by Rebecca King
Clara nodded but struggled to speak past the huge lump in her throat which threatened to choke her. She sucked in a breath and, to her horror, when she looked up found herself staring at him through water-filled eyes. Blinking rapidly, she sucked in a deep, fortifying breath and willed herself to calm down, even though deep inside she was desperately wishing she had never met him.
“Tell me something now, Niall,” Clara whispered. “And I want the honest truth from you.”
Niall didn’t speak.
“Do you work for the Star Elite? I know all about it, before you deny having ever heard of them. I know how the men work. You stay hidden and watch people. I can appreciate that having the villagers’ attention on you will make any task you have come here to carry out extremely difficult. However, you know that you are a stranger in this area and would have drawn the attention of this close-knit community no matter what you did. People cannot hide around these parts, even you should know that. So, before I write to my father and demand he recalls you back to London, are you going to tell me why you are here? Does your presence here have something to do with one of my father’s investigations, or something to do with Sir Hugo? This is my life that might be in danger. Don’t you think I should know about anybody who is posing a danger to me?”
Niall mentally cursed. There was such calmness about her that he wondered just how much her father had told her.
“My father told me about the Star Elite because he wanted me to know why he was required to stay in London most of the time. I prefer to live here but he hates it, and wants me to go to London, but strangely hasn’t demanded that I go to stay with him recently, as he would usually do. Over the last two or three years, every month without fail he has written and requested my presence in London, until about six months ago. I know he was investigating the women who have been disappearing from Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Are you here to investigate their disappearance? Might they be in the area? What is going on?”
“If your father wanted you to know he would have told you, don’t you think?” Niall replied but without heat. “Your father isn’t the kind of person to lie.”
“Yet I am, that is what you are saying,” Clara said in a voice that was monotone.
“The facts prove it, don’t they?” Niall reasoned.
“Don’t prevaricate. Tell me,” Clara demanded. “Tell me or get out.”
“I am under no obligation to tell you anything,” Niall hissed.
“Then get out,” Clara demanded coldly. “And don’t come back. While I thank you for helping me with Erasmus, I shall deal with him from now on.”
“Oh? And how do you plan to do that?” Niall demanded.
“With my father of Secretary of State, all I need to do is write to him,” Clara murmured.
“Then write to him about the Star Elite and demand answers from him. I am not going to tell you a damned thing.”
“So get out,” Clara persisted.
Niall stared at her. Gone was the somewhat panicked young woman who had been confronted by a lecherous Erasmus. In her place was someone Niall didn’t want to see. She was hurting, he knew that much although how he knew he wasn’t at all sure. There was certainly nothing written on her face. It was maybe that closed look that warned him there was more emotion hidden than written on her face. It was disconcerting because it warned him that she had been hurt in the past somehow, only he couldn’t conceive of understanding how. He wanted to know while at the same time he knew he shouldn’t ask her questions about her past. It would only lead her to believe that he had an interest in her that he couldn’t afford to have.
Besides, from the look on her face she won’t be all that amenable to me asking.
“Thank you for your help thus far, but like I said your help won’t be required again,” Clara said stiffly.
“Call off your friends. They are trying to involve me in village life because they think we are going to be married. If you tell them the truth, they will leave me alone,” Niall snapped.
“They already know,” Clara replied.
“Really.”
“Do you not stop to consider that maybe the villagers are just friendly? Do you not stop to consider that they would invite you to the ball purely because they want you to go? Why should it involve me? They would invite you whether you were connected to me or not,” Clara replied.
Niall was having none of it. He leaned closer and then found he couldn’t lean away again. “It is your friends who keep stopping me to chat and discuss our fictitious wedding. I have tried to tell them that we are not going to get married, but they don’t listen.”
“Because they already know!” Clara persisted.
She forced herself to leave the room. By the time Niall joined her in the study Clara had just about composed herself, until he appeared before her.
“Look, I am sorry for being so harsh with you. It is just that I don’t want to be a part of this bloody village. As soon as I have conducted my business I shall be gone and won’t be coming this way again. It isn’t right that you should encourage any idea that we might have a future together. You shouldn’t go about leading anybody to believe that we are engaged.”
“My friends already know that we are not engaged, never have been, and never will be. They know me, and they know I would never be so brash as to do something like have a suitor and not tell them. The villagers, however, will take a little while to believe we are not engaged, not least because you are a stranger and they are curious. That is part of being in a village like Serpentine. If I might make a suggestion? Get your business over with and get out of the village, then you won’t have to be accosted or conscripted into any choirs.”
