Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) (17 page)

“Today, I shall sign the lease on your little house, and we shall go shopping for all the accoutrements a lady needs for her wardrobe, eh? That’s once the mantua maker has come by to measure you.”

Kitty couldn’t believe his generosity. He loved her even more than she could have imagined.

“And I shall have my own maid to attend me?”

He nodded. “Indeed you shall. I’ve already made inquiries.”

“But Nash, there is someone I expressly wish to wait upon me. A friend from past days.”

He frowned. “I would rather I selected someone I could trust, my dear. You are young and may be taken advantage of.”

For a second, Kitty thought he feared she may be taken advantage of by other men. Then she laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I know what to look for in a good servant. Mama always had me interview the maids we employed at home.”

“What a curious past. You’re very secretive. Servants? In your home? Who are you really, Kitty La Bijou?”

Kitty dropped her eyes. One day, she would tell him, just not yet. “I have reinvented myself since coming to London, and that is my secret. But there may be some difficulty in prizing away the lady’s maid I wish to employ, for she has fallen into the clutches of a woman of ill repute. Oh Nash, please say you’ll help me rescue her?”

She’d expected the same willingness to please as he’d shown last night. Instead, his mouth pursed with the indelicacy of the suggestion. “Rescue someone from a house of ill repute? Darling Kitty, I really can’t imagine we’d have such a conversation the very morning after our wonderful reunion.” He rose, smiling to soften his words perhaps. “Let’s talk no more of such unpleasant matters. Are you ready to go forth with me and begin our frenzied round of purchases? I want to show you how much I’ve
really
missed you.”

Kitty was prepared, for the moment, to allow Nash’s wishes to eclipse her desires for finding Dorcas. Clearly, he needed careful managing, and she could not force him to do her bidding.

All she could hope for, now, was that Dorcas wasn’t working in the capacity Silverton presumed. Kitty would bring Nash around soon enough, for she’d accepted she was helpless in aiding her friend, alone, but she’d need to be patient.

Nevertheless, anxiety sapped some of the thrill of promenading along the fashionable shopping streets on Nash’s arm. After acquiring three pairs of Oxford tan gloves, a quantity of feathers, silk shawls, a pair each of dancing slippers and half-kid boots, they finished their expedition with ices at Gunthers before winding up at the sweet little bower Nash had secured for Kitty.

Kitty gasped and clasped her hands disbelievingly. Her own abode. She was equally thrilled when Nash turned her in his arms, kissed her nose and murmured, “Until it’s properly furnished and decorated, and we’ve found you a lady’s maid and a general cook and servant, you must let me look after you.”

“And what might that entail, my Lord?” She sent him an arch look and with a wicked rumble of laughter, he swooped to kiss her before taking her hand and hurrying her up the steps. “I’m afraid it’s not something I can explain to you for all the world to see.”

“M
’lord, yer in all but darkness. Let me find a lamp.”

Silverton barely attended as the maid bustled about, banking up the library fire before fetching the Argand lamp. He was not prone to moods of black despair, but today had started with the very real disappointment that Kitty was not around to share his breakfast with her bright chatter, and had ended with news of the horrifying circumstances surrounding his friend, Lord Calder’s untimely death.

“Cook’s made a fine dinna an’ ‘ere it is, untouched. Are yer poorly, m’lord?”

“Just not in the mood to eat, Mary.” He waved her away. “Please don’t fret. It’s very good of you, but I wish to be left alone to think. And please, no visitors, do you understand?”

He therefore felt a frisson of anger when, an hour later as the snow fell outside and his gloomy mood was exacerbated by the whistling wind that rustled the embers in the fireplace, he heard footsteps in the passage and the door was unceremoniously thrust open.

“I said—” His cross words were arrested by the breathless greeting of his erstwhile houseguest, who hurried across the room and put out her hands in a gesture of entreaty, saying, “Oh Silverton, what a terrible day it’s been! I know I shouldn’t be asking favors of you when you’ve already been so good to me, but you just
have
to help me rescue Dorcas, even if you say she couldn’t be persuaded by you the first time.”

“And good evening to you, too, Kitty. What is this? You’ve left Nash?” He rose, gripping her fingertips as she was about to withdraw her hands, and was conscious of an unexpectedly strong wave of hopefulness that was immediately dashed by her response.

