by Rebecca King
Both Edith and Clara understood Niall’s pointed warning. Edith saw it as her cue to tell the ladies about Erasmus accosting Clara earlier that same evening.
“Of course, now Erasmus knows she has a fiancé he is likely to leave her alone,” Audrey nodded.
“Do you think?” Sissy snorted. “That man wouldn’t take a hint if, well, if Niall hit him in the head with it.”
Audrey nodded. “He is a little obtuse. Erasmus that is, not your dear Niall.”
“He is not my -” Clara slid a wary look at Niall who was again studying her “-suitor, no matter what Erasmus tells anybody.”
“Well, of course we know that now, dear,” Babette gasped. “And it is no wonder why you are not interested in anything Erasmus has to offer.”
“Babette, you are scandalous,” Edith chided.
“I am not wrong to mention just how handsome a couple they are, am I?” Babette countered.
“Well, no,” Edith sighed. “I suppose not.”
“Well, there you go then.”
Niall sighed and mentally shook his head. He struggled to understand just how he had gone from standing outside in the shadows watching the house to sitting in the middle of ladies’ parlour sipping brandy listening to a group of women chatter about his wedding. When he had gotten out of bed this morning, he hadn’t even had a lover let alone an intended wife. Now he was due to be wed, and according to the women, was going to live at Atticus’s house once he had a wife.
God, Atticus would have a seizure if he learnt of it.
Niall wondered just how long it would take his colleagues to stop howling with laughter when they heard what had happened, which Will would make sure they would given the mischief twinkling in his eyes.
“Ladies, I am afraid that we have to go,” Will began. He took a sip of his brandy and slid his goblet onto the tray before pushing to his feet. He braced himself and threw a challenging glare at the women, almost daring one of them to try to stop him. “We have business to attend to and a thug to report to the authorities. We have to make sure he is not still out there. Niall?”
“But you cannot go yet,” Sissy protested. “You haven’t told us anything. When is the wedding?”
“Not for a while yet,” Niall replied before Clara opened her mouth to speak.
“We have the banns to be read and the formal announcements to be made yet, but father is busy with business in London right now. We won’t do anything until he can get home,” Clara explained.
“What is it you do?” Babette asked, leaning forward to give Niall a motherly pat on the hand.
“I am an accountant,” Niall replied without thinking.
“I should think so,” Sissy snorted, clearly disbelieving him.
“Pardon?” Niall lifted his brows at her.
“I have met many accountants but none of them have ever looked like you. I don’t mean to be impertinent, but the accountants I have met aren’t the kind of men who would go out into the garden at night to fight with thugs either,” Sissy reasoned.
Clara could fully understand Sissy’s sentiment. Even sitting in the middle of her parlour, Niall positively vibrated lethal menace. It didn’t help that he was still soaking wet. It was only when Clara looked more closely at him that she realised why the ladies were doing their best to avoid looking at him. They were all either looking him directly in the face, or over his shoulder. Only occasionally did Sissy’s gaze stray to the dark patch of hair clearly visible beneath Niall’s see-through shirt.
Good Lord.
Clara hadn’t even given a moment’s thought to just how wet he was. She wondered if she should offer him one of her father’s spare shirts but knew that they probably wouldn’t fit. Her father was not much larger than she was, and certainly nowhere near Niall’s size. In fact, not many men of her acquaintance were as large as Niall.
“So?” Sissy pressed.
“He works for the War Office,” Clara sighed. “Please, please, please, do not say anything to anyone. Nobody is to know. You know what father does in London.”
“The War Office?” Audrey asked, her brows lifting.
“I should have known he was connected to your father,” Babette cried. “He has worked for the War Office for years.”
“Is that how you met? Through your father? I bet he is ever so pleased,” Audrey gushed.
“Yes, he knows my father, and that is how we met,” Clara confirmed. She daren’t even look at Niall when he coughed and shifted in his seat.
