by Rebecca King
This time, Clara knew she had to get back inside and fully intended to do just that, but before she could take a single step, the thug suddenly lunged to his feet, appearing between them with a swiftness that was shocking. Rather than try to grab Clara again, he doubled over and tried to tackle Niall, but Niall was in no mood for him. He immediately slammed a fist into the man’s face with a force that contained all his inner fury at himself. He didn’t hold back, even though Clara was standing next to them. A part of Niall wanted her to see the brutality of his life because he didn’t want her to see him as some sort of romantic hero. He was a man; someone who liked his life in the shadows. He wasn’t going to give it up for her or any other woman for that matter and the quicker she realised that she sooner she might be prepared to get inside where she belonged.
“Go!” He commanded her over his shoulder. He paused long enough to slam a boot against the side of his opponent’s head. When he was on his knees, Niall threw Clara a look over his shoulder only to see something that made him scowl darkly at her.
“I am not some God damned toy,” he growled. “Don’t you dare look at me like that.”
Clara blinked. She had no idea that her thoughts had been so blatantly displayed on her face. She immediately tried to make her face as impassive as possible, but it was damned difficult when she looked up only to find Niall standing almost toe-to-toe with her once more. She made no apology for being curious about him and, if she was honest, wanting to kiss him again.
He doesn’t seem too averse to kissing me.
Niall stared at her and waited only to sigh in disgust when Clara’s telling gaze dropped to his lips again. He knew what she was silently waiting for but refused to give her what she wanted – again. His common sense had been damaged enough as it was.
“Damn you,” he growled.
With one last dark look at the man at their feet, Niall stepped over the thug and swept Clara off her feet. Once high in his arms, he began to stomp angrily toward the house. He was as livid as hell for allowing the blackguard to get this close to the property. He knew why he had failed; he had been thinking about Clara. That made Niall even angrier because he had never allowed any woman to affect his ability to do his job before. But Clara had distracted him the instant he had set eyes on her. What annoyed him even more was the realisation that she was most probably going to worry him for a long time yet to come and there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it.
“Who is in the house?” he demanded when the sound of voices was carried past them by the wind.
“Some friends of ours decided to pop around to see us,” Clara murmured. She didn’t dare tell him that they were at the house to see him. He looked angry enough as it was.
“How many of them are there?” Niall demanded.
Clara defiantly refused to explain herself to him, not after his determination to avoid all her questions. “A few.”
“A few,” he muttered and swore roundly. “All of them women, I suppose.”
“Of course.” Clara studied him and wondered who else he expected to call upon them. Her thoughts immediately turned to Erasmus, but she doubted Niall would expect him to visit them. “You know that man, don’t you?”
“No.”
“Why aren’t you surprised he is here, or wondering what he wants?”
“I will find out what he wants just as soon as you are in the house,” Niall assured her in a tone that warned her he would do what he said he would.
“You don’t seem all that surprised he is in your garden either,” he said, and quietly contemplated that while he waited for her to answer.
“That’s because Edith, one of our guests and the lady you met earlier this evening, thought she saw someone out here earlier.”
Niall bit out another curse.
“You do that a lot, you know.”
“What?” Niall slammed to a stop outside the kitchen door.
“Curse.”
“It comes with the job,” Niall grunted. He eyed the door meaningfully and waited. Because his hands were full, he couldn’t turn the knob himself. Clara didn’t take the hint.
Niall glared down at her. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Why did you come out here if you thought you saw someone lurking in the garden? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?” He was inwardly horrified that she might have come outside to see who it was.
“I forgot.”
“Forgot?” His voice was rife with disbelief.
“Yes, I forgot,” she snapped.
Niall bit back another curse and shook his head in disgust. Words failed him. There wasn’t much he could say or do right now. He had told her to be careful and she had ignored him. He had told her to stay inside but she seemed determined to put herself in the path of danger at every quarter. What else was he supposed to do?
Lose my bloody job if she gets snatched or, worse, killed because she won’t do as she is told.
It was the thought of what would happen to his colleagues that gave Niall the patience to persist in at least trying to keep Clara safe and, right now, the safest place for her to be was inside the house with her friends. The more of them there were the safer she would be because he doubted any man would be brave or stupid enough to try to snatch her out of a room full of women.
He wished he could just shove her inside and ride out of her life for good. It would take effort to forget her completely he knew, but he would manage it eventually he was sure of it. Inadvertently, Miss Clara Potter had rendered all his carefully laid plans useless in the space of half a day, and it was galling. Thanks to tonight’s events, it was going to be impossible to disappear back into the shadows and keep an idle watch over the woman’s rather mundane life of domesticity. That thought was confirmed when the kitchen doorway suddenly swung open and they both found themselves staring at a veritable sea of faces.
It was then that Niall realised he was still holding Clara.
CHAPTER NINE
“Mother of Christ,” Niall hissed beneath his breath when he saw them.
He knew in that instant that his mission had been ruined as had his entire investigation. Now, there was no earthly possibility that he was ever going to be able to hide and carry out his part of the Star Elite’s investigation in peace.