“Indeed not! Nash and I have never got along better.” Extricating herself, Kitty stepped back. The damp air that caused her bright hair to curl about her temples, and her heightened color, made her look like the most exquisite china doll. It was hard to resist the impulse to hold her tight and soak up her warmth and kindness. But she was chattering excitedly, her words not at all what he wanted to hear as she went on, “It was quite the right thing to forgive him for he has been utterly darling to me, and my house is nearly decorated.” She threw her arms wide and did a twirl before him, her face suffused with happiness. “Have you seen the gossip sheets? Lord Summerton is to wed the woman who was his mistress, Mrs. Pinkerton? Yes, indeed! Do you not think I should take heart from a real-life instance of exactly what you say cannot happen to me?”

Silverton took her hand and led her to a sofa, pulling on the bell rope to order tea after Kitty declined what he had to hand on the drinks tray. While he felt ridiculously pleased by her intrusion, he wasn’t going to pander to her false hopes by pretending something other than he thought.

“Kitty dearest,” he said gently, “Lord Summerton is in his dotage with grown children. He cares nothing for society’s opinion—which will be condemnatory. He can afford to thumb his nose at society and do as he pleases.” He took a seat beside her and stroked her hair to soften his words. “Lord Nash might prefer you above all others, but he will marry for expediency. He will marry for dynastic considerations. You cannot blind yourself to the truth.”

Kitty’s sigh tugged at his heartstrings. She’d not objected to the hair stroking which he’d ceased, for he found it created a whirlpool of raging desire which he was clearly never going to be able to act upon; but now she gripped his hand, holding it upon her knee as if unaware of the effect this had upon him and said, “You shan’t dissuade me that it’s possible, but that’s not what I came here to talk about. I came here because I urgently need your help.”

“To rescue Dorcas? Why, Kitty, I’m not saying I won’t help you, but I’ve already tried once, and I can’t
force
her to go with me.” He knew he was resorting to low tactics to hear her say Nash wasn’t prepared to help her, while she believed Silverton clearly would. And indeed, Silverton would. Yes, he would try again. Any opportunity to be surrounded by her cheerful chatter was worth an investment of his time.

“You see, Nash is terribly busy right now, besides which he’s naturally wary of venturing near such a place in case it casts aspersions on his character.”

Silverton chuckled. “That’s what he told you?” Nash was more likely concerned at being recognized as one of Mrs. Montgomery’s regular clientele.

“Yes, but you will help me, won’t you?” She brushed aside his ironic chuckle, clearly pretending she did not understand. Or, turning a blind eye. Kitty, he noticed, had a charming way of seeing only the best in a person. She drew herself up. “I’ve been to Maggie Montgomery’s house and watched the gentlemen go in and out.”

Silverton raised an eyebrow. “Gentlemen?”

Kitty blushed. “If I wasn’t so desperate, knowing that Dorcas was a prisoner inside such a...place, and that such shocking, terrible things may be happening to her, I don’t think I could bring myself to even allude to Mrs. Montgomery’s establishment for what it is. But the truth is, I am powerless to get her out of there alone. I’ve asked and asked Nash, and he won’t do anything. So now, between you and me, Lord Silverton, we must be her saviors.”

The grim reality and desperation of her friend’s plight aside, Silverton couldn’t help smiling at Kitty’s earnestness. No, not earnestness so much as faith in him. When he thought of it like that he was warmed by a wonderful glow of satisfaction.

“You know, Kitty, I think saving your friend from vice and iniquity is just the tonic I need. Yes, your arrival has bolstered my mood enormously.”

She looked surprised, and instinctively put up her hand to cup his cheek. “Poor Lord Silverton, yes, I see now that you are tired and perhaps low in spirits. I’m sorry I didn’t notice before. Is there anything I can do to help?”

As there was not—short of suggesting Kitty might like to switch camps and transfer her affections from Nash to Silverton—Silverton shook his head.

“But what has happened? Please tell me.”

Her large, brilliantly blue eyes were so full of sympathy, he had to resist very strongly the urge to take her in his arms and place her head against his chest, just for the catharsis it would be to feel her womanly body pressed against his. Comfort. That’s all he wanted, he told himself, knowing he wanted so much more, in fact.

