Mary’s Christmas Kittens #2
Mrs. Harris was shaking her head. “They are to call this afternoon. They will bring her to surprise me. Oh, but I must finish with the kittens,” she continued, rising and bringing them all to their feet.
“The littlest is not doing well. Robert, surely you can still make your appointment. Mrs. Gardiner, Miss Bennet, please forgive my rudeness and wait a moment. I will return to have tea with you.” With that, Mrs. Harris bustled away.
Robert Harris looked after, clearly worried, then turned to Mary. “You said you saw them, and they saw you?”
She nodded, deciding not to elaborate on their rudeness.
“This may seem a bit untoward, but they are indeed to call soon. They visit my grandmother each week at three precisely.” He looked from Aunt Gardiner to Mary and back.
“Would it be possible for you, Mrs. Gardiner, to remain here and for Miss Bennet to stand with me in that room?” He pointed.
“With a maid, mind you. I do not mean to malign, but I am not as certain as my grandmother that my cousin will arrive with Madame Duvéteuse. I would like Miss Bennet to see if she recognizes him and his wife without them recognizing her. If you use this chair, they will sit facing the dining room doorway.”
Aunt Gardiner and Mary agreed. A maid was called and Mrs. Harris informed of the plan, and soon Mary stood shoulder to shoulder with Robert Harris, peeking out at the back of her aunt’s head.
At precisely three, the snooty couple from the street were shown in. They did not have the cat. Mrs. Harris joined them, sans apron. Mary could only see her profile, but Mrs. Harris’s devastation was clear. Franklin Harris and his wife had Madame Duvéteuse, and they had not come to return her.
Robert Harris tapped Mary’s shoulder and nodded to the other side of the room. She followed him there.
“It is them?” he whispered.
She nodded.
“I thought as much, especially once you mentioned the cane.” He frowned. “The trouble now is getting Madame Duvéteuse back from them. If we confront them, I suspect they will deny all, then go home and put her out on the street. Franklin will not want to lose his inheritance.”
It all fell into place for Mary at that final word.
The snootiness, ostentatious clothing, letters demanding money, and Mrs. Harris’s obvious haleness.
The couple was living beyond their means and Mrs. Harris was not obliging them by dying.
Anger raced through Mary on Mrs. Harris’s behalf.
“I saw where they took Madame Duvéteuse.”
Robert Harris’s distracted gaze focused on her, hope making him look younger than what she suspected to be about five and twenty years. “You did? Where?”
Mary had not troubled to note the street name. “I could show you.”
“We have to go now, while they are here and before my grandmother accuses them, for knowing her, she will.” He gestured to the maid, who now peeked through the doorway into the parlor. “Sally can accompany us.
A thrill went through Mary at what sounded like an adventure. She cast a worried glance at the door, but there was no way to ask Aunt Gardiner. What would Elizabeth do?
Knowing the answer, Mary nodded.
***
The maid with them, Mary and Robert Harris sneaked out and he hailed a hackney. They piled in and Mary gave directions to her uncle’s, for from there she could direct the man.
As they settled into the jostling ride, Mary turned to Robert Harris to say, “I am sorry about whatever appointment you have missed.” That was as close as she dared come to an impertinent question to satisfy her curiosity, for he had seemed quite concerned with the time on the steps.
But then, he seemed quite concerned now, as they journeyed.
Perhaps he was simply of a serious disposition.
A shame, for he would be quite handsome, she imagined, should he smile.
Blushing at her own thought, Mary looked away, making a pretense of checking their location.
“Hopefully my missed appointment can be rectified,” he said. She supposed she must be content with that but after a moment he added, “I was on my way to an interview. I have recently finished my degree in law.”
He sounded terribly worried, so she hastened to offer, “My uncle is an attorney in Meryton, the village near my home. If his continued search for assistance is any indication, you will have more opportunities, even if this one is spoiled.”
Robert Harris nodded. “I’m certain I will find a position. All of my professors recommend me.”
Mary could picture him at university, studious and smart.
They reached her uncle’s residence and Mary directed the driver from there. When they halted before the house, Robert Harris asked the driver to wait and alighted. Mary followed before he could suggest she not, unwilling to miss her adventure. The maid followed.
Robert Harris knocked. No one answered. He glanced at Mary. “You are certain this is the house?”
“Very,” she said firmly, for she was.
He tried to open the door. It didn’t budge.
The curtain moved in one of the higher windows. The fluffy silver cat looked down from behind the glass. She meowed.
