Chapter 17
Seventeen
“ M y, but you look splendid,” Miss Jones said, stepping back from where Kit stood on a small platform, decked in the wedding gown Miss Jones was making for him, for Kitty. “It’s my best work, if I do say so myself.”
“It is beautiful,” Kit said, staring longingly down at himself.
Miss Jones truly had outdone herself. The two of them had pored over drawings from Paris of the latest styles when Kit had gone to her just a fortnight before, the day after his harrowing encounter with George in the churchyard.
He’d still been upset and convinced that George would not stay true to his word by keeping Kitty’s secret.
Worse still, the encounter had shaken his confidence and left him swinging wildly back and forth between believing he truly could become Kitty and that he was a fool who could not change who he was.
He’d been jittery and jumpy the entire time he’d traveled to Miss Jones’s modiste’s shop, expecting George or some other hired thugs to leap out and slit his throat .
But in the fortnight since the confrontation, nothing had happened.
Dev had sent money to George’s account as requested, and not a word had been whispered about the true identity of Miss Kitty Dryden.
Beyond that, the banns had been read two more times, and the wedding was now a mere week away.
But Kit was still struggling with who he was and who he could be.
“I am certain that you and Lord Deveraux will be the talk of the town this coming week, at your wedding and after,” Miss Jones said, stepping closer to Kit so that she could make a few adjustments to the gown and mark them with pins.
“That is what I am afraid of,” Kit said with a sigh. When Miss Jones looked questioningly but sympathetically up at him, Kit went on with, “I wish only to live a quiet, uninteresting life above any sort of suspicion, but I worry constantly that that will not be possible.”
Miss Jones hummed. “I will allow you the fact that suspicion may always be nipping at your heels,” she said. “But I also vow that I will do everything within my power to avert any suspicion by dressing you impeccably.”
She smiled and stuck another pin in the sleeve of Kit’s gown, then stepped back to regard her work with pride.
Kit appreciated the woman more than words could say.
She had become a true friend in the weeks since he’d changed his life into Kitty’s, and like Lady Everly, Georgiana, and Alice, he did not know what he would do without her.
That did not stop him from tensing when a sound from the back room of Miss Jones’s shop indicated they were about to be interrupted. Kit braced himself, only to relax when Mr. Wilkes stepped into the front part of the shop.
“Magnificent,” he declared, stopping to glance over Kit from head to toe. “Miss Dryden, you look divine. Clary, you’ve outdone yourself. ”
Kit’s tension eased into a smile. “Thank you, sir,” he replied, smoothing his hands along the silk of the gown.
“It is easy to outdo oneself when working on something one is passionate about,” Miss Jones said with a pleased laugh, then moved behind Kit as if to help him out of the gown.
Whether it was anxiety over exposing too much to Mr. Wilkes because of his secret or whether he’d accepted himself as a woman so completely that undressing in front of a man felt scandalous, Kit hugged his gown tightly, unwilling to take it off just yet.
“Forgive me,” Mr. Wilkes said with an apologetic half-bow. “I did not mean to interrupt or disturb you. I’ve just heard some news from a client of mine across the way that I thought you might find interesting.”
“Oh?” Miss Jones answered. “I do love interesting news.” She glanced up at Kit with a cheeky look of camaraderie. “Go on, then,” she said to Wilkes.
Wilkes cleared his throat, growing slightly more serious, then said, “I was just measuring a new client for a commission. During our conversation, he mentioned the current speculation about the fate of Lord Castleton.”
Kit’s smile vanished and his heart dropped into his stomach. “Has the truth come out?” he whispered.
“Far from it,” Wilkes said, still looking pleased. “In fact, the gentleman said that he had recently overheard the Duke of Bedminster at his club discussing his beliefs that Lord Castleton has met his demise at the hands of some criminal who has disposed of the body.”
Kit’s eyes went wide at the news. George had to have told his father what he’d seen in the churchyard. It seemed wildly fortunate that his father would agree to the scheme of declaring Lord Castleton dead so that Kit could go on to live his life as he chose and George could assume the earldom .
But Wilkes seemed to confirm exactly that when he said, “It appears the duke has begun proceedings to declare his eldest son deceased so that the younger one might take on the title and everything that comes with it.”
