Chapter 9
Nine
K it had never experienced anything as suddenly life-changing as being brought to Dev’s mistress rooms on Gilbert Street.
If he had known that once he entered the ordinary building he would not leave its confines for three days, he might have attempted some sort of clandestine visit to his father’s house to fetch a few things.
Then again, as the days passed, he was uncertain whether there was anything at his father’s house that he wanted.
Dev was good company in those first days, as was Mrs. Torrance.
In one manner of speaking, there was not much for Kit to do.
He had no business that he needed to attend to and no work that needed his attention.
His every need in terms of sustenance, clothing, and entertainment was provided for.
It felt strange at first to spend all day in little more than a dressing gown, but transforming from Christopher into Kitty required time and a bit of planning.
“I’ve sent a letter to Mr. Wilkes and Miss Jones,” Kit told Dev on his second full day in seclusion. “I was cryptic, lest the letter somehow go astray.”
“What did you say to them?” Dev asked with a slight frown as he sorted through the small ledger he’d brought in to keep track of the account he had set up for Kit.
Kit was not entirely comfortable with that particular account, but he vowed he would repay Dev someday in whatever manner he could.
“I sent word that I would like more clothing of the sort they made for me last week and that I would explain why when I came to collect it,” Kit explained, flushing at the very thought of what he was attempting to do.
Dev hummed and nodded. “I trust Wilkes and Miss Jones are both clever enough to know what you mean and discreet enough to carry out the mission without revealing anything.”
“We can only hope,” Kit agreed with a sage nod.
That was the heart of the conundrum he found himself in.
Dev had offered him a unique opportunity to try for a new and entirely different life from the one he had led for the past five-and-twenty years.
If he was daring and clever enough, he could tuck the Earl of Castleton away, perhaps indefinitely, and live as Miss Kitty Dryden without anyone being the wiser.
If he was daring enough. Three days hidden away in the mistress apartment did not inspire Kit with any unusual courage, they only confirmed in him that he could not go back to his father’s house.
For the first time in years, Kit slept well.
His first night in his new life was unsettled as it was so new.
He jumped at every strange sound and held his breath when he heard others moving about the house.
But when morning came and he was still perfectly safe, when Mrs. Torrance visited him with his breakfast and chattered away about the lives and gossip of the other inhabitants of the building, Kit began to feel a sense of security.
That night and the night after, he slept as if sleep were some shiny, new trinket that he wanted to cherish closely for as long as he could.
By the fourth day of his seclusion, not only was Kit beginning to grow restless and feel the need for exercise, he had started to miss the company of the few friends he had.
That led him to the slightly harrowing decision to leave the mistress apartment so that he might go to Jermyn Street to see how Miss Jones was progressing with his requested new wardrobe.
“Please tell Lord Deveraux where I have gone and not to worry about me,” Kit told Mrs. Torrance as she handed him his hat and coat in the downstairs hallway. “With any luck, I will return before he finishes his business and comes to see me for the afternoon.”
“All will be well, my dear,” Mrs. Torrance said, patting his arm before opening the front door. “I’ve called a discreet hack for you and all. Your mission will be as secret as that of a spy.”
Kit could not help but grin at her, even though his heart beat in his throat at the prospect of leaving his hiding place.
He stepped out into the world anyhow, feeling awkward in the clothing he’d worn when he arrived the other day.
The trousers and jacket no longer felt natural to him, but at least they afforded him a good deal of anonymity.
He moved straight from the house into the waiting carriage, shutting the door quickly behind him before breathing a sigh of relief.
It did not take terribly long to drive to Jermyn Street.
All the same, Kit stayed hunkered down in the carriage and well away from the windows.
The chances of his father or anyone who knew him seeing him was slim, but his fear was so immense that he did not dare to show his face.
Besides which, in a matter of only three days, the world of London seemed to be an entirely different and foreign place to him.
Lord Castleton knew the city well, but it was as new as a babe to Miss Kitty Dryden.
Kit kept his head downturned and held his hat like a shield concealing his face once they reached Wilkes’s tailor shop, and he nearly ran from the carriage in through the shop door. Even once he was inside, he did not feel entirely safe.