Niall contemplated what to do or say that would clear the air and get Clara to stop lying to her friends, but everything he contemplated would just make his current situation worse. He would then be faced with a room full of angry females who, when they left, would all go in opposite directions and be impossible to safely escort home. Wildly, a part of him wanted to rattle Clara, for daring to be so brash as to lie to everyone in the first place. What on earth had possessed her to not only start to lie but keep lying was beyond him, but he wasn’t going to let her get away with it. He was annoyed that he had practically had his life overtaken by the woman who had practically turned his life on its head without his permission. He suspected that if he didn’t object he would be married within a fortnight, setting up a home in the house he was sitting in.
Over my dead body.
“We met through her father, indeed,” Niall explained. “We met at a ball and began courting a few months ago. Her father has given me permission to ask her for her hand in marriage, which is why I am here. I know it is highly unusual for me to call upon her but seeing as I intend to make her my wife, I had no choice.”
“Oh, how nice,” Sissy whispered.
Niall casually picked up Clara’s hand in his and gave her a loving look that made her blink and stare at him warily. He watched a florid stain flood her cheeks and a warning twinkle flicker at him as she stared at him as if she had never seen him before in her life. Daringly, he lifted her hand and pressed a lingering kiss to the back of it while possessively staring deeply into her eyes. Inside, he felt a flicker of attraction that he hadn’t wanted to feel, but he swiftly snuffed it out and focused on making Miss Clara Potter squirm.
It didn’t take long. He heard one of the ladies sigh as they stared at him.
“Well, you ah, shall have to make sure we are all invited to the wedding. When will it be, did you say?” Audrey asked boldly.
“Soon, I hope,” Sissy hissed only to wince when Babette nudged her harshly in the ribs.
“Yes, soon I hope,” Niall repeated, making his voice as close to a husky whisper as he could manage. He carefully ignored the fact that Will was staring at him as if he had lost his mind.
Clara stared at him and felt something inside her chest crumble. She struggled to know what it was. In fact, she struggled to remember where she was when he was looking at her as if he hadn’t had a good meal in a very long time and she was the only morsel of food he could see. She wondered what would have happened had her friends not been there, and for the first time all evening was very glad that they were. However, with that relief came a very strong curiosity that refused to be appeased.
“Soon,” she whispered, eyeing his lips with a hunger that matched Niall’s.
“Do you know who he is?” Edith asked suddenly in a desperate attempt to ease the tension that hovered over the room.
It took Clara a moment to realise that Edith was talking about the man who had tried to drag her off and not Niall.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, a little disappointed that her musings had been interrupted. Forcing herself to contemplate her growing awareness of Niall until later when she was all alone, she turned to look at her friend. “He isn’t anybody familiar.”
“What did he look like?” Niall murmured.
“Do you not remember?” Clara frowned at him.
“I know he was squat with a slightly barrelled chest, and dark eyes, but apart from that it was wet and too dark to see much. Have you not seen him earlie
r?”
“No.”
“Is he acquaintances with Erasmus, do you think?”
“No.”
“Nor a villager?”
“I haven’t ever seen him before. He is a stranger.”
“Did he say anything to you? Ask you for something?”
“No.” Clara took a breath not least because she found herself suddenly struggling to breathe. “He didn’t say a word. He just appeared out of the trees, grabbed me, and tried to drag me off. That was it. Then you appeared.”
“It is a very good job that he did as well,” Babette announced to everyone’s murmured agreements.
“Your hero,” Edith sighed.
“Her Knight in shining armour,” Sissy nodded.
“Indeed.” Clara looked a little ruefully at Niall only to find him staring thoughtfully at his boots, clearly lost in thought.
He is probably trying to remember if he had seen that man before himself.
But of course, she couldn’t ask him in front of the ladies.
“Well, I don’t know about you ladies, but I must be on my way. I have to be up early in the morning to open the shop and need all the sleep I can get,” Edith announced.
