Page 49 of To Steal a Kiss

Alice blinked, inexplicably finding her eyes filling. “Yes,” she said, a little unsteadily. “I rather think I do.”

“Being in love is so… lovely,” Kitty said with a sigh. “Until it isn’t,” she added, frowning and looking away from Alice.

“Whatever do you mean?” Alice asked, a little startled by the comment. “Have you been in love, Kitty?”

Kitty nodded and Alice squeezed her arm as she realised her friend’s eyes were too bright and filled with sorrow.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, wondering what had happened. Kitty had never indicated that there had been someone in her life.

“It’s all right,” Kitty said, laughing a little as she wiped her eyes. “It’s not like I regret it. Not a moment of it,” she added, with such longing Alice’s heart twisted. “It was the happiest time of my life.”

“But what happened?” Alice asked, lowering her voice.

She waited, wondering if perhaps she ought not pry, but Kitty answered her.

“I don’t know,” she said, giving Alice a rueful smile. “One day he was there and everything was perfect and the next….” She frowned as though she was looking at something far in the distant past.

Alice watched in consternation, wanting to ask more, but Harriet tugged at her sleeve.

“Alice, is that your mother waving at us?” she asked, interrupting their sudden intimacy as she moved back to them.

Alice looked around and nodded. “It is,” she said, casting Kitty a look of frustration at not being able to continue their conversation. “I suppose we are late for supper and Papa will getting tetchy.”

The group moved towards Mr and Mrs Dowding where her father was, indeed, looking rather morose despite the convivial atmosphere. No doubt he was now lamenting his decision to come out this evening.

“Well, at last,” her mother said, giving Alice the benefit of an impatient look. “We have been waiting for you to take our place. You know you father hates tardiness.”

“Sorry, Mother,” Alice replied, smiling and feeling quite unrepentant.

“Goodbye, Harriet, Mr Stanhope. Goodbye, Kitty dear.”

Kitty winked at her and gave her an impulsive hug. “Goodbye, Alice. I did enjoy it. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

As Kitty spoke, Alice caught the look of undisguised horror in her mother’s eyes and her heart sank. Before she could do anything, her mother had grasped her arm and was towing her away.

“Really, Alice. If it’s not bad enough I had to put a stop to your association with that scandalous Huntress chit, now an Irish girl? Whatever has come over you? As if I haven’t raised you better than that.”

Alice snatched her arm away, mortified, as her mother has spoken loud enough for everyone to hear, Kitty included.

“Mother!” Alice said, furious with her as she turned and saw a brittle, cold expression slide across Kitty’s face. Without saying a word, Harriet rushed forward and took Kitty’s hand.

“Come along, dear. Henry has found us somewhere to sit and have something to eat,” she said, her voice soothing as she hurried Kitty away.

“How could you?” Alice cried. “How could you say such a thing? If you must be so insulting, could you not at least keep your voice down? Kitty is my friend and you’ve hurt her with your attitude.”

“That girl is no fit friend for you,” her mother said, gripping Alice’s arm once more, her fingers biting into her flesh. Alice struggled a little, wanting to get free, to escape, but perhaps her desire to flee was written on her face, for her mother only grasped her harder. “Don’t you dare make a scene,” she added in an undertone, fury in her eyes.

“Me, make a scene?” Alice cried in outrage. “You were the one shouting like a fishwife and disparaging my friends at the top of your voice.”

Her mother gasped in shock and even Alice felt a pang of anxiety at her words, though she could not regret them. She only wanted to return to Kitty and beg her a thousand apologies.

“You’ll not speak to your mother like that.”

Alice turned to stare at her father, a little daunted to see real anger in his eyes. He rarely bothered dealing with Alice at all, leaving such things to his wife, but now he looked to gravely offended.

“I can’t believe you’d take the feelings of some low bogtrotter over your own mother.”

Alice gaped at him, believing she perhaps saw her father for the first time. She’d always known him for an ambitious man, and one who would not scruple to use his daughter to further his own ends, but this….