Kitty

Moving Home

Moving Home

Kitty pulled the cork from the bottle and poured a glass. She flopped down on the sofa and rested her feet on the coffee table. The walls were bare except for the boxes piled high against them, and the rug was propped in the corner; all of her belongings waiting to be shipped.

She lifted the glass in the air, raising a toast to the memories and ghosts which lurked in the very fabric. ‘To new beginnings!’ She took a sip.

She thought back to a night at Darraghfield shortly after Theo had left, sitting with her dad around the table in the kitchen warming themselves by the Aga. They had finished supper and now nursed cups of tea and buttered slices of fruit loaf.

He leant across the table and said, ‘When I have seen you happy, Kitty, truly happy then I will go and join your mum.’

Kitty had become upset. ‘Please don’t say that, Dad, I can’t bear to think about it. I can’t imagine a world without my mum or my dad. No matter that I’m a grown-up, I don’t always feel like one.’

‘Ah that’s the thing, darlin’, none of us do.’ He placed his hand over the back of hers. ‘Never doubt that being your dad has been my greatest privilege.’

She sniffed the tears that gathered.

‘But I miss her, you know, and I am tired, I think I am hanging on to see you settled.’

‘I am settled, Dad. I’m fine.’

‘Fine…’ he smiled, ‘that magic word that seems to calm a thousand worries. But I know you Kitty Dalkeith Montrose. I know there is more than “fine” and I know it is waiting for you.’

She raised her dad’s hand and kissed the back of his palm.

She had travelled back to Blackheath and less than a week later, a crate of vintage red wine had arrived on her doorstep with the note that read, ‘For my Kitty and new beginnings. Drink it when the time is right. Your Dad X.’

She took a sip and thought about him now, unable to stop the tears that fell.