Chapter 15
Fifteen
E very moment of Kit’s transition from the Earl of Castleton into Miss Kitty Dryden had been harrowing, but perhaps none more so than announcing his and Dev’s engagement to Dev’s family.
“Is it true?” Dev’s mother scooted forward on the couch where she’d been hosting tea for Kitty, Lady Everly, and Dev.
She was not wearing her spectacles, as Lady Everly was there, and Kitty now knew that the way she moved closer was so that she could see her clearly.
“Has my darling boy finally found the wife we have all wished for him?”
Kitty caught her breath at Lady Russell’s enthusiasm, and at the irony of her question. She raised a hand instinctively toward the ornate ribbon concealing her throat, but lowered it before she could draw any more attention than she needed to.
“It is true, Mama,” Dev said, moving to stand behind the chair where Kitty was seated and putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Kitty has consented to marry me, the few remaining, distant family members she has have written their assent, although they will not be able to travel to London for the wedding itself, and as soon as the banns can be read, the two of us will continue on in this life in wedded bliss.”
Kitty could not control the hot flush that flooded her cheeks at the very idea that her life could be so thoroughly changed, and for the better.
She smiled up at Dev, and although she did not feel anything close to calm or safe, she felt as though those blessed emotions were no longer entirely out of her reach.
“You must tell us everything about how it happened,” Dev’s sister, Evelyn, said, shifting across the couch so she could be closer to Kitty’s seat. “Was it a romantic proposal? Did he say something beautiful? I have a very hard time believing my brother could say anything beautiful.”
Dev laughed loudly at his sister’s teasing. Kitty blushed even hotter as she remembered the night in Lord and Lady Bradshaw’s garden.
“It was romantic, as it happens,” she said, keeping her expression demure, although she could not help but smile broadly. “We were in a garden, the moon shone down on us, and he dropped to one knee and took my hands before asking the question.”
Lady Russell, Evelyn, and Amelia, who, along with Dev’s brother James, had not yet returned to their country house, all sighed loudly.
“I could not help but give my approval as soon as Lord Deveraux came to me to ask my permission to wed Miss Dryden,” Lady Everly put in, mischief sparkling in her eyes. “No man who is that gallant toward his beloved should ever be denied their hand in marriage.”
Kitty nearly gasped at how close her friend and benefactor came with her words to hinting at or even revealing the grand secret. When she sent Lady Everly a pleading look, she merely grinned and winked at her .
“We shall host an engagement ball as soon as we have returned from Wiltshire and the season begins again,” Lady Russell went on, glowing with excitement over the whole thing.
“And when the blessed day occurs, we shall host the grandest wedding breakfast London has ever seen, just as I have always foreseen for you.”
“There will be no engagement ball, Mama,” Dev said, tightening his hand on Kitty’s shoulder. Kitty was glad. She needed the reassurance.
“No engagement ball?” Lady Russell balked.
Dev took a breath and confessed what both he and Kitty knew would be unpopular news.
“Kitty and I wish to wed as soon as possible. The first reading of the banns will be this Sunday, and a small wedding will take place in three weeks’ time.
If the family wishes to continue with its plans to return to Pewsey Park tomorrow as planned, we will not be offended. ”
“Return to Pewsey Park? Three weeks?” Lady Russell pressed a hand to her chest and stared, dumbfounded, at Kitty. “My dear, do you not wish to have a grand celebration? Have you not dreamed of this moment since you were a girl?”
If Kitty could have let out an ironic laugh, she would have. “Truthfully, Lady Russell, I have not,” she said. “I never dreamed that something like this would be possible for me.” Which was putting it lightly.
“Nonsense,” Lady Russell said. “Every woman, regardless of how deep in the country she hails from, should be celebrated on her wedding day. We will suspend our plans to venture to Wiltshire. We will plan something, even if it ends up being small, just for you. And you must call me ‘Mama’ now, as you are to be like my very own daughter.”
“I…er…of course…Mama.”
As strange as it was, it felt wonderful to refer to Lady Russell as a mother and to have the woman see her as a daughter. It was so much more than she had ever received from her own family.
