To Deceive A Duke

Chapter 7

 Clarissa stands on her balcony, she grips the railings till her knuckles turn white. The increasing murders have been on her mind a lot in the past few days, although her mourning period has kept her from going out during the day, she has been reading the paper every morning and learning the feeling on the streets from the maids gossiping in the stairwell. 

People die everyday in London, dysentery, cholera, the city is a cesspool of disease.  Then there are duels, bar fights, drunk drowning, if you make it past 30 you are lucky.  The reason the deaths of the girls have made the paper is the fact that their murders have been so gruesome, so vile and depraved, that they cannot go unnoticed. It is one thing to kill a person, it is another to mangle them. 

Clarissa closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She looks out over St James Park and she can't help but notice how bleak the sky has become. When she feels better and more in control of her person, she walks along to her sister's room and knocks gently on the door. 

"Come in." Catherine calls. Clarissa pushes open the door and is greeted by a chaotic mess of a room. Books and clothes are strewn all over the furniture and the floor of the room isn't visible under all of the stuff that has been piled up in precarious heaps. 

"Uh I don't think I can," Clarissa says, searching for a path to enter the room but the doorway is surrounded by boots and coats. "What's happened?" She looks around the room trying to see her sister but Catherine is nowhere to be seen. "Catherine?" 

"What?" Catherine's face appears from behind the bed. "Oh Clary, hello." 

"What's happened? I thought you were packing?" Clarissa steps over the clutter by the door and hops onto the bed, the only available space to sit. 

"I am packing," Catherine says like it's obvious, holding up random objects. Clarissa looks over the side of the bed to where Catherine is sitting on a small stack of books, an empty case lies open by her feet. 

"I thought the maids were going to pack most of your things for you?" She says, "Why does your room look like a small explosion happened?" 

The contents of Catherine's wardrobes, chests and drawers are hanging out of their place, the room looks like it's been ransacked, but instead of stealing, the robbers have left everything. 

"They packed everything wrong!" Catherine explains, "I am going away for a significant amount of time and they thought that I would need five books!" She laughs, "Five books! Can you believe it? I unpacked everything immediately and sent them away." 

"How many bags are you taking?" Clarissa asks curiously. 

"Hmm," Catherine looks thoughtful, "I think 4."

"4? That's not so unreasonable, why don't you add a few more books but keep some of the dresses." Clarissa reaches down and takes a few books away, she replaces them with a light summer gown, "Think of all the books you are going to buy on your travels, you don't want to take too many from home and then not have room for the new ones." 

"Oh that is true," Catherine bites her lip, "What if I take 8 books? Is that enough?" 

"9." Clarissa takes something  from behind her back and hands it to Catherine. 

"What's this?" Catherine asks, taking the wrapped present. She pulls the brown paper off it, and in her hand is small brown leather-bound book. She opens it and flicks through the blank pages, she looks up. "What is this?" 

"It's for you to write your own book." Clarissa clarifies, "You read all these amazing books from people who have travelled the world, and now you are going on a journey that is worth writing about, so you should write your own excellent adventure."