Page 15 of Enticed By an Earl
“This is astounding,” Alice squealed, looking Kitty up and down once they were secluded in the corner. “I never would have guessed it was you had Lady Everly not pointed it out.”
“You are so daring,” Georgiana added with great admiration.
“I feel as though I have taken my life into my hands,” Kitty whispered, pressing a hand to her stomach.
“You may very well have,” Lady Everly said, “if anyone had noticed you.”
“Lord Deveraux certainly seemed to have noticed him…er, her,” Alice said, her cheeks going pink. “Did you see the way he looked at…her?” She glanced around as if to gauge whether anyone was listening to them.
No one was, so Georgiana spoke more freely. “I think he’s smitten,” she said. “How exciting!”
Kitty appreciated her friends’ comments and support, even while thinking they were daft to play along with her. It was Lady Everly’s opinion that truly mattered to her, though. “Do you think I am mad to do this?” she asked.
“Yes, of course,” Lady Everly said, but with the broadest of smiles. She took Kitty’s hand and held it between her own. “I have never seen you look so lovely or so much like yourself.”
Kitty nearly burst into tears, a habit that had grown all too frequent for her of late. Lady Everly had always seen her, truly seen her. She did not have to recognize her or her true self. Truth be told, she should have counseled her to be the man she’d been born to be and not to fly against God’s will by seeking to be someone else, like Kitty imagined nearly everyone else in the world would have. Lady Everly had always seen past the dry strictures uttered from the pulpit to the heart of things that no book, no matter how holy, could contain.
“I feel so…settled,” Kitty whispered. “I am shocked that no one has called me out or stripped me of this gown to reveal the truth underneath.”
“Shocked?” Lady Everly blinked at her. “My dear, you are clearly comfortable as you are now. Why would anyone doubt that you are anything other than what you should be?”
Kitty sent her a flat look that said she should know the answer to that.
Lady Everly shook her head as if Kitty had actually spoken those words and replied with, “Most people are so caught up in their own concerns that they have no space left to meddle in other people’s, unless they affect or benefit them directly. I am certain that if some gentleman of thetonwere to take a fancy to you only to discover you are not who you appear to be, then they would take issue with you. That is the only reason I could imagine anyone denying you this truth about yourself. If it does not affect them, they will not care what you do.”
Kitty was not certain she believed that, but Lady Everly had seen so much more of life than she had.
“Lord Deveraux certainly seems to have been affected by you,” Alice pointed out with an impish grin.
“Is he the sort of man to be bothered by that?” Georgiana asked, her expression indicating that she suddenly understood why Lord Deveraux’s interest in Kitty Dryden might be a bad thing for Kitty in the end.
Lady Everly hummed. “The man does have a chequered reputation,” she said. “He may be more open to variation than society might like.”
It was a strange and potentially volatile comment, but Kitty found herself grasping hold of it and wishing it were true. She had felt a certain kind of heat between them the other night when Lord Deveraux had rescued her as LordCastleton that seemed to hint that Lord Deveraux was open to a great many things.
“What will you do now?” Georgiana asked after a few moments of silence.
“You should stay and enjoy the rest of the ball as our friend,” Alice suggested excitedly. “I am certain a great many more gentlemen would wish to dance with you.”
Kitty blew out a breath. “I do not know if I could,” she said. “One dance with Lord Deveraux was enough to reveal to me that I need a great deal more practice in dancing the female part of the dances I’ve known for years before I will be comfortable with anyone else.”
“So you plan to attend other balls as Miss Dryden?” Georgiana asked.
“We can practice together,” Alice said at the same time.
“I will hire a dancing instructor,” Lady Everly said.
Kitty glanced between her friends, so overcome with gratitude for their acceptance that her throat closed up and she could not speak for a moment. “I do not know if I could do this again,” she managed to whisper hoarsely.
“Of course you must,” Georgiana said, taking her arm like she was her sister. “You were so happy dancing with Lord Deveraux.”
“You must,” Alice echoed.
Truer friends could not be had. Kitty loved hers so dearly.
“I think I need to go home,” she said at last. “Not because I have not enjoyed myself, but because I am thoroughly worn out.”
Georgiana and Alice made disappointed sounds, but Lady Everly nodded as if she agreed.
