Clandestine Read Online Free Page A

you.
    They left you standing in the entryway of your house, the slam of the front door still echoing. They left you holding your crying little brother, unable to understand or explain why . They left your father half a man, disappearing bit-by-bit into his research until he faded all together. They left you wondering if your mother would ever return.
    Secrets left you with only one thing—more secrets.
    And once secrets took someone, that person never returned. She understood that bitter lesson early on.
    Secrets were thieves, stealing joy.
    Kit Ashton hated secrets.
    Hypocrite , Virtuous Angel murmured.
    Kit bit her lip. Despising herself a little.
    She had deserved that bit of recrimination.
    For someone who abhorred deception, she did have rather more than her share of secrets currently. Fairly riddled with them.
    She was the worst sort of hypocrite.
    Though if her mother’s secret had been something of this magnitude, Kit might have felt more pity for the woman.
    She finished rifling through the drawer, resisting the urge to slam it shut. Nothing. She swallowed tightly and pulled out the next one.
    Gah. She never thought about her mother. With both her father and mother now dead, it was pointless to dwell on the past.
    It was probably just this room with its dark paneling and large, stone fireplace. Her father’s study was like this. She could practically smell his musky cologne lingering in the air.
    Both rooms even sported a similar painting of a lynx over the mantle.
    It sees hidden truths, the lynx does. All ancient cultures believed so, the Greeks, the Norse . . . She could almost hear her father’s voice—calm, quiet, withdrawn. Reciting historical facts. Asking questions about his research had been her only way of connecting with him.
    She felt the cat’s eyes on her now. Accusing.
    Kit shook her head, banishing the maudlin thoughts. They wouldn’t help her achieve her current goals.
    Determined to drag her brother out of his current mess and back to home, she had followed Daniel’s cryptic note to Marfield, arriving a little over a week ago. But she hadn’t planned ahead—long story there—and had found herself penniless and wardrobe-less in an unfamiliar village. Bless the kind-hearted vicar and his wife for taking her in and, even more, arranging an interview for a post.
    All of which had resulted in Kit being hired earlier in the week as a companion to Lady Ruby Knight—Arthur Knight’s aunt visiting from Shropshire—when the woman’s previous companion had unexpectedly resigned her post. The daughter of an earl, Lady Ruby had married decidedly down in life when she eloped with the younger son of an untitled gentleman, Arthur’s now-deceased uncle.
    If Lady Ruby found her reduced circumstances a trial, it was hard to say. The lady had a mercurial temperament. No situation was so grand that Lady Ruby couldn’t find fault with it.
    Quite frankly, Kit didn’t care. The employment was a godsend, giving her a much-needed roof over her head, food in her belly and a chance to live in Haldon Manor, the place her brother had indicated he was heading. The place she hoped to find him. Before Daniel did something incredibly stupid and ruined the future for both of them. But discreet inquiries had yielded nothing, forcing her to adopt more direct measures.
    Kit needed answers now . She could only hide her true identity for so long.
    Something or someone would betray her eventually. Nothing in her upbringing had prepared her for this situation.
    Well, to be a lady, yes.
    A paid companion, however? Not so much.
    It was only a matter of time before Arthur and Lady Ruby realized it, before she exposed herself for the fraud she was.
    She didn’t do well being ordered about by others. Nor could she keep opinions to herself.
    Every morning, she ruthlessly pinned her mass of unruly hair to her head, buttoned herself into a second-hand serviceable frock and swallowed every last dry, dry, dry remark down her