Well, it couldn't be kept from Anna forever. Anna writes to Clarissa wanting to know the dealio with why she went back to Mrs. Sinclair's.
But it never gets to Clarissa. Lovelace intercepts the
letter and doesn't let Clarissa read it.
Even though Clarissa doesn't give a rat's tail about whether
"Captain Tomlinson" is for real, she agrees to hang at Mrs. Sinclair's
until the following week. Lovelace needs to just keep the heck away from her.
Remember, that's when her uncle is supposed to see her tie
the knot.
Clarissa's hoping to fly the coop once her uncle gets in.
Too bad it's another scheme of Lovelace's.
Lovelace asks Clarissa if she still likes him better than
Solmes. Clarissa is all, "Nope."
In this next episode of the Dorcas Files, Lovelace decides
to scapegoat her in front of Clarissa.
He pretends to find the note that Dorcas secretly showed him
and draws his sword on the poor kid.
Clarissa comes out of her room looking sterner than Sam the Eagleand tells him to leave her alone.
Lovelace tries to be all lovey-dovey and asks for Clarissa's
forgiveness, but she's already terrified.
She threatens to kill herself with a penknife if Lovelace
comes any closer. That shuts him down pretty quickly.
Once again, Clarissa has escaped. She took a page from
Lovelace's book and disguised herself as the maid, Mabel. Way to pull the old
switcheroo, Clarissa.
Supposedly, this is right before Lovelace is on the brink of
marrying her. Sure.
Clarissa writes a pretty miserable letter to Anna detailing
her emotional state, but she accidentally sends it straight to Mrs. Howe. This
is not going to end well.
Mrs. Howe writes back and says "Sorry, but you're not
writing to my daughter anymore." What, like Clarissa's a bad example or
something? Gee whiz.
Clarissa tries to get her old servant Hannah to come to her
aid, but Hannah says she can't do it. Come on, people!
As a last resort, Clarissa writes to Mrs. Norton and finds
out more of Lovelace's tricky lies. Turns out her uncle was never planning on
seeing her get married.
Ouch. Just to make sure, Clarissa writes to Lady Betty
Lawrence (Lovelace's cousin) to find out if she was the one who met Clarissa in
town.