Amongst everyone’s murmured agreements, Clara looked helplessly at Niall. She was a little surprised that the ladies hadn’t pressed Niall for more details but that was probably because they suspected he was going to be around for a while yet. Clara wished she knew, not least because she wanted him to stay.
“I must be on my way as well, but I will be out front to watch you ladies home,” Niall informed them. He bowed and, just to shake Miss Clara Potter up again, lifted her hand to his lips once more. Again, his voice lowered to an intimate whisper: “I shall see you soon, my beloved.”
Clara opened her mouth to speak and blinked only to find her hand was dropped and the space where Niall had been standing was now completely empty. By the time she had come to her senses again, it was to find Niall had already bid her friends farewell and was on his way to the front door. Within seconds, he had gone, and was swiftly followed by Will. Just like that. As swiftly as he had ridden to her rescue, the tall, extremely handsome operative of the Star Elite had simply vanished again.
CHAPTER TEN
“I need to go into the bakery, but shall meet you at the green in, say, half an hour?”
Clara and Sissy looked at the clock hanging above the door outside the clock shop.
“Half an hour,” Sissy promised. “Not a second longer. Come and fetch me if I am not out by then.”
There was a theatrical plea in her eyes that made Clara laugh. Shaking her head, she waved her friend goodbye and wandered away. While she walked, Clara searched the street around her for Niall, and was a little disappointed that he appeared to have left the village.
It had been a week now since she had last set eyes on him. Despite her friends asking to meet him again, and questioning when he was going to see her, Clara hadn’t seen him. Nobody had. Niall had simply vanished. Aunt Flo had warned her that it was how the Star Elite worked, but Clara suspected it was because Niall was determined to avoid her at all costs.
All because I lied and told people we were engaged when we aren’t.
Clara was perturbed by how much Niall had occupied every second of every waking moment. What had happened in the garden had replayed over and over in her mind, but most of what she could remember had been overtaken by memories of Niall and how he had rescued her again. She suspected it was because she couldn’t get any of her questions answered, but until Niall appeared and told her what she wanted to know there was nothing she could do. She was well and truly left guessing why he had been in her garden, and whether he belonged to the Star Elite or not.
As she passed the doors to the tavern’s back yard, Clara happened to glance through them only for the one man in the village she truly didn’t want to see to step out of the darkness and block her path.
“Well, fancy meeting you here,” Erasmus drawled huskily.
His lecherous gaze slid over her from the top of her head to the tips of her boots where they lingered for a fraction of a second before slowly sliding back up. Clara refused to allow herself to move for fear of giving him any hint that he unnerved her, but deep inside she was trembling fiercely. Her stomach recoiled in protest. She couldn’t stop herself from glancing around wildly in protest. Her worried gaze lingered on the open maw of the yard doors before she forced herself to at least try to walk away. But when she tried to side-step Erasmus, he darted in front of her to block her path once more.
“Excuse me, please,” Clara murmured politely, keeping her gaze on the hedgerow in the distance.
She now doubted the wisdom of perching on the narrow bench seat in the middle of the village green. While it was overlooked by the tavern, there weren’t many people around to hear her if she had to scream.
“Now, what’s wrong with stopping to pass the time of day?” Erasmus drawled.
“I don’t think we have anything to talk about,” Clara bit out coldly. “Excuse me.”
Erasmus remained where he was to try to prove to her that he would move when he chose. When his puerile point was made, he stepped to one side and waved her on her way.
Clara cautiously stepped around him and resumed her journey, but sadly didn’t get far before Erasmus darted in front of her again.
“Will you go away and stop pestering me? I have said I am not interested. I don’t wish to talk to you. We have nothing to say to each other. I am not interested in your silly posturing. Stop bullying me, and go away,” Clara bit out.
“I merely wanted to wish you a good morning,” Erasmus murmured smoothly.
Clara huffed a sigh and willed herself to calm down. She really wanted to kick him in the shin because he was watching her like a hawk watches its prey. She suspected he knew he was upsetting her and was secretly revelling in it. The spite was there in his eyes when she looked up at him; spite and something else. With a shiver, Clara forced herself to look at something more amenable, and stared off into the distance again.