“That is her,” Robert Harris exclaimed. He looked around.
“A back entrance?” Mary suggested.
Assuring the driver they would return, Robert Harris led the way around to the alley that ran behind the row of houses. Once they found the correct one, he took a deep breath and tried the kitchen door.
It opened. Relief filled Mary. Robert stuck his head in and called, “Is anyone home?”
No answer came.
They went in, a thrill of fear going through Mary. This was decidedly breaking and entering, something she had never contemplated doing. At least she had a legal mind with her.
They went to the front of the house, finding most of the furniture covered with sheets. Meows, high and plaintive, reached them and Mary forgot her fear to rush up the stairs. Robert turned aside, entering a parlor.
Mary followed the cries to one of the rooms. Her heart in her throat for her boldness, she wrenched open the door.
A ball of fuzz hurtled into her arms, purring. Mary cradled the cat to her. “We’ve come to take you home, Madame Duvéteuse,” she said, and went back down the stairs.
Robert met her at the bottom, holding several papers. “More ransom notes, ready to be delivered.”
It was with a mixture of joy and anger that they returned to Mrs. Harris’s home in the hackney. After they pulled up behind an ostentatious carriage waiting out front, Robert disembarked and went around to pay the driver. Mary waited, worried to attempt to step down while holding Madame Duvéteuse.
The door to the house opened and Franklin and Olivia Harris came out. Franklin Harris sighted Mary and called, “That is my cat. Give her here immediately.” He whirled to his wife. “Get her into the carriage before Grandmother sees her.”
“Why would you put her in your carriage?” Robert asked, stepping around the hackney.
Franklin gaped at him. “Cousin. I, ah, meant, get her into the house, of course.”
“Yes. I can easily see how you could confuse the words carriage and house.” Robert’s voice was hard.
On the steps behind the Harrises, Grandmother Harris and Aunt Gardiner appeared.
“What I cannot so easily see is why I found a writing box with your wife’s initials in the house with Madame Duvéteuse, and in that box these letters, demanding money.”
Franklin looked about, his desperate expression matching his wife’s, and Mary saw they knew they were caught.
Olivia Harris pointed at Mary. “You’re the girl from the street this morning. This is your fault.”
Mary raised her chin, defiant, and didn’t answer.
“Franklin, Olivia, I suggest you leave now, and I do not believe you will need to call again,” Grandmother Harris said firmly.
Franklin whirled to her. “But Grandmother…”
“No,” was all she said, her voice like iron.
They glared at Mary, then climbed into their carriage. Robert came to help Mary down with warm, strong hands, and together they took Madame Duvéteuse to her kittens.
***
Mary was on an afternoon walk in the park a few days later, contemplating how adorable Madame Duvéteuse’s kittens were, how good Robert Harris was to his Grandmother, and how she’d turned down the ten whole pounds Mrs. Harris had tried to give her, when the maid who’d accompanied her from the Gardiners’ screamed.
Mary swiveled to see a horse, the rider ducking low to be only a pair of angry eyes under his hat, barreling down on her.
With a cry of her own, she leaped to the side, into a bush.
The horse galloped around where she’d been, the rider cursing and whipping his mount.
His voice sounded distinctly like that of Franklin Harris.
“Oh, Miss, he nearly killed you,” the Gardiners’ maid wailed.
Young ladies and chaperones rushed over, some familiar to Mary. As they helped her from the bush and fussed over her, Mary reflected that he actually had gone around where she stood. Of course, not knowing he would, she’d already jumped into the bushes.
She managed to get inside and change without meeting her aunt, who she did not wish to alarm with what was undoubtedly a single, petty act of revenge, and came down to find Robert Harris and his grandmother waiting.
He smiled when he saw her, and Mary was pleased to see she was right about how handsome that made him.
Mrs. Gardiner joined them and they settled in for tea, Mrs. Harris asking, “Will you call soon to see the kittens, Miss Bennet? Their eyes are starting to open, and Madame Duvéteuse likes you.”
“I would be delighted to. They are the most adorable creatures I have ever seen.”
Mrs. Harris nodded happily and turned the conversation fully to her favorite topic, Madame Duvéteuse. Mary was pleased to chat about the mama cat and the antics of her little ones. She enjoyed Mrs. Harris’s company.
After half an hour, the two stood to leave, but Robert Harris turned to Mary to ask, “Do you know the Rights? Will you attend Mrs. Rights’ recital tomorrow?”