With that, Clara nodded briskly at him. When she tried to turn around and walk away, she paused and looked back over her shoulder at him. There was sadness in her eyes that almost unmanned him. He instantly felt as if he wanted to grovel at her feet and apologise for being so horrible. He wanted to gather her into a hug and assure her that everything was all right; that he wasn’t angry with her, he was just worried about the changes she could bring to his future. That went against everything he had always thought he was. He was a man who fought for his life practically every month of his life. He was someone who lurked in the shadows and usually watched everyone else going about their business. It was a life he was comfortable with. Yet, he wanted to throw it all on its head so he could comfort a woman who had brought him more trouble than any Star Elite investigation ever had.
“Maybe the next time you don’t want to find yourself in this same situation you refrain from kissing the person you rescue.” With that, Clara made her way into the kitchen whereupon she gathered her basket and her shawl and quietly let herself out of the back door.
She was aware that Rita was watching her and had most probably heard everything that had just been said but couldn’t stand the thought of having to answer her housekeeper’s questions. Right now, Clara didn’t think she could talk without bursting into tears. There was a fierce pain in the centre of her chest that was horrible and brought about an ache that seemed to come from her very soul.
“Which is stupid because he is just passing through and means nothing to me.” But while she said those words, Clara knew that it was another lie, this time to herself.
It was somewhat shocking as she followed the path through the trees only to suddenly find her way blocked. She looked up, straight into Niall’s hard glare.
“Just when are you ever going to learn?” he asked.
“What?”
Rather than answer, Niall stepped closer. He leaned menacingly forward, hoping she would be scared and would hurry home. When she lifted her brows at him and stared him down, he mentally cursed.
“What would you do if I was the thug? Do you realise how bloody stupid you are being with your own safety? Do you realise that you could be snatched, right here and right now, and there is nobody around to hear you scream?” Niall waved around the empty woods.
/> Clara lifted her chin. “It is a good thing you are from the Star Elite then, eh?”
With that, she side-stepped around him and resumed her journey. She was aware that he followed her. She could hear the steady crunch of his boots on the littered floor of the woods they walked through, but she didn’t look back at him. Just when the main road broke through the trees, Clara felt his warm palm on her elbow, tugging her to a stop.
“I will not stop going about my life just because you order me to. Unless you are prepared to tell me what you are doing here, there is nothing I should be afraid of, is there?” Clara began. She looked over her shoulder at him.
“You should think very carefully about what your father does. If we are whom you think we are, he wouldn’t send us unless the threat was very real, and very, very sinister, would he?”
Clara sucked in a breath because she knew he had a point. “If there was a credible threat, why would he not tell me about it himself?”
She pursed her lips because Niall shook his head.
“If he wanted me to take extra precautions, would he not tell me himself to be extra vigilant?”
“He is your father. You tell me.”
“Why should I? You don’t want to tell me anything,” Clara snapped. “Why should I reveal my family business to a stranger like you?”
She forced herself to ignore the wild thrill of attraction that coursed through her as she raked him with a dismissive look.
“I have a job to do,” Niall argued.
“So go and do it and stop pestering me,” Clara retorted.
With that she tried to resume her journey only to find Niall in her path again.
“Do you know something, you are worse than Erasmus Boyle,” she told him. “He pesters women as well.”
“I am not pestering you,” Niall snapped.
“Well, that is what you appear to be doing. I don’t need to tell my friends the truth because they already know,” Clara replied. “I am not responsible for what the villagers do. If you don’t like it go and speak with them or leave. It’s up to you. I am not going to change my lifestyle just because you don’t seem able to stay away from me, which is a little unnerving to be fair because you do have a penchant for lurking in people’s gardens late at night as well. Maybe we should report you to the magistrate because, now that I come to think about it, I have never seen Erasmus lurking in my garden late at night. You, however, do.”
“I have a job to do,” Niall repeated. He mentally winced because it was a weak excuse and make him look like an absolute imbecile, but it was the truth. He was only in Serpentine to carry out his orders. “When my job is over, I will take great delight in leaving here and I certainly won’t ever return.”
“Good. Until then, stay out of my garden, and stop telling me what to do.” Clara tried to move around him again only for Niall to slide a hand across the back of her neck and haul her until her nose almost bumped his.
The world around them instantly faded. All Clara could see were the tiny flecks in his eyes. She could feel every breath he drew he was so close, but she refused to move away.
“What would you do if I was a sexual predator?” he murmured.
“Scream.”
“There is nobody here to hear you,” he warned. “I could do what I wanted for as long as I wanted, and nobody is going to be around to stop me.”
“You won’t,” she replied confidently.
“Don’t make arrogant assumptions. You are challenging a stranger; someone you haven’t met until recently and know nothing about, yet you think you can challenge me, someone you cannot control and have no hope of ever truly understanding.”
His voice was so low and hushed it sent warning ripples down her spine. She knew he was right. She didn’t know him, but her instinct warned her she was safe with him. No matter how much he wanted to try to pose a threat to her, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he kept appearing and getting her out of trouble.
“You won’t hurt me,” she whispered confidently.
