Her mother glanced up as if she were pondering something. How Clara truly hated her games. “She and your husband were acquaintances before you met, correct?”
“Yes, why?” Clara bit out.
She smiled demurely and said, “No reason.”
Clara watched her leave, knowing she was trying to upset her. She felt a sliver of jealousy spread through her. She trusted both her husband and Addie and did her best to push away the feeling. Clara hated that her mother could plant seeds of doubt in her mind.
She turned to Diana who stood frowning at her. Her mother was wrong, Diana was beautiful. She glowed. Clara smiled at her and said, “Do not worry about me. I’m fine.”
“You know she just says things to upset you.”
Clara smiled and sat. “Of course, I do.”
Still, Diana frowned. Clara looked at her sister who looked lovely with her brown hair piled on top of her head and flushed cheeks. All Clara wanted was for her to be happy. “Do not worry about me.”
“Just be careful with her. She is not acting like herself.”
Clara knew that. Something was different, and she didn’t know what. Her mind drifted back to her comments about Addie and Sam but pushed them away. She would not ruin her trip to Diana’s with worries about her mother.
“Enough about Mother. Tell me how you have been feeling?”
Diana beamed back at her.
~
Sam arrived at the Den and made his way back through the gardens littered with little cottages. Miller had converted one of them into his personal living space. It was the one known as the Hunting Lodge. He smiled at the ridiculousness of the cottage as he approached it. There was a damn tree coming out of the middle of it. It was like the previous owner, the Marquess of Merry, told the designer to create the most masculine cottage he could envision. Sam lifted his hand to knock on the door, but it was opened by Addie. Her eyes widened in shock; Miller stood behind her in only his trousers.
Addie flushed. “Hello, Sam.”
He looked between the two of them, puzzled. It was an unlikely pairing. “Addie,” he said with a nod.
She stared at him for a moment and opened her mouth as if to explain why she was there. Sam held up his hand. “No need.”
She bit her lip and then smiled. “Well, excuse me.”
Sam watched her walk away, still shocked to have seen her there.
Then he turned back to Miller, now fully dressed, who blushed as if he were a young school boy and not a man of almost thirty. For some reason, Annie flashed in Sam’s mind. He’d always thought Miller held deep feelings for her and would eventually act on them. Perhaps he was wrong.
“You’re early,” Miller stated.
“You said it was urgent.”
“So, I did,” Miller said, taking a seat at a long table that looked like it was thrown together haphazardly with some logs. Sam had no doubt much more effort went into it. He took a chair, joining Sam.
“So, I asked for you to meet with me, because in my investigation of the Claremores, I was finally able to unravel who really holds the vast amount of their debt. It is the Marquess of Dolan.”
Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not wanting his fury to explode. The Claremores had meant to sell Clara to Dolan. That is why they were so insistent she wed him.
“There is more,” Miller stated.
He slid a paper over to Sam. On the paper was a list of women. Sam frowned at him questioningly.
“The list represents all of the women that we have been able to track down, who at some point, have been Dolan’s mistress. I have been interviewing them and they all paint a brutal picture of him.”
“Why has none of this come out?”
Miller shrugged. “He’s a lord and a powerful one with money. Most of them expressed happiness they were able to leave him and live. There is one thing they all have in common.”
