Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) (9 page)

“Up here, my sweet.” Lord Nash stood back for her to step through a low doorway from which swept a narrow staircase. Kitty could hear a rumble of noise from the hidden chamber above and excitement fizzled through her, but at the same time she felt nervous.

“
Where
are you taking me?” she asked.

“To
Madame Mirabeau’s
salon, and if you have not heard of her, let me tell you she has the only salon in London worth attending.” He paused and lowered his voice. “Only at
Madame Mirabeau’s
salon will you see a duchess take tea with an actress, which is why it amused me to bring you tonight.
Madame Mirabeau
is a great admirer of the arts and will no doubt already have heard of you.”

“Do you really think so?”

To her astonishment, he bent his head and gave her a quick kiss on the nose. “Who would not have heard of the astonishingly talented and completely delectable Miss La Bijou? Ah, here is our hostess herself, the Countess of Orne. Comtesse, might I have the pleasure of introducing to you fair Juliet. I told you it was my intention to pluck her from the theater and bring her here to meet you.”

Kitty stared wide-eyed at the stately woman who was regarding her critically through a pair of bright blue eyes that seemed to have been chosen to match her gown of blue satin. She inclined her head and Kitty curtsied, suddenly afraid, for the comtesse did not seem to look kindly upon her at all. But then, her hostess smiled and held out her hand. “Child, for that is what you are, you have stolen the very role I coveted when I was your age, and might have played as well as you had such pursuits been permitted to one of my station. Alas, I was forced to follow a very sedate path, if you discount the upheavals that forced me to flee my old home in Paris.”

“I’m sorry, Comtesse.”

“Life is too short for regrets. I find enjoyment in meeting the artistic world here in my drawing room. Tell me a little of your life in the theater. Lord Nash knows how much I love to hear such stories, though he may choose to leave us alone for such a conversation. That’s right, Lord Nash, you are dismissed.”

To Kitty’s astonishment, this woman of such rarefied grandeur seemed to hang on her every word as Kitty told her of the rehearsals and the mishaps, but the excitement and triumphs, too.

“If I could have had the choice when I was a child, it would have been to live daringly. To be someone daring and different, like you. Make the most of what you have been given. Don’t squander your gift and beauty.” Kitty was enraptured. Lord Nash had obediently left her side to converse with various others, but every few minutes he’d return like the most attentive of lovers. Kitty was sure of the path she was taking. It was all as the gypsy had foretold.

After an hour of riveting conversation, she looked up when he touched her arm, indicating the exit with a smile. Kitty was fully aware that going out into the night, alone with Lord Nash, was the start of her greatest adventure and her heart skittered with excitement.

In the moonlight, he looked at her with such love and longing, she almost stamped her foot with impatience that he bundle her into his carriage and take her to their place of assignation. He would brand her his. She had learned much since she’d left her cloistered home. The stirrings of her body when Lord Silverton had kissed her had been the start, but she knew he was mixed up in dangerous activities, and that he was not the destiny that had been foretold.

Silently she settled herself in the carriage, enjoying his warmth as he joined her, sitting close and gently tipping her head up so he could kiss her in the dark. The gentle motion over the cobblestones seemed to feed the kiss. There was something magical about being in a capsule, transported through time to some unknown but exciting and magical destination with the gentle, sensitive mouth of the man of her dreams making magic in her first real kiss.

No word was uttered throughout the short journey. Nor did they speak when they stopped in front of what she presumed was his townhouse, and he led her down some stairs and through a back entrance. His concern was that she not be recognized, and so going through the servants’ entrance bolstered her belief in his care for her. She was taking a dangerous path—one that would horrify every member of her family—but so assured was she that it would lead to the outcome she believed was her destiny, she was prepared to take risks along the way. If she hadn’t taken the risk of coming to London, she’d still be at home looking after Mama and the baby, and she’d be miserable. If she weren’t taking this risk to prove to Lord Nash how much she trusted him, he’d lose faith in her.

He took her hand at the bottom of a staircase and gently led her, with only the light of a candle he’d plucked from a sconce in the scullery, up two flights of stairs and along a dark passage. Near the end, he stopped before a door and quietly turned the doorknob.

