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

“I don’t understand why a kidnap ring snatch women to be servants. I mean, there are plenty of people looking for that kind of employment. They don’t get paid much, and Smidgley’s contacts can afford to pay a willing servant,” Will reasoned.

“I think that maybe the women were probably used as servants to suppress them. If they were not likely to be subservient, they would be turned into servants until they lost the will to live, their identities, whatever, or gave up trying to escape.”

Will nodded. “Then they would be used for prostitution.”

“Or maybe they were used as servants to keep them busy but out of sight, i.e.., below stairs where nobody would be able to recognise them. We don’t know where they are kept. I doubt they will be in London. There is far too much opportunity to escape there. One can get lost in those city streets relatively easily.” Niall was really thinking aloud.

“They have to be somewhere like this, don’t you think? Look at where he has put me. He didn’t put me in the main body of the house, but in the servant’s quarters. If you were searching for him, or someone he had snatched, you would look in the main body of the house, not where the servants lived, wouldn’t you?”

“That’s what we have just done,” Will assured her.

“It is a foolish plan, but if other servants working in wealthy houses were paid enough to keep quiet and were ordered to keep a close eye on the new arrivals, it would suppress any chance the victims had of escape, especially if they had no money or proof of identity or anybody to help them escape. Some of the large country estates are out in the middle of nowhere. If a victim wanted to make an escape they would have to run for miles, most probably with no money, idea of where they were, proof of identity, or means of transport.”

“It would be impossible,” Clara whispered. “They hit me over the head. I feel like the room is covered in a thick fog. If I was forced to set to work, and made to keep going until I dropped, I don’t think I would have the energy to try to escape.”

“That would break any innocent young woman. Fear would compel them to keep quiet and not do anything that would draw any undue attention to themselves,” Will added.

“We can only surmise, but it gives us a better starting point to try to find the victims than we have ever had before.” Niall smiled gently at her. “You are right. I think there is a message in where Smidgley has put you. It was in the servant’s quarters, most probably where the other victims ended up and where he intended to ensure you were left.”

“Where do you think they are?” Clara whispered. Snuggled against him as she was, she didn’t feel any urgency to get up and leave.

“It is going to be difficult to find out. All we can do is visit the homes of the men Smidgley calls friends and hope we are lucky enough to find one of the missing,” Niall whispered. “For now, we have to find Smidgley.”

“Let’s go,” Will growled, already heading to the door.

He didn’t stop to wait for Niall and Clara to join him. Instead, he went to join his colleagues, well aware that Niall needed a few moments alone with the woman Will was starting to suspect Niall was beginning to fall in love with.

“If he isn’t in love wi

th her already,” he growled as he slammed out of the house.

“What was that?” Oliver asked, pausing his conversation with Rhys to lift his brows at him. “Where is Niall?”

“With Clara.”

“Clara now, is it?” Oliver’s brows shot skyward. Despite the severity of the work they had to do, the men grinned.

“As you were with Emmeline,” Will replied ruefully.

“So, it is like that, is it?” Rhys snorted. “I might have guessed. It is foolish to send any single man to look after someone like her. Clara Potter, I ask you. She is the boss’s daughter.”

“It doesn’t matter who she is really, does it? If they are meant to be together an attraction will be there no matter what stands in the way. I mean, I doubt Niall planned to romance the boss’s daughter. He was always determined to avoid marriage.” A hint of melancholy in Will’s voice made the men laugh.

“You make it sound like he has been struck down by some incurable illness,” Rhys teased. “He is getting married, not murdered.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Either way, his life as he knows it is dead, isn’t it? I mean, he isn’t going to be the same from now on. Everything he will do is going to be driven by her, the need to be with her, the need to get home with her. Look at you.”

Will pointed a finger at Oliver who merely smirked. “When love strikes there is not a damned thing a man can do about it. You have to go where the heart leads you. Emmeline was meant to be my wife, I don’t doubt it. I am sure that if Niall feels for Clara what I feel for my wife, they will be very happy together.”

“You don’t know what he is like when it comes to her,” Will warned, not seeing the funny side of the situation at all.

Oliver and Rhys looked at each other in concern.

“What do you mean?” Oliver rapped when Will turned around to walk away.

“I mean that the man is in denial. I hope he is in there proving to her that he wants to make her a part of his future but somehow, I don’t think he is as amenable to feeling about her the way he does as you would like him to be. He doesn’t want to be attracted to the boss’s daughter, much less wed her.” With that, Will went in search of his horse to join the hunt for Smidgley.

Oliver puffed out his cheeks and decided to linger outside, just in case he had to escort Miss Potter home. One of them had to do it because until Claude Smidgley was behind bars, the threat to Clara Potter’s life was still very real.