me?”
“I could never regret anything like that. Not with you. Not after what has happened. When you took me into your home, you gave me a taste of a life that I have not had since the day I left my parent’s home many years ago. For the first time, I looked forward to going home. When I got there, it was nice and warm, and a stunning woman awaited me. I had delicious food, a warm bed, and a large if a little decrepit place I could call home. It was a home, Jess. As bare and as minimal as it was, as questionable as the lodgers in it were, it was still a home. It was your home. It didn’t take long before I knew that wherever you called home had to be my home too. You don’t need to buy anywhere else, Jess. I have more than enough for the both of us. The Star Elite pays good money, mainly because of the dangers we face. However, there is very little opportunity to spend much of it. It has therefore been accumulating in the bank. Money is not an issue. It is a waste to buy yourself a house, especially when I have a perfectly good four bedroomed house set in three acres of grounds, in rural Hertfordshire waiting for you.”
Jess was stunned. She had doubts, of course she did. There was still so much about his life with the Star Elite she had yet to learn, but then doubted she would get to know all of it. If she was honest, she didn’t think she wanted to know about the dark and dangerous side of what he did. The worry would be unbearable.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too,” he assured her. “So, will you come to Hertfordshire with me?”
She jerked suddenly and leaned back to look at him. “What about Ben?”
Marcus smiled. “It has yet to be made official, but he is the newest member of the Star Elite. The men have sort of adopted him. He has learned a lot while he has been with me. Whatever he doesn’t know, the men will teach him.”
“He has been with you all the time?” she gasped.
Marcus shrugged. “Well, I had to keep him on the straight and narrow somehow. I thought that if he witnessed first-hand how the authorities deal with criminals, and how serious the consequences are when you start to steal, he might just stop.”
She sensed there was something he wasn’t telling her. When he rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, she rolled over to lie alongside him. When he still didn’t tell her, she tugged on his chest hair and grinned when he yelped.
Rubbing at the offending spot, he threw her a warning look. “You will pay for that.”
When he tried to kiss her, she turned her head away.
