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

“Yes, you should seeing as you are responsible,” Niall snapped.

“How?”

“By telling the whole village that you are to be my wife,” Niall bit out through clenched teeth. He had to keep his back teeth clamped together to stop himself from shouting at her. “Care to tell me why wherever I go I end up with people wanting to stop and chat, or sell me something, or congratulate me on my forthcoming nuptials?”

“Sell you something?” Clara edged warily, wondering if Audrey and her friends had already set to work.

But they failed because he is here and they aren’t.

Niall dug around in his pocket and slapped what looked like two pieces of paper onto the table.

“Tickets for the country dance next week. Two tickets for the goose raffle. Oh, and I have been told I am to join the congregation on Sunday and I don’t even go to church. Not only that but I have been interrogated every time I step out onto the road by every curious local in the village, about our wedding no less. They are better than any interrogator in the Tower of London, I can tell you. With their skills they should live in London. I have had every old biddy, aged gentleman, young gossip, and curious matron demand to know every aspect of my damned life and they refuse to stop.” Niall wagged a shaking finger at her. “And it is all your fault. This entire debacle wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t told that sodding idiot that we were getting married. Why in the Hell did you do it? What possessed you? Didn’t you think that the truth would come out eventually, especially when we don’t marry? Didn’t you think about what would happen if your father turned up, but you couldn’t parade the intended groom in front of him? You cannot just accost a stranger and create a web of lies that drag him into your life whether he wants to be there or not.”

Niall sucked in a breath and willed himself to calm down. As he had been talking his voice had grown in volume

to the point that he was shouting.

Clara felt uncomfortable but shrugged. “You are moving on anyway, so what does it matter?”

“Does it not occur to you that I have things to do in this village? I shouldn’t have to explain why I am here to the likes of you just to be able to go about my own damned business,” Niall said. “You cannot just accost any random stranger and enlist him as your fiancé. This isn’t the damned army. You cannot just conscript people. Do you not consider my life? Do you not consider whether it is fair on me? Do you not consider whether I would want to be drawn into your sordid little lies? What is it, daddy’s little daughter getting a bit bored living here all by herself, so she concocted a story just to add a little colour to her drab and weary life?”

“It is no such thing,” Clara whispered, horrified that he should think such a thing.

“I know that you must be lacking in suitors, but I do not see that using strangers as a distraction from Erasmus is going to solve your problems. I am sorry, but you chose the wrong man if you think I am just going to be forced into marrying you. You are most definitely not the type of woman I usually find attractive, even if I could overlook your lies,” Niall snorted.

Inwardly, he was cringing at how cruel he was being to her. It was necessary, though, not least because he had been following the thug from the night Clara had been abducted only to lose him because he had been accosted by another of Clara’s friends who had been trying to get him to join the church choir and had refused to take ‘no’ for an answer. He had been forced to signal to Will to follow the oaf, and that had drawn the attention of several of the other locals on the street, who had all turned to study Will with the same avid curiosity as they had him. Although she didn’t know it, Clara was single-handedly ruining the Star Elite’s protection of her and their investigation into Smidgley, and she was putting the men’s lives in danger. Now, even they couldn’t hide.

“I am sorry you think I would willingly do such a thing.”

“But you have,” Niall growled. “That is exactly what you have done. Why have you not told your friends that you were not engaged to me? You could have, if you wanted to. I demand you stop this lying at once, and tell them all that we have no connection, will have no connection, can never have any connection and that I am most definitely not, and never will be your damned fiancé. Moreover, if I wanted to be a part of village life, I would sodding well live here!”

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.