A Terrible Misunderstanding (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 6)

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.