The girls retired to a sitting room and spent the evening listening to music on the record player while they chatted and played cards. Kitty did her best to be pleasant and social, but the strain of all these people was beginning to wear on her. Soon, she was flicking her fingers under the table so much it threatened to become noticeable.
Finally she excused herself from the game and lay down on one of the sofas. She stared at the ceiling and pretended to be enthralled by the music. It actually wasn’t that far from the truth, and gradually Kitty found herself ignoring the people and things around her as her mind started the long process of unwinding from the day’s events.
“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes . . .” she mumbled to herself, singing along to the music under her breath. When she was younger, she had sung aloud to things without hesitation, but her parents had scolded her so much that the joy had gone out of it for her. Now she kept the singing mostly in her head so no one would notice. Still, the repetitive sound was soothing, and it helped her cycle through what she had already learned, and what she needed to do next.
She didn’t notice the world drifting away until Verity leaned over her from behind the sofa. “Watcha doing?” she asked Kitty.
Kitty’s instinct was to jerk away from the sudden disturbance, and she gripped one of the cushions with her hand to keep from doing it. It took a lot of effort, but she answered Verity with a bright smile and even managed to make eye contact, despite everything whirring around in her head.
“Just enjoying the music, coz,” she replied.
Verity smirked at her. “You’re hiding.”
“No law against that.”
Kitty glanced at the other girls, but none of them had taken any notice of her. Ivy and Phyllis were still playing cards, and Diana was smoking a cigarette while she read a magazine.
Verity went around the sofa and sat on the floor in front of Kitty. “See anything interesting on your trip to the kitchen this afternoon?” she asked softly. It was an innocuous question, but there was little chance of being overheard.
“Nothing stood out to me in the parlor, the hallway, or the office,” Kitty whispered back. “I’ll need more time to look at the rest of the house properly.”
Verity replied with a little nod. “Wait a couple of days. There’ll be plenty of time for exploring over the weekend.”
“All right,” Kitty said.
“Remember, you’re here to have a good time,” Verity said knowingly.
“What are you two gossiping about?” Diana called to them.
Kitty froze. Had she heard what they were saying?
As Kitty’s mind started spinning into panic, Verity laughed and called back to Diana, “Nothing important. Kitty was telling me about a schoolmate she fancies.” She gave Kitty a nudge. “Not very interesting from the sounds of him.”
Kitty inhaled and exhaled a few times to calm herself. They hadn’t been overheard. Everything was fine.
“Oh goodness!” Diana exclaimed. “Tell me all about him!”
“Um . . . well . . .”
It took Kitty a second to conjure up her fictional crush in her head. It was on the fly, so the details were more or less pulled at random from whatever was going through her head at the moment, but it was enough to be believable if she had to go into details.
“His name is Richard,” she said. “He’s very handsome and wears spectacles, which I like very much. And his father works for the government.”
Diana laughed. “His name is Richard? Oh, that’s very funny! My godfather’s name Richard.”
Kitty winced. Diana must be talking about Smythe. And that was probably where Kitty had summoned the name from too. She had read Smythe’s and Lowell’s files so many times over the past few days, their names were rummaging around in the cluttered storage bin of her mind. It was a miracle she hadn’t said “Henry” instead.
“Oh really?” she asked. “What a coincidence!”
She kept smiling innocently. Inside, she felt like a fool, and she caught Verity giving her a wide-eyed, warning look.
Diana snickered. “Pssh! Don’t be stupid. It’s a frightfully common name.”
“Sorry,” Kitty said sheepishly.
Kitty saw Verity give her another pointed look. The message was clear enough: keep your wits and don’t make any references that might sound suspicious.
“Well, if your boy has spectacles he’s obviously very plain and I don’t want to hear about him,” Diana continued. “Let’s talk about something else.”
She said this with great finality, which was unfortunate because there was no other topic of conversation at hand, and an awkward silence drifted over them.
