Page 53 of Enticed By an Earl
“I will not risk your health merely for the sake of appearances,” Dev insisted, laying Kit carefully on the bed. “There are doctors who will not judge you for anything nor breathe a word of what they see in the treatment of patients. I must know that you are well and that you will remain that way.”
Kit vocalized his disapproval, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it in the moment. If he was honest, he wanted to see a doctor, if only to learn that the blows his father had landed weren’t fatal.
That sent his thoughts in another, horrid direction.
“He will not stop until I am dead,” he sobbed.
Dev shifted onto the bed so that he could hold Kit tightly. “Never,” he said. “I will not allow it.” He paused, then went on with, “You cannot continue to stay here, however. It is not protected enough. Your father knows where you are here.”
“Then where can I go?” Kit panted, clutching at Dev’s jacket.
Dev surprised him with a smile. “You will go where every soon-to-be bride goes. You will come home with me and enjoy the safety and protection of my family at Russell House.”
Kit blinked in surprise. “I will?”
“Of course,” Dev said, kissing the top of his pounding head.
Kit did not know whether to smile or grimace. He adored the Ogilvy family and relished the idea of being folded into their family. But they would ask questions, and those questions would lead to revelations. He might end up being safe from his father but tangled up in danger of an entirely different kind.
Eighteen
The risk inherent in bringing Kitty to Russell House for the final days before the wedding was not lost on Dev. From the start, the primary risk came from explaining to his father why it was necessary for Kitty to seek safety and protection with the family to begin with.
“She is not in some sort of trouble, is she?” Dev’s father asked as his mother selflessly fussed and fretted and helped Kitty to settle in one of the house’s grander guest rooms. “She looks as though she has been battered.”
Dev flinched at the statement. Indeed, Kitty’s face was a mask of bruises and swelling from where her father had struck her. The doctor who had come to examine her assured them that the swelling would go down and the bruises would fade, but Kitty was devastated by her current appearance and feared she would look a fright for the wedding.
“She is….” Dev attempted to make light of his father’s concerns, but there was no way to do so without lying outright to his sire, something his heart was unable to let him do.
His father must have sensed there was something profound at play. He rested a hand on Dev’s shoulder, and moved him out of the way in the hall outside Kitty’s room as a veritable army of maids paraded in with everything Dev’s mother thought a soon-to-be daughter-in-law of hers would need, and fixed him with a look of concern.
“I must confess, son, it has occurred to me that there may be more to Miss Dryden’s story of origin than you have let on,” his father said. “It is entirely too convenient for the young woman to have come from the country so far from here and to have no living relatives to speak for her. And to be quite honest, innocent young ladies are rarely attacked to the degree that our Miss Dryden has been.”
Dev lowered his head slightly. He should have known he could not fool his family for long. “You are correct,” he confessed. “Kitty is not who I have said she is.”
When he did not proceed to elaborate, as he had yet to discuss whether his family should be told with Kit, his father asked, “Is she a criminal of some sort? Was she employed as an actress or a courtesan before now?”
“No, Father, I can assure you, that is not the case,” Dev said. He glanced up and down the hallway, almost smiling at the delight in his mother’s voice as she directed the maids, even though Kitty protested that she did not need so much, making certain no one was listening too intently to his conversation. “I can only say that Kitty is not who she has been made out to be. Beyond that, I must discuss the matter with Kitty first before revealing all, as revealing the truth would have a profound impact on her.”
His father hummed and rubbed his chin, staring at Dev as if he were trying to work out the riddle himself.
“I trust you, son,” he said at last. He rested a hand on Dev’s shoulder again with a smile. “I trust your judgement. Regardless of her provenance, Miss Dryden is a gem. Wehave all come to adore her like our own.” He chuckled as he pulled his hand back, then added, “You are fortunate to be only a third son. Your lot is notorious for making questionable matches. My younger brother, Stephen, married a Spaniard, as I’m sure you know.”
Dev laughed, remembering Uncle Stephen and his rather bohemian wife. It gave him hope, though there was a world of difference between marrying a Spaniard and marrying a woman who was a man.
The matter seemed settled for the moment. Kitty was installed in the guestroom comfortably, and even though Dev’s mother thought it odd that she did not want the help of a maid to tend to her, she pretended to turn a blind eye to the fact that Dev intended to slip into Kitty’s room at night, ostensibly to help her in the way a maid would.
It would have been a perfect, easy deception, were it not for the rumors that began to circulate almost immediately.
“I believe I understand why you wished to stay here with us until the wedding, Miss Dryden,” Evelyn said the next morning at luncheon. Both Kitty and Dev perked up at the statement. They were seated next to each other at the table, and Dev reached for Kitty’s hand under the cloth. “When I called on Lady Willoughby earlier, the talk in her salon was all about how Miss Dryden was keeping some sort of notorious secret that would ruin her and everyone associated with her.”
Kitty caught her breath, and Dev found her hand and squeezed it.
“Lady Willoughby always was careless about the sort of gossip she allowed in her salons,” Dev’s mother said with a sniff. “I will remember not to call upon her in future.”
“What are people saying about Miss Dryden?” James asked from his seat near the end of the table, by their father.He seemed both curious and anxious, as if he had heard rumors as well.
“One rumor is that you are a woman of ill-repute and that you have tricked my brother into marrying you,” Evelyn said.