In fact, the Ogilvy family were quick to rally around Kitty and accept her into their fold in ways that Kit could not have imagined.
They were joyful and attentive of Kitty in the following days, as preparations were made for the first reading of the banns.
They called at Lady Everly’s house, where Kitty was purported to be living while in London, so often that Kit was forced to spend the night there one night to maintain the appearance of respectability.
They included Kitty in every family conversation and decision, and as harrowing as it was, the ladies of the family even took to embracing Kitty and giving her the sort of physical comfort she had never imagined she would be worthy of.
It was all so wonderful, and at the same time, it caused a deep, gnawing sense of guilt to form in Kit’s stomach.
“What will they think once they discover the truth?” Kit asked Dev as the two of them walked to church together that Sunday.
Dev chuckled, nodding and tipping his hat to an elderly neighbor as they crossed paths on the street. “They will never know a thing. They see you and love you as Kitty, and I doubt that will ever change.”
“But it could,” Kit whispered. “And it most definitely will at some point. Something like this cannot be kept from the intimacy of the family forever.” She paused, glancing down for a moment as if in thought, but actually to use the brim of her wide bonnet to hide her face from Lady Crowley, who lived next door to Bedminster House, then looked up at Dev once more.
“I do not wish your family to be ignorant for the entirety of my life,” she said. “They must know at some point. ”
Dev looked slightly anxious at the statement, though he managed a smile for another of their neighbors as they approached the church. “You realize that informing them of the truth could prove…strange.”
Kit found it interesting that Dev would choose that particular word instead of “devastating” or “disastrous”, or even “difficult”.
“Perhaps it would not be a total disaster,” she said. “Your family are so good and so kind, and they seem quite liberal in their ways of thinking. Perhaps they would understand.”
She was unable to secure any sort of answer from Dev about what should be done and when, or to continue the conversation. They arrived at the churchyard moments later.
Part of Kitty supposed she should begin to grow used to being the center of so many people’s attention, but as she and Dev took seats in the Ogilvy family pew near the front of the room, a great many of the other parishioners’ eyes were on her.
When the minister read the banns, announcing her and Dev’s marriage, she felt all of those eyes bore into her as several people exclaimed happily or whispered something to their neighbor.
Sitting through the sermon itself was nerve-wracking enough, but once it ended and the congregation spilled out into the yard, that was when the real test began.
“Lady Everly, you must be so pleased for your young charge,” Lady Hayes, who lived across the street from Bedminster House and had seen Kit nearly every day of his younger life when he’d gone out for a walk, said.
“And you as well, Lady Russell. I have heard nothing but the highest regards for Miss Dryden.”
Kitty stood between the two formidable, older women, feeling both protected by them and accentuated. Dev had gone off with his brother to receive congratulations from friends Kitty did not know, and although he was within the line of Kitty’s sight, it felt as though he were very far away.
“We are delighted to welcome Miss Dryden into our family,” Lady Russell said, taking Kitty’s arm as if she could physically claim her.
As she always did when someone other than Dev or her trusted friends touched her, Kitty flinched in fear that Lady Russell would realize her arm was too firm or her waist not slender enough.
She did nothing of the sort, though. She merely smiled at Kitty as if she had brought sunshine into her life. Kitty could not help but smile back at her, marveling once again that a woman like Lady Russell could embody the spirit of motherhood so much more than her own mother.
“I would invite you to call, Miss Dryden,” Lady Hayes went on, “but we are to depart for the country tomorrow.”
“It is odd that you would plan a wedding during the summer months in London,” Lady Iris, Lady Hayes’s daughter, who had once been considered as a potential bride for the Earl of Castleton, and who had been regarding Kitty with a puzzled look through the entire conversation, said.
“Did you not want to wait until everyone returns to London for the new season?”
Kitty gulped a little at being asked so direct a question, and at the scrutiny Lady Iris directed toward her.
“It is Lord Deveraux’s wish that we decamp to the countryside as well,” she answered nearly in a whisper, so nervous was she about conversing in public with people who had known her from before.
“It would not be proper to do so before we are wed.”