Kitty’s heart was almost bursting by the time he’d opened it, led her inside, and put the candle down upon a chest of drawers. She needed no persuading, melting into his arms and raising her head for his kiss. Tenderly he touched his lips to hers, trailing sparks of fire along her décolletage. She went limp in his arms, and he whisked her from the floor and placed her on the bed. The mattress was the softest she’d ever slept on. She thought of Mrs. Mobbs’s dreadful straw pallet and imagined her life with darling Lord Nash.

In two weeks, she’d become the toast of Covent Garden, and Lord Nash had feted her after every performance in the most gentlemanly manner. He’d lauded her beauty and talent to the Comtesse, taking Kitty to mix with high society. Was that not proof of his ultimately honorable intentions? It did not occur to Kitty to play the coy maiden, even though it had been drummed into her since infancy that young ladies did not go alone—anywhere—with single men. But nor did they become actresses and have any kind of adventure. Kitty was taking charge of her destiny, one adventurous step at a time, to achieve the marvelous outcome, the dazzling destiny, she knew was her reward.

Lord Nash was respectful, thoughtful and kind, and she was going to steal his heart, just as Lady Emma Hamilton had stolen first that of Lord Hamilton, and then that of England’s finest war hero, Lord Nelson. Being an actress and illegitimate would not prove the irrevocable impediments everyone said they would. Not in the face in true love.

She gave a little giggle when he caressed her ankle and tossed off her slipper. “A bed is not the place for that, is it?” she whispered, and he nuzzled her nose, his smile faintly discernible, and laughingly agreed. “Nor for these,” he added, walking his fingers up her calf to her knee and playing with the laces that tied up her stockings. “Oh, and my goodness, is this a petticoat? We shall have to remove that also. Only we can’t reach that until we remove your gown, can we, my love? Oh, but you are a goddess. I want to see you naked. Completely naked.” And he rose onto his knees, turned her on her front and undid the five tiny buttons that secured the back of her gold net and silk evening gown.

Kitty would agree she didn’t want to spoil her gown, but she wasn’t entirely sure she liked the idea of being viewed with nothing on.

“Shy?” he asked when she resisted the removal of the next layer. “Well, if you’ve never done this before, as I suspect, then we’ll take it more slowly.” With agonizing care, he inched his hand up her thigh, caressing her skin in slow circuits, which had the result of firing Kitty up to a ridiculous degree. But her breathing was a giveaway, and he chuckled again. “I’m taking it slowly, my angel, because it’s your first time, but oh Lord, I’m in a fever to have you.”

Kitty was in a fever to be had. She’d been warned by the girls at the theater that the first time would be painful, though she found that hard to imagine when her insides felt molten, and when her body cleaved with desire as his fingers breached the slick wetness and heat between her legs.

“Oh my, this will be delightfully easy and not at all uncomfortable for you,” he said approvingly, but when he moved aside to hastily divest himself of his breeches, and she saw the huge appendage that apparently was supposed to force itself inside her, she gasped with fear.

He winked. “It’s very large, I know, but you will gain so much more pleasure for that,” he reassured her. His eyes smoldered, and he licked his lips as he smiled lazily at her. “Take it in your hand and feel it. Get used to it first. Ah yes, that’s very good, squeeze a little harder. And now it’s time for it to find a new home. Are you ready?” With a soft murmur of endearment, he pushed her back onto the mattress and rose over her. Cupping her cheek briefly, he positioned the tip of his manhood at her entrance and half entered her.

Kitty gasped with surprise, and he smiled reassuringly. “Nothing to fear. Take a deep breath.” He pushed again, and this time Kitty felt a ripping, burning sensation and cried out with pain. But he didn’t stop to accommodate her discomfort this time; and besides, the increasing rhythm of his plunging in and out soon caught her up in her own pleasure. The escalation of desire that had been put on hold by the pain was soon all that occupied her mind as she clung onto it like a drowning woman. Until finally the dam burst and she was gripped by contractions of pleasure, which seemed to launch Lord Nash into his own journey of satisfaction.