“That would be a blessed turn of events, would it not?” Miss Jones said with a bright smile.
“It most certainly would,” Kit said, not quite able to catch his breath. “If my father and brother were anything approaching good men.”
“You do not think they would let you go?” Wilkes asked, expression full of concern. “Even if it suits their needs as well?”
Kit pinched his face for a moment before stepping down from the platform and over to a screen where his day gown waited for him.
“My father and brother are vindictive and cruel,” he said.
“As much as it pains me to say it, I cannot help but think that they would wish to see me humiliated more than they would want a clean and expeditious end to the question of inheritance.”
“But then you would still be the earl,” Miss Jones said with a frown. “They would have gained nothing.”
Kit sent her a doleful look before the two of them stepped behind the screen. “My father has attempted to have me murdered once,” he said quietly. “I do not doubt he would do so again.”
“But Lord Deveraux would protect you, I know it,” Miss Jones insisted.
Kit said nothing, putting his energies into removing the wedding gown and dressing in his ordinary gown instead.
He had learned well in the last few weeks that women were far from the empty-headed, easily upset creatures that most men believed them to be.
He could have told Miss Jones the honest truth.
But it was a truth that even he did not want to think about.
His father would just as soon kill Dev along with him as he would eat his breakfast in the morning.
Nothing more was said on the matter until Kit emerged from behind the screen dressed for his journey home. Wilkes was still there, wearing a look of deep concern.
“You know that Clary and I will do anything you require of us to keep you and Lord Deveraux safe,” he said.
Kit somehow managed a grateful smile. “I do, and I cannot tell you how much that means to me. I thought I would be alone once I assumed this life. I have been overjoyed to find that that has not been the case.”
“There are others you could turn to for help and friendship, you know,” Wilkes went on as Kit gathered up his things to leave. “I am part of a new but thriving organization called The Brotherhood that is specifically devoted to assisting men like us in all things.”
Kit’s brow inched up. “The Brotherhood?”
“Yes.” Wilkes took a step closer to him, looking more excited by the moment.
“I would be glad to make your and Lord Deveraux’s introduction.
The center of The Brotherhood is located within a discreet club on Park Lane.
If you would allow me, I could bring you and Lord Deveraux in for an afternoon one day. ”
For a moment, Kit’s heart soared. But just as quickly it sank again.
“The trouble is, Mr. Wilkes, I am not exactly a brother to be joining this brotherhood,” he said. “If anything, I am a sister. That is what I feel in my heart. I do not know if I would fit in.”
“I’m certain you would,” Wilkes said. “But I will not press the matter if it makes you uncomfortable. Just know that there are men who would gladly step up to give you whatever assistance you need at any time, and they are but an introduction away. ”
Kit marveled that such an organization existed, and after saying his heartfelt goodbyes to Miss Jones and promising to stop by in a few days’ time to receive the finished wedding gown, he left the modiste shop to return to his apartment, thinking of nothing else but The Brotherhood.
It would have been so encouraging to have a group such as that when he’d been younger and questioning everything about himself.
He should have asked Wilkes if the club included anyone like him.
If it did, then he would have to rethink whether he belonged in a place like that.
His thoughts were so encompassing that he paid little attention to how Dev’s driver took him home or to the other carriages and people along the street where Mrs. Torrance’s house stood.
He’d had no reason to worry about anyone or anything in that neighborhood for the entire time he’d lived in Dev’s mistress apartment.
Which was why he was completely off his guard when he let himself into his rooms only to find his father and George standing there waiting for him.
The shock nearly knocked Kit off his feet. “What are you doing here?” he gasped, his voice high and wispy.
His father ignored his question, breaking into a disgusted sneer as he looked Kit over. “So it’s true,” he said, narrowing his eyes and tilting his chin up. “You are even more of an aberration than I thought you were.”
“I want no trouble with you,” Kit said, clutching his hands together to keep himself from trembling to pieces. “All I want is to be left alone to live the life that is best suited for me.”
“As some tart on the arm of a gentleman of dubious reputation?” his father asked with a snort.
“Deveraux is among the very best of men,” Kit defended his love as best he could, lowering his face.