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

“Where is this going father?” Clara asked quietly.

“I am getting to it.” Atticus huffed. “I am not one to meddle, as I have said, but I do believe that you both have to understand that it is foolish to expect life to make anything easy for you. You, Clara, have led a somewhat sheltered life. You, Niall, have faced the worst of adversities and have had to fight for your life I don’t doubt. You, Clara, are settled here in Serpentine. You, Niall, are required to go anywhere in this country without any more than a moment’s notice. That said, the men in my unit are required to be able to focus on their job and be sharp about what they do. There is no room for mistakes. It isn’t good for any man to bring troubles into his job.”

“I don’t,” Niall interjected.

“Yes, you have.” Atticus gave him a stern look that was as close to a parental glare as it was possible to get. “Your colleagues have found you surly, grumpy, argumentative, and have skirted around doing anything about it far too much. They need to concentrate, not worry about you. Now, I know you were worried that the people in the village believed you were engaged to Clara, but I have learned that they knew all along that you weren’t. I do believe you have also been worried that Clara was apt to behaving recklessly with her life, but now you can rest assured that she has learnt her lesson and won’t be inclined to do anything that would put her through what she has already been through. I would ask you to remember that even if she does stay at home, she is no safer than anybody else. That thug has proven that this morning. She could have been snatched out of her home just as easily as she was snatched off the street. It is not her fault. She shouldn’t be blamed for other people’s criminality.”

Clara nodded when she met her father’s searching look.

“Now, I need to return to London soon enough and am going to leave my sister in charge here as usual. Clara is going to be on her own but now that she has dealt with the thug, I hope that today’s escapade is going to be the last danger she will face. I hope you, Niall, can go about your business well aware that there is to be no repercussions by whatever has gone on here. There are no repercussions. You have done what you can and are now free to move on to Derbyshire with the rest of the team to try to get into Melrose’s house. As for you, Clara, Erasmus Boyle was arrested today and is no longer in a position to bother you. You too are free to go about your business. I would, however, warn you both that true love, the kind of love that makes a marriage work, rarely comes around twice in a person’s life. Once it is lost, or mislaid, ignored, or destroyed, it can never truly be restored. It is like trust, without it there is nothing to build a marriage on. I hope neither of you are in a position that you take your lives for granted and don’t take full advantage of the joys it can bring you, even marriage.”

With that Atticus stood up and turned to leave. While he had been talking, Flo had slowly made her way to the door and was waiting for him with a glint of approval in her eye.

“I shall catch up with you in Derbyshire,” Atticus promised Niall before he escorted his sister out of the room.

“You are coming too?” Niall looked at him in astonishment.

“Someone in higher authority has to take charge of this investigation if the Star Elite are actually going into the houses of men like Melrose. From now on, you are going to need all the protection my position can afford you.”

Once out in the hallway, Atticus and Flora looked worriedly at each other and then moved into the sitting room to wait.

“I will give them half an hour,” Atticus grumbled as he slumped into a chair beside the fire. He nodded his thanks when Flo pushed a goblet of brandy into his hand but remained perfectly still. He looked the epitome of a v

ery troubled man.

Niall stared blankly at the floor for a moment while he contemplated what to say.

Clara was stunned. “I am sorry for that. He doesn’t usually do things like that but must have known you were worried he would think poorly of you for my mistakes. I did tell him it was all my fault.”

“It wasn’t though, was it?”

“I told the lie that made people start to believe that we were engaged, so it was.”

“Yes, but at any point I could have corrected you and told everyone that it was a lie. At no point did you force me to go along with the ruse,” Niall argued. “In my defence, a part of me wanted to see how far you would go with it. Then, when I thought about it, I didn’t find it all that unappealing.”

Clara’s breath hitched. “You didn’t?”

“I get things done. If I didn’t want something to happen, I could have objected and would have done so stringently and not stopped until everyone knew.”

“You seemed so angry with me,” Clara whispered.

“I am sorry.” Niall struggled to understand what he was apologising for. Because he couldn’t put his finger on one single thing, he had to suspect he was apologising for all of his behaviour. “I got annoyed that you were firstly avoiding me and then that everywhere I went I had your friends stopping me from talking to you. They kept standing in my path, trying to sell me tickets for things. This entire village seems to have everything ticketed. If you want to go to the ball, I had to purchase tickets. If I wanted to buy a goose, I had to purchase tickets for the raffle.”

“A goose is expensive,” Clara whispered. “Not many people in the village can afford to purchase one. They can, however, afford to purchase a ticket that might afford them a goose. Each year, in autumn, the butcher kindly raffles a goose off. People purchase a ticket, put their name on it and it is kept in a box. One name is then drawn, and that person gets the goose. The money raised goes to the church.”

“It sounds like a plan.”

“I know this doesn’t matter to you because you are from the Star Elite, but it is just the way villages like this work. People do look out for each other, like father said. It is why you weren’t able to go anywhere without being accosted. People were curious about you, as they are about any stranger.”

“What about you? Are you curious about me?” Niall hated the fact that her answer mattered more than anything. It mattered so much that he temporarily forgot to breathe.

He stared at her, and hoped, but felt gauche and awkward and so unlike himself that even he had to stop and contemplate what was making him behave so oddly.

“I am a man who doesn’t usually dither about things. Like your father said, it can get me killed. I have to say that in all the time I have worked with the Star Elite, I never once contemplated that your father might understand what our work entails, but it sounds like Sir Hugo has kept him up-to-date on a lot of things.”

“He knows more than you realise,” was all Clara could say.

“He doesn’t seem to object to the notion of having his daughter linked with a Star Elite operative.” Niall smiled ruefully at her.