Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) by Beverley Oakley

well-built form, his dark, curling hair falling rakishly over his noble forehead.
    “Miss La Bijou, you were superb!” With a mixture of feline grace and almost uncontained exuberance, he crossed the room to offer her another of his extravagant bows. And Kitty, aware that Jennie was nearby and clearly furious, basked in the praise and attention from this scion of nobility, this Adonis, this creature from another planet, it seemed.
    “I should like to take you to supper. Do, I beg you, accept.” He went down on one knee suddenly and held his arms out in a gesture of supplication, causing Kitty to giggle while Jennie huffed just behind her shoulder.
    “I should love to go to supper with you if you will allow me a few moments to change, my Lord.” She knew she was blushing furiously, and that heat beaded her upper lip over the thick make-up she’d not yet removed. Yet still, he called her exquisite as if he could see beyond her failings. That was true love.
    When he’d left the room after telling her he’d wait for as long as it took, Jennie sidled up to where she was sitting at her dressing table her and began to run her fingers over the cards and bouquets. “I used to get the same attention when I played Desdemona last season,” she said. “Lord Nash used to invite me out to supper, too.”
    Kitty refused to allow her exuberance to be dampened. Jennie was pretty but in a common way. With her fiery red hair and pale skin she was striking, but already she was starting to look raddled. And her voice was coarse. Lord Nash might flatter and flirt with such a girl, but he would not, could not, marry her. But Kitty was the daughter of Viscount Partington. She had ambitions. One day, she could be like the beautiful Emma Hamilton who, despite her lowly origins, had married Lord Hamilton, the British Envoy to Naples. Lissa had told her such dreams rarely happened in life, but the gypsy had foretold it.
    “Then you agree he is a charming gentleman,” Kitty said sweetly. “I’m sure you won’t begrudge me an evening out in his company, too.”
    “’E will expect more than supper.” Jennie lounged against the dressing table, twisting one curl about her finger.
    Kitty felt herself blush even more. She turned, suddenly angry. “What business of yours is it whether we go for some dancing? Or to play a game of faro?”
    Jennie sniggered. “You think I’m jealous, and so I am. But I’m also giving you fair warning of the kind of rogue our fine and handsome Lord Nash really is. I would ’ate you to ’arbor grand illusions only to ’ave them shattered by the end of the evening. Or morning.”
    Kitty rose. “You think I am so easily seduced?”
    “The mere fact you will be alone with ’im will ’ave others assume it. You are naturally not so naïve. You ’ave such airs and speak like a lady, but you must ’ave lived under a stone before you came ’ere if you don’t know that all actresses are considered lightskirts. And most of us are, if only to pay the rent. Where do you live? With your respectable mama and papa? I think not. Do they even know that their daughter is an adventuress, about to fall from her lofty ’eights if she accepts ’is Lordship’s invitation?”
    Kitty felt like tossing the shoe she’d just removed from her right foot in Jenny’s direction, but remembered that ladies didn’t do such things—although she’d seen Araminta do just this when spying on her through the window once.  Snatching up her only suitable evening gown from where it was folded among a pile of her other modest belongings, she shrugged herself out of her robe and began to dress for the most exciting night of her life.
    “Thank you for offering me such pearls of wisdom and insights on your own life, Jennie,” she said through gritted teeth. To her chagrin, Jennie was now helping do up the tiny pearl buttons at the back of her gold net evening gown.
    When the girl had finished, she ran her hands over the beautiful