“Why? If you have no home there anymore, what is the point of going back? What are you going back to?” Luke replied, trying to ignore the delicate scent of her perfume that tickled his nose.
“It is the only home I have ever known,” she replied tearfully. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Do you have any family in Cumbria?” he replied. He turned her reluctant frame around to face him.
She looked up at him so miserably that he drew her into his arms. “At least here you have your cousin, Peter. I think that you were right to keep the money out of Clarence’s clutches. It was given to you not your father, and is therefore yours to spend, or hand back to Peter if you wish. However, giving someone five hundred pounds, no matter what sob story they give you, is either an act of extreme benevolence, or has some other reason behind it that you just aren’t aware of yet. I think it is important that we get to the bottom of it.”
“Pardon?” she asked, feeling slightly sick partly from the brandy and partly from the rapidly changing emotions swirling through her.
“You need to find out what antagonism lies between Peter and Clarence. Then you need to arrange a more reasonable loan with Peter, or discuss with him whether he wants the money back or not. First of all, and more importantly, you need to find out why he is prepared to lend you that kind of money in the first place, especially when you are related to Clarence, and especially given you are woman who has very little in the way of means to repay him. If he can afford to live in a house in Mayfair, the man is no fool with his money. So why would he loan you that kind of money, Poppy? Ask yourself that. Until you can find a few more facts out I think you are in danger, particularly if you try to go back to Cumbria.”
“Why?”
Luke shook his head. “Clarence wants that money for one. He isn’t averse to accosting you in the street to get it.”
She had to agree to that one and nodded slowly.
“The woman in the coaching yard who stared at you was fixated on your bag; the bag that contained the money. She didn’t even glance at the bag containing your belongings; she knew what that bag looked like, and I strongly suspect knew exactly what is in it.”
“How? I have never seen that woman before in my life,” Poppy whispered.
“Clarence may have an accomplice.” He was positive he was right.
Poppy’s instinctive reaction was to scoff at that but she couldn’t lose sight of the fact that the woman had left moments before Clarence had appeared in the street outside. Were they together?
“You are going nowhere,” he assured her as gently as his raging emotions would allow. “You could so easily have been run over in that coaching yard earlier, and that woman would have been to blame.”
Neither of them moved nor spoke for several moments. The small hairs stood up on the back of her neck and she shivered against the warm rush of breath that swept over the tender skin of her shoulder.
“Poppy,” he growled huskily. His hand slid down the door and rested upon hers on the latch. He neither removed her hand or released her but merely stood there, giving her the time to get used to him being so close. She didn’t protest. He nearly groaned aloud when she leaned toward him. His coarse cheek chafed the tender skin of hers when his lips touched her ear. “Trust me Poppy. Stay here with me and let me help you with this.”
“Why? Why would you help me with this? Who are you?” She eyed the fine cut of the material of his jacket. Unless she was sorely mistaken his clothes were a ruse; a disguise of some kind, but why? Why would someone like Luke need a disguise? He said he worked for some kind of government organisation but most of the ones she knew wore uniforms, like the army. None of them ever needed a disguise – did they?
Luke slid his hand down her arm to capture her hand and nodded toward the doorway that led to the hall that ran straight through the centre of the house.
“Let’s go and sit somewhere more comfortable. Then I will answer your questions.”
“Where is this house?”
“It is in the suburbs, and just like every other house in this street. Anyone who wanders past it are not likely to give it even a cursory glance so there is no reason to suspect that Clarence even considers it somewhere you might be. You are safe, but to remain that way you now have to be very careful. I can keep you safe, but to do that I need you to be aware of a few things.”
Mesmerised by the intrigue, Poppy followed him into what appeared to be a front parlour. It really was rather nice, with a high ceiling and open fire. It was lavishly decorated with lush furnishings that were warm and welcoming. She settled down onto the chaise with a tired sigh and immediately felt at home. She couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to live in a place like this. It was wonderfully cosy, and a far cry from even the cold and somewhat austere house she had left back in Cumbria. It was odd to feel so at home so quickly. She had never felt anything like it and had to warn herself that this wasn’t home; she was a guest and needed to keep that in mind. Still, it was incredibly difficult not to lean against the plush cushions behind her and relax a little. Thankfully, Luke had brought the bag of money with them, and placed it beside the fireplace where they could see it before he took a seat beside her.
“Right, well, I think you need to assure me that you will remain here while we get to the bottom of what your father is up to,” he began.
“He isn’t my father really. Well, he is, but I don’t consider him to be my father. I call him Clarence.”
“Then we shall call him Clarence.” Right now Luke would call the man anything just to get Poppy to work with him.
“Well then given what you have told me I think the next port of call is to pay a visit to your cousin, Peter and ask him why he hates Clarence so much. I think we need to ask a few more questions about why he has given you such a large sum of money. For some, Poppy, this is an amount they could never earn over the course of a lifetime. It is odd that he has this kind of money readily at hand, especially after what has been going on in London of late.
“What’s been going on in London of late?”
“I forget that you have only been here a couple of weeks,” he sighed. “Have you read the broadsheets?”
“I have,” she replied. “But the names of the people don’t really mean anything to me.”