by Rebecca King
“What did you do with him?”
She didn’t question that the Star Elite weren’t involved in his disappearance and it was telling that Niall didn’t even try to deny it.
“Don’t ask.”
“Is he likely to come back and pose a threat too?”
Niall pursed his lips. “Let’s just say that when he does re-appear, he is going to have a different attitude toward pestering women.”
Clara rolled her eyes and knew it was best that she didn’t know what the Star Elite had threatened him with. As far as she was concerned if it stopped him harassing her it would be a blessing not a hindrance.
“Thank you.”
“It’s all in the job,” Niall murmured, not least because he was still shaken by the sight of her fighting for her freedom. He had been standing just a few feet away, but it had been too far away, and she had almost come too close to being taken out of his life forever.
But she has to leave my life forever because I am moving on and she has to stay in Serpentine.
It was a sobering thought.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Clara made her way downstairs several days later and frowned when she saw her aunt in the parlour fretfully wringing her hands.
“What is it?”
Ever since their doomed visit to town, neither woman had left the house. Flo had insisted on them staying at home, not least because she had been worried sick at having to journey home alone. While the Star Elite had escorted her to the safety of the house that she had lived in all her life she had fretted and worried about Clara, who had taken an hour longer to reach home because of the longer route Niall had taken.
Flo had not stopped fretting and worrying ever since.
“Sissy is poorly.”
“Sissy?” Clara slumped into the chair opposite her aunt’s.
“Edith has just been around. Sissy took ill in the night. They have sent for the doctor. It is serious, Clara. She is crippled with pain and seriously ill apparently.”
“I have to go and see her,” Clara whispered, already launching out of her chair.
She fetched her shawl and hurried to the front door. “I’ll be back soon.”
“But, Clara-” Flo called after her only to be answered by the slam of the front door. “Oh, dear. Oh, dear.”
Clara hurried down the path. She didn’t stop to think about the dangers that surrounded her. All she could think about was Sissy, and that her friend needed her. She hurried through the village, to the road leading away from the village heading toward town. Sissy’s house was one of the last houses on the outskirts of the village. Clara didn’t think about the isolation of it. She passed Audrey’s house on the left and went to cross the road only to be forced to wait for a carriage to pass.
To her shock, it slowed down. Clara looked at the driver and opened her mouth to call good morning to someone familiar only to slam her mouth closed when she realised the driver was a stranger. Not only a stranger, but someone who had his entire face covered. Her first thought was that it was probably one of the Star Elite, there to try to worry her into going home. Instinctively, she stepped closer to the hedge only for the carriage to veer closer, effectively pinning her to the side of the road. Rather than stop, the carriage slowed right down. The door opened.
Before Clara could even squeak in protest, she was hauled bodily off her feet and dragged into the darkened interior of the carriage as it sped up again. She opened her mouth to speak only for something heavy to slam painfully into the back of her head and render her incapable of doing anything to save herself.
“What do you mean she hasn’t come back?” Audrey demanded. “She isn’t at Sissy’s house. I have just been there.”
“Oh, dear,” Flo whispered not for the first time that morning. “Where could she be?”
“I saw her heading toward Sissy’s house at about eleven this morning,” Rita offered from the doorway.
“I have been at Sissy’s house since last night and Clara hasn’t visited,” Audrey said.
A stunned silence settled over everyone.
“Where could she be?”
“We need to ask if people have seen her,” Babette suggested.
“Where is Sissy?”
“She is still abed. The doctor said that the pains should subside just as soon as she has stopped being sick. He thinks she will be able to get up tomorrow. She might have eaten something that didn’t agree with her. She will mend in all good time,” Audrey assured them all.
“What about Clara?” Edith snapped. “We know where Sissy is. We don’t know where Clara is. Oh, I am sorry, dear.”
Edith made soothing noises and began to ineffectually pat the back of Flo’s hand when Flo began to weep into her handkerchief.
“We have to find her.”
“Do you think she might be with Niall?”
“I don’t see why. They have been gone for hours,” Flo whispered. “I know something has happened to her. It isn’t like Clara to disappear like this.”
“Where can we find him?”
“I haven’t seen him for days,” Babette announced in answer to Audrey’s question.
“We have to go and look for him.”
“Well, Clara has said that they have been watching the house. If we go outside and shout for them, maybe one of them will step forward? We have to tell them,” Babette announced.
“Maybe they already know and that is why nobody has seen them?” Audrey suggested.
Flo nodded, and tried to push herself to her feet only to slump back down in the seat to weep some more.
“I will go,” Babette offered. With that, she marched out of the house, straight into the garden, and began to shout: “Hello! Star Elite? Can you hear me? We have a problem. Clara’s gone. Do you hear me?”
“Babette, do you want to tell the entire village?” Audrey chided.
“Yes, I most certainly do.” Babette squeaked when a tall, sinister looking man stepped silently out of the woods.
“What?” Was all he said.
