Kitty

‘Pray, sir, will you take me away from here?’

He was frowning. ‘Yes, but not until I’ve got to the bottom of this!’

To his surprise, his cousin balked. ‘No, Claud! I cannot ask Mama to betray her promise.’ She turned from him to Kitty. ‘I am so sorry, Miss—Merrick, wasn’t it?—but I think it is best if Claud takes you back.’

‘Yes, but wait a bit—’

‘Pray, Claud, don’t say any more! You can see that poor Mama is upset.’

‘That’s all very well—’

Kitty cut in swiftly. ‘Sir, I have no wish to remain here! It was all a mistake, and there’s an end. If you don’t wish to embarrass me further, pray take me home.’

It was not an appeal he could refuse. With a sigh, Claud abandoned his attempt to extract the secret. Though he was by no means reconciled. The intelligence that it would upset the Countess had set him on fire to find it out. But his cousin again intervened, moving to the other girl again and taking her hand.

‘Poor thing, I am so sorry. We have been dreadfully rude—the shock, you know. I dare say you must be feeling excessively uncomfortable.’

To Claud’s intense annoyance, his cousin next turned on him.

‘I do think you might have listened when she told you she wasn’t me, Claud. Poor Miss Merrick has been disgracefully inconvenienced, and Mama distressed—and it is all your fault!’

‘I am well aware of that. Haven’t I said so?’ He took the girl’s arm and pulled her away from Kate. ‘Besides, I’m going to make her reparation.’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know yet, but I shall think of something.’

Kitty warmed to him. Indeed, his presence close beside her gave her courage. If his fat aunt Silvia had repudiated her—indeed, her gaze continued to veer towards Kitty at intervals, brimful of revulsion!—at least Claud had the decency to stand by his mistake.

‘All I want is to be returned to the Seminary,’ she urged, adding bitterly, ‘I only wish I had taken one of the posts offered to me weeks ago, and then this would never have happened.’

‘Post?’ repeated Claud.

‘What sort of post?’ asked Kate.

Kitty lifted her chin. ‘I am meant for a governess. We are all raised for it at the Seminary.’

‘Oh, poor thing!’ uttered Kate, distressfully. Then her face brightened. ‘I know! If you have not yet found a post, perhaps we could help you. Claud, you might recommend her to someone of our acquaintance.’

Claud snorted. ‘Don’t be so feather-brained, Kate! Present for a governess to some matron I know a girl who looks exactly like you?’

A shriek from the sofa brought his head round, and he winced. His aunt had once again bounced up.

‘Upon no account! Dear heaven, only think of the scandal if the girl appeared in town in such a guise! Devenick, I forbid you to help her. Or, stay! You had best see the woman at the Seminary and tell her that the girl must be given a post in a country establishment, among people who will never show their faces in town. Perhaps a well-to-do tradesman, who could never find a place among the ton. Yes, that will be the best plan. You will see to it, Devenick. I rely upon you.’

‘Lord, ma’am, I can’t do that! Who am I to dictate the girl’s future? Or you, come to that.’

To his dismay, Lady Rothley surged out of the sofa and came to him, throwing out imploring arms. ‘My dear, dear boy, if you knew the agony of mind into which I must fall if this dreadful business should be dragged up all over again, you would not hesitate. Believe me, if anyone has reason to beg your aid in this, it is I. As for authority, your mother took that upon herself long years ago. I tell you, if you do not do as I ask, you risk the worst of Lydia’s displeasure!’

Claud evaded her, shifting away to the other end of the mantelpiece, and pulling the girl with him. ‘Yes, that’s all very well, ma’am, but there’s something devilish havey-cavey about all this, and I am not at all sure—’

‘For heaven’s sake, Devenick, do you wish to drive me demented?’

In a good deal of dudgeon, he watched his aunt totter back to the sofa, Kate fussing about her. He glanced at the girl, whose wrist he had hold of, and realised she was trembling. There was strain in her white face, and the brown eyes looked enormous. A guilty pang smote him, and without thinking, he let go her wrist and put his arm about her, giving her a hug.

‘Don’t look so worn, young Kate—I mean, Kitty!’ he corrected himself, remembering. ‘Haven’t I said I won’t let it harm you?’

Kitty looked up into the even features, and a tired sigh escaped her. ‘She is right, sir. If I were seen in town, the resemblance would be remarked. I shall speak to Mrs Duxford myself.’ She looked across at the afflicted matron. ‘I have no wish to embarrass you, ma’am.’

