***
ToKatherine’ssurprise,butalso relief, nothing further was said about reels or uncouth dances or agreeable partners. By the time everyone gathered the next morning for a late breakfast, all was serene and there was not the slightest hint of a disagreement. Aunt Cathcart exuded goodwill, and even Aveline bade Katherine a cheerful,‘Good morning, cousin’, as if she had not spent the evening glowering at her.
The usual round of rides with Emily and her brother Lucas resumed, and although nothing was seen of Mr Kent Atherton, that was not unusual. The more days that passed without a glimpse of him, the happier Katherine would be when he finally appeared. One day she would enter the drawing room, or leave the rectory, or take one of her walks through the woods and there he would be, his smile lighting up her day and warming her right down to her toes.
She could not be under any illusions, however. However attentive he had been that evening at the castle, however intently he gazed at her or widely he smiled, he was not in love with her. How could he be, when he made no effort to see her again? If he felt any affection for her beyond friendship, he would have sought her out within a day or two of the dinner. The fact that he did not was a salutary lesson in her importance to him. However much he filled her thoughts, it was clearly not the same for him, and she clung to that raft of reason when all her turbulent emotions threatened to sweep her into imprudent hope. Perhaps he would break her heart in the end, but he had never given her any reason to expect more from him than brotherly affection.
About a week after the dinner, Aunt Cathcart called Katherine into her sitting room. It was a gloomy room, and chilly, for the fire was seldom lit, being used only when she needed quietness to work on her accounts or to write difficult letters. It was also the place she summoned her daughters to‘have a little chat’, as she put it, after some transgression or other, so Katherine was filled with foreboding.
“Sit down, child. I have something I want to say to you.”
Dutifully, Katherine took the seat indicated, racking her brain to recall any action of hers that might have provoked a lecture. The reel, perhaps? But that seemed to have passed now. She tried to discern from her aunt’s expression whether she was cross or disappointed or simply resigned about some perceived misdemeanour, but if anything Aunt Cathcart seemed pleased about something. Katherine folded her hands in her lap and waited to hear her fate.
“You are aware of our hopes for you, Katherine,” her aunt began. “When we offered you a home here, it was with the fixed intent of treating you exactly like our own daughters, and, in time, finding you a husband, and that is still our dearest wish, for you to be well settled. However, we are not well placed here to offer you the wide society that is necessary for you to make a sensible choice. Birchall is such a small village, our neighbours are far above us in rank and you are not quite comfortable in such society. You appreciate the problem, I am sure?”
Katherine nodded, although she was not sure that it was such a problem as her aunt implied. After all, if one had no expectation of ever marrying, the lack of potential husbands was hardly an issue. But her aunt would say whatever she had decided to say, and there was no point trying to deflect her from that course.
“But now an opportunity has arisen… and it seems to me that it might answer very well. An old friend of mine, a widow, a very wealthy woman… she lives in Helmsley, and she is in need of a companion, a young lady, she says, who will be full of energy and cheer her up. Now, I know you are very settled here, my dear, and we are delighted for you to stay here for as long as you wish, naturally, but it does seem to me that this is a situation that would suit you perfectly. You have long wished you could be of more use than at present, but we have servants enough for household tasks and there is little else for you to do here. But this is a chance for you to be of the utmost use to a lady who needs your services far more than we do.”
Katherine listened in increasing horror. Helmsley? A companion? She was so confused she hardly knew what to think. She understood only that she was being sent away from Birchall — from her friend, Emily, from the church where she had begun to feel useful, and most of all, from the man she loved. “Have I displeased you in some way, aunt?”
“No, no! Nothing could be further from the truth! We will miss you abominably, you may be certain of that, but just think, Katherine — you will be living in a town, just as you used to do, and Mrs Ryker will take you about, you know, and introduce you to everyone. She has a great many friends, and you will meet lots of young people, and who knows what may come of it? You will be very well situated in Helmsley, and you will be the greatest comfort and help to Mrs Ryker.”
When Katherine said nothing, she went on, “It will not be forever, for Mrs Ryker’s nephew, who is her heir — the heir to a great fortune, in fact — is looking about him for a wife, and when he marries, his aunt will not need a companion and you may come back to us then. Do you see, my dear?”
Katherine saw very well. It was a way of removing her from Aveline’s sphere, and also from her growing friendships with Kent and Emily. The daughter of a mill owner was no fitting companion for the family of an earl. In that regard, Katherine and her aunt were in full accord. But after so recent an upheaval in her life, to be uprooted again and sent away to a new home amongst strangers who were not even relations was not a happy prospect. She could not help feeling that this was a punishment of some sort, and that therefore she must have transgressed.
“May I take Daisy with me?”
“But of course. We would not send you off without your maid. We will travel to Helmsley tomorrow—”
“So soon!”
“There is no point in delay, is there? So you have the rest of today to pack all your things. There! I am glad that is all settled, and you will be very happy there, I am sure.”
Dazed, Katherine went to her room and sent for Daisy. The rest of the day was spent in a whirlwind of packing. Jenny came to help, her face long.
“We’ll all miss you so much, miss,” she said glumly. “You was never any trouble at all, not like some I could name. And there’ll be no music in the house no more. We all used to like to hear you playin’ and playin’ all day long. House won’t be the same without you, and that’s a fact. Everyone says so.”
“Thank you, Jenny. I am very sorry to go, too, but… but my aunt believes it to be for the best.”
“Best for who, though?” Jenny said darkly.
But Katherine could not allow that sort of speculation. “My aunt and uncle are thinking only of my interests, Jenny.”
“Of course, miss,” Jenny said at once, but she looked unconvinced.
Katherine was unconvinced, too. She was being got out of the way, that much was certain. Her aunt had never interfered in her friendship with Kent before, apart from warning her not to get her hopes up, but perhaps after the evening at the castle, she felt it was time to step in. Perhaps it was just as well. The more she saw of Kent, the deeper in love she fell, and the more pain she would suffer later when he married someone of his own class. Yes, it really was all for the best.
It was late in the afternoon before Katherine remembered that she had planned to ride with Emily the next day. She dashed off a note and sent it off to Westwick Heights, and then prepared for her last dinner at Cathcart House.
Emily and Lucas arrived before breakfast the next morning, their faces anxious, and were shown up to Katherine’s room where she was finishing her packing.
“You cannot go away! Not when we are such good friends,” Emily wailed. “Who shall I ride with now? Have you told Kent? He will be so upset!”
Katherine’s cheeks flamed, but she answered quietly, “I cannot write to him as I did to you, so I depend upon you to tell him. Pray thank him for all his kindness to me.”
“His kindness!” Emily cried, and would have said more, but Lucas frowned at her.
