Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4)

by Beverley Oakley

  “I ain’t goin’ near there. I can’t, m’lord. An yet...Kitty needs me.”

  “She’ll need you when she wants a good maid to help her with all those things a lady needs, and you’ll be there, eh, Dorcas.” He patted her shoulder. “Have no fear for her safety. Kitty is probably drinking tea and in no danger at all.”

  Dorcas looked dubiously up the road. “An afta yer get ‘er out? Where’ll she go, m’lord? Where will I go?”

  “Why, you’ll come to me, of course. Kitty always comes to me when she needs help.” The knowledge suddenly filled him with the greatest excitement. And desire. Kitty needed his help. And she had nowhere to go but home to be with him.

  Home to be with him. Where she belonged. She desired him as much—more—than she did Lord Nash. She’d admitted it numerous times; the only reason she’d chosen Nash was because he offered her marriage. Well, Silverton could offer her much more than Nash when it came to matters of the heart.

  With a thrill that coursed throughout his entire body and made him feel quite lightheaded with joy, he turned his footsteps towards Soho.

  He was not surprised by the unctuous welcome he received when he was shown into Maggie Montgomery’s sitting room.

  “Lord Silverton, to what do I owe this pleasure?” she purred, pouring them both a snifter of brandy.

  “I’ve come to fetch Kitty La Bijou.” With a smile, he tossed back the shot, its welcome warmth feeding his anticipation. Soon he’d have Kitty all to himself. Forever and always. He’d set her up in a handsome townhouse, and he’d shower her with all the gowns and jewels she could desire.

  He knew he ought not to think in this manner with Miss Mandelton due to arrive in London in the next month. But Kitty needed him. He could not fail her now.

  Guilt over what he owed Miss Mandelton could wait, and he knew he’d feel it keenly. After all, Miss Mandelton needed him too. They needed each other.

  She needed a husband, and he needed a wife. A wife who would cause no scandal; who would be easily accepted into society. He had a duty to his parents, to his family name. He’d never been more shocked than to learn that Lord Partington was Kitty’s father, but even Lord Partington had understood it was impossible for Kitty, a bastard, to marry a peer of the realm.

  “Miss La Bijou?” Maggie looked discomposed for the first time. “You’ve come here for her?”

  “Yes, I saw her. And now I’d like you to take me to her.”

  He rose, and Maggie rose also, frowning. “There is a minor matter that needs attending to first.” She ran the tip of her tongue over her top lip. “You see, it concerns a ruby necklace. A very valuable ruby necklace. There is a gentleman on his way to claim it. Miss La Bijou has wrongfully acquired this valuable item, and I shall be out of pocket if I simply hand the young lady, still wearing the necklace, into your hands, my lord.” Her smiled gained confidence as she no doubt took in his anxiety to be reunited with Kitty. “No need to look so concerned. Yes, this gentleman ain’t one you’ve a mind to see, I’d wager, but you were ‘ere first an’ I reckon if you can offer me the right kind o’ money we can both say goodbye feelin’ happy ‘bout matters.”

  ***

  Kitty sat hunched miserably on the wrought-iron double bed with its blue satin coverlet and comfortable cushions. A small fire lit the grate. It looked as if the room were awaiting guests.

  But surely not her.

  And she surely did not want to be here.

  She put her hands up to cover her face and tried not to cry. How could her life have spiraled downhill so quickly? Half an hour ago she would have married Lord Nash, had it not been for his treachery. And now she was here, a prisoner in a brothel. Would she be forcibly coerced into becoming one of Maggie’s girls? It wasn’t possible.

  No, it wasn’t possible, for Lord Silverton would save her.

  The bolstering thought flitted through her mind at the precise moment she heard a hasty rapping on the door, which was thrust open, and there he stood, smiling and handsome, his arms outstretched as he advanced toward her and she threw herself into them, reveling in his warmth and the wonderfully familiar smell of his cologne, woody and masculine, which sent tendrils of desire all the way through her.

  “Oh, Silverton, I thought you’d never come!” she cried, which wasn’t entirely true, but it was nice to be able to give vent to a heartfelt outpouring that expressed that her very desires and hopes had come true. “At first, I wished you hadn’t come to the church because of how it made me feel here”—she tapped her heart—“and now I’m so glad you did because, oh, I need some comfort right now.”

