What Kitty Did Next

by Carrie Kablean

  ‘Well consider it done, child. It will cause me no pain whatsoever!’

  Kitty sat down, smiling in mild exasperation at her father. Shortly thereafter, Mr and Mrs Gardiner arrived in the drawing room and then Kitty heard a carriage clatter to a stop and surmised, correctly, that it was the Darcys’. A few moments later she was face to face with all three.

  She watched as Mr Darcy greeted his hosts and Mr Bennet. Then he turned to her.

  ‘Kitty,’ he said, ‘I am so very pleased to see you again.’ He took her arm and led her a few paces away.

  ‘I know,’ said Darcy, looking at her earnestly, ‘you and Elizabeth have spoken and she has conveyed our deep remorse about our behaviour towards you last August. I heartily regret, and apologise for, my part in that injustice.’

  It may not have been the most loquacious speech ever heard but, bearing in mind the speaker, Kitty knew it spoke volumes.

  ‘Thank you,’ said she, her tone sincere.

  ‘I hope you will let us welcome you again, both to Berkeley Square and Pemberley. We are very much in your debt, Kitty.’

  He smiled at her.

  ‘I do not often see you smile, Mr Darcy,’ said she, smiling back.

  ‘I shall try to correct that,’ returned he, his face solemn once again. ‘Colonel Fitzwilliam called on me this morning. There is much more I want to say but on another day, I think?’

  ‘Of course,’ agreed Kitty. ‘We should rejoin the others.’

  He led her towards them and they were soon part of a larger conversation. Kitty was content to listen. She was thinking about Darcy, about how forbidding she had once found him. I am not afraid of him any more, she thought. I am not afraid at all! It was a most welcome realisation.

  Georgiana came to claim her company. ‘I have something to tell you,’ said she, ‘but I can’t say what it is.’

  ‘Well that is helpful,’ laughed Kitty. ‘Am I to guess?’

  ‘You will never guess,’ said Georgiana seriously, leaving her friend curious.

  ‘Mr Adams is coming to dine with us,’ Kitty told her. ‘He should be here at any moment.’

  ‘No?’ said Georgiana, her eyes wide with wonder. ‘That is remarkable!’

  ‘Well, yes, I suppose it is. Remarkable is not the word I would have used, but it is remarkable in its way.’

  ‘I only meant that it is remarkable that he will be here.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Kitty, wondering if Georgiana had temporarily taken leave of her senses.

  ‘My brother will meet him.’

  ‘He will,’ said Kitty. ‘He has met him before, has he not?’

  This tortured exchange was ended with the arrival of the gentleman himself. He had met Elizabeth and Mr Darcy before but this was the first time Henry Adams had greeted Fitzwilliam Darcy in a purely social context. To Kitty’s surprise, her brother-in-law detached him from the general group and walked with him to a far corner of the room, where he engaged him in private conversation. Such was the intensity and length of their discourse that it provoked mild interest but no interruption. Kitty wondered at it, but she could see that whatever was being spoken of was not a cause for consternation. They seemed to be enjoying each other’s company. Georgiana, meanwhile, was watching her brother and Mr Adams intently. Something was clearly afoot, but Kitty had not the least notion what it could be.

  Dinner was announced, bringing the two gentlemen’s conversation to a close, and Mr Darcy rejoined Elizabeth in order to escort her into the dining room.

  Mr Adams came hurrying over to Kitty. ‘I am shocked beyond belief, Miss Bennet, but let me tell you what has just transpired! I can scarce believe it, but Mr Darcy has offered me a living, a parsonage in a village in Derbyshire that is in his gift. Not seven miles from Pemberley.’

  Kitty was dumbfounded.

  ‘It is a true,’ said Mr Adams. ‘He spoke in earnest.’

  Kitty remained speechless.

  ‘We should go in,’ said the young man, offering his arm.

  ‘We should go in,’ she echoed.

  ‘Miss Bennet?’

  ‘Did you accept it?’

  ‘I can only accept it if you will agree to be my wife.’

  ‘Is that what you said?’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Then you should accept it, Mr Adams!’

  ‘You mean it?’

  ‘I do!’

