Chapter Twenty-Two
Otto looked down from her window in the attic as a second car drove off. She had seen a car arrive earlier and then leave a few hours later and now Lady Clementine was off as well. On her way back to the family’s ancestral seat in Norfolk. The castle was beginning to wake up and Otto wondered what this all meant for her. She had been in hiding for so long she wondered if anyone was still looking for her.
She grabbed a small towel and wiped the sweat off her neck and hands. Before she began to paint, she always spent an hour going through her yoga exercises. She liked the way it cleared her mind before she started painting and it had been her habit for decades. However, this past week she had found that no matter how hard she tried, by the end of the hour her mind was still churning, trying to work out what to do next.
When she was young - she paused and laughed. When she was young, how many centuries ago was that? Ah well, centuries ago, she had partied all night, left lovers desperate for more, spent as she wished and worked when she wanted. And she had two great loves: one who wanted to put her in jail and one who was married.
She had picked the married man. She wasn’t a fool; she had listened as Henry told her that he was stuck in a loveless marriage. She was the right girl from the right family but she was as uninterested in him as he was in her. Otto listened and nodded, but it wasn’t until he presented her with a letter from his wife agreeing to a divorce that she agreed to his proposal and he placed a huge square-cut emerald on her engagement finger. She wore it with pride and a sense of security that she had never felt before, and when he told her in a broken voice that his wife was pregnant and the divorce was off the cards, she kept the ring on her finger.
And then disaster followed tragedy and a burglary went wrong and she was running for her life. She could have turned to the police but she had no faith in their protection. Instead, she swallowed her pride and contacted Henry de Foix, Earl of Hiverton, who offered her Ruacoddy Castle.
So long ago. She sighed and picked up her paintbrush, twisting the emerald into her palm and began to paint.