by Gail Mallin
They signed it and he thanked them for their help.
‘Won’t you accept our hospitality for the night?’ he asked, quite willing to give up his own bedchamber for their use.
‘Nay, my lord. You’ve a house full and we’ve already taken rooms at the George in Malpas,’ said Mr Hogan shaking his grey head and rising to his feet.
His wife, a little dumpling of a woman against her husband’s broad inches, added her apologises for disturbing his lordship’s party. ‘We had intended to visit you tomorrow and then we spied Kitty and Mr Gillman in the inn yard asking for directions to the Hall. Once Kitty told us what had happened we realised that haste was required and came at once in the hope of preventing mischief.’
‘I am thankful you did, ma’am.’
‘You seem to have managed very well without our help, my lord.’ There was a twinkle in her eyes. ‘But I’m glad we could be of service to Kitty.’
Randal showed them out, promising to convey their farewells to his cousin, who would doubtless wish to call upon them before they left Cheshire.
After quickly checking that the ball was continuing to survive his absence, he hurried up to the pretty sitting room which adjoined his sister’s bedchamber.
‘Ah, come and join us, my boy!’ Godwin hailed him.
Accepting the glass of brandy Matthew handed him, Randal raised his eyebrows at his brother-in-law.
‘It’s all right. Blake is keeping watch,’ Matthew murmured quietly.
Randal nodded and went over to speak to Kitty.
Kate watched them, a bitter pain rousing her from her dazed state.
She had taken little part in enlightening Emma and the others, letting Ned and Kitty explain how after her rescue from the river they had smuggled Kitty back to England with them and how Ned’s chance remark on their sharing the same name and colouring had sparked Kate’s impulsive offer to impersonate the heiress.
Countless questions had followed, but to her surprise Kate had seen admiration, not censure, dawn in their eyes.
Kitty now broke off her conversation with Randal. ‘I would like to propose a toast,’ she announced with a new-found confidence which delighted Kate.
Mary had been right. Kitty had recovered her nerve. There was no need to worry about her any longer.
‘To Kate Devlin and the Gillman Players.’ Kitty raised her glass. ‘Without their help I would have lost both my life and my inheritance.’
Kate blushed. Sensing Randal’s gaze on her, she avoided his eyes.
‘To think Sean could be so wicked!’ Emma shook her bewigged head. She was finding it hard to take in. Her new friend was an actress! What was funny was she looked more of a lady than the real Kitty who, though no doubt an admirable girl, had chipped nails, a frightful hair style and an abominably dowdy taste in dress!
She smiled a little awkwardly at Kate, trying to convey her continuing support. ‘You are very brave, Mrs Devlin.’
‘Indeed, I take my hat off to you, ma’am! You had us all properly fooled!’ Matthew Lattimer exclaimed, coming forward to refill her glass.
Knowing that he was wrong, a shiver prickled down Kate’s spine. How in God’s name had Randal discovered her secret? And when?
She covered the top of her glass. ‘No more for me, Lieutenant.’ An apologetic smile trembled on her lips. ‘I think I shall seek my bed.’
‘Me too,’ Kitty declared. ‘It’s been a long day.’
Since all the guest bedrooms were taken, Kate had suggested Kitty share the room assigned to her while Ned had professed his willingness to accept a bed anywhere a corner could be found.
‘Don’t worry about me, Mrs Lattimer. I can sleep in the servants’ hall or over the stables,’ he’d said cheerfully.
Emma’s calm acceptance of this offer had forcibly reminded Kate of Ned’s status. He was an actor, not a gentleman!
And now she was no longer a lady!
She rose to her feet, suddenly too weary to face the implications of Kitty’s return.
Randal came forward to escort them to the door. He willed Katharine to look up at him, but she was still avoiding his gaze.
‘Will you warn my godmother of my arrival, sir?’ Kitty asked. ‘I do not want to spoil the ball for her, but I fear my sudden appearance in the morning may come as a shock.’
Kate paled. She had forgotten about Alicia!
‘I shall speak to her before she retires,’ Randal promised.
