Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) (27 page)

“He’s already said that could never be possible.”

Dorcas gaped. “But if ‘e did ask, would yer rather marry Lord Silverton?”

“Dorcas, is this the Inquisition? I love Lord Nash. He’s the man I am destined to wed.”

“Destined? I reckon yer told me that afore yer even met ‘im. That yer were destined ter marry a ‘andsome lord wiv a scar below ‘is right eye. But I don’t believe in ‘em fortune-tellers. I reckon it’s Lord Silverton yer wanna marry.”

“Well, Lord Silverton isn’t asking and Lord Nash is, and I’ve been sinning with Lord Nash for all the time I’ve been in London, so there’s really no choice for me, Dorcas. Now stop all this silly talk and... ” Kitty leaped up, determined to be happy, for Dorcas had dented her pleasure somewhat. “...come with me to see how my wedding dress is progressing. Oh, but I’m so delighted you’re here to stay! You shall be my lady’s maid, but we’ll be the best of friends, and you’ll come and live with me when Lord Nash can acknowledge our wedding, won’t you?”

Dorcas smiled. “Course I will, miss. I’ll go with yer whereva yer want me ter. I shan’t forget what I owes yer.”

“You don’t owe me anything. Now, call Minnie for me, will you, while I get dressed, and then she can organize a room for you to sleep. And it’s too marvelous that I don’t, in fact, have to be at the theater tonight.”

“Could I see yer at the theater like I one day said I would?”

“Of course, you can! But I’ll want to be the best I can be for the night you grace our performance with your presence.” Kitty smiled, feeling happier by the minute. It was so lovely to have a friend, and she often felt lonely when Nash was out for the evening. “In fact, you can help me with my lines. I have a new part, and I’m struggling to remember the words of the scene that comes after the lovers make up. I’m not so fond of my leading man, and although that shouldn’t matter to a professional, it’s certainly much easier when you like the person you’re pretending to make up to.”

Dorcas giggled. “Yer want me to play the part o’ yer leadin’ man?”

“Yes, I want you to say his lines. I’m not going to kiss you, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”

Dorcas clapped her hands and laughed. “Oh, lawks, Miss Kitty, I should ‘ope not. But now yer’ve made me remember what it is ter feel ’appy!”

“And I’m so happy you are here, too,” Kitty responded as she reached beneath her bed, then handed Dorcas a dog-eared script. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. Lord Silverton tried so hard to get you away from Maggie Montgomery’s, but it seems you worked out your contractual obligations to Mrs. Montgomery without our help.”

A shadow crossed Dorcas’s face and she dropped her head, prompting Kitty to say quickly, “We won’t talk about it if you don’t want to. Now you just have to forget about everything that happened in that dreadful place.” She came behind Dorcas and pointed over her shoulder to a place halfway down the first page. “You can read, can’t you? We’ll just practice a scene, and then I won’t feel guilty about going out on the town with you.”

But there was too much giggling and reminiscing for any worthwhile practice to come out of the exercise, and soon Kitty gave up the idea in favor of ice at Gunther’s followed by showing Dorcas the sights.

Her greatest pleasure, however, was taking her to see the exquisite wedding gown that was being made at a dressmaker’s above a shop in Regent Street.

“What do you think?” she asked, as she stepped out in a confection of silver embroidered netting over a cream underdress with a long train, held up by the dressmaker and three assistants.

“Oh, Miss Kitty, but ain’t yer a sight fer sore eyes. ‘Is Lordship will think he’s marryin’ a fairy sprite. Ain’t yer jest the most exquisite creature what ever walked the earth.”

“You’ll quite turn my head if you keep on in that vein. Not that my head isn’t already turned the way Nash is forever complimenting me.”

“So ‘e’s not ever done the dirty on yer like...like when yer was so upset that time yer saw me.”

Kitty couldn’t meet Dorcas’s eye. Remembering how he’d strayed had been the most painful experience of her young life, but not only must she forget it, she must make sure everyone else did, too. “Lord Nash made one lapse, and he says he would have sliced his wrists if he could only turn the clock back,” Kitty said determinedly, her thoughts dwelling uncomfortably on his passionate avowals the night after she’d found him in bed with Jennie. “Since then, he has been the most true and faithful of men, and perhaps it was even a good thing for him to realize how nearly he lost me. Goodness, it’s getting late. I’d better change.”

