To Catch A Thief (Saved By Desire 2) (9 page)

It was with a mixture of trepidation, fear, and excitement that Sophia made her way to the Harvell’s home that Friday.

After what had happened on the doorstep the other day she couldn’t wait to see Jeb again. The hours had passed so painfully slowly since she had last seen him that Sophia felt like she was going stark raving mad.

The only issue that dampened her excited anticipation was the presence of the stolen hairbrushes tucked away in her bag. She hated to think what would happen if she got caught with them in her possession. The thought of Jeb’s reaction was simply horrifying and would almost certainly mean the end of their association. Feeling tainted, she couldn’t wait to get rid of them, and glared at her aunt when she swept past her and out of the front door.

Once outside, Sophia slammed the door closed behind her and followed her aunt down the street.

“Don’t sulk, Sophia,” Delilah drawled with a slightly mocking look at her niece’s scowl.

“I am not sulking,” Sophia snapped through gritted teeth.

Her aunt’s smug expression made her fury burn even brighter. She decided then that Delilah needed to be pushed to return the items.

Eyeing the Harvell residence ahead, and before she could talk herself out of it, she suddenly thrust the bag at her. When Delilah didn’t immediately take it, Sophia pushed it harder until she had no choice but to hold it.

“You stole them.
You
are going to put them back, Delilah,” she ground out and turned away.

Delilah’s mouth opened, but she didn’t give her chance to say anything. She marched the last few steps to the front door of the Harvell residence, and knocked loudly.

She was aware of Delilah’s evil stare as they swept inside but didn’t care what her aunt thought, felt, or wanted. The truth was that Sophia had no intention of getting caught with stolen items in her bag no matter how much Delilah lied. It irked her that her aunt had promised to return the items she had taken, three at a time, and had continued to do so right up until the moment they had left the house. Unfortunately, Delilah had then quite cunningly announced that she wasn’t going to return anything because it was too much of a risk to take. She had swept out of the house before Sophia could argue, leaving her to snatch the bag off the table.

As a result, the silent clash of wills between the two ladies had soured the relationship even more. To the point that Sophia seriously doubted it could ever be rekindled to even ordinary civility. Still, she couldn’t ignore the fact that a crime had been committed, several times, right under her nose. She was compelled to do whatever she had to in order to protect the family name, in spite of Delilah’s best attempts to sully it.

Once at the Harvell’s though, Sophia’s disappointment faded a little. Tea was a sparse affair indeed, accompanied by luke-warm tea, and dried cake that should have been thrown in the fire days ago, but that didn’t matter. Jeb was there, and his presence made the discomfort worthwhile.

“Good afternoon, Miss Carney,” Jeb murmured huskily as she entered. He bowed politely at both Sophia and her aunt. “Miss Carney. How are you both on this fine afternoon?”

“Fine,” Delilah replied absently, clearly not interested in making conversation.

“I am very well, thank you,” Sophia replied with a smile. “How are you?”

His smile widened when her gaze dropped to his lips again. He knew she was remembering the kiss he gave her. If they had been alone he would have kissed her again, but in deference to the other rather watchful guests had to content himself with a smouldering look that was full of sensual promise.

Unable to resist touching her, he kissed the back of her hand.

She blushed as the memory of those kisses on the doorstep came flooding back, and her eyes fell instinctively to his lips as he lifted his head.

“Do come in,” Pearl gushed.

“Is your father not here?” Sophia asked him.

“No, he and Mr Everson had some business to conduct.”

“Please send him my regards,” she replied.

“I shall do just that, thank you,” he assured her, hating the formality of the occasion.

He despised these affairs where people always watched everyone else like a hawk, and one could be scorned if a word or foot was put out of place. Still, he wasn’t there to represent his father. He was there to catch a thief. If spending a bit more time in the company of those present at his father’s dinner helped him to identify the thief then he was prepared to suffer their company. He had been subjected to far worse throughout his work for the Star Elite.

