Natalia's Secret Spinster's Society (The Spinster's Society) (A Regency Romance Book)(10)

Lorena looked away and said, “Very well. Let us have a vote.”

Alice stood. “Who believes we should close the home?”

No one raised their hands.

Alice went on. “Who agrees that William and Julius should be permitted into the home until the current matter is done with?”



Maura didn’t raise her hand, but she was nonetheless outvoted. “I still say we could have found strong women.” She ignored the grinning expressions around her as she rose and started for the door. Once there, she turned to the two men who would be acting as guards. “Shall we?”








CHAPTER FIVE





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Natalia followed her silly cat around the corner and then froze once she reached the foyer. But the young girl couldn’t stay motionless for long. “Liam!”



He was prepared by the time she reached him and jumped into his arms. Their embrace was long, and she strained to bury herself against him.

“Dad told you to stop hugging our guest,” Lorenzo told her. He’d begun acting as though he were her chaperone since he turned nine last month. “You’re old enough to know better now.”

Natalia ignored him and clung to William’s shirt. She liked hugging people. She hugged all of Julius’ friends when she saw them. They always got along in the beginning, but then they’d take Lorenzo away to play ‘boy games’ and she’d be left alone.

But Liam was different.

She pulled away, but only so she could look at him. She thought him shiny like a coin. His skin was so gold, and his eyes were like evergreen trees. He was grinning down at her. Was he really happy to see her? She worried that sometimes he wasn’t. Sometimes, he truly wanted to play with the boys and just wanted her to leave him alone.

That thought always made her angry.

He touched her hair. “Do you want to play?”

She smiled, content once again. “Oh, yes! Yes! Yes!”

Another person came to the door.

“Julie!” She jumped on her cousin and kissed his cheek.

Julius returned the hug but set her away much quicker than William had. “Tally Cat.” Natalia thought him shiny as well, but in a different way. He was so pale, like the flames her mother told her not to touch when she reached inside lamps.

But his shiny was not as shiny as William’s. Julius looked just like Lorenzo in every way.

Julius turned to Lorenzo then. “We’re playing rounders. You can play. We need a tenth person. Emmett couldn’t come.”

Natalia had never met Emmett, though the other boys spoke of him all the time. His dad was not nice, it seemed.

“William isn’t coming,” Lorenzo told his cousin. The light from the open door turned his hair nearly white.

“Not until Natalia can come,” William said, taking her hand.

Natalia jumped up and down and waited for Julius’ reply.

Her cousin gave her his annoyed look before he rolled his eyes. “Fine, but she’s your responsibility. Don’t let her get hurt.’

“I won’t.” William squeezed her hand.

Natalia jumped up and down some more then followed the boys out of the house. Starlight followed, but Natalia knew her cat wouldn’t go far from the house. She’d be there when she returned. Like always.



* * *



Hortense came into the yellow sitting room just after the day’s final lesson was completed. The housekeeper looked worried. Her usually well-placed gray curls were everywhere, and her large cheeks were stained red. She’d been running. “Oh, Mrs. Wells, I don’t know what to do! Come quickly, please.”

Leah put the book she’d been reading down on the table and stood. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Clara.”

The image of the small woman with a crooked but pretty smile bloomed in her mind. She rushed to the door and followed as Hortense led her through the foyer and toward the front door.

“What has happened?” Leah asked as she stepped outside.

Hortense thrust a hand down the road and there, on the corner, Leah saw Clara being dragged away by a very large man. The entire scene was being watched by the upper-class people who scurried out of their wake into the street. A few men on horseback also stopped and carriages with couples paused, but no one moved to do anything.

Leah cursed in French. Damn English laws. Jasper James was Clara’s husband and thus had the right to do as he pleased with what was nothing more than his property. Until just this year, Code Napoléon had allowed civil divorce, and it would have been easy to threaten Mr. James into such an agreement.

But it was not so easily done in England.

“Should I tell Fanny?” Hortense asked.

Leah’s eyes widened. “No, not Fanny.” The girl had only started to get her anger under control. This would break her. She was an experiment of sorts. Fanny came from the roughest part of London and had committed all manner of crimes long before she reached womanhood. She’d been working for London’s King of the Underworld before she was brought here six months ago. Fanny was the last person who needed to see this.

Leah could hear Clara weeping and knew she could not simply stand by and do nothing.

She turned to go back into the house and was stopped by her brother.