“Yer was one to look on the bright side, miss, an’ I’d ‘ate to see yer disappointed so I’ll offer me blessin’, that I will.” Dorcas followed her to the screen where she helped Kitty out of her gown after the dressmaker had made a few tiny adjustments. “Maybe we could stop by Lord Silverton’s on our way ‘ome an’ let ‘im know me own good news,” she added hopefully.

Kitty bit her lip. She wasn’t at all sure that going to Lord Silverton’s was a good idea. She knew he’d be disappointed she was marrying. Then she decided there’d be a certain amount of pleasure in proving him wrong; and that while
he
might not be prepared to marry her, Lord Nash was.

With this determining her, she and Dorcas made their way to Lord Silverton’s townhouse and found him surveying the plants on his balcony. He looked up, startled, as they were announced, before hurrying across to take Kitty’s hands in his, and offering Dorcas a warm smile.

“My afternoon is complete,” he said. “I pinked Lord Ludbridge at fencing this afternoon, and now my two favorite ladies have come to pay me a visit. I was going to ask to what do I owe this pleasure but seeing you, Dorcas, makes it clear that question is redundant.”

He was clearly in buoyant spirits as a result of seeing them, and when Kitty anxiously inquired if they’d waylaid him on his way out, he said he’d far rather spend the evening in their company than carousing with Lord Debenham.

“Are you and he truly such friends?” Kitty asked, screwing up her nose as they sat in a cluster of comfortable armchairs about the drawing room fire. She gathered her courage to tell him what Dorcas had warned her about; that Debenham mistrusted Silverton, though all gambling men must experience ebbs and flows in their feelings toward those whom fortune favored one week, then abandoned the next. There surely couldn’t be anything sinister in the note Daisy had found and besides?

“We’ve known one another a long time, and it’s become habit more than anything else. Especially since Lady Debenham has been...indisposed, leaving him more than unusually to his own devices.”

Kitty heard Dorcas sniff at this and asked, “I hear Lady Debenham gave birth several weeks ago to a lovely baby boy. Lord Debenham must be vastly pleased. And did you know I am to marry Lord Nash?” she added in a rush, for she really had no wish to dwell on news which she felt he’d receive with none of the enthusiasm she’d hope he might have.

She was correct in her assumptions. He stopped short in the middle of his sentence and stared at her. “Lord Nash has made you an offer of matrimony?” he repeated.

“He has, and before you make assumptions as to whether it is an honest offer, let me tell you that I’m not a babe in the woods, Lord Silverton. I have ensured he is true to his word. And I have verified that it is indeed to be according to the rule of law and the church, exactly a week from now.”

“In that case, we will have to celebrate? Perhaps a glass of my best Madeira for you ladies?” But he said it after a pause and with forced gaiety, rising with his long-legged grace to go to the sideboard.

“An’ me?” squeaked Dorcas in surprise as he handed her a glass.

Kitty looked at her over the top. “Of course, Dorcas. You might be my maid but you are also my friend, and I am hardly a conventional friend of Lord Silverton’s. If I were a proper, respectable young lady like the one Lord Silverton was courting when we first came to London, we’d certainly not be alone with him and drinking Madeira in his drawing room.” Kitty grinned at Lord Silverton. “I might not be the kind of young lady a gentleman like you can marry, but there are advantages to not being respectable if it means we can enjoy pleasant cozes like this.” She turned to Dorcas. “Aren’t I the luckiest girl, Dorcas? I have you, my dearest female friend in all the world back with me, and I’m drinking Madeira with Lord Silverton, my dearest male friend in all the world, and in five days’ time I will be marrying Lord Nash who, like Lord Hamilton, loves me so much he is prepared to marry beneath him.”

It was a small victory when Lord Silverton reacted with mild indignation. “You phrase it as if Lord Nash is somehow a better man for flouting convention, whereas I am too concerned with my own position. Kitty...” He shook his head. “If I were not so concerned for the inevitable pain it would cause so many around me, not least the children who might be born from a marriage to—”

“An illegitimate and common actress?”

“To someone not in the same social class, Kitty, that’s what I meant to say, and I don’t espouse such snobbery lightly. There are dynastic considerations, the well-being of my aged mother, and prospects that our children would be shunned—”

“Our children, Lord Silverton?” Kitty looked at him askance.

