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Wearily, she took out her sketchbook and flipped through the pages of drawings she’d made of Lord Beecham’s various associates who’d come to the house. None of them had been of any interest according to Lord Carmody, who had counseled patience.
But how patient could a girl be when weeks had stretched into months, and nothing had happened? When Lissa had first taken up residence under Lord Beecham’s roof after her previous disastrous situation as governess to the social-climbing Lamonts, she’d thought a new life of excitement awaited her. Ralph and she would soon join each other as husband and wife, their reward for the success of their noble quest to establish Lord Debenham as the key architect on the attempt on Lord Castlereagh’s life. Now she realized that as a mere governess, and a woman, she’d simply been relegated, once again, to dull, dusty domesticity—more a prisoner than she’d ever been.
She was about to undress when she heard a noise at the window. Instantly she flew across the room to push up the sash, and her heart swelled with joy to see the moonlight shining upon the boyish smile of her beloved Ralph angled up at her from where he stood upon the pavement.
Signaling him to wait, she ran to fetch paper, and quickly scribbled him a note that she wanted to go down and see him but when he received it, he shook his head, his expression concerned. Ralph sometimes made impromptu visits, but they rarely got closer than blowing each other goodnight kisses.
If ever Lissa needed Ralph’s comforting common sense, it was now.
Ignoring him, Lissa slipped out of her room, descended four flights of back stairs and ran into the garden. When she was finally in his arms, her cheek pressed against his after he’d kissed her with great feeling, she whispered, “I’m so glad to see you, Ralph. I’ve never felt more in need of your bolstering company, for truth to tell, I really am not possessed of the good character needed to bear with my insufferable charge, much less her exacting employer and his ghastly female friend.” She twined her arms about his neck and sighed, “But I know I have to.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, dearest girl,” Ralph said with a look of the greatest consternation as he set her away from him. “You are brave and the most courageous female I have ever met, and you entered into this plan because I couldn’t support you as I would wish, but also in the hope we could be together. But if that is taking longer than either of us can bear—and believe me, I can hardly get through each day without seeing you while my thoughts are of you constantly—then we will find another way, even if it means we must live in straitened circumstances until I receive the advance I know is forthcoming.”
Lissa hugged him tighter. Her heart felt suddenly too big for her chest, and Lissa was not one who was prone to overwhelming feelings. Except where Ralph was concerned. “You know I would not risk the promotion we know will soon be yours, and that indeed to give into my foolish weakness might compromise—”
“Hush, we are both clever and enterprising, and for that reason, I am certain that whatever path we choose will compromise nothing.” He traced her cheek with his forefinger. In the moonlight, his boyish features had never looked more manly or heroic. “Now, go back upstairs because I do worry about you. Lady Julia is too busy to come looking for you perhaps, but Miss Martindale might.”
Lissa broke away and nodded sadly. “I fear I am of little use here, though one snippet that may be of interest is that Lord Beecham mentioned the Princess Caroline’s name in the same breath as Debenham’s, though it may be nothing. However, I learned of the terrible situation my sister is in, and I wish I could unburden my heart, Ralph, but I’ll save it for another night. Suffice to say that poor Kitty has got herself into a scandalous situation. She might have been legally married to Lord Nash if not for her foolish, impulsive ways, but now she’s compromised herself, forced into becoming a rich man’s…mistress…” she nearly choked on the word “…to survive. There’s more. Worse. I’ll save it for later, but suffice to say that Kitty must be the most wretched, unhappy girl alive.”
Chapter 2
Kitty La Bijou, wearing only her stockings and the magnificent sapphire and diamond necklace her handsome lover had gifted her several weeks previously, arched her foot elegantly and placed it upon Silverton’s shoulder as he drank the last of the champagne from her bellybutton.
Afternoon light flooded exuberantly into the room, and across the sumptuous four-poster where the lovers were enjoying their latest tryst, burnishing Kitty’s hair like gold.
