My Lord the Spy by Audrey Harrison

Author:Audrey Harrison [Audrey Harrison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Trad-Reg
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Thankfully Clara did not have to face anyone when she returned to the house. Charles had already left with Joshua, and Milly had gone for a walk through the gardens, so Clara was alone. She returned to her bedchamber and threw herself onto her bed. She wished that the canopy would fall down enabling her to be wrapped in the folds of material that would entomb her, allowing her to hide from the world.

She had been foolish in the greatest possible way. No matter how much she had tried to suppress the feelings, her vanity had been flattered, and she had believed the Earl of Chertsey was romantically attached to her. What a fool she had been! Why would he choose her over the beautiful, younger, far richer debutantes? For the first time in her life, Clara felt completely jealous of every woman under the age of twenty-two who might attract the Earl of Chertsey.

She thought her heart might break at the realisation she would never see him again, but it had been a necessary step; she could never be focused on protecting Charles while her emotions were in turmoil every time she thought of Edmund.

Her first priority was to protect Charles. If she could act normally for a week he would be safe and, hopefully, Joshua Shambles would disappear back into the hole he had crawled out of. Charles had been gullible but no more than Clara had in believing the words and actions of a rake and liar. How could she reprimand Charles when she had done exactly the same? The arguments that had occurred over the last months could have been so easily aimed at herself; the only difference being that most of her behaviour was unknown to her brother.

Clara climbed off her bed and sat before her dressing table. It would be hard hiding everything from Milly; she knew Clara better than anyone and would immediately be suspicious at the absence of the gentleman whom they both had suspected of ulterior motives in travelling so far from London. It would one day be laughable that the reason they had credited him with was so far removed from the truth; but Clara could not yet find humour in the situation.

She gazed at her reflection in the looking glass; she looked drawn, and her eyes were red with crying; it was time to pull herself together. She tried to straighten her hair without having to call her maid; the fewer people who saw her with red-rimmed eyes, the better.

As she reattached pins, she frowned. Spying was not a noble profession; if the truth came out, the Earl of Chertsey would suffer the scorn of his peers. She would use that against him if he dared to cross the threshold of Glazebrook House. Her shoulders sagged; the reality was she could not reveal the man for whom she had developed such deep feelings. Everything she felt was linked to him in such a way that it almost took her breath away.

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