“For goodness’ sake, Kitty, you know that if you were the daughter of....” He waved his hands in the air as he clearly sought inspiration, “Lord Partington, for example, there would be no impediment to my marrying you. But ladies like Miss Araminta Partington marry men like Lord Debenham. I am of that closely prescribed world where it is not possible to follow my heart if it will cause family disruptions, and threaten the viability of a family estate that has taken centuries and generations to build up.”

Kitty’s heart was still beating wildly as she answered softly, “No, you’d have stepped into Lord Nash’s shoes and made me your mistress instead. But Lord Nash is marrying me. He’s thumbing his nose at convention, and is prepared to take on the wrath of his parents and the potential opprobrium of society—”

“Please, Kitty!” Lord Silverton rose abruptly. “I’m sorry for my failings, and I’m also very happy for your good fortune, provided you are entirely sure Nash is playing an honest hand.”

Kitty rose also, tears threatening and with the desire to tell him who her father was but Dorcas leaped up, intervening with, “Lord Silverton, please would yer practice a few lines with me mistress. We bin tryin’ ter get it right this mornin’ an’ it jest won’t come easy ter Miss Kitty fer she don’t like her leadin’ man.”

Her eager entreaty defused the situation, and Lord Silverton chuckled. “I should like that very much,” he agreed, adding when Dorcas thrust the script under his nose, “Well, Kitty, it looks like Dorcas has come prepared. All right, just a few lines, eh? Like in the old days.” He scanned the several pages quickly, glanced at Dorcas, and said with quirked mouth, “Dorcas, perhaps you’d like to go into the kitchens, and Cook can find you something to eat.”

Indignantly, Kitty put her hands on her hips and declared, “You just saw there was a...a kissing scene, my Lord, and you seek to take advantage—”

Lord Silverton raised one eyebrow. “Are you not a professional, Miss La Bijou? Surely you would not envisage me as anyone other than your counterpart in this production?”

Kitty sighed with frustration. “I told Dorcas we shouldn’t come here.”

He looked hurt. “You did? So it wasn’t your idea to come here? Do you know how crushing that is? In that case, I insist that I oblige. You seem less than pleased with the turn the conversation has taken so I must render an honest service.” His look gentled as he took a step forward and reached for her hands. “Truly, Kitty, I am immensely pleased for you, and look forward to meeting you in fashionable drawing rooms and to dancing with you in London’s finest ballrooms. I won’t deny I’m mighty jealous of your Lord Nash.”

“It might be a little time before we can officially announce the marriage,” Kitty mumbled. “Lord Nash’s grandfather is unwell. But it will be a completely legal union,” she added hastily. “You might consider me foolish and naïve, but I’ve made very sure it will be legal.”

Silverton squeezed her hands. “I don’t consider you either foolish or naïve. I’m exceedingly impressed by your determination to forge your own way in life. And I’m very happy that you and Dorcas were able to orchestrate her leaving that dreadful place when I could not, though I went to visit the old Abbess the other week for that precise purpose, and even offered a sizeable inducement.”

Kitty gasped. “
That
was the reason you were there?”

Silverton chuckled. “I do not choose to
buy
my pleasure, Kitty. No, I asked Mrs. Montgomery to name a sum to release Dorcas and she promised she would. However, I then received a letter from her, which, to my great surprise, declined my offer. She told me Dorcas was too happy in her present situation.”

“Really?” She blinked. “Well, I can’t tell you how much I’m filled with disgust to think men would pay to do such things with the poor women who work there,” Kitty said. “Do they not have other diversions?”

“The sexual urge is a powerful one, I grant you. There, I’ve shocked you, and indeed that pleases me for I wanted to see what made you blush.”

“Of course, I’m shocked, but disappointed too, for you’d never say such a thing in front of a lady.”

“You’re an actress, Kitty. You’ve made your bed.”

She nodded, sadly. “It’s true. Now, let us waste no more time. I can’t tarry so if you’d be so kind as to go through the next two pages, I’d be most grateful.”

The part Lord Silverton was to play was a besotted swain who resorts to all manner of humorous and devious means to win the heart of his true love. The scene they were to re-enact placed the two of them in confrontational attitudes in the middle of a drawing room.

Lord Silverton stepped back and looked down at his script. “I believe you begin, Miss La Bijou.”

Kitty, who was trying to do this without a script, threw her arms wide. “You have wounded me mortally, my Lord. Do you consider me so beneath you that you’d cast my heart to the wind?”