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

“What?” Clara felt weak. “My father wouldn’t ever be involved in anything like that.”

“I am not talking about your father,” Niall snapped. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair because rescuing her again in the middle of a bustling down was most definitely something he hadn’t wanted to do, not least because he had drawn undue attention not just to himself but to his colleagues as well.

“His associates in the War Office are behind it?”

“Not all of them,” Niall sighed. “Just a few who think they are the exception to the law and cannot be punished for their crimes.”

“What happened to the victims?”

“They disappeared,” Niall informed her.

“You haven’t found them.” It wasn’t a question.

“Oh, we have started to find them all right. Dead. Murdered.”

Clara felt sick. “Why would they kidnap them, keep them for several months, and then kill them?”

“The kidnappers snatched the women for a purpose. When those women were no longer fit for purpose they had to die. It is that simple.”

Niall saw no reason not to be brutally honest with her. He doubted he would lose his job because of it purely because Clara seemed determined to put herself in danger. To keep herself safe she had to be aware of just how sinister the threats against her life were.

If Atticus Potter doesn’t agree then he can go to Hades.

“What purpose?”

Niall flicked her a dark look. “Prostitution mostly.”

Clara closed her eyes and fought another wave of sickness. She contemplated how the men in power in the War Office could possibly be involved in something so vile, but her thoughts immediately rejected contemplating it too much. It was sickening; the sheer brutality of man and how they could be so cruel to an innocent woman.

“Mother of God,” she hissed.

“This is no game, Clara. If these people get you then we know you will vanish and will most probably never be seen alive again. The women who have been found alive have been examined by medical experts and have evidence of being used for prostitution. We think they were subdued with drugs. Opium, mostly. Don’t underestimate the enemy you face. Don’t think they won’t try to snatch you again. They may have failed up to now, but they won’t give up. Trying to snatch you off a busy high street was a very bold move and should be a warning that there is nothing they won’t try. It is the desperate action of desperate people. We have it on good authority from a man who was recently arrested that the kidnappers intended to snatch you to use you as a bargaining tool to get your father to agree to stop investigating the chief suspects. Atticus refused, but sent us to watch over you. Little did we know at the time that you were going to do everything possible to put yourself in danger.”

“Getting water from a well is not wilfully putting myself in danger. How was I supposed to know? You didn’t tell me about the danger I faced. If one of you had just come and knocked on the door and told us rather than loiter in the garden and scare the life out of us, don’t you think my aunt and I would have taken more precautions?”

“Like you have today?”

“We have taken one journey into town to take tea and do a little shopping. How can that be wrong?”

“It is wrong when you put your life in danger. You are aware that someone has already tried to snatch you, and it isn’t Erasmus. Or should we forget about the thug in your garden the other night?”

Clara sighed. “Nothing had happened for several days. My aunt and I got bored rattling around the house all day by ourselves. We needed to get some fresh air and sample some freedom. We are not prisoners, you know. If we had known just how much danger we would be in, both of us would have stayed at

home and suffered in silence.”

Niall really couldn’t chastise her anymore. He didn’t doubt she would have stayed at home had he taken her into his confidence. Now, he wished he had, not least because the Star Elite had come so close to failure it was cringeworthy. He closed his eyes on a silent prayer that it wouldn’t happen again but knew that God wasn’t likely to be so kind. The kidnappers would strike again, of that there could be no doubt. Unfortunately, they still had Clara in their sights.

“Now what?”

“Now we get you home and this time you have to stay there no matter what, Clara. Promise me. Stay at home with your aunt, no matter how claustrophobic it gets.”

Clara nodded. She didn’t hesitate, not least because the Fate of the previous kidnap victims hovered over her. She knew that she had come close to the same Fate; far, far too close.

“Did you see who was inside that carriage?” Niall asked.

Clara shook her head. “It was too dark to see. That thug you hit wasn’t the one from the garden, though.”

“No, I know. We know the kidnappers don’t work individually. There is a gang of them, most of them petty career criminals who commit crimes for easy money. They don’t give a damn who pays them or what they have to do. To them, its easy money,” Niall sighed.