  They went in. She held his arm as though she could not get to her seat at the table without his support and sat down as if seeing everyone around her the first time. Happily Mr Adams was placed beside her, so Kitty felt she had not entirely lost her grip on reality. His own grasp of the proceedings, he would later admit, was overlaid with a sense of wonder.

  When, after the first course had been served, Mr Bennet rose from his seat and said he had an announcement to make, both Kitty and Mr Adams were quite startled until she remembered, and whispered to him, that it was about having her stories published.

  Mr Bennet cleared his throat and said he would be brief. ‘I have always known,’ he said, ‘that I had one daughter with a modicum of wit and sense.’ He raised his glass towards Elizabeth. ‘What I did not realise is that I have overlooked the talents of one of my other daughters. I can offer no excuse for this except my own dereliction of duty. Events, sad events, have shown me how wrong I have been. Ladies and gentlemen, you have here among you tonight, a writer and novelist. A lady who seeks anonymity outside this table, but who is known to you all. Her stories, which are clever and amusing, have been accepted and will be published in a magazine called – what is it again, Kitty? – La Belle Assemblée? I think it will be but the beginning for her. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Catherine Bennet, novelist.’

  Henry Adams led the applause whilst others around the table took in the news. Georgiana was first to understand and congratulate; only she apart from Mr Bennet had read Kitty’s prose. The Gardiners and the Darcys followed in various degrees of happy amazement. Elizabeth, as surprised as anyone, smiled her delight to Kitty, a smile that conveyed pride and affection. Kitty, sitting next to Mr Adams and basking in the praise of those she held most dear, was nearly overwhelmed.

  After a little while, Mr Bennet spoke again. ‘A thought occurs to me,’ he said, ‘perhaps because Kitty’s delightful prose has reminded me that I really must reply to a letter from one of our dear cousins, a man who is – most fortuitously – not with us tonight. A man to whom obsequiousness is all. I speak of course of our dear Mr Collins. I have been remiss in response to his letter – an excessively long missive – lamenting on the loss of my dear Mrs Bennet, a lady who, as you know, was most vexed by the laws of entail, and even more vexed by our dear cousin himself. Kitty has inspired me, so much so that I might try some fiction of my own. I could not replace Mrs Bennet of course, yet I feel certain she would forgive me if I were, at some point in the future, to write to Mr Collins to moot the possibility of my marrying again, to insinuate that there is yet time to beget an heir. Of course, it may disconcert the fellow! I cannot decide. What do you all think?’

  His remarks left those at the table somewhat nonplussed. Henry Adams and Georgiana – who knew Mr Bennet least, and Mr Collins not at all – smiled politely, while others found themselves in need of a moment to gauge the seriousness of his intent. All except Kitty, who shook her head and laughed. ‘Papa!’ she said. ‘Really I do think it would be best if you leave the storytelling to me.’

  Acknowledgements

  Sincere thanks to my friend and fellow author Christine Westwood, whose unwavering help at all stages of this book’s development has been invaluable.

  Thank you also to Selwa Anthony, whose feedback and belief in What Kitty Did Next encouraged me to look for a publisher in the United Kingdom.

  The wonderfully enthusiastic and able team at RedDoor – Heather Boisseau, Clare Christian and Anna Burtt – has made me most welcome and I feel privileged to be part of the RedDoor catalogue. Thank you also to my editor, Nicky Gyopari, proofreader M
atilda Richards, and to Clare Shepherd for her cover design, and patience.

  Lastly, my heartfelt thanks to Jane Austen, who could not have imagined that her novels would have delighted and inspired – and continue to delight and inspire – millions of people all around the globe. Without her, this book could not have been written. She is incomparable, of course, and this novel a mere homage. I only hope that, were she able to read it, she would not be too vexed at this trespass into her world.

  About the Author

  C arrie Kablean began her career in London, where she was born, and now lives in Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1990 (via eight years in Papua New Guinea, during which time she edited the local newspaper on Bougainville), she was with The Australian newspaper for more than twenty years, and was also a theatre critic for the Sunday Telegraph. What Kitty Did Next is her first novel; a second, also set in Regency England, is a work in progress.

  www.carriekablean.com