  “I know just how to comfort you, Kitty, my love,” he murmured against her lips. “You were very aware how ready I was to step in if you only wanted me enough.”

  Kitty twined her arms about his neck and pressed herself against him. Her body was on fire, and the hand he slipped into her bodice was only stoking her lust. “I wanted marriage more than anything, I’ll admit it, but I loved you more, it’s true. Though I thought I loved Nash until he betrayed me,” she added, sadly.

  Silverton put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him; and as Kitty gazed at his face with its kind blue-grey eyes that smoldered with passion, beneath which there was no dueling scar, and the lovely springy waves of his hair that framed his handsome yet strongly made face, she knew she’d always been fated to kiss those sensitive lips and to lose herself in the passion of his kiss—and surrender her body to his.

  “I shall never betray you, Kitty,” he promised, cradling her in his arms, then whisking her feet off the floor and placing her on the bed. “Be mine, Kitty?” His eyes were pleading as he cupped her cheek, joining her on the bed and gently toying with the top button of her gown. “Will you?”

  She needed no more prompting. Already she felt close to exploding into a shower of passionate flames.

  “Yes!”

  There was mistaking the fact that her ardor clearly matched his for within seconds, it seemed, Silverton was as naked as she was, and she was beneath him on that big, comfortable bed, as he touched his lips to her eyes, her nose, blazing a trail of kisses down her neck, suckling her nipples.

  She arched her body to meet him, passion bubbling in her veins, burning its way through her entire body. She was wet and ready for him, every nerve ending already heightened and ready to snap when his fingers found the slick nub at her core.

  “Come inside me,” she begged, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him down to her, aware their time was limited. “Please.”

  “Oh, Kitty, I love you, I adore you,” he whispered as he reached down to position himself at her entrance. His expression was full of heartfelt sincerity. “I will be true to you, I swear it, until the day you die; and you will never have cause to regret...becoming my...”

  “Mistress,” she supplied.

  “But I will love you as if you were my wife,” he promised as, with a soft groan, he slid into her; and Kitty believed this as he was caught up in the excitement of becoming one. An excitement she surely felt as keenly and deeply as he, the raw primal pleasure sweeping away any residual disappointment she might have harbored at the fact she’d not achieved what Nash had so briefly seemed to offer.

  But what was a glittering wedding ring when Silverton’s love was pure and true?

  And his desire to pleasure her was clear as he stroked her between her legs while he moved within her, and kissed her eyes, her lips, her breasts.

  With a gasp, Kitty reached the pinnacle just before he did, shattering with a cry of joy which signaled his own climax.

  Collapsing, truly satisfied, she basked in the tenderness of his embrace, soaking up the warmth and love he was offering her now and forever.

  She’d always loved Silverton, she realized this; knew she always had. Life was a journey of compromises, and she could be happy with the one she’d made she felt, as she gazed into his adoring expression.

  “Did I tell you I love you, Miss Kitty La Bi
jou?” he asked, resting on one elbow to gaze down at her, tracing the outline of her mouth with his fingertip.

  She nodded.

  “And did I tell you I loved you from about the time you decided the spelling pig at the Tower of London couldn’t really spell?”

  She nodded again. “That was about when I fell in love with you. Except I didn’t know it at the time.” Her heart hitched. She loved these bantering sessions with Silverton.

  “And did you know that you wield such power over me that I could refuse you nothing?”

  “You make me laugh, Lord Silverton.”

  “You make me happy, Kitty La Bijou.”

  She became serious. “You make me happy, Lord Silverton. You always have.”

  “I want to make you happy, Kitty.”

  She was about to curl herself against him and suggest they do it all over again, as another surge of love and desire flooded through her, when there was a rap at the door.

  Silverton, she noticed, looked outraged. “I thought the arrangement we had was understood,” he called.

  When Kitty looked stricken, he whispered hastily, but reassuringly, “There was a little matter over your necklace. In order to placate Mrs. Montgomery and put an end to the matter, I’ve paid her a great deal more than it’s worth...while you and I shall go shopping for a more than adequate replacement. However,” he added in clipped tones, “I said we would emerge from here when we were ready.”

