Kitty

by Chapman, Catherine E.

  ~KITTY~

  By Catherine E. Chapman

  Published by Catherine E. Chapman at Amazon

  Copyright 2013 Catherine E. Chapman

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

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  Also by the author

  Brizecombe Hall

  Danburgh Castle

  Elizabeth Clansham

  Rhiannon

  The Beacon Singer

  The Hangar Dance

  The Ramblers

  KITTY

  “As a travelling companion, Kitty was thoroughly dull – I can’t tell you how–”

  “My dear Clara, you have told us.”

  “Sorry Papa?”

  “You have just, quite precisely, told us how thoroughly dull your sister was as a travelling companion–”

  “Mr Lewis, pray do not confound our youngest daughter. Clara dear, we are not all blessed with your prematurely advanced powers of conversation.”

  “But Mama, she was thoroughly dull. We shared a carriage with a Lady Elizabeth Grimes –a very interesting lady of means, Mama– all the way from Somerton and I swear Kitty said not two words to her the whole time it took to get to Bath – she just sat there, with her head stuck in a book, the whole time!”

  “Is this true, Katherine?” Mrs Lewis asked the middle child.

  Kitty looked blankly up from the page of her book. “Sorry, mother, I wasn’t attending.”

  Mrs Lewis rolled her eyes as Mr Lewis smiled fondly upon his second-born.

  “Clara tells us you forewent an opportunity to make an advantageous connection with a Lady Elizabeth Grimes on your journey.”

  Katherine hesitated before replying, “We did talk to her and she told us she’d been introduced to Lucinda at a dance in the Assembly Rooms when she was last in town–”

  “And did you capitalise upon this information, Katherine? Did you secure your father and I an introduction to this grand personage?”

  Kitty had no opportunity to answer before Clara chipped in, “No, she most certainly did not, Mama. But fortunately I had the foresight to obtain the address of Lady Grimes’s apartments in the city so all is not lost.”

  “Oh well done, Clara,” Mrs Lewis said approvingly.

  “And I trust that this shall be remembered when we do go to the Assembly Rooms – I trust I shall be included in the party.”

  “We shall see, Clara,” Mr Lewis said absently, returning his attention to his newspaper.

  “Shall I have my own room this season?” Kitty asked her mother.

  “No, my dear, you shall share with Clara–”

  “Must she?” Clara protested.

  Addressing her youngest daughter, Mrs Lewis explained, “Now that Lucinda is a young lady about town, she needs a room of her own in Bath. She mustn’t be disturbed by chatter and silliness when she returns fatigued from her many social engagements with Mrs Hempleduke.”

  Kitty raised her eyebrows at her mother’s explanation. Clara scowled, muttering, “I’d rather share a room with Cinders than with her – at least Cinders is kind to me.”

  “You two shall do very well sharing a room together,” Mrs Lewis concluded, looking authoritatively upon her younger daughters and tactically ignoring Clara’s complaint.

  “And that’s that,” Mr Lewis echoed, smiling amusedly into his broadsheet.

  * * *

  Kitty hadn’t wanted to come to Bath – she didn’t see the need to enter into society. It was so much nicer to stay at home in the countryside where everything was quiet and peaceful. But her mother, she knew, was intent upon finding a husband for her elder sister, Lucinda, and Bath was the place for the girl to make a desirable match. And so Lucinda had been sent to the city at the start of the season, several weeks before, as companion to the well-connected and fashionable friend of the family, Mrs Hempleduke.

  For Kitty, the upside of being required to share a room with her intolerable younger sister, Clara, was that it signified that her mother didn’t consider she, Katherine, to yet be eligible to be married off. Therefore, she need not fear being called upon to attend too many social engagements. So, equipped with as full a library as she could possibly fit into her trunk, Kitty intended to spend the foreseeable future engrossed in a good book, ignoring all the nonsense going on around about her. Her father’s approach to dealing with the discomforts of Bath was, she knew, very much the same.

