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

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