Page 49 of Enticed By an Earl
“We do,” Seymour said.
Dev nodded. “Good.”
He turned away from Seymour as dismissively as possible, giving his full attention to Kitty instead.
Seymour wasted no time in leaving. Dev was under no illusion that he would keep to his end of their bargain, in the long term or in the short. He was the last man Dev wanted to trust, but for the next few days, at least, they would be forced to trust him.
“Are you well?” Dev asked Kitty again, throwing caution to the wind and pulling her into his arms.
Kitty let out a heavy breath and sagged against Dev. If not for her bonnet, Dev was certain she would have rested her head against his shoulder to hide from the world. “I do not believe I am well,” she said quietly, eyes downcast. She glanced up at Dev to say, “George will not keep to his word. He wants everything that should be mine, but he wants to see me destroyed even more than that.”
“He will not touch you,” Lady Everly said, as ferociously as a general. “None of that wretched family will touch you. If George says something, we will deny and disavow it.”
“The rumors alone would be enough to enlighten London to the truth,” Kitty lamented.
“Then we will leave London and go elsewhere, as I have said,” Dev insisted, rubbing Kitty’s back for a moment before stepping apart from her and taking her hands. “I swear to you that no matter what happens, we will be safe and we will be together.”
“And what if George tells your family the truth?” Kitty asked, despair painted on her face. “I do not think I could bear it if they found out from someone like George.” He paused, glancing to Lady Everly for a moment, then looked back to Dev. “They should find out from me. I have to tell them. It would be too much of a betrayal to keep the secret from them forever.”
“Are you certain that is wise?” Lady Everly asked, alarmed. “The world is changing every day, but not everyone is amenable to accepting things that they do not understand.”
Dev could see in Kitty’s eyes that she understood what Lady Everly was saying. She understood his position on keeping things from his family as well. He had more faith in his family than Kitty did. His brothers, and likely his father, knew he enjoyed the company of men as much as women, but he did not know if they would extend their understanding as far as Kitty’s nature was concerned.
“We do not have to decide at once,” he said, with a sigh, frustrated that he had found the sort of love his family had always wished for him, only to have it come in the form of someone who would be questioned and very possibly rejected. “We have time before the wedding and time once that is completed and we depart for the country. Somethingmay yet arise that could make the entire situation easier for everyone to understand.”
Kitty glanced to Lady Everly. Clearly, the two of them were not as certain about that possibility as they could have been. At least Kitty had a true friend who was willing to make great sacrifices for her.
“I will agree to wait and see what happens next,” Kitty finally agreed in a quiet voice. “But I worry about what my brother will say and do.”
“He will do nothing for at least a short time, once I give him the money he wants,” Dev insisted, hoping it was true. “Whatever else might happen, we have time.”
“Precious little time,” Kitty said with a sigh. “And I would very much prefer to be honest and forthright with your family, regardless of the consequences. They have been so kind to me and they are owed that much.”
Dev nodded, but he was not certain. He loved his family and believed them to be the very best of people, but discovering who Kitty was might reach the very limits of what they could understand. He feared very much that Kit was right, however, and that they would have to know the truth, perhaps sooner rather than later.
Seventeen
“My, but you look splendid,” Miss Jones said, stepping back from where Kit stood on a small platform, decked in the wedding gown Miss Jones was making for him, for Kitty. “It’s my best work, if I do say so myself.”
“It is beautiful,” Kit said, staring longingly down at himself.
Miss Jones truly had outdone herself. The two of them had pored over drawings from Paris of the latest styles when Kit had gone to her just a fortnight before, the day after his harrowing encounter with George in the churchyard. He’d still been upset and convinced that George would not stay true to his word by keeping Kitty’s secret. Worse still, the encounter had shaken his confidence and left him swinging wildly back and forth between believing he truly could become Kitty and that he was a fool who could not change who he was.
He’d been jittery and jumpy the entire time he’d traveled to Miss Jones’s modiste’s shop, expecting George or some other hired thugs to leap out and slit his throat.
But in the fortnight since the confrontation, nothing had happened. Dev had sent money to George’s account as requested, and not a word had been whispered about the true identity of Miss Kitty Dryden. Beyond that, the banns had been read two more times, and the wedding was now a mere week away. But Kit was still struggling with who he was and who he could be.
“I am certain that you and Lord Deveraux will be the talk of the town this coming week, at your wedding and after,” Miss Jones said, stepping closer to Kit so that she could make a few adjustments to the gown and mark them with pins.
“That is what I am afraid of,” Kit said with a sigh. When Miss Jones looked questioningly but sympathetically up at him, Kit went on with, “I wish only to live a quiet, uninteresting life above any sort of suspicion, but I worry constantly that that will not be possible.”
Miss Jones hummed. “I will allow you the fact that suspicion may always be nipping at your heels,” she said. “But I also vow that I will do everything within my power to avert any suspicion by dressing you impeccably.”
She smiled and stuck another pin in the sleeve of Kit’s gown, then stepped back to regard her work with pride. Kit appreciated the woman more than words could say. She had become a true friend in the weeks since he’d changed his life into Kitty’s, and like Lady Everly, Georgiana, and Alice, he did not know what he would do without her.
That did not stop him from tensing when a sound from the back room of Miss Jones’s shop indicated they were about to be interrupted. Kit braced himself, only to relax when Mr. Wilkes stepped into the front part of the shop.
“Magnificent,” he declared, stopping to glance over Kit from head to toe. “Miss Dryden, you look divine. Clary, you’ve outdone yourself.”