Behind him, he could hear the others making preparations to return downstairs, Emma murmuring about neglected guests.
Randal didn’t give a tinker’s curse. All he wanted to do was to have things out with Katharine!
But the exhaustion in her great dark eyes stilled his tongue.
* * * *
‘Come and give me a kiss, my dear,’ Lady Edgeworth commanded. ‘I cannot say that I am pleased that you did not see fit to trust me, but my goddaughter has explained everything and I understand your reasons.’
Her heart lightening, Kate crossed the room to where Alicia resided upon a chaise longue.
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ she murmured, obeying her ladyship’s command. ‘It grieved me to deceive you.’
Alicia, who, although she had arisen at an unusually early hour, was still en deshabille waved her to a chair.
Kate sat down. ‘I intend to repay all the monies you have laid out on my behalf,’ she began nervously, but Alicia let out a snort of outrage.
‘Nonsense, child! I enjoyed having your company so do not prattle of owing me anything.’ Alicia fixed her with a stern look. ‘Besides, what you did for Kitty must earn my eternal gratitude and a very poor way of showing it I would have to take your shillings.’
A smile lit her plump face. ‘Let us call it quits, my dear, and say no more about it!’
Kate nodded, and feeling overwhelmed by Alicia’s unexpected generosity, had to struggle to prevent the tears which stung her eyelids from falling.
Lady Edgeworth saw her distress, but wisely said nothing, inviting her instead to help herself to a cup of chocolate from the pot which her maid had brought up earlier.
Stilling her shaking hands by sheer willpower, Kate poured the rich dark liquid and sipped it gratefully. She had been far too tense to eat any breakfast and, while Kitty had been closeted earlier with her godmother, she had paced the bedroom in a turmoil of guilty apprehension.
‘I don’t know why you are fretting,’ Mary had grumbled. ‘If her ladyship can’t see we did everything for the best, then to hell with her!’
It wasn’t so simple. A part of Kate knew she was worrying about what Alicia might say to mask her greater concern about Randal’s reaction.
Mary had reported he was busy with his guests and he would have to do something about Sean who, presumably, was still being held prisoner up on the top floor, but Kate knew that Randal would seek her out the minute he was free.
The thought terrified her!
‘So, my dear, will you tell me a little about yourself?’ Alicia asked when she judged that her visitor had recovered her composure.
Kate obliged, confining her remarks to her recent experiences with the Gillman Players.
If she was disappointed by this reticence, Alicia took care not to show it, remarking instead that Kitty intended to return to America as soon as possible.
‘She tells me she is homesick,’ Alicia said sadly. ‘Not that I can blame her for not wishing to remain in Chester. It would be very awkward!’
Kitty had announced that nothing would induce her to try and take up the place which Kate had carved out in society. ‘I have no wish to become an object of gossip, God— Ma’am,’ she had said. ‘I shall remain quietly hidden until the legal process is completed and I can leave.’
Kate nodded, setting aside her empty cup. Kitty had confided in her last night.
‘I believe she has also persuaded Mr Gillman to take your company to America?’
‘Apparently, English actors are all the rage ove
r there, ma’am.’
Stunned at first by this proposal, Kate now believed it had several merits. The booking Ned had such hopes for had come to nothing and, as usual, it would be hard to find profitable work until the autumn. Kitty had assured them that American audiences would welcome them, pointing out that several other companies had made a success of such ventures.
What’s more, Kitty wanted to pay everyone’s passage as a mark of her gratitude. The Gillman Players had nothing to lose.
And, as Mary had bluntly observed, the change of scene would help Kate put the last two months behind her.
Kate rose to go. ‘Goodbye, ma’am, and thank you for all your kindness.’
‘I shall miss you, my dear,’ Alicia said truthfully.
A deep sigh escaped her when the bedroom door closed behind Kate.
She would have loved to see her young friend the mistress of this house, but last night’s revelations had destroyed that hope.
Randal Crawford might be careless of convention, but marry an actress? Surely not!