“A very dear friend of mine took his own life last night.” Silverton reached for a scrap of paper which lay upon the arm of his chair and waved it at her. “This is the reason.”

Kitty took it, was quiet while she scanned its contents, then, with a gasp, handed it back to Silverton. “Poor Lord Calder. But...surely he could have denied it?”

Silverton sighed. “There are sufficient rumors involving his Lordship’s...proclivities...and his association with pretty young men that he’d not be believed. This was the nail in his coffin.”

Kitty shook her head. “Who wrote it?”

“I only wish I knew. A scurrilous, muckraking, pamphleteer. When I last saw Calder, he inferred he was being blackmailed. I told him to hold firm against emptying his pockets, believing the blackguard responsible would find more fertile valleys to plumb. So, you see, in light of what’s happened, I feel responsible.”

“You mustn’t!” Again in that impulsive, familiar manner Kitty adopted toward him, she squeezed his hands. “But...”

“What?”

“I admit, I don’t really understand the love of a man for a man. I mean, it’s not possible to...”

“What?”

“Do more than just say words of love. So the fact that it should be punishable by death seems very extreme.”

Silverton was not about to pursue a topic on which Kitty clearly knew nothing, so he said, “Lord Calder was a kind and gentle soul, and I failed him. But by God, I intend to find out who’s behind the muckraking.”

“Nash knows someone who’s being blackmailed, so there’s a lot of it going about. Quite the fashionable thing to do it would seem.”

Silverton narrowed his eyes to discern if she were being ironic or naïve, and quickly decided it was the latter. With her innocent looks and ingenuous manner, it was hard to envisage her as the defiled and ruined creature society would regard her. She’d been born from sin, and had willingly pursued sin.

Ironically, Silverton thought she was a great deal more refreshingly guileless than many of the debutantes of spotless reputation with whom he was acquainted; Miss Bunting included.

He rose and began to pace. “So it would seem. Well, you let me know who it is Nash knows is being blackmailed and who he thinks is behind it, and we can get a little closer to apprehending the perpetrator...or perhaps I’ll be next.”

“Are you guilty of a terribly serious misdemeanor, Lord Silverton?” Kitty slipped her hand through the crook of his arm, matching her steps to his. “I thought you were the perfect gentleman in every respect. You certainly seem that way to me.”

“Why, thank you, Kitty. I could kiss you for expressing such a beautiful and generous sentiment.”

“But of course, you can’t for that would make Nash terribly jealous.”

He slanted a look at her. “Undoubtedly, it would make Nash jealous. Is that the greatest of your concerns?” He stopped and grinned.

He was expecting some lighthearted response, and was surprised at the way she colored up, turning her head away. Dear Lord, perhaps she truly did harbor feelings for him. The thought was more bolstering than he’d believed possible. Pressing his advantage, he went on, “And, of course, Nash could only be jealous if he knew, besides which, he hasn’t exactly shown himself to be the faithful type.”

Instantly, he realized he’d gone too far. She dropped her hand from his arm, and her voice was gruff. “I thought you were my friend, Lord Silverton.”

Cross with himself, he tried to rectify the situation. “I’m sorry, Kitty. Please, forgive me. I shall be more careful in future.”

“I shall forgive you, but it hurts me to think that you believe Nash a lesser man because he succumbed to Jennie’s lures. Surely it’s no different to your Miss Bunting succumbing to the offer of marriage from another gentleman after she’d given you reason to believe she favored you? Yet you’d forgive her if she changed her mind and begged you to marry her after all.”

“There is more than a little difference in the two examples, Kitty.” Silverton led her to the fireplace where she rested against the mantelpiece, staring at the decorative plaster ceiling while he lounged as close as he dared, pretending a more lighthearted demeanor than he felt. “Let us drop all talk of Nash, for I do not like to hear how wonderful he is when it only makes me want what he has.”

Kitty laughed, immediately animated. “It’s very nice to hear such flattery, but you’re only saying it because you’ve not found someone to replace Miss Bunting, and you want to feel loved and manly. Just know that you can’t win me from Nash if you’re not about to make me a marriage offer. There,” she challenged, “after what you’ve been telling me, that should make you turn tail and run.”