Beyond Rubies (Daughters of Sin Book 4) by Beverley Oakley Page A

Something a little warmer, more comfortable and discreet for me to convey you home.” He helped her inside, then followed after giving orders to the coachman. “I hope your destiny is worthy, for you are quite enchanting and I have enjoyed our time together enormously.”
    Once they’d reached Mrs. Mobbs’s, and the coach had come to a stop, he leaned forward to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “Beware, Miss La Bijou, for the theater is a dangerous place. I would hate to see one so sweet and innocent as you become spoiled or jaded.”
    “You are very kind, Lord Silverton.” Kitty put her hand to her cheek and wondered how such a nice gentleman could be embroiled in the villainous affairs of Lord Debenham. She took the hand of the postilion who was holding open the door, waiting to assist her to the ground. It was a shame she wouldn’t be seeing Lord Silverton again, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing.
    For a gentleman who had no intention of providing her with the destiny she knew was hers if she made the right choices, it would be safer to keep her distance.
    Especially in view of what Cousin Stephen had said.

Chapter Five
    A raminta looked down at her protruding belly where, it seemed, the last of the sun’s rays through the window were coalescing. She wished they were somehow magic fingers of gold, or wands, that would remove the hateful creature that lodged within her.
    “Tighter, Jane.” The baby had grown larger and faster than she could ever have imagined and defied the constrictions of the stays she was now exhorting her maid to lace as firmly as she could.
    If she allowed herself to dwell on the potential disaster of a full-term child arriving six weeks earlier than it should, she would terrify herself. All she could do was trust to the fact rescue would come in some form or another.
    Araminta loathed going out in public. When she was alone, she wore loose stays designed for a woman in the later stages of pregnancy. She could relax, eat chocolates and, in the absence of any other company, talk to Jane.
    However, Debenham liked to promote the fiction they were the devoted newlyweds, if one could call themselves that after being married only five months. Of course, when she was required to accompany him anywhere, she had to employ multiple artful means of hiding her seven-month belly. Thus far, Debenham suspected nothing. Araminta knew she was not being complacent in this belief. If Debenham had for one moment thought she was not the virgin he believed he’d married, he’d have made her suffer in every imaginable way. Debenham liked to show her he was master in all things.
    With a grunt, Jane managed to generate an extra inch of slack in the laces. She then came to stand in front of Araminta and, with a frown, put her hand on her mistress’s belly. Her censorious look made Araminta want to give her a sharp kick in the shins, except Jane was the one person who could bring her down and also the one person able to protect her.
    Araminta smiled. “Another one of your lectures, Jane? You know what will happen if I keep Debenham waiting and make him late for the theater.”
    “‘E will make ‘is displeasure known, m’lady, but then yer knew what kind o’ man yer were marryin’.”
    “If there had been any other man who’d have married me when I needed it—” Araminta drew her hand across her face as she took a shuddering breath. “Now, no more of this talk for it makes my head want to burst. Oh...Hetty, what are you doing here? You didn’t knock!”
    Araminta put her hands over her belly as her younger sister waltzed into the room wearing her characteristically beaming smile. But then Hetty had a lot to beam about whereas Araminta’s life was full of woe. And Hetty was the reason.
    “Goodness, Araminta, why, you’re as big as I am and you’re months behind me. Perhaps you’re carrying two?”
    The thought hadn’t occurred to Araminta, but Hetty’s artless comment gave her pause.