  It was not until well into the evening of Kitty and Clara’s arrival at the Lewis’s rooms in the city that Katherine actually set eyes upon her eldest sister. When Lucinda breezed into the first-floor drawing room of the Lewises’ fine Georgian townhouse apartments, Kitty was instantly struck, not only by her sister’s flourishing beauty but also by a sense of her remoteness now that their mother considered her to have reached maturity.

  Lucinda beamed upon sight of her siblings. Clara leapt from the couch, sprang across the room and flung herself at Lucinda’s midriff enthusiastically but Lucinda reserved her warmest greetings for Katherine, whispering, “I have missed you so, Sister,” to her as they embraced.

  Mrs Lewis was quick to curtail these displays of emotion – they did not do. “Pray be seated, girls. Lucinda, do tell us about your day. I understand that Captain Northwood was dining with you at Mrs Hempleduke’s this evening?”

  “Yes indeed Mother. And another of his men, Captain John Clayton.”

  Kitty noted that the otherwise utterly composed Lucinda blushed to mention Captain Northwood.

  “I have not met a Captain Clayton.”

  “Yes you have, Mother.”

  “Then he left no impression upon me.”

  “Cinders, who is Captain Northwood?” Clara asked, intrigued, adding, “I imagine him to be a most distinguished and handsome sea captain – tell me, is he very handsome?” before her sister had had the opportunity to respond to her initial question.

  Lucinda looked flustered.

  “Clara has heard of Captain Northwood from a Lady Elizabeth Grimes, with whom we travelled on the coach from Somerton,” Kitty clarified.

  “Must you spoil everything, Kitty?” Clara complained. “That was my secret; I wanted to surprise Cinders with it–”

  “My dear Clara, your secret would have been out within seconds anyway – you, child, are incapable of keeping a secret from anybody,” Mr Lewis observed.

  “But is he very handsome, Lulu?” Clara persevered, ignoring her father’s aspersions.

  “To some ladies, yes, I imagine Captain Northwood would appear very handsome,” Lucinda replied plainly.

  “Come, come, Lucinda,” Mrs Lewis chided. “Captain Northwood is a very handsome man. Not only that but noble and brave – and destined to inherit a fortune from his uncle. You, Lucinda, above all ladies, are of this opinion, are you not?” Mrs Lewis urged.

  Lucinda smiled but said nothing.

  “There is little point in concealing from you, girls, the fact that your father and I expect Lucinda to receive from Captain Northwood a proposal of marriage any day now–”

  “My dear Mrs Lewis, I fear you are being over-hasty–” Mr Lewis cautioned.

  “Oh Mr Lewis, ye of little faith…” Mrs Lewis replied witheringly.

  Mr Lewis returned his attention to his book, satisfied that his wife’s perspective on this matter could not be altered; there was nothing to do but resign himself to her inevitable disappointment.

/>   That night the family retired without Kitty having an opportunity to speak with Lucinda in private. Lying in bed, beside a snoring Clara, Katherine wondered what Lucie really thought of Captain Northwood, her prospective husband.

  * * *

  The following morning, Lucinda Lewis’s appearance at the breakfast table was brief. Mrs Hempleduke required the presence of the Lewis’s eldest daughter at a full calendar of engagements –including the selection of muslins for gowns– throughout the day. Lucinda’s absence meant that Kitty was left to occupy Clara and, it being a dull and drizzly start to the day, Mr Lewis thought there was nothing better for it than that the younger sisters should go into town.

  “Where are we going?” Clara asked as Kitty dragged her across the street purposefully.

  “To a shop,” Kitty replied.

  “What kind of shop?” Clara asked.

  “This shop,” Kitty said, as she opened the shop door.

  “Ugh, Kitty!” Clara complained, “You have brought me to a bookshop!”

  “You like books,” Katherine said plainly.

  “You like books,” Clara muttered grumpily.

  But it wasn’t long before Clara’s spirits improved. This was Bath’s best-stocked bookshop. Whilst Kitty read the works of the romantic poets lodged in one aisle, Clara wandered off and soon discovered a healthy supply of gothic novels elsewhere.