“Someone talk about something!” Diana demanded irritably. “Here, I’ll start—”
“Your name is very pretty,” Kitty interrupted. She had thought of something to say, and hadn’t been able to stop herself even when Diana started speaking. “It suits you,” she added quickly.
Diana seemed annoyed at Kitty’s rudeness, but it was softened over by the compliment. “Why thank you. Nice of someone to notice.” Diana struck a pose and tossed her hair back. “I was named for Diana Mitford, you know.”
“Really?” Kitty asked. At first, the name didn’t mean anything to her, but she pretended to be very impressed.
“Well, Lady Mosley, I should say,” Diana amended.
And that was the missing piece. Diana was named for Oswald Mosley’s wife, because Mosley was friends with Lowell as well as Smythe.
Kitty rummaged around in her head a bit more and a few ideas started to line up. Diana’s age meant that she had been christened shortly after the war, when there would certainly have been a dark shadow over Mosley’s reputation. That meant that not only had Lord Lowell not minded about Mosley’s fascism, he actually saw nothing wrong with it. And that in turn meant . . .
Her train of thought was interrupted by Diana.
“Such a glamorous lady. It’s quite right that I was named after her.”
Kitty decided it was best if she nodded in agreement, so she did, very enthusiastically. “I can see that. You’re very glamorous indeed, Diana. I wish I was more like you. Oh, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
She made a point of acting like it might be presumptuous to give a compliment, which only pleased Diana all the more. “I don’t mind at all. It’s only natural to want to be like me. Everyone else does.”
Ivy and Phyllis hurriedly offered some jumbled statements of agreement. Kitty got the sense that platitudes of that nature were commonplace in Diana’s circle.
Diana turned to Verity and said, “It seems your cousin has good taste, Vera. I’m glad you brought her.”
“Kate is just a darling,” Verity agreed.
“I see that. I hope you can stay longer than the weekend,” Diana said.
The offer sounded sincere, but Kitty had learned not to trust polite words offered in the moment. She didn’t understand why a person would say something like that without meaning it, but people often did.
Diana’s cigarette was almost burned down, so she stubbed it out in an ashtray and lit a new one. The smell immediately wrinkled Kitty’s nose, and she shuddered. Tobacco had such an awful stench. Pungent things got on Kitty’s nerves. It had been tolerable when Diana was on the other side of the room. Now it was overpowering.
“Cigarette?” Diana asked, holding her silver case out to the rest of them.
Verity and the others reached for their own cigarettes eagerly, and passed the lighter around between them. When it came to be Kitty’s turn, she just stared at the row of white sticks and tried not to look sick.
“Um, no thank you,” she said quietly.
Diana looked surprised and annoyed. “What’s the matter? Don’t smoke?”
“No,” Kitty said.
“So, you start now,” Diana replied, thrusting the cigarette case at Kitty’s face. “It’ll do you good.”
The stench of tobacco filled Kitty’s nose
. She felt dizzy and her stomach began to turn. “No, thank you,” she said. “I’d rather not.”
Diana laughed at her. “God, you’re an odd one, aren’t you? I offer you something and you turn it down. That’s just rude, you know. When people offer you things, you’re meant to take them and say thank you.”
“I’m sorry, I just . . .” Kitty stammered.
“Bet you’re a teetotaler too, aren’t you?”
Any trace of niceness was gone now. The starkness of the change confused Kitty, and it frightened her. Consciously, she knew what it meant: Diana’s niceness was fake, a fabrication to get what she wanted from people. This was the real her. But Kitty didn’t understand someone acting that way. It was difficult enough having one face to share with the world, let alone two.
Verity leaned forward and got between them. “She’s just a kid, Di. Ease off, will you?”
“Well, it’s spoiled my mood.” Diana huffed in annoyance and took a drag of her cigarette.
“Don’t fuss,” Verity said gently. “Let’s have a drink, and it’ll all be fine.” She put a hand on Kitty’s shoulder. “Kate, why don’t you go to bed? It’s getting late for you, and you’ve had a long day.”
