Page 36 of Enticed By an Earl
Their official courtship began the very next day, when Dev took Kitty for a stroll through Hyde Park. It was not unusual for them to walk together, but what marked that occasion as different was the way Dev paused to introduce Kitty to everyone he knew that they encountered. Kit was terrified, of course, but Kitty was so lovely and so demure that not a soul they encountered suspected anything, or if they did, they did not speak of it.
“You see?” Dev said as they walked home at the end of the afternoon. “People tend to see what they wish to see, what they believe is there to see. It is not just your outward appearance that wins their favor, it is your gentle manner and your good nature.”
“I pray that you are right and that none of the people we’ve spoken to today have gone home to wonder why the good-natured woman that Lord Deveraux Ogilvy is courting wears such thick ribbons around her neck.”
Dev chuckled, even though he knew Kit’s Adam’s apple was a serious concern. At least for Kit. He rather liked the bit of anatomy himself and would often kiss it when they were in bed together.
The true test of Kitty’s identity came only a few days laterwhen Dev’s mother caught him in the downstairs hallway before he rushed off to join Kit at the apartment.
“Word is all over London that my son has found a woman worthy of his attentions at last,” she said, blocking his way to the door. They were at home, so she wore her spectacles and adjusted them before asking, “Is this true?”
There was no sense in denying it. His family would have to know at some point.
“It is, Mama,” he said, unable to hide his smile.
“And why am I the last to hear of it?” she asked, crossing her arms defiantly.
Dev laughed and leaned close to kiss her cheek. “I was merely saving the best introductions for last.”
His mother smiled slyly. “Then you must invite Miss Dryden to supper,” she said with a determined nod.
It was the moment of truth. Dev could not expect to move forward with his plans for a life with Kitty if he did not introduce her to his family in an intimate setting. It was also the sharpest test of whether Kit was convincing enough as Kitty not to expose her true identity. His family would scrutinize Kitty in depth. His mother would know if anything were amiss.
There was no way around it. Dev agreed to bring Kitty to supper in two days’ time.
“This may be the end of everything,” Kitty whispered to Dev as they approached Russell House on the sunny, summer evening of the momentous event. She pulled Dev to a stop and said, “If it goes badly and I am exposed, you have my permission to pretend that I have deceived you and to disavow me.”
“Never,” Dev said, resting one of his hands over Kitty’s as it clutched at his arm while he escorted her. “I will never abandon you, my love.”
Kitty’s eyes went watery at the ferocity of Dev’s statement.It was lovely to watch, in a way, and it softened Kitty’s appearance even more. She truly was convincing as Kitty, most likely because Kitty was the heart and soul of who she was.
They continued on to the house and passed the first hurdle as Channing let them into the front hall without so much as a blink of an eye. Kitty was almost rigid with anxiety on Dev’s arm as they were shown into the parlor where his mother and father, sister Evelyn, and James and his wife, Amelia, were waiting for them.
“My dear, how lovely it is to see you this evening,” Dev’s mother greeted them, rising from her chair and coming over to welcome Kitty with open arms. She wore her spectacles again, which was a certain sign that she intended for Kitty to be considered one of the family. “And Miss Dryden, it is a particular pleasure to welcome you.”
“My lady,” Kitty greeted her, curtsying as perfectly as if she had been born to do it.
“Do come and allow me to introduce you to the rest of the family,” Dev’s mother said without a single sign that she suspected Kitty was not precisely who she said she was. Dev had his worries, since his mother’s vision was sharper with her spectacles, but as of yet, she had not noticed what he and Kitty did not want her to. “We met so very briefly at our ball a fortnight ago, and I regret that I did not better make your acquaintance then.”
Dev’s mother took Kitty away from him to introduce her to Evelyn and Amelia first, then the men. Dev was unendingly proud of the calm that Kitty pretended to have, even though he knew she was bristling with fear the entire time.
It was fascinating to watch the warmth and acceptance with which his family accepted Kitty. She was seated on one of the sofas between Evelyn and Dev’s mother, and throughout the entire time while they waited to be called forsupper, Kitty fielded question after question about who she was and why she had come to London.
Of course, Dev and Kit had spent days concocting their story and rehearsing it so that every detail fell smoothly from their lips. So much depended on creating a world around Kitty that was both unquestionable and convincing. They’d done a smashing job of it, and by the time Channing called them all in for supper, the family had more or less embraced Kitty as one of their own without reservation.
“You are doing marvelously,” Dev whispered to her as they made their way into the dining room. “They have already fallen in love with you as much as I have.”
Kitty sent Dev a worried look all the same. That was enough for Dev to bypass the seating arrangements his mother had decided on to make certain Kitty sat next to him at the supper table.
It was something of a blessing and a curse when the conversation finally turned away from Kitty.
“Has any further information been discovered about Lord Castleton’s whereabouts?” Dev’s father asked in the middle of a discussion of who had returned to their country estates for the summer and who had chosen to stay in London.
Kitty nearly dropped her fork, and her face flushed in alarm at the question.
Dev reached for her thigh under the table, and when she slipped her hand down and into his, he squeezed it in reassurance.
“No one has discovered a thing, last I was informed,” James said with a curious frown. “No one who has been questioned has seen hide nor hair of the man for nearly three weeks.”