He glanced about the room. The sitting room they were in was sparsely furnished, to the point that some of the guests were forced to remain standing. Jeb and the Squire were in front of the fireplace. The remainder of the guests either stood, or were seated awkwardly around the room in a way that made conversation difficult. Unfortunately, although Jeb was closest to Sophia, he still couldn’t talk to her the way he wanted to either.

Sighing in frustration, he focused his attention on the real reason he was there; the thief. 

It quickly became evident to Jeb that nobody else really wanted to be there either. It wasn’t that the Harvell’s weren’t well liked. It was just that the few pieces of wood in the fire did little to heat the chilled room. The ladies were struggling to make ends meet, which made drinking their tea and eating their cake feel just plain wrong. Everyone appeared to feel the same because they sipped their cups of tepid tea slowly, and ate the rather awful cake sparingly.

Despite the Harvell’s best attempts to keep it rambling on, conversation was stilted.

Sophia was disappointed. However, it had nothing to do with the awful refreshments, or her lack of ability to converse with Jeb. She was disappointed because Delilah had perched next to her on the chaise, and had immediately dropped the bag with the hairbrushes inside directly onto Sophia’s feet. Evidently, she still had no intention of returning the stolen items.

Mentally cursing her, Sophia had no choice but to try to find a way to leave the brushes behind when they left the house or she knew she would be taking them back to Delilah’s again.

“While everybody is here,” Squire Trelawney suddenly announced. “I shall hand out the invitations to the ball at the end of the month.”

“Oh, but everybody is not here, surely?” Miss Mabel declared, all atwitter as she accepted her invitation from the Squire.

“I have already delivered Algernon’s, and that man of business of theirs,” the Squire declared loudly. “Never fear, my dear. Everyone shall be invited.”

He moved around the room and handed everybody a small embossed card with the details on for his ball in a week’s time.

“It is my turn to host one of these occasions,” he declared without any hint of enthusiasm.

Sophia smiled at the reluctance in his voice. She had to wonder why he would want to accommodate such a lavish affair as a ball if he didn’t like any of the guests. Still, it wasn’t for her to question the man, so she accepted her invitation off him with a smile of thanks and placed it in her lap to read later.

“How delightful; a summer ball,” Pearl gushed. “It is a long time since we have been to one of those, isn’t it Mabel?”

“Oh, yes. It’s so exciting.” Mabel nodded enthusiastically and recounted the occasion of the last ball she attended. “We will have to hurry and arrange our outfits won’t we, dear? This date is next week. Oh my, that is not much time, is it?”

“Yes, well,” the Squire coughed uncomfortably.

Sophia smiled when she realised the Squire had probably handed out the invitations so late in the hopes that nobody would be able to go. He was doomed to disappointment though when the assembled guests accepted their invitations right there and then. By the time the acceptances had dwindled, the Squire seemed to be positively morose.

“Next week?” Delilah gasped. “I must purchase a new outfit.”

“Don’t you think you have enough already?” Sophia snapped without thinking. The glare she levelled on her aunt was withering, and enough make Delilah fall silent. “The back room is positively bursting with new outfits as it is.”

Sensing acrimony between Sophia and her aunt, Mabel and Pearl looked at each other. Mabel then leaned forward in her seat and patted Sophia’s hand in a motherly fashion that was just plain awkward. Sophia tried to smile, but failed miserably.

Jeb’s gaze sharpened at the uncharacteristic display of ill-temper from Sophia, and wondered what was going on. Sensing trouble within the family, he turned his attention to Delilah.

“It’s been so long since I had a new outfit. I cannot imagine such a thing,” Pearl gasped.

“I know. Purchasing a new outfit when you already have a room full of them is a wasteful scandal, isn’t it?” Sophia replied, aware that her aunt was glaring at her evilly.