Kitty nodded. She needed to leave the room. That was the important thing. She had upset Diana, and that was going to cause a problem if she stayed. It wasn’t an unusual situation for her to be in, but the circumstances were unfamiliar. She hadn’t done or said anything wrong, she was certain of it. She had just turned down a cigarette. How could that possibly be so upsetting to someone?
Still, she didn’t complain. She got up, waved to the other girls, and hurried out of the sitting room. As she made her way upstairs to her room, she ran over things in her head, trying to make sense of them.
Diana was rich. Her father was a lord. This house was her castle and the girls were her court, like something out of an old book. If she wanted something, she got it. Her father probably gave her anything she asked for, and her friends seemed to go along with all her whims—perhaps because her family was more powerful than theirs—so she wasn’t used to being refused. Being refused made her question whether she really was in charge. That made her angry. It forced her to consider that maybe the world wasn’t as she imagined it. Rather than accept that possibility and move on, she had an angry outburst to force everyone around her to do what she wanted again, preserving the illusion of control.
Kitty smiled as she reached the top of the stairs, pleased at having pieced the strange encounter together. The incident was suddenly less confusing and therefore less frightening. Most important, it had given her a better sense of how to manage Diana—and managing Diana was the key to getting access to Lord Lowell.
Chapter 18
Now that Kitty understood what she was dealing with, the next few days passed far more pleasantly than the first one.
She knew that the best way to avoid conflict was to placate. It felt wrong to do that, and several times Kitty had to bite her tongue to avoid saying something terse in reply to an unreasonable demand or a casual insult, but she set her mind to it, and she managed to keep quiet and smile pleasantly even while being mocked for being so quiet. The insults never lasted long. They seemed reflexive more than conscious.
Kitty figured that spies had to put up with all sorts of unpleasant things to get the job done.
In the lulls between the commands and the cruel words, she was actually having fun. Ever since she’d left school and started working at the shop, she’d barely spent any time in the company of her peers. Everyone at the Orchestra was very nice, but during working hours they were all focused on the job. And come the evening, Kitty had to rush off home. This was the first time she had been properly social in what felt like forever.
Of course, it was tiring too, and Kitty found solace in a few scattered moments of staring silently into the distance, or focusing on something innocuous in front of her. Today, Saturday, it was a glass of soda. The five girls had gone down to the local village to take in the country sights, and now they were at a little restaurant, enjoying some fizzy drinks and pastries.
“Oh, God!” Diana whispered. “Did you see what she’s wearing?”
For a moment, Kitty thought they were talking about her. She looked up in alarm and then glanced at her dress. Like all the clothes she had brought, it was much nicer than anything she actually owned. No, it couldn’t be that.
“What are we talking about?” she asked.
Phyllis nodded toward the waitress who’d delivered their food and drinks. “Her. Honestly, she’s not even bothering to look nice.”
“I wouldn’t be caught dead out of the house looking like that,” Ivy agreed.
Kitty stole another glance. The girl was normal. Normal look, normal clothes. Nothing expensive, because who would wear something fancy to wait tables? She looked tired, but of course she did: managing all the customers in this restaurant must be hard work. It was the only place in town aside from the pub. Probably a family-run business.
The girl was about Kitty’s age, which made Kitty think of herself. They were both very ordinary—only ordinary wasn’t allowed. That was the girl’s crime. Her cheap clothes, her lack of glamor, struck Diana’s coterie as evidence of inferiority.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Kitty began. “I think she looks rather—”
She was interrupted by a kick under the table from Verity, and quickly stopped talking. No contradicting the other girls. All that mattered was the mission.
“Such a boring little town,” Diana grumbled, gazing out of the window at the rustic buildings outside. “I cannot stand being here.”
“It’s only a few more weeks,” Verity said.
“And then we go to Paris!” Ivy exclaimed. “That will be such fun!”
“Maybe.” Diana scowled. “Daddy says Paris might not be in the cards just now.”