Kate answered, for the aunt was engaged in moaning softly and rubbing at her temples. ‘You are very good, Miss Merrick. I only wish there was something we might do for you.’

Kitty moved out of Claud’s protective arm, and took a pace towards the sofa. ‘There is one thing. If—if your mother will only tell me that I am indeed a member of this family?’

Claud was beside her. ‘That much is abundantly plain!’

‘Claud!’

‘Well, it’s true, Kate. And you needn’t look censorious, for I know very well you want to know how it comes about just as much as I.’

Kitty put out a hand. ‘Pray don’t! I do not care if she does not wish to explain the exact relationship, for I have long suspected there had been a scandal. Only—’

She got no further. A loud groan issued from the aunt’s lips, and she waved podgy hands. ‘Take her away, Devenick! I cannot bear to look at her!’

Kitty’s brief moment of valour was over. The blow struck hard, and she shrank away, feeling all the force of that rejection she had known when persons she only vaguely recollected—strangers to her—had removed her from the place she had called home and dumped her at the Paddington Seminary, leaving her horribly alone.

As if through a cloud, she heard voices, saw Kate’s features close to hers, speaking words that had no meaning. She sensed beside her the presence of Claud, and moved as he directed her, going where he led with neither interest nor attention. Only when she was outside the mansion in the fresh air, and being urged into the curricle, did Kitty come back to herself. And to the full realisation of what had happened.

Having packed the girl into his curricle and taken up the reins, Claud did not immediately instruct Docking to stand away from the horses’ heads. His mind was sorely exercised by the revelation of the existence of a family skeleton, and he sat irresolute, wondering what were best to do. If his aunt Silvia supposed he would meekly bury the finding under the carpet, she had much to learn of him. Particularly in light of the fear she had exhibited on the notion of Lady Blakemere getting wind of the matter.

A surge of tingling exhilaration rose up inside him at the thought of what this could do to the woman who had long been his Nemesis. She might be his mother, but he had long ago given up addressing her as such. Lydia, Countess of Blakemere, had harried him from his earliest years, and he could not regard her with anything but revulsion. Along with his sisters, he had been terrorised by her frowns and castigated for every fault of character—of which, according to the Countess, he had more than his fair share. He had thanked his stars, and his father’s insistence—likely the only time poor Papa had succeeded in standing out against her!—for his schooling at Eton, which had toughened him to withstand the creature just as soon as he was old enough to do so without fear of retribution. Two of his sisters had escaped into matrimony—not that they’d had choice of who they married!—and it was upon the head of poor Babs at seventeen that the wrath of the Countess now fell. There was little young Babs could do against her. But for Claud, always on the lookout for vengeance, an opportunity such as this was manna from heaven. The family skeleton come home to roost!

At this point in his ruminations, it was borne in upon Claud that the skeleton was emitting suspiciously doleful sounds. Turning his head, he found Kitty valiantly attempting to stifle her sobs. Tears nevertheless gathered at her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Stricken with renewed guilt, Claud cursed.

‘Don’t cry! Told you I won’t let it harm you, didn’t I?’

Kitty gulped and sniffed, shaking her head in the hope that he would realise that she could not speak. It evidently did not occur to him that she was less hurt by the possible consequences than her reception in the Haymarket house.

‘Where’s that handkerchief I gave you? You’d best find it, for I haven’t another on me.’

The reminder served to send Kitty’s fingers digging into her pockets. One hand came out clutching the handkerchief. In the other was a package tied up in brown paper. Kitty stared at it uncomprehendingly.

‘Here, give me that!’

The handkerchief was snatched from her hand, and next instant, her chin was being grasped in a set of gloved fingers and Claud was wiping away her tears. As if she had been a little girl, he held the square of white linen over her nose and requested her to blow. Too startled to protest, Kitty did as she was bid, and then stared into the blue eyes as they inspected her face.

‘There, that’ll do. You’d best keep this.’ Claud released her chin and stuffed the handkerchief back into her fingers. Then he noticed the package she was holding. ‘What’s that?’

Kitty looked down at it. ‘I cannot remember.’ And then she did. ‘Oh, it is the hose I purchased for the new girl.’ Recalling the toothbrush and the tin of toothpowder, she dived a hand into her other pocket and found the other package. ‘Thank goodness! The Duck would scold me dreadfully had I lost it!’ It then occurred to her that Mrs Duxford was going to have far too much to scold her over without concerning herself about toothpowder and white hose. A wail escaped her. ‘Oh, what am I to tell her? How long have I been absent? The Duck will kill me!’