To Catch A Thief by Rebecca King

Author:Rebecca King
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: R L King; 1 edition
Published: 2016-04-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The following morning, Jeb arrived in the breakfast room at Briggleberry, to find his father looking stern.

“Have you heard?” his father demanded without preamble.

“What?” Jeb collected a plate and heaped piles of bacon, eggs, and toast onto it.

“That Tabitha girl has been found.” He nodded when Jeb turned to look at him.

Jeb knew from the dark look on Algernon’s face that the news wasn’t good. “What happened to her? Where did they find her?”

“The Dobbs boy found her on his way back from the market last night. He took a short cut through the fields. She was discovered in a field to the woods on the far side of the village. According to Tranvers, the gardener, who was in the tavern at the time, the boy rushed in as white as a sheet and was barely coherent. He had fallen over and came almost face-to-face with her.”

“God in heaven,” Jeb muttered.

“Yes. When they eventually calmed him down, they were able to get him to tell them where she was because he refused to show them.”

“How did she die, do they know?” Jeb asked as he spread jam on his toast.

“God, how can you eat at a time like this?” his father demanded with a scowl.

Jeb stared down at the toast in his hand and shrugged. “My time in the Army prepared me to take on fuel while the opportunity was there because you never knew when you would get a break in fighting to eat again. Besides, my work for the Star Elite brings me into contact with dead bodies. I am not squeamish about death and dying. You see too much of it at war.”

His father was subdued for several moments while he considered that.

“I am not going to succeed in getting you to return to live here, am I?” He said morosely after several moments of thoughtful silence.

Jeb considered the wall opposite for a moment while he thought over what he had shared with Sophia last night.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he replied obliquely before tucking into the eggs on his plate.

When his father’s brows lifted in shock, Jeb knew he had to explain or else he would get pestered remorselessly.

“I am not saying no. It is just that at the moment the Star Elite are involved in quite an in-depth investigation for the War Office that I just cannot walk away from. I have to see it through to its conclusion before I can take up a future anywhere.”

He picked up the broadsheet and, sure enough, an article was there reporting yet another burglary, this time from the home of an eminent Professor. From the sound of the article, the theft was very similar to the recent spate that had hit several members of the aristocracy in London. Many items had been taken right under their noses while the household was asleep, and people were now demanding answers.

Aware that his father was waiting, Jeb slid the broadsheet across the table. He motioned to the article at the bottom of the page and waited while Algernon read.

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