  The rapping sounded again, and this time Nash’s voice issued through the keyhole, loud and desperate. “Kitty, I need to explain! Please, listen to me! Are you in there?”

  Silverton shook his head, disbelievingly, while Kitty sat up, shocked, covering herself with the coverlet as if Nash might bust in at any moment.

  “There’s nothing you can say, Lord Nash,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster. “You have betrayed me.”

  “Kitty, I beg you, listen to me! You ran off before I had a chance to say anything.”

  “And there’s nothing you can say that will make any difference, Lord Nash.” Indignantly, Kitty stared at the door, rising onto her knees as she wrapped her arms about Lord Silverton and kissed his right ear. He looked at her with a mixture of love, admiration and longing.

  “Please, I—”

  “It’s too late. Lord Silverton has shown me how a true gentleman behaves—”

  “Lord Silverton? What has he got to do with any of this? Besides, Lord Silverton isn’t prepared to marry you. And I am! My father thought the marriage was not legal, but I went through every avenue with my solicitor, and he declared that the vows we were to say were indeed legally binding. I’ve now persuaded my father of the fact, and I’m here to persuade you. As my father will. Dorcas told me you’d been picked up by your old landlady and taken here, though Lord knows why.”

  Mrs. Montgomery’s voice sounded in the passage, and then there was the sound of the key being turned in the lock, and the door was pushed open.

  And there was barely any time for Kitty and Lord Silverton to hastily cover themselves, before Lord Nash’s earnest, eager face was staring at them.

  First with disbelief.

  Then, shock and horror.

  And finally anger and dismay.

  Certainly, dismay was written all over Lord Silverton’s face as Kitty looked between the two men...the one who would have married her after all, and the one...

  She loved.

  She swallowed, and tears welled up in her eyes. For both men.

  “I’m sorry, Nash,” she whispered.

  He looked as if she’d whipped him across the face with a cat o’ nine tails.

  “I’m sorry, Kitty.”

  It was Lord Silverton who was speaking, tenderly stroking the strands of flyaway hair from her forehead.

  “Kitty? How could you?” Lord Nash asked brokenly. “We would have been married by now if...if you’d had faith in me.”

  Kitty dropped her eyes. Guilt scored her very soul. Then she raised her head and whispered, “You deceived me once. I thought you’d done it again. It’s true; I should have had faith. I should have waited.” She swallowed and gently stroked Lord Silverton’s cheek. “But in truth, I have found that, after all, I have won my heart’s desire. I thought I wanted marriage above all else.” She tilted her head so that Lord Silverton could see the sincerity of her expression. Love, greater than she’d ever felt or even believed possible, flowered in her breast. Her breath hitched in her throat as she opened her mouth to say the truest words she’d ever spoken. “But now I know that, above all, I wanted love.” Almost tentatively she touched her finger to his lips and she thought she would cry with joy to see all her hopes for the future reflected in the eyes of the darling man before her. “And that’s what I’ve found.”

  THE END

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  Also by Beverley Oakley

  Beautiful, Brazen Brightwells

  Rake's Honour

  Rogue's Kiss

  Daughters of Sin

  Her Gilded Prison

  Dangerous Gentlemen

  The Mysterious Governess

  Beyond Rubies

  Daughters of Sin Boxed Set: Her Gilded Prison, Dangerous Gentlemen, The Mysterious Governess

  Watch for more at Beverley Oakley’s site.

  About the Author

  Beverley Oakley was seventeen when she bundled up her first 500+ page romance and sent it to a publisher. But, apparently, drowning her heroine on the last page was not in line with the expectations of romance readers so Beverley became a journalist.

  Since 2009, Beverley has published more than thirteen sizzling historical romances, filled with mystery and intrigue, mostly set in England during the Georgian, Regency and Victoria eras.

  Beverley lives near Melbourne opposite a picturesque nineteenth-century insane asylum with the handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met in Botswana, their two beautiful daughters and a rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgeback the size of a pony.

  Beverley also writes more psychological historicals, and Colonial-Africa- set romantic adventures, as Beverley Eikli.

  Read more at Beverley Oakley’s site.