Page 38 of Enticed By an Earl
Dev tensed and used the excuse of downing another mouthful of brandy to consider his answer. Part of him was inclined to deny any knowledge of Castleton. A greater partof him understood that it was best to stay as close to the truth as possible.
“I do not know much,” he began cautiously, “but I can tell you that there were two men following Castleton that day.”
James frowned slightly. “Yes, I do seem to remember that,” he said. He hummed with concern and shook his head. “Now I am more worried for the man than ever. I fear the worst.”
“Scotland Yard will sort it,” Dev’s father said. “I have been mightily impressed at the courage and fortitude of those Peelers. It is my understanding that crime has greatly decreased since they came to be.”
“Not all crime,” James pointed out. “They were not able to save Castleton, if that is, indeed, what has happened to the poor man.”
“Yes, but they have done a great deal in other areas,” Dev’s father went on.
Dev was glad to let the conversation turn to a discussion of the merits of the Met. Anything that could keep Kitty out of any sort of discussion was a good thing, as far as he was concerned.
He was relieved to be reunited with Kitty fifteen minutes later and even more relieved to take her home. He could not do that until his mother pulled him aside and had a word with him, though.
“My darling, I just wanted to congratulate you on your find,” she whispered to Dev as Kitty was helped into her wrap and bonnet at the other side of the front hall. “She is the essence of charm and grace, which is quite unlike the women you have kept company with of late.”
His mother’s eyes held teasing, but Dev took that as a very good sign indeed. If she had suspected anything at all, she would not have eyed him like it was already time to order food for the wedding breakfast.
“Kitty is very much unlike any woman I have keptcompany with,” he said, not even meaning it as a concealed joke. “Which is why I feel as though my ship has found its home harbor at last.”
His mother smiled as if she had given him a magnificent gift. “It is a pity she has no family left,” she said, keeping with the story they’d told about Kitty’s origins. “I would very much have liked to invite them to stay with us in the country for a time. As it is, perhaps I should invite Lady Everly as her patroness. It has been too long since I have called on Lady Everly in any case.”
“Then you should call on her,” Dev said. He leaned in to kiss his mother’s cheek, partially as a way to end the conversation so that he could whisk Kitty home. “Let me know when you do.”
His mother was gracious. The entire family was kind and warm as they said their goodbyes to Kitty and saw her and Dev out the door.
“And there you have it,” Dev said, smiling as though he’d solved a riddle. “My family adores Kitty and is ready to accept you as one of their own.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kitty sighed, shaking her head. “I never knew families could be so…kind.”
Dev’s heart came close to breaking with those words. Kitty truly deserved more than she’d gotten in life. Fortunately, with the first hurdle crossed, it was growing increasingly likely that he’d be able to give Kitty everything she had always dreamed of and more.
Thirteen
Supper at Russell House exceeded Kit’s expectations in so many ways. He’d gone into the evening terrified and convinced that Dev’s entire family would see through him in an instant. Surely, the ribbon around his neck was not enough to conceal the basic feature of anatomy that gave him away. The wig Lady Everly had loaned him was lovely, but to his eyes, it was clearly a wig. And even though his face was smooth, it stood to reason that anyone looking at him would see it was masculine in shape.
But if the glimpses he’d caught of himself in the mirrors at Russell House were accurate, his features no longer looked strictly masculine, even under his own scrutiny. The wig was styled fashionably and fit him well. Even the slope of his shoulders took on a feminine appearance in the gown Miss Jones constructed for him.
More than anything, Kit was convinced that his natural mannerisms and years of conversing about topics that interested women with Lady Everly, Georgiana, and Alice carried him through the most important test of all, his half hour alone with Dev’s mother, sister, and sister-in-law.
“They adored you,” Dev said a week later, as the two of them dressed for the last ball of the extremely protracted season, hosted by Lord and Lady Bradshaw. “Mother cannot stop talking about how sweet and lovely you were. She begs me to invite you for supper again nearly every morning before I leave the house, and I am certain she’s sent Lady Everly invitations to tea.”
“She has,” Kit said, smiling at Dev in the looking glass above the vanity, where he was styling his wig while it sat upon his head. He’d been styling it on its stand thus far, but as his hair grew, he knew the time would come when he would need to change the way he cared for its style. Unless he hired a maid.
The prospect of hiring a maid for Kitty both thrilled and terrified him. It would be impossible to hide the truth from a maid.
“It is a pity the entire family, without me, of course, is decamping for Pewsey Park by the end of the week or I would expect you to begin spending more time at Russell House than here,” Dev said, moving over to rest his hands on Kit’s shoulders and to lean down to kiss his neck.
Kit felt himself blush from his neck up. Dev was so miraculously wonderful with him. Not only did his hero accept him exactly as he was, there were times when Kit swore that Dev truly believed he was Kitty.
And he was, she was. At least deep in the parts of him, of her, that mattered. But feeling the depth and breadth of that acceptance from someone like Dev, someone brave and powerful with a reputation for being a rake, was more than she’d ever thought she could wish for in her life.
“If society comes to accept Kitty as one of their own, I will not only be able to take tea with your mother and sisters whenever they call on me, but I might be able to hope for more,” she said, finishing with the last of the pins in her hair,then swiveling on her stool to face Dev. “I might be able to have the life I never thought was possible.”
“You will have all of that and more, my dear,” Dev said, bending down to kiss Kitty thoroughly. He stood and finished with, “You will be able to have everything.”
“But what about you?” Kitty asked, standing and moving to where her ballgown for the evening waited on the bed. “What do you want out of our connection? What do you want out of life?”
