“An illegitimate and common actress?”
“To someone not in the same social class, Kitty, that’s what I meant to say, and I don’t espouse such snobbery lightly. There are dynastic considerations, the well-being of my aged mother, and prospects that our children would be shunned—”
“Our children, Lord Silverton?” Kitty looked at him askance.
“For goodness’ sake, Kitty, you know that if you were the daughter of....” He waved his hands in the air as he clearly sought inspiration, “Lord Partington, for example, there would be no impediment to my marrying you. But ladies like Miss Araminta Partington marry men like Lord Debenham. I am of that closely prescribed world where it is not possible to follow my heart if it will cause family disruptions, and threaten the viability of a family estate that has taken centuries and generations to build up.”
Kitty’s heart was still beating wildly as she answered softly, “No, you’d have stepped into Lord Nash’s shoes and made me your mistress instead. But Lord Nash is marrying me. He’s thumbing his nose at convention, and is prepared to take on the wrath of his parents and the potential opprobrium of society—”
“Please, Kitty!” Lord Silverton rose abruptly. “I’m sorry for my failings, and I’m also very happy for your good fortune, provided you are entirely sure Nash is playing an honest hand.”
Kitty rose also, tears threatening and with the desire to tell him who her father was but Dorcas leaped up, intervening with, “Lord Silverton, please would yer practice a few lines with me mistress. We bin tryin’ ter get it right this mornin’ an’ it jest won’t come easy ter Miss Kitty fer she don’t like her leadin’ man.”
Her eager entreaty defused the situation, and Lord Silverton chuckled. “I should like that very much,” he agreed, adding when Dorcas thrust the script under his nose, “Well, Kitty, it looks like Dorcas has come prepared. All right, just a few lines, eh? Like in the old days.” He scanned the several pages quickly, glanced at Dorcas, and said with quirked mouth, “Dorcas, perhaps you’d like to go into the kitchens, and Cook can find you something to eat.”
Indignantly, Kitty put her hands on her hips and declared, “You just saw there was a...a kissing scene, my Lord, and you seek to take advantage—”
Lord Silverton raised one eyebrow. “Are you not a professional, Miss La Bijou? Surely you would not envisage me as anyone other than your counterpart in this production?”
Kitty sighed with frustration. “I told Dorcas we shouldn’t come here.”
He looked hurt. “You did? So it wasn’t your idea to come here? Do you know how crushing that is? In that case, I insist that I oblige. You seem less than pleased with the turn the conversation has taken so I must render an honest service.” His look gentled as he took a step forward and reached for her hands. “Truly, Kitty, I am immensely pleased for you, and look forward to meeting you in fashionable drawing rooms and to dancing with you in London’s finest ballrooms. I won’t deny I’m mighty jealous of your Lord Nash.”
“It might be a little time before we can officially announce the marriage,” Kitty mumbled. “Lord Nash’s grandfather is unwell. But it will be a completely legal union,” she added hastily. “You might consider me foolish and naïve, but I’ve made very sure it will be legal.”
Silverton squeezed her hands. “I don’t consider you either foolish or naïve. I’m exceedingly impressed by your determination to forge your own way in life. And I’m very happy that you and Dorcas were able to orchestrate her leaving that dreadful place when I could not, though I went to visit the old Abbess the other week for that precise purpose, and even offered a sizeable inducement.”
Kitty gasped. “That was the reason you were there?”
Silverton chuckled. “I do not choose to buy my pleasure, Kitty. No, I asked Mrs. Montgomery to name a sum to release Dorcas and she promised she would. However, I then received a letter from her, which, to my great surprise, declined my offer. She told me Dorcas was too happy in her present situation.”
“Really?” She blinked. “Well, I can’t tell you how much I’m filled with disgust to think men would pay to do such things with the poor women who work there,” Kitty said. “Do they not have other diversions?”
“The sexual urge is a powerful one, I grant you. There, I’ve shocked you, and indeed that pleases me for I wanted to see what made you blush.”
“Of course, I’m shocked, but disappointed too, for you’d never say such a thing in front of a lady.”
“You’re an actress, Kitty. You’ve made your bed.”
She nodded, sadly. “It’s true. Now, let us waste no more time. I can’t tarry so if you’d be so kind as to go through the next two pages, I’d be most grateful.”
The part Lord Silverton was to play was a besotted swain who resorts to all manner of humorous and devious means to win the heart of his true love. The scene they were to re-enact placed the two of them in confrontational attitudes in the middle of a drawing room.
Lord Silverton stepped back and looked down at his script. “I believe you begin, Miss La Bijou.”
Kitty, who was trying to do this without a script, threw her arms wide. “You have wounded me mortally, my Lord. Do you consider me so beneath you that you’d cast my heart to the wind?”
“Delilah, you could only make such a claim if you had a heart!”
“I have a heart that is full of feeling, my Lord. Feeling that you do not have, and yes, my heart has been trampled as I watch you cavort with other women.”
“Cavort? That’s just to make you jealous, my one true love.” Silverton glanced at Kitty from above his script, took a step forward and whisked her up from the floor and into his arms. “Let me show you what love is.”
Kitty protested, both as required by the script, but also because she was feeling highly self-conscious in Lord Silverton’s arms, and her heart was beating far too wildly. It never did this when she was playing the role opposite Mr. Diglish.
“Put me down, cruel sir. You have no right to handle me so when you have played so unkind with me thus far.”
“Only when I’ve kissed you, my fair Delilah. Only when you’ve felt the depth of my passion and can decide whether you would really cast me off, as you claim is your desire.”