“Dear Lord, but I think I must be the happiest young woman in the entire world, Silverton darling,” Kitty purred as she tickled his ears and stroked his brown curls back from his forehead with her toes. “If I were your wife I’d have to obey you, and I wouldn’t have nearly such an exciting time of it. Of marriage, I mean. I certainly don’t think we’d be doing what we’re doing now with such abandon if I were your wife because I’d be forever worried about the servants. Ooh, yes, I like what you’re doing. Just a little lower, if you please.”
After another standing ovation and brilliantly received performance, Kitty had flown into the arms of her beloved Silverton, who’d been waiting backstage to escort her to the townhouse he’d leased for her, just as he had done every night for the past month since she’d fled from the altar where she’d so nearly committed herself to Nash.
She closed her eyes and gave herself up to the rapture of Silverton’s languid kisses from her bellybutton to the core of her pleasure. Never had she imagined such bliss, such happiness, as she enjoyed in the company of this kind, funny, loving, charming man.
When Silverton finally emerged from between her legs, Kitty was breathless with need, pulling him up impatiently and helping to guide him inside her.
Silverton needed no urging. His own pleasure was clearly at breaking point, and in a repeat of their happy lovemaking, they sated themselves in each other’s arms as they curled up beneath the covers.
“Are you going to stay the whole night?” Kitty asked sleepily in the aftermath, stroking his cheek. “Do say you will.”
Silverton kissed her fingertips, and then her neck. “I shall stay the whole night tonight, tomorrow night, and every night—”
“Until Miss Mandelton arrives in London. Or, at least until you walk up the aisle with her.” Kitty raised her face to the ceiling and sighed. “No, no, please don’t think I’m complaining. You rescued me, and it was providence for I’m far happier as your mistress than I would have been as Nash’s wife.”
“Do you truly mean that, Kitty?” Silverton rolled onto his stomach and looked earnestly at her.
Kitty’s sigh was bittersweet. Darling Silverton had the loveliest eyes of any of the stage lovers into whose rapt faces she’d gazed during her eight months as London’s most celebrated actress. And he was, without doubt, the kindest and most earnest and principled man she’d ever met.
Despite her mixed feelings, she smiled. In fact, she’d barely stopped smiling this last month they’d been together. “You told me right from the time we met that men like you are not situated to choose people like me as a wife. Even my own father made clear at Nash’s and my ‘almost’ wedding that the stain on my birth precludes me from moving in exalted circles.” Kitty’s greatest sadness was that her father, Lord Partington, had never acknowledged her as his daughter, though she’d grown up seeing him almost every day. Having long accepted that she could never aspire to a respectable marriage, Lord Nash’s offer had seemed too good to be true. So much so that when Lord Nash’s father and Kitty’s own father had stomped into the church and announced that it was too good to be true, Kitty had crumbled with shame inside, and believed them rather than Nash’s urgent declarations that he really was going to make an honest woman of her.
Lord, it had been a debacle, and yes, she’d thrown away her one and only chance for a respectable marriage, but she’d not trade places to be anywhere other than with her darling Silverton. She smiled again, this time even more brightly as she rolled onto her stomach and looked across at him, winding one of his brown curls about her finger. “I shall be happier moving in these circles, Silverton. You will have your wife, who has the right background and breeding and will give you children who can inherit. And you shall have me, who will bring you happiness. I understand my place, and I shan’t be jealous.”
She continued to smile because inside she’d never been happier and she truly believed what she told him.
And as long as Silverton loved Kitty above all others, nothing else mattered.
But as Silverton walked home to his own townhouse in the morning, he was again plagued with doubt and fear as to the path he’d inadvertently chosen. He’d rescued Kitty, but he’d not intended to make her his mistress with Miss Octavia Mandelton having accepted his marriage proposal only the week before.
Octavia was a good and virtuous young lady, a friend whom he’d known since boyhood. He’d not seen her in months when he’d written to make her an offer, believing at the time that Kitty was to marry Lord Nash. And when Octavia had written back to say she’d accept Silverton only on condition his heart was not engaged elsewhere, he’d a
nswered her—he thought, honestly. In a few days, he thought Kitty would become Lady Nash and be lost to him forever. The only panacea was to throw himself into marriage in the hopes of establishing an honest bond with someone who would please his mother, give him children, and imbue his life with her gentle, maternal presence. That was how he saw Octavia.