  Kitty’s reverie was shattered upon hearing, in the otherwise quiet atmosphere of the bookshop, her sister strike up a conversation with a gentleman.

  “I see you are perusing the work of Walpole,” he said to her, then asking, “Do you intend to purchase The Castle of Otranto?”

  “No need,” Clara replied. “I already have it – read it three times, no less.”

  “You must like it very much,” the gentleman observed.

  “Indeed, I think it quite the most horrible book I’ve had the pleasure of reading.” Clara involuntarily raised her voice as she pronounced her verdict.

  It was at this point that Kitty deemed intervention necessary.

  “I am looking now for one particularly vile passage that I love – but I can’t seem to find it–”

  “SSshhh! Clara, this is a bookshop – people are trying to read,” Kitty scolded as she entered Clara’s aisle.

  Kitty beheld a tall young man with strong, affable features and a head of slightly curled brown hair. She could see by his expression that he had been much amused by his conversation with her sister.

  “Please allow me to introduce myself,” Clara continued, slightly more quietly than before but essentially unperturbed. “I am Clara Lewis and this is my sister, Kitty. We are recently arrived in Bath.”

  “I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss Clara,” the gentleman replied, shaking Clara’s hand with mock formality.

  “I cannot help but notice that you are a man of the Navy,” Clara continued assertively. “I wonder if you are acquainted with a Captain Northwood, currently on leave from service here in Bath?”

  “Clara,” Katherine cautioned.

  “Indeed, I know him uncommonly well,” the gentleman replied to Clara’s delight.

  “And can you tell me, Sir, is Captain Northwood so very handsome as I’ve heard tell?”

  “Clara!” Kitty reprimanded.

  The gentleman laughed. “This you must judge for yourself,” he said. “Captain James Northwood,” he announced, with a glint in his eye, extending his hand now to Katherine.

  Kitty felt a stifling mixture of awe and embarrassment at her sister’s excruciating behaviour.

  “Now, I do apologise ladies, but I have an important engagement to attend, so must, regrettably, away.”

  “Please do not let us detain you, Sir,” Kitty said, aware that he still had hold of her hand and finding it very difficult to let go.

  The clasp was finally broken. “It has been a delight to talk to you, Miss Clara and Miss Katherine. I do hope we meet again.”

  And with that, Captain James Northwood left Kitty swooning and Clara momentarily speechless.

  “That was our future brother-in-law,” Clara finally said once he was gone and she’d recovered her wits. “Oh, Kitty, I say he’s even more handsome in real life – what big brown eyes he has.”

  “I think it high time we got you home–”

  “But we’ve only just come out!” Clara complained. “Take me to a tea shop, Kitt,” she then demanded. “I swear I feel faint. Only an iced bun and a drink of chocolate could possibly revive me…”

  * * *

  When the girls arrived home at the Lewises’ apartments, their mother was desperate to share her news with them. “Clara, Kitty, you will not believe the invitation we have received for tomorrow via Lucie–”

  “My news first, Mama – it is most intriguing–”

  “Clara, your news cannot possibly be more intriguing than mine!”

  “But Mama!”

  Mr Lewis looked up from his paper and rolled his eyes at his middle daughter. She returned the expression.

  “Shush Clara!” Mrs Lewis finally ordered. “Girls, we are all invited to attend –if the weather on the morrow is clement–” she held her fingers crossed in the air as she said it, “a picnic with Mrs Hempleduke and her party. I defy you to top that, Clara–”

  “Well I can–”

  “And, in attendance at said picnic will be, none other than, Captain James Northwood, your future brother-in-law–”

  “Mrs Lewis,” Mr Lewis complained.

  “Oh we’ve met him already, haven’t we Clara?” Kitty couldn’t resist but respond dismissively.

  Her mother looked thoroughly put out.

  “We met Captain Northwood in a bookshop this morning,” Clara blurted eagerly. “He asked me if I liked the works of Walpole. Kitty was quite useless but I introduced us.”