* * * *
‘Are you sure you will be all right?’ Emma Lattimer was frowning. ‘I don’t like leaving you on your own in a place like this.’
Kate smiled reassuringly. ‘I’ve put up at inns which were far less respectable.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Emma muttered, exchanging a strained glance with her husband. ‘I keep forgetting you aren’t Kitty.’
Kate managed to summon a cheerful smile and thanked them for allowing her to drive back to Chester with them.
‘I don’t know what Randal is going to say when he finds—’
Matthew nudged his wife to tactful silence. ‘Come and say good bye before you leave, won’t you, Mrs Devlin?’
‘Oh yes! Do come and see us before we sail on Thursday.’
Kate promised to call and the Lattimers took their leave.
Untying her bonnet, Kate threw it on the bed, which looked hard. In fact, the whole room seemed very Spartan.
Idiot! What did she expect? Her days of luxury were over!
Tomorrow it would all be over.
‘Randal has sent a message summoning the lawyers to meet me here tomorrow morning,’ Kitty had told her on her return from Lady Edgeworth’s bedchamber. ‘They are to bring my grandfather’s strongbox so I will be able to pay you and Mary.’ She’d beamed at Kate. ‘I am sure my cousin will have no objection to you all remaining here until then.’
Gritting her teeth, Kate had agreed, but as the morning had worn on without any sign of Randal her strained nerves had given way.
‘I’ve asked Emma for a ride into town,’ she had told Mary tersely. ‘I’ll put up at the Bear in Lower Bridge Street tonight and you and Ned can meet me there tomorrow after Kitty has handed over the money. I’ll take the small valise. Will you bring the rest of my things?’
Mary had nodded and Kate held out a hastily-scribbled letter. ‘Can you give this to Lord Redesmere?’
‘Are you sure, lass?’
Kate nodded grimly. There was nothing left to say except goodbye.
He hadn’t known she was an actress when he had asked her to marry him. Her running away would save them both embarrassment.
Don’t mope, she now told herself sternly. In a few weeks you will be on your way to America and all this will seem like a dream.
Blinking away her tears she forced herself to ring for the chambermaid. For sure, she would feel better when she had washed and changed, her pomona green travelling costume was abominably dusty!
The maid took a long time to answer the bell. ‘Sorry, Miss, we’re right busy,’ she muttered in a harassed tone before rushing off again.
Kate decided to tidy her hair while she was waiting and had just unpinned her curls when a knock came at the door.
‘Come in,’ she called, pleasantly surprised that the hot water she had asked for had arrived so quickly.
‘Why did you run away, sweetheart?’
The brush fell from her nerveless fingers as Kate whirled round from the mirror.
‘I…I. You shouldn’t have followed me. Please go away!’
‘You haven’t given me your answer yet.’ Randal closed the door and set his hat and driving gloves down calmly.
Kate stared at him, her heart thudding wildly. She had thought she would never see him again! ‘You know it is impossible!’
He raised his brows at her. ‘I thought you loved me.’
Kate drew in a shaking breath. Oh God, why was he torturing her like this!
‘Well? I told you that I loved you and wanted you for my wife. Don’t I at least deserve to know whether my feelings are reciprocated?’ His appearance of calm could not disguise the faint tremor in Randal’s voice. ‘Or maybe you don’t care enough to take the risk of marrying a man who might turn into a fever-wrecked cripple one day?’
‘How can you say such a thing!’ Kate’s precarious self-control splintered. ‘What happened at Walcheren isn’t important to me because I don’t mind whether you get ill or not! You’ll still be the same man and I’ll still love you!’ Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. ‘Of course I want to marry you!’
‘That’s all I needed to hear.’
In two strides he crossed the little room and gathered her into his arms.
‘Don’t ever run away from me again,’ he said thickly and set his mouth on hers.
The kiss was long and deep, igniting a familiar flame of longing in Kate, but when he lifted his fair head she struggled for sanity.
‘Randal!’ Placing her hands flat against the lapels of his blue superfine coat, she held him off. ‘I cannot marry you. I am an actress!’