“Lord Castleton,” Wilkes greeted him with a look of surprise and delight. “What a pleasure to see you.”
“And you, Mr. Wilkes, although I would rather not be seen at all,” Kit replied.
Wilkes’s open smile changed to a confused frown, and from there to a look of understanding. “Come through this way,” he said, holding out an arm for Kit to go with him into the back of the shop.
Kit felt some measure of relief in the workshop part of Wilkes’s business.
It consisted of a large workspace with two large tables and shelves and piles of raw fabric and haberdashery.
A young man of about eighteen sat at one of the tables, intently stitching the hem of a shirt.
He glanced up with a look of mild interest when Kit came through, but did not seem particularly fussed about the interruption.
“Jonty, could you fetch Miss Jones and tell her to join me in my rooms?” Wilkes asked the young man as he steered Kit toward a set of stairs off to the side of the room.
“Right away, sir,” the young man said, leaving his work and dashing toward a door at the back of the workshop.
“Clary, that is, Miss Jones, only recently opened her own shop in the building across the back,” Wilkes explained as they went up the stairs.
“Our businesses share a workspace and stitchers, but her modiste’s shopfront is located on Piccadilly.
She has already built quite an impressive clientele. I am endlessly proud of her.”
Kit smiled, feeling even more at ease once they were in Wilkes’s modest rooms on the first floor.
It was clear that Wilkes considered Miss Jones as close as a sister, and from his previous visits, Kit knew that Miss Jones felt the same about Wilkes.
Being around such a friendship made Kit feel as though there were hope in the world.
Wilkes offered Kit a seat at the small table in his rooms and set about making tea. They chatted about inconsequential things while waiting for Miss Jones to arrive, which she did right away.
“Jonty says that Lord Castleton has arrived,” she said as she burst into the room. “I left a particularly fussy Lady Waterstone for Ivy to deal with so that I could see with my own two eyes.”
“Good morning, Miss Jones,” Kit said, rising from his seat to greet the woman. “You are looking well.”
“As are you,” Miss Jones said, stepping right up to him and blinking at him, like she could not believe her eyes. “Particularly as whispers about town say that you are missing.”
Kit was surprised for only a few seconds.
Of course there would be rumors that he was missing.
He was missing, as far as his family and the people who knew him were concerned.
That only made him worry for Lady Everly, Georgiana, and Alice.
He should have sent them all letters explaining the unusual situation.
They would be so worried for him. But with any luck, once his mission with Wilkes and Miss Jones was complete, he might be able to see them soon.
“Did you receive my letter the other day?” Kit asked once the three of them were all seated around the table with tea.
“We did,” Wilkes said, glancing at Miss Jones, “but we could not quite make it out.”
Kit’s face flushed. “I apologize for being cryptic,” he said. “As you might imagine, I am in an extraordinarily delicate position at the moment.”
His insides roiled with uncertainty. He knew in his heart that he could trust the two people seated with him, but his mind was still cautious and afraid. Ironically, those emotions made his voice and his mannerisms even gentler and softer.
“I understood the message to mean that you wished for me to construct another gown for you,” Miss Jones said, peeking at Wilkes but mostly watching Kit.
Kit cleared his throat, hardly believing what he was doing. “Not just a single gown, Miss Jones,” he said, his hands beginning to shake. “I should like for you to construct an entire wardrobe of gowns for me. And underthings. And whatever else a woman of fashion might need to navigate the world.”
He met Miss Jones’s eyes, praying that she would understand so that he would not have to spell out the terrifying and important thing he was about to embark upon.
“The Earl of Castleton is missing,” Wilkes said, his eyes going round. “Would I be correct in assuming he has been…replaced?”
Kit reached for his tea and raised the cup to his lips with trembling hands.
He managed to take a fortifying gulp before setting the cup on the table once more and saying, “I no longer wish to live as Castleton. Henceforth, I should like to exist only as Miss Kitty Dryden. I am Miss Kitty Dryden. That is who I wish to be.”
A sizzling silence filled the air for a moment before Miss Jones and Wilkes exchanged smiles.