Audrey and Babette shared a worried look before they looked at the man again.
“What are you doing in the garden? Are you with the Star Elite?” It was difficult to tell from the cut of the man’s clothing. He was dressed in greens and browns, and seemed to blend in with the woods he had been standing in. They certainly hadn’t seen him.
“What of it?”
“Clara has gone missing. She should have gone to Sissy’s house but didn’t turn up.”
The man cursed. “When?”
“This morning, about three hours ago. It isn’t like her to vanish. But she has gone. We can’t find her.”
The man swiftly turned around and disappeared leaving Babette and Audrey to look askance at each other.
“Should we take that as a sign that he has gone to look for her, or should we be worried that we have made a bad situation worse?”
“I am not sure,” Babette sighed. “One thing I do know is that Niall of hers will find her.”
They both didn’t dare mention that they wondered if Clara could be found. She had been surrounded by trouble for the last several weeks, of that there could be no doubt.
“Do you think Erasmus might have her?”
“I think it is darned odd that he has disappeared and then she has, don’t you?”
“Let’s hope Niall can find her,” Babette whispered.
They both returned to the house to report to Flo what they had managed to achieve.
Now all they could do was wait.
Niall swore viciously when he heard Harry’s news. He slammed his booted feet onto the floor and launched out of his seat.
“What?”
“She’s been snatched. She was on her way to Sissy’s house this morning but didn’t arrive. Smidgley has her.”
It wasn’t a rash statement. They all looked at Erasmus, who glared balefully at them from his bound position on the bed. He mumbled something, but the gag in his mouth prevented anyone
from understanding what it was.
“What do we do with him?” Harry asked disinterestedly.
“Leave him,” Will grunted.
Niall snorted, but was too busy shoving his belongings into his saddle bag to notice. “We are going to hand him over to the local lads to look after until we can get back. He can’t go home right now.”
In that moment, Richard slammed into the house. “Smidgley is on the move. Peregrine has sent word that he is at Smidgley House. You are to go there at once.”
“Look after him,” Will ordered. “We will be back.”
Richard grinned at their captive. “It will be a pleasure.”
Erasmus Boyle glared at the men in the room but didn’t utter a squeak of protest. He knew when he was outmanned, and outmanoeuvred, and if there was one thing that he wasn’t it was brave enough to take any of them on single handedly, even if he hadn’t been bound and tied to a bed.
Clara was also tied to a bed, and gagged, and completely terrified. She couldn’t ever remember a time in her life when she had been so scared. She dreaded her immediate future, and what might happen to her. What Niall had told her about the victims hovered menacingly over her. All she could do was hope and pray that her relationship to the Secretary of State was enough to stop her captors from forcing her into prostitution.
She lay staring blankly at the ceiling, too afraid to move or try to look around the room. It wasn’t until she heard the rustle of clothing that she realised she was not alone.
“Ah, you are awake at last.”
Clara felt sick. She struggled to think because her mind was sluggish. Her head pounded and the room swirled alarmingly. It took several blinks before she could get her eyes to focus on the man who leaned over her, so close she could feel his breath brush her cheek. She flinched when he lifted a finger and teased an errant curl away from her cheek. Rather than release it, he wound it around his finger and tugged.
Clara felt tears sting her eyes but she daren’t let them fall. She daren’t allow anything to blur her vision anymore than it already was. She stared helplessly up at him. Eventually, he removed the gag and threw her a smirk before he turned away.
“You are the daughter of Atticus Potter.” It wasn’t a question.
“You are going to be arrested for kidnapping me,” she whispered.
“The other women threatened that as well, but they haven’t managed it yet.”
“Yes, I know. That is because you are a murderer as well as a kidnapper. But the authorities are on to you. You are going to be put behind bars for the rest of your life.”
The man turned to lift an arrogant brow at her. He was standing in front of a dresser, doing something with an object on it, but with his back to her she couldn’t see what he was doing and was filled with trepidation because of it.
“What do you want with me?”
“I had every intention of keeping you to use you to persuade your father to stop his investigation into the kidnaps,” the man began. “However, we have changed our plans now that a few of our members are no longer with us.”
“Have been arrested you mean,” Clara snorted. “And you think you can get away with what you are doing.”
The man paused and looked at the wall before him for a moment before he resumed whatever he was doing.
“I am going to let you go. I had thought about keeping you. I mean, how wonderful would it be for us to make use of the Secretary of State’s daughter? It would send a very clear message out to anybody who doubted us, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, you are far too recognisable, and won’t be easy to hide. There is always someone who wants to cause trouble for us.”
“Bring you to justice you mean. That is what my father will do, you know: bring you to justice,” Clara warned. “Nobody is going to allow you to keep taking people and killing them.”
“Your father has problems of his own right now, or have you not wondered why he has not returned to Serpentine to see you? He is a little busy, shall we say?”