To prove just how vulnerable she was, Niall placed his lips upon hers. He wanted to press them down hard until the kiss turned painful, but upon the first brief touch just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Everything he was screamed at him to let her go and send her on her way, but his treacherous arms slid around her and tugged her closer instead. When he should have lifted his head and issued her with another warning, he deepened the kiss and claimed her in a way he had wanted to do since the first night they had met. This was nothing to do with the Star Elite investigation, a terrible misunderstanding that had resulted from his rescuing her from Erasmus, or the wayward way she seemed to challenge authority and be determined to put her life at risk. This had nothing to do with his job, who she was, or why he was in Serpentine. This was purely between them, a man and woman who were, although reluctant to acknowledge it, wildly attracted to each other.
He sensed the hesitation in her hands before she placed them tentatively on his chest. He felt the gentle hiccup of breath before she surrendered and allowed him to probe deeper. The faint tremors coursing through her were impossible to ignore because she was so close to him. He could feel every beat of her thunderous heart. Still, he couldn’t step away from temptation. He couldn’t issue the stern rebuke he knew he ought to give her. Nothing seemed all that important anymore. He knew, without question, that he would do whatever it took to keep this woman safe. Horrifyingly, though, he knew it had nothing to do with the Star Elite investigation. This was personal. It was private to him, driven by a protective need he hadn’t ever expected to experience. He had never felt it toward any woman before. He had never felt this compelled to keep anybody as safe as he felt he should with Clara.
Moreover, he wanted to not just keep her safe but keep her for himself. The thought of her being some other man’s wife was enough to drive him out of his mind. It certainly had the ability to make him grumpy, even when he stringently denied he was bothered by it. However much he wanted to just turn around and walk away, Niall knew that he couldn’t. He had to know she was safe. He had to know she was going about her business and wasn’t going to be forced into wedlock with Erasmus or anybody else.
“Just remember that I might not be around the next time you get yourself into trouble,” he whispered when he eventually lifted his head. “Don’t take foolish risks with your life. You only have one. If someone is determined to take it or ruin it there is nothing you can do. Don’t rely on people you know nothing about. Next time, I could be Erasmus, and he might succeed in dragging you away from your family. What then? Are you prepared to die to try to be defiant? Are you prepared to be ruined purely because you want to try to make a point that you can go where you want when you want and shun common sense? I won’t marry you. That is fact. No matter what lies you tell your family, friends, or even yourself, I am not ever going to marry you.”
With that, Niall walked away.
Clara stared after him. She felt used, humiliated, ashamed of her own wayward behaviour. Moreover, she felt shamed that she had allowed herself to be lulled into a false sense of security in believing that he might, temporarily at least, care something for her.
Now, she knew he did not, and never would. There could be no clearer message than the one he had just issued her. He wasn’t ever going to marry her and that was that.
With one last look in his direction, Clara resumed her journey, but it was on shaking legs, to a village she really didn’t want to visit anymore. What she really wanted to do was go home and cry her eyes out.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A week later, a pale and tired Clara left the house and paused long enough to lock it before she joined her aunt in the waiting carriage.
“Are you sure you are all right, dear?” Flo asked with a frown of concern once Clara had climbed aboard and was settling her blanket over her knees. “If you are not well enough, we can leave our afternoon tea for another day.”
Clara shook her head. “I could do with
getting out of the house for a while, Aunt. I think going into town to do some shopping and take tea is a wonderful idea.”
Flo sighed with pleasure and turned her attention out of the window.
Clara, meantime, was busy searching the shadows of the alleys, buildings, and trees they passed for any sign of the Star Elite. She suspected they were out there somewhere, still watching, still waiting for something.
“Have you heard from father yet?” Clara asked.
Flo looked at her with a frown of concern. “No, and I have to say that it is highly unusual for your father not to reply. I am starting to get worried I don’t mind telling you.”
“Do you think something might have happened to him, and that is why the Star Elite are here?”
“I hope not,” Flo whispered firmly. “I am going to write to a good friend of mine who lives just down the road from the town house. She will be able to tell me if she has seen Atticus going about his business. When he does appear, he is going to have a piece of my mind, I don’t mind telling you.”
“Why do you think they are here?”
“I don’t know, but I doubt it is Erasmus. He has disappeared apparently,” Flo snorted.
“Disappeared? Really? How do you know?”
Flo tapped the side of her nose but when Clara lifted her brows and gave her a pointed stare, gave in. “Rita was talking to Moorcroft, that gardener of his. Moorcroft was in the tavern grumbling that he hadn’t been paid and that Boyle wasn’t at home. That cousin of his has gone as well, but he has gone to see the Lord Chief Justice apparently although Erasmus didn’t go with him.”
“The Lord Chief Justice has probably found out what a poor job the man does,” Clara snorted.