Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin 4)

“I need to make my mind up, soon. But you are very sweet to sound disappointed, Lord Silverton.” She sighed. “Tonight, as I stood in the quiet of the theater and read Lord Nash’s messages, I was touched by the growing desperation for forgiveness and the sweet words he wrote. He truly is so sorry and...of course men will stray when temptation is put in front of their noses. I’ve no doubt Jennie threw herself at him, and what man could resist? I think the time has come for me to go to him.” She hugged herself, conscious of the swelling of excitement inside her as she conjured up an image of the burning desire in Nash’s eyes. He’d learned his lesson. He’d not stray again.

Lord Silverton rested his hand on her shoulder. He started to say something, but then apparently changed his mind. After a long pause, he cleared his voice and said, “Kitty, I have something to tell you about Dorcas.”

She darted her gaze back to Silverton’s face. He looked and sounded surprisingly intent, considering they were only talking about a maid he’d never met.

“I found Dorcas,” he went on. “When you told me the name of her employer, I was horrified. You see, I know about Mrs. Montgomery; about her business, that is, and it’s not something a young lady should have any dealings with. So I found Dorcas and tried to persuade her to come back with me, but she refused.”

“She refused?” Kitty straightened on the little embroidered footstool and met Lord Silverton’s eye, suspicion at her friend’s true situation warring with pique that she should not wish to work for Kitty. “Is she so well situated, then, she has forgotten her old friend?”

Lord Silverton shook his head, his look grim. “I only wish it were so, Kitty.” He took her hands and began to gently chafe them as he proceeded to explain, as delicately as possible, the precise nature of Dorcas’s predicament.

And Kitty listened with growing horror, while at the same time she tried to be immune to the lovely warm and cozy feeling that was sweeping through her body, and which made her want to climb onto Lord Silverton’s lap and rest her head against his chest while he stroked her.

All over.

***

So now it was up to Kitty to save Dorcas. If the poor, ill-used girl wouldn’t accept the assistance Lord Silverton offered, she surely couldn’t refuse Kitty if Kitty begged her in person.

Standing on the pavement with her veil pulled down and wrapped up in a voluminous cape, Kitty felt safe from prying eyes as she watched the comings and goings to the large, four-square house in Soho.

Though it was dark, the gas lamp on the pavement just outside the front of the house illuminated each face clearly for one split second. What a variety of men were ushered in and out of that door. The majority appeared, by their clothing and the equipages that dropped them off, to be gentlemen of good social standing. But equally, there were soldiers, sailors, men of middling rank, even the occasional struggling clerk, casting a furtive glance over his shoulder before hurrying up the short flight of stairs and then, upon a hasty rap, being admitted through the imposing black front door.

Kitty made sure she kept to the shadows; her heart thumping with pained horror. It was as Lord Silverton had said. This was a house of ill repute, and her friend Dorcas was a prisoner there.

She knew she couldn’t rescue Dorcas by brazenly bursting through the doors and dragging her out, but she’d needed to see for herself where Dorcas was housed, and the kind of clientele Mrs. Montgomery’s abode attracted.

Fighting back tears, she turned away. What stroke of fate had favored Kitty, easing her path toward her achieving her long-held dream for fame, fortune, and love?

Poor Dorcas, whose dreams had been so much more modest, had become a pawn in a scheme that ruined young girls’ lives to line the pockets of an evil few.

Did Mrs. Mobbs know what her friend, Maggie Montgomery, was up to? Kitty wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She suddenly felt a great deal more grown up than she had such a short time ago, before Lord Silverton had pulled the wool from her eyes.

With her head bent, she shouldered her way through the evening crowds. If she were truthful with herself, she knew Lord Nash was not the smoldering-eyed Adonis ready to pledge her his heart and soul and everything he had to make her happy.

He was just a handsome, fallible young man with a straying eye who desired her, and whom she found attractive when she was ready to give her heart to the first likely contender.

No, that wasn’t true! she rebuked herself, as she rounded a street corner and sidestepped a child selling matches. If she allowed herself to be so downcast at the first hurdle, then how could she make a success of her career? She had beauty; she knew that. But now she needed to be strong and firm and handle matters with conviction.

She would rescue Dorcas, and she would extricate herself from Lord Nash. It was the only way to retain the independence and control of her life that was the central tenet of her running away at all.

So she reached the theater entering through the side door, ready to perform with a lightness of spirit she didn’t feel, for the tragedy that ended Romeo and Juliet better suited her mood right now.

Then it occurred to her that if Silverton had failed to persuade Dorcas to leave with him, Lord Nash would certainly use every device to get Dorcas out of Maggie Montgomery’s clutches. Lord Silverton was not madly in love with Kitty as Lord Nash professed to be. Naturally, Lord Silverton had merely done what he could to help a friend.

/> But if Lord Nash wanted to mend the damage he’d done between Kitty and himself, he could start by indulging her with the rescue of her friend.

By the time she sat down at her dressing table and read the notes that accompanied the three bouquets of roses Lord Nash had sent, Kitty was feeling a good deal more settled in her mind. Her natural pragmatism and romantic turn of mind were now of one accord.

Lord Nash may not be her destiny, exactly, but he was easy to be in love with, and the most hopeful prospect on the horizon right now for giving Kitty the long-term security that would enable a single girl in her situation to sleep at night.

***

The performance was one of her best ever, and Kitty’s heart felt full to bursting as applause and flowers rained upon her as she took her bow.

It really did almost burst with excitement and happiness when she hurried backstage and found herself face to face with Lord Nash, whose tragic look of sorrow melted the last of her reservations. Into her arms, he thrust a large bunch of red roses and a black velvet box to which was attached a small card.

“Forgive me,” it read.