“What have you done to him?” Clara demanded. Her voice rang stringently across the silence of the room.
“Your dear father is alive and well. He is, however, not going to be Secretary of State for long. We have contacts even more powerful than him,” the man warned.
“Am I to know who you are?” Clara asked after several moments of thoughtful silence.
When the man turned around, her gaze fell to a gun in his hand. The paraphernalia needed to reload it was still lying on the dresser behind him. Clara briefly wondered if he intended to shoot her. Immediately, her thoughts turned to Niall. She couldn’t focus on anything other than there was so much she wanted to say to him. While she knew he would never reciprocate the feelings she had for him, she had to tell him how she felt. Moreover, she needed to be able to see him again just to know that he was all right.
Now I know why Niall kept warning me not to be so foolish with my freedom.
She made a promise to herself right there and then that if she ever saw Niall again, she would apologise to him for not listening and doing as he had asked her to do. If she had, she would have been at home by now. She wished he was with her now, but knew he wasn’t. He was in Serpentine, probably watching the house without even being aware that she wasn’t inside it like she should be. Clara could only hope and pray that one of his colleagues had seen her leave the house and had followed her, although that being the case, he hadn’t managed to stop her from being kidnapped.
They can’t have seen me.
It was the only conclusion she could come to given her predicament.
“Now what do I do?” she whispered to herself, her voice no more than a mere breath.
“There is nothing you can do,” the man reported. “You are completely at my mercy.”
“God, you just love this kind of situation, don’t you?”
It was there in his voice. He turned and smirked at her, as if to prove that he wasn’t sorry about enjoying his power over innocent people.
“You are a very sick man.”
“I, my dear, am a very successful man.”
“Which is why you have taken to snatching women off the street,” Clara snorted. “That isn’t success. That is abject failure.”
“Really. Well, I have managed to overpower you and get you to do what I want you to do, so does that mean you are a failure too?” the man drawled.
“I was going about my business as any person as a right to do,” Clara reported crisply. “It isn’t for you to think you can behave like a common criminal and get away with it. You, sir, are nothing but a petty crook.”
The man seemed to be enraged by this. He whirled around, his small eyes glinting with fury. He stared at her.
“I wouldn’t be foolish enough to think you can be clever with me,” he growled.
“I am not being clever,” Clara argued. “I am stating fact. It is criminal to accost young woman and keep them captive like this.”
“I am merely – borrowing – you for a while. You shall go home soon enough.”
“Alive?” Clara had no idea why she felt compelled to ask that, but the word was out before she could hold it back.
The man smirked.
“You are a murderer,” she whispered.
“The women we have taken have been looked after,” he growled.
“Until they could no longer be used then you murdered them,” Clara snapped. “It’s heinous.”
“You know nothing,” the man snorted.
“Really? I know you used the women for prostitution.”
The man froze. He stared hard at her and frowned just a little. Rather than answer, he ambled over to the bed. Slowly, he ran his gaze over the length of her. Clara couldn’t move. She had to lie there and let him leer at her.
“Not all of them. Just the ones who are prettier than you. The rest have their uses,” he growled.
“Get away from me.”
“My, aren’t you feisty? I would have taken great pleasure in bre
aking you, but I have had better.” His gaze lingered on her cleavage. “My friends can have you instead.”
“None of you are having me,” Clara growled.
“Oh, not for prostitution. They are not that desperate. You will do rather well as a servant, I think. It would be rather humiliating for you, though, to have to be a maid to people who can control your father. Yes, I think I should like that,” he drawled smoothly.
He opened his mouth to speak only to be interrupted by the loud blast of gunfire from directly beneath the window. Clara instantly forgotten, he raced across the room and peered outside. Whatever he saw made him panic. He jerked back and slammed the shutters closed. When he turned back to run a frantic look around the room, he seemed to have forgotten Clara. He paused as if trying to decide what to do about her. For a moment, he looked down at his gun.
Clara waited for him to lift it and pull the trigger. She didn’t doubt he would. He was that kind of ruthless cretin who wouldn’t feel sorry about any loss of life he was responsible for. When the sound of shattering glass reached them, he bolted for the door and disappeared instead.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Niall charged into the house and slammed into every room he stumbled across. Will did the same until he met Niall at the bottom of the main flight of stairs in the house’s large entrance hall.
“Target sighted out here,” Phillip bellowed. His exclamation was followed by the thundering of booted feet giving chase.
“Clara has to be here.” Niall was physically shaking with fear driven by the possibility that she might not be.
He had no idea what he was going to do if she wasn’t anywhere to be found. His entire life would draw to a halt, of that there could be no doubt, not least because he would have failed. Not only in his job as an operative of the Star Elite, but as a man in protecting a woman who was in danger. While he had been distracted, the woman he had been tasked with protecting had been snatched, just like Smidgley had threatened would happen. Now, Niall was faced with the very real possibility that Clara had become one of the missing kidnap victims, never to be seen alive again.