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

“What are you going to do?”

He lifted his brows and looked ruefully down at her. “Keep dragging you out of trouble probably.”

Clara rolled her eyes. “It does seem to happen quite a lot, doesn’t it?”

Niall coughed discretely and puffed out his cheeks.

“Have the ladies left you alone?”

“I am blessed to say they have, for now at least. Although I have managed to avoid one or two of the most determined ones.”

When he smiled, his entire face changed, softened. When his eyes twinkled like they were, small dimples appeared on the corners of his mouth. It made him even more handsome, and more than a little mischievous. She knew this was Niall the man, not Niall the Star Elite operative.

When she realised that she was staring at him, Clara forced herself to look at where they were heading. It was only when she contemplated what had happened that her thoughts turned to Erasmus.

“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.