“Good morning,” she rapped briskly.
With that, she stepped around him again only for Erasmus to grab her elbow in a tight hold.
“Do you know something? Someone really has to do something about your prissy attitude,” Erasmus growled.
“You are no authority over me. Who says anybody has to do anything about any facet of my character? Who are you to judge what is wrong with me?” Clara snapped. “Unhand me at once, or I shall shout for someone to send for the magistrate. You are nothing but a bully, Erasmus. Stop trying, or I will notify father about your behaviour.”
“Oh, yes, the father who is always in London, and doesn’t give a damn about his dear little Clara. The father who is never seen here from one month to the next. Yes, I can see that he has left you well protected.” Erasmus glanced around the empty street, pointedly proving to Clara that they were all alone, and he could do what he liked without hindrance.
Clara’s stomach dipped in horror as his calculating gaze slid to the open door to the tavern yard.
“Unhand me at once,” she hissed angrily when he lunged toward her.
“I think you need to be reminded of how dangerous it is for a young woman to be alone around these parts. You never know who is lurking,” he mused. “Now that we are alone, don’t you think we should smooth this dislike you seem to have for me out of the way?”
“I don’t see why we should,” Clara began only for Erasmus to start to drag her toward the open doors. “Get off me!”
“Now, don’t be like that. A little kiss or two never hurt anybody, did it?” Erasmus murmured, his voice trailing off when Clara really began to struggle.
Clara tugged on her arm, but his hold was too firm. She tried to prise his fingers off but each time she managed to get one lifted his hold instinctively tightened and made her arm hurt even more.
“I said unhand me, you oaf!” Clara snapped. She eyed the yard
doors in horror when she realised how close they were. In another couple of seconds, she would be dragged through them and God only knew what would happen to her then.
“Erasmus Boyle unhand me this instant,” she cried in her loudest voice.
Erasmus, though, wasn’t listening as usual. Now that he had a goal in mind, nothing and nobody was going to thwart him.
Niall pursed his lips. From his hiding place in the tavern yard, he watched Erasmus drag Clara’s much smaller frame toward the yard. She really was no match for Erasmus’s size or strength, and Erasmus knew it. He was indeed a bully, and a sexual predator given how determined he was to try to ruin Atticus Potter’s daughter.
When he felt something press against his ankles, Niall looked down and watched a large tabby cat snake around his ankles. Nudging it to one side, he tried to shake it off only for the determined feline to return almost instantly and begin to rub around his legs some more. Quickly, and with his gaze locked on the altercation on the other side of the yard, Niall bent down and scratched the cat behind the ears in the hope that as soon as it had been stroked it would clear off. It didn’t. The cat wanted more.
“Go away,” Niall hissed quietly only for the cat to press harder against him.
Shaking his leg, Niall stepped away only to realise that he wasn’t so well hidden anymore. The cat continued to purr and snake around his feet. Niall knew that if he wanted to run he was apt to fall over the damned thing. Picking it up, he hugged it and scratched it between the ears while he watched Erasmus drag a loudly protesting Clara into the yard. Shaking his head in disbelief, he watched them for a moment and then had an idea. When Erasmus’s back appeared in the gap between the yard doors, Niall stepped forward and dropped the cat onto the man’s shoulders.
The sudden appearance of the now annoyed feline, who angrily dug his claws into his opponent to hang on when Erasmus tried to shake him off, made Erasmus swear violently. The angry cat yowled in protest and dug his claws in deeper when Erasmus began to twist and turn to try to declaw himself. In doing so he was forced to release Clara, who stared in amazement as Erasmus did everything possible to rid himself of the animal on his back. Stepping backward, he slammed painfully into the yard doors before staggering wildly into the yard. His curses rang out, but the jostled and worried feline just clung onto him with even more determination and even deeper claws.