“What are you proposing, Lord Silverton? To keeping me in lodgings so you may visit me and we may do what we’ve been doing this evening? But instead of it being practice, it would be real?” She shook her head and added firmly, “But this evening was in the name of practice, and what you are proposing is something I’d only consider doing every evening with someone I loved very much and who wanted to marry me.”
He put his finger under her chin and raised her face to him. In the dim light, his expression was interested. Earnest and assessing. She felt a strange tug somewhere in the lower reaches of her belly. A tugging that made her want to melt into him, which was quite absurd since he was most definitely not her destiny, and quite clearly was looking to spend the respectable portion of his life with a respectable wife. He lowered his head to murmur near her ear, “What I am proposing would require more than kissing, Miss La Bijou.” His hand slid into hers, and he gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Lord Silverton!” Outraged, Kitty whipped her hand out of his. “What kind of young lady do you think I am?”
He looked sheepish. “My apologies if I’ve offended you, Miss La Bijou. I thought if you were so agreeable as to spend the entire day with me, without someone in attendance, then you had no regard for your reputation. That perhaps you,” he shrugged and looked even more shamefaced, “had none. I’m sorry, Miss La Bijou ...” He stood up so that she slid from his lap and stood before him, her hands on her hips, as she looked at him enquiringly, waiting for him to finish, “I had no idea you were so fresh. And now I feel a complete cad for compromising you, much less proposing what I did. Tell me, have you run away from home? Am I to expect some furious papa on my doorstep with a pistol pointed in my direction, demanding that I marry you? Who are you really and what exactly are you trying to do?”
As he spoke, his face clouded and he looked almost angry.
Kitty took pity on him. She smiled as she walked to the door. “I’ve run away from home because I’ve always felt an outcast in my village. As my father and my mother are not married, I have no name that needs protecting.”
“My poor Miss La Bijou.” A look of sympathy replaced his suspicion. “I understand very well now. You have decided to turn adventuress, even though you have no idea of the perils of this big bad city for an innocent young woman like yourself.” The cool night air hit them as they stepped onto the top step, just as his carriage was brought around. “There we are. Something a little warmer, more comfortable and discreet for me to convey you home.” He helped her inside, then followed after giving orders to the coachman. “I hope your destiny is worthy, for you are quite enchanting and I have enjoyed our time together enormously.”
Once they’d reached Mrs. Mobbs’s, and the coach had come to a stop, he leaned forward to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Beware, Miss La Bijou, for the theater is a dangerous place. I would hate to see one so sweet and innocent as you become spoiled or jaded.”
“You are very kind, Lord Silverton.” Kitty put her hand to her cheek and wondered how such a nice gentleman could be embroiled in the villainous affairs of Lord Debenham. She took the hand of the postilion who was holding open the door, waiting to assist her to the ground. It was a shame she wouldn’t be seeing Lord Silverton again, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing.
For a gentleman who had no intention of providing her with the destiny she knew was hers if she made the right choices, it would be safer to keep her distance.
Especially in view of what Cousin Stephen had said.
Chapter Five
Araminta looked down at her protruding belly where, it seemed, the last of the sun’s rays through the window were coalescing. She wished they were somehow magic fingers of gold, or wands, that would remove the hateful creature that lodged within her.
“Tighter, Jane.” The baby had grown larger and faster than she could ever have imagined and defied the constrictions of the stays she was now exhorting her maid to lace as firmly as she could.
If she allowed herself to dwell on the potential disaster of a full-term child arriving six weeks earlier than it should, she would terrify herself. All she could do was trust to the fact rescue would come in some form or another.
Araminta loathed going out in public. When she was alone, she wore loose stays designed for a woman in the later stages of pregnancy. She could relax, eat chocolates and, in the absence of any other company, talk to Jane.
However, Debenham liked to promote the fiction they were the devoted newlyweds, if one could call themselves that after being married only five months. Of course, when she was required to accompany him anywhere, she had to employ multiple artful means of hiding her seven-month belly. Thus far, Debenham suspected nothing. Araminta knew she was not being complacent in this belief. If Debenham had for one moment thought she was not the virgin he believed he’d married, he’d have made her suffer in every imaginable way. Debenham liked to show her he was master in all things.
With a grunt, Jane managed to generate an extra inch of slack in the laces. She then came to stand in front of Araminta and, with a frown, put her hand on her mistress’s belly. Her censorious look made Araminta want to give her a sharp kick in the shins, except Jane was the one person who could bring her down and also the one person able to protect her.
Araminta smiled. “Another one of your lectures, Jane? You know what will happen if I keep Debenham waiting and
make him late for the theater.”
“‘E will make ‘is displeasure known, m’lady, but then yer knew what kind o’ man yer were marryin’.”
“If there had been any other man who’d have married me when I needed it—” Araminta drew her hand across her face as she took a shuddering breath. “Now, no more of this talk for it makes my head want to burst. Oh...Hetty, what are you doing here? You didn’t knock!”
Araminta put her hands over her belly as her younger sister waltzed into the room wearing her characteristically beaming smile. But then Hetty had a lot to beam about whereas Araminta’s life was full of woe. And Hetty was the reason.
“Goodness, Araminta, why, you’re as big as I am and you’re months behind me. Perhaps you’re carrying two?”
The thought hadn’t occurred to Araminta, but Hetty’s artless comment gave her pause. That could be a useful proposition. It wouldn’t help when the babe came early and there was only one, but she could, for the moment at any rate, plead two. Yes, she’d plant the seed in the physician’s mind. And her husband’s.
Araminta patted her belly thoughtfully, crooking her finger at Jane to bring her the evening gown she intended to wear. “Yes, that’s what Dr. Horne believes, isn’t it, Jane? Debenham will be so pleased.”
Hetty stepped back as her sister raised her arms and Jane drew the handsome, dark red confection of embroidered netting over Araminta’s head. “How are you, Jane?” she asked. “I missed having you to attend to me during our wedding tour, but I thought Araminta needed you more than me. She was so upset when I left, and you’re such a calming person.”
Araminta glared. She’d not thought Hetty would dare to bring up the topic of the evening Hetty had eloped with Sir Aubrey—the gentleman Araminta had in her sights and who’d given her every indication that he’d make her his bride. But there was Hetty, smiling as if she were making perfectly normal conversation. Had the girl lost her mind?
Jane bobbed a curtsy. “I’m well, ma’am, thank yer fer askin’. An’ Miss Araminta ‘as bin very kind, as is ‘er way.”
Araminta narrowed her eyes. Was she imagining the look she intercepted between the women? The secretive, colluding smile. She wished she could bang both their heads together, dismiss Jane, and scream at Hetty that she was a thief, and Araminta wanted nothing to do with her ever again.