“Oh, Lordy,” one of them murmured in a sing-song kind of way. “Clara, my how handsome.”
Without uttering a word, Sissy snatched the bucket off Clara, stomped past them, and began to march militantly up the garden.
“Where are you going, Sissy?” Edith called after her before Niall could even open his mouth.
Sissy, now soaking wet, slammed to a stop and turned to face them, her chin tipped upward pugnaciously. Niall turned to watch her, completely forgetting that he still had Clara clinging to his chest. He shifted uncomfortably when Sissy slid an assessing look from the top of his head to the tips of his boots, as if he was prize horse flesh. Reflexively, his arms tightened on Clara and he adopted a wary stance as if preparing to run for his life.
“If Clara found him when she went to that well, I am going to see what I can pull up.” With that, Sissy marched to the end of the garden and began to attach the bucket to the rope just as Clara had not but an hour ago.
Clara blinked at her in surprise. For a moment, she couldn’t believe her friend might even contemplate that she was going to find another man like Niall down the well, or anyone else for that matter. He was one of a kind.
“But I didn’t find him in the well,” Clara called after her.
“For Heaven’s sake,” Niall hissed. “Don’t encourage her.”
He turned to look at Clara’s friend, and watched while she lowered the bucket before winding it back up again. She lifted the now heavy pale free of the hook and blessedly began to return to the house. Before she took more than a few steps, though, a man appeared out of the woods again. This time, it wasn’t a violent intruder.
“Sissy,” Clara squealed.
“Just what in the hell is going on here?” Will growled, manhandling Sissy to a stop.
Sissy stared up at him with a somewhat adoring look on her face, much to Will’s horror. He instantly released her and backed away warily before turning an accusing look on Niall.
“Do you need help?” he demanded.
“Yes,” Niall declared firmly. “I do.”
“Ooh, you are all drenched. Come on inside, all of you.” Audrey waved one long arm toward the house, but nobody moved.
Will spun on his heel, determined to make a swift if somewhat rude escape only to find his progress blocked by the determined hands of the woman called Sissy, who contrarily tugged him toward the house.
“Madam, unhand me at once,” Will protested in his most officious voice.
“Oh, but you must come in, especially if you are a friend of Niall’s,” Sissy murmured soothingly.
Will glared at Niall, but he was too busy trying to thwart Edith’s rather determined efforts to get him into the house to help him.
“Look, we cannot do this,” Niall growled.
But it was too late. Both men were dragged into the warmth of the house and beneath the curious gazes of the women in the kitchen. Niall made a lunge for the door only to find the small yet surprisingly strong woman called Babette was now blocking it.
“Ahem. Well, it is nice to meet you all.” Niall coughed uncomfortably, rapidly growing more than a little worried by the somewhat awestruck way Clara was gazing at him. “I had best be on my way.”
It was then that he realised he was still holding her. With an awkward cough, he slowly lowered her to her feet.
“Oh, you must stay,” Sissy protested making a grab for him. “Come on into the parlour. You must get warm before you go.”
Niall jerked when he felt the woman’s hands on his arm. He planted his boots firmly on the tiled floor and refused to budge when she tried to tug him into the main body of the house.
“Oh, Sissy, leave the man alone. You will scare him if you keep behaving like that,” Flo protested.
Niall blinked the oldest woman in the room and opened his mouth to scold her only to remain mute because he knew instantly that she was Atticus Potter’s sister. The proof was in the colour of her eyes, and the rather rotund shape of her face together with the somewhat pugnacious tilt of her chin.
“You must come and tell us all about yourself,” Audrey coaxed.
“Is he the one?” Babette whispered loudly. “Your fiancé?”
Clara sighed and opened her mouth to deny he was her fiancé only to find herself ensnared by Niall’s askance look.
“Yes, he is her fiancé. Isn’t he dashing?” Edith piped up.
Clara watched in amazement as two streaks of colour appeared on Niall’s sharp cheekbones. She blinked because he was the very last person she could ever imagine would be embarrassed enough to blush, but he was, and he looked endearing.
“What?” Will lifted his brows in astonishment at his colleague. “You are engaged?”
Niall mentally cursed when he saw Will’s lips twitch. He knew he was never going to live this one down and suddenly felt as if everything in the world had suddenly turned against him. He wanted to leave but had at least half a dozen women blocking his way. That didn’t prevent him from giving the kitchen door a longing look, though, or being desperate to be outside again.
He positively takes up my entire kitchen, Clara mused, surprised by how much Niall’s presence in the kitchen seemed to make the room shrink to half its normal size.
Niall, oblivious to her thoughts, struggled to keep a hold of his patience. To his increasing annoyance, the woman called Audrey leaned around him and nudged the back door closed, effectively trapping Niall and Will inside the house. Niall looked at his colleague in panic and knew then that if they were to make an escape then they had to do it now, but Will was busy edging away from a rather determined Sissy.
“We have to go, ladies,” he announced firmly.