Kitty perked up at this. A change in plans was noteworthy, even if it might not mean anything. She glanced at Verity and saw that her partner had the same idea.
“Why not?” Kitty asked.
Diana shrugged angrily. “He didn’t say. Just ‘might not happen.’ Probably something to do with his business. He always puts that first.”
She sounded genuinely hurt—more than merely annoyed at being denied a holiday.
“Doesn’t Parliament recess for the summer in a couple of weeks?” Verity asked.
“Probably,” Diana said. “But he always has work to do. I expect that Daddy thinks the government is more important than me.” She gave a high-voice laugh, a blatant attempt to hide how she really felt.
The wheels in Kitty’s head started turning again. It sounded like Lord Lowell disappointing his daughter wasn’t unusual. Neither Ivy nor Phyllis seemed surprised by it. Maybe Diana’s cruelty wasn’t just born from indulgence, but also from her father’s neglect. He certainly hadn’t paid much attention to any of them over the last few days.
Kitty suddenly thought about her own father. He was often overbearing, but at least he showed an interest in her well-being. Lowell just didn’t seem to care. Everything was more important than his daughter. He showered her with luxuries, and then refused to acknowledge her. That couldn’t be good for anyone.
“So here we are, in the country, being bored.” Diana cast her gaze toward Kitty. “Looks like you came at just the wrong time, Kate. Nothing going on here.”
Kitty was immediately conciliatory. It was her instinctive defense when people around her were angry and shifted their attention onto her.
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m having such a lovely time, just us five. I think your countryside is very charming.”
She shoved the straw into her mouth and took a long drink so that she wouldn’t have to say anything else. The resentment radiating off of Diana was very unpleasant, but there was an aura of fear around Ivy and Phyllis that was even worse. They were scared, probably that Diana would vent her frustration at them.
“Well, you’re Canadian. What d
o you know?” Diana grumbled.
Verity leaned forward and put her hand on Diana’s arm. “Oh, dash it all, forget the countryside. Let’s all go to London! It’ll be fun! I know this marvelous discotheque in Mayfair . . .”
Kitty noticed Ivy and Phyllis shaking their heads, signaling for Verity to stop talking. Diana’s scowl grew worse.
“Daddy has expressly forbidden me to visit London, and if I can’t go, none of you can.”
“We wouldn’t go without you!” Ivy assured her.
Verity frowned and looked confused. “Did he say why?”
“He never does,” Diana answered. “Probably afraid I shall have a good time and embarrass him. Honestly, I’m drunk in Biarritz once, and you’d think I’d disgraced the whole family!”
Kitty saw the muscles around Verity’s eyes tighten for a moment. She was thinking about something, deducing something. Then Verity put on an encouraging smile and patted Diana’s hand.
“Forget it. We’ll just have fun here,” she said. “Boring old countryside or not. Besides, we’re going to the seaside next week. Better than London. The city’s far too hot this time of year anyway.”
Diana shrugged, not exactly agreeing or disagreeing.
As the girls returned to their drinks and sweets, Verity exchanged a look with Kitty. Kitty wasn’t completely sure what she was supposed to take away from it, but Verity was definitely onto something.
On the walk back to the manor, Kitty trailed behind the others while they chatted away. The long conversation in the restaurant, compounded by the cloud of angry emotions that had overshadowed the meal, had made the record player in her head skip. It was hard to concentrate, which might become a problem if it got worse.
Kitty held her hands behind her back and brushed her fingertips together as she gazed off across the countryside. Anyone would think she was just taking in the sights or maybe watching the birds, when in fact she just needed something unimportant to occupy her eyes while her brain sorted things out.
A planned trip abroad being canceled? Diana forbidden from traveling to London? Lowell’s distraction? It might all be nothing, or it might add up to validate Mr. Pryce’s suspicions. Still, Kitty didn’t actually have enough information to make any deductions. Mrs. Singh had cautioned her against conjecturing without facts to go on.
The Secret Life of Kitty Granger Page 13