Breathing heavily, clutched in his arms, Kitty laughed. “Oh my, that was mighty good,” she gasped, and he laughed, joining in her delight.

“I’m sure you’re the first deflowered virgin who’s ever put it in those terms,” he said, holding her tightly. “And you’re all mine. The toast of Covent Garden. You are pure heaven, Miss La Bijou. I shall treat you as you deserve to be treated...like a princess.”

What magic words. She’d followed her heart, and it had not let her down. Kitty felt the world a wondrous place as she drifted off to sleep beside her valiant viscount. The kindest, handsomest, most exciting man in the world. And when he woke her in the early hours of the night to repeat the exercise, she was more than ready. She felt she could never get enough of him, a feeling she truly believed was mutual, and one backed up by his devotion the following morning when he helped her to dress, took her to a mantua maker for some articles to augment her wardrobe, and then escorted her to the theater for rehearsal. Kitty didn’t mind that Jennie passed them on the stairs, turning to look over her shoulder and to raise an eyebrow that said so much that didn’t need to be put into words.

Well, Jennie was going to have to eat her words. Lord Nash was going to break her heart, was he? No, he was going to make Kitty the happiest young woman in the entire world.

K
itty felt like purring as she opened her eyes to the morning light streaming through the window. She curled against Nash, who put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

For two weeks, they’d been inseparable. Finally, he was talking about securing her own accommodation though she’d much rather he talked about making her his wife. The gypsy had intimated their love would be like a brilliant, brightly burning star that would obliterate all society’s obstacles. Well, that’s what Kitty had taken away from the palm-reading, and what she felt in her heart. Gallantly, Nash escorted her to the theater each night, waiting for her after her performance with a lavish bouquet of flowers.

On one occasion, she’d seen Lord Silverton passing by in the street, a well-dressed young lady on his arm. She’d just issued out from the theater with Lord Nash, as it happened, and the two men had doffed their hats, Lord Silverton offering her a warm smile. She’d wished she could talk to him for he had been such pleasant company, but he was with a lady who must have been some relative or respectably married, for he did not stop. Kitty felt a stab of disappointment. One day, she would be deemed respectable company enough for Lord Silverton to have introduced her to his escort. She would not be like her mama, always the subject of whispers and never able to appear in public with Kitty’s father. Nor would Kitty keep producing infants to bear the shame of illegitimacy, Kitty had made sure of that, thanks to the advice of the girls from the theater which had led to her asking Mrs. Mobbs who, it transpired, regularly dispensed vials containing the seeds of the Queen Anne’s Lace plant, supposed to prevent conception if taken immediately after the act.

Now Lord Nash put the tip of his tongue into her ear, chuckling as the action caused her to shiver with anticipation. “Alas, I have work to do today and you must take your leave, but when you have your own abode, I can visit you anytime I want to, and we’ll not be forced apart like this.”

“Newlyweds are forgiven for wanting to be together all the time, are they not?”

“Indeed they are, but we are not newlyweds. Now Kitty, out or you’ll be late for rehearsal.”

She liked his commanding tone, while the fact she was working for London’s busiest theater made her glow with pride. She was, however, slightly disappointed by his dismissal of her reference to newlyweds. Still, she had the knowledge to cling to that her destiny was carved in stone. So much of what had been foretold had come true. As for achieving the rest—the joyous legal union— she just had to be patient.

When she was dressed and ready to leave, she wondered how she had not died of boredom in her little country village. She tried to feel guilt over leaving Mama, then considered that her mother had willingly chosen to live in sin and break her parents’ hearts, so how could her mama condemn the life Kitty had chosen.

“Go forth and thrill the audience with another of your heart-stopping performances, my sweet.” Darling Nash kissed her full on the lips as he prepared to leave her just inside the theater door that led off the side lane. Several actresses halfway up the stairs craned their necks, and Kitty felt a thrill at the spectacle they must make. Here she was, her dreams almost fulfilled. She was doing something with her life that made it extraordinary, and she was being rewarded with everything for which she could have hoped.

“And you’ll be waiting for me?”