was true that he’d become the proud head member of the Wicked Earls’ Club. His job was now to facilitate activities for the other earls who were part of the secret club. But sincerely, he’d only taken the position as a way to gain power.
He’d agreed to help finance the Den of Sins for the same reason. With gold came influence.
But long before he’d decided to spit on his father’s grave by being one of the most powerful men in England, he’d made a promise to a girl who’d saved his life. “I won’t upset Goldthwaite.” Probably. Maybe. Well, who knew, really?
But his goals no longer aligned with his brother’s. Clarissa was far more important than anything else.
One thing was for certain, he needed to see Clarissa again. And he knew when he’d see her again. In two days’ time, the Earl of Goldthwaite was to marry Clarissa’s friend, Penny, and he was invited to the wedding.
This would be his chance to find out if she really was his little angel. And if she was, he needed to know what had happened to her and how he could help.
Clarissa shifted in her pew at the front of the church, attempting to ignore several factors.
The first was that she’d not stepped foot into a house of God since she’d left the care of Father Thomas Byron six years prior. Penny’s wedding had been the only reason she’d returned to one. She’d never miss her best friend and savior’s marriage even if the devil himself rose up through the floor.
She was just a bit afraid he might.
Memories of her brief time at Byron’s parish sent shivers through her body, and she wrapped her arms about her middle. He’d been a cold, cruel man and Clarissa still remembered every line of his face. Even worse, she could still hear the swish of his switch.
But fortunately for her, Penny had found her and swept her away, taking Clarissa to her dilapidated house in the East End of London. It hadn’t been much, but it had been a home. At last, she’d been treated with love and respect. And Clarissa was forever grateful.
If Penny, barely eighteen at the time, hadn’t taken Clarissa under her wing, there was no telling what might have happened to her. Clarissa bit her lower lip. Best not to think about bad things anymore.
She looked up at her friend as Penny held the Earl of Goldthwaite’s hands in her own. Penny had taught her so much about the sort of person she wanted to be.
Penny cared for others. Always.
That’s what Clarissa would do with her life too.
Clarissa was good at it. That helped. She never minded kissing away a hurt on a child’s knee or holding a little one after they woke from a bad dream. In fact, she’d considered becoming a nurse. She’d cared for soldiers who’d been wounded at the church and she’d loved making them comfortable when they had so little relief from their injuries.
Clarissa didn’t want a life filled with pursuit of personal pleasure. In fact, in her mind, they led to a person’s ruin. Just like her father. She still worried that her father’s secrets might taint her life. Would people donate to her cause if they discovered what her father had done? Or worse, what she had?
No. It was better to stay far away from material goods. She’d keep herself distanced from the sin in this world and focus on helping people. She thought back to one soldier in particular. A captain who’d been on death’s door. Even as ill as he’d been, Clarissa could tell he was handsome.
And he’d tried to help her when Father Byron had been in one of his moods. She wondered if that man had recovered after all. And she still dreamed of the silky feel of his hair under her hand.
Which led her to the third very distracting thing currently in the church.
Two nights ago, she’d met a man at the Earl of Goldthwaite’s home. The Earl of Baxter. Something in his eyes had reminded her of the soldier she’d cared for all those years ago.
It wasn’t him, of course. Earls did not get sent to the basements of churches to recover. But just when she’d thought she’d ceased thinking about her soldier, something always brought his memory back.
When she was younger, she’d dreamed of marrying him. He’d find her again, sweep her off her feet, tell her he’d always loved her, and carry her away to her destiny. But that sort of dream was for little girls. She was a woman now and she had other children who depended on her. And her own demons to battle.
As if to remind her of that fact, Natty pulled on her hand. She was the youngest orphan in Penny’s care and Clarissa shifted the girl onto her lap, brushing a kiss on the top of Natty’s head. These little girls were the reason she’d never marry. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. These girls would live with Penny and Logan. But there were others out there. Who lived in places worse than the church she’d been sent to.
She’d run one of Penny’s orphanages and take care of children in need. And then she’d be far away from the temptations of this world.
But a gaze had been on her the entire ceremony and the intensity made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Turning, she met the dark gaze of the Earl of Baxter. He sat two rows back, directly behind her seat.
He was a guest at the wedding and his eyes had been burning holes in her back since she’d arrived.
Dark and stormy, his expression caught and held hers, almost hypnotic in his stare.
She drew in a gasp, trying to understand his intensity even as that feeling overwhelmed her again. She knew those eyes. She was sure of it.