“What’s the rush? Surely, you will want to at least allow Clara to introduce you to us, won’t you? I mean, we are her closest friends,” Sissy chided.
“You can tell us all about yourself, so Clara doesn’t have to,” another of the ladies murmured as she too eyed him eagerly. “When is the wedding? Where did you ask for her hand?”
“How long have you known her?”
“Where did you meet?”
Niall glared at Clara and lifted his brows when her somewhat guilty gaze slid away.
“Rather than discuss this right now, I suggest we all go back into the parlour so everyone can warm themselves by the fire,” Flo announced, clapping her hands and calling everybody to attention.
Everybody hesitated for a fraction of a second, as if in preparation to object only to remember that this was Flo’s house. As the hostess she had every right to guide her guests to where she deemed it appropriate for them to sit. If she asked everyone to move to the parlour then to the parlour they all had to go – and they did. Eventually.
Will threw Niall another dark look. “We have to go,” he ground out.
“I know,” Niall hissed. He turned to run a dark look over the women. “Ladies, I have to go out there and deal with the man who tried to accost Clara.”
“Yes, what happened out there?” Sissy began. “I thought I heard a cat wailing or something.”
Niall snorted because he knew it had been Clara screaming, or trying to, while being buffeted by the wind.
Clara glared at him. “Let’s discuss everything when we are in the parlour.”
She was physically shaking as she followed the ladies into the parlour not least because she was filled with trepidation over what the next few minutes might hold for her. Niall seemed angry enough but to humiliate herself even further in front of the equally sinister looking friend of his was even worse.
“Are you all right?” Niall asked Clara gruffly when he realised that she was shaking.
He tried to tell himself that he asked because it was his job to make sure she was all right, but it was a lie.
Clara stared at him mutely before jerkily nodding at him.
“Go and get changed into dry clothing,” he suggested gently.
“But we don’t have any men’s clothing here for you to use,” Clara whispered miserably, well aware that he was soaked because of her but there was nothing she could do to ease his discomfort.
“I don’t need anything. My friend and I need to go,” Niall murmured, ostensibly for Clara’s ears alone.
He had, however, forgotten about just how acute a nosy woman’s hearing could be. When he looked up, Niall realised that all the women were listening to their hushed conversation. He mentally groaned at the intimacy of his position close to Clara, and their murmured voices, and realised then what impression he was inadvertently giving everyone.
Can this get any worse?
Despite their vehement protests, both Niall and Will found themselves being dragged into a room at the front of the house where they were then forced into chairs.
“What do we do?” Will murmured into his ear. “This is worse than being under interrogation.”
Niall shook his head at him. Within seconds, both men were seated before the fire with large doses of brandy in their goblets. A somewhat hushed and expectant silence then settled over everyone. Niall and Will looked askance at each other. Neither of them knew of a way to extricate themselves from the situation. With their quarry gone, all they could do was sit and wait for the scenario to play out and make their escape just as soon as practically possible. They both knew that they couldn’t risk offending Flora Potter, not least because she was Atticus’s sister.
“I am sorry for this,” Clara whispered out of the corner of her mouth while the ladies accepte
d hot chocolate or brandy, which Flo dutifully handed out.
“You should be,” Niall growled. “I am not here for this.”
“You didn’t tell me why you are here,” Clara muttered.
“That’s because it is none of your business, or theirs.” He nodded to the women, who were still settling themselves and trying not to listen too hard to their quiet conversation.
“Don’t they look a wonderful couple?” Babette murmured suddenly, making no attempt to hide her study of both Clara and Niall, who were sitting side-by-side on a chaise closest to the fire. Will had been made to take up position directly opposite them.
To annoy his colleague, Will sagely began to nod and fought a smirk when Niall threw him a dirty look.
“We are not-”
“It’s not supposed to be announced yet, Babette,” Clara interjected.
“Yes. You mustn’t go around telling everyone they are a couple until the formal announcement is made. You will get poor Clara a bad name,” Edith chided.
“No, please do not go around telling everyone we are engaged,” Clara urged.
“We aren’t,” Babette gasped. “This can be our little secret, for now.”
“What happened outside? Why were you in the garden, Niall?” Flo asked, desperately trying to change the subject away from Clara’s fictitious engagement.
“Yes, dear. Whatever happened?” Edith demanded. “Did you see the man I saw? Was he still out there?”
“Yes,” Niall replied before Clara could answer her.
The ladies turned piercing stares on Niall as they waited for him to give them details. Clara opened her mouth but wasn’t sure what to tell them given Niall’s penchant for secrecy. She looked askance at Niall only for him to lift a querulous brow, making it perfectly clear that she was going to get no help from him. Sighing in disgust, Clara contemplated what to tell the ladies, but then decided that honesty was the best policy.
“There was a man in my garden. Niall arrived while I was fetching water and went to have a look for him. The man just lunged at me. Thankfully, Niall scared him off.”
“I think it would be best if I escorted you ladies home later,” Niall offered. “It won’t do to have you wandering around at night alone either.”