‘You are also the daughter of Sir George Redcliffe.’
Kate’s eyes widened. ‘I suppose Mary told you?’
He nodded. ‘She told me everything.’
‘You aren’t disgusted?’ Kate whispered.
‘Only with your relatives.’
The Redcliffes were an old Cumbrian family of good lineage and modest fortune, but her father’s behaviour was monstrous. Almost as bad, her frivolous grandmother, whose careless neglect had allowed Devlin to pursue his courtship, had refused Katharine succour for fear that the baronet would refuse to settle her continual gaming debts.
‘They deserve nothing but contempt for the way they behaved. I think you well shot of them!’
A shaky smile curved Kate’s lips. She might have known he wouldn’t take the conventional view of elopement! ‘I can’t imagine you abandoning Emma in a like case,’ she murmured.
‘Indeed I would not!’ he replied forcefully.
She had been an innocent sixteen year old desperate for affection, easy prey for a cruel rogue who had hoped to gain access to Sir George’s money. Sadly, she had paid a bitter price for her mistake!
‘Now we have disposed of that objection, may I ask if you are ashamed of having had to work for your living?’
‘No!’ Kate hesitated. ‘Well not now, although I was at first,’ she admitted honestly.
‘You didn’t want to go on stage?’
Hearing the surprise in his voice, Kate gave a rueful little laugh. ‘I may have been foolishly enamoured of an actor, but I wasn’t stage-struck. No, it was Francis who insisted on my becoming an actress.’
‘You don’t have to tell me if you’d rather—’
Kate shook her head, making her loosened hair ripple over her shoulders. ‘I don’t want any more secrets between us,’ she said in a slightly unsteady voice.
At his quick nod of understanding, she felt encouraged to continue. ‘On my seventeenth birthday Francis asked me to elope with him over the border to Gretna. I thought it the most romantic thing! It didn’t matter to me that he was poor and from a different milieu. He was kind and gentle and he swore he loved me.’
Kate had been so happy she had ignored her guilt about running away and blithely refused to think of the future.
‘Then my father cast me off and Francis’s attitude changed overnight
.’ She gave an awkward little shrug. ‘I hadn’t realised, you see, that he was only pretending to be in love with me.’
Randal’s arms tightened around her protectively, rage against the dead man burning in his heart.
‘Francis had left his previous company in order to arrange our elopement. It took his last penny and, Papa having failed his expectations, we were on the point of being thrown out of our lodgings when the Gillman Players arrived in Carlisle.’
Ned had agreed to take Francis on and Kate, in a state of shocked bewilderment at her new circumstances and intimidated by her husband’s foul mood, soon discovered that she was expected to earn her keep by helping with the numerous small tasks that went on backstage. She had barely adjusted to this situation when Betsy, one of the younger actresses, sprained her ankle and Francis had curtly informed her that she would have to take Betsy’s place.
‘I…I can’t stand up there in front of all those people!’ Kate had gasped in fright.
‘Too proud, are you? Actors not good enough for you?’ The black frown she had come to fear descended on Francis’s good-looking face.
‘No…no, but—’
‘You’re no better than the rest of us now, Miss High and Mighty!’ Francis had snarled at her. ‘And I won’t drag a useless deadweight around with me! Either you’ll do as I say or, by God, I’ll throw you out!’
So, terrified of his anger, Kate had obeyed and to her surprise once she had overcome her initial nerves, she had begun to enjoy her new employment.
‘Oddly enough, in the end Francis became jealous of my success and forbade me to take any of the larger roles,’ she murmured with a rueful chuckle.
Not wishing to upset her, Randal swallowed his rage at Devlin’s vile behaviour and tried to match her light tone. ‘I told you once before that I approved of honest toil so there’s another obstacle vanquished. Which, since you’ve no objection to my person, means there is nothing to stop us getting wed.’
‘Not everyone is as liberal-minded as yourself, my lord.’
Randal traced the curve of her smiling mouth with the tip of his finger. ‘You let me worry about the gossips,’ he commanded.