  Mr Lewis looked distinctly dubious on hearing this report.

  “Mama, I found him fearfully handsome but Kitty thought him only moderately so.”

  “And did you mention your connection with Lucinda?” Mrs Lewis asked Clara.

  “We would have done, only he had to leave. But I think we made an impression, wouldn’t you say, Kitt?”

  “Oh yes, I believe we left a very strong impression upon him,” Katherine agreed, looking at her father, the two of them struggling to stifle their laughter.

  * * *

  To Mrs Lewis’s delight, the next day dawned fine and, by ten o’clock, the Lewis family, seated in an open carriage, were well on their way to the downs on the outskirts of the city. Accompanying them in Mrs Hempleduke’s party were Captain Northwood, his fellow naval officer, Captain Clayton and –most intriguingly for Mrs Lewis– the noble personage of Elizabeth Grimes. Lucinda, encouraged by her mother, travelled in Captain Northwood’s carriage as, according to Mrs Lewis, there was room for no more than four in the Lewises’ own coach.

  “Cinders could have come with us, Mama. Look how much space there is between me and Kitty – and Lulu so skinny and all.”

  “Your sister shall do very well travelling with Captain Northwood,” Mrs Lewis replied.

  Clara looked behind her to the carriage in which the captain, his friend and Lucinda sat, as a peal of laughter erupted from it. “She certainly seems to be having more fun than me,” Clara observed ruefully.

  “I must say, Mr Lewis, Lady Elizabeth is far from how I had envisaged. She looks more like a cook than a member of the aristocracy – positively matronly in her appearance.”

  “One can never judge a book by its cover, my dear,” he replied distantly.

  It wasn’t long before the party arrived at the designated picnic location – a plateau nestling in the hillside, benefiting from the shelter of the continuing upward slope and a fine view across the open country. “Beautiful!” Elizabeth Grimes declared as her ample person was helped from Mrs Hempleduke’s carriage by Captain Northwood.

  “And, may I say, Mrs Grimes, how well you are looking – quite radiant this m
orning!” Captain Northwood commented.

  The introduction was overheard by Mrs Lewis. It left her perplexed.

  “Tush, James, I know when I am being humoured,” Elizabeth Grimes, now safely installed at ground level, replied. “You, my boy, appear as handsome and dashing as ever. Pray, when will I be receiving an invitation to your wedding?” she continued.

  “John, allow me to introduce the scourge of my childhood, my dear Lizzie Grimes. Mrs Grimes, this is your successor, the man who now strives tirelessly to keep me on the straight and narrow, Captain John Clayton.” And Captain Northwood beamed with pleasure as his two good friends came face-to-face at long last.

  “My dear Mrs Grimes, I have heard so much about you – I feel as though I know you already,” John Clayton said, taking Mrs Grimes’s hand in his and kissing it.

  Realising that he was the common denominator in the group of people surrounding him, and as Mrs Hempleduke was busy instructing her servants where to lay groundsheets, Captain Northwood went on to say, “Please let me introduce you to the Lewises, Lizzie,” and Mrs Lewis finally got to shake hands with Elizabeth Grimes, formerly ‘Lady,’ now of uncertain rank.

  Once the site was prepared, the party sat down, the young people lounging on the ground, the older picnickers seated. Kitty erected her easel and set about sketching the view as Clara complained she was famished and asked when would there be some food. It was not long before Lucinda expressed a desire to wander down the hill a little way to explore a brook she had spied. “I am sure there will be dragonflies,” she said, “I should dearly love to see them.”

  “Perhaps Captain Northwood can escort you,” her mother was quick to suggest.

  “Oh no, Mrs Lewis, Clayton’s the man for the natural world. I wouldn’t know a dragonfly from a damselfly but Clayton’s the very expert in these matters.”

  And before another word could be said upon the subject, Captain Clayton had offered Lucinda his arm and –much to Mrs Lewis’s chagrin– the two strode off down the hillside.