Page 24 of Enticed By an Earl
“Gracious!” Mrs. Torrance said, clasping a hand to her bosom. She looked at Kit with different, kinder eyes, but also with clever assessment.
“Lord Castleton and I have only just evaded two would-be assassins in Hyde Park,” Dev went on, though he was well aware that his words sounded like a gothic novel. “I thought it best to bring my friend here as quickly as possible so that he might find some respite, and so that he might make certain decisions about how he wishes to proceed from here.”
“Yes, of course,” Mrs. Torrance said, starting toward Kit with a mothering air. “You poor thing. You will be safe under Lord Deveraux’s roof. He owns this entire building and lets the rooms to those who truly need them.”
Dev blushed slightly at the way Mrs. Torrance framed his landlording tendencies as something altruistic. In fact, theproperties he owned throughout London and the income he had from them provided a generous addition to his finances since, unlike his brother James, he did not have an estate with an income of his own.
“I thank you for your kindness,” Kit told Mrs. Torrance, clearly bristling with awkwardness. “I have yet to fully discuss the matter with Lord Deveraux, however. There are some…extenuating circumstances.”
“Put those aside,” Mrs. Torrance said with a wave of her hand. “Why are we put here on this earth if not to help our neighbors when they are in need? Whatever circumstances are troubling you, they can be forgotten.”
“I do not know,” Kit said, looking uneasily at Dev.
There was much still to discuss, and Dev knew it.
“Perhaps a spot of tea would be the thing,” he told Mrs. Torrance. “And some of those jam tarts you excel at?”
Mrs. Torrance’s mouth quirked slightly. “I will make a batch fresh for you,” she said.
Bless the woman for knowing when two people needed to be alone to discuss delicate matters.
“All will be well,” she told Kit, patting his arm as she turned to go. “You are in the very best of hands now.”
She sent Dev a final smile before leaving the two of them alone.
Kit blew out a breath and took a step forward, like he would sink into the settee placed near the center of the room. “My head is spinning,” he said, choosing to pace and look around the room instead. “Where are we? What is this place?”
“Er, to be honest, these are the rooms where my mistress lives,” Dev said, wincing slightly. He did not know why it mattered to him that Kit knew about Marianne and the women who had come before her. He had never worriedabout the new object of his fancy knowing he’d been a man of the world in the past.
Perhaps it was the fact that he did fancy Kit, more than he had yet examined, that had him so much on the back foot.
Kit had been glancing around at the room’s admittedly ostentatious decoration, but he whipped to face Dev with wide eyes. “Your…mistress?” He swallowed, then quickly added, “Is she here now? Will she return? Will she mind that I am here?”
“Settle yourself,” Dev said, striding across the room to stand in front of Kit. He grasped Kit’s arms to steady him before he could stop himself. “I do not have a mistress at present. These rooms have always belonged to whomever fulfilled that role, if they required rooms, that is.”
“You do not have a mistress,” Kit said, looking pointedly at Dev. “But you have had them in the past.”
“Correct,” Dev said, unable to shake the sheepish feeling his admission gave him.
“Oh,” Kit said. He glanced down and gently pulled away from Dev’s hold. “I see.”
Dev frowned, then sucked in a breath when he thought he understood the cause of Kit’s disappointment. “I have also been known to enjoy the company of other men,” he said bluntly. They had passed the point of politeness at any rate.
Kit snapped another wide-eyed look up at him. “You have?” he asked, his tone strangled but his eyes bright with hope.
Dev laughed. “Come. Sit with me so that we might discuss things.”
He started over to the settee, then took a seat, patting the cushion beside him.
Kit moved warily to sit on the other end of the settee, as stiff as a board. “I…I believe I am as confused now as I ever was,” he said, folding his hands demurely in his lap.
For a moment, Dev just sat there, watching him and adoring everything he saw. Kit’s awkwardness should not have charmed him the way it did. He was not a cruel-hearted man, but there was something powerful in knowing that he had Kit in a tizzy. He liked it because he knew he had the power to alleviate his lovely friend’s fears.
“There is no need for confusion,” he said, sliding slightly closer to Kit. “I own this building, and at present, these rooms are free. You will be perfectly safe living here until you decide what you would like to do about your father and his murderous intentions.”
“He will not give up his attempts on my life until he has what he wants,” Kit said, his eyes filled with fear and sadness. “He has already effectively destroyed any hope I might have had to live.”
“That is not true,” Dev said, stretching his arm along the settee until his hand rested close to the small of Kit’s back. “You have a life right here, whatever you wish to make of it.”
