Page 107 of The Scot’s Secret

“Lady Susanna.”

The voice was one she knew well. Clara spun around and watched Alex walk toward her from the back of the hall.

“I’d thought you and Geoffrey—” Emma started.

“I came back to speak to Lady Susanna.”

He did not smile nor jest. His expression was grim, and Clara’s breath caught when his gaze found, and held, hers.

He could not know. If Alex suspected her plans in any way, he would not stop until he had changed her mind. Which she absolutely could not do.

“Oh?” she said. Clara gave Emma a look that clearly told her to stay.

“It seems every time you are near, I have urgent business to attend to,” Emma said to Alex, completely ignoring Clara’s pleading looks.

With that, Emma walked away.

Always trying to help her, even when she didn’t wish to be helped.

Thank you, my friend, Clara thought. I will miss you.

Clara turned to Alex. She couldn’t do it. Looking at him, she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him. The sweat and dirt on his loose-fitting tunic only made him more appealing. More vulnerable.

“You asked me to come,” he said.

Hurt, disappointment. . . oh, she knew the feelings well.

“I wanted to speak to you, but—”

“Clara,” he pulled her into the same anteroom where they’d sat just a few nights before. “Lord Edmund doesn’t know you.”

“But if he did?”

“If he did, it would hardly matter. He’s speaking of something that happened—”

“That saw my father killed and my home taken from me.”

He let go of her arm.

“Alex,” she said, suddenly realizing how her words might be taken. “That was different. Your brother was ordered to take Bristol—”

“Stop.”

This was a side of Alex she’d never seen. And though she didn’t like it, Clara did not attempt to pacify him. If he was angry with her, it would make it easier for her to leave.

But she would not provoke him either. She knew the pain etched in his face. Better than she wanted to.

“I think we should speak later,” she said.

Clara held her breath, hoping he would agree. Wishing he would take her in his arms but knowing that it could not happen. This was the best way.

“Fine.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

Clara wasted precious moments sitting here, but her legs would not move. Her body felt limp as if it had lost the will to propel her forward.

She’d been such a fool. Gilbert had never relaxed his vigilance, and since his death, she’d broken every rule he’d ever made for her. If it were safe to travel about as a lady, even one with a new name, certainly he’d have told her so.