Page 37 of Enticed By an Earl
“It is odd, though, is it not?” Evelyn asked, glancing across the table at Kitty. “Men do not generally vanish, particularly not earls.”
“They vanish if they require a modicum of peace and quiet,” Dev’s father said teasingly. “Many have been the times when I have wished to escape to the country to avoid the noise of this family.”
He was teasing and his love for everyone around him was apparent, so the rest of them laughed.
“The Duke of Bedminster is a dragon,” James said, his eyes going wide for a moment. “I would not be surprised at all if Lord Castleton wished to flee to the country, or even the Continent, to get away from him.”
“Do you think Lord Castleton has slipped away to the Continent?” Amelia asked, tilting her head to the side as if considering it.
“He certainly has the means to go wherever he pleases,” Dev’s mother said.
“I do not think he does,” Evelyn countered her. When she received questioning looks, she went on with, “My friend, Lady Charlotte, is familiar with Lord Castleton’s younger sister, Lady Diana. She says that the Duke of Bedminster keeps everyone’s purse strings in that entire family tied tightly, and that Lord Castleton has never had access to his own money.”
“Nonsense,” James said. “Every man, particularly every earl, has access to his own money.”
Dev glanced at Kitty as subtly as he could. Evelyn’s friend Charlotte had the right of things. Kit had been a virtual prisoner in his own home for too long.
Kitty met his sideways look with a worried one of her own. It made Dev wish he could spare his beloved the strain of listening to gossip about herself.
“Though it pains me to say it,” Dev’s father went on before Dev could devise a way to change the topic of conversation, “it seems as though it is likely that Lord Castleton has been killed.”
“Do you think so, Papa?” Evelyn asked, the light of excitement in her eyes. For Kitty’s sake, Dev wanted to scold it out of her.
Dev’s father shrugged. “It seems entirely plausible that the earl was caught by footpads or other nefarious sorts while he was out and about. The men might not have known who they attacked and robbed, and they may have left him for dead.”
“But then would Scotland Yard not have found the body and identified it?” Evelyn asked.
Dev cleared his throat and sat a bit straighter. “Perhaps we could find a different topic of conversation for the final course of our meal?”
His family looked sheepish and repentant, glancing apologetically at Kitty as they did, and let the topic drop.
“Miss Dryden, you must come visit us all at Pewsey Park later this summer, when we are all in residence,” Dev’s mother said with an apologetic smile. “London is no place to pass the warmer months of the year, and the beauty of Wiltshire when it is in full bloom cannot be matched.”
“I…I believe I would enjoy that,” Kitty said, though her discomfort was obvious.
Supper continued, and Dev considered Kitty to be a true heroine as she sat through more questions, not to mention the general silliness of his family when they were left to themselves, mostly.
The next great test of everything came after the meal ended, when the ladies departed to their sitting room and the gentlemen retired to theirs.
“I am not certain I am ready to be left alone,” Kitty whispered as they left the dining room for the hall.
Dev was not certain either. He was not certain he wanted to be parted from his beloved just then. But he said, “You will be fine. My family already adores you, and I amcertain they do not see you as anyone other than who you truly are.”
Kitty glanced up at him with a look of deepest fondness and gratitude. Dev’s words were evidently enough to give her the courage she needed to go with the ladies while he went with his father and brother.
“I never thought I would say this,” James teased him once they were alone in the study, “but Deveraux appears to have fallen in love at last.”
“I always knew he would find a woman who was his equal,” Dev’s father said, thumping Dev’s shoulder in approval. “Despite not being born into the highest circles of theton, I find Miss Dryden to be lovely and the perfect complement to you.”
Dev sent his father a sideways look as he poured himself a glass of brandy. His father had no idea just how highly born Kitty was. “I like her,” he said. “Very much. She truly is everything I have always wished for and more.”
And if their luck held, his family would never know just how thorough that statement was.
He was not quite out of the woods yet, however. As soon as they sat down, James asked, “What do you think of this business with Lord Castleton, brother?”
Dev nearly swallowed his brandy wrong. “I beg your pardon?”
“What do you think has happened to the man?” James asked. It was a simple question at first, but James’s expression quickly changed. “Come to think of it, you were with Castleton in Hyde Park that afternoon. If I am not mistaken, that was the day the man disappeared. You do not know anything about the matter, do you?”