In spite of the fact that they had spent some considerable time changing the outfits Delilah already owned, her aunt clearly had no intention of using them. The prospect of having a new dress was just too much temptation for her aunt to ignore.

Instead of taking her aunt to task over it, Sophia decided to allow the weight of public opinion to make the point for her. The scandalous amount of clothing her aunt already possessed was beyond excessive and was nothing short of greedy.

Picking up on the Harvell’s penchant for gossip, Sophia leaned toward them conspiratorially.

“You should see Delilah’s spare room. It is stuffed to the rafters with all sorts of dresses and paraphernalia that Delilah could never hope to use.” She landed a look on her aunt that was as displeased as she could make it. “I do not consider that yet another trip to the dressmakers is called for. Not even for the Squire’s ball. I am sure the Squire hasn’t seen half of the outfits my aunt possesses.” She didn’t give Delilah the opportunity to protest and turned to Morwenna Banks and Mavis Arbuthnot, who were scandalised at Delilah’s apparent greed and not afraid to say so.

“There are some people’s selfish endeavours in this village that are completely beyond the pale,” Mavis replied. “It is a scandal that some people are working all the God given hours to be able to put bread on the table while others are frittering away money left, right, and centre. It is just not right, I tell you. Why, I cannot remember the last time I had a new outfit. There is nothing wrong with the ones that I have, and I intend to use them.”

“Yes, we can see that,” Delilah sniped as she ran her condemning gaze over the older woman.

Sophia watched Mavis’ cheeks flush beneath the withering glare Delilah landed on her. For the first time in her life, Sophia was horrified to be related to the rather ugly creature her aunt had turned into and threw an apologetic look at the object of her scorn.

“It is safe to say that excess is a sin, do you not think, Mrs Arbuthnot?” She turned to glare at her aunt as she spoke.

Mavis Arbuthnot nodded energetically; an unholy glint of piety in her eye. “It is; excess is a sin.”

“Speaking of taking away,” the Squire declared loudly. “Has anyone caught the thief yet? I want my damned snuff boxes back.”

Sophia shook her head. “No, but it is only a matter of time. After all, it is a question of conscience for the thief to realise the seriousness of what they have done and stop. If they don’t then they deserve to have the magistrate to catch them and lock them away.”

Jeb knew then that she knew something about the thefts.

“Quite,” he said quietly.

He had yet to take his eyes off her mainly because was enthralled by the way the delicate curve of her cheek was porcelain smooth, and tinted a perfect shade of pink that emphasised her youthful beauty. His fingers itched to stroke that alabaster expanse of flesh to see if it was as soft as it looked.

“Well, it is a matter of conscience of the person who helps themselves to things that don’t belong to them to stop isn’t it? It is also a matter of conscience for anyone who may know about the thief to do something about it. I don’t know why the magistrate doesn’t just search the homes of everyone who was present at these gatherings to look for the missing items,” she replied.

“Good point,” Jeb murmured, and watched her cheeks stain a darker shade of pink.

To see this kind of agitation in Sophia warned him that the topic was more personal than he would have liked to see. He suspected from the stiff way she held herself that she was coldly furious about something. However, he doubted she was put out at Delilah’s sniping at Mrs Arbuthnot. Delilah had done something to offend her niece. That led him to wonder whether the ill feeling between the two was because of something she had learned since she had been in the village; something Delilah had done.

Having said that, why would Sophia want to remain in Framley Meadow if the relationship with her aunt was so frosty?

He frowned when the thought of Sophia leaving the village left him wanting to force her to stay. He was a member of the Star Elite. A worker; a fighter; whose work involved long hours, plenty of travelling, and not much in the way of a home life. Why, then, was he suddenly considering asking Sophia to stay in a village he didn’t intend to remain in once his investigation into Tabitha’s disappearance, and the thefts, was over? Not only that, but he had instinctively considered the village to be his ‘home,' not the house he owned in Worcestershire.